Training and Development

This is the most frequently used and focused subsystem of HRD. It has been to significant that in past
HRD was equated in some companies with training.

Induction Training
It is a process of welcoming a new employee to the organization and to acquaint to the organization and his job.

After joining a post, the employee should be given necessary induction training - need for the same is

1} To inform the employee the terms and conditions of his employment & the job requirements, environments.

2} To help him in gaining confidence in his work and the organization he has joined.

Induction training is also given to an employee who gets promoted to a supervisory position from
a lower rank. It is the responsibility of the personnel department to arrange for such orientation, the
line managers should take interest in orienting the subordinates assigned to the departments for ultimately
they are responsible for the better performance of new entrants.

Induction relates to --
Informing the achievement of other seniors and Co’s recognitions towards each and showing them the
way to achieve the same
Making them to know about their team leader requirements, risk involved, ways of co-ordination
in view of overall performance levels

To make them comfortable with the Co’s professional environment together with improvement areas etc.,

Training System and its Elements - A Systematic Training Cycle

Identify Training Needs

Plan & Design Training

Evaluate Training Outcomes

Deliver Training

Periodical meetings with group heads.

Analysation of skills of the employees who require training & successfulness of previous training programmes
Cost involved

Factors considered for Evaluating Induction Programme undergon

In order to analyse Induction programme, the following factors are Considered:

Adequacy of programme
duration

Organizational Execution of programme

Involvement Induction programme

Usefulness Superiors
of Involvement
programme
Inputs

 Training needs are identified on the basis of performance gaps in the

previous year and performance opportunities for the next year; these
are assessed through performance appraisals and come as inputs to
the training subsystem.

 Training needs are assessed on the basis of potential appraisal exercises and
assessment centers.

 Training needs are assessed on basis of technological changes in the organization,

strategic moves and other changes in the environment.

 Training needs are assessed on the basis of the norms, values and other cultural aspects the organization wants
to develop in its members.

Outputs

 New Competencies acquired by the employee

 New Competencies acquired by the teams and the organization
as a whole.

These new competencies are expected to become the inputs for improved performance, cost reduction, speed,
efficiency and quality improvement in the products or processes.
 Elements
Methods of identifying training needs: performance appraisals, training need identification surveys,
organizational diagnosis surveys etc.,

The training department or training center in the case of large organizations.

The training manager or the HRD staff handling the training subsystem and their own competencies.
The faculty and their competencies.
The training methods and strategies used.
The trainers and their competencies
Training evaluation methods

Processes

The processes essentially deal with the organization of the above elements and the rules, procedure
and steps that govern their use.

 Method of determining training needs

 The Timing

 The method of using the training needs to prepare training plans. Etc.,

 Method of sponsoring the employee for training

 Pre-training preparation is required

 Process of evaluating it

 Follow up methods
Factors Considered in Evaluating Training & Development programme

In order to analyse Training & Development programme, the Following factors are considered :
 3. Duration of programme

2. Coverage of Subject matter 4. Methods & Aids used

Training & Development Programme

1. Number of Trainees Per Session 5. Superiors

help during Programme
Factors for evaluation with respect of respondents feedback is shown
below:
Managerial Skills Improvement Present Job Performance
Development
(Development
Programme)

