Training -developement

TRAINING & DEVELOPEMENT

Introduction

Since the beginning of the twentieth century and especially after World
War II, training programs have become widespread among organizations
in the United States, involving more and more employees and also
expanding in content. In the 1910s, only a few large companies such as
Westinghouse, General Electric, and International Harvester had factory
schools that focused on training technical skills for entry-level workers.
By the 1990s, forty percent of the Fortune 500 firms have had a corporate
university or learning center. In recent decades, as the U.S. companies are
confronted with technological changes, domestic social problems and
global economic competition, training programs in organizations have
received even more attention, touted as almost a panacea for
organizational problem.

The enormous expansion in the content of training programs over time
has now largely been taken for granted. Now people would rarely
question the necessity of training in conversational skills. However, back
to the 1920s, the idea that organizations should devote resources to
training employees in such skills would have been regarded as absurd.
Such skills clearly were not part of the exact knowledge and methods that
the employee will use on his particular job or the job just ahead of him.

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Nevertheless, seventy years later, eleven percent of U.S. organizations
deem communications skills as the most important on their priority lists
of training, and many more regard it as highly important. More than three
hundred training organizations specialize in communications training
(Training and Development Organizations Directory, 1994).

Previous studies on training have largely focused on the incidence of
formal training and the total amount of training offered. This study,
however, draws attention to the enormous expansion in the content of
training with an emphasis on the rise of personal development training
(or popularly known as the "soft skills" training, such as leadership,
teamwork, creativity, conversational skills and time management training).
Personal development training can be defined as training programs that
aim at improving one's cognitive and behavioral skills in dealing with one
self and others. It is intended to develop one's personal potential and is
not immediately related to the technical aspects of one's job tasks.
Monahan, Meyer and Scott (1994) describe the spread of personal
development training programs based on their survey of and interviews
with more than one hundred organizations in Northern California.
"Training programs became more elaborate; they incorporated, in
addition to technical training for workers and human relations training
for supervisors and managers, a widening array of developmental,
personal growth, and self-management courses. Courses of this nature
include office professionalism, time management, individual contributor
programs, entrepreneur, transacting with people, and applying
intelligence in the workplace, career management, and structured
problem solving. Courses are also offered on health and personal
well-being, including safe diets, exercise, mental health, injury
prevention, holiday health, stress and nutrition."

Training Excuses

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Training is one element many corporations consider when looking to
advance people and offer promotions. Although many employees
recognize the high value those in management place on training and
development, some employees are still reluctant to be trained. It is not
uncommon to hear excuses regarding why someone has not received
training.

Some people are just comfortable in what they are doing. Some fail to see
the value of training because they really believe that they already know it
all. And while that might be true, the knowledge value of training and
development is not the only perk.

Training and development offers more than just increased knowledge. It
offers the added advantage of networking and drawing from others’
experiences. When you attend a seminar or event with others who have
jobs that are much like yours, you have the added benefit of sharing from
life experience. The seminar notes or the conference leader might not
give you the key nugget you take back and implement in the workplace.
Your best piece of advice for the day might come from the peer sitting
beside you.

Another common excuse is that there is not enough money budgeted to
pay for training. Who said that training always carries a heavy enrollment
fee? Training can be free. You can set up meetings with peers who are in
similar positions and ask how they are doing their jobs. Follow someone
for a day to see how he organizes or manages his work and time. The
cost to you is a day out of your normal routine, so the only drawback may
be working a little harder on an assignment to catch up from a day out of
the office. You usually don’t think twice about taking a day of vacation,
so why should a day of training be any different?

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Time is another often-heard excuse when training and development is
mentioned. Have you considered that training and development might
actually give you more time? Often the procedures, ideas, short cuts, and
timesaving hints learned in training and development sessions equal
more time in the long run. Have you heard the old saying that you have to
spend money to make money? Well, in a sense, the same is true for
training and development. You have to devote some time to training and
development to make you more productive in the long run.

What is Training in terms of organization?

“Transferring information and knowledge to employers and equipping
employers to translate that information and knowledge into practice
with a view to enhancing
organization effectiveness and productivity, and the quality of the
management of people.” It also means that in organizational
development, the related field of training and development (T & D) deals

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with the design and delivery of workplace learning to improve
performance.

Difference between Training and Learning

There is a big difference:

'Training' implies putting skills into people, when actually we
should be developing people from the inside out, beyond
skills, i.e., facilitating learning.
So focus on facilitating learning, not imposing training.
Emotional maturity, integrity, and compassion are more
important than skills and processes. If you are in any doubt,
analyze the root causes of your organization's successes and
your failures - they will never be skills and processes.
Enable and encourage the development of the person - in any
way that you can.
Give people choice - we all learn in different ways, and we all
have our own strengths and potential, waiting to be fulfilled.

Talk about learning, not training. Focus on the person, from the inside
out, not the outside in; and offer opportunities for people to develop as
people in as many ways you can.

A Brief Critique of Previous Approaches to Employee
Training

It is a classic question in the training field, first raised by human capital
theorists, that why firms train their employees. Many attempts have been
made to address this question, but the question of why firms provide
general-skill training has not been fully understood. There have been two
main theoretical approaches towards employee training, namely, the

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human capital approach and the technology-based approach. The human
capital approach regards training as investment in human capital.
Training is provided only when the benefit from productivity gains is
greater than the cost of training. The technology-based approach regards
training as a skill formation process. According to this approach, the
expanded training in the contemporary period is driven by the rapidly
changing technologies and work reorganization. These two approaches
are popular in academic and policy discussions. What they have in
common is that they assume an instrumental logic and technical
rationality behind training decisions. Training is provided because it
satisfies the functional needs of an organization. Studies with these
approaches have largely overlooked the content of employee training, as
if all kinds of training programs equally contribute to human capital
accumulation or skill formation. Moreover, personal development training
becomes a puzzle if viewed from these approaches, because it does not
seem to follow from an instrumental logic or technical rationality.

The Puzzle about Personal Development Training

The puzzle about personal development training comes in the following
four ways. First, it is not innately or immediately related to the
technical aspects of specific job tasks. Second, prior need analysis is
rarely conducted for such training, despite suggestions to do so in
many training handbooks. Third, organizations and trainers seldom
conduct evaluations of behavior or outcome changes brought out by
such training. Evaluation, when there is one, is often about how one feels
about the training or what one has learned. The evaluation questionnaire
is often called a "smile sheet," as trainees often respond happily to the
questions. But the impact of the training remains uncertain. Fourth, the
rapid expansion of personal development training has taken place in

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the absence of scientific evidence of any link between such training and
improvement in organizational bottom lines.

Core Argument

So, why have organizations increasingly engaged in personal
development training? It is because that the rise of the participatory
citizenship model of organization over time has driven the expansion of
personal development training in organizations. This argument is based
on an institutional perspective towards organizations. It is distinct from
previous approaches to training in two ways. First, it recognizes that
training is not only provided to satisfy functional needs of firms, but is
also shaped by the shared understanding about individuals and
organizations, which is called "organizational model" in this study and is
independent of the functional needs. Second, training decisions are not
only affected by the internal conditions of an organization, but are also
affected by the dominant ideologies and practices in the organizational
field.

Importance of Developing a Role in Training

Developing a national role in training is important for an employers'
organization for several reasons.

First, it enables the organization to contribute to the development of a
country's human capital, through its influence on education policies and
systems and training by public training institutions, to better serve

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business needs. It also enables it to influence employers in regard to the
need for them to invest more in training and employee development -
which employers should recognize as one key to their competitiveness in
the future.

