Importance of training and development programs

Discuss about the Human Resource Management  for Training and Development Program.

Training and development programs are crucial for the employees as it helps them to understand the procedures, policies as well the organizational expectations from them. On the other hand, it is necessary for the organization because with the help of training and development program, organization explains its regulatory requirements, roles and responsibilities, rules and policies which need to be followed while performing the assigned tasks. This makes a clear picture amongst the employees in relevance with their job role and responsibilities along with the expectations from organization from them. It is required for ever organization to provide training to every new hired candidate so that it could match up with the organizational requirements and until organization will not provide adequate information to the employees with regards to their job responsibilities, tasks which they are required to execute, etc., there will be gap between organizational expectations and employees’ performance (Armstrong, 2006).

Training and development program is an effective tool which incorporates interest of workforce and organization towards same level. Training is known as the key indicator of employees’ performance and the more effective training measures will, the more an employee will be able to perform as per organizational expectations. For example, a software company is planning to expand its business in overseas market and their major functionalities are developing accounting software and for expansion in the overseas market, they have appointed well talented and skilful software engineers for their new business location. They sent them at the new business location without providing them training and after certain period of time, organization failed to get success and growth from the new business location because the new employees were not able to fulfil its client’s needs. Thus, no matter, how talented and skilled engineers were hired but until they will not know about their job roles and responsibilities, they will not able to perform as per organizational expectations. When evaluation programs were executed, it was found that due to lack of training measures, employees were not able to perform as per the expectations and this was the major issue, organization failed to get success and growth in the international market (Armstrong & Baron, 2002).

Training and development program helps employees to enhance their efficiency as well as to mould their skills as per organizational requirements. Thus, it is beneficial for both, for organization as well as for employees. Apart from the benefits from the training measures, employees’ performance is interlinked with the training measures. Thus, organization could uplift its performance by providing appropriate training and development programs to its employees (Arthur, 2004). Organizational performance is dependent upon its employees’ performance which shows linkage between these two factors, thus, it could be said that the benefits of the organization are dependent upon effective training and development programs. Following are benefits from training and development programs to the employees:

Training and development programs for organizations

• Training and development program helps to increase job satisfaction and develops morale amongst the employees;
• It enhances motivation amongst employees;
• Enhances efficiency which ultimately boost up organizational performance;
• Well trained employees will always seek for creative and innovative ways for accomplishment of the tasks;
• With the increased satisfaction of employees, reliability towards organization will increase for employees; and
• Helps to perform as per organizational requirements (Bhattacharya, 2016).

Apart from employees, there are various benefits of training and development programs for an organization:

• Economy in organization: Trained, skilled and talented employees will be able to make optimum utilisation of available resources with the organization to get higher returns. Ultimately, it will help the organization to attain its desired goals along with gaining an effective position in the competitive business environment. Human resources are treated as the most effective element for organizational performance and if adequate training will be provided to them, organizational as well as employees’ efficiency get doubled (Cristian, 2012).
• Enhance productivity: A well–trained employee will be able to help the organization in terms of increasing productivity as well as quality. Training helps the employees to enhance their skills and competencies through which assigned duty could be accomplished in the most appropriate manner with higher returns along with adequate quality.
• Uniformity of procedures: While designing the training and development programs, organization must consider the standards and the policies so that employees could perform the assigned tasks as per the directed path. This will ultimately help the organization to gain positive outcomes as per their requirements and uniformity amongst the procedures will be developed in the organizational performance (Danila, 2014).
• Less supervision: Management does not need to execute monitoring and controlling programs on regular basis if employees are given adequate training. Training is not the assurance that there will be no mistake but it reduces the requirement of frequent and detailed supervision.
• Systematic informing skills: If training and development program will be designed in a systematic manner, it will take less time by trainees to reach to the expected level of performance. Thus, organizational performance will be enhanced and the same as per the planning done (Harvard Business Review, 2014).
• Higher morale: With the adequate training measures, morale of employees increases. An effective training mould employees’ attitude towards attainment of organizational objectives along with integrity, loyalty and cooperation. Apart from this, appropriate and effective training programs reduce dissatisfaction and absenteeism among the employees (Holbeche, 2012).

Organization could provide training by two methods i.e. on-the-job training method and off-the-job training method. On-the-job training method is effective for the existing employees while for new hired candidates, it is required for the organization to provide off-the-job and full time training in relevance with moulding their attitude and skills as per organizational requirements (Wilton, 2016). After certain period of time, organization could provide buddy-up which is another form of training measure for increasing new hired candidates’ efficiency. Under this method, experience candidates are given responsibility to provide appropriate information regarding the organizational standards, policies and the measures to perform the tasks. This is necessary because along with bookish and artificial knowledge, practical knowledge is also required and appropriate practical knowledge could only be given by an experienced employee. Thus, it could be said that training and development programs are effective as well as efficient in relevance with increasing organizational performance and there are numerous benefits of training and development programs (Oracle, 2017).

With the increasing business environment, customer’s preferences, tastes and behaviour, organizations are also adopting dynamic policies which could be moulded as per the requirements. In these dynamic policies, training and development programs stand on the top of the list of dynamic strategies to enhance organizational performance (Oracle, 2017). Cost of training and development program is high and in relevance with making this cost as an investment for future returns, it is required to fulfil employees’ requirements along with providing them an effective workplace environment which could make them feel safe and secure. Apart from this, with the rapid changes in the business environment, learning procedures are also changing and these measures are expensive enough to hit the budget of the organization. Thus, organization should develop an approximate budget and on the basis of that budget, certain amount should be kept aside for providing training to the new candidates so that the desired goals and objectives could be attained along with minimising the cost of production and by increasing productivity so that an effective image could be developed in the dynamic business environment (Oracle, 2017).

