Case Study—Training Assessment

CHAPTER 8 WORKPLACE TRAINING

Questions This Chapter Will Help Managers Answer

· 1. Why should firms expect to expand their training outlays and their menu of choices for employees at all levels?

· 2. What kind of evidence is necessary to justify investments in training programs?

· 3. What are the key issues that should be addressed in the design, conduct, and evaluation of training programs?

· 4. Why should we invest time and money on new-employee orientation? Is there a payoff?

· 5. How should new-employee orientation be managed for maximum positive impact?

Human Resource Management in Action TECHNOLOGY-DELIVERED INSTRUCTION (TDI) CATCHES ON *

Whether training is Web-based or delivered on a single work station, on a PDA, or on an MP3 player, TDI is catching on. Canon Inc., for example, uses a video game to train copier technicians. The technicians must drag and drop parts into the right spot on a copier. As in the board game Operation, a light flashes and a buzzer sounds if the technician gets it wrong. According to Canon, workers who played the game showed a 58 percent improvement in their training scores compared with older training techniques, such as manuals. Canon uses 11 other training games as well. Corporate trainers are betting that the games’ interactivity and fun will hook young, tech-savvy employees, and help them grasp and retain sales, technical, and management skills.

Before we go any further, let's take a moment to define our terms. TDI is the presentation of text, graphics, video, audio, or animation in digitized form for the purpose of building job-relevant knowledge and skill. TDI includes asynchronous (meaning it is not delivered to every user at the same time) text-based courses, job aids, educational games, and video and audio segments, as well as synchronous media, such as video-conferencing and chat rooms.

TDI is projected to boom in the next five years. What's driving the trend? Both demand and supply forces are operating. On the demand side, rapid obsolescence of knowledge and training makes learning and relearning essential if workers are to keep up with the latest developments in their fields. In addition, there is a growing demand for just-in-time training delivery, coupled with demand for cost-effective ways to meet the learning needs of a globally distributed workforce. Finally, there is demand for flexible access to lifelong learning.

On the supply side, Internet access is becoming standard at work and at home, and advances in digital technologies now enable training designers to create interactive, media-rich content. In addition, increasing bandwidth and better delivery platforms make TDI particularly attractive. Finally, there is a growing selection of high-quality products and services.

Features like these allow smaller companies, such as Arrow Electronics, to work with a vendor (BrandGames) to make a game that teaches customer-account managers customer-service skills and supply-chain management. They also led the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce to create an online learning center for its 2,200 members—most of whom employ fewer than 100 employees. Online learning also permits large firms, such as General Motors, to reach more than 175,000 employees at 7,500 dealerships in less than a week, using interactive distance learning (IDL) technology. IDL will let employees view a live course beamed in by satellite and ask questions of the instructor without leaving their dealerships, which slashes travel time and costs, and improves quality, because GM can select its best instructors to teach each course.

Classroom courses are not going away (58 percent of training hours were delivered in face-to-face classrooms in 2010, down from 70 percent in 2005) and TDI does have its drawbacks, as we shall see in the conclusion to this case, but one thing is certain: TDI is changing corporate training forever.

Challenges

· 1. What are some of the key advantages of TDI?

· 2. Are some types of material or course work better suited than others to TDI?

· 3. What disadvantages or opportunity costs can you identify with this approach?

*

Sources: Sitzmann, T. (2011). A meta-analytic examination of the instructional effectiveness of computer-based simulation games. Personnel Psychology 64, pp. 489–528. See also Aguinis, H., and Kraiger, K. (2009). Benefits of training and development for individuals and teams, organizations, and society. Annual Review of Psychology 60, pp. 451–474. See also Gabriel, T. (2010, Nov. 5). Live vs. distance learning: Measuring the differences. The New York Times, p. A3. See also Jana, R. (2006, Mar. 27). On-the-job video gaming. BusinessWeek, p. 43. See also Brown, K. G., and Ford, J. K. (2002). Using computer technology in training: Building an infrastructure for active learning. In K. Kraiger (Ed.), Creating, Implementing, and Managing Effective Training and Development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 192–233. See also Brown, K. G. (2001). Using computers to deliver training: Which employees learn and why? Personnel Psychology 54, pp. 271–296.

Traditionally, lower-level employees were “trained,” while higher-level employees were “developed.” This distinction, focusing on the learning of hands-on skills versus interpersonal and decision-making skills, has become too blurry in practice to be useful. Throughout the remainder of this chapter, therefore, we will use the terms training and development interchangeably. Worldwide, training is big business, and the first half of this chapter examines some current issues in the design, conduct, and evaluation of training programs.

Change, growth, and sometimes displacement (e.g., through layoffs and restructuring) are facts of modern organizational life. Young people entering the workforce today can expect to be laid off several times by the time they reach age 50. 1  As those laid off find new jobs, they discover what all new employees do: You have to “relearn the ropes” in the new job setting. Orientation training, sometimes called “on-boarding,” is the subject of the second part of this chapter. It can ease that transition considerably, with positive results both for the new employee and for the company. Trends such as leased employees, disposable managers, and free-agent workers will make orientation even more important in the future. Let's begin by defining training, and consider some emerging trends in this area.

EMPLOYEE TRAINING

What Is Training?

Training  consists of planned programs designed to improve performance at the individual, group, and/or organizational levels. Improved performance, in turn, implies that there have been measurable changes in knowledge, skills, attitudes, and/or social behavior.

When we examine the training enterprise as a whole, it is clear that training issues can be addressed from at least two perspectives. At the structural level, we can examine issues such as the following, among others: the aggregate level of expenditures by the various providers of training (e.g., federal, state, and local governments, educational institutions, private-sector businesses), the degree of cooperation among the providers, incentives (or lack of incentives) for providing training, who gets training, and the economic impact of training. 2  These are macro-level concerns.

At the micro level, we may choose to examine issues such as the following: what types of training seem to yield positive outcomes for organizations and trainees (i.e., what works); how to identify if training is needed and, if so, what type of training best fits the needs that have been identified; how to structure the delivery of training programs; and how to evaluate the outcomes of training efforts.

Unfortunately, organizations sometimes place too much emphasis on the techniques and methods of training and not enough on first defining what the employee should learn in relation to desired job behaviors. In addition, fewer than half of all organizations even try to measure the value of training, and fewer still (just 5 percent) calculate the return in monetary terms. 3

This is true even of sales training, which would seem easy to measure. Just 11 percent of companies attempt to assess the payoffs of training on sales. 4

In this section, we will do two things: (1) discuss several structural issues at the macro level and (2) illustrate research-based findings that might lead to improvements in the design, delivery, and evaluation of training systems. Before we do so, however, let's consider some important training trends.

Training Trends

Several trends suggest that the time and money budgeted for training will increase during the next decade. These include technology and e-commerce; continuing worker displacement as a function of mergers, acquisitions, and downsizing; and the ongoing shift from manufacturing to service jobs. 5  Here are some other major challenges that companies and institutions face: 6

· ▪ Hypercompetition. There will be increased competition at both domestic and international levels, largely due to trade agreements and technology, most notably, the Internet. As a result, senior executives will be required to lead an almost constant reinvention of business strategies/models and organizational structures.

· ▪ A power shift to the customer. Using the Internet, customers can access databases that allow them to compare prices and examine product reviews; hence there is an ongoing necessity to meet the product and service needs of customers.

· ▪ Collaboration across organizational and geographic boundaries. In some cases suppliers are collocated with manufacturers and share access to inventory levels. Outsourcing, the geographical dispersion of work, and strategic international alliances often lead to new organizational forms that involve multinational teams. As a result, organizations must address cultural and language issues, along with new approaches to collaboration. 7

· ▪ The need to maintain high levels of talent. Because products and services can be copied, the ability of a workforce to innovate, refine processes, solve problems, and form relationships becomes an organization's only sustainable advantage. Attracting, retaining, and developing people with critical competencies is necessary for success.

· ▪ Changes in the workforce. Shifting demographics suggest that many unskilled and undereducated youth will be needed for entry-level jobs, and currently underutilized groups of racial and ethnic minorities, women, and older workers will need training. At the same time, as the members of the baby boom generation retire, knowledge management, or the transfer of mission-critical knowledge to those who remain, will become a top priority.

· ▪ Changes in technology impose training and retraining requirements on the existing workforce.

· ▪ Teams. As more firms move to employee involvement and teams in the workplace, team members need to learn behaviors such as asking for ideas, offering help without being asked, listening and providing feedback, and recognizing and considering the ideas of others. 8

Indeed, as the demands of the information age spread, companies are coming to regard training expenses as a no-less-critical part of their capital costs than plants and equipment. Over all industries, U.S. businesses spent $48.9 billion on training in 2010, or about $682 per learner. 9  At the level of the individual firm, Google, is exemplary. It offers each employee 100 hours of professional training per year. 10

What's the bottom line in all of this? Organizations that provide superior opportunities for learning and growth have a distinct advantage when competing for talented employees. 11

These trends suggest a dual responsibility: The organization is responsible for providing an atmosphere that will support and encourage change, and the individual is responsible for deriving maximum benefit from the learning opportunities provided. This may involve the acquisition of new information, skills, attitudes, or patterns of social behavior through training and development.

Retraining can pay off too. A study by the Work in America Institute found that retraining current workers for new jobs is more cost effective than firing them and hiring new ones—not to mention the difference that retraining makes to employee morale. Intel illustrates this approach nicely.

HR BUZZ INTEL

  Redeployment *

Intel, the company that invented the microchip and whose average product life cycle is just 2.5years, avoided major layoffs until 2007 through a strong in-house redeployment policy. Every employee receives a brochure, entitled “Owning Your Own Employability,” and each is afforded tools and resources to take advantage of the redeployment option. A redeployment event occurs when there is a business downturn or lack of a need for a particular skill, but it does not replace performance management. To qualify, a fulltime employee must have two consecutive years of performance reviews that meet requirements.