Second, it provides an important service to members, especially in
industrial relations in respect of which sources of training for employers
in developing countries are few. Third, it is an important source of
income provided the organization can deliver relevant quality training.
Fourth, it compels its own staff to improve their knowledge without which
they cannot offer training to enterprises through their own staff. Fifth,
the knowledge required for training increases the quality of other services
provided by the organization - policy lobbying, advisory and
representation services. Sixth, it contributes to better human relations at
the enterprise level and therefore to better enterprise performance, by
matching corporate goals and people management policies. Finally, it
improves the overall image of the organization and invests it with a
degree of professionalism, which can lead to increased membership and
influence. Many entrepreneurs seem to view employee training and
development as more optional than essential...a viewpoint that can be
costly to both short-term profits and long-term progress. The primary
reason training is considered optional by so many business owners is
because it's viewed more as an expense than an investment. This is
completely understandable when you realize that in many companies,
training and development aren't focused on producing a targeted result
for the business. As a result, business owners frequently send their
people to training courses that seem right and sound good without
knowing what to expect in return. But without measurable results, it's
almost impossible to view training as anything more than an expense.

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Now contrast that approach to one where training's viewed as a capital
investment with thoughtful consideration as to how you're going to
obtain an acceptable rate of return on your investment. And a good place
to start your "thoughtful consideration" is with a needs analysis. As it
relates to training and development, needs analysis is really an outcome
analysis--what do you want out of this training? Ask yourself, "What's
going to change in my business or in the behavior or performance of my
employees as a result of this training that's going to help my company?"
Be forewarned: This exercise requires you to take time to think it through
and focus more on your processes than your products.

As you go through this analysis, consider the strengths and weaknesses
in your company and try to identify the deficiencies that, when corrected,
represent a potential for upside gain in your business. Common areas for
improvement in many companies is helping supervisors better manage
for performance. Many people are promoted into managerial positions
because they're technically good at their jobs, but they aren't trained as
managers to help their subordinates achieve peak performance.
Determining your training and development needs based on targeted
results is only the beginning. The next step is to establish a learning
dynamic for your company. 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.

To create a learning culture in your business, begin by clearly
communicating your expectation that employees should take the steps
necessary to hone their skills to stay on top of their professions or fields

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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've
established as a result of your needs analysis.

Third, provide a sound introduction and orientation to your company's
culture, including your learning culture, to any new employees you hire.
This orientation should introduce employees to your company, and
provide them with proper training in the successful procedures your
company's developed and learned over time.

Every successful training and development program also includes a
component that addresses your current and future leadership needs. At
its core, this component must provide for the systematic identification
and development of your managers in terms of the leadership style that
drives your business and makes it unique and profitable. Have you spent
time thoughtfully examining the style of leadership that's most successful
in your environment and that you want to promote? What steps are you
taking to develop those important leadership traits in your people?

Financial considerations related to training can be perplexing, but in
most cases, the true budgetary impact depends on how well you manage
the first three components (needs analysis, learning and leadership). If
your training is targeted to specific business results, then you're more
likely to be happy with what you spend on training. But if the training
budget isn't related to specific outcomes, then money is more likely to be
spent on courses that have no positive impact on the company.

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

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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.

Beyond Training: Training and Development

Training is generally defined as "change in behavior" - yet, how many
trainers and managers forget that, using the term training only as
applicable to "skills training"? What about the human element? What
about those very same people we want to "train"? What about their
individual beliefs, backgrounds, ideas, needs and aspirations?

In order to achieve long-term results through training, we must broaden
our vision to include people development as part of our strategic
planning. Although training covers a broad range of subjects under the
three main categories (skills, attitude, knowledge), using the term
"training" without linking it to "development" narrows our concept of the
training function and leads us to failure.

When we limit our thinking, we fall into the trap of:

a. Classifying people into lots and categories
b. Thinking of "trainees" as robots expected to perform a job function

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c. Dismissing the individual characteristics of people and the roles
they play
d. Focusing only on "what needs to be done" without adequately
preparing the trainees involved to accept and internalize what is
being taught.

We are dealing with human thoughts, feelings and reactions which must
be given equal attention than to the skill itself. We thus create a
double-focus: people development and skills training. These two
simultaneous objectives will give us the right balance and guide our
actions to reach our goal.

To clarify our training and development objectives, and identify our
criteria for success, we must ask ourselves a few questions:

Do we expect an automatic, faultless job performance?
Does attitude count?
Does goodwill count?
Do loyalty and dedication count?
Does goal-sharing count?
Does motivation count?
Do general knowledge and know-how count?
Do people-skills count?
Does an inquisitive mind count?
Does initiative count?
Does a learning attitude count?
Does a sense of responsibility count?
Do team efforts count?
Do good work relations count?
Does creative input count?
Do we want employees to feel proud of their role and contribution?

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How can we expect such qualities and behavior if we consider and treat
our personnel as "skills performers"? However, we could achieve the
desired results if we address the personal development needs of the
employees involved.

When we plan for both "training" and "development", we achieve a proper
balance between the needs of the company and those of the trainees. The
synergy created takes us to new levels, to a continuing trend of company
growth.

Our consideration of the people involved results in work motivation,
goal-sharing, and a sense of partnership. Not only do the
employee-trainees perform at the desired levels, but they offer to the
company and its customers their hidden individual gifts and talents, and
this reflects itself in the quality of service. Customers feel and recognize
efficient performance, motivation and team-work. They become loyal
customers.

We can learn from the case of a small restaurant operator who had
become desperate at the negligent attitude of his servers, resulting in
customer complaints. He decided to seek professional expertise to help
him replace his employees with "motivated, trained" people fresh out of a
waiter's training school.

Following some probing questions it came to light that, besides hourly
pay, he did not offer much to attract and retain loyal and dedicated
employees. Through professional consultation, he came to realize that
even if he paid higher wages to new "trained" employees, the problem
would persist because employees want more than wages from their work
place. They want:

Organization and professional management

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Information regarding the business and its customers
Recognition for their role in the company's success
Acknowledgement of their individual capacities and contributions
Positive discipline / fairness
A say in the way the business is run.

The restaurant operator realized that until then he had treated his
employees as "plate carriers" and this is exactly how they had behaved
and performed. He was ready to change his mode of operation: he
diverted his focus to the needs of his employees, re-structured his
organisation, planned new operational strategies, a human resources
strategy, training and development guidelines, disciplinary rules and
regulations.

He communicated and shared these in a meeting with his employees and
handed out the employee handbook prepared for that purpose. He also
reminded them of their responsibilities towards the business, the
customers, and themselves (taking charge of their own training,
development, and work performance). They were more than pleased
when he asked them to express their opinions, make comments and
suggestions.

He was surprised at the immediate transformation that took place. He
began receiving excellent reviews from his customers, the employees
worked as a team, their motivation sky-rocketed and he never had to
replace them! All this was accomplished by extending the previous
concept of training to that of training and people development.

Training and Development represents a complete whole that triggers the
mind, emotions and employees' best work performance. It is not only
business managers and owners who must do this shift in thinking, but
Human Resources Directors and Training Managers (whose title should be

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"Training and Development" Managers). By their actions, they should offer
a personal example, coaching and guiding all the people in an
organisation to think "beyond training" and invest efforts in people:

Professional development
Personal development.

Contrary to what some manager’s think, people do not quit a place of
work as soon as they have grown personally and professionally through
training and development programs - at least they do not do so for a
long while. They become loyal to their employer and help him/her grows
business-wise, which offers them more opportunities. They chart their
own course for career advancement within the broader framework of
organizational growth.

Do we not call employees our "human resources asset"? Whatever their
positions, each expect to be treated as such; when they are, they give
more than their physical presence at work.

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Training & Evaluation

Training

Improving business performance is a journey, not a destination. Business
performance rises and falls with the ebb and flow of human performances.
HR professionals lead the search for ways to enhance the effectiveness of
employees in their jobs today and prepare them for tomorrow. Over the
years, training programmes have grown into corporate with these goals
in mind. Training programmes should enhance performance and enrich
the contributions of the workforce. The ultimate goal of training is to
develop appropriate talent in the workforce internally.

