Chapter 7 Training and Developing Employees

1. Chapter 7Training and Developing Employees

2. Chapter Outline • 7-1 Gaining Competitive Advantage • 7-2 HRM Issues and Practices • 7-3 The Manager’s Guide

3. 7-1a Opening Case: Gaining Competitive Advantage at Tesco • Problem: Getting new employees properly oriented to their jobs. • Solution: Providing an effective employee orientation training program. • How the orientation program enhanced competitive advantage • Employees understand their role in customer service, helping meet the company’s goals, and improving their motivation levels. • Good relationships forge between managers and staff.

4. 7-1b Linking Training and Development to Competitive Advantage • Training focuses on current jobs. • Development prepares employees for future jobs. • Training and development contribute to competitive advantage by: • Enhancing recruitment. • Increasing worker competence. • Reducing the likelihood of unwanted turnover.

5. 7-1b Linking Training and Development to Competitive Advantage (cont.) • Increasing the competence of new employees • Technical training: Provide technical knowledge and skills needed to perform a job. • Orientation training: Learn about the job, the company, and its policies and procedures. • Literacy training: Improve basic skills in such areas as writing, basic arithmetic, listening/following oral instructions, speaking, and understanding manuals, graphs, and schedules.

6. 7-1b Linking Training and Development to Competitive Advantage (cont.) • Increasing the competence of current workers • Remedial training: Implemented when workers are deficient in some skills. • Change-related training: Used to keep up-to-date with various changes including technology, laws or procedures, or the organization’s strategic plan. • Developmental programs: Provide employees with the appropriate skills needed for higher level positions.

7. 7-1b Linking Training and Development to Competitive Advantage (cont.) • Reducing the likelihood of unwanted turnover • Training can prevent unnecessary terminations by: • Building employee job skills, improving job performance. • Improving supervisors' capabilities for managing “underperforming” workers. • Reeducating people whose skills have become obsolete, allowing the organization to assign them to new job responsibilities. • Effective training programs can reduce turnover by strengthening employee loyalty.

8. 7-1b Linking Training and Development to Competitive Advantage (cont.) • The cost efficiency of training and development practices • Most organizations spend a great deal of time and money on training and development. • Training and development practices in many organizations fail to result in any real benefit to employees or to the company itself. • Poor programs contribute to low morale and low productivity.

9. 7-2a The Instructional Process • Steps in the instructional process are: • Step 1: Deciding what to teach • Step 2: Deciding how to maximize participant learning • Step 3: Choosing the appropriate training method • Step 4: Ensuring that training is used on the job • Step 5: Determining whether training programs are effective

10. 7-2a The Instructional Process (cont.) • Step 1: Deciding what to teach • Assessing training needs • Determining training objectives

11. 7-2a The Instructional Process (cont.) • Assessing training needs • A training need exists when: • Employees’ job behavior is somehow inappropriate. • Their level of knowledge or skill is less than that required by the job. • Such problems can be corrected through training. • Training needs are prioritized based on these criteria: • Number of employees experiencing deficiency in a skill. • The severity of the deficiency. • The importance of the skill for meeting organizational goals. • The extent to which skill improvement can be achieved through training.

12. 7-2a The Instructional Process (cont.) • Determining training objectives • Describe what the trainee should be able to do as a result of the training. • Provide input for designing the training program. • Help identify the measures of success used to judge the effectiveness of the training program.

13. 7-2a The Instructional Process (cont.) • Step 2: Deciding how to maximize participant learning • To maximize learning, the program should be presented in a way that: • Gains and maintains the trainees’ attention. • Provides the trainees with an opportunity to practice the skills being taught. • Provides the trainees with feedback on their performance.

14. 7-2a The Instructional Process (cont.) • Learner attention: To gain trainees’ attention, trainers must: • Relay the importance and relevance of the training. • Demonstrate how the content of the program relates to their jobs. • How attendance will benefit the trainee. • To maintain trainees’ attention, trainers must: • Avoid using prolonged lectures and other passive learning methods. • Present the program in short segments. • Provide frequent opportunities for audience participation.

15. 7-2a The Instructional Process (cont.) • Practice is essential to effective learning because it strengthens the stimulus–response bond. • Trainers must address two practice-related issues when designing an instructional program. • Whether the practice sessions should be distributed or massed. • The relative effectiveness of practicing the whole task or practicing one part at a time.

16. 7-2a The Instructional Process (cont.) • Distributed practice: Dividing the practice into segments or sessions; it is preferred because it leads to better long-term retention. • Massed practice: Providing all the practice in one longer session. • “Whole method” is used when the material is simple. • “Part method” is used when the material is more complex; it divides the material into parts.

