CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO EMPLOYEE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

Training - a planned effort by a company to facilitate employees’ learning of job-related competencies.

• Competencies include knowledge, skills, or behavior critical for successful job performance.
• The goal of training is for employees to master the competencies and apply them to their day-to-day
activities.
• To use training to gain a competitive advantage, a company should view training broadly as a way
to create intellectual capital.
• Intellectual capital includes basic skills advanced skills an understanding of the customer or
manufacturing system, and self-motivated creativity.

High-leverage training
• Is linked to strategic business goals and objectives.
• Uses an instructional design process to ensure that training is effective.
• Compares or benchmarks the company's training programs against training programs in other
companies.
• Creates working conditions that encourage continuous learning.
Managers take an active role in:
• Identifying training needs.
• Ensuring that employees use training in their work.
• Facilitating the sharing of knowledge, by using informational maps.
There is a greater emphasis on:
• Providing educational opportunities for all employees.
• Performance improvement as an ongoing process than a one-time training event.
• Demonstrating to executives, managers, and trainees the benefits of training.
• Learning as a lifelong event.
• Training being used to help attain strategic business objectives.

Training design process

• A systematic approach for developing training programs.
• Is based on the principles of Instructional System Design (ISD).
• Is sometimes referred to as the ADDIE model because it includes analysis, design, development,
implementation, and evaluation.
• Should be systematic yet flexible enough to adapt to business needs.

TRAINING DESIGN PROCESS

FORCES INFLUENCING WORKING & LEARNING

- Economic cycles
- Globalization
- Increased value placed on intangible assets and human capital
 - Focus on link to business strategy
- Changing demographics and diversity of the work force
- Talent Management
- Customer service and quality emphasis
- New Technology
- High-performance work systems

Economic cycles
• Provide an opportunity for companies to take a closer look at training and development to
identify those activities that are critical for supporting the business strategy as well as those
mandated by law.
Globalization
• Provide training and development opportunities for global employees.
• Provide cross-cultural training to prepare employees and their families to understand the
culture and norms of the country to which they are being relocated and assists in their
return to their home country after the assignment.
Increased value placed on intangible assets and human capital:
• Focus on knowledge worker - employees who contribute to the company not through
manual labor but through what they know, perhaps about customers or a specialized body
of knowledge.
- Focus on link to business strategy

Changing demographics and diversity of the workforce

• It is becoming increasingly more important because of:
- occupational and job changes
- retirement of baby boomers
- skill requirements
- the need to develop leadership skills
Talent management - attracting, retaining, developing, and motivating highly skilled employees
and managers.
Customer service and quality emphasis
• Total Quality Management (TQM) - a companywide effort to continuously improve the
ways people, machines, and systems accomplish work.
• The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award , created by public law, is the highest level
of national recognition for quality that a company can receive.
• The ISO 9000 is a family of standards that include requirements for dealing with how to
establish quality standards and how to document work processes to help companies
understand quality system requirements.
New technology
• Is changing the delivery of training and makes training more realistic.
• Allows training to occur at any time and any place.
• Reduces travel costs.
• Provides greater accessibility to training and consistent delivery.
• Provides the ability to access experts and share learning with others.
• Provides the possibility of creating a learning environment with many positive features such
as feedback, self-pacing, and practice exercises.
• Allows companies greater use of alternative work arrangements.

High performance models of work systems

• Work teams - involve employees with various skills who interact to assemble a product or
provide a service.
• Cross training - training employees in a wide range of skills so they can fill any of the roles
needed to be performed on the team.
• Work teams - involve employees with various skills who interact to assemble a product or
provide a service.
• Cross training - training employees in a wide range of skills so they can fill any of the roles
needed to be performed on the team.
• Virtual teams - teams that are separated by time, geographic distance, culture, and/or
organizational boundaries and that rely almost exclusively on technology to interact and
complete their projects.
Use of new technology and work designs are supported by human resource management
practices.
SNAPSHOT OF TRAINING PRACTICES
• In most companies training and development activities are provided by trainers, managers,
in-house consultants, and employee experts.
• They can also be outsourced.
• Training and development can be the responsibility of professionals in human resources,
human resource development, or organizational development.
• As companies grow and/or recognize the important role of training for business success,
they form an entire training function, which may include instructional designers, instructors,
technical training, and experts in instructional technology.
• To be a successful training professional requires staying up-to-date on current research
and training practices.

