Definition of Training and development

Definition of Training and development

Learning and development helps an individual to gain knowledge, skills, experience and confidence to work more efficiently and effectively in an organization and advance their carrier developments (Armstrong and Taylor,2014). Training and development is a systematical process which helps to gain on the job training and off the job training which mainly focus of an individual to improve work ethics (Swanson & Holton, 2001). The process of learning is a difficult task. Change is an essential tool for learning. To adopt for a change & to be successful and to move forward as an organization Learning and development is essential (Wilson, 2005).Training is a tool to educate the employees in particular skills or helping them identify problems in their tasks abilities and development is an effort to provide employees with the capacities the company will require in future (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin & Cardy, 2001). Training is a process through which an individual gains knowledge and skills which in turn  the employer achieves development of the employees that drives the workforce to reach expected  goals (Sahu R K., 2005).

Training and development are learning curves that display the employees how to achieve their day to day and prospective profession productively(Kleiman, 2000). Therefore based on the above training and development is an integral part of any organization to move forward and it is an essential tool for the continuity of an organization which helps to enhance the knowledge , skills, attitude and confidence level for them to succeed in their present position in an organization and develop them for future jobs as well.

List of references

Armstrong,M and Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 13th ed. London: Koganpage.

Gomez-Mejʹia, L, R., Balkin, D, B, and Cardy R, L. (2001). Managing Human Resources. 3rd ed. Great Britain: Upper Saddle River, N.J.; Prentice Hall

Kleiman, L, S. (2000). Human Resource Management: A Managerial Tool for Competitive Advantage. 2nd ed. Cincinnati: South-Western College Publishing. Unknown.

Sahu R. K., (2005). Training for development all you need to know. 1st ed.New Delhi, Excel Books.

Swanson, R, A and Holton, E, F, III. (2001). Foundations of Human Resource Development. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Wilson, J. P., (2005). Human Resource Development Learning and Training for Individuals and Organizations. 2nd ed. London, Kogan Page.

Process of Training and development and Application of Dessler's Training process

The importance of Training and Development for an organisation

                                  

Process of Training and Development

Dessler’s 5 step training & development process 

1. Needs Analysis

      2. Instructional design 

      3.   Validation

      4. Implementation   

      5. Evaluation and follow up

The Five steps of Training Gary Dessler39 is of the opinion that training consists of the five steps and the steps is illustrated as follows:

      1.  Need Analysis

Identify the specific job needs and skills and analyse to ensure whether the specific programme suit the organization.

Develop a research methodology to measure the increase performance.

 2.      Instructional Design

Identify the activities, cases and exercise to be implemented in an organization for training and development.

Ensure all the necessary materials / resources the activities which are needed for specific training and development methods.

Handle each activity and programme and identify who / when/ where/ which are needed for difficult employees.

 3.      Validation

Prior to implementation of the programme carry out a research on past similar training and development programme & validate the results for the top management. 

4.      Implementation

With relevant resources and material implement the programme at the correct time and fix the training date on a convenient time for the employees as well as the organization. 

5.      Evaluation and Follow up

Evaluation process should be pre/post evaluation to see whether the implemented training programme has brought the necessary results which the management as expected to increase the output of the employee and rise their motivational levels to the next stage.

       

Application of Dessler’s 5 step training process

I’m working for one of the leading banks in Sri Lanka which is also improving so many processes which aligns with digitalization. There are 251 branches along with 4348 Staff working for the bank. An induction ceremony is held in the bank as the preliminary step towards introducing the staff to the bank during the recruitment process. This also becomes the initial procedure of absorbing the new employees to the bank and providing insights about the culture.

Training programs enhances skills to work with new technology, product awareness, knowledge about the foreign competitors and markets and ensure that the employees have the basic skills to work in a branch with the new procedures and technological innovations.

An abstract of different training programmes and developments provided by the bank are given below.   

-  The recruitment process ensures that the selected workers are with accurate and expected competencies and also suits the culture of the bank so that they are motivated to achieve the goals and objectives of the bank.  

- The bank conducts training sessions for the employees time to time in the area of work that they are performing. (A minimum of 6 training programmes a year). For an example an employee who is assigned to a branch may have to go through the work area which is  related to operations. Therefore training sessions such as clearing, operational guidelines, retaining customer satisfaction, and cash operations will be conducted time to time to make sure that the employees have gained the expected level of knowledge to perform within the branch. 

