Cindy told the story of Jennifer, who had worked in the same position for 10 years. Jennifer had always been a valuable employee, but lately, her productivity and performance had started to decline. Her supervisor, Mandy, finally called her in to find out what was wrong.

After some hesitation, Jennifer said, “To tell the truth, I feel like I am in a rut. I just don’t get the same satisfaction from doing my job that I used to get.”

“I wish we’d had this talk sooner,” Mandy replied, “but now that I know how you feel, there is something we can do. Let’s take a look at some of the training opportunities coming up this quarter. Tell me what training classes you might be interested in taking.”

What if Jennifer and Mandy never had that talk? Do you think Jennifer would have remained at her job? Chapter 7 looks at the ins and outs of managing and retaining talent through training and development.

SHRM HR CONTENT

See Appendix: SHRM 2016 Curriculum Guidebook for the complete list

E. Job Analysis/Job Design (required)

5. Training and development

Vocational and career counseling

Needs assessment

Career pathing

L. Training and Development (required)

1. Needs assessment

2. Competency models

3. Learning theories: Behaviorism, constructivism, cognitive models, adult learning, knowledge management

4. Training evaluation: Kirkpatrick’s model

5. E-learning and use of technology in training

6. On-the-job training (OJT)

7. Outsourcing (secondary)

8. Transfer of training: Design issues, facilitating transfer

9. Employee development: Formal education, experience, assessment

10. Determining return on investment (ROI)

11. The role of training in succession planning

12. Human/intellectual capital

Q. Organizational Development (required—graduate students only)

2. Developing human resources

3. Emotional intelligence

4. Equipping the organization for present and future talent needs

8. Measurement systems

11. Organizational learning

13. Outsourcing employee development

16. Training employees to meet current and future job demands

T. HR Career Planning (secondary)

1. Definition of a career

2. Balancing work and life

7. Plateauing

9. Career development

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THE NEED FOR TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

LO 7-1

Discuss the major difference between training and development and identify the common situations where training may be needed.

Now that we’ve made it through the process of selecting individuals into the organization, the next thing we need to do is train them to successfully work within the new environment and to do their new jobs. In all cases, new employees should get at least basic training about the organization and its routine processes as well as the training for the job they are going to be filling. We can’t reasonably expect them to do a job successfully unless they’re trained in how to do it; and there is a relationship between training and job satisfaction,1 so we need to insure that the required onboarding training is completed. Offering training and development also generally decreases expensive turnover2 and makes it less likely that employees will engage in neglectful behavior.3 Training is costly though, so it must be done correctly to get sufficient benefits to outweigh the cost.4

Effective training and development are investments, not expenses, as they pay for themselves through competitive advantage and increased performance.5 This is why companies worldwide are investing heavily in training and long-term employee development.6 Hudson Trail Outfitters even rewards employees for completing training programs.7 As managers’ skills should also be developed,8leadership programs and courses are currently popular.9 This is why best-practice companies (e.g., GE, IBM, and Johnson & Johnson) provide leadership programs.10

Training and Development

Before we get into the details of training and development, we need to understand competency models because training is based on the competencies we want employees to have. Competency models identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities (known in HR as KSAs) needed to perform a particular job in the organization. We can utilize competency models to identify what types of training a new employee or an employee changing jobs will need. We go through a process of identifying and providing the training, evaluating how well the employee has learned, and then assessing the training process itself using one of several options. We will discuss this in more detail in a little while, but for now, just remember that training is a critical piece in the education of each employee in the organization.

SHRM

L:2

Competency Models

In this chapter, we will discuss both organizational training and employee development. The two are related but separate pieces of the organization’s processes involving the management of its employees.

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Marriott is one of many companies that offer a variety of training programs to its employees. Training topics include leadership, management, and work-life balance.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Training is the process of teaching employees the skills necessary to perform a job. We train employees to provide them with the KSAs that they will need to succeed in their work for the organization. Training is primarily intended to be put to immediate use by the individual being trained. As an example, Amazon focuses on customer service, so it trains its employees by drilling them in what steps to follow when they get everyday questions and when fielding more unusual requests. To make sure everyone at Amazon understands how customer service works, each employee, including the CEO, spends 2 days on the service desk every 2 years.11

SHRM

E:5

Training and Development

Somewhat in contrast to the training we do so that employees can do a new job or do an existing job better is the process of employee development. Both colleges and corporations have been criticized for not doing a good job of developing business leaders.12 This is one of the reasons why this book focuses on developing HR skills, not just knowledge. Employee development is ongoing education to improve knowledge and skills for present and future jobs. So, employee development is designed to teach our workers how to move up in the organization in the future by becoming skilled at those tasks that they will need to know to move into higher-level jobs. Development tends to be less technical, and it is aimed at improving human, communication, conceptual, and decision-making skills in employees. To remain competitive in today’s dynamic environment, organizations must have employees who maintain up-to-date knowledge and skills; and development plays an important role in this effort.13

SHRM

Q:16

Training Employees to Meet Current and Future Job Demands

When Is Training Needed?

To successfully determine what kinds of training need to be carried out within the organization, HR managers should begin by completing a needs assessment. We will discuss needs assessments in the next section. For now, let’s review some common points at which we should probably complete a needs assessment and at least consider providing training to our people.

SHRM

Q:2

Developing Human Resources

NEW EMPLOYEE ONBOARDING.Orientation, known better now by the term onboarding, is the process of introducing new employees to the organization and their jobs. New employees are often called newcomersin organizational entry;14 and newcomer socialization done effectively during the onboarding process increases new employee job satisfaction and performance and reduces turnover rates.15,16 Onboarding frequently emphasizes corporate values, culture, and strengths.17 Organizations that have developed innovative onboarding programs include Rover.com , Wipro, Rackspace, Bazaarvoice, and Google.18 This socialization process is important to both newcomers and organizations, as newcomers learn the ropes and understand what is expected from them in their work as they assimilate into the organization and attempt to become productive members.19 Thus, job and career orientation have long-lasting effects on new employee job attitudes and satisfaction, behavior, work mastery, and performance.20

Onboarding is an introduction of the person to the company. What do we need to think about when we introduce somebody to the company? We need to think about introducing the new employee to all of the things that exist within the organizational society that they are entering. The process is very similar to someone moving to a different country and having to assimilate into a new culture. What do people need to know in order to be able to go about their daily lives, do the routine things that they need to do, and provide for their own personal needs? Orientation should be designed to answer all of the questions necessary to allow new employees to integrate into the “society” that they are entering.

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WORK APPLICATION 7-1

Select a job you hold in the present or held in the past. Did you receive both training and development or just training? Explain in some detail why it was one or both.

One of the first things an individual would need to know is what the laws, rules, and regulations are in the new society; so we need to introduce the new employee to the organization’s policies and procedures, rules, and regulations. The second thing that people would probably want to know is how to act and interact with others in the new society. So in addition to introducing the employee to the job and how to perform it within the organization, we would want to talk to the individual about the underlying organizational structure, plus where to go and whom to talk to in order to get certain things done. Who should they talk to in their department if they have questions about their job or about how things are done within the department? Who should they speak with in other departments if they have questions that can’t be answered within their primary workgroup, and when is it acceptable to go to individuals in other departments?

Next, they might want to know how they get the money that they need in order to survive in society. So we need to tell them about their pay and benefits, including whom to contact with questions. People entering this new society would also probably want to know how to stay safe as they go about their business, so we need to talk to them about safety in the organization. They would also likely need to fill out paperwork—to get a driver’s license, to open a bank account, to identify who they are, and so forth. Similarly, certain paperwork is necessary for the organization to function successfully, so during onboarding we ask the new employee to fill out this paperwork.

As you can see, there are many different things that we need to teach someone entering our new society, so we can’t legitimately perform the entire onboarding process in one day or a couple of hours. Effective onboarding of employees also results in lower turnover rates,21 so orientation to the firm and the new employee’s job should “last at least one year to ensure high retention say staffing and HR experts.”22 Here are a few examples of world-class companies with long onboarding programs: Toyota has a 5-week orientation, Honda has a 6-week orientation, and Southwest Airlines has a 90-day orientation.

However, in most organizations, the onboarding process is significantly shorter than this, and this is one reason that our organizations suffer significant early turnover of new hires. If our new employee is frustrated due to not knowing how to do the job, where to locate tools, whom to go to with a problem, or how to fix an issue with pay, the likelihood of that person leaving the organization goes up drastically. Many organizations could significantly reduce new-hire turnover by modestly increasing the onboarding and socialization period for new hires.

WORK APPLICATION 7-2

Briefly describe the orientation you received for a job. How could it be improved?

NEW JOB REQUIREMENTS OR PROCESSES. The second common point where training may be necessary occurs when jobs change in some form. Whether our employee is in the same job or is changing jobs and needs to learn new processes, if there is a significant change in any work requirements, we need to train the employee. The change may be based on discovery of new techniques or technologies to perform particular work to make the work more efficient. The organization may have changed its strategic direction; and as a result, some or all of the jobs within the organization may require new processes or procedures. In any of these cases or any similar situation where the change has significance for that job, we should go through the process of performing a training needs assessment. If the result of the needs assessment shows that training is necessary, then an appropriate training program can be designed and implemented.

REMEDIATION. The third common point at which managers need to investigate the requirement for additional training occurs when there has been some failure of an employee or some employees to perform successfully and meet organizational standards. Remediation is the correction of a deficiency or failure in a process or procedure. In remediation, we work to correct the actions of the individual or individuals responsible for the process or procedure so that they can successfully carry out the action in the future. We don’t want to make a common mistake, though. Remediation is not about assigning blame for a failure. The emphasis in this case should always be on correcting the actions of the employee to better serve both the employee’s and the organization’s interests. Organizational managers act just as a good physician or mechanic would act—by diagnosing the situation first and then taking appropriate corrective action to solve the problem.

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EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT FOR ADVANCEMENT. The next point at which to evaluate the need for training is in situations where we are working to develop current employee skills and abilities so that employees can move into higher level jobs within the organization. Offering development opportunities generally decreases turnover.23 As noted in Chapter 4, all organizations have a responsibility to plan for the succession of individuals in management and executive positions; and this planning is usually a function assigned to the HR department. Providing development opportunities and succession planning is the only way the organization can be sustainable over long periods of time. To successfully carry out a succession process, people at lower levels in the organization must be trained in the knowledge and skills necessary to be able to take on higher-level duties. One area getting particular attention today is training and development in ethics and social responsibility, in part because of the litany of ethical failures in scores of companies over the past couple of decades. While very few organizations will attempt to develop all of the employees within the firm, most organizations go through an informal or formal process of identifying high-potential individuals for development and, ultimately, advancement into managerial and executive slots.

SHRM

L:11

The Role of Training in Succession Planning

Many 21st century organizations have rigorous development programs that include job rotation to various departments within the organization, classroom and on-the-job training, assigned mentors, and many other programs–all of which are designed to train employees and develop their capabilities for future use within the firm. Organizations that neglect succession processes and employee development can find themselves at a competitive disadvantage when senior personnel leave the firm through either retirement or resignation. It is critical that HR lead the process of planning for succession and employee development. Although in this chapter we will focus more on training than development (there are five major sections explaining training, followed by one section on employee development), both are important to the organization over the long term.

THE TRAINING PROCESS AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT

LO 7-2

Briefly discuss the steps in the training and development process and the common challenges to the process.

How are we going to go about training our employees? How do we know who needs what training, in what forms, and at what point? How do we determine whether or not the employee is ready and willing to participate in the training? Finally, how do we know that the training was effective? In order to answer these questions, we have to plan our training processes very carefully. We need to look at what’s currently going on in the organization and how that differs from what needs to happen in the future to accomplish our strategic business goals. So training and development are another set of strategic HRM tasks. Once we do this, we can analyze the types of training that will be necessary to build new knowledge, skills, and abilities for our workforce.

Licensed Video Evaluating Training Programs

Steps in the Training Process

This chapter is primarily organized to follow the steps in the training process. Let’s take a look at how we go through the training process in Exhibit 7-1. We’ll follow that up with a brief discussion of the steps and then provide more detail throughout the chapter.

