Human Resource Management

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Employee Training and Development (T&D)

Definition, difference between T&D and importance
Training needs analysis
Training techniques: some pros and cons
Training program assessment
 Training and Development
Definition

- Planned efforts by organizations to increase

employees' knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA)

Difference between training and development?

 Difference between T&D
Training Development

Short-term focus Long-term focus

Task oriented Skills oriented

Definite purpose General purpose

Group based (more often than not) Individually based

Focuses on “today’s” needs Leads to “tomorrow’s” results

Helps employees in their current jobs Helps the individual handling future
responsibilities
 T&D

Why is it so important?
 The importance of T&D
- On going and fast changes in the workplace
- Promoting/maintaining competitiveness
- Improving productivity
- Regulatory requirements (Labour Code)
- In Portugal, a minimum number of annual training hours for
each employee: 40h per year (either in-house or outside the
company)
- …

Helps to bridge the gap between existing skills, knowledge, abilities and
attitudes and required KSAs
 T&D

Main advantages?
 T&D Advantages
Benefits the individual by: Benefits the organization by:
§ Enhancing individual § Enhancing organizational
performance performance
§ Increasing job satisfaction § Preparing employees for change
§ Increasing motivation at work § Decreasing waste (of resources,
time…)
§ Increasing morale
§ Decreasing absenteeism and turnover
§ Improving communication
§ Providing products and services with
§ Facilitating career advancement
higher quality
§ Increasing employability
§ Increasing customer satisfaction
§ …
§ …
 Training needs analysis
A three-step process
Step 1. Organizational analysis
- Determines what skills, knowledge, and abilities (KSAs) the
organization, unit or department needs
Step 2. Task/KSA analysis
- Involves obtaining information from the organizational analysis to
examine the tasks performed in each job and then determine the
KSA needed to perform these tasks effectively
Step 3. Person analysis
- Explores whether certain employees lack important KSAs and
how can training overcome such lacunae
 Training needs analysis

What sources can be used to gather data?

 Needs assessment
Sources of information
§ Performance rates
§ Performance appraisal records
§ Technological/legislative/product and services changes
§ Accident rate
§ Complaints
§ Absenteeism rate
§ Turnover rate
§ Exit interviews
§ Organizational surveys (e.g. employee and customer satisfaction)
§ …
 What types of training?
The training offered by the company depends on:
- the type of company
- the type of job
- the amount of resources available for training
- the priority (high/low) the organization places on training

Let’s take a look at some of the training methods that

organizations can use…
 Training techniques
Where does the training take place?

On-the-job training: provided at the worksite

Off-the-job training: conducted away from the worksite

Commonly used techniques?

Main advantages and disadvantages?
 One-on-one instruction
A person who serves as a trainer for the organization (supervisor or someone
with experience) meets the employee at the workplace and instructs the
trainee (shows him/her how to perform the actual job)

Advantages
- Cost-effective
- Job relatedness
- Immediate feedback
- Flexibility
Disadvantages
- Works best for jobs or tasks that are fairly simple
- Absence of someone in the company with knowledge to train others
- If he/she is not a good communicator, the training may not work
 Job rotation
A formal, planned program that involves assigning trainees to various
jobs/functions in different parts of the organization

Advantages
- Allows for flexibility
- Increases job satisfaction
- Provides valuable opportunities for networking within the organization

Disadvantages
- Creates an increased workload due to constant job change
- Causes dissatisfaction in those not participating in the program
 Lectures
Involves an instructor verbally presenting contents and other material to a
group of trainees

Advantages
- Effective for providing basic information
- It is a common training method (individuals are used to it)
- A large number of trainees can be taught at once

Disadvantages
- One-way communication
- Scheduling all trainees to be present at the same time can sometimes be
difficult
 Equipment simulators
Used in jobs or tasks where improper use of actual equipment would pose a
danger to the trainee (or others) or where the risk of substantial financial loss
exists

Advantages
- It may be the only safe way to train (e.g. aircrews, naval officers, space
shuttle crews)
- Useful when it requires a great deal of interaction with the equipment
- The skills learned can be readily transferred to the workplace

Disadvantages
- Equipment simulators are very expensive
 Role Plays
Require trainees to act out an assigned role on a hypothetical situation

Advantages
- Enables trainees to practice new behaviours in a safe environment

Disadvantages
- Many trainees feel uncomfortable doing role plays
Apprenticeship, Traineeship and Internship
Apprenticeship: an education or training programme combining practical, work-related
training in the workplace and theoretical education in class (common in the skilled
crafts, such as electrician, mechanic, etc.).
In Europe, apprenticeships are legally binding and involve a contract. Their duration is
clear, as is what the trainee will be learning.

Traineeships: can be described as ‘work practice'. They give the trainee the chance to
get some work experience hours, and usually run from a few weeks to six months (e.g.
Nestlé, Vodafone, Altice Portugal, NOS, Worten, Leroy Merlin, Sonae, Makro, Cuf,
Cofidis, REN, Pestana Hotel Group, etc.)

Internships: carried out by people looking for experience before job hunting. Internships
are usually reserved for positions in professional fields (e.g. a law student may intern at
a law firm, an architect in a architect’s office)
 E-learning/web-based/computer-based
training
The use of technology to facilitate training

Advantages?
Disadvantages?

Exercise 7: List the main advantages and disadvantages/limitations of

computer based training. Use your own experience with e-learning during the
pandemic
 Determining T&D success

How can T&D programs be evaluated?

Kirkpatrick model (developed in the 1950s) entails

four basic measures…
 Measuring effectiveness of training
1. Reaction: How did the participants react to the training
program?
2. Learning: To what extent did participants improve
knowledge and skills?
3. Behavior: Did behavior change as a result of the training?
4. Results: What benefits to the organization resulted from
the training?
 More specifically…
- Trainee reactions: trainees are asked to record their reactions by
means of a survey or questionnaire at the end of the training session
- Amount of learning: refers to the KSAs that the trainees acquired
with the program
- Behavioural change: refers to the degree to which the trainees’
behaviour on the job has been affected by the training program
- Results or Return on Investment: addresses the success in terms of
the bottom-line outcomes, such as increased productivity, reduced
accident rate (or whatever the aims of the training program are)
Evaluating trainees reactions
 Exercise 7: E-learning/web-
based/computer-based training
Exercise 7: E-learning/web-based/computer-based training
- Discuss and list the main advantages and disadvantages/limitations of e-
learning/web-based/ computer-based training.
- The groups are expected to use their members’ experience with e-learning
during the pandemic