In India, training as an activity has been going on as a distinct field with
its own roles, structures and budgets, but it is still young. This field is
however; expanding fast but controversy seems to envelop any attempts
to find benefits commensurate with the escalating costs of training.

Training has made significant contributions to development of all kinds.
Training is essential; doubts arise over its contribution in practice.
Complaints are growing over its ineffectiveness and waste. The training
apparatus and costs have multiplied but not its benefits. Dissatisfaction
persists and is growing at the working level where the benefits of training
should show up most clearly. This disillusionment shows in many ways –
reluctance to send the most promising people for training, inadequate
use of personnel after training etc. With disillusionment mounting in the
midst of expansion, training has entered a dangerous phase in its
development.

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Training is neither a panacea for all ills nor is it a waste of time. What is
required is an insight into what training can or cannot do and skill in
designing and carrying out training effectively and economically.

The searchlight of inquiry may make the task and challenges stand out
too starkly, too simply. Using experience with training in India and other
rapidly developing countries has this advantage at similar risk. The
contribution that training can make to development is needed acutely and
obviously. At the same time, the limited resources available in these
countries make this contribution hard to come by. These lines are sharply
drawn; on the one hand, no promise can be ignored; on the other, no
waste is permissible.

Much of the training provided today proceeds as if knowledge and action
were directly related. This assumption is itself a striking illustration of the
wide gulf that separates the two. On a continuum with personal
maturation and growth at one end and improvement in performance of
predetermined tasks at the other, education lies near the former, and
training near the later. Focusing training on skill in action makes the task
wide and complex. Training embraces an understanding of the complex
processes by which various factors that make up a situation interact.

For every training strategy, no matter which, the proper focus right from
the very outset is on one or more people –
on-the-job-in-the-organization – this whole amalgam. Wherever the
focus moves during the training programme, the starting point becomes
the focus again at the end. The difference lies in what people have
learned that they now apply. That difference, in terms of more effective
behavior is the measure of the efficacy of training.

The training process is made up of three phases:

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Phase 1: Pre-training. This may also be called the preparation phase.
The process starts with an understanding of the situation requiring more
effective behavior. An organization’s concerns before training lie mainly
in four areas: Clarifying the precise objectives of training and the use the
organization expects to make of the participants after training; selection
of suitable participants; building favorable expectations and motivation in
the participants prior to the training; and planning for any changes that
improved task performance will require in addition to training.

Phase 2: Training. During the course of the training, participants focus
their attention on the new impressions that seem useful, stimulating and
engaging. There is no guarantee that the participants will in fact learn
what they have chosen. But the main purpose remains: participants
explore in a training situation what interests them, and a training
institution’s basic task is to provide the necessary opportunities.

Having explored, participants try out some new behavior. If they find the
new behavior useful, they try it again, check it for effectiveness and
satisfaction, try it repeatedly and improve it. Finally, they incorporate this
new facet into their habitual behavior in the training situation. If they do
not find it useful, they discard it, try some variant, or discontinue
learning in this direction. The intricate process of selection and testing is
continuous and more or less conscious. It is important that work
organizations meanwhile prepare the conditions for improved
performance by their participants upon their return.

Phase 3: Post-training. This may be called the "follow up" phase. When
training per se concludes, the situation changes. When the participants
return back to work from the training, a process of adjustment begins for
everyone involved. The newly learned skills undergo modification to fit
the work situation. Participants may find their organizations offering
encouragement to use the training and also support for continuing

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contact with the training institution. On the other hand, they may step
into a quagmire of negativity.

More effective behavior of people on the job in the organization is the
primary objective of the training process as a whole. In the simplest
training process, improvement is a dependent variable, and participants
and organizations independent variables.

The training process has the following major objectives:

1) Improvement in Performance

Training will be an important aid to managers for developing themselves
as well as their subordinates. It is not a substitute for development on the
job, which comes from doing, experiencing, observing, giving and
receiving feedback and coaching. Research has shown that 80% of a
person’s development takes place on the job. However, training can
contribute the vital 20% that makes the difference. Training can bring
about an improvement in a person’s:

Knowledge
Skills
Attitude
Thereby raising his potential to perform better on the job.

2) Growth

Training is also directed towards developing people for higher levels of
responsibility thereby reducing the need for recruiting people from
outside. This would have the effect of improving the morale of the
existing employees.

3) Organizational Effectiveness

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In company training provides a means for bringing about organizational
development. It can be used for strengthening values, building teams,
improving inter-group relations and quality of work life. The ultimate
objective of training in the long run is to improve the company’s
performance through people performing better.

Benefits of Training Evaluation

Evaluation has three main purposes:

Feedback to help trainers understand the extent to which objectives are
being met and the effectiveness of particular learning activities – as an
aid to continuous improvement

Control to make sure training policy and practice are aligned with
organizational goals and delivering cost-effective solutions to
organizational issues

Intervention to raise awareness of key issues such as pre-course and
post-course briefing and the selection of delegates Evaluation is itself a
learning process. Training which has been planned and delivered is
reflected on. Views on how to do it better are formulated and tested .The
outcome may be to:

Abandon the training
Redesign the training – new sequence, new methods, new
content, new trainer
Redesign the preparation/pre-work – new briefing material, new
pre-course work
Rethink the timing of the training – earlier or later in people’s
career, earlier or later in the training programme, earlier or later
in the company calendar
Leave well alone

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The following are the clear benefits of evaluation:

Improved quality of training activities
Improved ability of the trainers to relate inputs to output
Better discrimination of training activities between those that
are worthy of support and those that should be dropped
Better integration of training offered and on the job
development
Better co-operation between trainers and line-managers in the
development of staff
Evidence of the contribution that training and development
activities are making to the organization
Closer integration of training aims and organizational objectives

The Way Ahead

The development of learning organizations, working to harness the
brainpower, knowledge and experience of their people, reflects the
fundamental importance of training and learning for those organizations
that hope to prosper in the new millennium. The rend towards a more
"empowering" style of management and an increasing emphasis on
self-development have combined to bring about a move away from
didactic instruction towards coaching and facilitation and away from
"trainer" towards "performance improvement consultant".

In the coming future, the following trends are likely to be seen:

Increased use of virtual reality, the internet and multi-media training

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Emphasis on cross-cultural development

Remote learning to reflect changing patterns of work

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The Training Role

Internal Training

The role of an employers' organization in training has to be viewed from
different perspectives. First and foremost it must be viewed from an
"internal" point of view i.e. the training and development of its own staff.
This is essential to the effectiveness of the organization's training
services as well as to the other services it provides members, all of which
fall within the following:

Influencing the legal and policy environment needed for business
growth and development
Direct services to members

This requires that the staff be trained in the areas of the organization's
services and core competencies which may include areas such as:

Industrial relations
Human resource management
Occupational safety and health
Information analysis and research for:

Influencing the policy environment
Transferring knowledge to members
Undertaking wage and other surveys

Training Services

This objective of training (i.e. to make its other services more effective)
involves mostly the acquisition of knowledge needed for staff to perform
their functions. This is an important pre-requisite to staff undertaking
the second role of an employers' organization in training, which is to

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provide training to members (and sometimes to nonmembers) in areas in
which they expect services. But unlike in the case of the first objective of
training earlier referred to, this second role or objective requires not only
knowledge in the areas of training, but also training skills i.e. in training
techniques or methodologies. If staff do not develop training skills

They will be able to transfer knowledge
But not the skills to apply the knowledge to particular situations
which arise in enterprises (productivity is increasingly the
application of knowledge).

Examples include negotiation, workplace mechanisms to improve
workplace relations and human resource management policies and
practices such as:

Recruitment, selection, induction
Performance appraisal
Leadership and motivation
Employee retention
Wage and salary determination

The main objectives of this second training role (to provide training to
members) are:

To provide members with the means to address labour - related
problems and issues
To instill in enterprise managers the skills needed to improve their
management of people
Where enterprises have a training department, to train their
personnel.