Should an employee become eligible for redeployment, he or she is given options, tools, and resources. The company has five employee development centers offering self-assessment tools, career counseling, educational opportunities, and job listings within Intel. Job skills were redefined to encourage people to find new places within the company, and temporary assignments and internal training are provided to prepare them for new positions. Funds are also available for relocation. The company provides full pay and benefits for up to 8 weeks while a displaced employee searches for a new job within Intel or elsewhere. The entire process is managed through a system that provides centralized tracking and reporting of all redeployment activity.

The ranks of Intel employees are filled with those who have made successful transitions from shop floor to sales and public relations positions, or from obsolete technology divisions to high-margin technology centers within the company. If none of this works, the company provides generous severance payments to affected employees. Redeployment is a continuing challenge at Intel because the company's competitive strategy is to stay ahead of its rivals by making its products obsolete!

Intel's redeployment program continues on a smaller scale today than in the 1990s, but a major shift in business strategy in 2007 made widespread layoffs necessary. That said, the redeployment policy is a strong deterrent to litigation based on allegations of wrongful discharge. It is a sound employee relations tool.

*

Sources: Frauenheim, E. (2008, Jan. 14). Restructuring 101. Workforce Management, p. 14. See also Cascio, W. F. (1995, May). Guide to Responsible Restructuring. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the American Workplace.

Impact of Training on Individuals, Teams, Organizations, and Society

A recent review of the research literature on training and development identified 13 benefits, most of which have been demonstrated at the individual and team levels of analysis. 12

· 1. Meta-analyses (quantitative summaries of accumulated results across many studies) have demonstrated repeatedly that training has an overall positive effect on job-related behaviors or performance. 13  The average effect size, or d, equals 0.62—that is, it is 0.62 standard deviations better than performance without training—but the effectiveness of training varies, de pending on the delivery method and the skill or task being trained.

· 2. Training may lead to greater innovation and tacit skills. Tacit skills are behaviors acquired through informal learning that are useful for effective performance. They are useful to a physician who requires the right touch or feel when probing the body for abnormalities during a physical exam, to the carpenter hanging a door, or to the mechanic tuning an engine.

· 3. Training can improve technical skills. Generally this occurs through improvements in declarative knowledge (facts, meaning of terms) as well as procedural knowledge (how to perform skilled behavior).

· 4. Training can improve strategic knowledge, that is, knowing when to apply a specific knowledge or skill.

· 5. Training, and especially practice, helps to maintain consistency in performance. Think of a chef who must cook various items on a menu over and over in a consistent manner, or a professional athlete who must perform at a consistently high level to be successful.

· 6. Performance consistency also results from enhancing the self-efficacy or self-management of trainees. Self-efficacy is a personal belief that one can accomplish a task successfully. Self-management is a strategy that trainees adopt to help them to maintain desired behaviors (e.g., getting to work on time, staying out of trouble), or to recognize symptoms that indicate variance from a desired path (e.g., in substance-abuse relapse prevention).

· 7. Management development programs show positive effects. They seem to affect two types of outcomes: knowledge—principles, facts, and skills (average effect sizes range from 0.96 to 1.37)—and changes in on-the-job behavior (average effect sizes range from 0.35 to 1.01). 14

· 8. Cross-cultural training improves expatriate adjustment and performance. One study of 29 conceptual reviews and 16 empirical studies concluded, however, that several important variables determine the actual effectivness of such training in any given situation. These include the timing of the training (predeparture, postarrival, postassignment), the spouse's adjustment, attributes of the job (e.g., discretion), and the cultural “distance” between home and host countries. 15

· 9. Leadership training seems to enhance the attitudes and performance of followers.Specifically, it seems to have a positive effect on the motivation, values, and self-efficacy of followers. 16

· 10. Training in team communication and team effectiveness have positive effects on team performance and, in the case of airplane cockpit crews, safety. They also seem to affect nontechnical skills (team building) as well as situation awareness and decision making. We will have more to say about this topic later in the chapter.

· 11. There are many fewer studies documenting the effects of training at the level of the organization, but available data show positive effects on outcomes such as employee and customer satisfaction, owner/shareholder satisfaction, and productivity (e.g., sales per employee). Unfortunately, the causal links between training and organizational outcomes tend to be weak. In other words, other variables might well explain the results that have been observed. 17

· 12. At the level of the organization, training is a key enabler of e-commerce, an important strategic priority for many firms, both large and small.

· 13. At the level of society, macroeconomic studies have concluded that training improves the quality of the labor force. In turn, a high-quality labor force enhances a country's economic growth. This has led many countries around the world (e.g., members of the European Union, Singapore, Germany) to adopt national policies to encourage the design and delivery of training programs. One such country is India, as the international application below illustrates.

INTERNATIONAL APPLICATION Infosys U.—The Taj Mahal of Training Centers

The $120 million Infosys facility in Mysore, India, about 90 miles from the company's Bangalore headquarters, is part Disney World, part Club Med, part American college campus. Its real mission, however, is teaching the Infosys Way to the 15,000 employees the fast-growing company hires per year—an average of 40 a day. According to Infosys cofounder Nandan Nilekani, “Companies haven't been investing enough in people. Rather than train them, they let them go. Our people are our capital. The more we invest in them, the more they can be effective.”

While most of the training focuses on technical skills, new recruits spend a lot of time working on softer skills as well. These include team building, comportment, and improving interpersonal communication. In one class, for example, students listen intently as the instructor tells them to practice smiling in front of a mirror. In another, on corporate etiquette, the teacher emphasizes, “You are all brand ambassadors. That brand now attracts attention far beyond India's borders, for the company has offices in 18 countries. a

a

Schlosser, J. (2006, Mar. 20). Infosys U. Fortune, pp. 41, 42 © 2006 Time Inc. Used under license.

CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE TRAINING PRACTICE

Despite the rosy picture painted earlier, keep in mind that if training is ill conceived, poorly planned, or inadequately executed, then it is likely to be ineffective and waste precious resources (time and money). Conversely, four characteristics seem to distinguish companies with the most effective training practices: 18

· ▪ Top management is committed to training and development; training is part of the corporate culture. This is especially true of leading companies, such as Google, Disney, Marriott, and Cisco.

· ▪ Training is tied to business strategy and objectives and is linked to bottom-line results.

· ▪ Organizational environments are feedback rich; they stress continuous improvement, promote risk taking, offer one-on-one coaching, and afford opportunities to learn from the successes and failures of decisions.

· ▪ There is commitment to invest the necessary resources, to provide sufficient time and money for training.

The Training Paradox

Some businesses, small and large, shy away from training because they think that by upgrading the skills of the workforce, their employees will be more marketable to competitors. That is true. However, there is also an interesting paradox that affects both employee and employer. That is, if an employee takes charge of her own employability by keeping her skills updated and varied so she can work for anyone, she also builds more security with her current employer—assuming the company values highly skilled, motivated employees.

As Hewlett-Packard's director of education noted, “What's going to entice them away? Money? Maybe you can buy them for a short time, but what keeps people excited is growing and learning.” This is especially true in the great global talent race. 19

At the same time, if a company provides a large number of training and learning opportunities, it is more likely to retain workers because it creates an interesting and challenging environment. As the general manager of London-based Marks & Spencer noted, “Train them to the point where you may lose them, and then you won't lose them.” 20  This is the training paradox: Increasing an individual's employability outside the company simultaneously increases his or her job security and desire to stay with the current employer (assuming that employer creates challenging jobs and provides an exciting work environment).

How Training Relates to Competitive Strategies

Competitive strategy refers to the decisions, processes, and choices that organizations make to position themselves for sustainable success. 21  HR strategy, in turn, refers to the decisions, processes, and choices organizations make about managing people. Training is an important aspect of HR strategy, and a key objective of any training program is to tie workplace training to the strategy of a business. 3M is es pecially adept at this. For instance, it will set a goal to reduce product-development cycle time (i.e., to increase speed), then create a course on how to do it. This is not learning for its own sake; rather all leadership-development courses are linked to business objectives. 22  Thus, if a company's strategy is to provide high-quality customer service, it is likely to emphasize, for example, training in problem solving, conflict resolution, negotiation, and team building. If its objective is innovation, then topics like technical training, effective communications, and—for managers—training in feedback and communication are more typical. While the potential returns from well-conducted training programs are hefty, considerable planning and evaluation are necessary to realize these returns. The remainder of this chapter examines some key issues that managers need to consider. Let us begin by examining the broad phases that comprise training systems.

WHAT DETERMINES EFFECTIVE TRAINING?

Research shows that a number of factors affect training effectiveness. 23  For example, training success is determined not only by the quality of training but also by an individual's readiness for training and the degree of organizational support for the training. Characteristics of the individual as well as the work environment are important influences before training (by affecting the motivation to participate), during training (by affecting learning), and after training (by influencing the transfer of learning and skills from the training situation to the job situation).

Admittedly some individual characteristics, such as trainability (i.e., the ability to learn the content of the training) and personality are difficult, if not impossible, for organizations to influence through policies and practices. The organization clearly can influence others, however, in such areas as job or career attitudes, a person's belief that he or she can learn the content of the training successfully, the attractiveness of training outcomes, and the work environment itself. 24

ASSESSING TRAINING NEEDS AND DESIGNING TRAINING PROGRAMS

One way to keep in mind the phases of training is to portray them graphically, in the form of a model that illustrates the interaction among the phases. One such model is shown in  Figure 8–1 .

Figure 8–1 A general systems model of the training and development process. Note how information developed during the evaluation phase provides feedback, and therefore new input, to the assessment phase. This initiates a new cycle of assessment, training and development, and evaluation.

