Training and Development OF SHELL CORPORATION BANGLADESH LTD.

Training and Development OF SHELL CORPORATION BANGLADESH LTD.

OVERVIEW:

1:1 OVERVIEW OF THE SHELL CORPORATION BANGLADESH LTD.:

Back in 1994 a visionary person Mr. Md. Zahirul Islam decided to start his business from the scratch and form a company. He understood that their unique business perspectives would help build a firm that would last for decades and would one day become a pioneering organization in the country. 17 years from that day, Shell Corporation Bangladesh Limited has come a long way to becoming one of the most recognized business houses of the nation.

The owner / founding director had a firm belief that the only way to move forward was to combine sincere dedication, develop a culture of innovation and striving to honor commitments. Over the years this has been tremendously beneficial for the Company, which has become synonymous with the word ‘trust’. Our unique understanding of economic and industrial priorities and our dedication towards excellent client service has helped us to branch out in a number of commercial ventures. Construction, Material Handling, Power generation, healthcare, real estate, yarn spinning and Port services are but a few of the areas we are directly involved in. As a result, the Company has a very remarkable achievement in the space of 17 years.

However, we have no plans to slow our growth pace. Bangladesh has now ventured into a new millennia, with many more business opportunities than there were in the past. Now that we have solidified our foundations, we hope to add many more bricks to what could one day be a world renowned business empire.

2.2 Work outline:

Shell Corporation Bangladesh Limited ,is one of the biggest, reputed and leading Trading Company in Bangladesh since 17 years .We are doing Indenting, Import, Export, Marketing, Industrial Consulting & Complete Machinery supply on turn key basis, Government Tenders and Industrial Raw Materials .

More about Shell Corporation Bangladesh ltd.-

We are a very strong marketing Company
Have introduced several products first time in Bangladesh from many countries especially from Japan.
Have branches in the main cities for securing maximum business.

We are customer focused:

With the help of our well trained and highly experienced sales staff we are capable of delivering on time and have a long list of satisfied customers.

Company Outline

Name of Company: Shell Corporation Bangladesh Ltd.

Date of Establishment: 1994 (Bangladesh)

Address in Bangladesh:

Regd. Office: 24-25, Dilkusha Commercial Area, Dhaka-1000,

Bangladesh

Liaison Office: House No. 196, Road No. 1, New DOHS,

Mohakhali, Dhaka-1206, Bangladesh

Tel: 880 2 9889629 Fax: 880 2 9891473

E-mail: yurika@dhaka.net

Representative Director: Md. Zahirul Islam

Employees:

· 1206 for the manufacturing unit for beverage & other.

· 63 for the international trading, marketing & after sales service on behalf of our foreign principals / suppliers in Bangladesh for industrial items.

Diploma Engineer Mechanical – 31person

BSc Engineer Mechanical – 9person

Diploma Engineer EEE – 13person

BSc Engineer EEE – 4person

Sales Admin – 6person

Facilities and core business: 3 divisional offices equipped with warehouse and workshop for

sales and after sales service for the industrial machineries,

construction & material handling Equipment, Agriculture

Equipment, Airport Equipment, Timber & forestry Equipment,

Compaction Equipment, Power Generation.

Capital Amount: BD. TK. 19, 00, 00,000/= equivalent to (±) US$ 2,676,055-

Annual Sales Turnover BD.TK. 122, 40, 36,512/= equivalent to (±) US$ 17,000,507- As if (Dec 31, 2010)

Main Handling Items from Japan in Bangladesh (beside our European and American supplier) for import and indent in Bangladesh as exclusive agent:

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MAZDA Motor Corporation Ltd. Japan

HITACHI Industrial Equipment Systems co., Ltd. Japan

KAWASAKI Gas Turbine Co., Ltd. Japan

KAWASAKI Helicopter Co., Ltd. Japan

HIOKI Instrument Co., Ltd. Japan

SUMITOMO Metal co., Ltd. Japan

YAMATO Scale Co., Ltd. Japan

OBE Machineries Co., Ltd. Japan

NIIGATA Gas Engine Co., Ltd. Japan

KOMATSU Utility Co., Ltd. Japan

KOMATSU Diesel Co., Ltd. Japan

KOMATSU Construction Machineries Co., Ltd. Japan

YANMAR Co., Ltd. Japan

Bankers: Bank Asia Limited. Mohakhali Branch, Dhaka-1000

National Bank of Pakistan, Motijheel Branch, Dhaka -1000

National Bank Ltd. Mohakhali Branch, Dhaka -1000

Standard Chartered Bank, Dilkusha Branch, Dhaka-1000

HSBC, Dhaka-1000

2.3 Mission:

Mission of us is to remain in Top of trading Business in comparison to others offering quality products in affordable best price for the Clients. Building our future together that is our motto here at Shell Corporation Bangladesh Ltd.

