Training and development is an essential function within an organisation used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the employees or the organisation as a whole. Individuals who lack in certain skills, knowledge or attitudes required by job requirements are those who will be selected to be trained, this may involve on the job or off the job training. On the job training is training which is done whilst in the employees workplace, whereas off the job training may involve training to a different location with a different environment or conditions. An organisation which uses training will observe many improvements to the overall running of the organisation. There are many benefits, and in this section I will encapsulate the main benefits. The organisation will have better productivity and will moreover see better greater quality in their products. Training is obviously a tool in order to improve the organisation workers, therefore there will be a greater versatility from the workforce. They will feel a greater importance to the business and will therefore be more motivated. In relation to the improvement of job satisfaction the workforce will develop more confidence and competence and will therefore improve their efficiency, whilst also reducing the mistakes and errors made. The main benefit, once employees have undergone some form of training, is that it supplies the organisation with qualified people who meet specific job requirements.
A learning organisation emphasises the concept of training and the fact that employees at all levels of the organisation should be constantly learning new skills. Moreover P. M. Senge (1990) refers to a learning organisation as ‘an organisation that has developed the continuous capacity to adapt and change because all members take an active role in identifying and resolving work related issues.’ It is an important but in some ways essential step for an organisation to become a learning organisation, as it has many benefits in terms of flexibility. For instance, the business environment is constantly changing, so certain aspects such as customer needs, technology, the competitive, political, legal and economical environments need to be taken into consideration. This idea of flexibility is the main advantage of a learning organisation. Incorporating learning into an organisation is very beneficial as the organisation can learn from past mistakes and constantly try to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their business. Moreover training needs to be a continuous process otherwise the organisation will not be able to adapt to the changing environment. The learning organisation concept was made popular as managers recognised the need for more highly skilled and trained, flexible employees. An essential function to the business is communication, hence without communication the organisation won’t be able to improve or change. Ultimately a learning organisation is based around training, this may improve the effectiveness of the business however in terms of the employees, they will be able to improve essential skills such as leadership, motivation, communication and teamwork. The idea of a learning organisation was made popular by the work of P. Senge. His argument was that work must become more ‘learningful’ at all organisational levels.
Total quality management (TQM) is an alternative technique which an organisation can deploy to improve quality. This technique relates to the attitude and actions of the employees. The idea is to treat every individual within the organisation as a customer, even if they work in the same field or department. The other main features of TQM include the use of quality circles or discussion groups, emphasis on the quality of service including after sales as well as manufacturing quality. Similar to the learning organisation culture, total quality management is focussed highly on communication skills in order for the organisation to run efficiently.
These skills are easy to recognise, however it is the responsibility of the managers to make sure that, for instance good communication is present between all employees. The latter part of the last sentence reveals a more difficult task to simply recognising the skills. If one was to attempt to identify if a business was using training and development in their every day running, there would be a number of factors which would need to be monitored, analysed and researched into. The idea of monitoring would involve observing and recording the performance or productivity of the organisation. Moreover to find out whether the organisation is a learning organisation would involve recording their levels of productivity on a month to month basis. For instance once six months worth of performance is recorded, one can observe whether productivity levels have changed or improved. If the levels have either stayed constant or have decreased, it is an easy assumption to say the organisation is not a learning organisation. However, if the levels have increased, showing signs of improvement, it may be due to the fact that some kind of training or development is being used, moreover the employees may have been trained in order to improve their efficiency. Alternatively, rather than the levels of productivity, other factors such as the amount of waste can be recorded, for instance if the amount of waste reduces from month to month, the organisation has obviously incorporated training as efficiency on the employees part has improved.
Ultimately if a business or organisation is using training to develop its employees, the performance, effectiveness and efficiency will improve considerably. Thus, making the organisation and its products more competitive, in terms of quality and price. This may involve increasing the organisations market share and will eventually lead to greater profit. In relation to its employees training improves morale, motivation and enthusiasm for the job as well as improving their efficiency from learning from experience. For the employees personally, it may lead to promotion but will certainly improve their career development. A learning organisation is an organisation which makes continuous improvements due to the fact that they incorporate training into their business so they can constantly improve the organisations efficiency. For this to be successful there needs to be an open style management, good levels of communication throughout and a common goal between all employees. There also needs to be a certain amount of flexibility and willingness to learn. In relation to attitude, total quality management is a system which strives to improve their organisation by focussing on the attitudes of its employees. In order to find evidence if an organisation is a learning organisation or using training and development techniques one needs to monitor all aspects of the organisation including productivity levels and waste levels. If for example there is an improvement in the previously mentioned levels this will show that the organisation is using some form of training and development. This will also show that the organisation has similar traits to a learning organisation. The human resource management is the management perspective which makes the decision whether to incorporate training into the business. It is essential to build training into overall organisational and HRM strategy as it a tool which ultimately improve the financial position of the business through improving performance of efficiency of the employees, the productivity, the quality of the product and by reducing waste. It also improves vital interpersonal skills such as communication, co-operation, team work, motivation as well as job satisfaction. Training is essential because most jobs are becoming more complex and an increasing shortage of qualified employees. Therefore training is emerging as the most important natural resource to most organisations.
Bibliography
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Online resources
www.peoplemanagement.co.uk