The assessment (or planning) phase serves as a foundation for the entire training effort. As  Figure 8–1  shows, the training and development phase and the evaluation phase depend on inputs from assessment. The purpose of the assessment phase is to define what it is the employee should learn in relation to desired job behaviors. If this phase is not carefully done, the training program as a whole will have little chance of achieving what it is intended to do.

Assuming that managers specify the objectives of the training program carefully, the next task is to design the environment in which to achieve those objectives. This is the purpose of the training phase. Choose methods and techniques carefully and deliver them systematically in a supportive, encouraging environment, based on sound principles of learning. More on this later.

Finally, if both the assessment phase and the training and development phase have been done competently, evaluation should present few problems. Evaluation is a twofold process that involves (1) establishing indicators of success in training, as well as on the job, and (2) determining exactly what job-related changes have occurred as a result of the training. Evaluation must provide a continuous stream of feedback that can be used to reassess training needs, thereby creating input for the next stage of employee development.

An Alternative Approach: Rapid Prototyping

Admittedly, the model shown in  Figure 8–1  is a bit ponderous. Over the past decade, the pressure to develop training (and other HR processes) more quickly has resulted in the development of alternative, more streamlined models, collectively known as “Fast HR.” 25  One such model, rapid prototyping, is based on process models used in software development. It's a three-phase approach to training. 26  The first phase involves the assessment of needs and the determination of training objectives. The second phase involves constructing prototypes and testing them with users. The third phase involves implementing and refining the training. This approach relies on parallel work efforts, minimal commitments, and extensive user testing. Designers are expected to create and test training before the needs assessment is complete, and to modify it based on the results of user tests. If instruction can be created, tested, and modified quickly, then rapid prototyping might be appropriate. It is impractical in settings where instruction is costly to develop or when user testing is not feasible.

Now that we have a broad overview of the training process, let us consider the elements of  Figure 8–1  in greater detail.

Assessing Training Needs

The purpose of needs assessment is to determine if training is necessary. There are four levels of analysis for determining the needs that training can fulfill: 27

· ▪  Organization analysis  focuses on identifying whether training supports the company's strategic direction; whether managers, peers, and employees support training activity; and what training resources are available.

· ▪  Demographic analysis  is helpful in determining the special needs of a particular group, such as older workers, women, or managers at different levels. Those needs may be specified at the organizational level, the business-unit level, or at the individual level.

· ▪  Operations analysis  attempts to identify the content of training—what an employee must do in order to perform competently.

· ▪  Individual analysis  focuses on identifying employees who need training, and the types of training they need.

Training needs might surface in any one of these four broad areas. But to ask productive questions regarding training needs, managers often find that a comprehensive model such as that shown in Figure 8–2  is helpful.

Figure 8–2 Training needs-assessment model.

At a general level, it is important to analyze training needs against the backdrop of organizational objectives and strategies. Unless you do this, you may waste time and money on training programs that do not advance the cause of the company. 28   Pre-employment training programs  (PETs) are prime examples of close alignment between organizational needs and training curricula. PETs are industry-specific, community-based coalitions. Member companies contribute time, money, and expertise to designing training, and they also contribute employees to teach courses. Such programs can be found in the aviation industry, in manufacturing technology in polymer chemistry, and in customer service. 29

It is also essential to analyze the organization's external environment and internal climate. Trends in the strategic priorities of a business, judicial decisions, civil rights laws, union activity, productivity, accidents, turnover, absenteeism, and on-the-job employee behavior will provide relevant information at this level. The important question then becomes “Will training produce changes in employee behavior that will contribute to our organization's goals?”

In summary, the critical first step is to relate training needs to the achievement of key strategic business objectives. If you cannot make that connection, the training is probably unnecessary. However, if a training need does surface at the organizational level, a demographic analysis is the next step.

Demographic analysis provides information that may transcend particular jobs, even divisions, of an organization. With respect to managers, for example, level, function, and attitudes toward the usefulness of training all affect their self-reported training needs. 30  Taking this information into account lends additional perspective to the operations and person analyses to follow.

Operations analysis requires a careful examination of the work to be performed after training. It involves: (1) a systematic collection of information that describes how work is done; (2) determination of standards of performance for that work; (3) how tasks are to be performed to meet the standards; and (4) the competencies necessary for effective task performance. In fact, validated competency models can be very helpful in driving training curricula. 31  Job analyses, performance appraisals, interviews with subject-matter experts (jobholders, supervisors, higher-level managers, even knowledgeable customers and suppliers), and analyses of operating problems (quality control, downtime reports, and customer complaints) all provide important inputs to the analysis of training needs.

Finally, there is individual analysis. At this level, training needs may be defined in terms of the following general idea: The difference between desired performance and actual performance is the individual's training need. Performance standards, identified in the operations analysis phase, constitute desired performance. Individual performance data; diagnostic ratings of employees by their supervisors, peers, or customers; records of performance kept by workers in diary form; and attitude surveys, interviews, or tests (job knowledge, work sample, or situational) can provide information on actual performance against which each employee can be compared with desired performance standards. A gap between actual and desired performance may be filled by training.

One especially fruitful approach to the identification of individual training needs is to combine behaviorally based performance-management systems with individual development plans (IDPs) derived from self-analysis. IDPs provide a blueprint for self-development, and should include:

· 1. Statements of aims—desired changes in knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, or relationships with others.

· 2. Definitions—descriptions of areas of study, search, reflection, or testing, including lists of activities, experiences, or questions that can help achieve these aims.

· 3. Ideas about priorities—feelings of preference or urgency about what should be learned first.

Individuals often construct their own IDPs, with assistance, in career planning workshops, through structured exercises, in the practice of management by objectives, or in assessment centers. They provide a blueprint for self-development.

As a result of needs assessment, it should be possible to determine what workers do, what behaviors are essential to do what they do effectively, what type of learning is necessary to acquire those behaviors, and what type of instructional content is most likely to accomplish that type of learning. 32  This information should guide all future choices about training methods and evaluation strategies.

HR BUZZ CLASSIC TRAINING DESIGN MEETS NEW TECHNOLOGY: BOEING'S 787 DREAMLINER *

Mechanics going through Boeing's 25-day training course for the 787 Dreamliner learn to fix all kinds of problems, from broken lights in the cabin to major malfunctions with flight controls. One thing they won't soon do: touch one of the planes. Instead, using laptop and desktop computers inside a classroom with huge diagrams, the mechanics train on a system that displays an interactive 787 cockpit, as well as a 3-D exterior of the plane. Using a mouse, the mechanics “walk” around the jet, open virtual maintenance access panels, and go inside the plane to repair and replace parts. At the end of the course, the mechanics get all training materials on a tiny memory stick. Once they are in the field staring up at an actual Dreamliner, they will also use laptop PCs to diagnose and solve real problems with the planes. Boeing has already established eight Dreamliner training suites, including some in London, Seattle, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo.

As for pilots, they train on full-motion flight simulators (rather than actual airplanes). However, designers know that “trainee readiness” (basic skills plus the motivation to succeed) vary among trainees, and also are critical to successful training outcomes. So before getting into a simulator, the pilots receive initial training on a suite of computers and get hundreds of pages of training documentation on tablet PC devices. Then they move to a mocked-up cockpit with flat-panel monitors and touch-screen displays to learn the basics of handling the plane.

In the full-motion simulation, pilots practice emergency procedures in a replica cockpit that mimics a variety of locales and weather situations. At the end of the course the pilots receive a USB flash drive that contains all of the Dreamliner flying manuals and the students’ own notes, jotted down during training with a stylus directly onto the pages of an electronic manual.

Yes, Dreamliner training does use the latest whiz-bang technology, but don't be fooled into thinking that's all there is. Undergirding all of those bells and whistles is extremely thorough, detailed training-needs analysis, coupled with careful consideration of alternative design and delivery options to optimize each trainee's learning. These classic tools have not changed appreciably in decades, and given the time and expense incurred in training mechanics and pilots, Boeing is using every one of them to maximize the return on its investment.

*

Source: Sanders, P. (2010, Sept. 2). Boeing 787 training takes virtual path. The Wall Street Journal, p. B8. Reprinted by permission of The Wall Street Journal, Copyright © (2010) Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. License number 2871941076673.

Once training needs have been identified, the next step is to structure the training environment for maximum learning. Careful attention to the fundamental principles of learning will enhance this process.

PRINCIPLES THAT ENHANCE LEARNING

To promote efficient learning, long-term retention, and application of the skills or factual information learned in training to the job situation, training programs should incorporate principles of learning developed over the past century. Which principles should they consider? It depends on whether the trainees are learning skills (e.g., drafting) or factual material (e.g., principles of life insurance). 33

To be most effective, skill learning should include four essential ingredients: (1) goal setting, (2) behavior modeling, (3) practice, and (4) feedback. However, when the focus is on learning facts, the sequence should change slightly: (1) goal setting, (2) meaningfulness of material, (3) practice, and (4) feedback. Let's consider each of these in greater detail.

Motivating the Trainee: Goal Setting

A person who wants to develop herself or himself will do so; a person who wants to be developed rarely is. This statement illustrates the role that motivation plays in training—to learn, you must want to learn. While cognitive ability does predict training outcomes, so also does motivation. What determines motivation to succeed in training? Both personal and contextual factors are important. At the level of the individual, the personality characteristics of conscientiousness (striving for excellence, having high performance standards, setting challenging personal goals) and internal locus of control (belief that one controls his or her own fate) are important determinants of motivation to learn. At the level of the organization, the climate in which the trainee functions, coupled with the support he or she receives from supervisor and peers, is also critical. 34

Perhaps the most effective way to raise a trainee's motivation is by setting goals. More than 500 studies have demonstrated goal setting's proven track record of success in improving employee performance in a variety of settings and cultures. 35  On average, goal setting leads to a 10 percent improvement in productivity, and it works best with tasks of low complexity. 36

Goal theory  is founded on the premise that an individual's conscious goals or intentions regulate her or his behavior. 37  Research indicates that once an individual accepts a goal and is committed to achieving it, difficult but attainable goals result in higher levels of performance than do easy goals or even a generalized goal such as “do your best.” 38  These findings have three important implications for motivating trainees:

· 1. Make the objectives of the training program clear at the outset.

