Cost Benefit Analysis for Training
February 12, 2025
Nurturing Youth Entrepreneurship can be highly beneficial for the society, economy as well as for the progress of the nation besides the individual’s self development and achievement too. In the current times where the nations are transitioning through tough times and adapting to globalisation, the hope for the youth lies more in becoming job creators […]
Employee Retention refers to the various steps involved to retain the outgoing employees. Hiring is a cumbersome process and it is really not easy to find an employee who is loyal towards the organization and looks forward towards achieving its targets. An organization must encourage the employees to stick to it for a good amount […]
As they say “Customers are Gods”. For long term growth and success, one really needs to build a great rapport with customers and also maintain healthy relationship with them. You really do not have to try too hard to build and maintain healthy relationship with clients. It just happens. Be honest with your clients. Never […]
Performance appraisals enable superiors to know what their team members are upto, evaluate their performances and also give them correct feedbacks so that they know where they are lacking and work on their shortcomings. The term “Performance Appraisal” generally causes anxiety among employees, which definitely should not be the case. You really do not have […]
Participative management as a decision making style is not welcome by one and all! Labor or trade unions, for example do not approve of this. They argue that it is in fact disadvantageous to welfare of the workers because the participative processes give deep insights to the management, which in turn puts the latter in […]
Training and development is one of the key HR functions. Most organisations look at training and development as an integral part of the human resource development activity.
The turn of the century has seen increased focus on the same in organisations globally.
Many organisations have mandated training hours per year for employees keeping in consideration the fact that technology is deskilling the employees at a very fast rate.
So what is training and development then? Is it really that important to organisational survival or they can survive without the former?
Are training and development one and the same thing or are they different?
Training may be described as an endeavour aimed to improve or develop additional competency or skills in an employee on the job one currently holds in order to increase the performance or productivity.
Technically training involves change in attitude, skills or knowledge of a person with the resultant improvement in the behaviour.
For training to be effective it has to be a planned activity conducted after a thorough need analysis and target at certain competencies, most important it is to be conducted in a learning atmosphere.
While designing the training program both the individual goals and organisational goals are kept in mind. Although it may not be entirely possible to ensure a sync, but competencies are chosen in a way that a win-win is created for the employee and the organisation.
Typically organisations prepare their training calendars at the beginning of the financial year where training needs are identified for the employees. This need identification called as ‘training need analysis’ is a part of the performance appraisal process.
After need analysis the number of training hours, along with the training intervention are decided and the same is spread strategically over the next year.
Lots of time training is confused with development, both are different in certain respects yet components of the same system. Development implies opportunities created to help employees grow.
It is more of long term or futuristic in nature as opposed to training, which focus on the current job. It also is not limited to the job avenues in the current organisation but may focus on other development aspects also.
At Goodyear, for example, employees are expected to mandatorily attend training program on presentation skills however they are also free to choose a course on ‘perspectives in leadership through literature’. Whereas the presentation skills program helps them on job, the literature based program may or may not help them directly.
Similarly many organisations choose certain employees preferentially for programs to develop them for future positions. This is done on the basis of existing attitude, skills and abilities, knowledge and performance of the employee. Most of the leadership programs tend to be of this nature with a vision of creating and nurturing leaders for tomorrow.
The major difference between training and development therefore is that while training focuses often on the current employee needs or competency gaps, development concerns itself with preparing people for future assignments and responsibilities.
With technology creating more deskilled workers and with industrial workers being replaced by knowledge workers, training and development is at the forefront of HRD. The onus is now on the human development department to take a proactive leadership role in responding to training and business needs.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *