Which of the following pressure points suggest that training might be necessary?

MBA760 Chapter 03 from iDocs

Training has always played an important and an integral part in furthering many kinds of human learning and development. However, the fact that training can make an important if not crucial, contribution to organisational effectiveness is only now being recognised fully. Companies, organisations and government are beginning to appreciate the value of adequate, consistent and long-term investment in this function. For in order to survive and operate effectively, all types of organisation must adapt and respond in a timely and flexible way to technical, economic and social changes. This requirement has become imperative as we approach the twenty-first century and implies that there are particular individual, group, organisational and institutional attitudes and perspectives needed by the nation’s manpower. Training is one of the processes by which such needs can be realised.

Hence the definition of Training is a planned and systematic effort to modify or develop knowledge, skills, and attitude trough learning experience, to achieve effective performance in an activity or range of activities. Its purpose, in the work situation, is to enable an individual to acquire abilities in order that he or she can perform adequately a given task or job.

However the training process is a tool that the organisation is using to improve their staff and to operate more effectively. Training needs is a process of taking an overview of the performance of the organisation. Its purpose is to identify where training can make major contributions in improving organisational performance. It sets out to answer the following questions about the way the organisations is functioning now and is expecting to function in

future:

• What?

• When?

• Where?

• Why?

• Who?

• How?

In asking, and answering these questions the process will allow issues and problems that the organisation currently faces to be identified. Important issues need to be established and possible solutions identified. Training needs also allows potential future problems to be identified and appropriate action to be taken before a problem develops.

The process of conducting a training needs analysis will allow decisions to be made, on the basis of evidence, about where training will offer the best investment. It will strengthen proposals for funding training and allow priorities between training needs to be established. It will also provide information upon which to judge whether resources. Currently employed in training could be used more effectively.

Analysis of training needs requires the collection, interpretation and analysis of information from across the organisation. This information can be from access to existing records that often can only be reached by talking to people throughout the organisation. In addition, the views and opinions of those in day-to-day contact with the various activities need to be sought, compared, interpreted and used. Therefore training needs must follow the six (6) steps to success.

Those steps are:

1. Gain co-operation of all conceded

2. Carry out pre-analysis investigation

3. Decide appropriate analytical approach

4. Analyse the job

5. Write the job description

6. Write the job / training specification

Training needs eventually have to be dealt with at an individual level. The question that needs to be asked is whether this person’s performance is satisfactory. If the answer is “NO” then some steps of training may be considered. If the answer is “YES” then training for development may be worthwhile for those with potential. This is usually the responsibility of the line manager who sets the standard of performance required and judges whether it has been achieved.

"Needs Assessment" refers to process used to determine if training is necessary. There are many different “pressure points” that suggest that training is necessary. These pressure points include performance problems, new technology, internal or external customer requests for training, job redesign, new legislation, changes in customer preferences, new products, or employees’ lack of basic skills. These pressure points do not guarantee that training is the correct solution. Needs assessment typically involves organisational analysis, person analysis, and task analysis. Organisational analysis involves considering the context in which training will occur. That is, organisational analysis involves determining the appropriateness of training, given the company’s business strategy, its resources available for training, and support by managers and peers for training activities.

Person analysis involves a) determining whether performance deficiencies result from a lack of knowledge, skill, ability or from a motivational or work-design problem, b) identifying who needs training, and c) determining employees’ readiness for training. Task analysis includes identifying the important tasks and knowledge, skill, and behaviours that need to be emphasised in training for employees to complete their tasks.

Advantages

Training needs has numerous of potential benefits to be gained by organisations from well-planned and effectively conducted training programmes. Individuals’ trainees can benefit in a number of ways. In relation to their current positions, trainees may gain greater intrinsic or extrinsic job satisfaction may come from performing a task well and from being able to exercise a new repertoire of skills.

Extrinsic job satisfaction may be derived from extra earnings accrued through improved job performance and the enhancement of career and promotion prospects both within and outside the organisation to which they belong. Benefits for the organisation include improved employee work performance and productivity; shorter learning time which could lead to less costly training and employees being “on line” more quickly; decrease in wastage's; fewer accidents; less absenteeism; lower labour turnover and greater customer or client satisfaction. It follows that in preparing on individual to perform a specific task more effectively, training needs can contribute to the organisation achieving its current objectives.

However, it can also play a more long-term strategic role either directly or indirectly. The direct role is pursued through the nature of the actual training context. In this respect training can move away from concern simply for the individual skills, and can deal with leadership, group and organisational issues. Training needs providing training interventions that place emphasis on solving organisational problems as well as on developing individual skills.

