The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.Alvin Toffler - writer, futurist and businessman
In this topic, you will learn how to contribute to learning and development plans for teams and individuals. You will know how to ensure learning plans meet the organisation's requirements and this will give you the skills to identify training and development plans that are structured appropriately and meet the individual and team's needs.
Training and development play pivotal roles in nurturing a skilled and adaptable workforce within organisations. Through targeted programmes and initiatives, employees are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and competencies necessary to excel in their roles and contribute effectively to meet organisational objectives.
Training sessions provide employees with opportunities to learn new technologies, methodologies, and best practices relevant to their tasks, while development programmes focus on broader skill enhancement, career growth, and leadership capabilities.
Effective training and development efforts not only improve employee performance and job satisfaction but also foster a culture of continuous learning and innovation within the organisation.
Investing in employee development demonstrates a commitment to their professional growth, which can enhance retention rates and strengthen the organisation's competitive edge in the market (Team, 2024).
In situations where training is indicated, there are a number of options. Someone skilled in the task and with good training skills (usually the manager, supervisor or a senior employee) may conduct on-the-job training. Formal training courses may be designed and delivered internally by HR or by external providers.
Case Study
Setting the Scene
Throughout this module, you will follow Zane O'Brien, HR consultant for Complete Business Services New Zealand (CBSNZ).
You will be provided with scenarios involving Zane's daily tasks and undertake activities to assess and monitor individuals' and teams' learning and development needs. They will allow you to test the skills you have learned in each topic.
CBSA provides consultancy services to businesses around compliance, finance, human resources, information technology, and other business needs to ensure they have the expertise and support to survive and prosper. More recently, CBSA has a new learning and development mentoring programme extended to its clients.
As a key human resources team member, Zane supports the learning needs of his team as well as any CBSNZ client he has been assigned to. He is currently working in collaboration with one of CBSNZ's client's teams, The Snow Skiers Company, a retail store that also offers training in skiing and snowboarding.
Follow the journey with Zane, as he leads and participates in learning and development activities to improve his own team and the 'The Snow Skiers' team performance.
When you are working with developing an individual or a team, it is essential to gather information on their performance from relevant sources. The first place you would start would be to look at the organisation's requirements. For example, to undertake a job correctly, a worker must be able to:
Each position will have a different set of capabilities that the business requires. These capabilities may be at the individual, team, and business levels.
At CBSNZ, Mae and Josh both work in the IT team. Mae is a Systems Analyst and Josh is an IT Support Specialist. They have different individual capability requirements for their roles even though they are in the same team.
There are also shared capability requirements. These shared capability requirements are at the team and business levels.
For example, Mae and Josh share the same team business plan and team goals. Similarly, Mae and Josh share the same business goals as Zane from the HR team due to the overall corporate vision, mission goals and objectives that are the responsibility of all workers.
Your organisation will have procedures in place to support and implement the learning and development needs of the team. Knowing and understanding the organisation's business learning needs and goals is important. It will ensure you develop learning plans that work with the organisation's goals and procedures.
Watch the following video to introduce the fundamentals of employee training and development.
Watch
Introduction to Employee Training and Development
Customer service, productivity, safety, employee retention and growth, the uncertainty in the economy, coping with the retirement of skilled employees, the use of new technology. These are just some of the issues affecting companies in all industries and sizes and influencing training practices. Companies are experiencing great change due to new technologies, rapid development of knowledge, globalisation of business, and development of e-commerce. Also, companies have to take steps to attract, retain, and motivate their workforces. Training is not a luxury; it is a necessity if companies are to participate in the global and electronic marketplaces by offering high-quality products and services. Training prepares employees to use new technologies, function in new work systems such as virtual teams, and communicate and cooperate with peers or customers who may be from different cultural backgrounds.
Duration: 6:28
Policies and procedures
Policies and procedures are there to guide how you will manage learning and professional development. Following are examples of policies that are relevant to developing the learning needs of teams and individuals.
- Performance management.
- Privacy and confidentiality.
- Health and Safety at Work.
- Equal opportunity.
- Diversity.
- Learning and development.
