CHAPTER 4

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF

EMPLOYEES

Training and Development of Employees

Employee Orientation - this is a procedure for providing new employees with basic background
information about the firm, its culture and the job.
Socialization refers to a new employee learning the norms, values, goals, work procedures, and patterns
of behaviour that are expected by the organization.
For some companies, orientation involves familiarizing new employees with the company’s cherished
goals and values, thus beginning the process of synthesizing the employee’s and company’s goals, one big step
toward winning and building commitment to the firm.
An effective orientation program has an immediate and lasting impact on the new employee and can
make the difference between his success or failure. This is why HR activities, through training and
development, need to reinforce what is important to the organization.

Regardless of the type of organization, orientation should be conducted at two levels.

1. Organizational/Overview orientation – topics discussed include overview of the company, key policies and
procedures, compensation, benefits, safety and accident prevention, employees and union relation if there is
any, physical facilities, and the like.
2. Departmental and Job specific orientation – topics about the department function and the duties and
responsibilities of the newly hired employee, policies, procedures, rules and regulations, tour of the department,
and introduction to department employees.

Objectives of Training and Development

1. Improve the quality and quantity of productivity. This can lead to an increase in an individual’s skills in
one or more areas of expertise.
2. Effectiveness in the present job. This involves increasing an individual’s motivation to perform his job
well.
 3. Create more favourable attitudes, loyalty, and cooperation.
4. Help employees in their personal development and advancement by helping them acquire additional
qualifications for a better job.
5. Help organizations respond to dynamic market conditions and changing consumer demands.
6. Satisfy human resource planning requirements.

Using training to deal with competitive challenges

1. Global Challenge – Having a borderless society, cross cultural training is important to prepare employees
and their families for possible overseas assignments.
2. Quality Challenge – The emphasis on quality is seen in the establishment of the Malcolm Baldrige Quality
award and ISO 9000 quality standards.
3. High performance work system – Technology causes charges in skill requirements and work roles and
offers results in redesigning work structures. Through new technology, the information needed to improve
customer service and product quality becomes more accessible to employees.

THE TRAINING PROCESS

1. Training Need Analysis/ Need Assessment – Refers to the process used to determine of training is
necessary.
Five methods can be used to gather needs assessment information
A. Interview
B. Survey questionnaire
C. Observation
D. Focus Group
E. Documentation Examination
Needs assessment process
A. Organizational analysis – involves determining the appropriateness of training, given the
company’s business strategy.
B. Person/ performance analysis – Determining the training needs of current employees.
C. Task analysis – Assessing training needs of new employees. This is detailed study of the job to
determine what specific skills are required.
2. Designing Training programs/ training objectives – After determining training needs, objectives must be
established to meet those needs. Effective training objectives should state the benefit to the organization,
department, or individual when training is completed.

3. Validation – Introduce and validate the training before a representative audience. Base final revisions on
pilot results to ensure training effectiveness.

4. Implementation
Evaluation and follow-up
Asses program success according to:
A. Reaction – The learner’s immediate reaction to the training to find out if they are bored,
yawning while the training is going on.
B. Learning – It concerns how well the trainees understood and absorbed the principles. Facts and
skills taught.
C. Behavior – Notes supervisor’s reaction to learner’s performance following completion of the
training. This is to measure the degree to which learners apply new sills and knowledge to their
jobs.
D. Results – Determine the level of improvement in job performance and assess needed
maintenance to ensure continue good performance.

Traditional Training Methods

1. Hands on Methods – refer to training methods that acquire the trainee to be actively involved in learning.
On-the-Job Training – means having a person learn a job by actually performing it. The employee
is shown how to perform the job and allowed to do it under the trainer’s supervision.

Advantages of OJT
a. No special space or equipment required
b. Provides immediate transfer of training
c. Allows employee to practice what they are expected to do after their training ends
OJT Techniques

A. Job Instruction Training – Before the actual learning occurs; job instruction training requires a careful
analysis of the job to be performed, an assessment of what the trainee knows about the job, and a training
schedule.
Steps in OJT Method
Step 1- Preparing the learner for the training
Step 2 – Presentation of the trainer of the operations and basic skills that should be acquired by the
learner.
Step 3 - Performance try-out for the trainer to find out if the leaner was able to comprehend the
instruction given.
Step 4 – Follow-up for the trainer to ensure that the learner is already coping on his own.
B. Internships and Assistantships – Provide training similar to apprenticeship training. However, it typically
refers to occupations that require a higher level of formal education than that required by the skilled trades.