Training needs can also affect an organisation's culture in a more indirect way though the management of individual and group training. From this it can be seen that training is a form of communication that potentially can have an impact on individual and ultimately on group and organisational values and attitudes. More important, in some respects perhaps, than the direct and indirect effects already mentioned is the influence that the content and conduct of training can have on attitudes towards the process of learning and development. This in turn can help to create a “learning organisation” that with present and future internal and external demands.

However as a conclusion of the advantages that the training needs analysis has we can make some points, these points are:

• Investment in training and development will have a focus and direction

• Priority training needs throughout the organisation will become apparent

• Appropriate methods for meeting these needs will be identified

• Training will be systematic and planned but flexible enough to cope with ad hoc requests

• The benefits of training will be measured against the initial cost

• The contribution training makes to organisational growth and success will be recognised

Disadvantages

The consequences of not carrying out a detailed analysis of training needs are the negatives of the above benefits. As we can see Training needs is an essential part of the training process but is also difficult because it has some disadvantages that make training needs difficult to become a part of the organisation. Training needs has some disadvantages that make the procedure more difficult those disadvantages are:

• High costs may be incurred as a result of too much training because:

Þ More training is being organised than is really necessary

Þ Courses and training programs are longer than need to be

Þ More Instructors / Tutors and equipment are employed than the job demands

Þ Students, who may be perfectly competent in performing the job, fail the training because it is too theoretical rather than practical in its nature

Þ Irrelevant criteria may be used to select students for training resulting in potentially suitable students being excluded from the programme.

Job dissatisfaction can result from the worker being prepared for a higher calibre job than the one being done in turn this could lead to higher turnover of personnel, poorer performance, etc. Naturally, because of the time and expense involved, the trainer must give very careful thought to the scope and depth of any further analyses. Others problems of training is that millions of pounds and tens of thousands of working days are spent annually in enabling employees to attend courses. For there to be a return on this investment, people must have a need to go on them. Training is not a panacea, nor even the easy option it so often appears. It may contribute nothing to career development; it may even retard it. Even well conducted training is weak when it takes the form of isolated and unrelated events imposed on an individual without plan or consultation to work well, pre- and past-course briefing must be held, preferably as part of the personal development planning process.

Sending someone on a course is often the last resort of the quality manager. It is the least demanding method of development for the manager, the individual to be development and the supporting staff as it is usually easy to find a suitable course title. If presented by a reliable organisation and an experienced trainer, likelihood of generating satisfaction in the participant, their manager and their organisations is high. All concerned will then be able to feel a glow of righteousness; their development obligation has been fulfilled. However, it doesn’t stop there. Although training needs, even when a performance deficiency has been identified, the causes and hence the points at which corrective training should be applied, may be difficult to isolate especially in more complex jobs. Improvements in working practices, systems or technology may prove to be considered before training is devised. Picking from a “menu” of available courses is easy and tempting but has small chance of meeting the actual needs setting precise training targets may prove difficult.

Training needs is an essential part of the training process, but is also a difficult one, because is more complex in use, as it is in theory; it can give opportunities to the staff of an organisation, for career prospects but the organisation can gain from the training of their employees because trough the training process an organisation will be able to solve different problems, and will give the opportunity to the organisation to be recognised. But it is a difficult process because it claims time, money and many other reasons that we analyse to the disadvantages, which are making the training needs a process that will have to take more consideration that we thought. However, an organisation has many problems and challenges to face. Everyone in the organisation will have slightly different views of their nature and their solutions. The training needs process identifies those issues where training is part of the solution. The main benefit of training needs is that provides a perspective on individual needs and allows decisions to be made about where investment in training is offering the best return to meet current and future needs. An effective training needs will prevent waste of resources in doing job analysis and task analysis that is not necessary. It will also avoid using training where it is not justified.

As a result....

Training needs is the organised process concerned with the acquisition of capability, or the maintenance of existing capability. When people talk about the training process they usually mean the day-to-day activities that make up the annual training cycle. Concentrating on the process is the best place to start if we want in training efficiency. There are, however, several dangers in considering the training process in isolation. The most obvious is that the training provided will have little or no relevance either to business requirements or to the development needs of the people. Another danger is that maintaining the process can become an end in itself. Then training becomes inflexible and insensitive to change. It is very easy to say that effective training has to be aligned with a company’s business directions and value; that the training department has to provide courses which support the company’s goals; and that anyone who is involved in managing the training process has to have a clear idea of where the business is going. All this assumes that those involved in running the business have a clear idea of where they are going. Unfortunately, this is not always the case and proactive training managers will often find themselves involved with senior management in getting the basics right. If this foundation is not firm, no training process can successfully support the business objectives.

What needs to be considered before choosing training as a solution to a pressure point within the organization?

What is the first step when selecting a training method?

What is the most commonly used method of training quizlet?

Which should be used as the primary source of information about the training needs of individual employees?