CHAPTER 2: STRATEGIC TRAINING

Business strategy – a plan that integrates the company's goals, policies, and actions.
The strategy influences how the company uses:
• physical capital, financial capital, and human capital.
Goals – what the company hopes to achieve in the medium- and long-term future.
Strategy has a particularly strong influence on determining:
• The amount of training devoted to current or future job skills.
• The extent to which training is customized for the particular needs of an employee or is
developed based on the needs of a team, unit, or division.
• Whether training is restricted to specific groups of employees or open to all employees.
EVOLUTION OF THE ROLE OF TRAINING

Learning – the acquisition of knowledge by individual employees or groups of employees who are
willing to apply that knowledge in their jobs in making decisions and accomplishing tasks for the
company.
Knowledge – what individuals or teams of employees know as well as company rules, processes,
tools, and routines.
• It is either tacit knowledge or explicit knowledge.
• Explicit knowledge – knowledge that can be formalized, codified, and communicated.
• Tacit knowledge – personal knowledge based on individual experience that is difficult to
explain to others.
Key capabilities needed to implement learning strategies:
• Alignment of learning goals to the business goals.
• Measurement of the overall business impact of the learning function.
• Movement of learning outside the company to include customers, vendors, and suppliers.
• A focus on developing competencies for the most critical jobs.
• Integration of learning with other human resource functions such as knowledge
management, performance support, and talent management.
• Training delivery approaches that include classroom as well as e-learning.
• Design and delivery of leadership development courses.
 THE STRATEGIC TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Mission – the company's reason for existing.

Vision – the picture of the future that the company wants to achieve.
Values – what the company stands for.
SWOT analysis – an analysis of the company's operating environment to identify opportunities
and threats as well as an internal analysis of the company's strengths and weaknesses.
The company has to consider its competition.
Strategic training and development initiatives – learning-related actions that a company should
take to help it achieve its business strategy.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS THAT INFLUENCE TRAINING
-Top management support
• The CEO is responsible for vision, and being a sponsor governor, faculty, learner, and
marketing agent.
-The degree to which a company's units or businesses are integrated affects the kind of training
that takes place.
-Global presence.
-Business conditions.
Human resource management (HRM) practices – the management activities related to
investments, staffing performance management, training, and compensation and benefits.
Staffing strategy – the company's decisions regarding where to find employees, how to select
them, and the desired mix of employee skills and statuses.
Extent of unionization
• Unions' interest in training has resulted in joint union-management programs
designed to help employees prepare for new jobs.
Staff involvement in training and development
• If managers are not involved in the training process, training may be unrelated to business
needs.
 • If line managers are aware of what development activity can achieve, they will be more
willing to become involved in it.

