Title of Research

“Impact of Training in building performance culture and improving employee

Retention in organizations”
Introduction to the Research Topic
The history of Training and Development is deep rooted in the origins of Education
Itself. Imparting knowledge, based on principles and practices, has played a key role
in shaping the human progress. Educational Systems primarily focused on the ability
of the students to study the knowledge provided, and then reproduce the
knowledge themselves during exams or in their future life. The role of an educator
was then confined to the four walls of the Classroom.
As the world progressed, there was quite a large demand for skilled people, who
could convert the knowledge they acquired to doing things that were in demand.
There was a huge demand for Trained workforce during World War II, where the
requirement was for People who could extend their knowledge they acquired to a
specific skill that could add value to a specific demand.
The world moved from a stage of just providing the knowledge to students to
helping them make use of their knowledge to acquire skills for future job
requirements.
During the Post war period, training achieved two different dimensions – Classroom
Training and On The Job Training. Instructional System Design (ISD) Model,
emphasized on Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate (ADDIE) Phases –
that focused highly on “beyond the Classroom” Methodology – where need based
Training and Evaluation of Effectiveness was practiced.
The training for performance system (TPS) is an adaptation of this model that
combines the five phases of development with a strong work performance
orientation (Swanson, 1994; Swanson & Sisson, 1980).
As a parallel system to Training and development, Vocational Education has been
successfully running aside, though a shared mission, but had a high influence in
developing technical skills and knowledge, required for building pool of skills
workforce for the ever-growing needs in countries with rampant industrialization.
Despite similarities in the philosophy, both Vocational Education and Training and
Development operated on different tracks.
Human capital theory (Becker, 1975, 1993) identified Training as a investment for
companies to develop employees and achieve productivity goals, than seeing it as a
cost. Between the years 1987 to 2000, several tools and mechanisms were derived
to demonstrate the financial benefits of Training.
The perception of employee training as a value add depends on its ability to
demonstrate Return on Investment and in the recent times, where cost optimization
and availability of large chunks of knowledge at the click of a mouse, it is also a
challenging time for organizations maintain a balance.
Training and Development in the Current Scenario
Success of an organization primarily depends on six key factors (1) Organizational
Business Goals and Strategies (2) Aligning the workforce towards achieving the goals
through effective communication process (3) Understanding the Skills levels and
efficiency of the employees (4) Filling the skill gaps by effective training
methodologies (5) continuous feedback mechanism, and (6) Effective Performance
Management Systems.
Training and Development has always been a critical support arm for professional
organizations, to continuously improve Employee Knowledge and Skills. It also, to an
extent has played the role of change management catalysts in successful
organisations.
Training and Development specifically caters to the development of Knowledge (K),
Skills (S) and Ability (A) of the employees. The KSA Framework is historically
associated with the US Federal Government. It had been widely criticized these
terms as interchangeable or overlapping, however it gives a broad overview of an
individual’s qualifications.
Knowledge refers to the Conceptual Clarity of an individual and his / her grasp on a
specific topic, though not practical.
Skills refer to the proficiency developed through work experience, practice or
through Training. It is the practical application of the Theoretical knowledge.
Ability is often mistaken as Skills however, it is more deep-rooted and it is about
one’s innate ability to perform in a given situation – favorable or unfavorable
environment, to achieve the task.
Understanding the KSA helps to formulate the right Training Methodology for the
individual and it becomes more effective.