Step 1: Assessing needs. We conduct a needs assessment to determine what training is necessary to improve performance. We will discuss this step in this section.

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Exhibit 7-1 THE TRAINING PROCESS

Step 2: Selecting how to shape behavior. We select a method of shaping employee behavior based on learning theories so that we can change employee behavior to improve performance. We will discuss this step in this chapter’s section “Learning and Shaping Behavior.”

Step 3: Designing training. We design the training and development based on the needs assessment. We must determine which training methods we will use to shape employee behavior. We discuss this step in this chapter’s section “Design and Delivery of Training.”

Step 4: Delivering training. Before we actually conduct the training and development, we must select the delivery method. We also discuss the delivery options in the section “Design and Delivery of Training.”

SHRM

Q:4

Equipping the Organization for Present and Future Talent Needs

Step 5: Assessing training. After we complete the training, our last step is to assess how effective the training was at developing the needed skills. We do this by determining our success at shaping behavior. We discuss this step in this chapter’s section “Assessing Training.”

SHRM

E:5, L:1

Needs Assessment

Interrelationship of the Training Process Steps. Note in Exhibit 7-1 that each of steps 2, 3, 4, and 5 has a double-headed arrow; this is because all the steps are so closely related and based on each other that they are commonly planned together before actually delivering the training. In other words, you are constantly thinking ahead and behind your current step in the training process. If the assessment of the training reveals that the behavior has not been shaped (changed) as needed, we may have to go back to step 1 and start the training process again.

Needs Assessment

The first major step in the training process, and probably one of the most important, is the needs assessment. A needs assessment is the process of analyzing the difference between what is currently occurring within a job or jobs and what is required—either now or in the future—based on the organization’s operations and strategic goals. If a needs assessment is not done correctly, a training course may be poorly designed, or it may cover the wrong information. The wrong employees may be asked to participate in the training, or they may not yet be capable of absorbing the information in the training because of a lack of a knowledge base or skill set. We may end up creating a training program that’s unnecessary, or we may fail to determine that an issue is based on poor performance rather than lack of knowledge. These are significant issues that we can avoid if we correctly go through the process of a needs assessment.

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Similar to those good physicians and automobile mechanics that we just mentioned, organizational managers have to diagnose what may currently be wrong with a process so that they can successfully repair and/or tune the process up. If they don’t do the diagnosis correctly, managers may create training solutions that don’t solve the existing problem. So the manager has to go through a process of identifying where in a current sequence of events things are not working the way they should, or how they can be done more efficiently. Only by diligently going through the process of looking at that chain of events in the status quo can a manager identify where the process can be changed to improve organizational productivity and reach the organization’s goals.

Challenges to the Training Process

As part of the needs assessment and in order to design training appropriately, we need to identify and discuss some common challenges to the training process. These include minimally prepared or unprepared workers, difficulty in identifying the return on investment provided from training, employee resistance to change and feelings of insecurity, matching the training to the strategic goals of the organization, and logistics issues—including scheduling and making locations available for training courses. Managers have to work through each of these challenges in order for training programs to be successful.

Unprepared Workforce. One of the most significant challenges to work process training is the fact that so many of the individuals being hired into the workforce are ill prepared in the educational basics, including reading and math skills. As we noted in Chapter 6, employers continue to hire substantial numbers of new entrants who have significant education but poor work skills, requiring additional company investment to improve workforce readiness.24 In cases where the employees don’t have the basic skills necessary to succeed, the organization must train them in those basic skill sets before they can be taught the advanced skills necessary to improve organizational processes.

WORK APPLICATION 7-3

Do a simple needs assessment for a job you have or had. Be sure to state the competency model (knowledge, skills, and abilities) it takes to do the job.

Return on Investment/Cost Justification.Businesses today are naturally concerned with the return that they get from any corporate investment. Training is time-consuming and expensive,25 and it is no different from any other investment. Executives expect and, in fact, require that training provide a positive return on investment (ROI). HR managers have become more familiar with the ROI calculation discussed in Chapter 2, and they use it to provide justification for the financial cost of training programs.

WORK APPLICATION 7-4

Think about the people you have worked with. What is your perception of the preparation they have had for the workforce?

Resistance to Change and Employee Insecurity.Since this is not a change management text, suffice it to say that virtually all individuals resist changes to their routine. They resist for a variety of reasons—including insecurity, based on their concern that they may not be able to successfully adapt to the change in some way. This insecurity leads to resistance to change, and it can cause significant difficulty in the training process. Management must overcome resistance to change exhibited by the workers so that training can be successful.

WORK APPLICATION 7-5

Think about the people you have worked with. What is your perception of their resistance to changes in their work routine?

Strategic Congruence. Strategic congruence is another challenge to the training process. One of the most critical requirements in corporate training programs is the need to ensure that the training furthers the strategic goals of the organization. Any training program that does not aim squarely at the strategic goals of the organization is difficult to justify in a corporate environment. As HR managers, we have to ensure that our training and development programs help to carry out the organization’s strategy over the long term.

Scheduling. The last of our common challenges, scheduling, involves both the timing and the location of the training. As with most things, there’s never an ideal time to schedule a training course, especially if it runs for several days or even weeks. The trainees have to leave their regular jobs undone for the period of the training, and the organization has to be able to operate without those trainees performing their normal tasks. In addition, the training may require the use of physical locations that have special equipment or tools and that are available only for limited time periods during the year. These logistics issues may seem minimal, but they frequently create significant problems for the HR department in scheduling training courses.

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©iStockphoto.com/Thomas_EyeDesign

HR managers select employees who have the ability and willingness to be trained to succeed on the job.

Employee Readiness

As part of our needs assessment, the manager needs to evaluate the employees who would be taking part in the training. Employees may feel insecure about their ability to learn, and they may therefore be unwilling to participate in training for new processes. We must also evaluate whether the employees are physically and mentally ready to go through the training process successfully. In other words, are they able and willing to learn?26 Do they have the skills and competencies necessary to succeed in this training process?

ABILITY. We have to determine whether or not our employees feel that they are able to participate in the training process. They might feel that they don’t have the background training necessary to succeed in training for a more complex process, meaning they may feel that their core set of skills needs to be improved before they can be successful in more intricate training. Self-efficacy is whether or not a person believes that they have the capability to do something or attain a particular goal. If the employee’s self-efficacy is low, they may not believe that they have the ability to succeed in the training process. Regardless of whether or not it is true, if the employee believes they are unable to learn, then it is highly unlikely that they will be successful in any training process because they are unlikely to try.

If employees feel that they are unable to learn, then the job of the manager becomes one of upgrading the employees’ abilities if necessary and then convincing them of their capabilities. In addition, the manager has to analyze the true abilities and limitations of each of the employees who may participate in the training process. Remember that each of us has physical abilities and intellectual abilities, but we don’t all have the same physical and intellectual abilities. Again, it is management’s job to diagnose and determine whether or not an individual has the abilities necessary to succeed in a training process, and not to put people into situations where their lack of specific abilities condemns them to failure.

What happens when people are put into situations where they are almost certain to fail? What happens to their motivation, morale, and job satisfaction? What most likely will happen to their productivity? If managers put people into this type of situation, we are almost assured of lowering their performance level rather than raising it. This is certainly not the way to get maximum productivity out of our workforce, so we want to avoid putting people in training situations where they are almost certainly going to fail.

WORK APPLICATION 7-6

Describe your self-efficacy for a job you have or have had. How does or did your self-efficacy affect your job performance?

WILLINGNESS. The second major piece in the employee readiness equation is whether or not employees are willing to learn what’s being taught in a training program. In other words, we have to determine their motivation to learn. Why would our workers not be motivated to learn? There are several potential reasons.

First, the individual may not feel that they need to learn a new process. If they feel that the current process is sufficient and that the new process won’t improve their work environment, they may be unwilling to learn. If they feel that the training process is being done solely for political reasons (e.g., many workers harbor a false belief that programs such as diversity training and sexual harassment prevention training are motivated by the perceived need of the organization to be politically correct, even though this is not true), then they may not be interested in the training. If the individual doesn’t feel that the training is related to their job, they may not be motivated to learn. If the employee is concerned that their work will pile up while they’re gone, they may not be motivated to train. If their coworkers or supervisors don’t support the fact that the individual will have to be away from the job in order to go through a training course, and as a result put pressure on the individual, that person may not be motivated to go through the training.

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A significant part of willingness to learn is based on the support the individual gets from the people around them, including coworkers, supervisors, and even family members. If one of your employees is going to be away from home for a period of several weeks and the employee’s family members are opposed to this extended period of separation, it’s extremely unlikely the employee is going to be willing to participate in the training. So the manager needs to make sure that the employee is willing to go through the training process.

LEARNING AND SHAPING BEHAVIOR

LO 7-3

Identify the three common learning theories and how they are used to create the four methods for shaping behavior.

Step 2 of the training process consists of selecting how to shape or change employee behavior. To do this, trainers have to understand how people learn. So in this section, we begin by explaining learning. Then we discuss three basic learning theories used to shape employee behavior. Next, we put the theories together in Exhibit 7-2 and discuss how to shape or change employee behavior. Then we end with learning styles.

WORK APPLICATION 7-7

Do you like to learn new things? Describe your willingness to learn in college and to train on the job. Will you voluntarily sign up for company training and development programs that are not required for your job?

Learning

What is learning? Learning can be many different things; but in a business, we usually need to know that our employees have learned something that we are trying to train them to do. How do we know that they have learned a particular thing, then? We know because of changes in their behavior at work. So in our case, learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience or practice.27 This is a good definition to use in the organizational learning process, due to the fact that it provides us with the visible evidence that individuals have learned something because they change the way they act.

People learn in multiple ways. We learn through trial and error, from the consequences that occur as a result of something we’ve done, and from the consequences of other people’s actions. And what makes this process even more complex is the fact that different people prefer to learn differently. We all have preferred learning styles, and we like having the option to pick one style over another.

SHRM

Q:11

Organizational Learning

Learning Theories

Let’s take a look now at three common learning theories: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning. Each of the three is useful for certain types of training.

SHRM

L:3

Learning Theories

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING. Classical conditioning was made famous by a physiologist named Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov became famous by causing dogs to salivate even when not in the presence of food. Pavlov proved that when dogs were conditioned to associate the ringing of a bell with being fed, they “learned” to salivate when the bell was rung. What does the fact that a dog would salivate on command have to do with human learning? At first glance, it looks a little silly. However, what Pavlov proved was that animals will react involuntarily to a stimulus in their environment if they associate that stimulus with something else. OK, but humans are not dogs, so do humans react involuntarily to a stimulus in the environment? Of course they do. Human beings react involuntarily to stimuli the same way all other animals do.

Have you ever walked down a row of restaurants in your hometown and smelled the aroma of fresh food being prepared, and that reminded you of a relative’s home when they were cooking your favorite dinner? This pleasant memory may change your mood, and in fact, it may change your behavior because of the feeling of well-being that it creates. Alternately, have you ever heard a sound that caused you to be afraid or to want to run away from it? Why does such as sound cause you to be afraid? If you think for a few seconds, you will probably realize that the sound indicates danger to you, whether you consciously realize it or not. You’ve been involuntarily conditioned to the feeling of danger associated with the sound. So, Pavlov’s classical conditioning results in “direct, involuntary, learned behaviors.” The behaviors are learned because you have changed the way you act due to some prior experience, and they are involuntary because you didn’t intentionally learn to act in a particular way in response to the stimulus. Finally, the behaviors are direct because the learning occurs as a result of something happening directly to you.

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OPERANT CONDITIONING. The second common learning theory is called operant conditioning, which is based on reinforcement. Again, most of us have heard of the individual who made this learning theory famous—B. F. Skinner. Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning says that behavior is based on the consequences received from behaving in a similar way at an earlier point in time. In other words, if we acted in a certain way previously and received a reward, we will likely repeat that behavior. If, however, we acted in a particular way and received a negative consequence (punishment), then we will probably not repeat the behavior. Skinner tested his theory using his “Skinner box.” He would put animals such as a pigeon or a rat in a box and provide a stimulus such as a light above a lever. If the animal chose the right lever, they were rewarded with food. If the animal chose the incorrect lever they would receive punishment such as a mild electrical shock.

