Staff Development Approaches, Skills and Issues

1. Staff Development Approaches, Skills and Issues

2. Training, Education and Development • Training: job specific skills, knowledge, attitudes, values & orientations • Education: Institutional process è formal qualifications? Major contributor to personal development, character, culture, aspiration & achievement. Direct & indirect enhancement of knowledge, ability • Development: Primary process. +ve or -ve. Individual (& organisation?) adaptation. Become more complex, elaborate, settled, aware, differentiated & autonomous

3. What training? • Operational competence – aggregate of knowledge, understanding, skill & personal orientation in a situation + at a standard or level of performance. • Product, service, procedural & system knowledge • Task and situation specific • Reduced, double-sided & stapled photocopying • Return of goods procedure • Advanced Powerpoint Skills • Recruitment interviewing • Gall-stone removal • Desert survival • Aircraft emergency landing • New policy on patient care Open and closed competencies + pre- and co-requisites

4. Scientific/philosophical rigour Critical evaluation Complex synthesis Analytical explanation Technical application Contextual understanding Descriptive knowledge and categorisation Education? • Open capacities – may include task specific? • knowledge, wisdom, skill (physical, conceptual, procedural, social) & personal orientation • analysis + problem solving bridging concept and practice • standards/level of performance? • levels of product, service, procedural and system know-how? Nurturing, 3Rs + access to learning

5. What education? 2 • National curriculum & school/university quality • Education for • citizenship • occupational success • personal development & life • School, college, university, community/adult • Public attitudes re-value of education • Government, employer & individual responsibility • Life long learning

6. Business Strategy & Training Training policy & programmes Mission Know-how for competitive advantage & performance Staffing plan Skill gaps Demand for skills Skills audit Data for audit recruitment, redundancies redeployment Performance review Development needs Current performance Data to integrate individual & organisational needs Development action Training, seminars, delegation, coaching, private study, day release, learning company, IIP Improved capability, competence + motivation

7. Business Training development • Product & task focused learning • Development needs of employees (group + individual) • Technical & management development • Self-managed learning & career management • Learning organisations/knowledge management • Organisation culture & HRM levers for change e.g. shifts in attitudes & beliefs (as well as behaviour)

8. Concept of Career a succession of related jobs, arranged in a hierarchy of prestige through which the person moves in an ordered predictable fashion Wilensky 1960 a series of status & clearly defined offices (objective)....a career (subjective) .....is in the moving perspective in which the person sees (his) life as a whole & interprets the meaning of (his) various attributes, actions & the things that happen to (him) Hughes 1937

9. Late adult transition 65 60 culmination of middle adulthood 50s transition enter middle adulthood 55 50 Mid-life adult transition 48 settling down 20s transition enter adult world 40 33 28 Early adult transition 22 17 childhood & adolescence Levinson: Life-span (Men) Late adulthood Middle adulthood Early adulthood

10. Theories of Career Development • formulated from nomothetic > ideographic viewpoints • focus on objective > subjective experience • emphasise intra-individual vs. contextual factors • disregard gender, race & class • technical, functional competence • managerial (analytical, interpersonal & emotional), • security & stability • creativity, autonomy & independence • bureaucratic, professional & entrepreneurial Anchors • short-term contracts - core & peripheral staff • lean, flexible, virtual organisations • blue-collar workers - obsolete vs high tech industries • work, families & stress Problems

11. Employee development approaches? • Laissez-faire - little or no training interest/activity • Systematic staff development: appraisal, resourcing, coaching & mentoring • Training for workforce maintenance: induction, product, SoPs • Technical (know-how) training • Off-the-job vs. on-the-job • Central training vs. devolved and out-sourced • ICT supported self-organised learning, L3 & CPD • Recognising, valuing & accrediting “competencies” (NVQs) • Management development • Investors in People • Learning Company model (abstraction). What is the concrete form?