2.4 Vision:

We make progress possible through excellence in technology, integrity & best in class customer services.

2.5 Organogram of Shell Corporation Bangladesh Ltd.:

Fig: Organogram of Shell Corporation Bangladesh Ltd.

03 Training and Development of Shell Corporation Bangladesh Ltd.:

About Training and Development

TRAINING DEFINED

It is a learning process that involves the acquisition of knowledge, sharpening of skills, concepts, rules, or changing of attitudes and behaviors to enhance the performance of employees. Training is activity leading to skilled behavior.

It’s not what you want in life, but it’s knowing how to reach it
It’s not where you want to go, but it’s knowing how to get there
It’s not how high you want to rise, but it’s knowing how to take off
It may not be quite the outcome you were aiming for, but it will be an outcome
It’s not what you dream of doing, but it’s having the knowledge to do it
It’s not a set of goals, but it’s more like a vision
Training is about knowing where you stand (no matter how good or bad the current situation looks) at present, and where you will be after some point of time. Training is about the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) through professional development.

3.2 ROLE OF TRAINING

3.2.1 Objective of Training and Development

Prepare training budget for department or organization.
Evaluate instructor performance and the effectiveness of training programs, providing recommendations for improvement.
Analyze training needs to develop new training programs or modify and improve existing programs.
Conduct or arrange for ongoing technical training and personal development classes for staff members.
Plan, develop, and provide training and staff development programs, using knowledge of the effectiveness of methods such as classroom training, demonstrations, on-the-job training, meetings, conferences, and workshops.
Conduct orientation sessions and arrange on-the-job training for new hires.
Confer with management and conduct surveys to identify training needs based on projected production processes, changes, and other factors.
Train instructors and supervisors in techniques and skills for training and dealing with employees.
Develop and organize training manuals, multimedia visual aids, and other educational materials.
Develop testing and evaluation procedures.

3.3 Training and development – processes overview

Here’s an overview of some simple processes for training and developing management and leadership skills, and any other skills and abilities besides. Use your own tools and processes where they exist and are effective. Various tools are available on the free resources section to help with this process, or from the links below.
Refer also to the coaching and development process diagram.
Obtain commitment from trainees for development process. Commitment is essential for the development. If possible link this with appraisals and career development systems.
Involve trainees in identifying leadership qualities and create ‘skill/behaviour-set‘ that you seek to develop. Training and development workshops are ideal for this activity.
Assess, priorities and agree trainee capabilities, gaps, needs against the skill/behavior-set; individually and as a group, so as to be able to plan group training and individual training according to needs and efficiency of provision. Use the skill/behavior-set tool for this activity. Use the training needs analysis tool for assessing training needs priorities for a group or whole organization.
Design and/or source and agree with trainees the activities, exercises, learning, and experiences to achieve required training and development in digestible achievable
Elements – i.e. break it down. Use the training planner to plan the development and training activities and programmers. Record training objectives and link to appraisals.
Establish and agree measures, outputs, tasks, standards, milestones, etc. Use the SMART task model and tool.
The Figure shows the depicts of input and output of the training and development (T&D) process. Employee training and development is an attempt to improve current or future employee performance by developing their attitudes or enhancing their skills and knowledge.
One major purpose of T&D is to remove performance deficiency, both current and anticipated. Conducting training to improve performance is particularly important to organizations with stagnant or declining rates of productivity, and changing mode of operation. Training is also essential to organizations that are incorporating new technologies which may consequently increase the likelihood of employee obsolescence. Another purpose of T&D, especially relevant to organizations that are introducing new technologies, is to make the current work force more flexible and adaptable. An organization that is able to increase its adaptability capacity can enhance its chances of survival and sustainable profitability.
T&D can also increase the level of commitment of employees to the organization and will also accentuate the perception that the organization is a good place to work. Obviously, greater commitment can result in a low turnover rate and less absenteeism, thus increasing productivity. T&D is also important because it is generally recognized that society at large will be the indirect beneficiary when individuals become more productive and contributing members of organizations. The correlation between T&D and organizational performance will be proven in the case under study, where the need for better management is most urgent.