It is your responsibility as a frontline manager to ensure that appropriate written instructions and documentation area available in the workplace. Senior managers, or the HR Department, may be responsible for developing, broadly communicating and evaluating organisational performance requirements and standards. Team members should be encouraged to contribute to developing workplace policies and procedures for learning and development. We can do this by asking individuals to:
- participate in feedback sessions and complete feedback forms post-training and development
- take an active role in identifying courses and training suitable to an individual's role
- provide self-evaluations
- point out difficulties at the point of delivery
- be involved in shared decision making.
At CBSNZ, Zane follows a number of policies and procedures and has recently been provided with the CBSNZ Learning and Development Mentor Programme Policy. This policy was created to ensure the mentoring programme they provide for their clients is implemented consistently by all CBSNZ HR representatives. His manager Glenda asked him to be familiar with CBSNZ's approach to working with their clients. Zane researched the policy to find out more about this and this is what he found:
CBSNZ will:
- work in collaboration with their clients to aid them in developing high performing teams to meet their organisation's goals and learning needs. CBSNZ's support and assistance will involve:ensuring the organisation's employees know what is expected of them in their role
- assisting the organisation's employees in achieving individual performance expectations through training and mentoring
- monitoring the organisation's employee performance throughout the mentoring programme
- assigning a CBSNZ HR Representative to work with the client's team.
Sources of information
You can seek information on an individual's performance from various sources to help identify and support their learning and development needs. Ways to gather information to get a holistic picture and different perspectives on an individual's strengths and areas of improvement include:
- via a reference check from a past employer during the recruitment process
- through observation of the worker's performance
- through feedback from other staff members, including—
- the managers who have dealt with the worker
- team members who work alongside the worker
- other workers in the business who have worked in collaboration with the worker
- stakeholders who have had involvement with the worker
- client satisfaction survey results
- identifying courses and workshops attended
- performance reports
- customer surveys/complaints
- competency gap analysis report.
You must be professional and fair in collecting this information. You must not disclose private information about the worker, including the results of their performance reviews or any performance discussions.
An example of a tool that collects information from relevant sources is a 360 Degree Feedback Survey. It takes in the various perspectives from key stakeholders such as peers, subordinates and managers.
Learn more about this tool here.
Watch
360 Degree Feedback in a Nutshell
What is 360 feedback and how can it benefit your organisation? In this video, we explain what 360 feedback is, why your organisation should adopt one, and, in doing so, how to create an effective one
Duration: 3:56
Giving a person the right knowledge and skills to perform their job effectively is what training is all about. Development focuses on preparing the employee to take on responsibilities within the organisation in the future and often requires training. Effective training and development programmes are invaluable assets to any organisation, especially within the realm of first-line management. These programmes not only enhance the skills and knowledge of individual employees but also contribute significantly to the overall success and growth of the organisation. Let's delve into some of the many benefits that training and development offer:
- Enhanced Employee Performance: Training equips first-line managers with the necessary skills and knowledge to perform their duties efficiently. It enables them to better understand their roles, responsibilities, and organisational objectives, leading to improved performance and productivity.
- Skill Development: Training and development programmes provide opportunities for employees to acquire new skills or enhance existing ones. This is particularly crucial for first-line managers who often require a diverse set of skills, including leadership, communication, problem-solving, and decision-making.
- Increased Job Satisfaction and Morale: Investing in employee development demonstrates a commitment to their growth and well-being, leading to higher job satisfaction and morale. When employees feel valued and supported, they are more motivated to perform to their best and contribute positively to the organisation.
- Reduced Employee Turnover: Organisations that prioritise training and development tend to experience lower turnover rates. Employees are more likely to stay with a company that offers opportunities for growth and advancement, rather than seeking employment elsewhere for career development.
- Adaptability to Change: In today's fast-paced business environment, organisations must adapt quickly to changes in technology, market trends, and industry standards. Training and development programmes enable first-line managers to stay abreast of these changes, equipping them with the skills and knowledge needed to adapt and thrive in evolving circumstances.
