The Importance of Training and Development in the Workplace

Training isn’t just important to any company, it is vital

Although there are many categories of training such as management training and or sales training, employees with Project Management skills are an important asset to any organization.

What does training and development, mean to your organization?

Training presents a prime opportunity to expand the knowledge base of all employees, but many employers in the current climate find development opportunities expensive. Employees attending training sessions also miss out on work time which may delay the completion of projects. However despite these potential drawbacks, training and development provides both the individual and organizations as a whole with benefits that make the cost and time a worthwhile investment. The return on investment from training and development of employees is really a no brainer.

What are the benefits? 

Improved employee performance – The employee who receives the necessary training is more able to perform in their job. The training will give the employee a greater understanding of their responsibilities within their role, and in turn build their confidence. This confidence will enhance their overall performance and this can only benefit the company. Employees who are competent and on top of changing industry standards help your company hold a position as a leader and strong competitor within the industry.

Improved employee satisfaction and morale – The investment in training that a company makes shows employees that they are valued. The training creates a supportive workplace. Employees may gain access to training they wouldn’t have otherwise known about or sought out themselves. Employees who feel appreciated and challenged through training opportunities may feel more satisfaction toward their jobs.

Addressing weaknesses – Most employees will have some weaknesses in their workplace skills. A training program allows you to strengthen those skills that each employee needs to improve. A development program brings all employees to a higher level so they all have similar skills and knowledge. This helps reduce any weak links within the company who rely heavily on others to complete basic work tasks. Providing the necessary training creates an overall knowledgeable staff with employees who can take over for one another as needed, work on teams or work independently without constant help and supervision from others.

Consistency – A robust training and development program ensures that employees have a consistent experience and background knowledge. The consistency is particularly relevant for the company’s basic policies and procedures. All employees need to be aware of the expectations and procedures within the company. Increased efficiencies in processes results in financial gain for the company.

Increased productivity and adherence to quality standards – Productivity usually increases when a company implements training courses. Increased efficiency in processes will ensure project success which in turn will improve the company turnover and potential market share.

Increased innovation in new strategies and products – Ongoing training and upskilling of the workforce can encourage creativity. New ideas can be formed as a direct result of training and development.

Reduced employee turnover – staff are more likely to feel valued, if they are invested in and therefore, less likely to change employers. Training and development is seen as an additional company benefit. Recruitment costs therefore go down due to staff retention.

Enhances company reputation and profile – Having a strong and successful training strategy helps to develop your employer brand and make your company a prime consideration for graduates and mid-career changes. Training also makes a company more attractive to potential new recruits who seek to improve their skills and the opportunities associated with those new skills.

Training can be of any kind relevant to the work or responsibilities of the individual, and can be delivered by any appropriate method.

For example, it could include:

• On-the-job learning
• Mentoring schemes
• In-house training
• Individual study

Blended learning is becoming more and more popular and as a company we have seen a definite increase in this method of training over the last year. Blended Learning is the effective combination of online learning and classroom learning. Many of 20|20’s clients prefer their staff to learn on-site rather than attend off-site training programmes – especially in industries like oil and gas where it is often very impractical to attend off-site courses. On-site learning programmes like the blended learning approach, allow 20|20 to train more people working across a larger international footprint than just the UK. This makes it much more cost-effective and allows for greater process consistency.

The importance of training your employees – both new and experienced – really cannot be overemphasized.

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The influence of Training towards employees' performance at workplace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvE9S_AWiTE

Effect of Training on Performance

The organizational growth and development is influenced by number of factors. Employee training plays a vital role in improving performance, concurrently the productivity of the organization is also improves along with training. This change in the capacity of the organization would lead to strengthen the position to face challenges and competitions encountered in future. As the competency of employee improves the overall efficiency of the organization is benefited.

As the training improves the overall performance of the employee to effectively perform their current jobs by enhancing the knowledge, skills and attitudes, the impact to the organization will be profoundly sound.

Training has been proved to generate performance improvement related benefits for the employees as well as for the organization. Some of the benefits derived from training are attained when training is planned. This means that the organization, trainers and trainees are prepared for the training well in advance.