While setting up budget for the future expenses, income is assumed on the basis of past performance of organization. Apart from this, organization also set up budget for the unexpected expenses also in order to manage organizational performance. In relation with setting budget, training and development cost is also charged on the side of expenses because initially, it is a type of expense for the organization to attain its desired goals and objectives. Thus, it is necessary for the organization to design an effective training and development program in relevance with boosting up the performance of organization (Parry, Stayrou & Lazarova, 2013). Enhancing employees’ learning ensures the organization towards attainment of positive outcomes. While designing budget for the expected and unexpected expenses, following costs needs to be considered:

• Training working hours;
• Human resources as well as other resources will be required for providing an effective training;
• Opportunity cost;
• Material, equipment, etc. cost;
• Cost of internal as well as external trainer; and
• Visual inventory expenses such as projector, LCD, and so on (Sims, 2007).

Types of training and development programs

When a new candidate is hired for performing tasks on behalf of organization as well as on the basis of organizational expectations, above mentioned all costs are being invested in the training and development program so that the new candidate’s skills could be moulded along with their attitude towards sake of organization (Patidar, 2014). It is necessary for the organization to invest in newly appointed candidates so that their skills, competencies and talent could be moulded along with providing an efficient training program so that the desired goals and objectives could be attained. Budget designing is necessary for the organization as it helps the organization to manage its tasks in an effective manner along with fulfilling the considerations with regards to the enhancing organizational performance. Cost of training and the tasks allocated to the employees are relevant with each other. Thus, it is necessary for the organization in order to utilise the cost of training and development program (Rees, 2007).

According to my point of view, training and development plays vital role in organizational performance. It is essential from both ends i.e. for employee as well as for organization. Employees understand the method of performing tasks, workplace environment, type and concept of work so that they could mould their skills as the requirements whereas it is required for the organization in terms of accomplishing the tasks along with gaining positive outcomes.

I am working as training and development head in the Uber and being with this department, I realised that organization could enhance its performance and efficiency by their own by adopting unique and trending measures. Being with the training and development team, I got to know that it is necessary to design training program as per organizational requirements and on the basis of process for which organization is hiring. For example, training program designed by me in Uber for both Uber motor and for Uber Eats were different. This is because in both the processes, functionalities of both departments are unique from each other. Apart from this, with the changing customer’s requirements and on the basis of organizational business requirements, I used to adopt and implement innovative techniques with the objective of increasing organizational performance.

It has been recommended to the companies irrelevant to their size to adopt appropriate training and development programs so that the desired goals and objectives could be attained in an effective manner. While designing training and development program, organizations could adopt unique ways such as taking feedbacks and suggestions from employees as they face direct challenges and issues while interacting with client, accomplishing tasks, etc. Employees will be able to share their own experience and with the help of these reviews, suggestions and feedbacks, organization will be able to design an effective program so that the new as well as existing employees could get ready with appropriate solutions for the upcoming challenges and issues. Further, organizations could also use monitoring and controlling measures so that the desired goals and objectives could be attained in an effective manner along with enhancing the effectiveness of training and development programs.

References

Armstrong, M & Baron, A. 2002. Strategic HRM: The key to Improved Business Performance, CIPD Publishing, London.

Armstrong, M. 2006. A Handbook of Human Resource Management, Kogan Page Limited, United Kingdom.

Arthur, D. 2004. Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, American Management Association International, New York.

Bhattacharya, B. 2016. How to fit Organisational Development in HR Roles. [Online]. Accessed from:  https://www.keka.com/organizational-development-hr/>. [23^rd May 2018].

Cristian, C. 2012. Fundamental Roles and Principles of Human Resources Management. [Online]. Accessed from: https://conference.dresmara.ro/conferences/2012/43_Ciuntu.pdf. [23^rd May 2018].

Danila, L.M. 2014. Current Trends in HRM. [Online]. Accessed from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46525559_CURRENT_TRENDS_IN_HRM. [23^rd May 2018].

Harvard Business Review. 2014. The Age of Modern HR. [Online]. Accessed from: https://www.oracle.com/webfolder/s/delivery_production/docs/FY14h1/doc7/18762-HBR-Oracle-Report-HR3-FINAL.pdf. [23^rd May 2018].

Holbeche, L. 2012. Aligning Human Resources and Business Strategy, Routledge, UK.

Oracle 2017, Benefits, [Online]. Accessed from: https://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/careers/college/work-at-oracle/benefits/index.html. [23^rd May 2018].

Oracle. 2017. Oracle Human Resources Analytics, [Online]. Accessed from: https://www.oracle.com/us/products/057353.pdf. [23^rd May 2018].

Oracle. 2017. Training And Development. [Online]. Accessed from: https://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/careers/college/work-at-oracle/training-development/index.html. [23^rd May 2018].

Parry, E, Stayrou, M & Lazarova, M. 2013. Global Trends in Human Resource Management, Palgrave Macmillan, England.

Patidar, M. 2014. Nature and Scope of Human Resource Management, [Online]. Accessed from: https://www.enotesmba.com/2014/04/nature-and-scope-of-human-resource-management.html. [23^rd May 2018].

Rees, R.T. 2007. ‘The role of HR in organizational development and innovation’, Employment Relations Today, vol.33, no.4, pp.29-35.

Sims, R.R. 2007. Human Resource Management: Contempory Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities, Information Age Publication, US.

Wilton, N 2016, An Introduction to Human Resource Management, SAGE, California.