An excellent way of increasing skills is ‘performance coaching’ , this type of coaching is carried out by line managers, in which they review an employees performance and from this they give feedback, and hope that the employee acts upon it.
Off-the-job training is when an employee takes time away to be trained and to learn new skills. Off-the-job training can include lectures, games, role-plays and quizzes, all of these can help an employee build up their skills and how they approach their work.
Marks and Spencer use a wide variety of differing methods to help its employees with off-the-job training, for example; Marks and Spencer have the intranet, and from this employees can find learning materials which will enable them to develop their skills.
External; this type of training can be done by training specialists, at college/universities for qualifications, an employer may give time off to the employee any may pay for the costs.
In my opinion this type of training is very good because, the employee could go to a college or a university and study on the course which they need to maximise their performance within the organisation, there are many courses which an employee could choose from, such as; Customer Services.
Overall, training and developing employees and monitoring their progress can help them to achieve their maximum performance, training and development benefits both the organisation and the employee.
The Training Cycle;
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The training cycle identifies whether training is needed for a specific employee, if it is needed, then the employee needs to be trained to the highest of their standards which could mean being shadowed/mentored and coached whilst working to improve on skills.
Identifying Skills Gaps;
The purpose of a Skills Gap Analysis is to identify the skills a person needs but does not have in order to carry out their work effectively.
Below are the methods of Identifying Skills Gaps;
- Appraisals/Performance review
Appraisal involves the review and planning of work performance and training and personal development through discussion between appraiser and appraisee.
A performance review is similar to an appraisal, they determine the individuals future at their current job; performance reviews tend to make people nervous.
At Marks and Spencer, appraisals or performance reviews take place every 6 months; the employees are given ratings for the skills and competencies they have shown after the last year, and the feedback which is given back to them helps the employees identify how they are performing in relation to the expected technical skills.
Once this is done, the line managers and employees discuss and agree on a plan for further development for the following year. All staff have a personal development plan in which they set objectives for themselves based on the feedback from their performance review as this helps them to construct a realistic and focused career path.
This is when employees are being observed by their managers, and from doing this, managers will be able to see whether or not the employee has the right skills for the job. If he/she have not got the right sills to carry on with their job role they will need to undertake training and development, which will allow them to learn new skills and business competency.
Line managers conduct the monitoring process, once the employee has been monitored, a meeting is carried out between the line manager and supervisor to see whether the employee is making progress in his/her job role.
If a skills gap is occurs, a solution of how to develop on this will be made.
Feedback will be given to the individual, the feedback could be advantageous or disadvantageous, but it really depends on what the feedback was given on. Usually it will be on the individual, and how well he/she s performing.
A consultation is an act of conferring, what this means is that two or more people with the same matter have to come up with a decision for a specific matter.
A consultation could take place at Marks and Spencer, for example; two managers have seen that an employee isn’t delivering to the highest of their standards, the two managers talk about this and come to some sort of a decision for the matter, such as; training and developing the employee so they fit in well with the organisation and perform well, or maybe even to take on a different job role, one in which they can relate well to.
A Faults analysis is an analysis which points out the faults of a certain individual. It will show the weaknesses of the individual and what can be done to fix this. It is important that the weaknesses which are pointed out are taken into consideration by the individual themselves, therefore he/she will be able to correct them and do well at work.
I think that training and developing an employee is beneficial to the organisation because it will make them perform better in their job role.
Methods of training and development used in other companies;
Asda use ‘job ladders’, these help the employee plan their career into the future. Some On-the-job training offered at Asda includes; computer based learning, development centres, interactive video learning and open learning workbooks.
O2 training and development programme is an intranet based development resource. The approach is flexible and cost-effective, allowing their employees to manager their own learning at their own pace.
The intranet based development resource provides;
- State of the art learning management systems (Docent LMS)
- Personal planning tools and training records
- Management tools and reporting
- Links to a wide range of information on training and development both within O2 and externally
As you can see above, I have researched some of the training and development methods Asda and O2 use, some of the information I gathered is very similar to Marks and Spencers training and development methods, as all three companies have various learning methods that an employee can choose from.
The benefits of training and development;
Training helps to improve and also motivates employees to do well. By having well trained and motivated staff, Marks and Spencer has developed a over its rivals. The business has recognised that although training has a cost attached to it, it is also an for the future.
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