training needs on job and off job

Munif Ahmad

TRAINING

Training Needs

Training is a planned programme designed to improve performance and bring about measurable changes in knowledge, skills, attitude and social behavior of employees.

Features of Training Increases knowledge and skills for doing a particular job

Focuses attention on the individual job.

Concentrates on individual employees

Gives importance to short term performance

Training is essential for job success. It can lead to higher production, fewer mistakes, greater job satisfaction and lower turnover.

Need For Training

helps new recruits to perform assigned tasks effectively

helps existing employees to prepare for higher level jobs

enables existing employees to keep in touch with latest developments

permits employees to cope with changes brought in by frequent transfers

makes employees more versatile, mobile, flexible and useful to the organisation

bridges the gap what the employee has and what the job demands allows an employee to gain acceptance from peer groups readily

Training vs. Development

Training is concerned with teaching specific job related skills and behavior. Development is future oriented training, focusing on the personal growth of the employee.

Training vs. Development

Learning D im ens ion Tra in ing D evelopm en t

Meant for Operatives Executives

Focus Current job Current and future jobs

Scope Individual employee Work group or organisation

Goal Fix current skill deficit Prepare for future work demands

Initiated by Management The Individual

Content Specific job related information General Knowledge

Time-frame Immediate Long term

Training vs. Education

Training, more or less, is job oriented (skill) learning. Education, on the other

hand, is a person-oriented, theory-based knowledge whose main purpose is to

improve the understanding of a particular subject (a kind of conceptual

learning).

Training Pitfalls Here is a checklist to avoid training pitfalls

Attempting to teach too quickly

Trying to teach too much

Viewing all trainees as the same

Giving very little time to practice

Offering very little to the trainee in the form of encouragement, praise or reward

Training efforts are invariably based on certain learning oriented guidelines: Modelling: It is simply copying someone else's behaviour. (like showing the videotapes of desired behaviour while at work) Motivation: For learning to happen, it is important to motivate the trainee first. Reinforcement: If behaviour is rewarded, it probably will be repeated. Positive reinforcement consists of rewarding desired behaviours. Feedback: Feedback helps an employee find where he stands. People learn best if reinforcement is given as soon as possible. Spaced practice: Learning takes place easily if the practice sessions are spread over a period of time. Whole learning: Employees learn better if the job information is given as an entire logical process. Active practice: Learning is enhanced when trainees are provided ample opportunities to repeat the task. Relevance: training should be as real as possible so that trainees can successfully transfer the new knowledge to their jobs Environment: employees learn faster in comfortable environments

Learning Principles:

The Philosophy of Training

Areas And Types of Training

Training is generally offered in the following areas

Areas of training

Knowledge

Technical skills

Social skills

Techniques

The various types of training that are commonly employed in present-day organisations may be listed thus.

Types of training Skills training: here certain basic skills like reading, writing, computing, speaking, listening, problem solving etc are taught Refresher training: here the focus is on short term courses that would help employees

learn about latest developments in their respective fields Cross functional training: this helps employees perform operations in areas other than

their assigned job. Team training: this is concerned with how team members should communicate with each other, how they should cooperate to get ahead, how they should handle conflictful situations, how to find their way using collective wisdom etc. Creativity training: this helps employees to think unconventionally, break the rules, take risks, go out of the box and develop unexpected solutions. Diversity training: it aims to create better cross cultural sensitivity with the aim of fostering more harmonious and fruitful working relationships among a firm's employees Literacy training: this is generally offered to those employees with weak reading, writing or arithmetic skills.

Areas And Types of Training

How to be more creative?

Training

Thermax: At Thermax (over 1200 employees nearly Rs. 600 crore turnover, 6 per cent attrition rate) high-potential individuals are given greater exposure, high visibility and asked to chart out a career vision through an ongoing dialogue.

GCPL: Godrej Consumer Products Ltd’s (1052 employees, nearly Rs. 500 crore sales) talent management system allows bright employees to acquire a wide variety of skills through job rotation (e.g., sales systems, project management skills, IT skills, Team building skills etc.). Outstanding performers get salary increase instantaneously.

Sapient Corporation: (914 employees with over $ 202 million global sales). At Sapient employees work on 48-50 projects at any given time. Some of these are executed entirely by the local employees from their Gurgaon and Bangalore offices.

Johnson & Johnson: (1419 employees with over $ 41,000 million global sales) J&J constantly encourages its employees to upgrade their skills and knowledge through short-term programmes at institutes like the IIMs, XLRI etc. apart from rotating employees on challenging tasks.

Cont…

Monsanto India: (354 employees with nearly $ 5,000 global sales) Monsanto sets stiff targets for employees, but trains employees with a rare rigour so that they get a fair shot at those. People identified as future leaders are given internal international positions.

