The Training Context

1. The Training Context Dr. Steve Training & Development INP6325

2. What is Training? • U.K. Dept of employment – The systematic development of the attitudes/knowledge/skill behavior pattern required by an individual in order to perform adequately on a given task or job • Goldstein – The acquisition of skills, concepts, or attitudes that result in improved performance in another environment

3. Training vs. Education • Both involve instruction • Learning is necessary, but not sufficient to be considered training • Must have improved performance • Performance may not reflect learning • Education aims at developing knowledge and understanding across a broad spectrum of activities (language, creativity, social influences, etc.) • Glaser’s criteria to differentiate training and education • Degree of specificity of objectives • Whether aim is to minimize or maximize individual differences

4. Training vs. Selection vs. Human Factors • Training tries to improve KSAs at job • Personnel selection tries to select people with appropriate skills for the job • Human factors tries to design tasks for known KSAs of people • Which option one chooses depends on: • Availability of labor & money • Current practices of the organization • Time constraints • Availability of expert advice • Equipment being used • Attitudes of workers and management • Trends in human resources

5. Training Contexts • Any occupation, sport, activity (e.g., driving) • Training new workers • Refresher training • Train to keep up with technology, laws, procedures

6. Training & Applied Psychology • Apply psychological principles and scientific model to training • Empirical studies to solve training problems • Training evaluation held to rigor of scientific method (e.g., control group, statistics). • Training solution generalizes to other problems

7. Importance of Training • $55 billion/year spent on training ($40 bill in previous edition) • 91% of orgs train middle management* • 75% of orgs conduct sales training* • 56% of orgs conduct secretarial training* • 51% of orgs conduct executive development* • 44% of orgs conduct technical training* Examples demonstrating importance • FAA replaces simulator training time for actual flight time • Polaroid spent $700,000 to train 1,000 workers math & english • How much will now be spent on counter-terrorism training? • * percentages of fortune 500 orgs

8. Associations for Trainers • American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) www.astd.org • Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) www.siop.org • American Psychological Association (APA) www.apa.org • American Psychological Society (APS) www.aps.org • American Educational Research Association (AERA) www.aera.net • Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) www.shrm.org • Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) www.hfes.org

9. What Trainers Do • Needs analysis & diagnosis • Determine appropriate training approach • Program design and development • Develop material resources • Manage internal resources • Manage external resources • Individual development planning and counseling • Job/Performance-related training • Conduct Classroom training • Conduct group & org development training • Conduct research • Manage working relations with managers and clients • Manage the training & development function

10. Ethical Considerations for Trainers • Overselling training program • Compromising confidentiality • Mistreatment of trainees • Voluntary consent • Discrimination • Cost Effectiveness • Accurate Portrayal • Competency in Training • Values

11. Classroom lecture Videotape Workbooks Business books Audiotape Computer-Based Training CD-ROM Videoconference Multimedia Audioconference Videodiscs Electronic Performance Support Systems Intranet Internet Training Delivery Methods

12. Goals of Training Why Train? • Improve product quality • Increase production efficiency • Improve safety • Meet customer demands • Improve worker health: decrease absenteeism and insurance costs

13. Obstacles facing trainers • Organizations rarely evaluate training • 42% of orgs had no evaluation plan • Most of those with plan only evaluated whether trainees liked the program (reaction criteria) • Organizations want a quick fix • 27% of orgs never do needs assessment • Don’t know whether training is best solution without it • Reason for both: Bottom line $$$$ • Orgs must be convinced of the importance of developing training the right way

14. How Needs for Training are Changing • Workforce will grow more slowly • Many new workers (16-24) will not possess necessary skills • Proportion of entry level Whites will decline • 1/3 of all new employees will be from minority pops • 600,000 immigrants/year enter U.S., 400,000 taking jobs • Workforce will include more older workers and women • 2/3 of all new employees will be women, 61% of all working age women hold jobs

15. Impact of Technology • Need for computer skills • Less physical labor, more programming & monitoring • More service orgs, less production

16. Ramifications For Training • Re-training • Displaced manufacturing workers will need to learn skills for service-oriented jobs • Skills training • High demand for skilled workers creates a worker shortage • Educational systems • Programs such as technical high school will have to take some of the burden of teaching entry-level skills

17. What skills will be required? U.S. Dept of Labor suggests the following KSAs: • Ability to assess information • Ability to understand worksystems (big picture) • Computer/High Tech skills • Interpersonal skills

18. Other Training Issues • Legal Aspects • Training development and delivery must not be discriminatory • Training one part of larger system • Social factors (group dynamics, roles, norms, etc.) • Environment (economic market, technology, etc.) • Alternatives to training • Job re-design / Human factors • Personnel Selection

19. Dogbert Solutions for Training- Dogbert’s Top Secret Management Handbook (Adams) Your employees will often whine about the need for training. Try to ignore them. Training can lead to no good. In the short term it causes missed work. In the long term it causes employees to leave for jobs that pay a living wage. Nobody wins when that happens. • Your first line of defense is logic. Try to talk your employees out of taking training classes by using this bulletproof argument: • “why do you need all of these technical training classes? I didn’t need any training to do this job.”