-   Moreover competency exams which are aligned with the training programmes are conducted time to time to make sure that the employees are updated with the new regulations of the bank. Also this ensures that the current procedures adhered by the employees are acceptable. 

- The bank also conducts so many outbound training programmes for the betterment of the employees. 

-   Training sessions are not merely based on the internal procedures and regulations of the bank, but also training sessions are carries out by the doctors and other professors with regard to ‘Managing mental stress’ and ‘How to balance the work life and the personal life’ etc. Also so many leadership programmes are conducted time to time in batches of not more than 50 to enhance the personality and leadership qualities of the employees.     

-  To ensure that the employees has gained knowledge from the training sessions, Human Resource department conducts informal training sessions as well. These are mostly face to face interactions with peers, knowledge sharing through emails and web technologies such as wikis, social networks etc. This make sure that the knowledge sharing and employees working with collaboration with each other delivering the desired service to the customers. 

-  The bank has also created an intranet within the employees which consists of so many advance features for them to learn. Some of the features include:

Knowledge hub- All the information with related to the products of the bank, and the guidelines are posted

FAQ session- All the questions relevant to products and operations are posted along with the answers by the employees.

Online quizzers- Which is a mandatory thing for the employees to take up quizzes time to time, where they will be rated according to the marks earned 

E learning model- Also known as the talent space which is accessible by the employees on the go. Apart from the bank’s operations, general knowledge and all the recent advancements in the world with all the important facts to expand the knowledge are freely available.

(Source : Annual Report 2017 of BCH Bank Plc )

List of references

BCH Bank  Plc of Sri Lanka, (2017) Annual Report: BCH  bank Plc of Sri Lanka.

Dessler, G (2009). Human Resource Management. 11th ed. New Delhi: PHI Learning Private Limited

Suggestions on improving the training and development procedures on selected Organisation

Suggestions on improving the training and development procedures on selected

Organisation

By analyzing the above facts, the bank’s staff should be equally updated with technology to support the banks overall vision and that requires the correct individuals with the appropriate skill set to serve the customers by communicating the technological brand. Further, training sessions or awareness programmes which are in line with the career progressions are limited within the bank. Therefore, characteristics like being futuristic and succession planning have a negative impact which is not good for the employees as well as the bank. There are two main objectives that are met when moulding the employees in these training sessions. They are keep the employees connected and aligned with the future of the organization and guaranteeing that the organization has a set of skilled employees who will provide the entity with a robust succession planning. (Olenski,2015).

Following are few strategies that will develop the employees of the bank. 

-    Conducting performance appraisals time to time – Not only carrying out training and. development sessions the bank has to monitor whether the employees have gained the necessary skills to perform the task effectively. So that appraisals should be carried out by the immediate supervisors.

-  Assigning tasks for the employees outside the job function – This will definitely help the supervisors to understand how well the obstacles, challenges and other activities will be managed by the employees. This provides a great exposure for them to learn in handling work in the competitive world. 

-  Trainings to eliminate/reduce the employees for resistance to change – While giving on the job training and other planned training sessions, the employees can be assigned with new tasks which they have not done before or an alternative procedure to do the tasks in an effective manner. This will help them to step out from the paradigm culture of traditional banking. 

-  Create more interactive sessions and workshops – Since banks are based on service industry working efficiently, effectively as teams are more important to maintain the level of customer satisfaction. The financial industry is always competing for the best rates for deposits and lending which is called “the interest rate war” which all banks fight for. But currently banks mainly focus on the service and the value additions that they provide for the customer at their convenience. 

-    Give the recognition to the ‘stars’ at work – This fact will definitely motivate the employees and will help to strive towards the goals of the bank. Without providing only the training sessions and developing employees, it is a must to recognize the ‘stars’ at work by providing them with the necessary rewards.

List of references

Olenski, S. (2015). 8 Key Tactics International for Developing Employees. Available: https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2015/07/20/8-key-tactics-for-developing-employees/#cb5dd596373d. [Last accessed 01st April 2018].

Benefits of Training and Development and Conclusion

Benefits and the significance of Training and Development.