3.4 Concept of Training and Development

A vital aspect of any sort of evaluation is its effect on the person being evaluated.
Feedback is essential for people to know how they are progressing, and also, evaluation is crucial to the learner’s confidence too.
And since people’s commitment to learning relies so heavily on confidence and a belief that the learning is achievable, the way that tests and assessments are designed and managed, and results presented back to the learners, is a very important part of the learning and development process.
People can be switched off the whole idea of learning and development very quickly if they receive only negative critical test results and feedback. Always look for positives in negative results. Encourage and support – don’t criticize without adding some positives, and certainly never focus on failure, or that’s just what you’ll produce.
This is a much overlooked factor in all sorts of evaluation and testing, and since this element is not typically included within evaluation and assessment tools the point is emphasized point loud and clears here.
So always remember – evaluation is not just for the trainer or teacher or organization or policy-makers – evaluation is absolutely vital for the learner too, which is perhaps the most important reason of all for evaluating people properly, fairly, and with as much encouragement as the situation allows.
Conventional ‘training’ is required to cover essential work-related skills, techniques and knowledge, and much of this section deals with taking a positive progressive approach to this sort of traditional ‘training’.
Importantly however, the most effective way to develop people is quite different from conventional skills training, which let’s face it many employees regard quite negatively. They’ll do it of course, but they won’t enjoy it much because it’s about work, not about themselves as people. The most effective way to develop people is instead to enable learning and personal development, with all that this implies.
So, as soon as you’ve covered the basic work-related skills training that is much described in this section – focus on enabling learning and development for people as individuals – which extends the range of development way outside traditional work skills and knowledge, and creates far more exciting, liberating, motivational opportunities – for people and for employers. Rightly organizations are facing great pressure to change these days – to facilitate and encourage whole-person development and fulfillment – beyond traditional training.

3.4.1 Typical Reasons for Employee Training and Development

Training and development can be initiated for a variety of reasons for an employee or group of employees, e.g.
When a performance appraisal indicates performance improvement is needed
To “benchmark” the status of improvement so far in a performance improvement effort
As part of an overall professional development program
As part of succession planning to help an employee be eligible for a planned change in role in the organization
To “pilot”, or test, the operation of a new performance management system
To train about a specific topic

3.4.2 Typical Topics of Employee Training

Communications: The increasing diversity of today’s workforce brings a wide variety of languages and customs.
Computer skills: Computer skills are becoming a necessity for conducting administrative and office tasks.
Customer service: Increased competition in today’s global marketplace makes it critical that employees understand and meet the needs of customers.
Diversity: Diversity training usually includes explanation about how people have different perspectives and views, and includes techniques to value diversity
Ethics: Today’s society has increasing expectations about corporate social responsibility. Also, today’s diverse workforce brings a wide variety of values and morals to the workplace.
Human relations: The increased stresses of today’s workplace can include misunderstandings and conflict. Training can people to get along in the workplace.
Quality initiatives: Initiatives such as Total Quality Management, Quality Circles, benchmarking, etc., require basic training about quality concepts, guidelines and standards for quality, etc.
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.
Sexual harassment: Sexual harassment training usually includes careful description of the organization’s policies about sexual harassment, especially about what are inappropriate behaviors.

3.5 General Benefits from Employee Training and Development

There are numerous sources of online 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:

Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees
Increased employee motivation
Increased efficiencies in processes, resulting in financial gain
Increased capacity to adopt new technologies and methods
Increased innovation in strategies and products
Reduced employee turnover
Enhanced company image, e.g., conducting ethics training (not a good reason for ethics training!)
Risk management, e.g., training about sexual harassment, diversity training

3.6 Basic Terms in Training and Development

Information

At its most basic form, a piece of information about something is a “unit of awareness” about that thing. (A field of philosophy, epistemology, includes analysis of what is really information and what isn’t. This field might visit the question: “If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?”) Some people think that this awareness occurs only in the brain and, therefore, usually comes from some form of thought. Other people also accept information as a form of realization from other forms of inquiry, e.g., intuition.Knowledge

Knowledge is gleaned by organizing information. Typically, information evolves to knowledge by the learner’s gaining context, perspective and scope about the information.

Skills

Skills are applying knowledge in an effective and efficient manner to get something done. One notices skills in an employee by their behaviors.

Task

A task is a typically defined as a unit of work, that is, a set of activities needed to produce some result, e.g., vacuuming a carpet, writing a memo, sorting the mail, etc. Complex positions in the organization may include a large number of tasks, which are sometimes referred to as functions.

Job

A job is a collection of tasks and responsibilities that an employee is responsible to conduct. Jobs have titles.

Role

A role is the set of responsibilities or expected results associated with a job. A job usually includes several roles.

Learning

Typically, learning is viewed as enhancing one’s knowledge, understanding or skills. Some people see learning as enhancement to one’s knowledge, awareness and skills. Some professionals view learning as enhancing one’s capacity to perform. Some view learning as a way of being that includes strong value on receiving feedback and increasing understanding. It’s important to note that learning is more than collecting information — more than collecting unreferenced books on a shelf. Depending on the needs of the learner, knowledge is converted to skills, that is, the learner knows how to apply the knowledge to get something done. Ideally, the skills are applied to the most appropriate tasks and practices in the organization, thereby producing performance — results needed by the organization.