KSA
Model

Ability

Coach
Identifying the correct Training Methodology can have a great influence and can be
rewarding for the employee as well.
In the above diagram, Knowledge of an employee is predominantly developed
through Classroom Training, While Skills are developed through Classroom and On-
the-Job Training and Ability of the employee requires more focused approach, and
Coaching would be an ideal Training Tool to address it.
Training and Development has spread is reach to the business functions –
Behavioral Training – which is more focused on addressing the gaps in the “Ability”
of the employees, develop or adding competencies that can positively impact the
employees’ Ability to carry out his job. This is done taking into consideration the
current role and the future roles based on the organization’s growth ladder
Sales Training –is more focused and specific to Sales Function - on developing the
efficiency, capability and thereby achieving the bottom-line benchmarks set by the
Sales Function.
Most departments within a typical business have a set of processes or procedures to
guide them and metrics or standards by which performance of that function is
measured. Finance must comply with generally accepted accounting principles
(GAAP). Manufacturing departments seek an ISO 9000 and/or Six Sigma designation.
Measuring a customer care department’s effectiveness through surveys has become
a standard business practice.
From Early days, Salesmen were taught how to “persuade”. In 1904, P.W. Searles
discussed how new recruits were taught how to sell. Sales Managers taught them
tricks to persuade a potential customer - salesmanship was taught— clearly tricks of
the trade for those who persuade.
As we moved into the 21st Century, keeping an eye on the cost efficiency,
organisations started looking at replacing Sales Training by bringing in Automated
Sales Processes – where they believe they could gather more real time information
from the market, much to the chagrin of the Sales People and delight to the Sales
Managers, where automation was seen as a one stop solution for the Sales issues.
Gradually there seem to lack of human element who can identify Skill and Ability
Gaps, converse with the Sales Person about the way they go about selling a product
and identify specific areas that needs to be addressed. Rather it has become more of
analysis-based reports with very little consideration, that at the end of the day, it is
an individual who can make a difference at the market place.
Hypothesis of Research
- The Researcher intend to question the Effectiveness of CRM Systems in bring a
positive change in the performance of an employee compared to a Traditional Sales
Training Approach.
- The researcher intends to establish that a Traditional Sales Training Model – can be
more effective and can bring in measurable impact for building a strong performance
culture in an organization.
- An Automated Performance culture can take away real time performance feedback
provided to the employee and it can lead to employee dissatisfaction and affect
employee retention.
Sales Training can positively impact performance and employee retention, only when
backed up with work processes and effective people Management Skills.
Research Questions
The Researcher intends to conduct a top-own approach to research the key success
factors. The Following are the stakeholders
Interview Survey Methodology
HR / Learning & Understanding the existence of Sales
Development Senior Training in the organization
Management
Man-hours imparted
Whether Internal / External
What are the Training Effectiveness
methodologies used in the organization
Connecting Sales Training & Performance
Performance improvement Matrices /
Performance Measurement

Business Leaders / Interview Survey Methodology

Managers
Types of Sales Training Methodologies
Frequency
Critical matrices / KPIs addressed through
Sales Training
Performance Tracking / Feedback
mechanism
Bottom-line Impact analysis
Rewards for Performance Improvement
Questionnaire Survey Methodology
Age in the organization
Field Sales People
Issues / Challenges in the market
Types of Training provided / attended
Frequency of Training
Post Training Follow up
Feedback mechanism, if any
Effect of Training – has it impacted
performance
Re-training. If any
Opportunity to raise concerns / challenges
Sales Automation / Challenges
Literature Review

The history and pedigree of Evolution of Training and Development functioned had
been laid out in detail (Richard J. Torraco University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 2016). His
article clearly defines the early practices of Education and how training and
development was built on its premises.

The Walter Dick, Lou Carey and James Carey, in 1978, took cue from the ISD Model
to create a more extensive and popular ADDIE model, which helped the training and
development function to expand its horizons to a more value-adding arm to impart
effective training. However, this practice remained a “Go-to” theory among training
professionals for a long time to come.

Taking cue from the fact that Sales Training efforts gets disconnected the moment
employees return to the field, The Accenture Performance Study*2013, emphasizes
the importance of aligning Sales, Marketing and Services arms to create a better
customer experience and generate repeat business. The study encompasses a
holistic approach to improving Sales methodologies and processes, as 47% of the
sales employees take more than 10 months aligning to the Company goals, mostly
likely due to the lack of inconsistent sales methodologies and not spending enough
time on selling activities.
Research conducted by Andris A. Zoltners (Carnegie Mellon University), Prabhakant
Sinha (University of Massachusetts), and Sally E. Lorimer (Kellog’s University), lack of
graduate level education (though there has been a major change to this scenario
currently), and focus not matching up to the level of practitioner interest has
developed a gap in churning out successful sales personnel with basic education on
Sales / business. Therefore each organization needs to build a custom made Sales
Effectiveness Framework to diagnose, recognize opportunities and adopt Sales
forces appropriately. The study also draws attention to the fact that in between the
Marketing and Sales Strategy and the field Force is where gaps generally exists, and
successfully identifying the specific gaps is where the paradigms can be shifted. The
Among the top sales Effectiveness drivers, Coaching, CRM, Performance
Management and Measurement and Training rank among the top 4, which proves
the fact the an effective Training Strategy can achieve both performance
benchmarks and improve employee retention.
Michael Leimbach, Ph.D., a globally recognized expert in instructional design and
sales development, sharing his message that it is not about what you learn but what
you use.