The main purpose of Training and development is to achieve long term and short term goals in which you can build up a happy workforce throughout the generations of an organization Cole, G.A., (2002). Most successful company’s in the world mainly concentrates of Training and development of their own staff which in return will have motivational, confident, competent, knowledgeable and happy work force (Khan, Khan and Khan, 2011). The success of the organization through the continuous development and improving technical aspects is highly depends on the skills of the employees, which in turn requires continuous process of training and development (Beardwell, Holden and Claydon, 2004). Better quality of work is a continuous and sustainability growth of an organization which results in high performance of the organization and creates more demands in the market (Alipour & Shahnavaz, 2009).

 Courtney (2015) conducted a study and found out that minimum supervision and low retention rate contributes towards the success of an organization as when retention rate is low, the organization can considerably reduce its cost. A study conducted by Siddika (2017), it was observed that trained employees will become more efficient and productive and handle the resources very carefully. It would help the organization to develop and enhance the quality of the employees by providing sufficient training and development. The effective training provides, employees to adapt quickly in to new ways and technologies or to new situations (Kumar and Siddika, 2017). The effective training sessions to employees indirectly benefits the head of departments as when the employees are happy and motivated they work towards the targets and  goal of the organization which benefits the head of departments to achieve their overall department targets on time (Bashir &Jehanzeb, 2016).

Conclusion

Each function of the bank plays a vital role in maintaining the effectiveness and efficiency. It is a true fact that the bank has to invest heavily in the technological innovations and high tech processes in order to compete in the market. But also it is important for banks to keep the employees motivated and updated in order to achieve the intended goals.

In conclusion, in any organization to thrive training and development is very significant (Nischithaa & Narasimha Rao, 2014). Through Training and development new information is gathered every day which in turn will help the organization to adopt for specific change   which occurs in the environment (Jelena,2007).Worker performances and accomplishes are always directly proportional to successful Training and development (Hlatywayo & Mpofu, 2015). For a sustainability Training and development programme to be adopted in an organization the certain factors should be taken into account such as Cost, Nature of Training, Strategies to be adopted, Should have a positive impact on worker performance to increase efficiency and effectiveness (Long et al. 2016).

List of references

Alipour, M.,& Shahnavaz,A.(2009). A Study of on the Job Training Effectiveness : Empirical Evidence of Iran. International Journal of Business Management, 4(11), 63– 68.

  

Bashir, N. A., & Jehanzeb, K. (2016). Training and Development Program and Its Benefits to Employee and Organization : An Conceptual Study Training and Development Program and its Benefits to Employee and Organization : A Conceptual Study, (April).

Beardwell, I., Holden, L. and Claydon, T. (2004). Human Resource Management a Contemporary Approach. 4th ed. Harlow, Prentice Hall.

Cole, G.A., (2002). Personnel and human resource management. 5th Edn., Continuum London: York Publishers.

Courtney, F. (2015). 6 Big Benefits Of Leadership Training - eLearning Industry.

Hlatywayo, C.K., and Mpofu, M. (2015). Training and Development as a Tool for Improving Basic Service Delivery; The Case of a Selected Municipality. Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Science, 20,133-136.

Jelena, V. (2007). Employees Training and Development and the learning organization. Economic Organization, Vol. 4, No 2, pp. 209 -216.

Khan, R., Khan, F. and Khan, M. (2011). Impact of Training and Development on Organizational Performance. Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 11(7), pp.79-84

Kumar, D. and Siddika, H. (2017). Benefits of training and development program on employees’ performance: a study with special reference to banking sector in bangladesh. International Journal of Research - GRANTHAALAYAH, 15(12), pp.77-87.

Long, C.S., Kowang,T.O., Chin, T.A., & Hee, O,C. (2016). Improving Organizational Performance through Training Function: A Review. International Business Management, 10 (4):475-478

Nischithaa, P and Narasimha Rao M, V, A, L. (2014). The Importance of Training and Development Programmes in Hotel Industry. Journal of Business and Administration Research Review. 1 (5), P50-56.

Siddika, H. (2017). BENEFITS OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM ON EMPLOYEES ’ PERFORMANCE : A STUDY WITH SPECIAL, 5. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1133603