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It follows that the staff of employers' organizations are not themselves
practitioners in people management. They are trainers of those engaged
in managing people and, occasionally of other trainers.

Influencing National Policies and Programmes

The third role is one to be discharged at the national level, and involves
influencing national educational and skills training policies and schemes.
This could be affected in a variety of ways:

Through representation on the policy boards of national training
institutions.
Identifying employers' education and skills needs and providing
feed back from employers. Employers' organizations could form
executive training committees within the organization such as the
Education Committee in the Japan Federation of Employers'
Associations, the Industrial Education and Training Committee in
the Korean Employers' Federation and the Committee on Manpower
and Development in the Singapore National Employers' Federation.
At the initiative of the New Zealand Employers' Federation the
School-Industry Links Development Board was established in 1990
to strengthen the relationship between secondary schools and
business. Unique pilot programmes were commenced in 1992 on
"Teacher Placement in Industry" and "Management Course for
Secondary School Principals".
Influencing government, education and training authorities to
correct inappropriate policies and to commence preparing for the
future education and training needs if HRD policies are to have
impact.
Initiating or promoting teacher education programmes to impart to
them knowledge about the role of business in society, the
environment needed for business development etc.

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Promoting closer links between employers and educational and
training institutions.
Influencing course content e.g. management course contents to
include more human relations management subjects, and even
basic management in occupational safety and health and
environmental management.

Other Roles

A fourth role is for an employers' organization to raise awareness among
employers of the need for increased investment in the development of
human capital as an essential condition for achieving competiveness.

A fifth role is in the training of personnel or human resource managers,
given the fact that their role still tends to be downgraded relative to other
management functions such as finance, marketing and production. This
role could also be undertaken through training support given to
professional bodies like an institute of personnel management.

A sixth role for an employers' organization is the provision of advisory
services to member companies by

Assisting trainers in enterprises to develop or improve their
in-house training programmes, especially in the areas of the
employers' organization's expertise
Upgrading the knowledge of company trainers
Maintaining a directory of relevant training programmes/courses

Seventh, an employers' organization should be able to influence the
provision of training incentives to be offered to employers, through the
tax system or training levies. Numerous examples in countries abound
which can provide useful ideas to employers' organizations.

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Eight, an employers' organization could develop training material to be
used by enterprises for in-house training.

Understanding Employee Drives and Motivations -
The First Step towards Motivation at Work

However large or small a company or business is, it is employees at all
levels that can make or break it. This holds true not only for the people
we hire on a regular basis, but also for temporary and contracted workers.
It is as important to research and study the needs, drives, and
expectations of people we hire or employ, and aim at responding to and
satisfying those, as it is with regard to customers.

In actual fact, considering the role each "employee" plays in a company's
success, analyzing and planning an adequate response to employees'
motivations deserves first place in the order of business.

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Before going any further, let us shift our approach from grouping people
under the generic category of "employee" to individual human beings and
term them as "hired workers" or "working partners". This is what they are.
We must acknowledge them as human beings with individual needs,
drives, characteristics, personalities, and acknowledge their contribution
to the business success.

Though each person has specific needs, drives, aspirations, and
capabilities, at varying degrees of intensity, people's basic needs are the
same, as illustrated by Abraham Maslow in the following model:

Self-Actualization

Ego

Social Needs

Safety Needs

Physiological Needs

MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

Maslow explains the Hierarchy of Needs as applied to workers roughly as
follows:

Physiological Needs

Basic physical needs: the ability to acquire food, shelter, clothing and
other basics to survive

Safety Needs: a safe and non-threatening work environment, job security,
safe equipment and installations

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Social Needs: contact and friendship with fellow-workers, social activities
and opportunities

Ego: recognition, acknowledgment, rewards

Self-Actualization: realizing one's dreams and potential, reaching the
heights of one's gifts and talents.

It is only when these needs are met that workers are morally, emotionally,
and even physically ready to satisfy the needs of the employer and the
customers.

Worker motivation must also be viewed from two perspectives:

1. Inner drives
2. Outer (external) motivators.

A person's inner drives push and propel him/her towards an employer, a
particular job, career, line of study, or other activity (such as travel or
recreation). It is these drives that Maslow delineates in his hierarchy of
needs, and which we must understand and internalize, use as guidelines
in our efforts to help employees feel motivated.

The outer (external) motivators are the mirror image the employer or
outside world offers in response to the inner drives. In order to attract
the "cream of the crop" of available workers, same as in his/her dealings
with customers, the employer not only tries to satisfy these basic needs,
but to exceed them - taking into consideration additional extraordinary
needs individual workers have.

Most workers need to:

1. Earn wages that will enable them to pay for basic necessities and
additional luxuries such as the purchase of a home, or travel

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2. Save for and enjoy old age security benefits
3. Have medical and other insurance coverage
4. Acquire friends at work
5. Win recognition
6. Be acknowledged and rewarded for special efforts and
contributions
7. Be able to advance in life and career-wise
8. Have opportunities for self-development
9. Improve their skills, knowledge, and know-how
10. Demonstrate and use special gifts and abilities
11. Realize their ideals.

The employer responds to those needs by offering and providing:

1. Employment
2. Adequate pay
3. Assistance to workers for their special needs (such as child care
arrangements, transportation, flexible work schedules)
4. Job security (to the degree possible)
5. Clear company policies
6. Clear and organized work procedures
7. A stable, just and fair work environment
8. A safe work environment
9. Medical coverage and other benefits
10. An atmosphere of teamwork and cooperation
11. Social activities
12. Reward and recognition programs
13. Incentive programs
14. Open lines of communication (formal and informal)
15. Systematic feedback
16. Training and development programs

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17. Opportunities for promotion
18. Company/ business information
19. Information on customer feedback
20. Sharing of company goals and objectives a
21. Information on the market situation and industry
22. Future expectations
23. Plans for the future
24. Guidance and mentoring.

It is important that the employer discover other extraordinary needs
applicants have before hiring them and know beforehand whether he/she
can satisfy those needs or not. An employee may have:

Family responsibilities and be unable to work shifts, overtime, or
weekends
Heavy financial responsibilities which he/she can meet only by
working at two jobs, leading to exhaustion, "sick leave", and
deficient work performance
A desperate financial need for additional overtime and weekend
remuneration
Premature expectations of swift promotions.

Some other needs the employer can expect, for which company policies
should be planned accordingly:

If the company is in a remote location, all employees will have a
need for more social activities
Many single people look for dates and spouses at work
Some women may not be ready to work late shifts unless the
employer provides transportation back home
Some workers may have a problem with drug or alcohol abuse.

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In addition to needs and drives, adult workers have expectations from
their employer - they expect:

A knowledgeable, experienced, expert employer
Clear and fair policies, procedures, and employment practices
Business integrity
Clear job descriptions
Two-way communications
Effective management and supervision
Positive discipline
Good company repute
Good customer relations
Company survival
Opportunities for personal growth
Company growth
A share in the company's success.

Business owners and managers are under constant scrutiny by the people
they hire. Adult workers care beyond the salary - they care to know to
whom they entrust their fate, reputation, and security. They consider
their work as a major factor that shapes their lives and the lives of those
dear to them. Once they feel confident that the employer and their place
of work is what they wished for and expected, they are ready to
contribute above and beyond "the call of duty".

Most of these needs, expectations and aspirations are unexpressed - it is
up to the employer to develop a good system of company
communications, employee relations, training and development that will
lead to an environment of openness, cooperation, teamwork, and
motivation that will benefit all the parties involved.

