Over the last decade, workplaces have undergone a rapid transformation for various reasons. An increasingly competitive business environment, together with the digital revolution, is radically altering the composition of the workforce.
Also, a multi-generational workforce and the rapid shifts in competency requirements have necessitated a renewed focus on reskilling and upskilling. The large-scale adoption of digital tools in the workplace makes the need for a suitably skilled workforce paramount. These evolving trends are driving organizations to invest in employee training and development programs.
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Definition: Training and Development in HRM?
Training and development in human resource management are educational and skill-building activities intended to improve the knowledge and skills of employees. Training and development activities aim to sharpen your employees’ existing skills and impart new knowledge. An effective training and development program is designed based on an analysis of an organization’s training needs to improve employee performance.
Relation Between Training and Development
Training involves the process of enhancing the knowledge, skill levels, and competence of employees. Development focuses on improving and honing the existing skills and the overall growth of employees. Both initiatives are undertaken to ensure that your employees develop skills to improve their performance at work.
Purpose of Training and Development in HRM
Investing in employee training and development serves five key purposes:
- Boosts Employee Retention
High-performing employees look for training and development opportunities to grow professionally. Learning and development initiatives signal to the employees that the organization values its employees and is willing to invest in their professional growth. It boosts loyalty among employees, which reduces turnover and enhances retention.
- Builds a Leadership Pipeline
Training and development offer a suitable means for identifying and imparting the necessary skills to future organizational leaders. According to an SHRM research report, leadership development programs help organizations secure future business goals by developing a leadership pipeline.
- Empowers Employees at Workplace
Informed leaders are better equipped to motivate employees. Motivated employees experience greater autonomy and feel empowered to fulfill their responsibilities. Empowered employees display greater initiative and are more innovative, contributing to more significant overall organizational growth.
- Enhances Workplace Engagement
Training and development activities to help check feelings of dissatisfaction among employees. Employee engagement software can be used to boost workplace morale and drive mutual growth. Satisfied employees are more engaged and consistently deliver superior performance at work.
- Increases Workplace Collaboration
Participating in training and development activities improves team bonding. During these activities, employees work together to learn new skills and tackle new challenges. According to a Forbes study, team bonding improves workplace collaboration, which brings about synergies in operations and improves workplace efficiency.
Role of HR in Training and Development
The HR personnel have a critical role in delivering effective human resource development activities. The role of HR in training and development includes:
- Connecting with employees and understanding their training needs.
- Designing effective training programs.
- Motivating employees to participate in learning and development programs.
- Working with department heads and ensuring that training and development is an ongoing process and not a one-off activity
- Ensuring the delivery of quality training content.
Types of Training and Development in HRM
There are several types of training and development activities undertaken to either upskill or reskill employees. The various types of training and development include:
- Technical Training
Depending on the role and the industry, training on a specific technological aspect might be required. For example, in the retail industry, technical training could entail training on CRM systems. Likewise, in the hospitality industry, a restaurant executive might need training on the use of software tools to take customer orders. Technical training could be provided with in-house resources or with external trainers.
- Quality Training
Quality training involves educating employees on the measures to detect, prevent and eliminate causes for the poor quality of products or services. This often includes training employees on ISO standards that measure quality based on defined metrics. Training employees on quality standards improve organizational performance, provides cost savings, and confers the organization with a competitive edge.
- Skills Training
This type of training is conducted to impart specific skills for the employees to perform their job. Skills training is typically conducted using in-house resources and could include training on operating production machinery, being a better salesman, etc.
- Soft Skills Training
Soft skills training is concerned with the overall development of employees by improving their personality, communication skills, ethics training, etc. It helps produce employees who present themselves as better citizens who can perform better at work.
- Safety Training. Safety training equips employees with the skills and knowledge to adopt safe work practices and protect themselves and their colleagues from work-related injuries. Safety training also helps employees detect and report hazards at work. An integral part of safety training is fire drills, administering first aid, construction safety, Hazmat safety, etc. Safety training is vital for employee protection and preventing workflow interruption due to worker injury.
5 Stages of Training and Development in HRM
The five stages of training and development are:
- Training Needs Assessment
The starting point of the training and development process is assessing the training requirements of employees. The analysis should consider the long-term goals of the organization and the organization’s expectations from its employees. A mismatch between the goals and the current skill levels indicates that there is a need for training.
- Define Training Objective
Having determined that there is a training need, the next step is to define the training objective. The training objective becomes the basis for the training initiative and directs the training and development program.
- Design Training Program
The design of the training program will depend on the type of trainer, the employees to be trained, and the training method to be used. The training content must be aligned with the needs identified.
- Conduct Training Program
In this step, the designed training plan is put into action. Care should be taken to create a conducive environment for learning. For greater effectiveness, the training should encourage a participative approach to increase the involvement of the trainees in the training program.
- Evaluate and Follow-Up
Training evaluation is essential to verify if the goals of the training program have been achieved. Feedback obtained from the participants on the effectiveness of the training and the relevance of the content is valuable input for the evaluation process. Follow-up includes asking the supervisors if the participants apply the acquired skills effectively in their daily activities.
5 Best Practices For Training and Development in HRM
The best practices in the implementation of training and development programs include:
- Obtain management buy-in
Management buy-in into the training program enhances the program’s chances of success.
Management backing for training programs helps training initiatives become a part of the company’s culture and ensures employees take the programs seriously. If the management team can actively participate in the delivery of the programs, it reinforces their support and commitment to the programs.
- Create a formal program
Design and promulgate a formal training program.
It ensures that everyone gains from regular training. Training is not a one-time activity, so a plan that caters for continuous training increases training effectiveness. A formal program compels people to set training goals, provide training resources, and review progress and effectiveness.
- Define metrics
The resistance to investments in training comes from the perception that training is expensive and that it is difficult to see the benefits. Defining metrics helps compare results to the metrics and allows people to see the extent of benefits. The common metrics used are course completion rate, effect on work outcomes, cost of training, etc. - Measure trainee satisfaction
For training to be effective, the employees need to engage in the training.
The learning outcomes will be poor if there is no engagement. Engagement and satisfaction can be assessed by looking at metrics such as course completion, repeat visits for training, etc. Employee surveys can also be used to assess satisfaction levels, obtain feedback on shortcomings in the training process and make suggestions for improvement in delivery and content.
- Offer different modes of training
Different people have different training preferences.
Tailor the types of training to the varied needs of the employees. Training could be classroom based, through video recordings, on-the-job training, games, quizzes, simulations, etc.
Bottom Line
The hallmarks of the modern workplace are innovation, technology, globalization, and the constant evolution of technologies. It is, therefore, incumbent on organizations to continuously enhance the capabilities of their employees and foster a culture of continuous learning. Such an approach is vital if the organization is to remain competitive. These imperatives make having an effective learning-and-development function an inescapable necessity for all organizations.