· 2. Set goals that are challenging and difficult enough that the trainees can derive personal satisfaction from achieving them, but not so difficult that they are perceived as impossible to reach.

· 3. Supplement the ultimate goal of finishing the program with subgoals during training, such as trainer evaluations, work-sample tests, and periodic quizzes. As trainees clear each hurdle successfully, their confidence about attaining the ultimate goal increases.

While goal setting clearly affects trainees’ motivation, so also do the expectations of the trainer. In fact, expectations have a way of becoming self-fulfilling prophecies, so that the higher the expectations, the better the trainees perform. Conversely, the lower the expectations, the worse the trainees perform. This phenomenon of the self-fulfilling prophecy is known as the  Pygmalion effect . Legend has it that Pygmalion, a king of Cyprus, sculpted an ivory statue of a maiden named Galatea. Pygmalion fell in love with the statue, and, at his prayer, Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, gave it life. Pygmalion's fondest wish—his expectation—came true.

Behavior Modeling

Much of what we learn is acquired by observing others. We will imitate other people's actions when they lead to desirable outcomes (e.g., promotions, increased sales, or more accurate tennis serves). The models’ actions serve as a cue as to what constitutes appropriate behavior. 39  A model is someone who is seen as competent, powerful, and friendly and has high status within an organization. We try to identify with this model because her or his behavior is seen as desirable and appropriate.  Behavior modeling  tends to increase when the model is rewarded for behavior and when the rewards (e.g., influence, pay) are things the imitator would like to have. In the context of training (or coaching or teaching), we attempt to maximize trainees’ identification with a model. To do this well, research suggests the following:

· 1. The model should be similar to the observer in age, gender, and race. If the observer sees little similarity between himself or herself and the model, it is unlikely that he or she will imitate the model's behaviors.

· 2. Portray the behaviors to be modeled clearly and in detail. To focus the trainees’ attention on specific behaviors to imitate, provide them with a list of key behaviors to attend to when observing the model and allow them to express the behaviors in language that is most comfortable for them. For example, when one group of supervisors was being taught how to coach employees, the supervisors received a list of the following key behaviors: 40  (1) Focus on the problem, not on the person; (2) ask for the employees’ suggestions, and get their ideas on how to solve the problem; (3) listen openly; (4) agree on the steps that each of you will take to solve the problem; and (5) plan a specific follow-up date.

PYGMALION IN ACTION: MANAGERS GET THE KIND OF PERFORMANCE THEY EXPECT

To test the Pygmalion effect and to examine the impact of instructors’ prior expectations about trainees on the instructors’ subsequent style of leadership toward the trainees, a field experiment was conducted at a military training base. a  In a 15-week combat-command course, 105 trainees were matched on aptitude and assigned randomly to one of three experimental groups. Each group corresponded to a particular level of expectation that was communicated to the instructors: high, average, or no prespecified level of expectation (due to insufficient information). Four days before the trainees arrived at the base, and prior to any acquaintance between instructors and trainees, the instructors were assembled and given a score (known as command potential, or CP) for each trainee that represented the trainee's potential to command others. The instructors were told that the CP score had been developed on the basis of psychological test scores, data from a previous course on leadership, and ratings by previous commanders. The instructors were also told that course grades predict CP in 95 percent of the cases. The instructors were then given a list of the trainees assigned to them, along with their CPs, and asked to copy each trainee's CP into his or her personal record. The instructors were also requested to learn their trainees’ names and their CPs before the beginning of the course.

The Pygmalion hypothesis that the instructor's prior expectation influences the trainee's performance was confirmed. Trainees of whom instructors expected better performance scored significantly higher on objective achievement tests, exhi bited more positive attitudes, and were perceived as better leaders. In fact, the prior expectations of the instructors explained 73 percent of the variability in the trainees’ performance, 66 percent in their attitudes, and 28 percent in leadership. The lesson to be learned from these results is unmistakable: Trainers (and managers) get the kind of performance they expect. This is not an isolated instance. The Pygmalion effect has been confirmed in many studies, using both male and female trainees. b

a

Eden, D., & Shani, A. B. (1982). Pygmalion goes to boot camp: Expectancy, leadership, and trainee performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 67, pp. 194–199.

b

Begley, S. (2003, Nov. 7). Expectations may alter outcomes far more than we realize. The Wall Street Journal, p. B1.

· 3. Rank the behaviors to be modeled in a sequence from least to most difficult, and be sure the trainees observe lots of repetitions of the behaviors being modeled.

· 4. Finally, have several models portray the behaviors, not just one. 41

Research continues to demonstrate the effectiveness of behavior modeling in learning facts and procedures, and also in changing behavior on the job. 42  It is particularly appropriate for teaching interpersonal and computer skills. 43  To a large extent, this is because behavior modeling overcomes one of the shortcomings of earlier approaches to training: telling instead of showing.

Meaningfulness of the Material

It's easier to learn and remember factual material when it is meaningful. Meaningfulness refers to material that is rich in associations for the trainees and is therefore easily understood by them. To structure material to maximize its meaningfulness:

· 1. Provide trainees with an overview of the material to be presented during the training. Seeing the overall picture helps trainees understand how each unit of the program fits together and how it contributes to the overall training objectives. 44

· 2. Present the material by using examples, terms, and concepts that are familiar to the trainees in order to clarify and reinforce key learning points. Show them how they can use the content of the training to do their jobs better.

· 3. As complex intellectual skills are invariably made up of simpler ones, teach the simpler skills before the complex ones. 45  This is true whether teaching accounting, computer programming, or X-ray technology.

Practice (Makes Perfect)

Anyone learning a new skill or acquiring factual knowledge must have an opportunity to practice what he or she is learning. 46  Practice, the active use of training content, has three aspects: active practice, overlearning, and the length of the practice session. Let's consider each of these.

· ▪ Active practice. During the early stages of learning, the trainer should be available to oversee the trainee's practice directly. In contrast to traditional approaches that focus on teaching correct methods (and avoiding errors), a newer approach, known as error-management training, encourages employees to make errors, and then to engage in reflection to understand why they made them, and to develop strategies to avoid making them in the future. 47

· ▪ Overlearning. When trainees are given the opportunity to practice far beyond the point where they have performed a task correctly several times, the task becomes second nature and is “overlearned.” For some tasks,  overlearning  is critical. 48  This is true of any task that must be performed infrequently and under great stress: for example, performing CPR on a patient who is not breathing. It is less important in types of work where an individual practices his or her skills on a daily basis (e.g., auto mechanics, electronics technicians, assemblers).

· ▪ Length of the practice session. Suppose you have only one week to memorize the lines of a play, and during that week, you have only 12 hours available to practice. What practice schedule will produce the greatest improvement? Should you practice two hours a day for six days, should you practice for six hours each of the final two days before the deadline, or should you adopt some other schedule? The two extremes represent  distributed practice (which implies rest intervals between sessions) and  massed practice  (in which the practice sessions are crowded together). Although there are exceptions, most of the research evidence on this question indicates that for the same amount of practice, learning is better when practice is distributed rather than massed. 49  This is especially true for learning simple motor tasks that involve very brief rest periods. It is less true for tasks of high complexity, such as those often found in organizational training settings. Under those circumstances, longer rest periods appear to be more beneficial for learning. 50

Constructive feedback facilitates learning and supports a trainee's desire to perform well.

Feedback

This is a form of information about one's attempts to improve.  Feedback  is essential both for learning and for trainee motivation. 51  If trainees are to understand what leads to good as well as poor performance, however, the level of specificity of feedback should vary. 52  Increasing the specificity of feedback benefits the learning of responses for good performance, but it may be detrimental to the learning of responses for poor performance. For example, in learning to operate a piece of equipment, less specific feedback may cause trainees to make errors that lead to equipment problems, providing them with opportunities to learn which behaviors lead to problems, and how to fix those problems. It is also important to emphasize that feedback affects team, as well as individual, performance. 53  For example, application of performance-based feedback in a small fast-food store over a one-year period led to a 15 percent decrease in food costs and a 193 percent increase in profits. 54

To have the greatest impact, provide feedback as soon as possible after the trainee demonstrates good performance, especially to novices. 55  It need not be instantaneous, but there should be no confusion regarding exactly what the trainee did and the trainer's reaction to it. Feedback need not always be positive, but keep in mind that the most powerful rewards are likely to be those provided by the trainee's immediate supervisor. In fact, if the supervisor does not reinforce what is learned in training, the training will be transferred ineffectively to the job—if at all.

Transfer of Training

Transfer of training refers to the extent to which competencies learned in training can be applied on the job. Transfer may be positive (i.e., it enhances job performance), negative (i.e., it hampers job performance), or neutral. Long-term training or retraining probably includes segments that contain all three of these conditions. Training that results in negative transfer is costly in two ways—the cost of the training (which proved to be useless) and the cost of hampered performance. To maximize positive transfer, designers of training programs should consider doing the following before, during, and after training: 56

· 1. Maximize the similarity between the training situation and the job situation. Use interactive activities during training to encourage participation.