Cross-Training as a motivational and problem-solving Technique

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Many managers, including human resources directors, mistakenly believe
that employee motivation can be won through monetary rewards or other
perks. They learn soon enough that such perks are taken for granted and
that money is not the key to employee motivation. A professional and
unified management, in a good work environment, is the basis on which
to build employee motivation.

While high employee turnover reflects on low morale and lack of
motivation, when seen from another angle, the absence of turnover
quickly results in de-motivation since the possibility of motion and
forward-motion is taken away from employees. It is against human
nature to remain static, performing the same duties day in, day out,
without expectations of change in routine or opportunities for
advancement.

Following a reading or lecture on the subject, managers sometimes
implement "job enrichment" in a misguided manner, adding unrewarded
responsibilities on the shoulders of their supervisors and employees.
This results in a feeling of exploitation and has the reverse of the
intended effect.

An effective training technique which results in motivation is
cross-training, when implemented horizontally, upward and downward.
Department heads, assistants and employees can cross-train in different
departments or within the department itself. With background support,
employees can have one day training in the role of department head
("King for the Day"). When a General Manager is away, department heads
can take roles replacing him, which is a form of cross-training.

Cross-training should be carefully planned and presented as a learning
opportunity. It should be incorporated in a hotel's master yearly training
plan, covering all positions and departments. It should begin with

33


supervisory level and filter down to entry-level positions. Housekeeping
should cross-train in Front Office and vice-versa; Front Office in
Marketing, Sales, Public Relations, Food & Beverage, Banquets, Security;
Marketing & Sales in Front Office, Food & Beverage, Purchasing; Food &
Beverage Service in the Culinary department and vice versa; Human
Resources in different departments and vice versa.

This technique achieves the following objectives:

Prevents stagnation
Offers a learning and professional development opportunity
Rejuvenates all departments
Improves understanding of the different departments and the hotel
as a whole
Leads to better coordination and teamwork
Erases differences, enmity and unhealthy competition
Increases knowledge, know-how, skills and work performance
Improves overall motivation
Leads to the sharing of organizational goals and objectives.

Sending people to work in another department at a moment's notice is
not what cross-training is about. This has to be an effective planned
process. Employees must "buy" into the idea, be encouraged to give
feedback and make suggestions for improvement. They become
"partners". Departmental communications meetings can be used to share
lessons learned. When employees think "the grass is greener on the
other side of the lawn" they soon realize their mistake after exposure to
other departments. They return to their job with a better attitude.

Cross-training can also be used to "shake up" supervisors or employees
who have lapsed into poor performance. Upon being moved to a
different position or department, albeit temporarily, they hear "warning

34


bells", shape up and usually return to their positions as exemplary
performers.

Depending on the budget at hand and the objectives to be achieved, the
time for cross-training can vary from one day to a week or more. Details
must be coordinated with the "receiving" department head. The trainee is
incorporated within the department's activities for the duration of the
cross-training (briefings, meetings, or obligations).

A more sophisticated form of cross-training is job rotation, which usually
involves extended periods (from one month to six months). With job
rotation, the employee's role is of a different nature. He is not
considered as trainee, but is responsible over certain job functions, for
which he has to prove himself.

Both cross-training and job rotation create a team of workers who are
more knowledgeable, can easily replace each other when needed and who
gain new confidence regarding their professional expertise. These two
techniques lead to great motivation throughout the company.

Unionized properties face some difficulty in implementing such
techniques due to the rigidity of Union policies and labor agreements. It
is up to management to win over Unions on this concept and convince
them of the benefits to employees' careers. Union representatives can be
made to understand that company-wide cross-training involves
substantial investment in time, effort and payroll. The benefits, however,
are enjoyed by the three main stakeholders: employees, management and
guests. Employees enjoy the rewards of added know-how, skills, career
opportunities and future security due to business success.

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Problems for Employers' Organizations Developing
Training Role

Several reasons account for the problems faced by employers'
organizations in training their own staff, and in providing training to
members. They include the following:

Unlike enterprises which can have their staff trained in
management and other training institutions, there are no courses
and training institutions which are geared to the needs of
employers' organizations. This places a heavy responsibility on
senior staff to train new recruits and on staff to develop themselves.
Therefore organizations often rely on the ILO to conduct training
programmes designed to serve the needs of employers'
organizations, and to provide staff with study tours to other
employers' organizations.
Most organizations do not have skilled trainers i.e. persons who
have been trained as trainers.
Inadequate training material
Inadequate information/knowledge relating to labor-related
subjects needed to attract enterprises to the organization's training
programmes.
The economic viability of having full time training staff. Due to
financial constraints, an employers' organization would generally
have to keep full time training staff to a minimum. Therefore staff
with special skills providing advisory and representation services
should be trained as trainers to enable them to undertake some
training in their areas of expertise.

Organizational Change

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Conventional organizational change, which typically encompasses
training and development, and 'motivation', mostly fails.

Why? Are the people stupid? Can they not see the need for change? Do
they not realise that if the organization cannot make these changes then
we will become uncompetitive. We will lose market share. There will be
job cuts. We will eventually go out of business. Can they not see it?
Actually probably not. Or more precisely, people look at things in a
different way.

Bosses and organizations still tend to think that people whom are
managed and employed and paid to do a job should do what they're told
to do. We are conditioned from an early age to believe that the way to
teach and train, and to motivate people towards changing what they do,
is to tell them, or persuade them. From the experiences at school the
people are conditioned to believe that skills, knowledge, and
expectations are imposed on or 'put into' people by teachers, and later,
by managers and bosses in the workplace. But just because the boss says
so, doesn't make it so. People today have a different perspective. And
when they think about it, they're bound to.

Imposing new skills and change on people doesn't work because:

It assumes that people's personal aims and wishes and needs are
completely aligned with those of the organization, or that there is
no need for such alignment, and
It assumes that people want, and can assimilate into their lives,
given all their other priorities, the type of development or change
that the organization deems appropriate for them.

Instead, organizations, managers, bosses and business owners would do
better to think first about exploring ways to align the aims of the

37


business with the needs - total life needs - of their people. Most
people who go to work are under no illusion that their main purpose is to
do what their manager says, so that the organization can at the end of
the year pay outrageously high rewards to greedy directors, and a big fat
dividend to the shareholders. The workers work so that other more gifted
or fortunate or aggressive people can profit because of our efforts.

And god help those if they are running a management buyout company,
intent on floating or selling out in the next two-to-five years, making the
MBO equity-holders millionaires, and leaving the employees, on whose
backs these scandalous gains have been made, up the creek without a
paddle, at the mercy of the new owners.

How the bloody hell do you expect decent hardworking people to align
with those aims?

It's time for a radical re-think, before they all disappear up their own
backsides...

Fact one:

People will never align with bad aims. Executive greed, exploitation,
environmental damage, inequality, betrayal, false promises are
transparent for all decent folk to see:

"Oh you want me to do this training, and adjust to your changes, so I can
make more money for you and the parasites who feed off this corporation?
I've got my own life to lead thanks very much."

And that's if bosses are lucky. Most staff will simply nod and smile
demurely as if in servile acceptance. If they still wore caps they'd doff
them.

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The bosses should re-assess and re-align their organization's aims,
beliefs, and integrity - all of it - with their workers. Then they might
begin to be interested in helping with new skills and change, etc.

Fact two:

People can't just drop everything and 'change', or learn new skills, just
because boss says so. Even if they want to change and learn new skills,
they have a whole range of issues that keep them fully occupied for most
of their waking hours. The need for consulting with people is rather a
good idea is that it saves boss from his own wrong assumptions.
Consulting with people does not mean that organization is in the workers
hand they wouldn't want the corporation if they are paid well. So if the
company is thinking in this then it is wrong because consulting with
people gives boss and them a chance to understand the implications and
feasibility of what boss think needs doing. And aside from this,
consulting with people, and helping them to see things from both sides
generally throws up some very good ideas for doing things better than
boss could have dreamt of by himself. It helps boss to see from both
sides too.