Continuous Learning

Simply put, continuous learning is the ability to learn to learn. Learning need not be a linear event where a learner goes to a formal learning program, gains areas of knowledge and skills about a process, and then the learning ceases. If the learner can view life (including work) as a “learning program”, then the learner can continue to learn from almost everything in life. As a result, the learner continues to expand his or her capacity for living, including working.

Training

This term is often interpreted as the activity when an expert and learner work together to effectively transfer information from the expert to the learner (to enhance a learner’s knowledge, attitudes or skills) so the learner can better perform a current task or job.

Education

This term seems to be the most general of the key terms in employee training. Some professionals view education as accomplishing a personal context and understanding of the world, so that one’s life and work are substantially enhanced, e.g., “Go get an education.” Others view the term as the learning required to accomplish a new task or job.

Development

This term is often viewed as a broad, ongoing multi-faceted set of activities (training activities among them) to bring someone or an organization up to another threshold of performance. This development often includes a wide variety of methods, e.g., orienting about a role, training in a wide variety of areas, ongoing training on the job, coaching, mentoring and forms of self-development. Some view development as a life-long goal and experience.

3.7 Importance of Training and Development:

Optimum Utilization of Human Resources – Training and Development helps in optimizing the utilization of human resource that further helps the employee to achieve the organizational goals as well as their individual goals.
Development of Human Resources – Training and Development helps to provide an opportunity and broad structure for the development of human resources’ technical and behavioral skills in an organization. It also helps the employees in attaining personal growth.
Development of skills of employees – Training and Development helps in increasing the job knowledge and skills of employees at each level. It helps to expand the horizons of Human intellect and an overall personality of the employees.
Productivity – Training and Development helps in increasing the productivity of the employees that helps the organization further to achieve its long-term goal.
Team spirit – Training and Development helps in inculcating the sense of team work, team spirit, and inter-team collaborations. It helps in inculcating the zeal to learn within the employees.
Organization Culture – Training and Development helps to develop and improve the organizational health culture and effectiveness. It helps in creating the learning culture within the organization.
Organization Climate – Training and Development helps building the positive perception and feeling about the organization. The employees get these feelings from leaders, subordinates, and peers.
Quality – Training and Development helps in improving upon the quality of work and work-life.
Healthy work environment – Training and Development helps in creating the healthy working environment. It helps to build good employee, relationship so that individual goals aligns with organizational goal.
Health and Safety – Training and Development helps in improving the health and safety of the organization thus preventing obsolescence.
Morale – Training and Development helps in improving the morale of the work force.
Image – Training and Development helps in creating a better corporate image.

3.8 IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

In Organization development, the related field of training and development (T & D) deals with the design and delivery of learning to improve performance within organizations.

After hiring the employees by an organization, next step is determining the need of training and development for them. It is obvious that some new employees are not experienced to their work so they need special training to perform effectively and efficiently. Different organizations held different training and development programs according to their available resources and requirements.

On the other hand, the important aspect of training and development programs is that it helps to avoid the managerial obsolescence. Organizational problems either major or minor can be solved our by these programs. These programs also play an important role managing the changes in organizational structure caused by mergers, acquisitions, rapid growth, downsizing and outsourcing.

Training and development programs are also important to cope up with the changes in technology and with diversity within the organization. Today because of number of changes in technological fields, these programs are increasingly emphasizing on converting the organization to learning organizations and human performance management.

3.9 Models of Training

Training is a sub-system of the organization because the departments such as, marketing & sales, HR, production, finance, etc depends on training for its survival. Training is a transforming process that requires some input and in turn it produces output in the form of knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs).

3.9.1 The Training System

A System is a combination of things or parts that must work together to perform a particular function. An organization is a system and training is a sub system of the organization.

The System Approach views training as a sub system of an organization. System Approach can be used to examine broad issues like objectives, functions, and aim. It establishes a logical relationship between the sequential stages in the process of training need analysis (TNA), formulating, delivering, and evaluating.

There are 4 necessary inputs i.e. technology, man, material, time required in every system to produce products or services. And every system must have some output from these inputs in order to survive. The output can be tangible or intangible depending upon the organization’s requirement. A system approach to training is planned creation of training program. This approach uses step-by-step procedures to solve the problems. Under systematic approach, training is undertaken on planned basis. Out of this planned effort, one such basic model of five steps is system model that is explained below.

Organization are working in open environment i.e. there are some internal and external forces, that poses threats and opportunities, therefore, trainers need to be aware of these forces which may impact on the content, form, and conduct of the training efforts. The internal forces are the various demands of the organization for a better learning environment; need to be up to date with the latest technologies.