· 2. Provide trainees as much experience as possible with the tasks, concepts, or skills being taught so that they can deal with situations that do not fit textbook examples exactly. This is adaptive expertise. 57

· 3. Provide a strong link between training content and job content (“What you learn in training today, you'll use on the job tomorrow”).

· 4. In the context of team-based training (e.g., in employee involvement), transfer is maximized when teams have open, unrestricted access to information, when the membership includes diverse job functions and administrative backgrounds, and when a team has more members to draw upon to accomplish its activities. 58

· 5. Ensure that what is learned in training is used and rewarded on the job. Supervisors and peers are key gatekeepers in this process. If immediate supervisors or peers, by their words or by their example, do not support what was learned in training, don't expect the training to have much of an impact on job performance. 59

Action learning , in which participants focus on real business problems in order to learn through experience and application, is an excellent vehicle for facilitating positive transfer from learning to doing. 60  It's not just for executives either, as the following example illustrates.

Team Training

Up to this point, we have been discussing training and development as an individual enterprise. Yet today, as we have noted, there is an increasing emphasis on team performance, with 80 percent of U.S. corporations using teams of one sort or another. 61  For example, cross-functional teams, intact or virtual, are common features of many organizations. A  team  is a group of individuals who are working together, with shared responsibility, toward a common goal. It is this common goal that really defines a team, and if team members have opposite or conflicting goals, the efficiency of the total unit is likely to suffer. For example, consider the effects on a basketball team when one of the players always tries to score, regardless of the team's situation.

A systematic approach to team training should include four steps: 62

· 1. Conduct a team-training needs analysis. Such an analysis has two objectives: (a) to identify interdependencies among team members and the skills required to master coordination of team tasks, and (b) to identify the cognitive skills and knowledge needed to interact as a team (e.g., knowledge of team-member roles and responsibilities).

· 2. Develop training objectives that address both task-work and teamwork skills. In general, a core set of skills characterizes effective teamwork. These include adaptability, shared awareness of situations, performance monitoring and feedback, leadership/team management, interpersonal skills, coordination, communication, and decision-making skills. Attitudinal skills that characterize effective teamwork include beliefs about the importance of teamwork skills, belief in placing the team's goals above those of individual members, mutual trust, and shared vision. 63  Sequence the training so that trainees can master task-work skills before learning teamwork skills.

HR BUZZ ACTION LEARNING AT UPS *

When UPS, affectionately known as “Big Brown,” found that some 30 percent of its twentysomething driver candidates were flunking its traditional driver training, it had a serious problem on its hands: how to train Generation Y for a hard, blue-collar job. Gen Yers make up more than 60 percent of the part-time loader workforce, from which it draws the majority of new-driver hires. To address the issue head on, UPS created a whole new approach.

In late 2007, UPS opened its first full-service training center, in Landover, Maryland. The 11,500-square-foot facility known as Integrad is much like a movie set, and it's aimed directly at young, would-be drivers. It is fashioned around an approach known as “technology-enhanced, hands-on learning.” More than 170 people, including UPS executives, professors and design students at Virginia Tech, a team at MIT, forecasters at the Institute for the Future, and animators at an Indian company called Brainvisa, helped develop the facility and curriculum. On top of that, UPS received a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. Thus, much of the project's data, including research related to safety and generational differences, will be made available to the public. That information may help many companies in a variety of industries realize the impact of this new generation.

There are many aspects to the rigorous training that UPS provides, but consider just one of those, the transparent UPS “package car.” The car is stocked with rows of (weighted) packages. It may look like a big toy, but its purpose is serious. Package selection is the most fundamental part of a UPS driver's job, and yet it can seem impossible when you are staring into the gaping back door of a package car, scrambling to locate your five packages and trying to decide how you are going to get them out in the 65.5 seconds that the company's “human engineering” experts have allotted to you.

Odd-size packages and cramped space can make the UPS driver's job difficult.

When learning package-selection techniques, demonstration in an actual package car is a lot more effective than a lecture: Watching an instructor deal with the same shelving system, odd-size packages, and cramped space that drivers have on the road—and then getting to try it yourself before your first trip out—proves invaluable.

New drivers also get to experience the slip-and-fall simulator. Such mishaps cost UPS significantly each year, and first-year drivers fall victim the most. After the simulator experience, novices quickly learn to adjust their gait to minimize the likelihood that they will take a tumble on the job. Actual driving at Integrad is done at a mini-town that has real street and stop signs, a toy house and toy stores, a UPS dropbox, and even a loading dock. Trainees spend time there each day of their 5-day training. Tasks increase in difficulty, and facilitators and fellow trainees stand in as customers to test the drivers on their customer service.

Driver candidates also play a videogame that places them in the driver's seat and has them identify obstacles. They progress from computer simulations to “Clarksville,” an artificial village of miniature houses and businesses on the property where they drive a real truck and must successfully execute five deliveries in 19 minutes.

Driver training is critical for UPS, which employs 99,000 drivers and expects to hire 25,000 more over the next five years. Has its high-tech approach to training worked? Of the 1,629 trainees who have completed Integrad, only 10 percent have failed the training program, which takes a total of six weeks overall and includes 30 days driving a truck in the real world. Action learning virtually ensures high positive transfer to the job, and the reduction in the failure rate from 30% to 10% is a win-win for the company, its drivers, and the customers it serves.

*

Source: Levitz, J. (2010, April 6). UPS thinks outside the box on driver training. The Wall Street Journal, pp. B1, B2. See also Hira, N. A. (2007, Nov. 12). The making of a UPS driver. Fortune,pp. 118–130.

· 3. Design exercises and training events based on the objectives from step 2. As with individual training, opportunities for guided practice and constructive feedback are particularly important for team training. This may include, for example,  team-coordination training (focusing on teamwork skills that facilitate information exchange, cooperation, and coordination of job-related behaviors);  cross-training  (providing exposure to and practice with other teammates’ tasks, roles, and responsibilities in an effort to increase shared understanding and knowledge among team members); and  guided team self-correction (providing guidance to team members in reviewing team events, identifying errors and exchanging feedback, and developing plans for the future).

· 4. Design measures of team effectiveness based on the objectives from step 2, evaluate the effectiveness of the team training, and use this information to guide future team training.

Other research has revealed two broad principles regarding the composition and management of teams. First, individual skills are a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for effective team performance. 64  Thus, individual training and development are still important. But individual training is only a partial solution because interactions among team members must also be addressed. This interaction is what makes team training unique—it always uses some form of simulation or real-life practice, and it always focuses on the interaction of team members, equipment, and work procedures. 65  To improve team communication and team effectiveness, and therefore aviation safety, among air crews for example, a popular intervention is Crew Resource Management (CRM) training, usually conducted using sophisticated flight simulators. Evidence across more than 50 studies shows positive benefits in terms of improved communication and performance. 66

Second, managers of effective work groups tend to monitor the performance of their team members regularly, and they provide frequent feedback to them. This is as true of traditional teams as it is of virtual teams. 67  In fact, as much as 35 percent of the variability in team performance can be explained by the frequency of use of monitors and consequences. Incorporating these findings into the training of team members and their managers should lead to better overall team performance.

Selecting Training Methods

New training methods appear every year. While some are well founded in learning theory or models of behavior change (e.g., behavior modeling), others result more from technological than theoretical developments (e.g., presentation software, use of animation and sound, computer-based business simulations).

Training methods, that is, tactics used in the training environment to stimulate learning, can be classified in three ways: information presentation, simulation methods, or on-the-job training. 68

· ▪ Information-presentation techniques include lectures, conferences, correspondence courses, videos/compact discs (CDs), distance learning, interactive multimedia (CDs/DVDs), intranet and Internet, intelligent tutoring (software that models a learner's current state of knowledge and skill relative to an expert, then selects tactics to help the learner progress from novice to expert), 69  and  organization development —systematic, long-range programs of organizational improvement.

· ▪ Simulation methods include the case method, role playing, behavior modeling, interactive simulations for virtual teams, virtual reality, the in-basket technique, and business simulations.

· ▪ On-the-job training methods include orientation training, apprenticeships, on-the-job training, near-the-job training (using identical equipment but away from the job itself), job rotation, committee assignments (or junior executive boards), understudy assignments, on-the-job coaching, and performance management.

In the context of developing interpersonal skills, training methods are typically chosen to achieve one or more of three objectives:

· ▪ Promoting self-insight and environmental awareness—that is, an understanding of how a person's actions affect others and how a person is viewed by others. For example, at Parfums Stern, employees act out customer/salesperson roles to better understand customers’ emotions. Wendy's International videotapes customers with disabilities; in one video a blind person asks that change be counted out loud. Meridian Bancorp has workers walk with seeds in their shoes to simulate older customers’ corns and calluses. 70

ETHICAL DILEMMA Anger Management: Whose Responsibility Is It? *

Workplace stress is high these days, given the fact that many employers have reduced the size of their workforces, instituted pay cuts, or imposed furloughs. Often, remaining employees are saddled with increased workloads. As one expert put it, “Anger comes in two flavors: hot and cold contempt. Hot contempt is what we traditionally think of as anger: red face and bulging veins. But 90 percent of workplace anger is cold contempt: gossip, back-stabbing, withdrawal, simmering resentment, and the desire to see others fail.” Either type of anger can cost a company in terms of lost productivity and higher health premiums.

Should supervisors and higher-level managers be responsible for dealing with the anger issues of those who report to them? Some might argue that it is unreasonable to expect anyone other than a highly credentialed and experienced provider, schooled in clinical psychology, counseling, or medicine, to be able to deal effectively with issues like that. What do you think?

*

Source: Tyler, K. (2010, May). Helping employees cool it. HRMagazine 55(4), 53-55.

· ▪ Improving the ability of managers and lower-level employees to make decisions and to solve job-related problems in a constructive fashion.