Skinner showed that very quickly, the animals would figure out which lever to press in order to receive the reward. So, operant conditioning results in “direct, voluntary, learned behaviors.” The subjects in Skinner’s experiments voluntarily selected the lever that provided the reward, so they learned to behave in a particular way based on the direct consequences of their actions. So Skinner proved that animals will voluntary act in order to receive a reward and avoid acting in order to avoid receiving punishment.

WORK APPLICATION 7-8

Give examples of what you learned in an organization through classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning.

SOCIAL LEARNING. Our third type of learning, social learning, is similar in form to operant conditioning. The difference here is that we are not learning from the consequences of our own actions but from the consequences of the actions of another person. Social learning is also called vicarious learning. The word vicarious means “experienced or realized through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another.”28 So social or vicarious learning is experienced through watching the actions of another person and witnessing the consequences of those actions. In other words, if a young boy watches his sister receive a cookie as a reward for cleaning her room and he wants a cookie too, he may determine that the best way to get a cookie is to go clean his own room. This would be an example of social learning. Again, social learning is based on voluntary, learned actions on the part of the individual, but it is based on indirect consequences of the actions of another person.

7-1 APPLYING THE CONCEPT

Learning Theories

Review the three learning theories below and write the letter corresponding to each theory before the statement(s) illustrating it:

a. classical conditioning

b. operant conditioning

c. social learning

____ 1. My parents continuously told me how to behave properly as I was growing up. Could that be why customers comment on my good manners and social skills?

____ 2. I got caught smoking in a no-smoking area and was given a verbal warning. I’m not doing it again because I don’t want to get into more trouble and possibly end up losing my job.

____ 3. Shelly is a very hard worker, but I’ve never even seen her get as much as a thank-you for her performance. So why should I work?

____ 4. After seeing what happened to Sean, you better believe that I’m keeping my goggles on when I’m on the job.

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SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SOCIAL LEARNING. Recent innovation in using social media has provided a new tool for applying social learning. We know that people learn from each other as much as or more than they do from formal training. This is one reason why OJT is used so much. Because this type of learning works so well, and because more than 3 billion people worldwide are members of at least one social media site, we can utilize social media as a learning tool.

Social media is all around us today. It is also easy to adapt as a platform for organizational learning, especially a fairly new form called micro-learning that we will discuss in more detail in the Trends and Issues section of this chapter. We can discuss problems, provide video and/or audio step-by-step instructions, utilize team-based brainstorming sessions and problem analysis, and discuss complex questions with large groups of combined customers, employees, and managers. You will need to understand the applications of social media in a training and learning environment to successfully manage learning in today’s organizations.

Shaping Behavior

We can use the three types of learning that we have just reviewed, especially Skinner’s concept of operant conditioning, to shape the behaviors of the employees in the organization. In order to shape the behavior of our employees, we can provide reinforcement (rewards) or punishment or, as a third alternative, provide neither. Take a look at Exhibit 7-2. It shows four methods of shaping behavior. We can break these methods down into a process of applying a reward, removing a reward, applying punishment, removing punishment, or providing no response to the actions of the individual.

So, what’s the value of understanding Exhibit 7-2 and the four methods of shaping behavior? If we understand each of the four methods, we can use them to cause workers to act in ways that are conducive to the improvement and ultimate success of the organization. Let’s discuss each part of the exhibit.

Exhibit 7-2 SHAPING BEHAVIOR

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Positive reinforcement. If we apply a reward (the upper left quadrant A in the exhibit), we’re using the concept of positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is providing a reward in return for a constructive action on the part of the subject. For example, if our employees do something that improves the safety of workers in the organization, we may give them a bonus as a reward. This would be positive reinforcement. Applying a reward to a particular behavior is likely to cause the individual to perform that behavior, or similar behaviors, again. So our employees would be likely to provide other suggestions to improve our business operations because of the past reward. We should realize that positive reinforcement is the most commonly used method of shaping employee behavior when we train new employees to do their jobs and when existing employees need to learn new job requirements and processes.

Negative reinforcement. Our second option would be to avoid or remove a noxious stimulus (the lower right quadrant D in the exhibit), a process called negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement is the withdrawal of a harmful thing from the environment in response to a positive action on the part of the subject. Negative reinforcement is commonly based on rules, with punishment being given for breaking the rules. A rule itself is not a punishment; it is a means of getting people to do or avoid a specific behavior, such as coming to work on time. But if the rule is broken, punishment is usually the consequence. An example of negative reinforcement working as intended would be you coming to work on time not because you want to be on time but because you want to avoid a punishment for being late. It can also be removing an employee from disciplinary probation for tardiness in response to their positive action of showing up for work on time for a period of time after being disciplined. Avoiding or taking away a negative consequence in response to a positive behavior is likely to cause the individual to perform the desired behavior again. We should realize that negative reinforcement is commonly used during the new employee orientation to make sure employees know the expected behaviors and the consequences for breaking rules. We certainly don’t want to punish employees for breaking a rule that they don’t know exists.

WORK APPLICATION 7-9

Give examples of how an organization uses positive reinforcement, punishment, negative reinforcement, and extinction to shape employee behavior.

Punishment. In contrast to reinforcement, we may punish bad behaviors. Punishment is the application of an adverse consequence, or the removal of a reward, in order to decrease an unwanted behavior. One method of punishment would be to remove a reward (the lower left quadrant C in the exhibit) as a result of people doing something that they shouldn’t have done. Think of taking away the car keys for a school-age driver who does something wrong. Or let’s say that our organization has a policy of providing free parking for our workers in a crowded downtown area. We might take away the parking privileges of an individual who continually harasses other workers in the parking lot.

Alternatively, we can apply a noxious stimulus (the upper right quadrant B in the exhibit), which is also considered to be punishment. An example here would be suspending a worker without pay because of excessive absenteeism. By suspending the worker, we’re applying a negative response. The negative response received by the worker is designed to cause a decline in the behavior that created such a response. So in other words, punishment can be the application of something bad (a noxious stimulus) or the removal of something good (a reward).

We should realize that punishment is not commonly used during training of employees; rather, it is commonly used when employees know how to do the job but just will not meet the job standards, or when employees break a rule and get disciplined for doing so. We will learn more about when and how to discipline employees in Chapter 9.

Extinction. We noted earlier in this section that there are four options for shaping behavior. What is the other option? The last option doesn’t fit in the diagram itself, because it’s the absence of reinforcement or punishment of any kind. Extinction is the lack of response, either positive or negative, in order to avoid reinforcing an undesirable behavior. You may have heard the phrase “Ignore it and it will go away.” How does a lack of response cause behavior to be shaped in a way that we desire?

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Employees will sometimes exhibit problem behavior to cause a reaction from the manager or fellow employees. The employee who exhibits the behavior may delight in causing others concern or consternation. For example, the male employee who continually asks his female manager about organizational sexual harassment policies in front of other workers to cause her discomfort as she explains the policy is most likely intentionally acting to cause her embarrassment. In such a case, the female manager may be able to ignore the stimulus behavior and provide no reinforcement. If the manager does so for a long enough time, the employee’s behavior will most likely decline or go away completely, because it is not having the desired negative effect on the manager. We should realize that extinction is also not very commonly used because when we train employees, we don’t usually ignore behavior in the hope that it will not be repeated—we correct it.

Shaping (changing) behavior. If you understand these methods of shaping behavior, they become powerful tools in your managerial toolbox for changing behavior to increase performance. These tools allow you to cause your employees to act in ways you want them to and avoid acting in ways that are detrimental to themselves, their division or department, or the organization as a whole. Now let’s discuss how to increase and decrease behaviors to increase performance.

Increasing targeted behavior. If we want to cause the behavior to increase, then we want to use positive or negative reinforcement (quadrant A or D in Exhibit 7-2). Reinforcement, whether positive or negative, is designed to cause an increase in the targeted behavior.

Decreasing targeted behavior. If, on the other hand, we want to cause a particular behavior to decrease, we would use punishment (in either of its forms) or extinction (quadrant B, C, or E in Exhibit 7-2). Punishment and extinction are designed to cause a targeted behavior to decrease over time.

Learning Styles

As a last point in our review of the learning process, we need to briefly discuss various learning styles that people prefer to use. There are more than 70 learning style inventories available in the psychology literature and even some questionnaires that track learning style on the Internet.29 There is, however, disagreement concerning whether or not we should use preferred learning styles in designing training, including work-related training. Some of the recent research, including a study done by Dr. Beth Rogowsky and her colleagues, says that although we do have preferred learning styles, there is no evidence that receiving instruction in that preferred style allows us to learn any better than receiving instruction in another style.30 Others argue, though, that there is evidence that we learn better using individual preferred learning styles, if for no other reason than we are more comfortable with our preferred style.31,32 Despite the disagreement, it pays us to at least understand the issue of individual learning styles because there is no evidence that training using preferred learning styles harm the learning environment, and using individual preferred learning style may even help the trainee learn better. HRM training and development experts might want to continue to review this research over the next several years to see how it ultimately affects student learning though.

7-2 APPLYING THE CONCEPT

Shaping Behavior

Review the following methods of shaping employee behavior and write the letter corresponding to each before the situation(s) illustrating it.

a. positive reinforcement

b. punishment—give bad consequence

c. punishment—remove reward

d. negative reinforcement

e. extinction

____ 6. Betty used to give me that intimidating look when I assigned her a task she didn’t want to do, and that behavior made me uncomfortable. So I just ignored it and didn’t let her make me feel uncomfortable, and she stopped giving me the look.

____ 7. You know the rules. That behavior is going to cost you $25.

____ 8. You got that angry lady to calm down and leave the store as a happy customer. This behavior leads to keeping our customers. Thanks, keep up the good work.

____ 9. If you don’t stop breaking the pricing gun, you will have to buy a new one.

____ 10. I know you like to get out of work for a while and get our lunches, but because you mixed up the order today, Santana will go tomorrow.

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7-1 SELF ASSESSMENT

Your Learning Style

Below are 10 statements. For each statement, distribute 5 points between the A and B alternatives. If the A statement is very characteristic of you and the B statement is not, place a 5 on the A line and a 0 on the B line. If the A statement is characteristic of you and the B statement is occasionally or somewhat characteristic of you, place a 4 on the A line and a 1 on the B line. If both statements are characteristic of you, place a 3 on the line that is more characteristic of you and a 2 on the line that is less characteristic of you. Be sure to distribute 5 points between each A and B alternative for each of the 10 statements. When distributing the 5 points, try to recall recent situations on the job or in school.

1. When learning:

_____ A. I watch and listen.

_____ B. I get involved and participate.

2. When learning:

_____ A. I rely on my hunches and feelings.

_____ B. I rely on logical and rational thinking.

3. When making decisions:

_____ A. I take my time.

_____ B. I make them quickly.

4. When making decisions:

_____ A. I rely on my gut feelings about the best alternative course of action.

_____ B. I rely on a logical analysis of the situation.

5. When doing things:

_____ A. I am careful.

_____ B. I am practical.

6. When doing things:

_____ A. I have strong feelings and reactions.

_____ B. I reason things out.

7. I would describe myself in the following way:

_____ A. I am a reflective person.

_____ B. I am an active person.

8. I would describe myself in the following way:

_____ A. I am influenced by my emotions.

_____ B. I am influenced by my thoughts.

9. When interacting in small groups:

_____ A. I listen, watch, and get involved slowly.

_____ B. I am quick to get involved.

10. When interacting in small groups:

_____ A. I express what I am feeling.

_____ B. I say what I am thinking.

Scoring: Place your answer numbers (0–5) on the lines below. Then add the numbers in each column vertically. Each of the four columns should have a total number between 0 and 25. The total of the two A and B columns should equal 25.

1. _____ A. _____ B. (5)

2. _____ A. _____ B. (5)

3. _____ A. _____ B. (5)

4. _____ A. _____ B. (5)

5. _____ A. _____ B. (5)

6. _____ A. _____ B. (5)

7. _____ A. _____ B. (5)

8. _____ A. _____ B. (5)

9. _____ A. _____ B. (5) 10. _____ A. _____ B. (5)

Totals: _____ A. _____ B. (25) _____ A. _____ B. (25)

Style: Observing Doing Feeling Thinking

There is no best or right learning style; each of the four learning styles has its pros and cons. The more evenly distributed your scores are between the A’s and B’s, the more flexible you are at changing styles. Understanding your preferred learning style can help you get the most from your learning experiences.