3.10 Systematic Model Training

The system model consists of five phases and should be repeated on a regular basis to make further improvements. The training should achieve the purpose of helping employee to perform their work to required standards. The steps involved in System Model of training are as follows:

1. Analyze and identify the training needs i.e. to analyze the department, job, employees requirement, who needs training, what do they need to learn, estimating training cost, etc The next step is to develop a performance measure on the basis of which actual performance would be evaluated.

2. Design and provide training to meet identified needs. This step requires developing objectives of training, identifying the learning steps, sequencing and structuring the contents.

3. Develop- This phase requires listing the activities in the training program that will assist the participants to learn, selecting delivery method, examining the training material, validating information to be imparted to make sure it accomplishes all the goals & objectives.

4. Implementing is the hardest part of the system because one wrong step can lead to the failure of whole training program.

5. Evaluating each phase so as to make sure it has achieved its aim in terms of subsequent work performance. Making necessary amendments to any of the previous stage in order to remedy or improve failure practices.

3.11 Transitional Model

Transitional model focuses on the organization as a whole. The outer loop describes the vision, mission and values of the organization on the basis of which training model i.e. inner loop is executed.

Vision – focuses on the milestones that the organization would like to achieve after the defined point of time. A vision statement tells that where the organization sees itself few years down the line. A vision may include setting a role model, or bringing some internal transformation, or may be promising to meet some other deadlines.

Mission – explain the reason of organizational existence. It identifies the position in the community. The reason of developing a mission statement is to motivate, inspire, and inform the employees regarding the organization. The mission statement tells about the identity that how the organization would like to be viewed by the customers, employees, and all other stakeholders.

Values – is the translation of vision and mission into communicable ideals. It reflects the deeply held values of the organization and is independent of current industry environment.

For example, values may include social responsibility, excellent customer service, etc.

The mission, vision, and values precede the objective in the inner loop. This model considers the organization as a whole. The objective is formulated keeping these three things in mind and then the training model is further implemented.

3.12 The Training Program Design

The design of the training program can be undertaken only when a clear training objective has been produced. The training objective clears what goal has to be achieved by the end of training program i.e. what the trainees are expected to be able to do at the end of their training. Training objectives assist trainers to design the training program.

The trainer – Before starting a training program, a trainer analyzes his technical, interpersonal, judgmental skills in order to deliver quality content to trainers.

The trainees – A good training design requires close scrutiny of the trainees and their profiles. Age, experience, needs and expectations of the trainees are some of the important factors that affect training design.

Training climate – A good training climate comprises of ambience, tone, feelings, positive perception for training program, etc. Therefore, when the climate is favorable nothing goes wrong but when the climate is unfavorable, almost everything goes wrong.

Trainees’ learning style – the learning style, age, experience, educational background of trainees must be kept in mind in order to get the right pitch to the design of the program.

Training strategies – Once the training objective has been identified, the trainer translates it into specific training areas and modules. The trainer prepares the priority list of about what must be included, what could be included.

Training topics – After formulating a strategy, trainer decides upon the content to be delivered. Trainers break the content into headings, topics, ad modules. These topics and modules are then classified into information, knowledge, skills, and attitudes.

Sequence the contents – Contents are then sequenced in a following manner:

From simple to complex
Topics are arranged in terms of their relative importance
From known to unknown
From specific to general
Dependent relationship

Training tactics – Once the objectives and the strategy of the training program becomes clear, trainer comes in the position to select most appropriate tactics or methods or techniques. The method selection depends on the following factors:

Trainees’ background
Time allocated
Style preference of trainer
Level of competence of trainer
Availability of facilities and resources, etc

Support facilities – It can be segregated into printed and audio visual. The various requirements in a training program are white boards, flip charts, markers, etc.

Constraints – The various constraints that lay in the trainers mind are:

· Time

· Accommodation, facilities and their availability

· Furnishings and equipments

· Budget

· Design of the training, etc

3.13 Methods of Training and Development

It is a subsystem of an organization. It ensures that randomness is reduced and learning or behavioral change takes place in structured format.

Two approaches of T & D

Traditional approach
Modern approach

3.13.1 Traditional Approach –

Most of the organizations before never used to believe in training. They were holding the traditional view that managers are born and not made. There were also some views that training is a very costly affair and not worth. Organizations used to believe more in executive pinching.

3.13.2 Modern approach-

It is that Indian Organizations have realized the importance of corporate training. Training is now considered as more of retention tool than a cost. The training system in Indian Industry has been changed to create a smarter workforce and yield the best results.

There are many different training and development methods.

On-the-job training.
Job Rotation.
Informal training.
Classroom training.
Internal training courses.
External training courses.
On-the-job coaching.
Life-coaching.
Mentoring.
Training assignments and tasks.
Skills training.
Product training.
Technical training.
Behavioral development training.
Role-playing and role-play games and exercises.
Attitudinal training and development.
Accredited training and learning.
Distance learning – all part of the training menu, available to use and apply according to individual training needs and organizational training needs.

