Granth W2D1 652

Improving Performance in Workplace

Relating Training to Business Performance:

The Case for a Business Evaluation Strategy - William J. Tarnacki II

For many years organizations have been professing that the key to a truly sustainable competitive advantage is an engaged and talented workforce. “Managers are fond of the maxim `Employees are our most important asset.’ Yet beneath the rhetoric, too many executives still regard—and manage—employees as costs. That’s dangerous because, for many companies, people are the only source of long-term competitive advantage” (Bassi & McMurrer, 2007, p. 115). This professed realization has pushed organizations to establish training programs (and even corporate universities) that provide opportunities for employees to develop skills and competencies related to their existing (or sometimes future) roles in the organization.

These training programs have evolved tremendously over time, becoming much more sophisticated and oriented toward creating a well-rounded workforce. Unfortunately, these training and development (T+D) efforts have not kept pace with the changing demands of business. In fact, T+D departments have evolved to be separate entities from the operations of the business, basically managing a repository of training options versus partnering with business and operational leaders to customize solutions based on evolving business needs. Recent attempts to broaden T+D efforts to encompass performance improvement (PI) are a much needed, long overdue, uphill climb. Unfortunately again, today’s business leaders are looking to their human resources (HR), PI, and T+D colleagues to operate at a much higher level and to develop a new language around the expectations and the demands of the business.

If our field of practice is changing (albeit slowly), it stands to reason that the traditional evaluation methods (see Table 4.1) we use to measure transfer from our training programs (skills and knowledge) are also too narrow to measure business results. These evaluation methods are being taught and even trained in the context of another narrow model—the ADDIE instructional design model (analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate). Evaluation strategies and tools, based on T+D and ADDIE, limit our ability to understand the overall business model and associated metrics in order to offer robust, impactful, meaningful evaluation results that help manage the business.

To prepare for this Discussion, pay particular attention to the following Learning Resources:

· Review this week’s Learning Resources, especially:

· Types of Evaluations – See pdf

· Read Week 2 Lecture – See Word doc .

· Read Chapter 3 & 4 – See Word doc

Assignment:

This week you have learned about the importance of workplace training. This week’s learning has introduced you to both the benefits and downfalls of a training session. With your current workplace in mind:

· Analyze the current training setting.

· Your response should include what works and what does not in the current setting.

· In addition, expand on the suggestions you might offer to create the perfect training setting that would help to improve the workplace.

· Explain the challenges that you might face in implementing this training into the workplace. 

· 3 – 4 paragraphs

· No plagiarism

· APA citing