Report: The Context for Training and Development Environment”

(Introduction to Employee Training and Development)

Class: TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT (BM 231)
Professor: EDDIE E. LLAMEDO, D.M., Ph.D.
Reporter: MARICEL O. BINONGO

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”
― Benjamin Franklin

Objectives:
 Discuss the forces influencing the workplace and learning and explain how
training can help companies deal with these forces.
 Draw a figure or diagram and explain how training, development, informal
learning, and knowledge management contribute to business success.
 Discuss various aspects of the training design process.
 Describe the amount and types of training occurring in U.S. companies.
 Discuss the key roles for training professionals.
 Identify appropriate resources (e.g., journals, websites) for learning about
training research and practice.

What is training and development?

According to the encyclopedia, training and development describes the formal,

ongoing efforts that are made within organizations to improve the performance and
self-fulfillment of their employees through a variety of educational methods and
programs. In the modern workplace, these efforts have taken on a broad range of
applications—from instruction in highly specific job skills to long-term professional
development.
Forces Affecting the Workplace Make Training a Key Ingredient of Company
Success. Some of the issues affecting these are:
• Customer service
• Productivity
• Safety
• Employee retention and growth
• Uncertainty in the economy
• Extending learning beyond the classroom
• The use of technology

Competitiveness refers to a company’s ability to maintain and gain market share in

an industry.

Training is not a luxury; it is a necessity if companies are to participate in the global

and electronic marketplaces by offering high-quality products and services. Training
prepares employees to use new technologies, function in new work systems such as
virtual teams, and communicate and cooperate with peers or customers who may be
from different cultural backgrounds.

Human resource management refers to the policies, practices, and systems that
influence employees’ behavior, attitudes, and performance. Human resource
practices play a key role in attracting, motivating, rewarding, and retaining
employees. Other human resource management practices include recruiting
employees, selecting employees, designing work, compensating employees, and
developing good labor and employee relations.

Stakeholders refer to shareholders, the community, customers, employees, and all

the other parties that have an interest in seeing that the company succeeds.
Training and Development: The Key Components of Learning

Learning refers to employees acquiring knowledge, skills, competencies, attitudes,

or behaviors. But the focus of training and development is not just on employees
learning for its own sake.
Human capital refers to knowledge (know what), advanced skills (know how),
system understanding and creativity (know why), and motivation to deliver
high-quality products and services (care why).
Formal training and development refers to the training and development
programs, courses, and events that are developed and organized by the company.
Typically, employees are required to attend or complete these programs, which can
include face-to-face training programs (such as instructor-led courses) as well as
online programs.
 Training refers to a planned effort by a company to facilitate learning of job-
related competencies, knowledge, skills, and behaviors by employees. The
goal of training is for employees to master the knowledge, skills, and
behaviors emphasized in training and apply them to their day-to-day activities.
  Development refers to training as well as formal education, job experiences,
relationship, and assessments of personality, skills, and abilities that help
employees prepare for future jobs or positions.
Informal learning refers to learning that is learner initiated, involves action and
doing, is motivated by an intent to develop, and does not occur in a formal learning
setting.3 Informal learning occurs without a trainer or instructor, and its breadth,
depth, and timing is controlled by the employee.
 Explicit knowledge refers to knowledge that is well documented, easily
articulated, and easily transferred from person to person. Examples of explicit
knowledge include processes, checklists, flowcharts, formulas, and
definitions.
Explicit knowledge tends to be the primary focus of formal training and
employee development
 Tacit knowledge refers to personal knowledge based on individual
experiences that is difficult to codify. The characteristics of formal training and
development programs, such as the relatively short duration of classroom or
online training and limited opportunities for practice, may limit the extent to
which tacit knowledge can be acquired.
Knowledge management refers to the process of enhancing company performance
by designing and implementing tools, processes, systems, structures, and cultures to
improve the creation, sharing, and use of knowledge.

DESIGNING EFFECTIVE TRAINING

The training design process refers to a systematic approach for developing training
programs. Figure 1.2 presents the seven steps in this process.
 Step 1 is a needs assessment, which is necessary to identify whether training
is needed.
 Step 2 is to ensure that employees have the motivation and basic skills
necessary to master the training content.
 Step 3 is to create a learning environment that has the features necessary for
learning to occur.
 Step 4 is to ensure that trainees apply the training content to their jobs. This
step involves having the trainee understand how to manage skill
improvement, as well as getting co-worker and manager support.
 Step 5 is to develop an evaluation plan. Developing an evaluation plan
includes identifying what types of outcomes training is expected to influence
(for example, learning, behavior, or skills), choosing an evaluation design that
allows you to determine the influence of training on these outcomes, and
planning how to demonstrate how training affects the “bottom line” (that is,
using a cost-benefit analysis to determine the monetary benefits resulting
from training).
  Step 6 is to choose the training method based on the learning objectives and
learning environment. This step may include a traditional training method of
face-to-face interaction with a trainer or e-learning using web-based training
or mobile learning.
 Step 7 is to evaluate the program and make changes in it or revisit any of the
earlier steps in the process to improve the program so that learning, behavior,
change, and other learning objectives are obtained

This training design process is based on the principles of Instructional System

Design or the ISD. ISG refers to a process for designing and developing training
programs. ISD can also be referred as ADDIE Model because it includes Analysis,
Development, Implementation, and Evaluation.
Regardless of the specific ISD approach used, all share these assumptions:
• Training design is effective only if it helps employees reach instructional or
training goals and objectives.
• Measurable learning objectives should be identified before the training
program begins.
• Evaluation plays an important part in planning and choosing a training
method, monitoring the training program, and suggesting changes to the
training design process.