3.14 On-the-job training:

On the job training (OJT) is job training that occurs in the work place. On-the-job training (OJT) is one of the best training methods because it is planned, organized, and conducted at the employee’s worksite. New and old employee’s learns the job while doing the job and while earning his or her pay check. This approach is used to teach employees new procedures, tasks and technology. On the job training is also called hands on training. On the job training is beneficial for both the company and the new employee. On-the-job-training is the most frequently used method in the organizations. On-the-job-training can be cost-effective for the business since a separate training program isn’t required and the training is part of the actual work shifts. No extra equipment is needed as the new worker learns on the equipment needed for the job anyway. On the job training often works out really well for the new employee.

3.14.1 Advantages of on the job training

The most common methods of on the job training are Demonstration / instruction showing the employees how to do the job. Then there is Coaching, more intensive method of training because it involves a very close relationship between an experienced employee and the trainee. Projects give employees a different project which allows the employees to take part in different activates and give them exposure. Employees may find that they have more confidence if they are supervised and guided as they feel they are doing the job right. Employees may feel more at ease being taught or supervised by people they know rather than complete strangers at an external training course.

Managers or supervisors can assess improvement and progress over a period of time and this makes it easier to identify a problem intervene and resolve problems quickly. On the job training is also productive, as the employee is still working as they are learning. As training progresses and the employee begins to feel more confident, this confidence would allow them to work at a higher standard and ultimately be more productive

Training “on-the-job” provides an opportunity to get to know staff they might not normally talk to.

3.14.2 Disadvantages of on the job training

One major drawback of on the job training can be finding the right time for it. The person responsible for giving and evaluating the training has to be sure that his or her other job responsibilities are being met. It can be difficult to find the right person to conduct it. The person doing the training must have the knowledge and skills with the same equipment that the learner will be working with. The trainers may possess many bad habits and pass these on to the employee being trained If the trainer has been given limited time to train the employee, This would mean that the skill or knowledge has not been fully understood If a trainer has been brought into the company externally they might not be familiar with the equipment fully or layout and this would waste time.

3.15 Job Rotation

Job rotation involves the movement of employees through a range of jobs in order to increase interest and motivation. Job rotation can improve “multi-skirling” but also involves the need for greater training.

Job Rotation Programs (JRP) can not only reduce turnover but they also increase learning, and provide added bench strength. Rotation programs are more common in the development of top executives but there are also many reasons to use them for technical and new hire positions. A Job rotation is the systematic movement of employees from job to job or project to project within an organization, as a way to achieve many different human resources objectives such as:

simply staffing jobs
an attraction or retention tool
orienting new employees
preventing job boredom or burnout
training employees
involving managers in the training process
rewarding employees
enhancing career development
exposing employees to diverse/ international environments

3.15.1 Why is Job Rotation Important?

Job rotation is seen as a possible solution to two significant challenges faced by business:

(1) Skills shortages and skills gaps, and

(2) Employee motivation.

Skills shortages occur when there is a lack of skilled individuals in the workforce. Skills gaps occur when there is a lack of skills in a company’s existing workforce which may still be found in the labor force as a whole. Job rotation is often used by employers who place employees on a certain career path or track, usually for a management position, where they are expected to perform a variety of duties, and have a variety of skills and competencies. Job rotation is often confused with cross training. While both interventions perform essentially the same service of providing employees with a varied set of skills, job rotation goes beyond this. Besides being used as a means of management training, job rotation can also be used as a form of job enrichment, by adding increased responsibilities, increasing challenge, and reducing boredom or burnout.

3.15.2 Benefits of Job Rotation

Some of the major benefits of job rotation are:

It provides the employees with opportunities to broaden the horizon of knowledge, skills, and abilities by working in different departments, business units, functions, and countries.

Identification of Knowledge, skills, and attitudes required.

It determines the areas where improvement is required.

3.16 Role Playing:

In role playing, trainees assume various roles and play out that role within a group to learn and practice ways of handling different situations. A facilitator creates a scenario that is to be acted out by the participants and guided by the facilitator. While the situation might be contrived, the interpersonal relations are genuine. Furthermore, participants receive immediate feedback from the facilitator and the scenario itself allowing better understanding of their own behavior.

3.16.1 Team Building:

Team building is the active creation and maintenance of effective work groups with similar goals and objectives. Not to be confused with the informal, ad-hoc formation and use of teams in the workplace, team building is a formal and methodological process of building work teams with objectives and goals, facilitated by a third-party consultant. Team building is commonly initiated to combat ineffectual group functioning that negatively affects group dynamics, labor-management relations, quality, or productivity. By recognizing the problems and difficulties associated with the creation and development of work teams, team building provides a structured, guided process whose benefits include a greater ability to manage complex projects and processes, flexibility to respond to changing situations, and greater motivation among team members.