12. Organisational Programmes & Interventions • New recruits • induction to firm & job, familiarisation & comprehensive job training • Develop & up-date know-how for live situations. • Technical: product, procedure & specialism training • Social skills e.g. handling demanding situations • Corporate training for all e.g. for ISO9000 or new policy • Supervisory & management training • from leadership to corporate analysis, change & Action learning • Sales training • Customer, dealer & supplier training • Face-to-face vs. package training - from manuals to CBL • Company University - Ford, McDonalds, LotusU?

13. Trainee Groups • young & older staff • skilled, semiskilled, unskilled, manual & non-manual • graduates, professionals, technologists & IT • secretarial & clerical • sales staff • team supervisors, department & project managers • strategic & international managers • women • customers & suppliers • minorities • disabled

14. Organisational Expectations • FE & HE infrastructure for skills, technology & employability • adapt & learn new skills: continuous occupational development • CQI, flexibility, multi-skilling & know-how • empowerment • Flatter project/team structures. • less supervision, set own objectives, self monitoring & corrective action • manage interfaces & delight customers - external & internal

15. T&D strategies often disappoint. Why? • Much talk, expenditure & effort is committed to training • Many training initiatives and events • Act of faith evidence of outcomes: from training, coaching, secondments, learning from experience (success & failure) & role models. • What determines & influences training effectiveness? • How do we evaluate? • How do training needs become apparent? • What factors hinder/help investment in T&D? • Invest in people (unfaithful assets, flexibility), people invest in themselves • Training as a strategic issue?

16. Whose interest is served & by whom? • The individual Well placed (job demands + aspirations) to evaluate development needs (SWOT)? But is time & effort invested? Perception of“market” gaps, demands, relevance, support & learning opportunities? • Training Sponsors Top managers (“lack of know-how is jeopardising performance”)? Line Managers? HRD specialists who speak for T&D activity? Employer attitudes to training. Voluntarism. • Institutional and Market factors? Civic, intellectual & cultural factors. Workforce competencies & international comparisons. Industrial re-structuring.

17. Apply Legge‘s critical analysis framework to the theory and practice of Human Resource Development Karen Legge: HRM Rhetorics & Realities 1995

18. Training Manager - Service provider or change agent? Forecast, plan, organise, direct & control. Strategy & programmes Maintainer-Instructor Reactive > proactive. Deliver T&D within existing brief, structure & culture. Change Agent (Facilitator) Proactive & consultancy. Define problems. Facilitate organisational & individual learning, innovation & cultural change. Role in transition? • from provider to change agent • in-house or out-sourced

19. Analysing training needs? • Blanket training: Brief/train all - by level. New law, policy drivers. • Comprehensive - Job curriculum approach • ALL job facets: KSA for all tasks /situations • define scope, objectives, frequency, difficulty, standards & measurements • Selective • key tasks, problems/difficulties where a training solution vital for performance? • Identify • problems and competencies to handle these • best learning approach, training media & methods • learner involvement + individual & group needs • self-organised learning or cop-out?

20. Training Design and Implementation for Competence • Trainee airline cabin crew member? • Midwife? • Bought ledger clerk? • Marketing assistant manning a stand at the Ideal Homes Exhibition? • New CEO for Rail-Track? • OFSTED Inspector? Pre-requisite/Foundation ability? Mastery in performance?

21. Development to next level? Adequacy vs. mastery CWS Competence level/standard Automatic - autonomous Performance e.g. in output units, quality indicators,completion of project etc Associative Cognitive Conditions under which performance is required? What are competencies? Time ----> Learning Curves & Competence?