17. 7-2a The Instructional Process (cont.) • Feedback • Give positive feedback to trainees whenever they perform the task correctly; this can be very encouraging to the trainee and thus serve as a motivator. • When trainees perform incorrectly, provide corrective feedback regarding what the trainee is doing wrong and how this behavior can be corrected.

18. 7-2a The Instructional Process (cont.) • Step 3: Choosing appropriate instructional methods • On-the-job training • Job instruction training • Lecture • Case method • Role playing • Behavior modeling • Computer-based instruction • Video training • Interactive video training • Web-based

19. Exhibit 7-3 Training Methods

23. 7-2a The Instructional Process (cont.) • Step 4: Ensuring that training is used on the job • Overlearning: Provide trainees with continued practice far beyond the point when the task has been performed successfully. • Matching course content to the job: Ensure a close link between the training and job settings so that the trainees will understand how the learned material can be applied to the job setting. • Action plans: Indicate the steps employees plan to take to apply the new skills when they return to the job.

24. 7-2a The Instructional Process (cont.) • Multiphase programming: Trainees are given “homework,” that requires them to apply lessons back on the job; results are shared with others in the next session to identify better ways to apply what they have learned. • Performance aids: Such as checklists, decision tables, charts, and diagrams trigger trainees’ responses when they attempt to apply their newly learned behaviors on the job.

25. 7-2a The Instructional Process (cont.) • Post-training follow-up procedures: Include a hot-line number and instructor visits. • Building a supportive work environment: Trainees are encouraged to apply what they have learned to their jobs, increasing retention and proficiency.

26. 7-2a The Instructional Process (cont.) • Step 5: Determining whether training programs are effective through training evaluations. • Measuring instruments that may be used for evaluation are trainee reactions, testing, performance appraisal, and records of organizational performance. • Designs used to evaluate the effects of a training program include the following features: • Pretest: Show the trainees’ base or pre-training level of knowledge, skill, or performance. • Post-test: Show the trainees’ post-training level of knowledge, skill, or performance. • Control group: Identical in makeup to the group trained, except they have not received the training.

27. 7-2b Management Development • Developing a succession planning program • Designing the instructional program: timing and content • Designing the instructional program: instructional methods

28. 7-2b Management Development (cont.) • Developing a succession planning program • Tying management development to HR planning. • Defining managerial requirements. • Assessing management potential. • Identifying career paths. • Developing replacement charts to indicate the availability of candidates and their readiness to step into the various management positions.

29. 7-2b Management Development (cont.) • Timing and content • Providing training before placing candidates on the job • New managers will feel well prepared to perform their new jobs from the start. • Demerits include inefficiency, time lapse, and inability to relate the training to the targeted job. • Providing training after placing candidates on the job • New managers have an opportunity to appreciate how the material in the instructional program apply to the problems they face. • Disadvantage: New managers will be unprepared when they assume their new jobs and may thus make many mistakes.

30. Figure 7-1 Instructional Needs for People at Different Managerial Levels Management instruction programs should bridge gaps in what individuals already know and what they need to know for their new positions. Source: Kraut, A.I., Pedigo, R.R., McKenna, D.D., and Dunnette, M.D. (1989). The role of the manager: What’s really important in different management jobs. Academy of Management Executive, 3 (4), 286–293.

31. 7-2b Management Development (cont.) • Instructional methods • Classroom instruction: Takes place within the organization or outside, at seminars and universities. • Career resource centers: Include an in-house library with relevant reading material for interested managerial candidates. • Job rotation: Trainees are rotated through various departments to gain an overall perspective of the organization and learn how various parts interrelate.

32. 7-2b Management Development (cont.) • Instructional methods • Mentoring: Provides members with a common value base, and with implicit knowledge of what is expected of them and what they can expect from the organization. • Special projects: Includes action learning, a management development activity in which management gives candidates real problems to solve.

33. 7-3a Training and Development and the Manager’s Job • Provide employee orientation training. • Assess training needs and plan developmental strategies. • Provide on-the-job training. • Ensure transfer of training.

34. 7-3b How the HRM Department Can Help • Provide employee orientation training. • Contribute to management development programs. • Provide training and development. • Evaluate training.

35. 7-3c HRM Skill-Building for Managers • Conducting a performance analysis • Step 1: Examine the job requirements to determine what is expected or desired of the individual. • Step 2: Assess the individual’s performance in relation to expectations. • Step 3: Analyze any discrepancy between the two and determine whether it is caused by knowledge deficiency or execution deficiency. • Step 4: Implement changes for improving performance.