Training & Development

programme

Overall Satisfaction with regard to Programme

Interest in Attending
More programmes
1
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT - IT’S ROLE IN
ACHIEVING
ORGANISATIONAL SUCCESS
What happens if we invest in training and developing our people
and they leave?
What happens if we don’t and they stay?
Is investment in the area of training and development linked to
the bottom line within
the business? Increasingly, high performing organisations today
are recognising the
need to use best training and development practices to enhance
their competitive
advantage. Training and development is an essential element of
every business if the
value and potential of it’s people is to be harnessed and grown.
Many studies have
highlighted the clear links between well designed and strategic
training and
development initiatives and the bottom line within the business.
The image of an
industry and of individual employers is also influenced by the
extent and quality of
staff training and development. Potential employees in such an
open labour market
will assess the track record of prospective employers in this vital
area. Career
progression and development is an increasingly attractive or even
basic requirement
for many such employees. In today’s business climate where all
industries are
experiencing staff and skills shortages, companies are faced with
stiff internal and
external competition for quality employees. Each employer who
invests seriously in
the area of Training and Development will reap the benefits of an
enriched working
environment with higher levels of staff retention as well as
increased productivity and
performance.
In a recent IBEC survey (HR Benchmarking Report 2004),
respondents were asked to
identify the key drivers of training initiatives over the past year
and for the 12 month
period ahead. The top three were health and safety, technical
changes and customer
service. In other words, organisations are now using training and
development as an
incentive to retain and motivate their people and to be recognised
as an employer of
choice as well as giving staff the skills and knowledge needed to
keep up with
technological change and customer service. A further key finding
in this survey was
that the vast majority of companies surveyed (9 out of 10) stated
they provided
support to employees to pursue outside educational programmes.
This support
consisted of both financial aid as well as time off for both study
and exam leave. Both
of these initiatives may have benefits which are difficult to
quantify, but areas such as
staff turnover and morale are clear indicators of success in this
field.
While research indicates an increased interest in and awareness of
the benefits of
training, the question needs to be asked as to whether this
translated into Irish
organisations establishing training policies and / or increasing
their spend on training?
A National Survey of Training and Development in Ireland
conducted by Garavan
and Heraty in 2003 outlined a number of key trends which are
emerging in the
Training arena in Ireland. Some of the key ones include the
following :