Determining Your Preferred Learning Style

The five odd-numbered A statements refer to your self-description as being “observing,” and the five odd-numbered B statements refer to your self-description as “doing.” The column with the highest number is your preferred style of learning. Write that style here: _________________________

The five even-numbered A statements refer to your self-description as being a “feeling” person, and the five even-numbered B statements refer to your self-description as being a “thinking” person. The column with the highest number is your preferred style. Write that style here: _____________________________

Putting the two preferences together gives you your preferred learning style. Check it off below:

_____ Diverger (combines observing and feeling)

_____ Converger (combines doing and thinking)

_____ Assimilator (combines observing and thinking)

_____ Accommodator (combines doing and feeling)

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Fleming learning styles. One of the common learning style inventories, by Neil Fleming, provides three primary learner options. These three options are visual, auditory, and tactile learning.33 As you would think, visual learners prefer to have material provided in a visual format such as graphs and charts. Auditory learners, on the other hand, generally prefer to learn information based on hearing that information. Auditory learners tend to perform best in a historical classroom setting where the teacher stands in front of the class and teaches while the students passively listen. Finally, tactile learners prefer to learn by doing. Tactile learners want to physically perform a task in order to learn. Most of us use a mix of all three of the major learning styles. Therefore, a trainer should take each of the styles into account when creating a training program.

You should realize that we provide multiple tactile-learning application and skill-building opportunities in this book. Which of the three options do you prefer when learning something?

Kolb learning styles. A more complex learning style inventory was developed by David Kolb.34 Kolb’s model is probably the most accepted of the learning style models in use today.35 To determine your preferred learning style, complete Self-Assessment 7-1.

DESIGN AND DELIVERY OF TRAINING

LO 7-4

Discuss each of the major training delivery types.

Recall that back in Chapter 1, we identified four important HRM skills: technical, human relations, conceptual and design (decision making), and business skills. Essentially, all of the training methods are used to develop specific skills that can be classified into one of these four skills categories. Once we have completed our needs assessment and selected how we plan to shape behavior, we are ready to complete step 3 of the training process: designing the training by selecting training methods and then delivering the training. So in this section, we will present which training methods to use based on which types of skills we are developing. Exhibit 7-3 presents the type of skills, the training methods appropriate for developing each skill, and descriptions of the training methods.

Before we actually conduct the training, in step 4, the HR department or other trainers also have to select the types of training delivery. The choice will depend to some extent on what information is being transferred, as well as on the options that are available to the particular organization. We also need to look at the best type of training to use in order to maximize transfer of knowledge while minimizing the cost of the training process. Each of the four training types has advantages and disadvantages that have to be understood to assign the correct option to a specific type of training program. In the next sections, we discuss our four options: on-the-job, classroom, distance, and simulation training.

WORK APPLICATION 7-10

Identify and describe the training method(s) used to train and develop you for a job you have or have had.

On-the-Job Training (OJT)

On-the-job training (OJT) is done at the work site with the resources the employee uses to perform the job. The manager, or an employee selected by the manager, usually conducts the training one-on-one with the trainee. Because of its proven record of success, job instructional training (JIT)—a specific type of on-the-job training—is a popular training type used worldwide.

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Exhibit 7-3 SKILLS AND TRAINING METHODS

7-3 APPLYING THE CONCEPT

Training Methods

For each of the training situations below, identify the most appropriate training method. Use the letters a through j from Exhibit 7-3 as your answers.

____ 11. You want your customer service staff to do a better job of handling customer complaints.

____ 12. Your large department has a high turnover rate, and new employees need to learn several rules and regulations to perform their jobs.

____ 13. You need your new employees to learn how to handle the typical daily problems they will face on the job.

____ 14. You need an employee to conduct an Internet search to find out more about a new product you want to buy for the department; you want a special report.

____ 15. You want employees to be able to do each other’s job when they take vacations.

____ 16. You want to improve your employees’ ability to sell products to customers in the store so that customers don’t end up leaving and buying the products online.

____ 17. You need to prepare middle managers to advance to upper-level managers. You are considering having them run a simulated company getting quarterly results.

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MODEL 7-1 JOB INSTRUCTIONAL TRAINING STEPS

SHRM

L:6

On-the-Job Training (OJT)

JOB INSTRUCTIONAL TRAINING (JIT). JIT has four steps, presented in Model 7-1 and described here.

Step 1: Preparation of the trainee. Put the trainee at ease as you create interest in the job and encourage questions. Explain the task objectives and quantity and quality requirements, and discuss their importance.

Step 2: Presentation of the task by the trainer. Perform the task yourself slowly, explaining each step several times. Once the trainee seems to have the steps memorized, have the trainee explain each step as you perform the task. Prepare a written list of the steps in complex tasks and give a copy to the trainee.

Step 3: Performance of the task by the trainee. Have the trainee perform the task slowly while explaining each step. Correct any errors and be willing to help the trainee perform any difficult steps. Continue until the employee can perform the task proficiently.

Step 4: Follow-up. Tell the trainee who is available to provide help with any questions or problems. Gradually give the trainee more autonomy. Begin by checking quality and quantity frequently; then decrease the amount of checking based on the trainee’s skill level. Watch the trainee perform the task and be sure to correct any errors or faulty work procedures before they become habits. Be patient and encouraging.

Even though OJT is fairly expensive on a per-person basis, many organizations still use it heavily because of the fact that it works very well. See Exhibit 7-4 for the advantages and disadvantages of OJT.

John Lund/Marc Romanelli

Employees are often given on-the-job training, especially in small businesses.

Classroom Training

Our second training option is classroom training. Classroom training is also a common form of training in organizations. To accomplish classroom training, the organization will create a training course—including content, instruction methods, lesson plans, and instructor materials—and provide all these materials to a qualified instructor who will teach the class.

Classroom training is generally very good for consistently transferring general knowledge or theories about a topic to a large number of people. It is generally not very good for teaching specific hands-on skills because of the passive nature of learning in a classroom. However, it is effective when using the same equipment that is used on the job. For example, many large banks have to train lots of tellers, and they conduct teller training in a classroom setting at headquarters, using an expert trainer so that the employees can go to the bank and actually begin work without any further training at the branch.

Let’s do a quick review of some of the advantages and disadvantages of classroom training in Exhibit 7-5.

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Exhibit 7-4 ON-THE-JOB TRAINING’S ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Exhibit 7-5 CLASSROOM TRAINING’S ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Distance or E-Learning

Our third option is some form of distance learning—also called e-learning—in either a synchronous or an asynchronous format. Synchronous distance learning occurs when all of the trainees sign in to a particular Learning Management System (LMS) such as Blackboard or Moodle, or a corporate LMS, where their instructor then interacts with them and teaches the topics for the day. In contrast, asynchronous distance learning is a process in which the student can sign in to the training site at any point in time, and materials are available for their studies. The instructor may or may not be online at the same time as the student, but there’s no dedicated connection between the two for the purpose of teaching the information. In many cases today, the student does not have to work through an LMS. They can learn using any number of free or low-cost apps for training in just about any field.

Distance learning, similar to classroom training, is valuable for teaching basic concepts and providing general information on the topic. There’s typically even less interaction between an instructor and trainees in this form than in classroom training. Let’s analyze some of the advantages and disadvantages of distance learning in Exhibit 7-6.

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Exhibit 7-6 DISTANCE TRAINING’S ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

SHRM

L:5

E-Learning and Use of Technology in Training

Self-directed learning is a specific kind of distance learning. In self-directed learning, individuals go completely at their own pace, and they are able to study whatever aspects of the topic they think they need to study to be successful while leaving other parts of the training uncompleted. Massively Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, are primarily self-directed learning. Self-directed training tends to have all of the potential advantages and disadvantages of other forms of distance learning. The most significant issue in self-directed learning tends to be the fact that if individuals are not motivated to learn on their own, they will be unsuccessful because nobody else is going to follow their progress and push them to complete the training.

WORK APPLICATION 7-11

Identify and describe the type(s) of training you received for a job you have or had.

Simulations

The trend today is toward having more active involvement of participants and offering online simulation training and development.36 A simulation is a training method whereby we may simulate a real-life situation to teach students what actions to take in the event that they encounter the same or a similar situation on the job. Some common examples of simulations are flight simulators, driving simulators, and firefighting simulations. Simulations would typically be used in situations where actually performing an action or set of actions could lead to significant financial cost (because of lost equipment) or could put the trainee in significant danger of injury or death.

SHRM

Q:8

Measurement Systems

In these types of cases, providing simulations makes much more sense than actually performing a particular task. Asking students to perform in a simulation will also generally cause them to go through the same set of emotions that they would go through in the real-life situation being simulated. Training through the use of a simulation allows the student to experience these emotions and learn to control them in order to resolve a complex and dangerous situation. Let’s review the advantages and disadvantages of simulations in Exhibit 7-7.

ASSESSING TRAINING

LO 7-5

Briefly discuss the Four-Level Evaluation Method for assessing training programs and the three common ways we measure training success.

The fifth and last step of our training process (Exhibit 7-1) is assessment. No matter what the training covers, we always want to evaluate whether or not it achieved the shaped behavior identified through our needs assessment. Training can be designed to cause changes in a variety of employee attitudes and behaviors; and as a result, it can be assessed in a number of different ways, depending on what we were trying to accomplish. In this section, we present four assessment methods and how to choose an assessment method.

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Exhibit 7-7 SIMULATION TRAINING’S ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

SHRM

L:4

Training Evaluation: Kirkpatrick’s Model

Assessment Methods

One of the most common assessment options, first identified by Donald Kirkpatrick, is called the Four-Level Evaluation Method.37 It measures reaction, learning, behaviors, and results.

Reaction evaluations measure how the individual responds to the actual training process. Self-reporting measures are quick and common measures of training.38 In reaction evaluations, the organization asks the participants how they feel about the training process, including the content provided, the instructors, and the knowledge that they gained by going through the process. They may also be asked about what new skills they have learned during the training process. This is the lowest level of training evaluation, and it is frequently discounted due to its subjectivity and because some people overestimate their capabilities.39 After all, is the trainee the best person to evaluate the knowledge they’ve gained if that knowledge is brand new to them? Certainly, reaction evaluations are less rigorous than some other forms of evaluation, but they still provide the organization with valuable feedback concerning the learners’ state of mind at the end of the training process as well as their attitude toward the process at its conclusion. Student course assessments are an example of reaction evaluations.

Learning evaluations are level-two measures designed to determine what knowledge the individual gained, whether they learned any new skills because of the training, and whether the person’s attitudes toward their knowledge or skill set has changed as a result of the training. Learning evaluations are easily done using quizzes, tests, and even topic-based discussions. Learning evaluations help the organization evaluate the skill of the instructor as well as the change in the knowledge set of the trainee. If the instructor is inadequate as a teacher, it should show up in a learning evaluation measurement. We should also be able to see whether or not the individual gained knowledge of the subject because of the training process.

Behavior evaluations are the third level of evaluating training processes. Behavior evaluations are designed to determine whether or not the trainee’s on-the-job behaviors changed as a result of the training. Behavior evaluations usually take the form of observation of the individual on the job, after completion of the training process. Did the process of going through the training have a direct effect on the individual’s post-training job performance? The behavior evaluation is specifically designed to identify whether or not the individual is able to transfer the knowledge gained into new skills that they then use in their work.

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©iStockphoto.com/monkeybusinessimages

The Four-Level Evaluation Method helps managers measure the effectiveness of employee training.

Results evaluation is the fourth and final level of training evaluation. In a results evaluation, we try to determine whether or not individual behavioral changes have improved organizational results. In other words, we look at the organization’s bottom line to determine whether or not productivity has increased. This is the level at which ROI is measured and evaluated to see whether or not the training has paid off for the company. However, ROI is not the only thing that we measure at this level. Other results that we may measure include increased quality of work, lower absenteeism and turnover, reductions in rework and scrap, lower on-the-job accident rates, and many others. What we’re looking for in a results evaluation is concrete evidence that the training resulted in organizational changes that were valuable in some form.