Components for Planned Training

• Identify and define training needs.
• Define the learning required in terms of what skills and knowledge have to be learnt and what attitudes need to be changed.
• Define the objectives of the training.
• Plan training programs to meet the needs and objectives by using right combination for training techniques and locations.
• Decide who provides the training.
• Evaluate training.
• Amend and extend training as necessary.

Methods Used in Training and Development

Almost all the human resource development activities are meant to train new kills for new job or new position in the future or improve performance on the present job leading to improve the organization’s current and future objectives.

The organization may adhere either to, on the job training given to employees while conducting their regular work at the same working venues and off the job training involves taking employees away from their usual work environment. As an advantage in the out bound training, the entire concentration is left out to the training. Compared to the on-the-job training where the concentration relatively limited due to job related commitments. Different organizations choose different training methods due to various reasons depending on the organization’s strategy, goals and resources available.

Training and Development

Introduction to Training and Development

Training

Training is a systematic process of developing Knowledge, Skills, Attitude and Technology that is needed to assist a person to perform better in the present job. It helps the individual to do his present job well and meet up to the expectations and requirements of the demands of the job.

Development

Development refers to helping an individual to meet up to the expectations of a higher and more challenging job in the future. This is also referred to as guided growth.

Importance of training and development

• It improves performance of an employee and thereby improving the performance of the overall organization.
• Improve productivity - It contributes for both individual and organizational productivity.
• Improve efficiency - Result in maximum resource utilization and reduce wastage leading to better performance of the organization.
• Increase moral and positive attitude.
• Improve career progression of employees.

In the training and development, an employee is exposed to perform at a given task than his routine performance. This process enables the employee to rise through career ladder, along with improvement in organizational performance.

Figure 1: Training and Development

Process involved in the Training & Development

Initial Assessment

As an initial step, the training needs should be assessed by an initial assessment.  The mechanism involved should be in keeping with the scope and objectives of the organization. It should also be in line with the existing capacity of the employee, as the introduction of too advance training sessions may not contribute for an improvement of the capacity of an employee initially.

Each learning situation should help an employee to move from her or his present skill level to a desired skill level. Even though the training process involves many activities, an employee should be able to exist all skills along with knowledgeable and experiences in the assigned subject.

Identification of a proper training module should be carried out depending on the present employee capacity and organizational scope a training module could be selected. Furthermore in view to make the training more effective the training materials should be carefully selected and prepared.

In the training and development process, it is needed to create an environment for the employee to learn and get exposed to a wider scope. The activities would allow the employee to successfully accomplish the learning objectives. Therefore, when developing training materials, our priorities are to:

• Create an effective learning environment.
• Make the learning steps clear for participants.
• Develop activities and exercises that help the employee master the material.
• Emphasize critical learning objectives.
• Maximize learning opportunities for the employee.

An organization looks at training and development as an integral part of the human resource development activity. Most organizations have mandated training hours per year in advance.

In the process of training it involves change in knowledge, skills and attitudes of an employee with the resultant improvement in the behavior. For training to be effective it has to be a planned activity conducted after a thorough need analysis and target at certain competencies, most important it is to be conducted in a learning atmosphere.

When designing the training module it has to be in keeping with both the individual goals and organizational goals.

Overview of Training and Development

In the process of functioning an organization, various factors are involved. The magnitude  and the level of performance of an organization is greatly influenced by the strength and capacity of its human resources.

When comparing the number of human resources involved, obviously there is a minimal requirement to each unit to achieve the holistic goals with specific objectives. When concentrating on the strength and capacity of employees of an organization, the internal development counts high for the ultimate performance.

The impact of training and development is vital for the performance of an organization. When analyzing the training of an employee, it could be described by means of general and technical specific ways. In general training it could be further described for personality and basic training on relevant subject with emphasis to achieve specific objectives.

Furthermore, the gravity of the training and its quality matters for the outcome. Training involves a vast range of activities and every aspect and section should be carefully identified and bench-marked.

The development of human resource is highly bound with task laid down on team efforts. The concept of team work and its outcome, tremendously influenced by the level of training received to the staff. The training as an entity not only improves the efficacy of individuals but affects the team too. Specially the training received to improve the individual performance ranks high and the overall achievements are based on it.