1. INTRODUCTION
Changes in technology, especially information
technology, generate knowledge spreading
up at tremendous speed, as well as its quick obsolence.
In the period between 1900 and 1950,
the amount of human knowledge doubled, and since then
it has doubled every 5 to 8 years.
Knowledge is becoming obsolete so quickly that all of us
need do double our knowledge every
2 to 3 years in order to keep up with the changes. [6]
On the other hand, the increasing complexity, turbulency
and uncertainty of the
environment requires different and greater knowledge.
Modern business requires more and
more knowledge and skills that are still inadequatly
present in the formal school education,
i.e. the gap between business reqiurements and the
knowledge acquired at school is growing.
Received September 22, 2007 210 J. VEMIĆ
The period of mass producing is over and the customers
are very selective. Increased
consumer demands require new solutions and
knowledge. Due to increasing competition, the
organization is required to constantly revise its product
and service mix, managerial
methods, and to increase productivity. Modern
conditions of dynamic competition, sophisticated
information technology, knowledge economy, market
globalization, has changed the
relation to importance of human resources in
organization. These conditions actualize the
human capital as the strategic resource of every
organization. Differences between the
organizations exist exactly due to the differences
between human capital, i.e. the organizations
human resources, ways of their management and
development.
In a more and more global, complex and turbulent
environment, knowledge is the only
reliable source of competitive advantage. Traditional
factors of manufacturing as the soil,
labor and capital did not disappear, but their significance
is not primary anymore. Knowledge is viewed as the key
of realization of a competitive advantage. And therefore
the
question of where the corporative knowledge is located,
how to release it and develop to
achieve organizational goals has become very important.
Since the organizational knowledge is largely located
inside the human mind, i.e. the head of employees, as
carriers of
knowledge and activities, human resources are becoming
the key factor of business
success. Organizational development is always
conditioned by human knowledge and
skills. That is why, contemporary organizations pay
more and more attention to the
development of their emplozees. Thus, employee
education and training are becoming an
optimal answer to complex business challenges, and the
management of human resources
is taking central role in modern management. Through
the process of employee training
and development, the management of human resources
provides constant knowledge
innovation, creates conditions for mutual knowledge and
experience exchange and
proactive behaviour, in this way contributing to
competitive advantage and satisfaction of
all participants in business procedures.
As a consequence of these procedures a learning
organization has formed. The aim of
this paper is to point to the fact that education and
development of human potential are
the basic factor for creation of basis for transformation
from traditional to a learning
company. Learning organization is organization that
promotes learning of all of its
members and it transforms permanently. Individuals and
societies that do not have enough
knowledge are in inferior position, compared to societies
and organisations that have it
and even permanently acquire new knowledge. That is
the reason why we say that success
is not among the educated but among those that are
learning permanently, and everything
changes except knowledge acquirement, which is
constant. The fore mentioned statements
in the best way show the direction in which learning
organizations move.
2. EMPLOYEE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
Understanding the phenomenon of employee training
and development requires
understanding of all the changes that take place as a
result of learning. As the generator of
new knowledge, employee training and development is
placed within a broader strategic
context of human resources management, i.e. global
organizational management, as a
planned staff education and development, both
individual and group, with the goal to
benefit both the organization and employees. To preserve
its obtained positions and Employee Training and
Development and the Learning Organization
211
increase competitive advantage, the organization needs
to be able to create new knowledge,
and not only to rely solely on utilization of the existing.
[10]
Thus, the continous employee training and delopment
has a singnificant role in the
development of individual and organizational
performance.
The strategic procedure of employee training and
development needs to encourage
creativity, ensure inventiveness and shape the entire
organizational knowledge that
provides the organization with uniqueness and
differentiates it from the others.
Education is no longer the duty and privilege of those in
higher positions and skilled
labour, but it is becoming the duty and need of everyone.
The larger the organizations, the
more funds they spend on education and provide their
employees with greater and diverse
possibilities of education and development.
Understanding the tremendous significance of
education for the modern organization and confident that
it represents a good and
remunirative investment, present day organizations set
aside more and more resources for
this activity. Most of the organizations invest 3 to 5% of
their revenue into adult
education. It is estimated that the organizations that
desire to keep the pace with changes
need to provide their employees with 2% of total annual
fund of working hours for
training and education. [9] Thus, it is necessary to accept
the model of permanent,
continuous learning. That truth has been known for more
than two centuries. Denis
Diderot, a French philosopher and literate of the Age of
Enlightment, wrote the following:
"Education shouldn't be finished when an individual
leaves school, it should encompass
all the ages of life...to provide people in every moment
of their life with a possibility to
maintain their knowledge or to obtain new knowledge".
[4]
The only way for present day organizations to survive is