3.16.2 Mentoring:

Mentoring refers to programs in which companies select mentors—also called advisers, counselors, and role models—for trainees or let trainees choose their own. When trainees have questions or need help, they turn to their mentors, who are experienced workers or managers with strong communication skills. Mentors offer advice not only on how to perform specific tasks, but also on how to succeed in the company, how the company’s corporate culture and politics work, and how to handle to delicate or sensitive situations. Furthermore, mentors provide feedback and suggestions to assist trainees in improving inadequate work.

3.16.3 Technical Training:

Technical training seeks to impart technical knowledge and skills using common training methods for instruction of technical concepts, factual information, and procedures, as well as technical processes and principles. Likewise, sales training concentrates on the education and training of individuals to communicate with customers in a persuasive manner and inculcate other skills useful for sales positions.

3.16.4 Distance Learning:

Very simply put, distance learning is where the learner is geographically removed, or distanced, from the source of the learning. An example is a correspondence course where a training organization sends training materials via postal mail to the learner who returns completed assignments over postal mail. Another example is “online learning” or “e-learning” where a learner uses a variety of computer and networking technologies to access (often remote) training materials, interact with learners, etc. (Note that not all online learning or e-learning is distance learning, for example, a learner might use an interactive CD-ROM on his or her computer.)

3.17 Informal Training and Development:

Informal training and development is rather casual and incidental. Typically, there are no specified training goals as such, nor are their ways to evaluate if the training actually accomplished these goals or not. This type of training and development occurs so naturally that many people probably aren’t aware that they’re in a training experience at all. Probably the most prominent form of informal training is learning from experience on the job. Examples are informal discussions among employees about a certain topic, book discussion groups, and reading newspaper and journal articles about a topic. A more recent approach is sending employees to hear prominent speakers, sometimes affectionately called “the parade of stars”.

3.18 Formal Training and Development:

Formal training is based on some standard “form”. Formal training might include:

a) declaring certain learning objectives (or an extent of knowledge, skills or abilities that will be reached by learners at the end of the training),

b) using a variety of learning methods to reach the objectives and then

b) applying some kind(s) of evaluation activities at the end of the training.

The methods and means of evaluation might closely associate with the learning objectives, or might not. For example, courses, seminars and workshops often have a form — but it’s arguable whether or not their training methods and evaluation methods actually assess whether the objectives have been met or not.

Training is also available far beyond and outside the classroom. More importantly, training – or learning, to look at it from the trainee’s view – is anything offering learning and developmental experience. Training and learning development includes aspects such as: ethics and morality; attitude and behavior; leadership and determination, as well as skills and knowledge.

Development isn’t restricted to training – it’s anything that helps a person to grow, in ability, skills, confidence, tolerance, commitment, initiative, inter-personal skills, understanding, self-control, motivation (see the motivation theory section), and more.

If you consider the attributes of really effective people, be they leaders, managers, operators, technicians; any role at all, the important qualities which make good performers special are likely to be attitudinal. Skills and knowledge, and the processes available to people, are no great advantage. What makes people effective and valuable to any organization is their attitude.

Attitude includes qualities that require different training and learning methods. Attitude stems from a person’s mind-set, belief system, emotional maturity, self-confidence, and experience. These are the greatest training and development challenges faced, and there are better ways of achieving this sort of change and development than putting people in a classroom, or indeed by delivering most sorts of conventional business or skills training, which people see as a chore.

This is why training and learning must extend far beyond conventional classroom training courses. Be creative, innovative, and open-minded, and you will discover learning in virtually every new experience, whether for yourself, your team, or your organization. If you want to make a difference, think about what really helps people to change.

Many of these methodologies are explained on this website. Explore them and enjoy them, and encourage others to do the same.

All supervisors and managers should enable and provide training and development for their people – training develops people, it improves performance, raises morale; training and developing people increases the health and effectiveness of the organization, and the productivity of the business.

The leader’s ethics and behavior set the standard for their people’s, which determines how productively they use their skills and knowledge. Training is nothing without the motivation to apply it effectively. A strong capability to plan and manage skills training, the acquisition of knowledge, and the development of motivation and attitude, largely determines how well people perform in their jobs.

Training – and also enabling learning and personal development – is essential for the organization. It helps improve quality, customer satisfaction, productivity, morale, management succession, business development and profitability.

As regards conventional work-related training planning, and training itself, these are step-by-step processes – see and download a free training process diagram. More free training tools are available for download at the free training tools and resources page.