Flaws of the ISD model as claimed by some training professionals:

• the training design process rarely follows the neat, orderly, step-by-step
approach of activities
• in trying to standardize their own ISD method used in the training function,
some organizations require trainers to provide detailed documents of each
activity found in the model. This adds time and cost to developing a training
program.
• the ISD implies an end point: evaluation. However, good instructional design
requires an iterative process of design, execution, evaluation, and
 reconsideration of the needs that the program was designed to meet, as well

as the learning environment, the transfer of training, and all the other activities
in the ISD process
• many companies claim to use an instructional design approach but dilute its
application.

The training design process should be systematic, yet flexible enough to adapt to
business needs.

THE FORCES INFLUENCING WORKING AND LEARNING

I. ECONOMIC CYCLES: It is important to recognize that regardless of the

current economic cycle, training has been shown to positively contribute to the
company’s performance.

II. GLOBALIZATION: Every business must be prepared to deal with the global
economy. Global business expansion has been made easier by technology.
The Internet allows data and information to be instantly accessible and sent
around the world. The Internet, e-mail, and video conferencing enable
 business deals to be completed between companies thousands of miles
apart.
Offshoring refers to the process of moving jobs from the United States to
other locations in the world. The reasons given for offshoring factory and
other jobs often include lower labor costs and the availability of a skilled
workforce with a strong work ethic.

III. INCREASED VALUE PLACED ON INTANGIBLE ASSETS AND HUMAN

CAPITAL: Training and development can help a company’s competitiveness
by directly increasing the company’s value through contributing to intangible
assets.
Three types of assets
o financial assets (cash and securities),
o physical assets (property, plant, equipment),
o and intangible assets.
Examples of Intangible Assets are:

• Human capital: sum of the attributes, life experiences, knowledge,

inventiveness, energy, and enthusiasm that the company’s employees
invest in their work.
• Customer capital: value of relationships with persons or other
organizations outside the company for accomplishing the goals of the
company.
• Social capital: relationships in the company.
• Intellectual capital: codified knowledge that exists in a company.

The value of intangible assets and human capital has three important
implications:
1. A focus on knowledge workers,
2. Employee engagement, and
 3. An increased emphasis on adapting to change and continuous learning

Focus on Knowledge Workers

One way that a company can increase its intangible assets, specifically
human capital, is by focusing on attracting, developing, and retaining
knowledge workers.
Knowledge workers are employees who contribute to the company not
through manual labor, but through what they know, perhaps about customers
or a specialized body of knowledge.

Employee Engagement
To fully benefit from employee knowledge requires a management style that
focuses on engaging employees. Employee engagement refers to the degree
to which employees are fully involved in their work and the strength of their
commitment to their job and the company.
Change and Continuous Learning
Change refers to the adoption of a new idea or behavior by a company.
Technological advances, changes in the workforce or government regulations,
globalization, and new competitors are among the many factors that require
companies to change.
A learning organization embraces a culture of lifelong learning, enabling all
employees to acquire and share knowledge continually. Improvements in
product or service quality do not stop when formal training is completed.

IV. Focus on Links to Business Strategy

Given the important role that intangible assets and human capital play in a
company’s competitiveness, managers are beginning to see a more important
role for training and development as a means to support a company’s
business strategy; that is, its plans for meeting broad goals such as
profitability, market share, and quality.
V. Changing Demographics and Diversity of the Workforce.
In the United States the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), an agency of the
Department of Labor, tracks changes in the composition of the U.S. labor
force and forecasts trends. Companies face several challenges as a result of
increased demographics and diversity of the workforce. Population is the
single most important factor in determining the size and composition of the
labor force, which is composed of people who are either working or looking for
work.

Increase in Ethnic and Racial Diversity

Between 2012 and 2022, the U.S. labor force will continue to grow
more ethnically and racially diverse due to immigration, increased
participation of minorities in the workforce, and higher minority fertility
rates.

Aging Workforce
The labor force participation of those 55 years and older is expected to
grow because older individuals are leading healthier and longer lives
than in the past, providing the opportunity to work more years.

Generational Differences
VI. Talent Management refers to the systematic, planned, and strategic effort by
a company to use bundles of human resource management practices,
including acquiring and assessing employees, learning and development,
performance management, and compensation to attract, retain, develop, and
motivate highly skilled employees and managers. Talent management is
becoming increasingly more important because of changes in demand for
certain occupations and jobs, skill requirements, the anticipated retirement of
the baby boomer generation, and the need to develop managerial talent and
skills of the next generation of company leaders.