WORK APPLICATION 7-12

Which training assessment methods are used where you work or have worked? Give examples of the training and its assessment method.

Choosing Assessment Methods

Why not just evaluate all of our training programs at each of the four levels? The primary reason is that it costs the organization money to go through the evaluation process. So we don’t want to evaluate something unless we need to. In fact, as we go from levels 1 through 4, the cost of evaluating the training process increases with each level. Let’s identify when we might use each of the four evaluation levels.

SHRM

L:8

Transfer of Training: Design Issues, Facilitating Transfer

Reaction evaluations (level 1) help us identify employee attitudes toward the training process. If, in fact, the training process has been designed to change employee attitudes such as motivation toward their work or satisfaction with their job, level 1 evaluation may be critical. The perception of the trainee in this case may be more important in changing their level of motivation and job satisfaction than any new skills that they actually learned.

Learning evaluations (level 2) are used if there’s a need to evaluate more than employee attitude. We may wish to be certain that the trainee has gained a depth of knowledge of a particular issue to ensure that they are capable of putting their knowledge to use. For instance, to comply with federal harassment statutes, all US businesses need to ensure that their employees are trained on the concept of sexual harassment and how to avoid it. If we want to be certain that our employees know what sexual harassment is, we may choose to do a learning evaluation of that particular training session through giving a test.

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Behavior evaluation (level 3) is needed not only to ensure that new knowledge has been gained but also to ensure that the individual knows how to apply that knowledge by acting in a certain way. Performing a behavior evaluation is the only way that we can truly measure whether or not the individual has transferred the knowledge gained into actions that will improve their performance. An example here would be training operators for a nuclear power plant. Determining their attitude toward their work and whether or not they have the innate knowledge necessary to perform the work is insufficient in this case. It would be critical to determine whether or not they could act correctly to maintain and operate the nuclear reactor, so we would observe their actual performance on the job. You can quickly see here that we need to be absolutely certain that they’ll take correct action—in other words, that they will behave in the manner necessary to correct the failure.

Results evaluation (level 4) is the fourth and final level. In a results evaluation, we’re trying to determine whether individual behavioral changes have improved organizational results. In other words, we’re looking at the bottom line for the organization to determine if productivity increased. This is the level at which ROI will be measured and evaluated in order to see it the training has paid off for the company. However, ROI is not the only thing that we will measure at this level. Other results that may be measured include increased quality of work, lower absenteeism and turnover, reductions in rework and scrap, lower on-the-job accident rates, and many others. What we’re looking for in a results evaluation is concrete evidence that the training resulted in organizational changes that were valuable in some form.

Measuring Training Success

One challenge in assessment is developing metrics to assess training.40 Measurements of training have become significantly more important in the past few years. We now have the capacity to analyze large sets of data to find out how successful a particular approach is in creating a more skilled workforce. We also want to make sure we don’t spend money without getting results. There are dozens of metrics for measuring training effectiveness, but let’s take a look at a few of the most common measures here.

7-4 APPLYING THE CONCEPT

Training Assessment Methods

Review the following assessment methods and write the letter corresponding to each one before the situation(s) where it is most appropriate.

a. reaction evaluation

b. learning evaluation

c. behavior evaluation

d. results evaluation

____ 18. You are a software sales manager and you want your new sales reps to be able to demonstrate the various features of your software.

____ 19. You are a restaurant owner who installed a new food-ordering computer system with the objective of speeding up the time it takes to serve meals, so you need to train employees on how to use the new system.

____ 20. You are the HR manager and want to make sure that your staff understands what questions they can and can’t legally ask during the selection process.

____ 21. You are the service desk manager at a retail store and need to train employees on how to effectively deal with angry customers when they return merchandise. You want the employees to remain calm and satisfy the customer.

____ 22. You are the HR manager responsible for diversity, and you develop a training program to help employees better understand each other and not use stereotypes so that they can work well together.

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SHRM

L:10

Determining Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI (a results metric) is probably still the measure with the most meaning to those outside the HR department. Although it is sometimes hard to identify how to calculate ROI in a training situation (because of the difficulty of identifying the specific value of the gain), in at least some cases, it can be done quickly and easily. For instance, if a particular training program is designed to reduce annual voluntary turnover rates and it does so, the ROI measure would be as follows:

Average cost of turnover of one employee = $7,500

Annual voluntary turnover reduction after training = 8 employees

Total cost of training (course development, materials, instructor, etc.) 5 $25,000

Customer satisfaction (another result) is another area where we may want to measure training results. If we perform customer service training and have baseline surveys on historical levels of customer satisfaction, we can compare those levels prior to and after the training to see whether customer satisfaction rates went up. This will not provide a direct dollar value for the training, but if the sales or marketing managers have data on “value per customer” provided to the organization and rates at which dissatisfied customers leave, and if these rates show lower customer attrition —then this can give us the means to do an indirect ROI calculation.

We may also want to evaluate employee satisfaction (reaction) levels after particular types of training—especially developmental training, which usually doesn’t give us an immediate return on our investment. We will talk in detail about employee job satisfaction, and why and how we measure it, in Chapter 10. But for now, just remember that it is a predictor of absenteeism and turnover, which both cost companies lots of money. There are also strong correlations between job satisfaction and customer satisfaction as well as other positive organizational outcomes like sales performance/revenue generation (result), individual productivity (behavior), accuracy/quality(learning/behavior) of work, and others.

TALENT MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

LO 7-6

Discuss the term career and the three common methods of employee development.

Now that you have learned about the five steps of the training process, let’s discuss developing employees. We should realize, however, that development programs also follow the same five steps of the training process, as the steps listed in Exhibit 7-1 state both training and development. Remember from the beginning of the chapter that employee development deals primarily with training workers for futurejobs, not their current position. In this section, we discuss careers, common methods of employee development, and a model of career development consequences.

HRM in Action Training Employees

Careers

What is a career? Is a career in the 21st century the same as a career in the 1960s or 1970s? Do individuals today go through just one or many careers throughout their work life? Half a century ago, a large percentage of people would spend their entire work life with one company. This obviously does not happen very often in modern organizations. In fact, there’s much evidence that says that you will likely have several changes in career throughout your work life.

A Bureau of Labor Statistics survey that followed individuals born between 1957 and 1964 cited an average of 11 jobs per person in this group. The report defined a job as an uninterrupted period of work with a particular employer.41 So, if we defined a career as we did in the 1960s and said that to have a successful career, you had to go to work after graduating from college, stay with that employer for 40 years while moving upward through a progression of jobs from lower levels to higher levels, and then retire with a pension, very few of us today would have a “successful” career. Obviously, then, the concept of career has changed.

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SHRM

T:1

Definition of a Career

So how do we define a career in the 21st century workforce? Douglas Hall defined career as a process where the person, not the organization, is the manager of the process. His definition states: “A career is the individually perceived sequence of attitudes and behaviors associated with work-related experiences and activities over the span of the person’s life.”42 Whew! Let’s break this definition down into its subcomponents.

“Individually perceived.” This definition of the term career relies heavily on the perception of the individual who is making the judgment concerning success or failure of the career. So, whether or not a career is defined as successful or a failure is determined within the individual’s own mind. If you go through 4, or 5, or 10 different jobs in your lifetime, and if you perceive that as being successful, then you are a success. If you perceive it as a failure, then you have failed.

“Sequence of attitudes and behaviors.” A career consists of both attitudes and behaviors, so it is not only what you do; it’s also the way you feel about what you do and how well you think you’ve done over time. What is an attitude? Attitude is simply a positive or negative individual judgment about a particular situation. So your career involves not only the things that you do but also the way you think and how you feel about your progression of jobs over time.

SHRM

T:2

Balancing Work and Life

“Associated with work-related experiences and activities over the span of the person’s life.” The definition of career involves not only the direct work that is done but also all work-related experiences and activities. So, even nonwork activities that are work related, such as training off-site, would be included in our definition of career. We can even extend this to the way your family and friends interact with you and your job, and we can say that any interaction of family, friends, and work could help define your career. This is one place where attitudes come into play. Your friends and family know how you feel about your job and how it allows you to interact with others or prevents you from interacting with others in different circumstances. Using this definition of career avoids the problem of having to confront the fact that by the 1960s definition, most of us would fail to have a successful career; and it also allows us to take into account the significant factors of perception and attitude.

SHRM

E:5

Training and Development: Vocational and Career Counseling/ Career Pathing

Why Career Development?

Twenty-first century organizations need to provide our employees with reasonable career paths and career counseling so that they can achieve their personal goals over the course of their career. These services can create significant motivation in our workforce that, as we noted earlier, can lead to a major improvement in productivity and job satisfaction as well as lower absenteeism and turnover.43

SHRM

T:9

Career Development

The first factor that has caused companies to become more concerned with career development is the nature of jobs in a modern organization. Recall from Chapter 2that many of our jobs are knowledge management jobs and that the individuals who fill these jobs have special skills. Because people with these special skills (human intellectual capital) are in short supply, the organization cannot afford to lose individuals with such abilities. So we spend significant amounts of time and money on developing them, which can help the organization reduce turnover of highly skilled employees.

SHRM

L:12

Human/Intellectual Capital

Another issue is that the national culture of the United States has changed in the past 30 to 40 years, and the millennial generation of workers (many of you) have significantly different expectations of what they are going to be able to do in their careers than did their parents. millennial workers expect to have significant freedom at work to do what they think they need to do and make the money that they expect to make. Such high expectations create difficulty for organizations. We have to create policies and procedures that will not harm these individuals’ initiative to work but that will also cause them to recognize the realities of the workplace. Through the process of career development, we can show these younger workers how they can progress in their careers, be entrepreneurial, and reach their personal career goals.

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The next major reason for career development is the significant continuing pressure that organizations are getting from governments to provide career paths for individuals who have historically been disadvantaged. Even though there are many different EEO laws on the books and we have had such laws for over 50 years, there’s still a significant disparity between the number of Caucasian male managers and managers from all other groups.44 Career development programs can create career paths for individuals who are members of these disadvantaged groups and who are qualified to go into management or other professional programs. This not only helps the individual employee; it also assists the organization in its diversity efforts.

Finally, good employee development and career planning programs can help the organization avoid productivity and disciplinary problems associated with employees who are stagnating in a particular job. This may be due to career plateauing. A career plateau occurs when an individual feels unchallenged in their current job and has little or no chance of advancement. If our employees feel as if their career has stagnated, they are more likely to become disciplinary problems. We may be able to avoid such problems by providing the opportunity for individuals to progress in their career over time.

SHRM

T:7

Plateauing

There are many other reasons for career development, but these are some of the most common issues. So as you can see, there are a number of reasons why career planning has become a major issue to 21st century organizations.

Common Methods of Employee Development

So we need to develop our employees. How do we go about doing that? Can we outsource the development function to organizations with specific expertise in that field, or should we perform this function in-house? There are a series of common methods that organizations use, including the outsourcing option, or internal development through formal education, experience, and assessments. Let’s go through a brief description of each of these options for development.

OUTSOURCING EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT. Based on a recent survey by ADP, “91 percent of large companies and 80 percent of midsized companies” say that outsourcing one or more HR functions provides “real value.”45 Outsourcing of the training and development function significantly lags other functions in the HR department, though.46 Even so, modern organizations must evaluate whether or not outsourcing of the training and development functions makes sense. If the company can reduce costs for training and development as well as improve the quality of the development function, it may make sense for the organization to consider outsourcing of these functions.

SHRM

L:7; Q:13

Outsourcing Employee Development

Probably the most significant strategic issue in any outsourcing debate is whether or not the organization might lose control of key processes or functions that have historically been performed within the company. If training and development are critical functions within the organization that help us maintain or advance our competitive advantage over rivals, we can ill afford to outsource those functions.

SHRM

L:9

Employee Development: Formal Education, Experience, Assessment

FORMAL EDUCATION. Our first internal method of employee development, formal education, provides employees the opportunity to participate in programs that will improve their general knowledge in areas such as finance, project management, or logistics. These formal education opportunities include such things as degree programs at colleges and universities, short courses of study that are available from many different sources (including private training firms and public agencies), and courses in community colleges. Such formal education courses may be held with any of the training and delivery methods discussed earlier.

