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TEXTBOOKSUPPORTINGDOCQUESTION1.docx
1. Critically analyze and discuss any researched (web or textbook) training process model you may consider for use in developing employees (here’s an idea: https://educationaltechnology.net/the-addie-model-instructional-design/ or exhibit 7-1, page 230 in the text book). Then, identify and discuss some possible challenges that might be faced in implementing a new training process in the company.
Training
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
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.
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.
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.”
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
Q:4
Equipping the Organization for Present and Future Talent Needs
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.
SHRM
E:5, L:1
Needs Assessment
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.
Needs assessment 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