· ▪ Maximizing the desire to perform well.

To choose the training method (or combination of methods) that best fits a given situation, first define carefully what you wish to teach. That is the purpose of the needs-assessment phase. Only then can you choose a method that best fits these requirements. To be useful, the method should meet the minimal conditions needed for effective learning to take place; that is, the training method should

· ▪ Motivate the trainee to improve his or her performance.

· ▪ Clearly illustrate desired skills.

· ▪ Allow the trainee to participate actively.

· ▪ Provide an opportunity to practice.

· ▪ Provide timely feedback on the trainee's performance.

· ▪ Provide some means for reinforcement while the trainee learns.

· ▪ Be structured from simple to complex tasks.

· ▪ Be adaptable to specific problems.

· ▪ Encourage positive transfer from the training to the job.

EVALUATING TRAINING PROGRAMS

To evaluate training, you must systematically document the outcomes of the training in terms of how trainees actually behave back on their jobs and the relevance of that behavior to the objectives of the organization. 71  To assess the utility or value of training, we seek answers to questions such as the following:

· 1. Have trainees achieved a specific level of skill, knowledge, or performance?

· 2. Did change occur?

· 3. Is the change due to training?

· 4. Is the change positively related to the achievement of organizational goals?

· 5. Will similar changes occur with new participants in the same training program? 72

In evaluating training programs, it is important to distinguish targets of evaluation (training content and design, changes in learners, and organizational payoffs) from data-collection methods (e.g., with respect to organizational payoffs, cost-benefit analyses, ratings, and surveys).  Figure 8–3 presents a model that illustrates these distinctions. Targets and methods are linked through the options available for measurement, that is, its focus (e.g., with respect to changes in learners, the focus might be cognitive, affective, or behavioral changes). Finally, targets, focus, and methods are linked to the purpose of the evaluation—feedback (to trainers or learners), decision making, and marketing.

Figure 8–3 An integrative model of training evaluation.

(Source: Kraiger, K. (2002) Decision-based evaluation. In K. Kraiger (Ed.), Creating, Implementing, and Managing Effective Training and Development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, p. 343. Reprinted with permission of John Wiley & Sons Inc.)

Consider organizational payoffs, for example. The focus might be on transfer of training (e.g., transfer climate, opportunity to perform, on-the-job behavior change), on results (performance effectiveness or tangible outcomes to a work-group or organization), or on the financial impact of the training (e.g., through measures of return-on-investment or utility analysis).

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS IN MEASURING THE OUTCOMES OF TRAINING

Regardless of the measures used, our goal is to be able to make meaningful inferences and to rule out alternative explanations for results (e.g., lengthened job experience, outside economic events, changes in supervision or performance incentives). To do so, it is important to administer the measures according to some logical plan or procedure (experimental design) (e.g., before and after training as well as to a comparable control group).

To rule out these rival explanations for the changes that occurred, it is essential to design a plan for evaluation that includes before and after measurement of the trained group's performance relative to that of one or more untrained control groups. (However, when it is relatively costly to bring participants to an evaluation and administration costs are particularly high, after-only measurement of trained and untrained groups is best. 73 ) Match members of the untrained control group as closely as possible to those in the trained group.  Table 8–1  shows a standard design for such a study. If the outcomes of the training are positive, the untrained control group at time 1 may become the trained group at a later time. It is important to note that the post-training appraisal of performance should not be done sooner than three months (or more) following the training so that the trainees have an opportunity to put into practice what they have learned.

Table 8–1 A TYPICAL BEFORE-AFTER DESIGN FOR ASSESSING TRAINING OUTCOMES

	Trained group	Untrained group
Pretest	Yes	Yes
Training	Yes	No
Post-test	Yes	Yes

Finally, the impact of training on organizational results is the most significant, but most difficult, effect to demonstrate. Measures of results are the bottom line of training success. Exciting developments in this area have come from recent research showing how the general utility equation ( Equation 7–1  on page 275) can be modified to reflect the dollar value of improved job performance resulting from training. 74  Utility formulas are now available for evaluating the dollar value of a single training program compared to a control group, a training program re-administered periodically (e.g., annually), and a comparison between two or more different training programs.

HR BUZZ EXECUTIVE COACHING

Does It Pay Off?

External coaches are often used to help talented executives who are in trouble because of behavioral or style deficiencies, or to help them lead critical transitions, such as having to lead a major change effort. Unfortunately, practice is far ahead of theory and research in this area, and there is a lack of consensus about definitions, methods, and techniques. In addition, there are no barriers to entry and no generally accepted standards for certification. In terms of coaching's effectiveness, it is difficult to identify causal connections between specific actions and outcomes like strategy execution and change management because the coaching process unfolds over a relatively long period of time, and feedback on outcomes is therefore a long-term process. Any immediate feedback is likely to be related to outcomes like leadership behaviors or individual performance. a

 Does It Pay Off?

That said, executive coaching has the following characteristics. It is

· ▪ One-on-one.

· ▪ Relationship-based.

· ▪ Methodology-based (draws on specific tools and techniques as part of a relatively structured overall process).

· ▪ Provided by a professional coach.

· ▪ Scheduled in multiple sessions over time.

· ▪ Goal-oriented for both organizational and individual benefit.

· ▪ Customized to the person.

· ▪ Intended to enhance the person's ability to learn and develop independently. b

The best coaching is aligned with an organization's overall talent-management strategy. The organization has a clear understanding of its talent and development needs, the array of development tools that might be used (including coaching), and a method for matching the talent need with the appropriate solution.

Does coaching work? A review of four studies revealed an average return on investment (ROI) of five to seven times its cost. There is reason to be skeptical, however, since it is extremely difficult to estimate accurately the future financial value of any capabilities acquired through coaching. Another study found five main areas of improvement: people management, relationships with managers, goal setting and prioritization, personal productivity and engagement at work, and communications with colleagues. c

Beyond this evidence, there is the simple but compelling logic that executive coaching incorporates multiple techniques already shown to be effective in learning. These include goal setting; feedback; accountability; behavioral practice; communicating performance expectations; enhancing self-efficacy; reflection; and establishing a trusting, supportive relationship. d

In addition, evidence shows that coaching improves managers’ use of 360-degree feedback by helping them set specific goals for improvement and solicit ideas for improvement. Those actions lead to improved performance. e

Remember, not all coaches are equally proficient in what they do, and not every executive is equally likely to change from coaching. f  The best coaches are empathetic, supportive, practical, and self-confident, but do not appear to know all the answers or tell others what to do. To be receptive to coaching, employees need to be open-minded and interested, not defensive and close-minded. Both parties need to be coached to take risks in the relationship. To evaluate a prospective coach, consider asking questions such as the following. Experienced coaches should have good answers to each of them:

· ▪ With whom have you worked, in what types of organizations and jobs, and at what levels?

· ▪ What processes do you build in to ensure that you get results?

· ▪ What kind of assessment will we go through to focus on the right things for me?

· ▪ What is your approach to help me learn new things?

· ▪ How can we know we have achieved what we set out to achieve?

· ▪ Who would you turn down, and why? g

a

Peterson, D. B. (2011). Executive coaching: A critical review and recommendations for advancing the practice. In S. Zedeck (Ed.), Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 2. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, pp. 527–566.

b

Ibid.

c

Kombarakaran, F. A., Yang, J. A., Baker, M. N., and Fernandes, P. B. (2008). Executive coaching: It works! Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research 60, pp. 78–90.

d

Peterson, 2011, op. cit.

e

Smither, J. M., London, M., Flautt, R., Vargas, Y., & Kucine, L. (2003). Can working with an executive coach improve multisource ratings over time? A quasiexperimental field study. Personnel Psychology 56, pp. 23–44.

f

Ibid.

g

Tyler, K. (2000, June). Scoring big in the workplace. HR Magazine, pp. 96–106.

NEW-EMPLOYEE ORIENTATION: THE ON-BOARDING PROCESS

An often neglected part of the training enterprise is the orientation of new employees to the company and its culture. Because most turnover occurs during the first few months on the job (at Marriott, 40 percent of the new employees who leave do so during the first three months 75 ), failure to provide a thorough orientation can be a very expensive mistake. 76  Let's consider what progressive companies are doing in this area.

One definition of  orientation  is “familiarization with and adaptation to a situation or an environment.” While 8 out of every 10 organizations in the United States that have more than 50 employees provide orientation, the time and effort devoted to its design, conduct, and evaluation are woefully inadequate. In practice, orientation is often just a superficial indoctrination into company philosophy, policies, and rules; sometimes it includes the presentation of an employee handbook and a quick tour of the office or plant. This can be costly. Here is why.

In one way, a displaced worker from the factory who is hired into another environment is similar to a new college graduate. Upon starting a new job, both will face a kind of culture shock. As they are exposed for the first time to a new organizational culture, both find that the new job is not quite what they imagined it to be. In fact, coming to work at a new company is not unlike visiting a foreign country. Either you are told about the local customs, or else you learn them on your own by a process of trial and error. An effective orientation program can help lessen the impact of this shock. But there must be more, such as a period of  socialization , or learning to function as a contributing member of the corporate “family.” A well-designed new-employee orientation will facilitate socialization. The payoff? Higher levels of job satisfaction and commitment, along with reduced levels of employee turnover, and a deeper understanding of a firm's goals, values, history, and people. 77

The cost of hiring, training, and orienting a new person is far higher than most of us realize. For example, Merck & Co., the pharmaceutical giant, found that—depending on the job—turnover costs are 1.5 to 2.5 times the annual salary paid for the job. 78  Moreover, because the turnover rate among new college hires can be as great as 50 percent during the first 12 months, such costs can be considerable.

