What is Training?

1. What is Training? • “Planned effort by a company to facilitate employee’s learning of job-related competencies.”(Noe, 2010) • Competencies include: • knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors (KSAs). • attitudinal change and self-awareness. • Competencies need to be transferred to the job. • trainees develop intellectual capital. • supports philosophy of continuous learning.

2. Training Strategies and Approaches • Strategies: • cognitions (information) • behaviors (hands-on) • attitudes (experiential) • Types of Training: • management development, personal development, technical skills, job skills, orientation, safety & health. • Approaches to Training: • specialized • packaged • on-the-job

3. Training Links to HR Practices • JOB ANALYSIS • establishes criteria for effective performance. • impacts selection. • SELECTION • poor selection increases need for training. • PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL • for current and future positions. • means for evaluation training. • Training addresses the fit between the person and the job.

4. Training Practices (ASTD 2012 State of Industry Report) • U. S. Organizations spent $156.2 billion on employee learning & development in 2011. • Smaller companies spent more per employee than larger companies • Technology based instruction rose to 37.3 hrs of formal hours, up from 29.10 in 2010. • But most companies used mix of instructor led, self-paced and technology. • Top three areas of L & D content were: • Managerial and supervisory (12.6%) • Profession or industry specific (11.6%) • Processes, procedures & business practices (11.6%)

5. Goldstein’s (1993) Instructional System • Needs Assessment • Organization, task & person analysis • Instructional objectives • Training and Development • Selection and design of training • Evaluation • Criterion development • Evaluation design • Training Goals • Validity: training & transfer within and between organizations. • Feedback loop back to needs assessment

6. NEEDS ASSESSMENT • Most important phase in training: • Blueprint for entire training program. • Is it a training problem? What is the deficiency? Who needs training? What kind of training? • Needs assessments are often neglected; leads to: • Ineffective training. • Great solution to wrong problem. • Can’t evaluate training without information on what is effective performance.

7. Three Stages of Needs Assessment • Organization Analysis • Task Analysis • Person Analysis

8. Needs Assessment Techniques • Observation. • Questionnaires. • Focus Groups. • Interview Subject Matter Experts and others in organization. • Read technical manuals and records. • Obtain history of organization and current economic profile.

9. Organization Analysis • Purpose: • Is it is a training problem?(vs. selection, compensation, performance mgt.) • Where in the organization should training be conducted?(diversity training at top or bottom?) • Organizational factors that may affect training program and transfer of learning: • Organizational goals • Training climate • External constraints

10. Organizational Analysis (cont’d) • Organizational Goals • What are the real goals of the organization/unit? (stated vs. actual) • Training must be aligned with organization’s goals and strategy or • training will not be valued or supported, • skills learned will not be valued or supported, • no behavioral change. • (is customer service really valued, or is it simply the sale that matters?)

11. Organizational Analysis (cont’d) • Organizational Training Climate • Conflicts: • Why are you here? Who brought you in? • Stated purpose of training = real purpose? • Training viewed as political ploy. • Resistance to change. • Lack of Support: • History of training (“oh, that again…”.) • Training budget and staff support. • Trainees punished for training? Who covers their jobs while they are training? • Support for needs assessment?

12. Organizational Analysis (cont’d) • External Constraints: • Legal, social, economic and political factors. • (i.e., ADA, EEO, unions, welfare-to-work) • Organizational Analysis Questions: • Why is the unit not meeting its objectives? • What are the real goals of the unit? • Where is the base of support for the training? • What types of conflicts are present, and how will they affect the training? • Will trainees be rewarded for using their newly acquired behaviors, skills, abilities?

13. Task Analysis • Purpose: What is the job? What constitutes effective job performance? • Equivalent to job analysis. • Identifies what employees are doing and what they should be doing on the job. • Start with Job Description: • general statement of job requirements, actions, results, conditions, equipment & materials.

14. Task Analysis(cont’d) • Task Identification • What are the work activities for the job? • obtained by interviewing and observing subject matter experts; cross-validate list and data. • Typical questions in job or task inventory: • How frequently is the task performed? • How much time is spent on each task? • How important is the task for successful performance on the job? • How difficult is the task to learn? • What KSA’s are necessary to perform each task?

15. Task Analysis (cont’d) • Train on tasks that are: • Not easily learned on the job. • Not provided with on-the-job training. • Difficult to perform. • Critical for effective performance on the job. • Double-check with subject matter experts.

16. Person Analysis • Purpose: • Who needs training and of what kind? • Flows from task analysis: How well does the person in the job perform the critical KSA’s? • Can they be trained?(literacy, physical and cognitive ability, self-efficacy: “can-do”) • Do they want to be trained? • Is this a training problem?(Flows from organizational analysis) • Could the person do it if his/her life depended on it? • Yes? Not a training problem.

17. Person Analysis (cont’d) • Obtain Data from: • Performance Appraisals • behavioral measures • economic measures • Surveys • Observation • Proficiency tests • Interviews • Focus Groups

18. Problem Analysis Worksheet High Resource/ Environment Motivation Does the Employee Have Adequate Job Knowledge? Selection/Discharge Transfer Training Low Low High Does the Employee Want to Perform the Job?

19. Outcomes of Needs Assessment • Organization, task and person analyses give information on who needs training, what kind of training is needed, and the organizational support and barriers to training. • This information is used to: • develop training objectives • design training • evaluate effectiveness of training

20. Training Objectives • Specifies outcomes of training: • what trainee is expected to know, • conditions under which trainee will perform, • level of performance expected. • “By the end of CPR training, trainees will be able to resuscitate victims within X minutes.” • “By the end of conflict management training, trainees will develop 5 conflict management goals.” • “Trainees in this course will develop, implement and evaluate a training program.”