Deck 1: Introduction to Employee Training and Development

Question 1

Describe the forces affecting the work place and learning. How can training help companies deal with these forces?

Answer 1

The objective of training program is learning. Learning is a process of acquiring knowledge, skills by the employees. There are several factors that affect the working and learning.
The following are the factors affecting the working and learning as follows:
Globalization:
As the companies are expanding their business operations they need to deal with a global economy. So, the employees working across the globe need to be trained to make the employee understand about the culture of another country which he needs to do the work.
Increased value placed on intangible assets and human capital:
Training and development programs help the company's competitiveness by increasing he intangible assets. Training development results in an increase in financial performance of the company and productivity increases which ultimately results in an increases value of intangible assets like intellectual property etc.
Focus on link to build a business strategy:
Training and development help to make the employees learn new things that help the companies to implement new strategies to enter into a new market to reach their business goals and profitability.
Therefore, the above discussed are some of the factors affecting the workplace learning. Learning is the effective tool to develop the employee's skills and knowledge, training helps the companies to achieve the objectives of the companies.

Question 2

What steps are included in the training design model? What step do you think is the most important? Why?

Answer 2

Employee training and development:
It refers to a program that is conducted within an organization for improving the present skills of employees. Generally, training and development is provided when the organization receives a new project. Therefore, the training becomes mandatory to implement new things in the project.
The following steps are included in the training design model:
• The first step is involved in the assessment of the necessity in providing training.
• The second step is to check if the employees possess basic skills required to attend the training. In addition, it is required to check the motivation level of the employees.
• The third step is to create an ease environment for learning.
• The fourth step is to check if the employees who attended the training are in the process of implementing the things learned in the training to their jobs. This involves skill management and getting the support of co-workers.
• Development of an evaluation plan is the fifth step in the training design model.
• Next (Step 6), the method of training has to be selected based on the objectives and the environment. The method includes face-to-face interaction or the training is done with the help of electronic learning.
• Evaluating the program and making changes in the previous steps will be implemented in Step 7. This helps in achieving the learning objectives.
The following step is the most important step and its reason for importance:
According to Person X, the most important step is to identify whether the training is required for the employees. This is because it is useless to provide training for an employee without its necessity. It will become a mere time waste and there will be wastage of resources too.
It creates frustration for the employees as they are trained with the data that is not required.
Conclusion:
Hence, the steps included in the training design model are explained.

Question 3

What are intangible assets? How do they relate to training and development?

Answer 3

In an organizational context, assets refer to the things that an organization owns. Some of the examples of organizational assets are machines and equipment. Assets can be of two types, as follows:
1. Tangible
2. Intangible
The term intangible refers to anything that can't be touched.
In an organizational context, intangible assets refer to the organizational assets that are not in material form. This includes the following:
1. Human capital - This includes the employees and suppliers base etc.
2. Customer capital - This includes the customer base, loyal customers etc.
3. Social capital - This includes the brand name and social recognition an organization gathers by performing service to the society.
4. Intellectual capital - This includes the know-how, knowledge base and other form of related intellectual assets.
Training and development increases the value of the intangible assets by developing them and thus creates a competitive advantage for the organization.
For example, training session for front-end employees develops them as leaders and managers. This allows organizations to use them in case of problems and leadership crises situations.

Question 4

Training Professionals continue to debate whether the ISD model is flawed. Some argue that ISD should be treated as a project management approach rather than a step- by- step recipe for building training programs. Others suggest that ISD is too linear and rigid a process, that it is the primary reason that training is expensive, and that it takes too long to develop. ISD focuses on inputs; management wants outputs. Businesses want results, not the use of a design technology. Do you believe that ISD is a useful process? Why or why not? Are there certain situations when it is a more (or less) effective way to design training?

Question 5

Which of the training professionals' roles do you believe is the most difficult to learn? Which is easiest?

Question 6

How might technology influence the importance of training professionals' roles? Can technology reduce the importance of any of the roles? Can it result in additional roles?

Question 7

Describe the training courses that you have taken. How have they helped you? Provide recommendations for improving the courses.

Question 8

How does training differ between companies that are considered BEST Award winners and those that are not?

Question 9

What are the implications of the aging work force? What strategies should companies consider from a training and development perspective to best utilize older employees and prepare for their retirement?

Question 10

Explain how training relates to attracting new employees, employee retention, and motivation.