Impact of Training and Development on Employees’ and Organization’s Performance: A Study of a Government owned organization

Dr. Sharif,

611, IIT Campus,

Manoj Kumar

Room No. 204, Faculty Building

IIT Kanpur-208016. (India)

Radical changes take place in the technology and management every day. It is indeed difficult for the employees of an organization to work in these changed circumstances. Therefore, it is important that the employees of the organization are given trainings at regular intervals on the changes that have taken place in technology and management so that they can give maximum output and also they may adjust themselves to the changed environment and circumstances. Systematic training should be planned in a logical sequence where a training need should be identified, a plan is put in place to address the need, and the plan is implemented, evaluated and assessed. This paper discusses the current training and development practices being followed at a Government organization, then the issues are discussed. Finally, based on the current system being practiced and observations thereon, recommendations to improve their training and development program are made.

Introduction

Training has the distinct role in the achievement of an organizational goal by incorporating the interests of organization and the workforce (Stone R J. Human Resource Management, 2002). Training increases or develops the managerial skills (Robart T.Rosti Jr, Frank shipper, 1998). Despite focusing on efficiency and cost control the spending on training should increase because organization achieves more efficiency and effectiveness through training and development (workforce special report, 2006). All organizations employing people should therefore train and develop their staff. Most organizations are cognizant of this requirement and invest effort and other resources in training and development. Imparting training is a must in order to make employees competent for the jobs that they are supposed to handle. In modern industrial environment, the need for training of employees is widely recognized to keep the employees in touch with the new technological developments.

Every organization must have a systematic training programme for the growth and development of its employees. Employee performance depends on many factors like job satisfaction, knowledge and management but there is relationship between training and performance (Chris Amisano, 2010). It may be noted that term ‘training’ is used in regard to teaching of specific skills, knowledge and attitudes whereas the term ‘development’ denotes overall development of personality of the employees. This paper studies the current training and development practices being followed at a Government organization. Based on the current system, observations are drawn and finally recommendations to improve the current training and development practices are made which can be incorporated without any significant investment.

Objective of the Study

The objectives of the study are to find out the following:-

ü To study how training helps the employees to enhance skills, knowledge and attitude.

ü To study the impact of training on motivation of employees.

ü To study the impact of training in reducing operational and maintenance cost and mistakes.

ü To study the impact of training on communication and inter-personal relationship leading to better

team work.

ü To study the impact of training on the overall performance of the organization.

Design/Methodology/Approach

In this research, a case of an Academic Institute of higher studies in the field of Technology is taken up for study. This Institute has about 800 employees and is owned by Government of India. Methodology used in this case study is based on field visits wherein the organization was visited on different occasions to know its current Practices of Training & Development. Personal interviews with professionals as well as those who were involved in the Human Resource Management of the Organizations were conducted. Also, the books and journals were referred to.

Literature Review

In today's economy, if your business isn't learning, then you're going to fall behind. And a business learns as its people learn. Your employees are the ones that produce, refine, protect, deliver and manage your products or services every day, year in, year out. With the rapid pace and international reach of the 21st century marketplace, continual learning is critical to your business's continued success.

On the necessity of the trainings, we find a lot of literature that indicate how training and development are important for the improved performance of the employees. It is very difficult for an employee to perform well at the job place without any pre-training (Thomas N.Garavan, 1997). Trained employees perform well as compared to untrained employees (Partlow, 1996). It is very necessary for any organization to give its employees training to achieve overall goals of the organization in a better way (Flynn et al., 1995). Training and development increase the overall performance of the organization (Shepard, Jon et al.,2003). Although it is costly to give training to the employees but in the long run it gives back more than what it took (Flynn et al. 1995).Every organization should develop its employees according to the need of the time so that they could compete with their competitors (Carlos A. Primo Braga,1995).