- They will also become more involved in the training process if they are rewarded for
participating.
An emerging trend is that companies expect employees to initiate the training process.
Centralized training - training and development programs, resources, and professionals are
primarily housed in one location and decisions about training investment, programs, and delivery
methods are made from that department.
It helps companies better integrate programs for developing leaders and managing talent with
training and learning during times of change.
MODELS FOR ORGANIZING THE TRAINING DEPARTMENT
Faculty model
• Look a lot like the structure of a college.
• Training staff are experts in the areas in which they train.
• The training department's plans are easily determined by staff expertise.
• The training function may not meet the needs of the organization.
• Trainers may be unaware of business problems or unwilling to adapt materials to fit a
business need.
Customer model
• Responsible for the training needs of one division or function of the company.
• Training programs are developed more in line with the particular needs of a business group.
• Trainers are expected to be aware of business needs and to update courses and content to
reflect them.
• Involves considerable time, programs may vary greatly in effectiveness, and design may be
poor.
Matrix model
• The trainer has the responsibility of being both a training expert and a functional expert.
• It helps ensure that training is linked to the needs of the business.
• Trainer gains expertise in understanding a specific business function.
• Trainers will have more time demands and conflicts because they report to two managers.
MARKETING THE TRAINING FUNCTION
Companies sell training services for the following reasons:
• Some businesses are so good at a particular aspect of their operation that other companies
are asking for their expertise.
• Other companies aim training at their own customers or dealers.
• In some cases, the training department sells unused seats in training programs or e-
learning courses.
OUTSOURCING TRAINING
Outsourcing – the use of an outside company that takes complete responsibility and control of
some training or development activities or that takes over all or most of a company's training
including administration, design, delivery, and development.
Why companies outsource training:
 • Cost savings.
• Time savings that allow a company to focus on business strategy.
• Improvements in compliance and accuracy in training mandated to comply with federal,
state, or local rules.
• The lack of capability within the company to meet learning demands.
• The desire to access best training practices.
CHAPTER 3: NEEDS ASSESSMENT
Why is Needs Assessment Necessary?
• Training may be incorrectly used as a solution to a performance problem.
• Training programs may have the wrong content, objectives, or methods.
• Trainees may be sent to training programs for which they do not have the basic skills,
prerequisite skills, or confidence needed to learn.
• Training will not deliver the expected learning, behavior change, or financial results that the
company expects.
• Money will be spent on training programs that are unnecessary because they are unrelated
to the company’s business strategy.
Causes and Outcomes of Needs Assessment

Key Concerns of Management in Needs Assessment

Who Should Participate in Needs Assessment
It is important to get a sample of job incumbents involved in the needs assessment because:
• they tend to be most knowledgeable about the job.
• they can be a great hindrance to the training process if they do not feel they have had input
in the process.
Job incumbents – employees who are currently performing the job.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Needs Assessment

The Needs Assessment Process

Person analysis involves:
• determining whether performance deficiencies result from a lack of knowledge, skill, or
ability (a training issue) or from a motivational or work-design problem.
• identifying who needs training.
 • determining employees’ readiness for training.
Readiness for training – refers to whether:
• employees have the personal characteristics necessary to learn program content and apply
it on the job.
• the work environment will facilitate learning and not interfere with performance.
This process includes evaluating person characteristics, input, output, consequences, and
feedback.
A major pressure point for training is substandard or poor performance.
Another potential indicator of the need for training is if the job changes such that current levels
of performance need to be improved or employees must be able to complete new tasks.
Cognitive ability includes three dimensions: verbal comprehension, quantitative ability, and
reasoning ability.
Readability refers to the difficulty level of written materials; readability assessment usually
involves analysis of sentence length and word difficulty.
Employees’ self-efficacy level can be increased by:
• Letting employees know the purpose of training.
• Providing as much information as possible about the training program and the purpose of
training prior to the actual training.
To ensure that the work environment enhances trainees’ motivation to learn:
• Provide materials, time, job-related information, and other work aids necessary for
employees to use new skills or behavior before participating in training programs.
• Speak positively about the company’s training programs to employees.
• Encourage work-group members to involve each other in trying to use new skills on the job.
• Provide employees with time and opportunities to practice and apply new skills or behaviors
to their work.
CHAPTER 4: LEARNING: THEORIES AND PROGRAM DESIGN
What is Learning? What is Learned?

❖ Learning - a relatively permanent change in human capabilities that is not a result of

growth processes.

❖ These capabilities are related to specific learning outcomes.