The intent of formal education programs is to provide the student with a specific set of information about a particular topic. Through formal education, we can provide programs for every individual within the organization, from the executives down to the first-line supervisors. At the executive level, we might send a strong midlevel manager from the company to a university executive MBA program. In contrast, at the supervisor level, the organization would probably want new first-line supervisors to go through courses that teach supervisory skills, leadership, coaching, and basic financial analysis. Many organizations pay part or all of the cost of formal education for their employees.

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EXPERIENCE. Employee development programs that use experience as a method for developing the individual would seek to put the person through a number of different types of job-related experiences over time. Such an experience-based program might include job rotation to provide them with a wide range of experiences within the company. This allows the person to see more of what goes on within the organization and how each job ties to others.

Experience-based employee development might also include the use of coaches or mentors for the individual. The coach or mentor will work with the person to identify how these different job experiences help the individual to learn and grow within the organization.47 Development using job experience can successfully be used from the executive level all the way down to the level of work teams within the organization. In fact, there’s significant evidence that career experience, team experience, and job-related skills are all related to higher levels of team performance.48

In today’s flatter organizations, it has become more difficult to climb the old corporate ladder. Plus, younger workers become bored doing the same job. Therefore, giving employees a variety of experience through lateral jobs that provide new challenges and experience, with pay raises, may help to keep employees satisfied and with the organization.

WORK APPLICATION 7-13

State some of your career goals and the methods you will use to develop yourself to meet these goals.

EMPLOYEE ASSESSMENT. There are a number of different assessment tools that provide individuals with information about how they think, how they interact with others, and how they manage their own actions and emotions. These assessments provide individuals with information that allows them to understand better how they can manage others within the organization. Some of the more common measures include psychological assessments, emotional intelligence tests, and performance appraisals. Each of these assessments, if properly used, provides individuals with information that can be used to modify the way that they interact with others within the organization. We will review performance appraisals in the next chapter. However, let’s take a look at the other two options now.

SHRM

Q:3

Emotional Intelligence

Psychological Assessments. These have gained significant acceptance within the workplace, and they include tests such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the Birkman Method, and the Benchmarks Assessment tool. Each of the psychological assessment tools provides information about the person’s style of thinking, interacting with others, management, and leadership.

The MBTI is probably the most common personality-type assessment used for employee development, but each of the tests has advantages and disadvantages compared to the other options. However, the validity and reliability of any of the common forms of psychological assessment have been questioned by various researchers.49 Even with the weaknesses in validity and reliability, several of the personality assessment tools have been in use for many years and have shown legitimate real-world value in assessing the basic type of personality exhibited by individual employees within the organization.

Emotional Intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the way that we identify, understand, and use our own emotions as well as the emotions of others to promote our working relationships. It is an important part of human relations skills. Emotional intelligence is also referred to as an emotional quotient (EQ), making it similar to intelligence quotient (IQ). It is said that to be highly successful, a person needs a high IQ, a high EQ, and training on what to do to succeed.

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Emotional intelligence has also been described as “Our Most Versatile Tool for Success.”50 Author James Runde says, “What I found was that EQ was the secret sauce to career success.”51 We also now know that “regulating negative emotions is critical to peak performance”52 in any work we perform, so how do we analyze EQ? The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) is one of the more common tools used to measure emotional intelligence. The MSCEIT consists of four pieces: perceiving emotion (the ability to identify your own and others’ emotions), the use of emotion to facilitate thought (the ability to use emotions to focus attention and to think more rationally, logically, and creatively), understanding emotion (the ability to analyze and evaluate your own and others’ emotions), and managing emotion (the ability to adjust emotions of yourself and others).53

Here again, the validity and reliability of the tests are still in some question. However, as with personality assessments, there’s at least some evidence in the business arena that higher levels of emotional intelligence provide employees with a greater chance of success as they move up in the organization.54

A Model of Career Development Consequences

Because the organization and the individual have joint responsibility for career planning and development, both will suffer significant consequences if the planning isn’t done successfully. Individual employees go through a series of career stages as they progress through their work life. Within each of these stages, the employee has different needs that the organization must meet so the relationship between the two can remain stable and the worker will continue to be motivated to produce for the organization. Organizations must respond successfully to the individual employee based on the employee’s current career stage.

Let’s discuss the commonly identified stages of career development first identified by Donald Super and Douglas Hall.55 You can see them summarized in the first section of Exhibit 7-8.

Exploration. The first career development stage, called the exploration stage, is the period of time during which the individual is identifying the personal needs that will be satisfied by a particular type of work, the types of jobs that interest them, and the skill sets necessary to be able to accomplish those types of jobs. This stage is usually identified as being between the ages of 15 and 24.

Exhibit 7-8 CAREER STAGES AND THE HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

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Establishment. The second stage, called establishment, is the period when the individual has entered into a career and becomes concerned with building a skill set, developing work relationships, and advancing and stabilizing their career. In the establishment phase, we see the individual begin to make significant personal contributions to their career in the organization and begin to create relationships or alliances with coworkers that allow them to become more secure within the organization. This stage is usually identified as covering approximately age 25 through the mid-40s.

Maintenance. This is the third stage of career development. The maintenance stage covers the period from the mid-40s to age 60 years old or older. In the maintenance stage, the individual typically continues to advance but begins to seek personal satisfaction in the jobs that they perform for the organization. This is the phase where we see individual employees begin to act as mentors or trainers to their younger coworkers and to act to improve the organization and its processes and policies because they see a need to do so.

Disengagement. Finally, the fourth stage is identified as the disengagement stage. This stage typically shows lower levels of output and productivity as the individual prepares for life after work. During this stage, because of the desire to balance nonwork with work activities, the individual may begin to choose to work only on efforts they feel are necessary or worthy of their attention. They may continue to mentor or sponsor other individuals in the organization as those others progress through their own careers. Obviously, this stage goes from the early 60s to whatever point at which the individual finally completely disengages from the organization through retirement.

You may be wondering why these career stages matter. Let’s take a look now at the second part of Exhibit 7-8. We have added Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs below each of the career stages. It’s rather surprising how closely Maslow’s needs hierarchy matches up with our career stages. We could accomplish a similar matching process with many other motivation theories, but this one serves to illustrate why career stages matter so much to managers in the organization, and especially to HR management.

WORK APPLICATION 7-14

Identify the level of career development you are on. Using Exhibit 7-8 , but in your own words, describe your career stage and the Maslow motivational issues you are dealing with now.

What are people most concerned with at the earliest career stage or when they have to fall back to a lower level of work? They are typically most concerned with physical and safety/security issues, right? Are they physically able to get the basic things that they need in order to live and work—like money for shelter, food to eat, fuel for their car? Are they getting paid enough to survive and be safe? Then, as they get into the establishment and maintenance stages, they become more concerned with social interactions and then gaining status and recognition as organizational leaders. Finally, as they move to the disengagement stage, they are more concerned with higher-level esteem needs such as self-respect, achievement of personal goals, and being able to do the things that they think are important. So, we see people go through these different motivational points in their life as they go through their career. It’s very interesting that the career stages follow almost exactly with what the motivation theories show us.

Now that we understand a little bit about the career stages that individuals go through during their work life and how those stages identify what might motivate workers in a particular stage, let’s match those up with organizational HR strategies that are available to reinforce employee behavior. This will give us a general working model of how organizational HR strategies can create either positive or negative consequences for both the individual and the organization, depending on how the HR strategies are applied in a particular situation. Take a look at Exhibit 7-9. We have individual career stages identified on the left side of the diagram. On the right side are some of the major organizational HR strategies that are available. Depending on how the HR strategies are applied, and based on the individual’s career stage and motivating factors, we end up with either positive or negative consequences to both the individual and the organization.

If we apply the correct HR strategy or strategies to an individual employee based on the factors that motivate the employee, we can improve each of the major organizational dependent variables that we identified in Chapter 1—job satisfaction, productivity, absenteeism, and turnover. In addition, there are several other organizational factors that can either improve or decline based on the application (or lack thereof) of the correct HR strategy. These factors include labor costs, organizational safety, employee lawsuits, and organizational reputation, among others. So as you can see, if the organization fails to apply the correct strategy to motivate the employee (based on the employee’s current career stage), the consequences can be severe.

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Exhibit 7-9 CONSEQUENCES OF CAREER PLANNING

On the other side of the diagram, the consequences to the employee are equally significant. If the organization applies the correct types of HR strategies to develop the employee successfully over time, individual feelings of accomplishment and achievement increase, self-worth and self-reliance increase, the employee’s sense of security increases, and their morale is likely to increase due to higher individual satisfaction levels. Again, if the strategies applied are unsuccessful, each of these individual consequences can become negative. After looking at the model, it should become obvious that successfully applying HR strategies to individual employees based on their personal motivating factors and career stage is critical to overall organizational success over time.

So now you know why it’s so important to create career paths for our employees within the organization and provide employee development opportunities. If we do these things successfully, we end up with a series of positive consequences for both the organization and the individuals involved. We have better productivity, better job satisfaction and employee engagement, and lower absenteeism and turnover. However, if we fail to do these things successfully, a series of negative consequences can occur that ultimately cost both the organization and the individual time and money. Employee development is a critical piece in the organizational puzzle in order to provide long-term success.

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TRENDS AND ISSUES IN HRM

LO 7-7

Describe the concepts of gamification, digital learning, and micro-learning, and the reasons that they have become more critical in today’s organizations.

Let’s take a look now at a couple of current trends and issues in training and development. The first trend involves the “gamification” of training and development and where it has been over the past several years, and the second looks at the issues of digital and micro-learning and their necessity in today’s workforce.

Gamification—A Phoenix Rising?

A 2017 article by author Simon Parkin asks, “Was Gamification a Terrible Lie?”56 Gamification continues to be a major trend in organizational training, but it has had its ups and downs in the past few years. Gamification is the process of designing and utilizing video, social media, and other game technologies to teach the player a business concept. It gained popularity a few years ago, but some early attempts did not provide the learning outcomes that were expected because of poor training design so it fell out of favor with some companies. Technology providers that jumped into gamification programs and apps, although they were not well versed in training and learning, have now washed out of the market though; and gamification is making a comeback in some circles. In many cases gamification is simply a new form of simulation training. It is being used for training in areas such as corporate values training, leadership development, customer service training, technical training, and more. It is also being used by a diverse group of organizations including Unilever, the Department of Defense, Weight Watchers, and Nike, so you can see that it isn’t just useful in technology companies.57

Gamification is not a panacea for what is ailing a corporate learning and development program. There is at least some evidence that it does not improve long-term retention of concepts learned in training environments in all training situations. In fact, in some cases, traditional classroom learning has been shown to outperform various types of gamification or social learning.58 What problems do we continue to see in learning using gamification? One issue has been the fact that gamification has been overhyped as a cure-all for training problems. Another common problem is that the player may become wrapped up in playing the game, and not understand why a result occurs, and will therefore miss the lesson to be learned. A third issue is poor game design—about 80% of them still fail to meet business objectives because the provider does not understand basic learning theories. However, one of the key challenges with training has always been to get people engaged in the process, and the evidence is mounting that gamification can help with engagement and ultimately get people to learn and retain key information for work.

The Corporate Learning Imperative

Employers today are concerned that their workers don’t have the skills necessary to compete in modern organizations. In a recent Gallup poll, almost 90 percent of business leaders said that college graduates did not have the necessary skill sets for the workplace.59 Other studies note that existing employee skill sets go stale at an alarming rate as well. Partially as a result of this lack of confidence in employee skills, US and European companies continue to increase their spending on internal talent development. Each year from 2010 through 2015 companies increased their spending on employee training, and that trend appears to be continuing.60,61

There is a problem with corporate learning environments though—no large blocks of time to learn. The average employee has about 25 minutes a week to “slow down and learn.”62 One manager noted, “Even TED Talks are now too long” in many cases!63 As a result of this problem, companies are exploring various forms of digital learning that can provide just-in-time content that is compact and valuable. Digital learning, according to Josh Bersin of Bersin by Deloitte, is “employee-directed, intelligent-machine driven, and brings “learning to where employees are.”64

One solution to the problem of lack of time for training is micro-learning. Micro-learning is a learning form that uses “small, specific bursts” or chunks to learn a single piece of content that the user needs to know to solve a problem right now.65 Micro-learning as a form of digital learning allows around the clock access in many cases—whenever, wherever, however the employee wants to access it. Most micro-learning takes less than 5 minutes and includes a quiz.66 Micro-learning “is effective, but limited,” according to Stanford neuroscientist Priya Rajasethupathy67—it is designed to answer specific questions, quickly, during the course of doing the work—but it is one tool available for learning on the fly. However, other continued learning will be necessary for workers in modern organizations.