On training design, many scholars have explained their impressive views It is very necessary for the organizations to design the training very carefully (Michael Armstrong, 2000). The design of the training should be according to the needs of the employees (Ginsberg, 1997). Those organizations which develop a good training design according to the need of the employees as well as to the organization always get good results (Partlow, 1996). (Tsaur and Lin, 2004) explain, training design plays a very vital role in the employees’ learning and performance. A bad training design is nothing but the loss of time and money

On the job training, many scholars have explained their constructive views. (Deming, 1982) says, on the job training helps employees to get the knowledge of their job in a better way. People learn from their practical experience much better as compare to bookish knowledge. On the job training reduces cost and saves time (Flynn et al., 1995). It is better for the organizations to give their employees on the job training because it is cost effective and time saving (Ruth Taylor et al., 2004). It is good for organizations to give their employees on the job training so that their employees learnt in a practical way (Tom Baum et al., 2007).

Many scholars have advocated for a sound delivery style. Delivery style is a very important part of Training and Development (Carlos A. Primo Braga, 1995). Employees are very conscious about the delivery style (Michael Armstrong, 2000). If someone is not delivering the training in an impressive style and he is not capturing the attention of the audience, it means he is wasting the time (Mark A. Griffin et al., 2000). It is very necessary for a trainer to engage its audience during the training session (Phillip seamen et al., 2005).

Prevailing system of Training & Development at Organization under study

Following are the current practices of Training & Development in this Organization:

1. Induction Programme. The staff members/ employees are imparted brief orientations which are informative in nature. Such Induction Programme is conducted cadre wise which is for a period of two to three days. This Induction Programme generally conducted once in six months when the strength of newly recruited staff reaches to 30 numbers approximately. Through this programme, the newly joined employees are made aware of functions of each department of this organization and the role they have to play in their respective departments.

2. Need based Training. The need based training is imparted to the employees after assessing the needs of such a training for them. However, whenever a new equipment is purchased or lab is set up, the training is imparted to the staff members engaged in the specific lab or an equipment in order to gain experience on the maintenance and operation of the said lab or equipment. Also, the staff is sent to Advanced Training Institutes within India for getting the training.

3. Conference/ Workshops in the Institute. The other traditional method of training is awareness about the prevailing policies and procedures in various organizations across India through conference and workshops. Prominent scholars are invited to deliver lectures from outside the Institute who share their experience and expertise on various policies and procedures being followed in progressive organizations across the country. These kinds of conferences/ workshops are less expensive in nature and provide better opportunities for learning the latest policies and procedures.

4. Institute Lectures. Besides inviting experts from outside the Institute, the Institute has the practice of providing training to its employees through Institute lectures. The Institute has world class Faculty in technology, science arts, and management. Through these lectures the internal Faculty members share their knowledge and experience with the employees on various administrative policies and procedures followed globally.

Observations

The training and development programme are found effective when following principles are adhered to:

a. Transfer of learning.

b. Employee motivation.

c. Recognition of Individual differences.

d. Reinforcement.

e. Knowledge of result (feedback).

f. Goals.

g. Schedule of learning.

Following are the observations based on the existing practices of Training & Development at Government Organization;

1. Fund allocation. Institute is not allocating adequate funds for conducting Training and Development Programmes. The focus of Training and Development essentially remains on Officers/ Faculty. The lower cadre employees are not given much importance which is a cause of concern. The training for lower cadre employees are kept once or twice in a year

2. Inappropriate staffing. The training cell does not have an independent officer in-charge. An officer is given an additional charge to run the show. Also, he is not supported by any permanent and specialized staff.

3. Lack of top management commitment. Top management seems to be not very much willing to support the training needs. The focus of top management is on faculty and students and due importance is not given to supporting technical and administrative staff.

4. Lack of motivation for attending training programme among employees. As the training sessions are not conducted at regular intervals, the employees do not show much interest in attending the training sessions. Also the duration of the session being too short, it does not motivate the participants to take part in it.

5. Lack of trained personnel in training cell. The training cell does not have specialized manpower to handle the training activities. In absence of trained and specialized manpower, quality of training remains a suspect.

6. Lack of advanced training. Recently, Governance system of the higher educational institutes was reviewed by the review Committee formed by the Government of India with an objective that why these institutes were not able to achieve the desired ranking in the World although they have best Faculty and students. The review Committee observed that adequate efforts were not made on advanced Training and Growth of employees resulting in poor performance at World level.