VII. Customer Service and Quality Emphasis. A company’s customers judge its
quality and performance. As a result, customer excellence requires attention
to product and service features, as well as to interactions with customers.
Customer-driven excellence includes understanding what the customer wants,
anticipating future needs, reducing defects and errors, meeting specifications,
and reducing complaints. How the company recovers from defects and errors
is also important for retaining and attracting customers.

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a companywide effort to

continuously improve the ways people, machines, and systems
accomplish work.

Core values of TQM include the following:

• Methods and processes are designed to meet the needs of internal
and external customers. • Every employee in the company receives
training in quality.
• Quality is built into a product or service so that errors are prevented
from occurring rather than being detected and corrected.
• The company promotes cooperation with vendors, suppliers, and
customers to improve quality and hold down costs.
• Managers measure progress with feedback based on data.
 QUALITY STANDARDS
 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
• the highest level of national recognition for quality that a
U.S. company can receive.
• award is not given for specific products or services.
• winners usually excel at human resource practices,
including training and development.
 ISO 9000:2000 (International Organization for Standardization)
• a network of national standards institutes that includes
160 countries and has a central governing body in
Geneva, Switzerland, is the world’s largest developer and
publisher of international standards.
• develops standards related to management as well as a
wide variety of other areas, including education, music,
ships, and even protecting children.
• quality standards address what the company does to
meet regulatory requirements and the customer’s quality
requirements while striving to improve customer
satisfaction and continuous improvement.

VIII. New Technology

Technology has reshaped the way we play, communicate, plan our lives, and
work. Many companies’ business models includes e-commerce, which allows
consumers to purchase products and services online. The Internet is a global
collection of computer networks that allows users to exchange data and
information.

Influence on Training Advances in sophisticated technology along

with reduced costs for the technology are changing the delivery of
training, making training more realistic, and giving employees the
opportunity to choose where and when they will work. New
technologies allow training to occur at any time and any place.
Flexibility in Where and When Work Is Performed Advances in
technology, including more powerful computer chips and increased
processing power of PDAs, notebooks, and iPhones have the potential
for freeing workers from going to a specific location to work and from

traditional work schedules.

Technology also allows companies greater use of alternative work

arrangements. Alternative work arrangements include independent
contractors, on-call workers, temporary workers, and contract company
workers.
IX. High-Performance Models of Work Systems New technology causes
changes in skill requirements and work roles and often results in redesigned
work structures (e.g., using work teams).
Work teams involve employees with various skills who interact to
assemble a product or provide a service.

Cross training refers to training employees in a wide range of skills so

they can fill any of the roles needed to be performed on the team.

Use of new technology and work designs such as work teams needs to
be supported by specific human resource management practices.
These practices include the following actions:
 Employees choose or select new employees or team members.
 Employees receive formal performance feedback and are
involved in the performance improvement process.
 Ongoing training is emphasized and rewarded.
 Rewards and compensation are linked to company
performance.
 Equipment and work processes encourage maximum flexibility
and interaction between employees.
 Employees participate in planning changes in equipment, layout,
and work methods.
• Employees understand how their jobs contribute to the finished
product or service.

SNAPSHOT OF TRAINING PRACTICES

Training can play a key role in helping companies gain a competitive advantage and
successfully deal with competitive challenges. Before you can learn how training can

Training Facts and Figures

 The snapshot of training practices provided in this section is based on data
and collected from a number of sources, including surveys conducted by
Training magazine and the ATD. (Association for Talent Development,
previously known as the American Society for Training and Development).

Training Investment Leaders. Training can be used by companies to gain a

competitive advantage. Higher investment in training by companies in the
United States is related to use of innovative training practices and high-
performance work practices such as teams, employee stock ownership plans,
incentive compensation systems (profit sharing), individual development
plans, and employee involvement in business decisions.

Roles, Competencies, and Positions of Training Professionals

Trainers can typically hold many jobs, such as instructional designer, technical
trainer, or needs analyst. Each job has specific roles or functions.

Training and Development Roles:

Learning Strategist - Determines how workplace learning can be best used

to help meet the company’s business strategy
 Business Partner - Uses business and industry knowledge to create training
that improves performance
Project Manager - Plans, obtains, and monitors the delivery of learning and
performance solutions to support the business
Professional Specialist - Designs, develops, delivers, and evaluates
learning and performance solutions.

Who Provides Training? In most companies, training and development activities

are provided by trainers, managers, in-house consultants, and employee experts.
However, as the snapshot of training practices suggests, training and development
activities are also outsourced.

Outsourcing means that training and development activities are provided

by individuals outside the company.

Who Is in Charge of Training?

Training and development can be the responsibility of professionals in human
resources, human resource development, or organizational development.
Companies may also have entire functions or departments called human resources,
human resource development, talent management or development, or organizational
development that provide training and development.

Preparing to Work in Training

Everyone is a trainer at some point in his or her life. Consider the last time you had
to teach some skill to a peer, sibling, spouse, friend, or even your boss. Although
some people learn to train by trial and error, the best way is to take courses in
training and development, or even choose an academic major related to training.