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    HRM Case Study - Training Dillema

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    Rommel
    The document discusses the dilemma of workplace training and how training departments are often perceived. It notes that while schools provide broad education, employers still need training to develop job-specific skills. Even highly skilled professionals like doctors require some training when starting new roles. However, training is often seen as a last resort rather than exploring other solutions like process improvements that could avoid future training costs. The document argues training practitioners should focus on improving overall human performance and only use training when truly needed, in order to change perceptions and gain credibility and support from stakeholders for workplace learning.

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    HRM Case Study - Training Dillema

    Uploaded by

    Rommel
    21 views2 pages
    The document discusses the dilemma of workplace training and how training departments are often perceived. It notes that while schools provide broad education, employers still need training to develop job-specific skills. Even highly skilled professionals like doctors require some training when starting new roles. However, training is often seen as a last resort rather than exploring other solutions like process improvements that could avoid future training costs. The document argues training practitioners should focus on improving overall human performance and only use training when truly needed, in order to change perceptions and gain credibility and support from stakeholders for workplace learning.

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    Case Study - Training Dillema

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    The document discusses the dilemma of workplace training and how training departments are often perceived. It notes that while schools provide broad education, employers still need training to develop job-specific skills. Even highly skilled professionals like doctors require some training when starting new roles. However, training is often seen as a last resort rather than exploring other solutions like process improvements that could avoid future training costs. The document argues training practitioners should focus on improving overall human performance and only use training when truly needed, in order to change perceptions and gain credibility and support from stakeholders for workplace learning.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    21 views2 pages

    HRM Case Study - Training Dillema

    Uploaded by

    Rommel
    The document discusses the dilemma of workplace training and how training departments are often perceived. It notes that while schools provide broad education, employers still need training to develop job-specific skills. Even highly skilled professionals like doctors require some training when starting new roles. However, training is often seen as a last resort rather than exploring other solutions like process improvements that could avoid future training costs. The document argues training practitioners should focus on improving overall human performance and only use training when truly needed, in order to change perceptions and gain credibility and support from stakeholders for workplace learning.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    The Training Dilemma

    By Josué Fernández | President and Lead Consultant, Martlet LLC

             
    To understand how to effectively engage stakeholders in workplace
    training let’s explore, “Why is workplace training needed?” This question
    poses an interesting issue. The answer: workplace training is needed
    because schools do not produce graduates that can perform all the tasks
    that are required of most jobs.
    Generally speaking, schools provide education in broad strokes that cover
    abstract principles and they leave the specific training on the application of
    those principles to the end users, i.e., employers. Therefore, employees will
    always need some amount of training before they become fully proficient at
    their jobs. There are very few exceptions to this rule.
    One example that comes close to being a true exception is medical school.
    We expect those who graduate as doctors from medical school to be fully
    qualified to practice medicine once they have their licenses. Even so, new
    doctors will still need training on how to fill out the forms at a particular
    hospital or how to operate a particular diagnostic device to which they did
    not have access while at school. Therefore, even these highly skilled
    professionals need some degree of job training when they are first starting
    out.
    The points made in the preceding paragraphs should be obvious to most
    people. Unfortunately, that’s where we get in trouble. Those points appear
    so obvious that many of us “jump” to conclusions; making an error-of-logic
    and assuming that a need for training—or a lack of knowledge—is at the
    root of most employee performance problems. Many trainers also fall
    victim to this assumption. Indeed, many trainers became practitioners of
    the craft because of this assumption and, perhaps, a suppressed desire to
    work as teachers. This error-of-logic is at the heart of why training
    departments are the bane of many companies and perceived as a necessary
    evil for conducting business.
    We, trainers, seem to want to throw training at everything as the solution
    that will fix what’s wrong with the organization where we work. What
    happens when training does not fix the problem? The training department
    gets a black eye and the training function loses credibility. We see this
    paradigm repeat itself whenever companies fall on hard times. What is
    commonly one of the first functions to be impacted by organizational
    restructurings – the Training Department! For this reason, trainers are
    traditionally among the first classification of employees to get laid-off.
    With this “reputation” of failing to fix performance problems as a fact-of-
    life, it’s no wonder that those of us in the field of Education, Training &
    Development (ET&D) have a hard time garnering support and engagement
    from stakeholders when workplace training is needed. We have failed to
    show how we add value.
    It is up to us to change the perception that our craft is only about
    conducting training. Our craft is about improving human performance in
    order to increase profits. This is how we can add value and become
    indispensable to an employer. Yes, one of the tools we use to accomplish
    Human Performance Improvement (HPI) is training, but it should be
    reserved for use as our last line of defense, not our first resort.
    Training is an expensive intervention technique that requires perpetual
    renewal and investment. We should reserve its use for those occasions
    when knowledge or skill gaps have been identified and validated as being
    the root causes for performance problems. Even then, putting in place
    robust job-aids and standard operating procedures that supplement hands-
    on skills development can minimize training investments. But before we
    undertake a training intervention, we should consider if there are process,
    systems or engineering solutions that might negate the need for future
    training investments? Such alternatives to training are normally much
    more cost effective and sustainable in the long run. Our willingness to
    explore non-training alternatives actually helps us gain credibility for when
    training is needed.
    Once we show our employers that our priority as training functions is to
    serve the business in a value adding partnership, we will get invited to sit at
    the decision making table more often. Instead of garnering stakeholder
    support and engagement for workplace training, we will be the ones being
    courted by the stakeholders to serve as consultants and advisors on human
    performance concerns. Then, when we offer training as the solution, it will
    be warmly received and valued.

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