Business

Unit IV Lecture Transcript

Slide 1

Unit IV, Learning and Development, Performance Management, and

Appraisal.

Slide 2

In order to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts presented in

this course, the unit lessons will be structured in question and answer

format. Each slide will provide at least one question based on concepts

presented in this unit and an accompanying audio response from a subject

matter expert. Review each slide to further enhance your practical

knowledge about the field of human resource management.

Slide 3

Meet Marilyn Pike. Marilyn has over 20 years of experience in HR

leadership positions in both the public and private sector, large and small

businesses, and union and non-union environments. She currently holds

both the SPHR and SHRM-SCP.

Question: What is the difference between training and development?

Answer: Good question because we often hear/see those two in

combination. Training is designed to build on the general knowledge, skills,

and abilities (KSAs) which were identified for a particular position and

provide new employees with the specifics they need to succeed in their new

job. The business rationale behind training is that it will be put to immediate

use by the individual being trained. For example, when I was HR director for

a call center, our client (Direct TV) required us to put new employees though

an eight-week paid training program before the new employee could take

one phone call. Obviously, this made turnover very expensive, and we had

to project turnover in order to keep a steady flow of employees coming out

of training to replace employees who left, for whatever reason. The purpose

of employee development on the other hand is to provide workers with new

and/or advanced skill sets to help them either move up in the organization

or provide some additional value to the organization. For example, a home

health organization might pay the tuition for a registered nurse to become

wound certified. This allows the organization to offer more services to

patients and gives them a competitive edge. I think the key here is the word

“development.”

Generally, workforce training includes new employee orientation,

which we all know is critical to an employee’s success, and is used to provide

new employees an introduction to the organization and its culture. And, in

addition, give them insights into how to do their job within the organization.

Training is also used when an organization has changed processes or

procedures or when a performance issue has been identified.

Slide 4

Question: What is reskilling?

Glad you asked. Reskilling, also called upskilling or retraining is

gaining some traction in these times of low unemployment. It involves

companies preparing current workers for jobs that require in-demand

technical skills.

In an April 19, 2019 article in The Wall Street Journal, entitled, “Why

Companies Are Failing at Reskilling” by Lauren Weber, reports how while

businesses complain about high hiring costs to meet fast changing business

needs in a tight labor market, they forget there is a ready pool of talent

available, talent that has a work history in their organization. Too often,

recruiters look outside the organization to find talent as opposed to offering

training opportunities to those already on the payroll. Finding the needed

talent externally is especially difficult in a market where the supply of skills

like cloud computing and cybersecurity can’t satisfy the immense demand

for them. By reskilling, rather laying off (discarding) loyal employees and

hiring unknown entities, organizations would be wise to offer their current

employees an opportunity to learn a new skill and develop a new career

path.

For example, Amazon has offered some warehouse workers a data

technician training program that could lead to a doubling of their wages. For

others, construction, maintenance and sales jobs offer some alternatives.

Bottom line, I think we are discovering that we do not have an endless

supply of workers in the United States. Companies need to consider

reskilling current employees rather than initiating lay-offs, which are costly,

only to find that a new fresh pool of workers is not out there.

Slide 5

Question: What are some challenges to the training process?

Answer: Exactly. And those challenges can’t be minimized whether it is

in reskilling or any other type of training. Common challenges to the training

process include an unprepared workforce. We are finding that many people

we have hired are ill-prepared in educational basics. There is the very real

resistance to change and the employee insecurity that goes along with it.

Scheduling, timing, training to minimize problems—anyone who has ever

done training is probably aware of the resistance the training department

gets from managers when you want to take away some of their workers for

training. Because obviously, the work still needs to be done. Then there is

logistics issues—locations available for training courses. And of course, the

very important strategic congruence (justifying training by ensuring it

furthers strategic goals). Return on investment/cost justification. Training is

time consuming and expensive. If those two are not met, the training will

more than likely not meet the company’s expectations. And then we have to

consider employee readiness, which include employee readiness, capability,

and their willingness.

Slide 6

Question: What is the difference between performance management

and performance appraisal?

Answer: Performance management is a continual process that

identifies, measures, and manages, and develops the performance of people

in the organization. It is designed to improve worker performance over time.

Performance appraisal is the ongoing process that is part of performance

management system. It identifies, measures, and evaluates the employee’s

performance and then discusses that performance with the individual. This

should be an ongoing process. Performance appraisals have three major

purposes. Communication is the first purpose. Appraisals need to provide an

opportunity for formal two-way communication between management and

the employee concerning how the organization feels the employee is

performing. The second purpose is to gain information for evaluative

decisions. We need good information on how employees are performing so

that we can take fair and equitable actions with our workforce, to improve

organizational productivity. Providing motivation for development is the last

major purpose. Used correctly, appraisals can motivate by providing

opportunities for the employees to improve their performance over time.

Slide 7

Question: Why are some companies choosing to do away with

performance appraisals?

Answer: Let’s face it, historically, I don’t think anyone likes doing or

receiving a performance appraisal. Managers don’t like doing them,

employees don’t like receiving them. In the past few years, there has been a

lot of talk about companies which have decided to dump their annual

performance appraisals. I think this is a good idea because I think one year

is too long a time in between appraisal. They say that there should be no

surprises at a performance review. A common problem in appraisals is

overpowering an employee during the evaluation debrief with large amounts

of negative information that they have not heard during the coaching. This

tends to cause the employee to “turn off” or stop listening as the manager

explains what is wrong. Employees will just “raise their shields” to ward off

all of the negative information.

Employees need more frequent and regular check-ins with their

manager in order to make sure they are on track with the manager’s

expectations. Many companies are choosing to replace performance reviews

with more frequent evaluations. The idea is that more frequent and clear

performance talks provide better results for both sides. Part of a good

performance review is developing a conversation, which helps employees

reflect on their accomplishments as well as their challenges and develop a

plan/goals to work on until the next review. I like that process, because it is

simple, not particularly threatening, and helps keep everyone on track. New

ideas for some form of routine or continuous technology-based appraisal and

feedback (often called “check-ins” by the firms) have proliferated over the

recent past, with dozens, if not hundreds, of tech companies now offering

apps or other software solutions to provide companies with the ability to

give all employees constant feedback. There is valuable information that is

gained from this process, but the latest online, app-based, and/or social

options have not gotten to the point yet where they can provide all of the

same valuable information that an in-person face to face appraisal can

provide.

Slide 8

This concludes the Unit IV question and answer session with subject

matter expert, Marilyn Pike. Reflect on this question and answer session as

you review your readings for this unit.