See for example the training planner and training/lesson plan calculator tool, which are templates for planning and organizing the delivery of job skills training and processes, and transfer of knowledge and policy etc. See also the training induction checklist and planner tool.

Use these tools and processes to ensure that essential work-related skills, techniques, and knowledge are trained, but remember after this to concentrate most of your ‘training’ efforts and resources on enabling and facilitating meaningful learning and personal development for people. There is no reason to stop at work-related training. Go further to help people grow and develop as people.

Having said this, we do need to start with the essentials, for example induction training for new starters. Induction Training is especially important for new starters. Good induction training ensures new starters are retained, and then settled in quickly and happily to a productive role. Induction training is more than skills training. It’s about the basics that seasoned employees all take for granted: what the shifts are; where the notice-board is; what the routine is for holidays, sickness; where the canteen is; what the dress code is; where the toilets are. New employees also need to understand the organization’s mission, goals and philosophy; personnel practices, health and safety rules, and of course the job they’re required to do, with clear methods, timescales and expectations.

Managers must ensure induction training is properly planned – an induction training plan must be issued to each new employee, so they and everyone else involved can see what’s happening and that everything is included. You must prepare and provide a suitable induction plan for each new starter. Here’s a free induction training checklist.

These induction training principles are necessarily focused on the essential skills and knowledge for a new starter to settle in and to begin to do their job. However there is great advantage in beginning to address personal development needs, wishes, opportunities, particular strengths, abilities, talent, etc., during or very soon after the induction process. An organization needs to assess its people’s skills training needs – by a variety of methods – and then structure the way that the training and development is to be delivered, and managers and supervisors play a key role in helping this process. People’s personal strengths and capabilities – and aims and desires and special talents (current and dormant) – also need to be assessed, so as to understand, and help the person understand, that the opportunities for their development and achievement in the organization are not limited by the job role, or the skill-set that the organization inevitably defines for the person.

As early as possible, let people know that their job role does not define their potential as a person within or outside the organization, and, subject to organizational policy, look to develop each person in a meaningful relevant way that they will enjoy and seek, as an individual, beyond the job role, and beyond work requirements.

If possible ‘top-up’ this sort of development through the provision of mentoring and facilitative coaching (drawing out – not putting in), which is very effective in producing excellent people. Mentoring and proper coaching should be used alongside formal structured training anyway, but this type of support can also greatly assist ‘whole-person development’, especially where the mentor or coach is seen as a role-model for the person’s own particular aspirations.

It’s important that as a manager you understand yourself well before you coach, or train or mentor others:

Are your own your own skills adequate? Do you need help or training in any important areas necessary to train, coach, mentor others? What is your own style? How do you communicate? How do you approach tasks? What are your motives? These all affect the way you see and perform see the training, coaching or mentoring role, and the way that you see and relate to the person that you’re are coaching, or training, or mentoring. Your aim is to help the other person learn and develop – not to create another version of yourself. When you understand yourself, you understand how you will be perceived, how best to communicate, and how best to help others grow and learn and develop.

And it’s vital you understand the other person’s style and personality too – how they prefer to learn – do they like to read and absorb a lot of detail, do they prefer to be shown, to experience themselves by trial and error? Knowing the other person’s preferred learning style helps you deliver the training in the most relevant and helpful way. It helps you design activities and tasks that the other person will be more be more comfortable doing, which ensures a better result, quicker.

3.19 Methods of Training Used:

3.18.1 Purpose of Training and Development

When the respondents were asked to indicate the reasons for conducting training and development, the most important reason cited was to improve employee performance, which will therefore improve the performance of the enterprise (96%).

Through training, employees will get a chance to upgrade their technical skills and to eventually apply the newly acquired skills for the benefit of the enterprise. In addition, training and development were perceived by the respondents as an opportunity to achieve promotion and follow a chosen career path, thus leading to job satisfaction (55%), and to allow employees to acquire professional and further education qualifications through long-term training (49%). Some enterprises also undertook training to provide skilled labors for Sues in the same field of activity, or retrain their workforce so that they will be redeployed to other functions or can find employment elsewhere.

Reasons for emphasizing the growth and development of personnel include

Creating a pool of readily available and adequate replacements for personnel who may leave or move up in the organization.
Enhancing the company’s ability to adopt and use advances in technology because of a sufficiently knowledgeable staff.
Building a more efficient, effective and highly motivated team, which enhances the company’s competitive position and improves employee morale.
Ensuring adequate human resources for expansion into new programs.

Research has shown specific benefits that a small business receives from training and developing its workers, including:

Increased productivity.
Reduced employee turnover.
Increased efficiency resulting in financial gains.
Decreased need for supervision.

Employees frequently develop a greater sense of self-worth, dignity and well-being as they become more valuable to the firm and to soc