Suggestions:

1. Time Management: Training schedule during the office hours is another issue. As such training schedule be made without disturbing the regular routine work. It would therefore be advisable to conduct such trainings at weekends.

2. In-house training programme: Getting a group together allows all the training and learning to be focused on the company and can discuss real and current examples. Also, the cost per trainee is typically less than the training courses attended outside. Getting participants from different departments in one classroom can encourage greater team work, awareness and understanding of each other’s role.

3. Job Rotation: Job rotation is beneficial to both the employer as well as employee. Employer finds back up when someone proceeds on leave or quits the organization. Also cross training increases work pool size for every position. Job squatting is also avoided (employee is unable to claim that he or she is indispensable by hoarding information on a position). For employees, they get chance to learn new skills. Also, change of pace keeps interest level up. It is easy to find back up for himself/ herself when he/she proceeds on leave etc. Design of proper induction training programmes can also help in job rotation (http://hrcouncil.ca/hr-toolkit/learning-implementing.cfm)

4. Job shadowing: If an employee wants to learn what someone else in your organization does, he or she can follow that person and observe him or her at work. Usually the person doing the shadowing does not help with the work that is being done. Training programme can designed with an objective of providing opportunities to the employees to shadow an appropriate person. (http://hrcouncil.ca/hr-toolkit/learning-implementing.cfm)

5. 'Stretch' assignments: These assignments give the employee an opportunity to stretch past his or her current abilities. For example, a stretch assignment could require an employee to chair a meeting if the person has never done this before. After the employee has done with chairing the meeting, the Superior officer should discuss with the employee what went well and what could have been improved. Training programme can be designed to provide this kind of opportunity. (http://hrcouncil.ca/hr-toolkit/learning-implementing.cfm)

6. 360 Degree Performance Appraisal: For developing an employee, feedbacks are very handy which can be given to him through performance appraisal. In a 360-degree performance appraisal, feedback is gathered from supervisors, peers, staff, other colleagues and sometimes clients. The results of an appraisal can be used to identify areas for further development of the employee. It is very important to design training programme for creating abilities to perform such appraisal. (http://hrcouncil.ca/hr-toolkit/learning-implementing.cfm)

7. Training Evaluation: Evaluation gives the trainer an opportunity to validate his or her observations, as well as to the participants an opportunity to express their opinions and feel satisfaction from the fact that they have been heard. Evaluation gives the participants an opportunity to analyze the previous experience and discuss future changes, make a decision about the need to continue training after sometime, and it emotionally and logically concludes the training.

8. Provision for Training Budgets: In many organizations, training budgets are solely a function of whether the company is enjoying an economic upswing or enduring a downturn. In good times, companies tend to spend money on training that's not significant to the organization, and in bad times, the pendulum swings to the other extreme and training is eliminated altogether. In any economic environment, the training expense should be determined by the targeted business results you want, not other budget-related factors.To help counter this tendency, sit down and assess your training and development needs once or twice a year to identify your needs and brainstorm how to achieve your desired results effectively and efficiently.

Your employees are your principle business asset. Invest in them thoughtfully and strategically, and you'll reap rewards that pay off now and for years to come.

Conclusion

Training and development are very important for any organization for the growth of its employees and for itself. To create a learning culture in your business, begin by clearly communicating your expectations that employees should take the steps necessary to hone their skills to stay on top of their professions or fields of work. Make sure you support their efforts in this area by supplying the resources they need to accomplish this goal. Second, communicate to your employees the specific training needs and targeted results you have established as a result of your needs analysis. We have tried to address the above issues in this paper. From the observations and recommendations that are made in this study, we may conclude that if the organization adopts the strategies suggested may certainly benefit and improve its policy meant for Training & Development which will ultimately result in the growth of the employees and the organization. While efforts are made to address all the activities generally performed by the training and development function, the role function of it, is such that, new and typical situations, which are not addressed in the recommendations, may arise. Hence, further research is encouraged in this area.

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