the imperative to innovate or
perish. Since this depends on the knowledge the
organization possesses, this imperative
could be read as: learn faster than competition. The
logical sequence is: knowledge
creation – innovation – competitive advantage. If
knowledge is good, is it not true that the
more knowlegde we have, the better we are? Many
organizations which consider knowledge
as a good thing are trapped into the pitfall of gathering as
much knowledge as possible.
Knowledge that is not necessary is exatly what it is:
unnecessary. And the efforts to obtain
it are wasted efforts. The only important knowldege is
the knowledge with strategic
importance to the company, knowledge that helps to
increase the value of the company,
knowledge with significance to the strategy of the
company.
It is not about knowledge for the sake of knowledge, but
rather knowledge according
to the needs, applicable knowledge, knowledge to create
innovation and competitive
advantage. [8] Obtaining knowledge, learning,
education, all could have a real effect on
the quality of labour only if they are harmonized with the
needs of a particular
organization, its goals and the goals of its employees.
The further choice of educational
contents and educational methods, and the efficiency of
educational effectiveness control
depend on clearly defined educational goals and needs,
answers to the questions of which
knowldege is necessary to realize the strategy and the
survival of the organization in
general, which employees need to possess this
knowledge and will this knowledge solve
certain problems.
Employee training and development does not imply only
obtaining new knowledge,
abilities and skills, but also the possibility to promote
entrepreneurship, introduce
employees to changes, encourage the changes of their
attitude, introduce the employees to
important business decisions and involve them actively
in the process of decision making. 212 J. VEMIĆ
[3] To precisely define expectations and attract skilled
workforce, more and more
employment advertizings offer a certain number of
annual hours or days for education.
The most wanted resources are the people with particular
knowledge, skills and abilities.
Managers must learn to manage them, and the
organizations to employ and retain them.
Knowledge based organizations must preserve their
competitive advantage by retaining
skilled workforce, workers of knowledge, strengthening
their motivation and improving
the reward and compensation systems according to the
workers' performances.
Within the context of learning organization, it is not
sufficient for the worker only to
add value to the organization based on his knowledge,
but he also has to receive
knowledge. He gives as much knowledge as he receives.
For the present day employees
the wage by itself is not a sufficient incentive, but they
also need investment into
themselves in a sense of investing in their knowledge.
Empolyees no longer work for
money alone, nor can they be influenced by traditional
attractive financial packages.
3. CONCEPT OF A LEARNING ORGANIZATION
Every individual should appreciate lifelong learning,
and every successful organization
has to become a permanently learning organization.
Many successful organizations describe
themselves as learning organization or one of their
strategic goals is to become such an
organization. Companies such as Coca-Cola, Motorola,
General Electrics and Cisco have
assigned vice presidents for knowledge, learning or
intellectual capital whose task is to create
knowledge management systems that enable them to
quickly adopt development tendencies,
influencing in that way the customers, competitors,
distributors and suppliers.
The organization is not only the user of knowledge, but
also its creator. According to the
views of Peter Senge described in the book named "The
Fifth Discipline", the learning
organization implies free flow of knowledge, i.e. lifting
of all barriers on developing
knowledge and new ideas at the very beginning. [7] In
the future it will not be possible to
"unthread things from above" and for all the others to
follow the "big brother's" instructions
anymore. The top organizations of the future will be
distinguished by their knowledge about
how to encourage engagement and develop the learning
potential on each organizational
level. Peter Senge's model of a learning organization is
very interesting since it recognizes
the organization as a whole, i.e., in his organization,
through their functions and sectors
within the organization, all the employees influence the
course of business procedures, and
the knowledge creation, consequently the creation of
new values both for the organization
and its customers. With this definition, Senge has made
significant qualitative progress
compared to the classical organization, since he
emphasized the necessity of ability
development through the process of learning.
Besides Senge, Chris Argyris was a great popularizer of
a learning organization as
well. In his book "Teaching smart people how to learn",
he says: "Any company that
aspires to succeed in the tougher business environment
must first resolve a basic dilemma:
success in the marketplace increasingly depends on
learning, yet most people don't know
how to learn. What's more, those members of the
organization that many assume to be the
best at learning are, in fact, not very good at it. I am
talking about the well-educated, highpowered, highly
committed professionals who take up key leadership
positions in the
modern corporation." [1] Employee Training and
Development and the Learning Organization
213
Organizations learn only through the learning
individuals. Individual learning does not
guarantee organizational learning. But without it there is
no organizational learning as
well. The ablity to learn faster than the competitors may
be the only sustainable competitive
advantage. Thus, the learning organization is the
organization that learns and encourages
people to learn in the organization. It motivates
information exchange between employees
and creates staff with different knowledge. Chris Argiris
explains this: "On the other
hand, there is a problem of existence of individuals
within the organization who know
how to learn, but that doesn't create automatically
conditions for the organization to learn as