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Life-long learning will continue to become more necessary.68 Many times a professor will hear “I’ll be glad when I graduate. I’ll never have to go to class again” from one of their students and will chuckle. The professor knows that their student will be “going to class” constantly for the rest of their work life. Executives note that the average “shelf life” of skills associated with a college degree is 5 years.69HR managers will need to understand the new technologies available and the new ways that their employees learn, and will have to adapt to each challenge to enable the self-directed training that will become a more important part of the workplace.

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DIGITAL RESOURCES

Training*

Training and Development

Experiential Learning as Management Development

Onboarding*

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Effects of Training in Universal Design for Learning on Lesson Plan Development

Evaluating Training Programs*

Classical Conditioning

* premium video only available in the interactive eBook

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CHAPTER SUMMARY

7-1. Discuss the major difference between training and development and identify the common situations where training may be needed.

Training is designed to provide employees with the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that they need to succeed in their work for the organization. Training is primarily intended to be put to immediate use by the individual being trained. Employee development is designed to teach our workers how to move up in the organization in the future by becoming skilled at those tasks that they will need to know how to do to perform higher-level jobs.

The most common points at which managers should consider workforce training include new-employee orientation, which is used to acculturate new employees to the organization and its culture and to prepare them to do their own job within the organization; when processes or procedures have changed; whenever there has been some failure to performsuccessfully; or when employee development opportunities come up, allowing the company to develop current employees’ skills and abilities so that they are able to move into higher-level jobs within the organization.

7-2. Briefly discuss the steps in the training and development process and the common challenges to the process.

The first step involves conducting a needs assessment to identify the type of training needed. The second step involves selecting how to shape employee behavior. The third step involves designing the training by selecting training methods. The fourth step involves selecting the delivery method and delivering the training. The last step involves assessing the training to determine if employee behavior has changed to improve performance—if not, return to step one. The steps are so closely related and based on each other that they are commonly planned together before actually delivering the training.

Common challenges to the training process include unprepared workers, difficulty in identifying the ROI provided from training, employee resistance to changes in processes and procedures, matching the training to the company’s strategic goals, and logistics issues—including scheduling and locations available for training courses.

7-3. Identify the three common learning theories and how they are used to create the four methods for shaping behavior.

The three common learning theories are classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning theory. Classical conditioning results in direct, involuntary, learned behaviors. Operant conditioning results in direct, voluntary, learned behaviors. Social learning is experienced through watching the actions of other people and witnessing the consequences of their actions, so it is voluntary and learned, but it is based on indirect consequences of the actions of others.

We can use the operant conditioning and social learning concepts of reward and punishmentto create the four options for shaping behavior. These include positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and extinction. Positive reinforcement involves the application of a reward in response to a person’s behavior in order to increase the chances that that behavior will be repeated. Negative reinforcement involves the withdrawal of a noxious stimulus, or a negative thing, in response to a person’s positive behavior to increase the chances that the behavior will be repeated. Punishment occurs either when a noxious stimulus is applied or when a reward is taken away in response to a negative behavior. Extinction provides no reinforcement, either positive or negative, to the actions of the subject.

7-4. Discuss each of the major training delivery types.

On-the-job training (OJT) is done at the work site with the resources the employee uses to perform the job, and it is conducted one-on-one with the trainee. In classroom training, the organization creates a training course and provides a qualified instructor to teach the class in a single location at a specific time. Distance learning, also called e-learning, allows the students to sign in to the training site and provides materials to them for their studies. There’s typically less interaction between an instructor and trainee than in OJT or classroom training. Simulations mimic a real-life situation to teach students what actions to take in the event that they encounter the same or a similar situation in their job.

7-5. Briefly discuss the Four-Level Evaluation Method for assessing training programs and the three common ways we measure training success.

The four-level evaluation method measures reaction, learning, behaviors, and results. In reaction evaluations, we ask the participants how they feel about the training process, including the content provided, the instructor(s), and the knowledge that they gained. Learning evaluations are designed to determine what knowledge was gained by the individual, whether any new skills have been learned, and whether attitudes have changed as a result of the training. Behavior evaluations are designed to determine whether or not the trainee’s on-the-job behaviors changed as a result of the training. In a results evaluation, we try to determine whether or not individual behavioral changes have improved organizational results. This is the level at which ROI will be measured and evaluated.

ROI, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction were discussed as ways to measure training success. ROI and customer service are results metrics, while employee satisfaction is a reaction metric. There are strong correlations between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction, and indirect relationships with ROI through individual productivity and accuracy/quality of work.

7-6. Discuss the term career and the three common methods of employee development.

Our definition of a career is “the individually perceived sequence of attitudes and behaviors associated with work-related experiences and activities over the span of the person’s life.”

Individually perceived means that if you perceive your career as being successful, then you are a success. If you perceive it as a failure, then you have failed. Sequence of attitudes and behaviors means that your career involves not only the things that you do, but also the way you think and how you feel about your progression of jobs over time. Associated with work-related experiences and activities over time means that even nonwork activities that are work related would be included in our definition of career. Using this definition of career avoids the problem of having to confront the fact that by the 1960s definition, most of us would fail to have a successful career.

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The three methods of employee development are formal education, experience, and assessment. Formal education provides the opportunity to participate in programs that will improve general knowledge in areas such as finance, project management, or logistics. Experience as a method for developing the individual seeks to put the person through different types of job-related experiences over time. Assessment tools provide employees with information about how they think, how they interact with others, and how they manage their own actions and emotions.

7-7. Describe the concepts of gamification, digital learning, and micro-learning, and the reasons that they have become more critical in today’s organizations.

Gamification is the process of designing and utilizing video, social media, and other game technologies to teach the player a business concept. There is some evidence that gamification can engage the learners better than traditional learning in some cases and ultimately get people to learn and retain key information for work. Digital learning is “employee-directed, intelligent-machine driven, and brings “learning to where employees are.” Again, engagement may increase if the company can provide the necessary training whenever and wherever the employee needs it. Micro-learning is one form of digital learning. It uses small, specific bursts to learn a single piece of content that the user needs right now, and again meets the learner when and where he or she needs the information. Each process gives information to solve problems that engages the employee better than some traditional forms of learning, in at least some cases.

KEY TERMS

career 248

career plateau 249

competency model 226

emotional intelligence 250

employee development 227

extinction 236

learning 233

needs assessment 230

negative reinforcement 236

onboarding 227

positive reinforcement 236

punishment 236

remediation 228

self-efficacy 232

training 227

KEY TERMS REVIEW

Complete each of the following statements using one of this chapter’s key terms.

1. __________ identifies the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) needed to perform a particular job in the organization.

2. __________ is the process of teaching employees the skills necessary to perform a job.

3. __________ is ongoing education to improve knowledge and skills for present and future jobs.

4. __________ is the process of introducing new employees to the organization and their jobs.

5. __________ is the correction of a deficiency or failure in a process or procedure.

6. __________ is the process of analyzing the difference between what is currently occurring within a job or jobs in comparison with what is required—either now or in the future—based on the organization’s operations and strategic goals.

7. __________ is whether people believe that they have the capability to do something or attain a particular goal.

8. __________ is any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience or practice.

9. __________ is providing a reward in return for a constructive action on the part of the subject.

10. __________ is the withdrawal of a harmful thing from the environment in response to a positive action on the part of the subject.

11. __________ is the application of an adverse consequence, or the removal of a reward, in order to decrease an unwanted behavior.

12. __________ is the total lack of response, either positive or negative, to avoid reinforcing an undesirable behavior.

13. __________ is the individually perceived sequence of attitudes and behaviors associated with work-related experiences and activities over the span of a person’s life.

14. __________ occurs when an individual feels unchallenged in their current job and has little or no chance of advancement.

15. __________ is the way that we identify, understand, and use our own emotions as well as the emotions of others to promote our working relationships.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

The following critical-thinking questions can be used for class discussion and/or for written assignments to develop communication skills. Be sure to give complete explanations for all answers.

1. Is the currently available workforce really not sufficiently trained to participate in knowledge-intensive jobs? Why or why not?

2. Think of and then list all of the items that you think should be included in a new employee orientation. Briefly justify why each item should be included.

3. Briefly describe a job you have or had. (If you haven’t had a job, think of someone you know well.) If you were to be promoted, which training method(s) would you use to train the person to do your current job?

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4. Which one of the primary delivery of training types would you use to teach basic accounting to a group of employees? Justify your answer.

5. Have you ever filled out an evaluation form for an employee training class? Which type of evaluation was it? What evidence led you to think it was this type?

6. Do you agree with the definition of a career presented in the text? Why or why not? How would you change it?

7. Which of the reasons for creating career development programs from the text do you feel are most valid, considering the cost of career development programs? Justify your choice.

8. Which method of development, formal education, experience, or assessment do you think is most valuable? Justify your choice.

9. Identify and discuss two or three ways in which poor application of HR strategies (Exhibit 7-9) would create negative employee consequences.

10. If you were the lead trainer for your company, how would you go about trying to create an organization-wide commitment to sustainability? Why?

CASE 7-1 DOING CRUNCHES AT NESTLé: CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT OF HUMAN ASSETS

With instant coffee, baby food, and bottled water in the mix, Nestlé crunches more than just chocolate. The world’s #1 food and drinks company in terms of sales, Nestlé is also the world leader in coffee (Nescafé). It also makes coffee for the home-brewing system, Nespresso. Nestlé is one of the world’s top bottled water makers (Nestlé Waters), one of the biggest frozen pizza makers (DiGiorno), and a big player in the pet food business (Friskies, Purina). Its most well-known global food brands include Buitoni, Dreyer’s, Maggi, Milkmaid, Carnation, and Kit Kat. The company also owns Gerber Products. North America is Nestlé’s most important market.(1)

Nestlé has over 2,000 brands, which are made in 418 factories located in 86 countries, and employees nearly 330,000 employees selling products in 191 countries.(2) How does one feed this growing concern? Mergers and acquisitions is one answer, yet that does not solve the skills-gap issue faced worldwide. The firm credits their success to their top-down/bottom-up approach to training.

Top-Down. Their Rive-Reine International Training Centre in Switzerland, since the late 1980s, has served as the focal point for mentoring and training from senior management. Trainee selection matches local domestic managers’ candidate nominations, who hail from over 80 countries, with corporate-driven selection criteria usually resulting in a class of 15 to 20 nationalities from differing areas of expertise.

Who teaches these classes? “Course leaders” as they are called provide instruction to about 1,700 managers and are comprised predominately of highly experienced executives from numerous locations, with consultants teaching only 25% of the 70 courses offered per annum. The courses have two differing foci: internal operations and working with external stakeholders.

Executive Courses/Industry Analysis: This series of courses has been created to assist managers who attended management courses between five and ten years ago to develop the ability to identify and work with key external stakeholders (i.e., customers, competitors, suppliers). The focus is on industry analysis from the stakeholder’s point of view and the actions they might take (i.e., What are our competitors’ mostly likely actions and how do we counteract them?).