Reinforcement Theory Social Learning

LEARNING THEORIES Theory

Goal Theories

Need Theories

Expectancy Theory
Information Processing Adult Learning
Theory Theory
Reinforcement Theory - emphasizes that people are motivated to perform or avoid certain
behaviors because of past outcomes that have resulted from those behaviors.
• Several processes in reinforcement theory are positive reinforcement, negative
reinforcement, extinction, and punishment.
• The trainer needs to identify what outcomes the learner finds most positive and negative.
• Trainers then need to link these outcomes to learners acquiring knowledge, skills, or
changing behaviors.
• Trainers can withhold or provide job-related, personal, and career-related benefits to
learners who master program content.
Social learning theory - emphasizes that people learn by observing other persons (models)
whom they believe are credible and knowledgeable.
• The theory recognizes that behavior that is reinforced or rewarded tends to be repeated.
• Learning new skills or behavior comes from:
- directly experiencing the consequences of using a behavior or skill, or
- the process of observing others and seeing the consequences of their behavior.

Goal setting theory - assumes that behavior results from a person’s conscious goals and
intentions.
• Goals influence a person’s behavior by:
- directing energy and attention.
- sustaining effort over time.
- motivating the person to develop strategies for goal attainment.
• It is used in training program design.
• It suggests that learning can be facilitated by providing trainees with specific challenging
goals and objectives.
• The influence of goal setting theory can be seen in the development of training lesson
plans.
Need Theories
• Helps to explain the value that a person places on certain outcomes.
• Need - a deficiency that a person is experiencing at any point in time.
• Maslow’s and Alderfer’s need theories focused on physiological needs, relatedness needs,
and growth needs.
• Suggest that to motivate learning, trainers should identify trainees’ needs and communicate
how training program content relates to fulfilling these needs.
• If certain basic needs of trainees are not met, they are unlikely to be motivated to learn.
Expectancy Theory
• It suggests that a person’s behavior is based on three factors:
- Expectancies - the link between trying to perform a behavior and actually
performing well.
- Instrumentality - a belief that performing a given behavior is associated with a
particular outcome.
- Valence - the value that a person places on an outcome.
Information Processing Theory
• It gives more emphasis to the internal processes that occur when training content is learned
and retained.
• It highlights how external events influence learning, which include:
- Changes in the intensity or frequency of the stimulus that affect attention.
- Informing the learner of the objectives to establish an expectation.
- Verbal instructions, pictures, diagrams, and maps suggesting ways to code the
training content so that it can be stored in memory.
- Meaningful learning context (examples, problems) creating cues that facilitate
coding.
- Demonstration or verbal instructions helping to organize the learner’s response as
well as facilitating the selection of the correct response.
The learning cycle involves four stages:
• Concrete experience
• Reflective observation
• Abstract conceptualization
• Active experimentation
Age influences on learning
• Trainers need to be aware of trainees’ ages to create a learning environment and develop
materials that meet their preferences.
Instruction - trainer’s manipulation of the environment in order to help trainees learn.
The training context - the physical, intellectual, and emotional environment in which training
occurs.
Practice - physical or mental rehearsal of a task, knowledge, or skill to achieve proficiency in
performing the task or skill or demonstrating the knowledge.
Features of Good Instruction that Facilitate Learning
• Objectives: Employees need to know why they should learn
• Meaningful content
• Opportunities to practice
• Methods for committing training content to memory
• Feedback
• Observation, experience, and social interaction
• Proper coordination and arrangement of the training program
• Careful selection of instructors
Characteristics of Good Training Objectives
• Provide a clear idea of what the trainee is expected to be able to do at the end of training
• Include standards of performance that can be measured or evaluated
• State the specific resources (e.g., tools, equipment) that the trainee needs to perform the
action or behavior specified.
• Describe the conditions under which performance of the objective is expected to occur
(e.g., the physical work environment, such as at night or in high temperatures; mental
stresses, such as angry customers; equipment failure, such as malfunctioning computer
equipment).
 THE LEARNING PROCESS
Overlearning - Continuing to practice even after being able to perform the objective several times.
Error management training - giving trainees opportunities to make errors during training;
provides the opportunity for trainees to engage in metacognition
Internal and External Conditions Necessary for Learning Outcomes