C. Job Rotation or Cross Training – Movement from one position to another provides employees with
exposure to a number of different job functions and a broad grasp of the over-all purpose of an organization.

2. Apprenticeship Training – provides beginning workers with comprehensive training in the practical and the
theoretical aspects of work required in a highly skilled occupation.

3. Vestibule or Simulated Training – the trainee learns the job in an environment that serves as a miniature of
the real plant or office.
4. Off-The-Job Training – Other than apprenticeship, vestibule training and OJT, all other training is off-the-
job whether it Is done in the organization’s classroom or elsewhere.
A. Lecture/Discussion Approach – means of transmitting large amounts of factual information
to relatively large number of people at the same time.
B. Audio-Visual Techniques – This can appear in several forms including the use of
televisions, films, videotapes, filmstrips and slide-type presentations.
C. Teletraining or Teleconferencing – A trainer in a central location can train groups of
employees at remote locations vie TV hook-ups.
D. Case Studies – designed to promote a trainee’s discovery of underlying principles.
E. Role playing – In this type of training, participants assume specific characterizations and act
out a particular situation or problem.
F. Correspondence training – This home study program permits the trainee to learn at his own
rate.
G. Management or business games – Giving the trainees information about the organization
and its environment; then dividing into terms.
 H. Mentoring/Coaching – the coaches or mentors act as a consultant who assist companies to
prepare for succession by identifying and training future top executives.
I. Experiential Training: Learner-centered activity which starts with the premise that people
learn best from experience.

Technology Based Training: Technology is having a major impact on delivery of the training programs. These
technologies reduce training costs and make it easier to administer training programs.
A. Multimedia Training: Combines audio visual training methods with computer based training. These
programs integrate texts, graphics, animations, audio and video.
B. Computer based Training: is an active training experience in which the computer provides the learning
stimulus, the trainee must respond, and the computer analyses the responses and provide feedback to the trainee.
Web-based Training and Intranet: to gain access to the internet, you need a personal computer with a
direct connection via an existing network on a modem to dial into the internet.
Levels of Internet Based Training
1. Communication
2. On-line Referencing
3. Testing
4. Distribution of Computer Based Training
5. Delivery of Multimedia
6. Linking to other sources/Sharing of knowledge

Distance Learning/E-Learning: The whole concept of HR training is changing. There shall be

no more speakers or classrooms. The software is the facilitator, and the hardware, the classroom.
Personal computers are used for problem solving and HR analysis.

Forces behind the growth of On-line Learning

1. Market – Depending on whose statistics you accept. The global expenditures on the
education. It is therefore not surprising to note that there are many entrepreneurs who
find on-line delivery an attractive opportunity.
2. Globalization and Competition – The emergence of a global economy based on
knowledge industries, free trades and open markets have all created opportunities for
businesses to profit from standardized products and services internationally.
3. Technology – the central force in driving the on-line agenda. It is believed that
technology is the empowering tool that is required to develop online courses.
 4. Costs – In time of diminishing resources, and increased expectations, proponents of the
online education suggest that through partnerships, alliances, acquisitions and shred
curriculums, cost of delivering education or training online can be reduced.
5. Teaching and Learning – Offers a very rewarding learning experience. The teaching
here is meant to help students as they actively engage in learning by using information
and materials to construct their own understanding and knowledge.
6. Flexibility – Full time study within the time-tabled constraints of classrooms is only
accessible to a few; for many who wish to study, learning will necessarily have to be at a
time and place of their choice.
7. Access – Access to learning for those living in remote areas and who are marginalized or
isolated can all be served on-line barriers such as time and distance could be overcome.

PROBLEMS IN THE USE OF ON-LINE LEARNING

1. Poor telecommunications infrastructure: The level of “teledensity” has not reached the
stage where the internet can function efficiently.
2. Cost of appliance: It is said that problems of access to telecommunications pale into
insignificance besides those of gaining access to a working computer capable of connecting to
the internet.
3. Know-how: At least three specific skills are relevant, necessary, and in short supply. : These
are:
 a. Participatory skills: from computer literacy to a working knowledge of English for
involvement in network learning.
b. Facilities skills: for the design, implementation, and maintenance of networks. These
require technical knowledge in installation, user training, and maintenance at the minimum.
c. Control skills: to manage the enterprise
4. Cost of services: Poverty is not the only problem facing those wanting access to the internet.