- Improved Employee Engagement: Engaged employees are more committed to their work and the success of the organisation. Training and development initiatives provide opportunities for employees to engage with their roles, develop professionally, and contribute meaningfully to the company's objectives.
- Enhanced Organisational Reputation: Organisations known for investing in the development of their employees tend to attract top talent and enjoy a positive reputation in the industry. A strong emphasis on training and development can distinguish an organisation as an employer of choice, leading to greater competitiveness and success in the market.
- Cost Savings: While training and development programmes require an initial investment, they ultimately result in cost savings for the organisation. Well-trained employees are more efficient, make fewer errors, and require less supervision, leading to reduced operational costs and increased profitability over time.
Types of Training
Several training methods are available to organisations:
- Off-the-job experience: for example, classroom activities, simulations
- On-the-job experience: for example, coaching, job rotation
- Action learning — learning by experience solving real workplace problems
- Competency-based training — identifies skill strengths and areas where further training is required
- Training within industry — specifically developing the skills of first-line supervisors
- Corporate universities — organisations can also form partnerships with academic institutions to develop training: for example, Coles and Qantas have forged partnerships with academic institutions
- Training technologies: for example, computer-based training (the computer becomes a vehicle for learning), multimedia training, web-based training (training via the Internet).
| Benefits of training | |
|---|---|
| Benefits for Employees | Benefits for the Organisation |
| Opportunity for promotion and self-improvement | Higher productivity through better job performance and more efficient use of human resources |
| Improved job satisfaction through better job performance | Goals and objectives more effectively met |
| A challenge – the chance to learn new things | Reduced costs due to less labour turnover and absenteeism, and fewer errors and accidents |
| Adaptability – greater ability to adapt to and cope with changes | A more capable, “mobile” workforce. |
“Cross-training” is the process of training employees to work in multiple different roles, or to train them to work in roles outside of their typical responsibilities, for example training people to work in different departments from their usual department.
| Benefits of cross-training | |
|---|---|
| Benefits for Employees | Benefits for the Organisation |
| Enhanced skill development - Cross-training provides employees with opportunities to learn new skills and enhance existing ones, contributing to their professional growth and development | Increased flexibility and adaptability - Cross-training equips employees with a diverse skill set, enabling them to adapt to various roles and tasks as needed. |
| Opportunity for self-discovery - Engaging in cross-training allows employees to explore new roles and responsibilities, uncovering hidden talents and strengths they may not have been aware of previously. | Cost savings by reducing dependency on temporary workers - Cross-training reduces the need to hire temporary staff, resulting in significant cost savings for the organisation. |
| Increased job satisfaction and engagement - Cross-trained employees often experience higher levels of job satisfaction and engagement as they feel challenged and valued in their roles, leading to improved morale and retention. | Improved ability to react to changing business conditions - Cross-trained employees are better prepared to handle fluctuations in workload or staffing, ensuring smooth operations even in challenging circumstances. |
| Expanded career opportunities - By gaining proficiency in multiple roles, employees broaden their career horizons and increase their marketability both within and outside the organisation. | Strengthened team relationships and collaboration - Cross-training fosters a culture of collaboration and mutual support among team members, leading to improved teamwork and communication. |
| Reduced boredom and monotony - Cross-training injects variety into employees' daily tasks, reducing monotony and keeping them engaged and motivated in their work. | Enhanced productivity and performance - Cross-trained employees are more versatile and motivated, leading to increased productivity and overall performance. |
| Improved confidence and morale - Mastering new skills and successfully taking on new challenges through cross-training boosts employees' confidence and morale, contributing to a positive work environment. | Facilitated succession planning and talent development - Cross-training helps identify and develop potential future leaders within the organisation, ensuring a smooth transition during succession planning. |
In this topic on Training and Development we have covered these key points:
- Why training and development is vital in helping to enhance employee skills and meeting organisational objectives
- Organisational policies and procedures around training and development
- Matching employee needs with organisational requirements
- Benefits of training and development for employees and organisations
- Benefits of cross-training for employees and organisations.
You’ve come to the end of this topic, well done! Before moving on to the next section be sure to complete all the exercises.