Details to Consider When Evaluating a Training Room

 Examples of Seating Arrangement

CHAPTER 5: TRANSFER OF TRAINING

A MODEL OF THE TRAINING PROCESS

► Transfer of training - trainees effectively and continually applying what they learned in
training to their jobs.
► Generalization - a trainee’s ability to apply learned capabilities to on-the-job work problems
and situations that are similar but not identical to those problems and situations
encountered in the learning environment.
► Maintenance - process of continuing to use newly acquired capabilities over time.
► Training design - the characteristics of the learning environment.
 ► Trainee characteristics - include ability and motivation that affect learning.
► Work environment - includes factors on the job that influence transfer of training.
TRAINING DESIGN
► Encourage trainee responsibility and self management
► Trainees need to take responsibility for learning and transfer which includes:
► preparing for training.
► being involved and engaged during training.
► using training content back on the job.
► Self-management - a person’s attempt to control certain aspects of decision making
and behavior.
Examples of Obstacles in the Work Environment That Inhibit Transfer of Training

► Encourage trainee responsibility and self management

► Obstacles inhibit transfer because they cause lapses, which take place when the
trainee uses previously learned, less effective capabilities instead of trying to apply
the capability emphasized in the training program.
► Trainees should try to avoid a consistent pattern of slipping back or using old,
ineffective learned capabilities.
Work Environment Characteristics That Influence Transfer
► Climate for transfer
► It refers to trainees’ perceptions about a wide variety of characteristics of the work
environment that facilitate or inhibit use of trained skills or behavior.
► These characteristics include:
 ► Manager and peer support.
► Opportunity to use skills.
► The consequences for using learned capabilities.
Characteristics of a Positive Climate for Transfer of Training

► Manager support
► It refers to the degree to which managers:
► emphasize the importance of attending training programs.
► stress the application of training content to the job.
► Action plan - written document that includes the steps that the trainee and manager
will take to ensure that training transfers to the job.
Levels of Management Support for Training
 ► Peer support
► Support network - group of two or more trainees who agree to meet and discuss
their progress in using learned capabilities on the job which may involve face-to-face
meetings or communications via e-mail.
► The more peer meetings that trainees attend, the more learning transferred to the
workplace.
► Technological support
► Electronic performance support systems (EPSSs) - computer applications that
can provide, as requested, skills training, information access, and expert advice.
► It may be used to enhance transfer of training by providing trainees with an
electronic information source that they can refer to on an as-needed basis
while they attempt to apply learned capabilities on the job.
Organizational Environments That Encourage Transfer
► Learning organization is a company that has an enhanced capacity to learn, adapt, and
change.
Key Features of a Learning Organization

► Knowledge management - process of enhancing company performance by designing and

implementing tools, processes, systems, structures, and cultures to improve the creation,
sharing, and use of knowledge.
► Ways to create and share knowledge
► Use technology, e-mail, and social networking sites or partais on the company
intranet.
► Publish directories.
► Develop informational maps.
► Allow employees to take time off from work to acquire knowledge, study problems,
attend training, and use technology.
 ► Create chief information officer and chief learning officer positions for cataloging and
facilitating the exchange of information in the company.
► Require employees to give presentations to other employees about what they have
learned from training programs they have attended.
► Create an online library of learning resources such as journals, technical manuals,
training opportunities, and seminars.
► Design office space to facilitate interaction between employees.
► Keys for effective knowledge management
► Training and information technology collaboration.
► Create knowledge management leadership positions.
► Provide ease to use technology for employees to access and share information
within the context of their job.
► Ensure employee trust and willingness to share information by recognizing and
promoting employees who learn, teach, and share.