Fact three:

Organizations commonly say they don't have time to re-assess and
re-align their aims and values, etc., or don't have time to consult with
people properly, because the organization is on the edge of a crisis.

Well whose fault is that? Organizations get into crisis because they ignore
facts one and two. Ignoring these facts again will only deepen the crisis.

39


Crisis is no excuse for compromising integrity. Crisis is the best reason
to re-align aims and consult with workers. Crisis is wake-up and change
the organization and its purpose - not change the people. When an
organization is in crisis, the people are almost always okay - it'll be the
organizational purpose and aims that stink.

The company should start by looking at their organization's aims and
values and purposes. What does organization actually seek to do? Whom
does their organization benefit? And whom does it exploit? Who are the
winners, and who are the losers? Does the organization have real integrity?
Are they proud of the consequences and implications of what their
organization does? Will the organization be remembered for the good
that it did? And what do workers say to themselves about the way their
boss is managing change?

Developing the Organization's Training Function

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Pre-requisites

There are certain prerequisites essential to undertaking a training role in
relation to members. Training may be affected in three ways

By the employers' organization's own staff
By external persons or institutions the employers' organization may
contract with to conduct training
By a combination of both the above methods, this would usually be
the most practical since it is unrealistic to expect employers’
organizations to develop the level of skills needed in all the areas
of training.

Even in courses conducted by the organization trainers or resource
persons can be used for selected subjects to enrich the programme.

Where training is conducted by the staff of the employers' organization it
follows that it must have a comparative advantage in the subject matter
of the training. In order to have that advantage the staff should

Have the requisite knowledge in the subject matter
Be trained as trainers, although this is not critical in all cases. For
instance, conducting courses on the application of the labor laws

41


requires knowledge of the subject matter, and skills in training may
not be particularly critical though undoubtedly useful.
Be supported by an up to date information and research base.

The above mentioned pre-requisites underline the two types of training
an employers' organization might undertake. The first is the transference
of information and knowledge needed by enterprises to make decisions
in labor related areas. This requires the first and third pre-requisites
referred to. However, in order to have an impact on enterprises in the
management of people, the training needs to go beyond
knowledge-transference and demonstrate how to translate the relevant
knowledge into practice. This involves not only a sound information and
research base and staff with the requisite knowledge, but also staff with
training skills.

Identifying Areas of Training Specialization

Employers' organizations do not usually offer training in all areas of
management (e.g. general management, finance, and marketing) because

These are specialized areas requiring knowledge in subjects
outside the mandate of an employers' organization
Such training is provided by other institutions like business schools
and polytechnics which specially cater to these training needs.

However, in some areas training undertaken by employers' organizations
and other institutions overlap. An example is negotiation skills on which
business education institutions in some countries have highly effective
programmes. Another is human resource management. Therefore it is
important for employers' organizations to develop an expertise in
training in industrial relations (laws, workplace labor relations practices,
wages, and negotiation). It is a subject in which it can develop a

42


comparative advantage, especially since in many countries such training
is seldom offered by other institutions. Even if other institutions do, they
may lack the practical experience employers' organizations develop if
they provide direct services to members.

An increasingly important target group is the small enterprise sector
which, unlike the large scale sector, usually lacks a human resource
manager or a training policy and in house training facilities. A special
needs assessment may have to be conducted in this sector as its needs
tend to differ from those of large and medium scale enterprises. The ILO
has developed the Improve Your Business (IYB) programme, which is a
system of inter-related training packages and supporting materials for
providing owners and managers of small enterprises with training in
basic business management skills.

Establishing Training Priorities

The employers' organization should establish a priority table in respect of
the areas in which it wishes to

Itself provide the training
Act only in a subsidiary capacity by, for instance, collaborating with
external institutions or individuals.
Provide training material

Some of the areas in which an employers' organization can undertake
training are:

a. Industrial Relations and Labour Law. This should be a priority as it
is the labour relations role which, more than any other,
distinguishes an employers' organization from other employer
bodies.

43


b. Personnel and Human Resource Management. Training in this area
helps to strengthen personal departments and human resource
management functions. Since one of the main objectives of HRM is
to integrate it with the functions of line managers, HRM training
should be made available to all enterprise managers. However,
training in this field may require linking up with institutions which
are qualified in this regard, as it is difficult to build a comparative
advantage without external assistance.
c. Negotiation and negotiation skills. This is important not only for
the conduct of collective bargaining but also for enterprise
managers in their frequent interactions with their employees and
other enterprises.
d. Safety and health. An employers' organization could develop a
limited role, such as interpreting relevant laws and training safety
committees in enterprises.
e. Productivity. Here a limited role is possible, largely through training
to achieve sound industrial relations and in HRM practices which
promote productivity improvement. Productivity bargaining and
performance and skills based pay systems are a part of an
employers' organization's mandate directly linked to productivity.
f. Supervisory training. This often neglected area of training is an
important means of improving workplace labour relations and
productivity. The ILO has developed a supervisory training module
which has been found useful by enterprises.
g. Cross-cultural management training. In the context of increasing
investment in countries from both within and outside the region
and the apparent proliferation of disputes flowing from
cross-cultural "mismanagement", there is scope for the
development of training programmes for foreign personnel
designed to acquaint them with local practices and cultural factors
relevant to managing local employees. Increasingly, local

44


employees also need to adjust to the management requirements
and styles of foreign companies. Strangely, this has been a much
neglected area of training. However, it requires quite a mastery of
local systems, practices and culture.

Training should not take the form of only collective training programmes
i.e. for personnel from several different enterprises. Considerable impact
can be achieved through the design and conduct of training programmes
for particular enterprises at plant level as it facilitates addressing a
particular enterprise's needs. The latter type of programme also has a
reasonable chance of attracting senior managers who are in a position to
influence the company's policies.

Equipping the Organization for Training

The organization should equip itself to perform a training role. Among
other things, this involves the followings:

Analyzing the organization's strengths and weaknesses in training
in the light of the needs assessment surveys and identification of
the areas of training.
Training the staff in training skills
Where relevant, studying the management of the training function
of employers' organizations which have developed an excellence in
training
Improving the organization's information/research/knowledge base
Developing training courses and materials
Where necessary entering into arrangements with outside
individuals or institutions to design and/or conduct training
programmes
Appointing a training manager, or at least a person to plan and
coordinate the training

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Acquisition of the training equipment needed.

As a brief review of terms, training involves an expert working with
learners to transfer to them certain areas of knowledge or skills to
improve in their current jobs. Development is a broad, ongoing
multi-faceted set of activities (training activities among them) to bring
someone or an organization up to another threshold of performance,
often to perform some job or new role in the future.

Topics of Employee Training

1) Corporate ethics : This covers the value of good manners, courtesy,
consideration, personal décor and good rapport. It also shows why and
how to discourage gossip, controversies, personal work at office, rush
jobs etc.

2) Communications: The increasing diversity of today's workforce brings
a wide variety of languages and customs. Right from the way the
receptionist handles a call to how the CEO deals with a customer gives a
glimpse of the image of an organization. Such training encompasses oral,
written and presentation skills. It stresses the importance of
communication being clear, concise, concrete and colorful.

3) Career and life planning : A primarily employee-oriented training
objective u undertaken to help employees plan for their lives, career,
retirement, redundancy etc. Such training imparts the values of life skills
that employees need under different and difficult circumstances.

46


4) Computer skills: Computer skills are becoming a necessity for
conducting administrative and office tasks.

5) Customer service: Increased competition in today's global
marketplace makes it critical that employees understand and meet the
needs of customers.

6) Diversity : Diversity training usually includes explanation about how
people have different perspectives and views, and includes techniques to
value diversity

7) Staff management and team building : Such training shows the
importance and benefits of good management and how everyone can
achieve more through teamwork.

