BUS301: Human Resource Management

4a. Describe strategies used in the training and development of talent

• What role does employee training and development have in employee retention and growth?
• Which of the four steps for effective employee training is quality assurance training?
• When it comes to safety training, what agency is charged with this responsibility?
• What are the levels of Kirkpatrick's Training Evaluation Model for designing a training program?

Employee training and development are processes businesses use to help employees develop their personal and organizational skills, knowledge and abilities, and overall job performance.

Most companies provide informal and formal employee orientation programs that typically inundate recruits with paperwork to sign and explanations about benefits. On the other hand, a strategic onboarding process should be comprehensive and involve other employees and managers. The onboarding process should help employees assimilate to company policies and workflow processes to become fully acquainted with the business culture. Inattention to this step can lead to misunderstandings, employee dissatisfaction, lost productivity, and higher turnover rates.

Four steps that generally occur for effective employee training include:

1. HRM often creates employee orientation programs to welcome new employees. Two goals of orientation are explaining company policies and describing how the employee's position fits within the organization.

2. HRM may create in-house training programs to clarify company policies related to areas such as customer service, ethics, management, and sexual harassment. Quality training is an example of in-house training that helps employees prevent, detect, and eliminate inefficiencies and non-quality items.

3. HRM may facilitate mentoring programs to help new employees feel welcome and learn from someone who knows the business and department and how to address or circumvent on-the-job challenges. Managers choose mentors based on their experience, willingness, and personality.

4. HRM may make external training programs available to employees to enhance job-related learning and help develop management and leadership skills. For example, HRM may encourage employees to take college courses or enroll in off-site seminars to enhance management potential or develop new job-related skills.

HRM creates various training opportunities to develop a "holistic" employee, such as:

• Technical training teaches employees about the job's technological aspects, such as how to use relevant computer systems.

• Skills training refers to proficiencies employees need, such as using the phone system or performing specific tasks to provide customer assistance.

• Soft skills training refers to personality traits that characterize relationships with co-workers and clients, such as communication, personal habits, and social graces. Examples include improving communication, becoming better listeners, and interacting with customers in specific circumstances.

• Job shadowing is a training method that places an employee who wants to learn or develop certain skills with a skilled employee who serves in a mentoring capacity. An apprenticeship is an example of this type of training.

• Vestibule training is a method of on-the-job teaching that creates a simulated work experience for trainees. This type of training often takes place in the company's classrooms or conference rooms, where orientations, safety, quality performance, and some skills-based training are delivered.

• Safety training ensures employees are protected from injuries from work-related accidents. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is the federal agency charged with enforcing safety and health regulations. OSHA provides external and in-house training on OSHA standards.

A needs assessment addresses the training needed and allows HRM to set learning objectives to measure whether goals were met at the end of the training.

HRM should consider learning styles because individual employees acquire and process information differently. For example, a visual learner may require graphics, pictures, or figures. An auditory learner will appreciate listening to a lecture or to someone explaining how to do something. A kinesthetic learner learns by doing rather than listening or watching someone do the task. A successful training program will include various types of information delivery to appeal to the audience's learning styles.

The delivery mode is the method used to present the training. These include on-the-job coaching, mentoring, brown bag lunch, web-based training, job shadowing, job swapping, and vestibule training.

The budget will determine the training a business can afford to offer. When calculating the total cost of the training, HRM should tabulate the indirect costs of planning, preparation, and employee time spent away from their jobs, in addition to direct costs (supplies and services).

Delivery style refers to various ways HRM appeals to trainees' different learning styles. For example, icebreakers, breakout discussions, role-playing, and interactive media can make the training more engaging for employees with various learning styles.

HRM should align its delivery method to its audience to make the training most relevant. For example, planners might consider the types of departments the employees work in, how long they have worked at the company, and whether the group includes diverse job titles to determine focused and appropriate training.

Content refers to the information HRM needs to convey to employees in the best sequence. After HRM has determined the training's learning goals and objectives, it can formulate relevant topics and choose information to present to support each topic. HRM should choose appropriate learning techniques to deliver the training, such as demonstrations, online courses, expert speakers, group discussions, slide presentations and visual aids, online post-event discussions, and other activities.

HRM needs to create realistic timelines for the specific type of training planned. For example, how long will the training program take, and how often should they offer it? When is the best time to present it? How does the training align with other company events and strategic planning initiatives?

Training programs are only good if they are effective. In other words, how well did HRM meet its training objectives?

The Kirkpatrick Training Evaluation model measures four levels of effectiveness.

Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Training Evaluation

1. Reaction assesses whether participants react favorably to the training and find it relevant to their job performance.
2. Learning assesses whether participants acquire the intended knowledge, skills, attitude, confidence, and commitment.
3. Behavior assesses whether participants change their previous practices to apply what they learned during training to the way they perform their jobs.
4. Results assess whether the training supports its targeted outcomes and what benefits resulted from that training.

To review, see:

• Designing a Training Program

4b. Identify talent management's role in the overall success of the organization

• How does HR play a proactive role in talent management to align with organizational objectives?
• Why is it necessary to consider more than person-to-job fit when hiring employees?

Talent management's role as a strategic partner is to ensure that future and current hiring needs are met. To accomplish this, talent management must include recruiting and selecting the right people for the right jobs. An important part of ensuring a healthy pipeline of available talent to replace outgoing managers and executives is to create an effective succession plan that includes accurate forecasts of the labor market, effective training and development programs, competitive compensation, benefits, and rewards programs. Of course, to attract and retain a productive workforce, it is also necessary to foster an organizational culture that values diversity and inclusiveness.

One of the goals of strategic hiring is to identify candidates who will be motivated to grow in their positions, stay with the company, and have the potential to be trained and developed to progress to fill vacated and newly created positions within the organization. There are numerous challenges for talent managers, including selecting applicants who feel the organization suits them. Research has shown that the "degree of cultural fit" and alignment of values between applicants and the firm significantly predict subsequent turnover and job performance. Therefore, talent managers must assess recruiting and selection practices that target the candidate's technical ability and cultural fit with the organization.

To review, see:

• Training and Development
• Designing a Training Program

4c. Define the role of career and succession planning

• What role does succession planning play in ensuring that valued employees are available to fill vacated positions within the company?
• What is a career development program, and why are they recommended for today's organizations?
• How does failing to address career development affect employee turnover and organizational goals?

Career Development Planning Process

Succession planning is the process businesses follow to identify and develop internal employees who exhibit the potential to fill key business leadership positions. It includes handling managers' departures and making current employees ready to take on managerial roles when a manager does leave.

Career development programs help employees manage their careers, learn new things, and take steps to improve personally and professionally. These programs encourage and guide employees on ways to attain their short- and long-term career goals. Employees can contribute more to the company, take on a leadership role, and make their jobs more interesting. By making these programs available, the company demonstrates it values employee contributions and cares about the people who work there as individuals.

Companies benefit when they can retain good, knowledgeable, and skilled employees. They will reduce hiring and retraining costs by maintaining a pipeline of loyal and motivated employees to fill future job openings due to resignations and retirements, even during a poor labor market. HRM can formulate future staffing plans, actively minimize costly turnover, and ensure a motivated and well-trained workforce.

To review, see:

• Designing a Training Program

Unit 4 Vocabulary

This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.

• career development program
• delivery mode
• delivery style
• employee orientation
• employee training and development
• external training
• in-house training
• job shadowing
• Kirkpatrick Training Evaluation model
• learning style
• mentoring
• needs assessment
• onboarding process
• safety training
• skills training
• soft skills training
• succession planning
• technical training
• vestibule training