22. The Training/Learning Needs Gap What needs to be learnt? Changes in performance Learner/trainee The Person knowledge, skills, orientation, motivation The Job knowledge, skills, orientation, motivation Difficulties and preferences. Learning style? Ability gap required competence vs. present performance Selection/training - fit the person to the job Counselling, job re-design - fit the job to the person

23. From Key Result Areas to Competencies • generic & job specific • technical & social • knowledge, skills, attitudes • range in context KT1 KT5 KT2 KT3 KT4 Define competencies for KRA 5 KRA 4 KRA 2 KRA 5 KRA 3 KRA 1 • task, faults & quality analysis • role demands, choices, constraints • ambiguities. overloads, pressures/conflicts • what is difficult to learn • safety critical • organisational change

24. How do we assess competence and learning/change? • define norms or standard levels of performance/progress for the performance application • Assess/test- individual performance and progress Compare • performance & progress between individuals • against standards • Objective - subjective problems

25. Return to job • Transfer of learning to performance • Has training solved the problem? Environment of change Learning for knowledge, competence & creativity Organisational & trainee feedback Learning needs & outcomes - individual & group Training Content Methods of delivery, learning opps & materials Programme and implementation Learners on completion Symptoms Learning Contract Assessment & test criteria - validity, reliability & utility General Model for Training Interventions

26. Why learning outcomes? • Competencies (staff know-how & situational mastery). What learners should know, be able to do, feel at the end (nb. learning transfer). • Problems of taxonomic definition (Bloom’s taxonomy) • Agree specific targets/learning contracts. Verify progress • More systematic training design. Define content, structure, methods, aids, programme/timetable. • Relevance seen - added-value, tangibles/intangibles. • Identify size, level, timing of problem. • Achieved on-the-job vs. off-the-job? • The problem may not be training but: business planning, competition, products, methods, conflicts & relationships, job change, technology etc.

27. Domains of learning Cognitive Knowledge/Knowing memory/thinking facts/recall levels of mental manipulation associating/relating classifying induction/deduction imagining conceptualising analysis/synthesis modelling Behavioural Manual Dexterity Lifting Passing Moving Visual? Tasting? Affective Feelings committed caring awareness believing valuing enthusing other regarding cautious determined contented aspirational Social Communication Orientation to others Speaking Smiling Listening Persuading Decisions Complexity? Individual/group Situation analysis Problem definition routinised/heuristic reactive/proactive risky intuitive/rational emotional/fuzzy actual vs. ideal solution development evaluation action & application

28. Learning & Competence “a relatively permanent change in behaviour as a result of practice/experience”. Everyone needs KNOWLEDGE & SKILL to perform a job. COMPETENCE involves bringing knowledge & skill together to meet the requirements of a performance for which STANDARDS may be defined. A PERFORMANCE situation may involve a range of CONTEXTS. Contributors • ability • motivation or drive • stimulus or cue • assimilation • response • feedback • reinforcement

29. Competencies: • critical success factor competencies • accredited occupational competencies (professional + NVQ) • Generic, Core/Key Skills (Open capacities ) • open (transferable) capacities … across jobs/tasks • awareness, investigation, observation/reflection, analysis & learning • decision-making/problem-solving, creativity & evaluation • communication & social skills, interacting/working with others, influencing • numerical & information oriented skills plus IT abilities • learning to learn competencies • threshold and management competencies

30. Boyatsis - Seven Threshold Competencies • Use of unilateral power - forms of influence • Accurate self-assessment - realistic view of self (SWOT) • Positive regard - basic belief (optimistic) in others • Spontaneity - free/easy self-expression • Logical thought - orderly, sequential, systematic • Specialised knowledge - usable facts, frameworks, models • Developing others - help, coach, facilitating, supporting (1982, The Competent Manager, Wiley) Just another classification? Uses?