A new employee's experiences during the initial period with an organization can have a major impact on his or her career. A new hire stands on the boundary of the organization—certainly no longer an outsider but not yet embraced by those within. There is great stress. The new hire wants to reduce this stress by becoming incorporated into the “interior” as quickly as possible. Consequently, during this period an employee is more receptive to cues from the organizational environment than she or he is ever likely to be again. Such cues to proper behavior may come from a variety of sources, for example,

· ▪ Official literature of the organization.

· ▪ Examples set by senior people.

· ▪ Formal instructions given by senior people.

· ▪ Examples given by peers.

· ▪ Rewards and punishments that flow from the employee's efforts.

· ▪ Responses to the employee's ideas.

· ▪ Degree of challenge in the assignments the employee receives.

Special problems may arise for a young new employee whose life until now has been spent mainly in an educational setting. As she approaches her first job, the recent graduate may feel motivated entirely by personal creativity. She is information rich but experience poor, eager to apply her knowledge to new processes and problems. Unfortunately, there are conditions that may stifle this creative urge. During her undergraduate days, the new employee exercised direct control over her work. Now she faces regular hours, greater restrictions, possibly a less pleasant environment, and a need to work through other people—often finding that most of the work is mundane and unchallenging. In short, three typical problems face the new employee:

· 1. Problems in entering a group. The new employee asks herself whether she will (a) be acceptable to the other group members, (b) be liked, and (c) be safe—that is, free from physical and psychological harm. These issues must be resolved before she can feel comfortable and productive in the new situation.

· 2. Naive expectations. Organizations find it much easier to communicate factual information about pay and benefits, vacations, and company policies than information about employee norms (rules or guides to acceptable behavior), company attitudes, or “what it really takes to get ahead around here.” Simple fairness suggests that employees ought to be told about these intangibles. The bonus is that being up front and honest with job candidates produces positive results. As we saw in  Chapter 6 , the research on realistic job previews (RJPs) indicates that job acceptance rates will likely be lower for those who receive an RJP, but job survival rates will be higher. 79

· 3. First-job environment. Does the new environment help or hinder the new employee trying to climb aboard? Can peers be counted on to socialize the new employee to desired job standards? How and why was the first job assignment chosen? Is it clear to the new employee what she or he can expect to get out of it?

To appreciate the kinds of problems a new employee faces, consider how Dave Savchetz, plant manager of Ford Motor Company's Kansas City, Missouri, factory, describes his first day on the job 20 years ago: 80

It was a shock. To be honest, it was pretty traumatic. You got hired in this group of 30 people you've never met, and you sign a form, and the foreman comes in, and you walk out into this factory. And it's just the first time, you know? Things are moving, and you just look around, and you go, “What's going on here?” Quite frankly, the first day I got lost.

In fact, the first year with an organization is the critical period during which an employee will or will not learn to become a high performer. The careful matching of company and employee expectations during this period can result in positive job attitudes and high standards, which then can be reinforced in new and more demanding jobs.

PLANNING, PACKAGING, AND EVALUATING AN ON-BOARDING PROGRAM

Typically some time will elapse between the acceptance of a job and the actual start date. Some companies use this time to begin the orientation process. One West Coast company mails correspondence to the new employee's home, indicating how happy it is that the new employee will be joining the company's team. It also sends the employee handbook, along with information about the geographical area, as well as major, ongoing projects in the department where the new employee will be working. The company then follows up with a personal phone call to answer any new or outstanding questions that the new employee may have. Lastly, it calls the new employee the day before he or she is scheduled to begin work. This all occurs before the employee actually reports! 81  By this time, the new employee probably feels extremely welcome and will be quite comfortable during the first day on the job.

At a broad level, new employees need specific information in the following areas: 82

· ▪ Company standards, expectations, goals, history, politics (information about formal and informal power structures), and language (knowledge of the organization's acronyms, slang, and jargon).

· ▪ Social behavior, such as approved conduct, the work climate, and getting to know fellow workers and supervisors.

· ▪ Technical aspects of the job so that they can become proficient and per-form well.

Some employers now offer a rich online orientation experience. For example, IBM uses the Internet-based virtual-world platform Second Life to enable its interns and new hires from all over the world to learn about corporate culture and business processes by having their avatars attend meetings, view presentations, and interact with other avatars in a virtual IBM Community. Such an approach allows IBM to provide consistent information to employees in an interactive, engaging way and to set the tone with new employees. 83

Houston-based ION Geophysical uses a simulation called RedCarpet to provide a consistent, personalized welcome message to new hires in the five countries in which it operates. Through the new-employee portal, the chief executive officer offers a welcome message via streaming video. New hires can view photos and profiles of members of their work team, get instructions on setting up voice mail, and access career-development information. Based on the new hire's location, he or she can also view information on local amenities, such as dry cleaners, fitness centers, banks, and restaurants. The system even accommodates multiple languages so international employees can receive information in their native tongues. 84

Appealing though the gaming approach may be, there are also drawbacks. Research shows that when orientation is more individualized, newcomers are less likely to seek feedback and information, to build relationships, and to socialize. 85

Be sure to avoid these approaches to orientation: 86

· ▪ An emphasis on paperwork. After completing forms required by the HR department, manually, the new employee is given a cursory welcome. Then the employee is directed to his or her immediate supervisor. The likely result: The employee does not feel like part of the company. In contrast, one company reduced the number of times new hires had to sign their names, from 32 with a manual process to just twice with an online on-boarding system. That saving in time frees up the new employee to spend the first day meeting people and adjusting to the company's culture and work environment. 87

· ▪ A sketchy overview of the basics. A quick, superficial orientation, and the new employee is immediately put to work—sink or swim.

· ▪ Mickey Mouse assignments. The new employee's first tasks are insignificant duties, supposedly intended to teach the job “from the ground up.”

· ▪ Suffocation. Giving too much information too fast is a well-intentioned but disastrous approach, causing the new employee to feel overwhelmed and suffocated.

We know from other companies’ mistakes what works and what does not. For example, consider how The Container Store handles new employee orientation.

HR BUZZ THE CONTAINER STORE

Foundation Week *  

Listen as Barbara Anderson, of Dallas-based The Container Store, a perennial member of Fortunemagazine's “100 Best Companies to Work for in America,” describes Foundation Week: “Our orientation begins with the interview process. Full-time employees will have a minimum of three interviews with three different people, which is very unusual for retail,” says Anderson. “But we want the right fit. We have a quirky culture, and spend a lot of time talking about how and why we do business the way we do.”

Anderson says that her company went from doing absolutely nothing for orientation when the company started in 1978, to the structured Foundation Week that has been in place since 1996. “We started years ago with two hours of orientation, and then four, after which employees were given an apron and told to go to work,” she says. “We lost a lot of good people that way—they couldn't learn by osmosis.”

The Container Store today has a formatted approach to orientation that Anderson says layers information. “Each layer goes back to reinforce what the employee learned the day before. By the end of the week, the new employee has heard the most important things five different times from five different people.”

Day One of Foundation Week begins with philosophy and time with the store manager. “This day usually blows people away—the fact that the manager spends most of the day talking to them,” says Anderson. “Right away, they know they're in a different culture.”

“Many companies spend the first day on where to park and benefits—boring!” says Anderson, who intersperses this kind of information in a crossword puzzle format. “Employees have a handbook and an assignment before they start, and we tell them to come prepared for discussion.”

Day Two progresses to visual information. “This is very important,” says Anderson. “We show them how we get the product into the store, how we put it on the shelves, how we make signs.” Anderson says that during Foundation Week, new hires actually work as full-fledged store employees—without the apron. But because of the training they receive during this week, she says, “When they do put on their aprons and go out on the floor, right away they can be productive and have something to do.”

On Day Three, employees spend time with salespeople, learning the different sections of the store and the various selling techniques for each section. Day Four teaches the employee different roles like that of host (greeter) and cashier, and how to provide customer service in these roles. The employee learns about inventory and back-room operations on Day Five, and gets a recap with the manager.

“Then we have a ceremony that cheers on the new employees,” says Anderson. “And that is when they get their apron. The psychological effect of having to wait for that apron is incredible.”

Although it's difficult to attribute retention to a single factor like a good orientation program, Anderson believes that starting employees out right certainly helps with her company's low turnover. According to the Washington, DC–based National Retail Federation, average turnover rates for store mana gers, full-time employ ees, and part-time employees in most businesses are 33.6, 73.6, and 124.3 percent, respectively. In comparison, Anderson says that The Container Store's turnover rate, which includes part-time and seasonal employees, is 25 to 30 percent.

Anderson believes the time in Foundation Week is well spent. “We have a productive employee much more quickly, rather than a warm body trying to sell.” In the past, when The Container Store didn't do orientation this way, employees did not have the same self-confidence. She says: “Whenever we short this, we set the employee back about three months.”

*

Source: Joinson, C. (2001, Winter). Hit the floor running, start the cart … and other new ways to train new employees. Employment Management Today 6(1). Retrieved from  http://www.shrm.org on Sept. 8, 2004.

Orientation Follow-Up

The worst mistake a company can make is to ignore the new employee after orientation. Almost as bad is an informal open-door policy: “Come see me sometime if you have any questions.” Many new employees are simply not assertive enough to seek out the supervisor or HR representative—more than likely, they fear looking dumb. What is needed is formal and systematic orientation follow-up; for example, National Semiconductor uses focus groups of randomly selected new employees to find out what they like and don't like. 88  It found that many of the topics covered during orientation need to be explained briefly again—once the employee has had the opportunity to experience them firsthand. This is natural and understandable in view of the blizzard of information that often is communicated during orientation. One hospital asks new employees to complete a “six-week checkup” by answering questions such as, “How well do you know your supervisor?” “What do you like best (least) about your job?” “What additional training do you need?” and “How can we help you do your job better?”