8) Stress management: Stress is an individual’s response to threats and
challenges in the environment. Manifested physiologically and physically,
it may occur due to role conflict, role ambiguity, role incompatibility, role
overload or role under load. Stress management techniques are covered
under this objective.

9) Time management : Time management skills covered here showcase
the importance of being specific, delegation and prioritization. They also
show how to set measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound goals.

10) Human relations : The increased stresses of today's workplace can
include misunderstandings and conflict. Training can people to get along
in the workplace. It also includes interpersonal relationship skills
Communication is a two-way exercise and this objective covers the
importance of listening, concentrating, showing empathy and
self-awareness.

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11) Quality initiatives : Initiatives such as Total Quality Management,
Quality Circles, benchmarking, etc., require basic training about quality
concepts, guidelines and standards for quality, etc.

12) Safety : Safety training is critical where working with heavy
equipment , hazardous chemicals, repetitive activities, etc., but can also
be useful with practical advice for avoiding assaults, etc.

13) Sexual harassment : Sexual harassment training usually includes
careful description of the organization's policies about sexual harassment,
especially about what are inappropriate behaviors.

14) Memory skills: This objective highlights techniques for better
reception, retention and recall through audio and visual learning
techniques. It helps to improve skills by employing all senses, associating
and following systematic review plans.

15) Special skills: Besides the above, organizations also impart special
job-related skills. These may include technology training, report writing,
technical training, quality assessments etc.

An organization may choose to impart training in any or many of the
objectives mentioned above. But before one invests it is important to
choose a trainer who is good and capable of making a positive difference
with his or her training methodologies. Also organizational training needs
to be undertaken keeping the mission and the vision statement of the
organization in view.

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Benefits from Employee Training and Development

Regardless of the size or type of an industry or business, training can
have a measurable impact on performance and the bottom line.

Research shows that productivity increases while training takes place.
A staff who receives formal training can be 230 per cent more
productive than untrained colleagues who are working in the same role.
Staying competitive is the key to sustainability. Training your staff,
keeping them motivated and up-to-date with industry trends and new
technologies is essential to achieving that goal.

Staff benefit too, learning new skills and becoming a valued asset in
any organization. Training brings direct benefits to business and can
be calculated as a return on investment.

High labor productivity increases business output and can open a
greater share of the market or expand it by improving products,
services and reputations.

Successful training is focused on supporting your business objectives.

Staff retention

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Training increases staff retention which is a significant cost saving, as
the loss of one competent person can be the equivalent of one year's
pay and benefits.

In some companies, training programs have reduced staff turnover by
70 per cent and led to a return on investment of 7,000 per cent.

Improved quality and productivity
Training that meets both staff and employer needs can increase the
quality and flexibility of a business’s services by fostering:

Accuracy and efficiency
Good work safety practices
Better customer service.
Most businesses provide on-the-job training, particularly during
induction. Ongoing training almost always shows a positive return on
investment.

The flow-on effect
The benefits of training in one area can flow through to all levels of an
organisation. Over time, training will boost the bottom line and reduce
costs by decreasing:

Wasted time and materials
Maintenance costs of machinery and equipment
Workplace accidents, leading to lower insurance premiums
Recruitment costs through the internal promotion of skilled staff
Absenteeism.
Staying competitive
Businesses must continually change their work practices and
infrastructure to stay competitive in a global market. Training staff to
manage the implementation of new technology, work practices and
business strategies can also act as a benchmark for future recruitment
and quality assurance practices.

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As well as impacting on business profit margins, training can improve:

Staff morale and satisfaction
'Soft skills' such as inter-staff communication and leadership
Time management
Customer satisfaction

There are numerous sources of on-line information about training and
development. Several of these sites (they're listed later on in this library)
suggest reasons for supervisors to conduct training among employees.
These reasons include:

1. Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees

2. Increased employee motivation

3. Increased efficiencies in processes, resulting in financial gain

4. Increased capacity to adopt new technologies and methods

5. Increased innovation in strategies and products

6. Reduced employee turnover

7. Enhanced company image, e.g., conducting ethics training (not a good
reason for ethics training!)

8. Risk management, e.g., training about sexual harassment, diversity
training

Companies that have a healthy training culture report the following
benefits:

Improved quality
Increased productivity

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Greater flexibility and responsiveness to change
Reduced insurance premiums
Less wastage
Reduced maintenance and repair costs
Greater commitment from staff
Higher staff retention rate
Improved morale.

Perhaps the most important benefit of a healthy training culture is that
the skills of your staff are formally recognised and that your employees
feel that their contribution to the company is valued.

Renewed focus on Corporate Training
Upcoming technologies are aimed at making organizational processes
more efficient, but this effort is incomplete without proficient employees
who are in touch with forthcoming innovations in their companies. Today,
human capital has replaced physical capital as a source of competitive
advantage for all organisations, big and small; hence there is a renewed
focus on corporate training to create a better, faster and smarter
workforce that will impact business results.

The training industry in India has evolved as a business effectiveness tool.
The arena of training has moved on from employee retention
programmes to issues like sales training, leadership, relationship
building and increasing production. Sanjeev Duggal, CEO and MD, NIS of
Sparta says that, “Training has become a critical business enabler and is
being linked to business outcome. Due to ever-changing market
scenarios and stiff competition, every organisation wants to make
optimum use of the most critical resource-people-efficiently and
effectively to impact business results.”

52


Uday Kulkarni, Senior Vice-president, Aptech, adds that “There is an
increased awareness relating to the need for corporate training in India. A
certain shift is taking place from a generic to a specific and focused
training approach. As a result, there is a lot more planning and analysis
going into evolving a training strategy. Human capital is recognized as
the most important resource, and companies are therefore making efforts
to hone it through training.”

"Training has become a been critical business enabler that is being
linked to business results"

-Sanjeev Duggal
CEO & MD
NIS Sparta

"Corporate IT training has still not been imbibed as a culture in most
organisations.
It is need-based rather than a planned activity"
-Jitendra Nair
Vice-president
Karrox Technologies

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On the other hand, Jitendra Nair, Vice-president, Karrox Technologies,
believes that corporate IT training has still not been imbibed as a culture
in most organisations. According to him, it is more need-based rather
than a planned activity. The intensity in the approach is now changing
with good companies dedicating IT training budgets for their IT and
end-user staff. In India, corporate training markets are largely active in
the re-skilling space. This is the area where participants are trained on
newer technologies in order to enhance their productivity.”

Nasscom figures indicate that the IT corporate training market is
expected to touch rs. 600 crore by 2010 from the current rs. 210 crore.
Internationally, 80 percent of a training company’s revenue comes from
corporate training. However, in the Indian market, the revenue figure
could be 50 percent from retail training and the rest from the corporate
segment.

He adds, “The prevailing thrust on public domain/retail training is
primarily due to the disconnect in our academic approach where the
latest technologies are not offered, thus making it necessary for job
aspirants to get trained on their own in order to be job-worthy. Due to
high competition in the job market space and high aspiration factors, our
students generally have the culture of learning before they apply for
jobs.”

54


"With the increased utilization of IT in all sectors, intensive training has
become essential"
-Rajeev Katyal

Senior Vice-President

Enterprise Learning Solutions, NIIT

Specialization in training

Training in India is imparted at all levels—frontline, middle or senior
management—of the organization, but the emphasis is on the frontline
staff and the senior management. Duggal states, “The training imparted
to the frontline staff is skill-based. But the acute shortage of quality
people at the senior level—the people who actually builds and manage
companies—has made investment in training and development an
important tool for the management of the organization.”

Nair is of the view that corporate training is largely happening on the
software development, networking and IT security space at different
levels. Specialization training is gaining momentum, and hence delivery is
task-oriented rather than theory and science-based, as was in the past.
Rajeev Katyal, Senior Vice-president, Enterprise Learning Solutions, NIIT,
believes that with the increased utilization of IT in all sectors, intensive
training has become essential. Both the government and private sectors
are relying heavily on the training of their employees.