Management Courses/Operations and Business Value Chain: Two-thirds of the classes in this program are taken by managers who have been with the company 5 years or less. Here managers learn about the firm’s business model (its internal operations) and the underlying values that drive that model.(3)

Bottom-up. An important factor in Nestlé’s productivity is the skill set of entry-level workers. Employers invest in the skills of new entrants as an alternative to hiring more experienced people, partly on grounds of cost but also for the opportunity to shape ways of working around specific technologies and processes and particular company values.(4)

For most employees at Nestlé to be successful, they must have a passion for learning, and their recruitment process emphasizes this. Once hired, employees’ training is predominately “on-the-job” (OTJ), where an employee’s supervisor serves as mentor, providing motivation and guidance to ensure employees’ growth. Before training can begin, whether formally or informally, employees must possess the basic skill set necessary for continued learning (i.e., reading, writing, computer usage, oral communications, etc.); this is usually provided through an employee’s schooling. In certain countries, their education may have been inadequate and the worker may decide to improve their skill set, especially in the area of communications. Special programs have been established to provide such training on a country-by-country basis. Once employees have acquired the basic skill set, individualized development formal training programs are created that increase workers’ knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs). New employees with high school or university qualifications inevitably enter management-training programs in their local centers.

Local Training Centers. In addition to centralized training, residential training centers exist for many of their local operations—the net effect being that “people development” occurs predominately at local centers. This decentralized approach for employee training and development makes each manager accountable and directly involved in employee learning. Coaching and counseling skills are therefore emphasized where needed through a myriad of programs. Besides training current managers, local centers look to develop future managers by developing supervisory skills of ex-apprentices as well as technical personnel in the areas of IT management, maintenance and electrical engineering. Specialists are also “home-grown” through continuous training, given local market and employment conditions. Those seeking a purely administrative career path will find that OJT plays a critical role supported by in-house training. Even at the local level, outsourcing of training and education increases with an employee’s rank and use of new technologies.

Production is one of the key success factors for Nestlé, and therefore employees (two-thirds of whom work in factories) need continuous OTJ on new factory technology and equipment; the faster the change, the greater the need for training. New technology also means learning how to work better and differently with others. Team and inter-team management training (including self-managed work teams) focusing on developing flex-manufacturing capabilities is needed in order to maximize equipment utilization.

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Training methods are also changing with the times, especially related to the Internet. Distance learning, the use of information technology to deliver content, has led to the new methods of corporate instruction and special corporate training assistants and has allowed employees to obtain training and education that align with their life styles. For example, employees in Singapore are given the option to attend online, job-related night courses, which, if they lead to some formal qualification (i.e., certificate, diploma, degree), would qualify for cost reimbursement.(5)

The Singapore example indicates that although there is a commonality of training among local centers, training can be significantly different by location. New employees at Nestlé take management-training courses, but the approach of these courses varies widely by country. For example, in Japan the courses are short and usually last about 3 days each. In India, however, the programs run for 12 months. In West African countries, the management training programs run even longer, typically 18–24 months.(6)

Questions

1. For what purposes does Nestlé train and develop employees?

2. What challenges does Nestlé face in conducting their training programs?

3. Which skill sets does Nestlé focus on in their training programs?

4. What on-the-job training methods does Nestlé utilize in their training programs?

5. What forms of off-the-job training are available at Nestlé?

6. What are some of the ways that Nestlé’s training programs address career development?

7. What trends in training and development is Nestlé utilizing, and what trends could they benefit from?

References

(1) Oliver, L. (n.d.). Nestlé S.A. Hoovers. Retrieved April 26, 2017, from http://0-subscriber.hoovers.com.liucat.lib.liu.edu/H/company360/fulldescription.html?companyId=41815000000000

(2) Nestlé: At a glance. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2017, from http://www.nestle.com/aboutus/overview

(3) Francis, A. (n.d.). Case study of Nestlé: Training and development. Retrieved April 26, 2017, from https://www.mbaknol.com/management-case-studies/case-study-of-nestle-training-and-development/

(4) Nestlé: Business ownership of skills. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2017, from http://www.nestle.co.uk/productivity/owning-the-skills-pipeline

(5) Francis, A. (n.d.). Case study of Nestlé: Training and development. Retrieved April 26, 2017, from https://www.mbaknol.com/management-case-studies/case-study-of-nestle-training-and-development/

(6) Ibid.

Case created by Herbert Sherman and Theodore Vallas, Department of Management Sciences, Long Island University School of Business, Brooklyn Campus

CASE 7-2 GOOGLE SEARCH: BUILDING THE PROGRAM THAT WRITES THE CODE TO FIND FEMALE TALENT

Google Inc. took Web searching to a much more sophisticated level when it offered targeted search results from billions of Web pages, based on a proprietary algorithm that allowed for greater customization than did prior engines like Web Crawler and Dogpile. Employing more than 50,000 people, Google generates most of its revenue from advertising sales. In 2013, its net income was close to $13 billion, and the company showed 60% revenue growth between 2012 and 2014. Added to that, Google has been on the top of the Fortune “Best Places to Work” list since 2012.(1) Google is one of the best firms at making employees feel welcomed and supported; but being in the technology field, the company had become a “boys’ club,” with women constituting only 30% of its entire workforce.

Alongside Google, other Silicon Valley technology giants like Facebook, Yahoo, and LinkedIn recently disclosed their gender and racial diversity ratios in their workplaces. On average, Google’s workforce consists of more than 65% males, 55% whites, and 35% Asians. The gaps between these numbers are even wider in technology-related positions. As shown in its May 2014 report, it employs only 2% blacks and 3% Hispanics. Google admitted that this problem required immediate action. Google’s sharing of demographic information is a promising sign that it is willing to change, but action speaks louder than words.

Google took quick action and performed its own search. It found that women were losing interest in computer sciences as a career at an alarming rate. Only 14% of the computer science graduates were women in 2013, and surveys indicated that less than 1% of women expressed any interest in majoring in computer sciences in college.(2) Google then recognized that it could not use traditional recruitment techniques to hire women since they were just not present in the labor pool.

Google also examined its own unique hiring processes and concluded that they were both difficult and tedious—women were not emerging through these processes, and Google could not just sit back and hope to gain new female employees from a labor pool that could not supply them.(3)

Google decided to be far more proactive in the area of women employee development and committed $50 million for both research and solution strategies. Its research indicated that if women were exposed to coding at an early age, they would more likely look favorably at a career path in computer science.(4) Google’s research also noted that compared to the companies led by men, tech companies led by women achieved a 35% higher return on investment and 12% higher revenue.(5)

Google understood that its answer to this labor shortage, as well as to greater profitability, was to show young girls how interesting aspects of computer science could be, as well as how lucrative, and to inspire them to pursue a career in this field. Secondly, only 10% of the schools in the United States offered computer science courses, so access to this field was a major problem. To achieve its goal of more women in the workforce, Google initiated a project called “Made With Code” (MWC) that was designed to attract women to the sciences and, in the long run, diminish possible gender biases in its own organization, as well as in the field.(6)

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MWC was launched as an event in New York City, with the participation of teenage girls from local public schools; famous female entrepreneurs; and many professional women who utilized coding in the film, music, and fashion industries. To increase exposure and inspiration, Google is working closely with producers and writers in the Science & Entertainment Exchange to have more female coders in movies and television series.(7)

With the MWC program targeting the people who normally did not have the access or the opportunity to pursue a career in computer science, Google provided accelerated tech-training programs to help them succeed in high-level tech jobs. Google did this by offering free coding classes online to pull extraordinary talent from the cities surrounding Silicon Valley.(8) It also provided workshops that fostered student collaboration on simple coding projects like 3-D printed bracelets. Research has noted that women thrive in team environments, and Google wanted them to understand that teamwork is the cornerstone of software development. To this end, Google gave an additional 3 months of free access to its Code School to women.(9) Google hopes that the outcome of its programs will increase younger girls’ involvement in computer science and, in the long run, increase women’s visibility in the profession and at Google.

Questions

1. What is a needs assessment, and how might Google use this tool to increase the presence of women in its workforce?

2. Some might argue that Google’s “Made With Code” program has redefined the concept of employee development. Agree or disagree and provide an explanation supporting your position.

3. Explain how Google’s particular situation demonstrates the relationship between employee recruitment and employee development, given the above discussion.

4. Explain how Google’s “Made With Code” has become an integral part of its career planning.

5. How might the concepts of self-efficacy and reinforcement theory help us better understand schoolgirls’ relative lack of interest in computer science?

6. Assume that Google is ultimately successful and receives more female applicants, whom it then hires. What suggestions do you have for managing this new talent pool?

References

(1) Hoover’s Inc. (2014). Google Inc. Hoover’s Company Records: In-Depth Records. Retrieved July 19, 2014, from Long Island University Academic Database.

(2) Lapowsky, I. (2014, July 1). Google and Square recruit girls early to tackle tech’s gender problem. Wired.com . Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/2014/07/girls-coding/

(3) Warnes, S. (2014, July 1). 70% male, 50% white: Why Silicon Valley needs to diversify. Mirror.Retrieved from http://ampp3d.mirror.co.uk/2014/07/01/70-male-50-white-why-silicon-valley-needs-to-diversify/

(4) Mejia, P. (2014, July 11). Codes, not bros: Google pledges $50 million to ladies in tech. Newsweek.Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/codes-not-bros-google-pledges-50-million-ladies-tech-258298/

(5) Warnes, S. (2014, July 1). 70% male, 50% white: Why Silicon Valley needs to diversify. Mirror.Retrieved from http://ampp3d.mirror.co.uk/2014/07/01/70-male-50-white-why-silicon-valley-needs-to-diversify/

(6) Mejia, P. (2014, July 11). Codes, not bros: Google pledges $50 million to ladies in tech. Newsweek.Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/codes-not-bros-google-pledges-50-million-ladies-tech-258298/

(7) Ibid.

(8) Jones, V. (2014, July 8). How to hook up tech sector with talent. CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/08/opinion/jones-tech-minorities/

(9) Mejia, P. (2014, July 11). Codes, not bros: Google pledges $50 million to ladies in tech. Newsweek.Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/codes-not-bros-google-pledges-50-million-ladies-tech-258298/

Case created by Herbert Sherman and Theodore Vallas, Department of Management Sciences, Long Island University School of Business, Brooklyn Campus

SKILL BUILDER 7-1 THE TRAINING PROCESS

Objectives

To develop your ability to conduct a needs assessment, to select how to shape employee behavior, to design a training program by selecting training methods, to select a method to deliver training, and to choose an assessment method

Skills

The primary skills developed through this exercise are as follows:

1. HR management skill—conceptual and design skills

2. SHRM 2016 Curriculum Guidebook—L: Training and Development

Assignment

As an individual or group, select a job and write out your answers. Follow the steps in the training process below to train a person to do the job.

Step 1: Needs assessment. Conduct a needs assessment for the job by developing a competency model identifying the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to do the job successfully.

Step 2: Select how you will shape behavior. Be sure to specify if you will use positive reinforcement, punishment, negative reinforcement, or extinction. State the rewards and/or punishment.

Step 3: Design the training. Select and describe in detail the training method(s) you will use to shape the behavior.

Step 4: Deliver the training. Just select one of the four methods of delivery that you will use to conduct the actual training and describe how you will deliver the training.

Step 5: Assessment of training. Just select one of the four assessment methods and describe in detail how you will determine if the training did in fact shape the behavior.

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Apply It

What did I learn from this experience? How will I use this knowledge in the future?

_______________________________________________________

Your instructor may ask you to do this Skill Builder in class by breaking into groups of four to six and doing the preparation. If so, the instructor will provide you with any necessary information or additional instructions.

SKILL BUILDER 7-2 CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Objective

To begin to think about and develop your career plan

Skills

The primary skills developed through this exercise are as follows:

1. HR management skill—conceptual and design skills

2. SHRM 2016 Curriculum Guidebook—L: Training and Development

Assignment

Write out your answers to the following questions.

1. Do you now, or do you want to, work in HRM? Why? If not, what career do you want to pursue, and why?

2. If you want to work in HR, based on your self-assessment back in Chapter 1 or other knowledge, list your highest levels of interest in HR disciplines. If not, what are your highest levels of interests, functions, or disciplines within your chosen career?

3. What methods of employee development (formal education, experience-internships and jobs, and assessment) are you using to prepare for your career?

Apply It

What did I learn from this exercise? How will I use this knowledge in the future?

_______________________________________________________

Your instructor may ask you to do this Skill Builder in class by breaking into groups of two to three and discussing your career plans. If so, the instructor will provide you with any necessary information or additional instructions.