Evaluation of the Orientation Program

At least once a year, review the orientation program to determine if it is meeting its objectives and to identify future improvements. To improve orientation, you need candid, comprehensive feedback from everyone involved in the program. There are several ways to provide this kind of feedback: through roundtable discussions with new employees after their first year on the job, through in-depth interviews with randomly selected employees and supervisors, and through questionnaires for mass coverage of all recent hires. Now let's consider some important lessons that any company can use.

LESSONS LEARNED

As a result of The Container Store's experience and the recent experiences of many other companies, we offer the following considerations to guide the process of orienting new employees. They apply to any type of organization, large or small, and to any function or level of job: 89

· 1. The impressions formed by new employees within their first 60 to 90 days on a job are lasting.

· 2. Day one is crucial—new employees remember it for years. It must be managed well.

· 3. New employees are interested in learning about the total organization—and how they and their unit fit into the big picture. This is just as important as is specific information about the new employee's own job and department. For example, new employees at Corning go through an intranet scavenger hunt that requires them to use information learned during orientation and to demonstrate that they are comfortable with using the company's intranet system.

· 4. Give new employees major responsibility for their own orientation, through guided self-learning, but with direction and support.

· 5. Avoid information overload—provide it in reasonable amounts.

· 6. Recognize that community, social, and family adjustment is a critical aspect of orientation for new employees.

· 7. Make the immediate supervisor ultimately responsible for the success of the orientation process.

· 8. Thorough orientation is a “must” for productivity improvement. It is a vital part of the total management system—and therefore the foundation of any effort to improve employee productivity.

These lessons are exciting and provocative. They suggest that we should be at least as concerned with preparing the new employee for the social context of his or her job and for coping with the insecurities and frustrations of a new learning situation as with the development of the technical skills necessary to perform well.

IMPACT OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT ON PRODUCTIVITY, QUALITY OF WORK LIFE, AND THE BOTTOM LINE

Does training work? One investigation reported the following returns on investment (ROI) for various types of training: 5:1 (behavior modification), 4.8:1 (customer service), 13.7:1 (team training), 15:1 (role of the manager), and 21:1 (sales training). a  At a more general level, the literature on training evaluation shows that while the potential returns from well-conducted training programs can be substantial, there is often considerable variability in the effectiveness with which any given training method or content area is implemented. b  As we have seen, considerable planning (through needs analysis) and follow-up program-evaluation efforts are necessary in order to realize these returns. Given the pace of change in modern society and technology, retraining is imperative to enable individuals to compete for or retain their jobs and to enable organizations to compete in the marketplace. In recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce, for example, a  WetFeet.com  study reported that “opportunities for training and career development” was the number 1 feature that candidates demand. c  Continual investments in training and learning are therefore essential, as they have such direct impacts on the productivity of organizations and on the quality of work life of those who work in them.

a

Philips, J. J. (1996, Feb.). ROI: the search for best practices. Training and Development, p. 45. See also Arthur, Bennett, Edens, and Bell, (2003), op. cit.

b

Aguinis and Kraiger, (2009), op. cit.

c

Thaler-Carter, R. E. (2001, June). Diversify your recruitment advertising. HR Magazine, pp. 92–100.

Human Resource Management in Action: ConclusionTECHNOLOGY-DELIVERED INSTRUCTION (TDI) CATCHES ON

Simulation games are one popular type of TDI. They refer to instruction delivered via personal computer that immerses trainees in a decision-making exercise in an artificial environment in order to learn the consequences of their decisions. The games are intrinsically motivating, and people report a loss of time when playing their favorite ones. When used for training, they seem to pay off nicely. Meta-analysis results indicate that relative to a comparison group, post-training self-efficacy (belief that one can succeed) was 20 percent higher, knowledge of facts was 11 percent higher, skill-based knowledge was 14 percent higher, and retention was 9 percent higher for trainees taught with simulation games.

Trainees learned more when simulation games conveyed course material actively rather than passively, trainees could access the simulation game as many times as they desired, and the simulation game was a supplement to other instructional methods rather than stand-alone instruction. Trainees learned less, however, when the instruction the comparison group received as a substitute for the simulation game actively engaged them in the learning experience.

Here's an example. Cold Stone Creamery developed a simulation game to teach customer service and portion control in a virtual Cold Stone store. Players race against the clock to service customers in a timely fashion while maximizing the company's profit by avoiding wasting too much ice cream. The first week the simulation game was available, more than 8,000 employees—30 percent of the workforce—voluntarily downloaded the simulation game. Corporate trainers believe that theentertainment value will motivate employees to play the game continuously while simultaneously teaching them retail sales, technical, and managerial skills.

There are drawbacks, however. Computer-based simulation games are more expensive to develop than other forms of TDI, with complex simulation games costing between $5 and $20 million to create. Traditional online training takes an average of 220 hours to create each hour of instructional content, whereas online simulations require 750 to 1,500 hours to create each hour of instructional content. Needless to say, in order to maximize the utility of simulation games, designers need to focus on content reuse, using software that streamlines the game-development process, and offsetting development costs with savings in travel costs for training that used to be delivered via classroom instruction. Here is another consideration.

Although some people may relish the opportunity to squeeze in a little training via a computer or CD at home, on a plane, or in a hotel room, others may regard after-hours training as an unwarranted intrusion on their personal time. This raises an interesting question. If a company does not provide time for training during regular working hours, is it arbitrarily extending the workday? Some firms, such as GlaxoSmithKline, urge managers to provide time for training during the work day. Other employers provide tools to help employees carve training time out of their work days. Cisco Systems gives employees police tape to stretch across their cubicle doors. Others hand out signs saying “Learning in Progress.” As learning becomes more a part of every job—and of day-to-day life—more companies will develop policies on these issues.

IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT PRACTICE

One of the greatest fears of managers and lower-level employees is obsolescence. Perhaps the  Paul principle  expresses this phenomenon most aptly: Over time, people become uneducated, and therefore incompetent, to perform at a level at which they once performed adequately. a  Training is an important antidote to obsolescence, but it is important to be realistic about what training can and cannot accomplish.

· 1. Training cannot solve all kinds of performance problems. In some cases, transfer, job redesign, changes in selection or reward systems, or discipline may be more appropriate.

· 2. Because productivity (the value of outputs per unit of labor) is a characteristic of a system, such as a firm or an industry, and not of an individual, changes in individual or team performance are only one possible cause of changes in productivity. b

· 3. As a manager, you need to ask yourself three key questions:

· ▪ Do we have an actual or a potential performance problem for which training is the answer?

· ▪ Have we defined what is to be learned and what the content of training should be before we choose a particular training method or technique?

· ▪ What kind of evaluation procedure will we use to determine if the benefits of the training outweigh its costs?

a

Armer, P. (1970). The individual: His privacy, self-image, and obsolescence. Proceedings of the meeting of the panel on science and technology, 11th “Science and Astronautics.” Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

b

Campbell, J. P. (1988). Training design for performance improvement. In J. P. Campbell and R. J. Campbell (Eds.), Productivity in organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 177–215.

Suppose you are considering offering TDI to your employees. Experts say that it is critical to test drive each potential course from the vendor. Experience the course. See how easy it is to navigate the site, how fast it loads, and if it provides quality take-home information. Are all elements of the course integrated? Is technical support available 24/7? An online course won't be of much use if employees can't access it or can't get help with it anytime they want. Inadequate support equals frustrated learners. Finally, simulation games or any other type of TDI should not be used in training simply because the technology exists. Rather, determine training needs carefully, and identify the kinds of instructional features that should be included in order to maximize learning.

A final issue is this. Who profits most from e-learning? A recent study found considerable variability in the amount of time participants spent on each module and the time they spent practicing what was taught. Not surprisingly, employees who learned most from this type of learning environment were those who completed more of the practice opportunities made available and took more time to complete the experience.

SUMMARY

The pace of change in our society is forcing employees at all levels continually to acquire new knowledge and skills. In most organizations, therefore, lifelong training is essential. To be maximally effective, training programs should follow a three-phase sequence: needs assessment, implementation, and evaluation. First define clearly what is to be learned before choosing a particular method or technique. To define what is to be learned, a continuous cycle of organization analysis, demographic analysis, operations analysis, and analysis of the training needs of employees is necessary.

Then, relate training needs to the achievement of broader organizational goals and ensure that they are consistent with management's perceptions of strategy and tactics. Beyond these fundamental concerns, principles of learning—goal setting, behavior modeling, meaningfulness of material, practice, feedback, and transfer of training—are essential considerations in the design of any training program. Choose a particular technique according to the degree to which it fits identified needs and incorporates the learning principles.

In evaluating training programs, it is important to distinguish targets of evaluation (training content and design, changes in learners, and organizational payoffs) from data-collection methods (e.g., with respect to organizational payoffs, cost-benefit analyses, ratings, and surveys). However, measures of the impact of training on organizational results are the bottom line of training success. Fortunately, advances in utility analysis now make evaluations possible in terms of economic benefits and economic costs.

One of the most neglected areas of training is new-employee orientation, also known as on-boarding. Clearly, a new employee's initial experience with a firm can have a major effect on his or her later career. To maximize the impact of orientation, it is important to recognize that new employees need specific information in three major areas: (1) company standards, expectations, goals, history, politics, and language; (2) social behavior; and (3) technical aspects of the job. While some aspects of orientation can be handled via computer (e.g., forms completion, history of the organization), the more socially rich areas should not. Rather, use a formal, social-based program to do that, and be sure to involve HR as well as non-HR executives and employees in the process. An orientation follow-up is essential (e.g., after one week and one month by the supervisor, and after one month and every few months thereafter by an HR representative) to ensure proper quality control plus continual improvement.