31. Boyatzis - Clusters of Mgt Competence • Goal & action management cluster • concern with impact, diagnostic use of concepts, • efficiency orientation, proactivity • Leadership • conceptualisation, self-confidence, oral presentation • HRM • use of socialised power, managing group processes • Focus on other clusters • perceptual objectivity, self control, stamina & adaptability • Directing subordinates • Threshold competencies - developing others, spontaneity, use of unilateral power

32. Concrete Experience (Activist) Active Experimentation (Pragmatist) LEARNING CYCLE Reflective Observation (Reflector) Abstract Conceptualisation (Theorist) Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle A model for personal awareness and development D Kolb, Rubin & McIntyre Organisational Psychology, Addison Wesley

33. Learning Through Experience - 2 Knowledge Beliefs, facts, insight, understanding, conviction Experience events, incidents, action, doings Test check, discuss, experiment, verify, challenge, review. Ideas propositions, hunches, classification, model Observation notice, examine, scrutinise, absorb, reflection, analyse

34. Training & Rewards - Issues • Selling job competence. Strong CV. Career progression, job change, employee independence & life long learning • Locals + cosmopolitans (Gouldner) & market mobility • Who pays? Should the leaver reimburse the employer who has just paid £2500 for their training? • Integration with “rewards strategy”. Good training …less pay? Job increments on becoming “certificated”. • Certification as a job requirement. • CPD stress - compulsory, evidence-based continuous “professional” up-dating

35. Why Evaluate? “monitoring the training function & its activities to establish its social & financial benefits & costs” • If we can measure the effectiveness of the instruction, then we have • information to improve the effectiveness of later or even current instruction • evidence of the training function’s contribution which can confirm is value & increase its influence • evaluation process itself often generates further benefit What is involved? Who does it? What techniques?

36. Evaluation Issues • Nebulous & unsatisfactory? Ritual justification? • Hard vs. soft criteria. Acceptability, reliability, validity & utility of evaluation? • Objectivity of data. Are outputs visible e.g. improved typing speed, EMail use, better team leading? • What measures for a management training course or an interviewing workshop? • Evaluate at what level? Individual, team & organisational criteria, the training expertise itself. • VfM? 1000 staff & a £250,000 pa training budget = £250/employee. Compare UK with USA, Japan, Germany?

37. The learning event – what has changed? • Understanding – perception • Understanding – body of knowledge • Behaviour, performance • Skills – manual, analytical, social, technical • Attitudes, predispositions, orientations • Values, beliefs

38. Evaluation Techniques • reactions • one-to-one & group reactions. Direct & indirect feedback. Survey methods (rating against criteria + open-ended responses) • learning • end of training • tests, demonstrations, examinations, simulators, role play. • job behaviour (transfer & application) • incidents, staff appraisal reviews, project outcomes • organisation • improved production & service quality indicators, survey feedback of organisational climate/culture • overall value • cost-benefit reviews, human resource accounting

39. Five Levels of Training Evaluation Hamblin (1974) • training approach, methods, learner reaction to these? • what is learnt? Is it meaningful for the individual? Is the training meeting its objectives? • changes in job performance - do these stem from the training experience? • changes in organisational performance? Are the training objectives the right objectives? • is the organisation now making a different wider contribution ?

40. Evaluation of T&D Processes Methods - validity, reliability, utility? • Quantifiable e.g. drop-out rates, absenteeism, wastage, complaints, time saved, cost savings. • Happy sheets? The questions? Halo effect? • Pre-course survey of needs/aims. Post- survey of achievement + transfer to work. Experience, reflection, planning, implementation, review. • Evaluate course & tutor methods vs. the learning • Performance tests (pre/post). Quizzes. Examinations. On-job demonstrations . Inspections • Trainee & line-manager observation • Appraisal Coaching/counselling Validation observe results of the course. Measure whether the training objectives are met Evaluation compare actual costs of the scheme against assessed benefits obtained Cost > benefits? redesign or withdraw the scheme.

