8.4 Employee Training and Development
- What types of training and development do organizations offer their employees?
To ensure that both new and experienced employees have the knowledge and skills to perform their jobs successfully, organizations invest in training and development activities. Training and development involves learning situations in which the employee acquires additional knowledge or skills to increase job performance. Training objectives specify performance improvements, reductions in errors, job knowledge to be gained, and/or other positive organizational results. The process of creating and implementing training and development activities is shown in Exhibit 8.8. Training is done either on the job or off the job.
On-the-Job Training
New-employee training is essential and usually begins with orientation, which entails getting the new employee ready to perform on the job. Formal orientation (often a half-day classroom program) provides information about the company history, company values and expectations, policies, and the customers the company serves, as well as an overview of products and services. More important, however, is the specific job orientation by the new employee’s supervisor concerning work rules, equipment, and performance expectations. This second briefing tends to be more informal and may last for several days or even weeks.
Beyond employee orientation, job training takes place at the job site or workstation and is directly related to the job. This training involves specific job instruction, coaching (guidance given to new employees by experienced ones), special project assignments, or job rotation. Job rotation is the reassignment of workers to several different jobs over time. At Cintas, management trainees rotate through every department in the business—such as sales, finance, and human resources—during the first year and a half.
Two other forms of on-the-job training are apprenticeship and mentoring. An apprenticeship usually combines specific on-the-job instruction with classroom training. It may last as long as four years and can be found in the skilled trades of carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work. Mentoring involves a senior manager or other experienced employee providing job- and career-related information to a mentee. Inexpensive and providing instantaneous feedback, mentoring is becoming increasingly popular with many firms, including FedEx, Merrill Lynch, Dow Chemical, and Bank of America. Whereas mentoring is typically conducted through ongoing face-to-face interactions between mentor and mentee, technology now allows for a long-distance mentoring relationship. Dow Chemical uses technology to facilitate mentoring sessions across borders. An employee whose first language is not English is encouraged to conduct all business in English from the beginning of their employment to build their fluency. English is the dominant language that Dow utilizes in their operations; therefore, it is important to allow employees time, support, and the resources necessary to sharpen those skills.8
Off-the-Job Training
Even with the advantages of on-the-job training, many firms recognize that it is often necessary to train employees away from the workplace. With off-the-job training, employees learn the job away from the job. There are numerous popular methods of off-the-job training. It frequently takes place in a classroom, where cases, role-play exercises, films, videos, lectures, and computer demonstrations are used to develop workplace skills.
Web-based technology is increasingly being used along with more traditional off-the-job training methods. E-learning and e-training involve online computer presentation of information for learning new job tasks. BMW and Verizon utilize virtual reality (VR) trainings with thousands of employees widely dispersed geographically. These trainings can prepare front-line workers for crisis situations with customers or safety emergencies on the production floor. Providing training through this format saves time and travel costs, while enhancing the experience for employees over merely a video online training module. However, some required training can be delivered as programmed instruction, an online, self-paced, and highly structured training method that presents trainees with concepts and problems using a modular format. This is particularly helpful in some industries where training is legally required, such as through OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) mandates.9
Web-based training can also be done using a simulation, for example, a scaled-down version of a manufacturing process or even a mock cockpit of a jet airplane. American Airlines uses flight simulators embedded with AI technologies for pilots to practice hazardous flight maneuvers or learn the controls of a new aircraft in a safe, controlled environment with no passengers. The simulator allows for more direct transfer of learning to the job.
Concept Check
- Describe several types of on-the-job training.
- What are the advantages of simulation training?
- How is technology impacting off-the-job training?