well. This is due to the indisputable view that knowledge
is still the only private property the
man owns. This means that individual learning, and even
learning of all the employees,
doesn't imply the existence of a learning organization. To
have a learning organization, it is
necessary to know how to transfer individual into
organizational knowledge, i.e. into
organizational learning." [1]
The starting point of knowledge management concept is
in the fact that power does
not come from knowledge, but from the exchange of
knowledge. It starts from the
synergic effect. By exchanging knowledge, combining
individual knowledge, we get
much more qualitative knowledge than the individual
knowledge. Obtaining and sharing
knowledge is the core of the learning organization.
The reasons to become a learning organization are the
following: people are developing
(greater motivation, flexibility of employees, people are
more creative, improved social
interaction), better working teams and groups
(knowledge sharing, mutual dependence),
benefiting organizations (greater work productivity,
more qualitative products/services/
procedures, competitive advantage, profit). [4]
4. APPROACH TO TRAINING AND
DEVELOPMENT WITHIN OUR ORGANIZATIONS
AND NEED FOR TRANSFORMATION
Unfortunately, the procedures of employee training and
development within our
organizations are undeveloped. They are mainly
performed occasionally, and not
connected with organizational strategy, nor do they have
some strategic significance.
They are mostly enforced when such business problems
occur or are perceived that are
considered relievable or solvable by organizing a
training, course or seminar for some of
the employees. Employees view the training as an
imposed obligation, rather than a way
to maximize their potential and they do not realize that
by improving their performances
and innovation of their knowledge they may contribute
to better business results of the
organization they belong to. Unfortunately, top managers
do not realize this as well. From
their relationship with the employees it is plain to see
that the employees are still treated
as an expense, rather than an investment worthy of
investing. In our organizations there is
no culture of obtaining and sharing of knowledge. [11]
Many of our managers are under the influence of
prejudices such as: training is
expensive, training is an expense burdening the current
business, it is not rewarding,
training is for the young, etc. Knowledge is expensive,
but ignorance is even more
expensive. Human possibilites to learn are unlimited,
unless idviduals do not limit their
abilities within their minds. Many studies have shown
that investing in employee training
and development has larger business effects than
investing in equipment and other 214 J. VEMIĆ
material resources. Our organizations must harmonize
their approach to employee
development with the changes. Employee training and
development has to be connected
with the organizational goals and strategy, they need to
fulfill the new reqiurements of the
environment. Employee training and development needs
to become a managerial function.
It is a managerial challenge to consider the employees of
the organization from a strategic
perspective (future orientedness) and constantly monitor
and encourage the development
of new skills and knowledge as the foundation of
organizational development.
This is not about assigning the employees to appropriate
jobs, but rather about the
constant dynamic of encouraging and discovering new
possibilities. This is a new type of
leadership, significantly different from the classical
model of organizational management.
The leaders are no longer expected to be all-knowing
bosses and supervisors, but rather
moderators and inspirators. Since people do not share the
information which is the source
of their power instictively, the leaders need to recognize,
attract and release knowledge in
the organization. One of the main challegnes of modern
organizations therefore is how to
manage the process of knowledge transfer. "The answer
is that wisdom, just because it is
the most important, doesn't need to be located inside a
tall building where the chief
executive and his main assistants hang their hats (and
soon their heads as well – unless
they join the revolution of the mind). [5] This
pictoresque answer of Tom Peters refers to
decentralization and substantivity of employees (turning
every workplace into business),
which implies a high degree of employee competence
and orientation toward the
participative style of management.
The process of democratisations, transitions, opening
towards the EU, privatisations
and arrival of foreign companies and praxis contributed
considerably to transformation of
approach to employee training and development within
our organizations, from the ad hoc
processes that originate from the goals and strategies, to
a modern approach where human
resources and their knowledge are gaining more and
more significance.
5. CONCLUSION
Business conducting and survival in the present day
turbulent environment are relying
on organizational knowledge in a sense of a giving
timely and aproppriate answer to
challenges. The ability of individuals and organizations
to obtain and master new
knowledge has become the key comparative advantage.
The concept of knowldege
management and management of human resources,
especially the function of employee
training and development within the learning
organization, are engaged with the basic
resource of modern business, i.e. with knowledge and its
utilization. Renewing knowledge
is an imperative for the organization, and not an option.
The rate of learning has to be
greater than the rate of changes. Training and
development of employees is a continuous
procedure which is the only meaningful and logical
approach in the condition of
knowledge obsolescence, dynamic changes and
increasing need for constant product and
service innovations. Human resources represent
intellectual capital which is the new
source of organizational resources, and the organization
could increase them only through
training, development and motivation of employees. The
prosperity of organizations becomes explicitly dependent
on the intellectual capacity of their employees and their
ability to change and adjust to the dynamic business
environment.