P&G: (Over Rs. 750 crore sales and powerful brands like Vicks, Tide, Ariel, Pantene, Whishper, Pampers, Head and Shoulders, etc.) P&G relies on the promote-from-within philosophy’. It hires freshers straight out of B-school, trains and empowers them to handle challenging jobs from day 1. Says a new recruit from IIM Ahmedabad: “I am two months old in the company and already handling a new brand launch”.

[BT-Hewitt Study, 2003; BT-Mercer-TNS Study, 2004; Grow Talent Study, B. World, 1.9.2003 and 6.12.2004]

Training

How to be more creative?

A Systematic Approach To

Training A systematic approach to training would consist of three phases: training needs assessment, implementation and evaluation

Training needs assessment

Training efforts must aim at meeting the needs of the organisation and the individual employees. This, essentially, involves three types of analysis:

a. Organisational analysis: This is a study of the entire organisation in terms of its objectives, utilisation of resources to achieve objectives etc.

Analysis of objectives

Resource utilisation analysis

Environmental scanning

Organisational climate analysis

b. Task or role analysis: this is a detailed examination of a job, its

components, its various operations and conditions under which it has to be

performed.

c. Person analysis: here the focus is on the individual in a given job; whether

training is needed, whether the employee is capable of being trained, and the

areas where the training is needed.


d. Identify training objectives: Training objectives can be of three types

Objectives of training

OBJECTIVE

Innovative Problems Solving Regular

Anticipa ting problem s Training clerks to O rientationbefore they occur reduce com p laintsTeam bu ild ing Train ing superv isors Recurring tra in ing ofsessions w ith the in com m un ications in terviewersdepartm ents to reduce grievances

Re fresher courses onsafety procedures


e. Training methods: Formal training methods include on the job training covering job instruction training, coaching, mentoring, job rotation,

apprenticeship training, committee assignments etc and off the job training including lectures, conference, simulation exercises and programmed instruction.

f. Evaluation: Evaluation helps in controlling and correcting the training programme.


On The Job Training Methods

Job instruction training (JIT): This is training directly received

on the job. Here the trainee receives an overview of the job. The trainer actually demonstrates the hob and the trainee is asked to copy the trainer’s way. The trainee, finally, tries to perform the job independently.

Merits and demerits of job instruction training

Merits Demerits

Trainee learns fast through practice and observation. The trainee should be as good as the trainer.If the trainer is not good, transference ofknowledge and skills will be poor.

It is economical as it does not require any special While learning, trainee may damage equipment,settings. Also, m istakes can be corrected immediately. waste materials, cause accidents frequently.

The trainee gains confidence quickly as he Experienced workers cannot use the machinerydoes the work himself in actual setting with while it is being used for training.help from supervisor.

It is most suitable for unskilled and semi-skilled jobswhere the job operations are simple; easy to explain

Coaching: Here the supervisor explains things and answers

questions; throws light on why things are done the way they are;

offers a model for trainees to copy, conducts lot of decision making

meetings, and allows trainees freedom to commit mistakes and

learn .Coaching, thus, requires lot of teaching skills.

Mentoring: The use of an experienced person to teach and train

someone with less knowledge and experience in a given area is known

as mentoring. The mentor nurtures, supports and guides the efforts of

young persons by giving appropriate information, feedback and

encouragement whenever required.


Apprenticeship training: Most craft workers such as plumbers,

carpenters etc are trained through formal apprenticeship

programmes. In this method, the trainees are put under the guidance

of a master worker typically for 2-5 years.

Committee assignments: In this method, trainees are asked to solve

an actual organisational programme working along with other

trainees.


Off The Job Training Methods

Vestibule training: It occurs off the job on equipment or methods that are

highly similar to those used on the job.

Role playing: This is a development technique requiring the trainee to assume a

role in a given situation and act out behaviours associated with that role.

Lecture method: Here the instructor organises the study material on a

specific topic and offers it to a group of trainees in the form of a talk.

Conference or discussion method: In this method the trainer delivers

a lecture and involves the trainees in a discussion so that the doubts about the job

to be undertaken get clarified.

Programmed instruction: This is an approach that puts material to be

learned into highly organised logical sequences that require the trainees to respond

Evaluation of A

Training Programme

Training can be evaluated at five levels: reaction, learning, behaviour, organisation and results.

Important decision points in training evaluation may be listed thus;

Important decision points in planning training evaluation

Should an evaluation be made? Who should evaluate? What is the purpose of evaluation? What will be measured? How comprehensive will the evaluation be? Who has the authority and responsibility? What are the sources of data? How will the data be collected and evaluated? How will the data be analysed and reported?

Methods of evaluation

Questionnaires

Tests

Interviews

Studies

Human resource factors

Cost benefit analysis

Feedback.

Performance after training