In-house vs. outsource

The kind of training requirement an organization has determines whether
the training is conducted in-house or is outsourced to a third party.
Duggal notes, “Training programmes that involve volume and are done
on a consistent basis (like the voice-and-accent training imparted at

55


BPOs) is generally done in-house. But an organization usually involves a
third party when there is need for a specialized training programme like a
management development programme, role-based skill development
programme or outbound programme.”

Corporate preference is generally towards organizations that have good
experience in training corporate personnel. Training students and
training professionals are different in terms of approach, methodology
and delivery. Trainers have to be highly experienced with a track record
of successful delivery.

Nair explains, “Training programmes are usually in-house where the
client utilizes his own environment and facilities, thereby giving him
traveling and economic benefits. But some organizations outsource their
entire training programmes to qualified and reputed training
organizations after due diligence on their credentials, faculties, client
references and experience in the business.”

According to Katyal, the choice between outsourcing and in-house
training depends on the nature and need of the organization. IT and BPO
companies undertake a lot of in-house training, and depending on the
kind of specialized training required, they outsource. Government sector
companies mostly choose to outsource. Outsourcing offers the advantage
of sourcing scarce talent and the ability to ramp up quickly, whereas
in-house training offers greater control.

Matching schedules and providing customized courseware for
customized content is another operational challenge in this segment.

Katyal points out that the challenges which companies face while
undertaking training programmes includes finding locations for training
in remote areas and an experienced faculty.

56


Multiple gains

Training makes an organization well-equipped to keep pace with the
changing dynamics of business. Employees frequently develop a greater
sense of self-worth, dignity and well-being as they become more
valuable to the firm and to society. Generally, they receive a greater share
of the material gains due to their increased productivity. These factors
give them a sense of satisfaction through the achievement of personal
and company goals.

Nair points out that IT-based training programme enable participants to
use software to its fullest potential, thereby cutting down time
requirements and getting the best RoI on the company’s technology
deployments. “Training as a culture also helps corporate HR retain their
people. On the technology side, participants aspire for knowledge
initiatives. Constant updating on technologies is at most times a good
reason for people to stay longer in an organization.”

He adds, “From a training company perspective, it’s a relationship-based
marketing model and leads to a constant revenue model. It’s an effective
B2B model for mature IT training companies, and in the process adds
value to their clients and their own business. Even for their technical staff,
it’s a new scale that they always aspire to reach as a technocrat.”

Who’s Training Whom

Company Corporate Training Clients

57


NIS Sparta Coca-Cola, IBM, Maruti, American
Express, Thermax, Mahindra
Finance, Accenture, APAC,
Pantaloon, Godrej & Boyce
Aptech Training Solutions Maruti Udyog, Electrolux Kelvinator,
Dabur, Valvoline Cummins, Perfetti
van Melle India, National Thermal
Power Corporation, Gas Authority
Of India, Delhi Police, Standard
Chartered Bank, Indian Oil,
Motorola India, ICICI, Bayer,
Mahindra & Mahindra, Blue Star, HP,
Onida
Karrox Godrej Infotech, Times of India,
Reliance Infocomm, Reliance
Industries, Wipro Infotech, Tata
Consultancy Services, Siemens,
Union Bank of India, Infosys, Cap
Gemini, Global Telesystems, South
Eastern Coal Fields, Persistent
Technologies, State Bank of India,
HCL, Indian Navy.

Varied approaches

The approach taken for any training programme depends on the client
requirement based on the changing market scenario. It could be specific
training enhancing one particular skill or it could be a holistic approach
facilitating organizational development taken up to address needs in a
competitive market scenario.

Katyal discusses, “The current requirement for corporate training is
mostly related to IT. However, management training, especially at the
supervisory level, is also seeing rising demand these days. One of the
areas for consideration while designing training programmes is
incorporating a session on soft skills. (For IT skills, there is enough
material available.) The approach is need-based. This is followed by the
appropriate mix of curriculum, faculty skills and infrastructure planning.
Usage of right training methodology is essential.”

58


Nair adds that the current method being practiced is to conduct a
training-need analysis, and identify the people needing training in a
variety of products. On such identification, the technical coordinator will
finalize things like indicative schedules along with the proposed venue.
Once the administrative aspects are completed, the technology
implementation, that is, the delivery of training starts. In the case of a
need-based approach, i.e. an urgent project deployment requiring some
training, it’s always a holistic approach and is not process-oriented.

An evolving trend

The trend for corporate training is currently evolving in the country, and
more and more organizations are opting for it. Katyal details, “The
current scenario of corporate training looks promising in almost all
sectors. With the government sector going in for capacity building, the
rise in recruitment in the IT/BPO sector, and companies investing in IT,
the need for corporate training is on the rise.”

Nair explains, “In the globalize environment where new products are
hitting the market with great frequency and new technology deployments
have become a business compulsion in order to enhance productivity and
better turnaround time, training has become a crucial part of the
technology deployment cycle.”

At last Kulkarni says, “Corporates today have realized that
self-development among employees lead to better RoI for the
organization. Training is essential to keep an organization’s human
capital fit and fine to enable it take on the best in the world—and then
sculpt a world-class organization.”

59


The State of Training and Development: More Spending, More Scrutiny

As investment in training continues to rise, with resources migrating
away from in-house programs, employers are demanding better
accounting to ensure that their development dollars go toward furthering
strategic goals and bolstering the bottom line.
Technology and global competition, the two driving forces of economic
change in today’s business world, haven’t bypassed the once-staid world
of training and development. Companies seeking to gain advantage
through better-trained and better-developed workers are employing
everything from e-learning delivery systems to multicultural and polyglot
training solutions. They are hiring chief learning officers to deal with the
increasingly complex field. And they are demanding better accounting of
results.

Jack Kramer, vice president of global alliances for Sum Total Systems of
Mountain View, California, says that every training effort--from the most
sophisticated leadership course to the most basic regulatory compliance
training module--is being rigorously vetted for more than just content.

"They want to know, ‘What is the financial impact?’ “Kramer says.”
‘Have you cut costs? Have you solved compliance issues? Have you
assimilated learning into company operations?’ "

Yet despite the focus on efficiency and cost control, overall spending
on training and development continues to raise, a reflection of the fact
that companies are ratcheting up the amount of training they require of
their workers in the ceaseless drive for a competitive edge. Companies
clearly subscribe to the belief that smarter, better-trained workers
increase chances for success.

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"We are seeing spending continue to rise," says Pat Galagan, vice
president of content for the American Society for Training & Development.
"The thing we are noticing is that companies are working to get more
efficiency, more effectiveness and better alignment out of training. It
means they are doing an enterprise accounting of learning expenditures."

ASTD’s tracking of expenditures shows that the push toward more
spending on training and development has been consistent throughout
this decade. According to ASTD’s latest "State of the Industry Report,"
issued in December, annual spending on training and development by
companies and other organizations rose to $955 per employee in 2004
and was projected to reach $1,000 in 2005. In 2000, the total stood at
$649. The average number of annual learning hours per employee, which
was 24 in 2000, reached 32 in 2004 and was projected to hit 34 in 2005.
Training and development budgets now gobble up anywhere from 2.25
percent to 3 percent of payrolls.

Where is that money being spent? Despite the rise of outside vendors
who promise to deliver training modules more cheaply, the bulk of
training is still done in-house.

"Organizations tend to outsource things that can be standardized and
keep inside things that are special, unique or have a competitive
advantage," ASTD’s Galagan says. "Definitely most training is still
internal."

Still, the amount of training that can be outsourced has yet to peak,
thanks in part to the ever-changing and rising need to meet mandates for
training in subjects like worker safety or financial reporting. Vendors
predict that their businesses will enjoy years of continued growth.

61

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