41. Organisation Development - definitions "….a long-term programme of interventions in the social, psychological and cultural belief systems of an organisation. These interventions are based on certain principles& practices which are assumed to lead to greater organisational effectiveness" Ralph Stacey 1993 – Strategic Management Soft versus Hard? an approach to bring about….. • planned change (a programme) • organisation-wide • managed from the top • increased organisational effectiveness through ….. • Planned, systematic interventions in the organisation's behavioural processes • using behavioural science knowledge. Richard Beckhard – Sloan School of Management 1969

42. HRM and ingredients of a “Learning Organisation” • Adopt a Learning Approach to Strategy • Participative Policy Making • Informating (Information Systems) • Formative accounting • Internal Exchange (Client-Server relationships) • Reward Flexibility • Roles and flexible, matrix structures • Boundary workers as intelligence agents • Company-to-company learning • Learning climate • Self-development opportunities for all Pedler et al The Learning Company Senge The Fifth Discipline Practical Interventions?

43. Dissertation Ideas • The identification of training and development needs • Short term • Long term • Costs of non-conformance • Learning sequences • Informal learning • Knowledge management strategies • On-the-job or off-the-job training and development • The manager as trainer • Outward-bound training

44. Descriptive-Functional View • Job analysis & job curriculum. Vital for quality service? Competencies & qualifications • Training policy, administration + delivery • Organisation, trainers, courses, bookings, costs, training centre • Training packages: standardisation to “prepare” employees • Prescriptive - best practice models. Systematic analysis of training needs: organisational, job & individual levels. Design training solutions, implement & assess/evaluate • Rewards, equal opps. & organisational climate - large + small firms • Training methods/tools - reliability, validity & utility (cost effectiveness)

45. T&D - as a strategic discourse. Learning company. Integrating individual & organisational needs. TQM + Investors in People Valuing “know-how” & learning in the managerial culture Out-sourcing & sub-contracting Porter - 5 competitive forces - differentiation & cost leadership Peters & Waterman - empowerment, core & lean organisation, peripheral staff? “Hire & fire” vs. IIP Learning to learn & life-long learning. Education vs training vs learning. The occupational society. What is valued? Artisan vs. Intellectual pursuits? Normative view?

46. CE & DB views? Critical Evaluative • Compare behaviour & experience with textbook normative rhetoric? • Are training strategies/techniques sound? Do they work, give VfM? • national/societal level? • organisational? • individual? Descriptive-Behavioural • Focus on actual T&D approach + behaviour of HRD specialists & line managers. • Experience/successes of “instructors & learners” • activities, processes, & reactions. • Learning processes - how learning & behaviour change occurs

47. Questions • How do you think HRD systems can be applied in your organisation .. Or in organisations…. • to facilitate culture change? • to support performance change?

48. Successes/Failures of Training & Educational Interventions Where does good company training and development fit in? • Pre 1964. Collapse of apprenticeships • 1964 Industrial Training Act and ITBs • CATs and Polytechnics • BTEC and City and Guilds • From 1972 onwards – the marginalisation of ITBs. Abolished 1982 • Manpower Services Commission. YOPs & TOPs • Training Services Agency • National Curriculum • Local management of schools • Expansion of university education – from Polys to Universities • National Vocational Qualifications • Investors in People • Fees for Higher Education, education loans and training credits • Modern apprenticeships

49. Investors in People: National voluntarism accreditation to promote Er-led, quality, effective staff development • top level, commitment to develop all employees to achieve business objectives • regular review of T&D needs of all staff • action to train & develop individuals on recruitment + throughout employment • evaluate T&D to assess achievement & improve future effectiveness • written plan: business goals/targets, how employees will contribute, assess needs etc. Identify T&D resources • agree T&D needs with each employee. Link to NVQ if poss. Action: train new recruits & improve skills of existing staff • Review investment, competence & commitment of employees & skills learnt against business plan + at all levels • T&D effectiveness reviewed by top level è renewed commitment & targets Why do it?

50. National Vocational Qualifications • 1986: Government concern for a skilled & flexible workforce è establishment of NCVQ • Mission: the development & introduction of a national vocational training system (NVQs/Scotvecs) • TECs & LECs to support the NVQ system • GNVQs in schools (but A Levels … the "gold standard")