Training and development.
.4 Training and development:
An important part of manpower planing is the continual review,
identification and update of training and development programmes.
The reason for this was the recognition by investors that a key route to
competitiveness is through information and communications
technology. In a knowledge economy training and development is
considered much more valuable than before.
Companies that train and develop its employees are well placed to add
value to products and therefore gain competitive advantage. This is true
for the individual business is also true for national economies, and this
is one the major reasons why the government have placed so much
importance on education, training and development, especially on
information and communication technology.
Boots
Each year Boots spends millions of pounds on the training and
development of its staff. Not only is that an investment in the businesses
but this also means that Boots staff gets to enjoy their job more. Staff
development is a key part of the company's success. With out
committed, motivated and fully trained staff, Boots could not have
become as successful as it is today.
Boots Group policy provides:
* All necessary training for new transferred or promoted employees.
* Training in health and safety and in legal and social responsibilities
at work.
* Individual training to enhance current job performance and to
prepare the employee for future opportunities.
* Specific supervisory and management training, with the emphasis
on leadership and personal accountability.
* Training to meet changing demands and to improve continually the
quality of the work Boots does.
In training and development, the following is need for the training and development side of the company:
* Induction training
* Mentoring
* Coaching
* Apprenticeships
* In-house training
* External training
Reference
Assessor
Grading
Induction training.
Employers use induction training when there is an introduction of new employees to the organisation and ensures that the new employees have the necessary information. Skills is also another important feature through out the training process, as this helps perform their tasks to the required standard.
Induction training can help to minimise labour turnover among the new recruits, ensuring that the new employees are welcomed to the business and that they are fully aware of the job entail. Induction training provides information to its new employees, which are the following:
* Health and safety.
* Future career opportunities.
* The requirements of the job.
* Colleagues and managers.
* The organisation's policies and objectives.
* The organisational structure and layout.
* Pay training and fringe benefits.
Good induction training programmes successfully balances the amount of information that needs to be given out to the employee, as it takes time to fit into the company's environment. The company will then feature more of its information to the employer.
Induction training: Boots
Boots trains and develops all members of staff so that they can contribute fully to business and progress ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
* The requirements of the job.
* Colleagues and managers.
* The organisation's policies and objectives.
* The organisational structure and layout.
* Pay training and fringe benefits.
Good induction training programmes successfully balances the amount of information that needs to be given out to the employee, as it takes time to fit into the company's environment. The company will then feature more of its information to the employer.
Induction training: Boots
Boots trains and develops all members of staff so that they can contribute fully to business and progress in their chosen profession this is to their best interest. On joining the company, new staffs are given training and specific information and knowledge of the businesses store systems and customer care. There are also development programmes to prepare people for promotion.
Mentoring.
Mentoring schemes are used by businesses both to develop good working relationships between employees and to provide employees with the opportunity to learn new skills. It involves a trainee being paired with a more experienced employee, who can advise and answer their concerns. The employee benefits from advice on issues such as career development and managing change.
The mentor benefits from an increase level of responsibility and the opportunity to pass on suitable knowledge about the company, that needs to be passed on to the new employees.
Reference
Assessor
Grading
Mentoring is regarded as a cost-effective and less time-consuming training method because external trainers are not usually required. Methods schemes are less disruptive than off the job training methods because employees continue to perform their everyday tasks as they learn.
For some professional and senior posts, it has been informed that mentoring is more effective if the mentor comes from an external organisation. The mentor is expected to have a wide range of professional skills and experience and be able to offer valuable advice and support.
Mentoring: Boots
Boots use a further use of competence based training. Its application of the development of managers, mainly discuss and agree with their line manager which development objectives needs to be achieved to increase their competence. These may be short-term goals to meet useful needs of the current position or long term to achieve career development goals, but in many ways Boots are in addition to the Performance Contract process.
The development objectives are identified and agreed using the Development Review process based on both key responsibilities and competencies of the job. Specific learning activities are then agreed which will help the new member of staff to develop.
Coaching.
Coaching provides individual personal coaches within the workplace. The person who is going to take on the coaching role will need coaching skills and will need to have the time slots for the coaching to take place. The coach and the individual being coached will need to be aware of the opportunities on the way they can work together. The way of tackling jobs, the ways of improving performance is essential within the coaching role.
The coach will provide continuous feedback on performance and how this is progressing. It is particularly important in a coaching system that:
* There needs to be necessary coaching skills.
* There needs to be necessary listening and learning skills.
* Sufficient time given to the coaching process.
* The organisation places, sufficiently for the coaching process.
Coaching: Boots
Boots principle is that the employee's development is to take place as much as possible through out the job. Boots ensure that the coaches have the required skill to train another person. Working together is a key feature within the Boots company, managers communicate and give feedback through in and out of the working process. Boots have informal meetings between the manager and the employee, these are mainly to discuss the employee's performance to achieve certain objectives or targets.
Reference
Assessor
Grading
Apprenticeships.
With the apprenticeship scheme, the apprentice learnt by working from a more skilled person. Learning is made much easier by learning from someone much more experienced, such as a master or master craftsman. The apprentices have to work for a number of years to regain their trade as a master.
At one point apprenticeships were widespread in skilled work. When the apprentices had learnt their trades, they are then able to set up their own scheme, such as higher wages, employing apprentices of their own. In the early stage of the apprenticeship the wages are low, then it starts to rise, as the apprentice becomes more skilled.
Apprenticeships: Boots
The employment range within Boots is expandable. Boots also use apprenticeship scheme in the work force. They have employees at the age of 16 to 26 that are working through the apprenticeship scheme. A lot of people go through this scheme and work there way through to the high ranking, this way they can gain a higher position in the company. Boots are willing to help people that are willing to be part of Boots.
In-house training.
In-house training schemes, often referred to as on-the-job training, this provides employees with training and development using resources within the organisation. In-house training is used when the skills that an employee needs to acquire, or the task that needs to be performed is not too complex. The trainee is mainly placed in a working environment and uses the same materials and equipment that will be required once the training has been completed.
On-the-job training:
On-the-job training (OJT) is only taken place when employees are trained while they are carrying out an activity, often taken place at their work place.
In-house training: Boots
In-house training is the basis of Boots training system. This term is far important element of training within the group. With in-house training Boots gains a through knowledge about the company's infrastructure i.e. how the company is organised and how it works. It allows Boots trainee to engage in productive earnings so it can be carried out without the needs of structured, permanent training facilities.
Reference
Assessor
Grading
On-the-job training: Boots
Boots provide two kinds of OJT. The first one is for trainees, these training sessions are generally short in duration and are geared specifically towards new arrivals or those who are starting a new job within the Boots company.
The other OJT is for the current employees. Boots employee continues to receive training through out their time within the company. This process gives the employees a good level of knowledge, which includes in every level of management.
Boots training and development programmes are referred as part of the normal duties and responsibilities of management. Boots experience and understanding is used effectively. Boots have designed courses aimed specifically at management.
External training.
External training schemes, referred as off-the-job training are normally used by smaller organisations, as these companies have very few employees. This requires training to justify expenditure on specialist training facilities and full-time instructors. In small Production Company, there may be one manager and seventeen employees, which includes two supervisors. Some large organisations may use external training courses.
Off-the-job training:
Off-the-job training, takes place away from the job. This can be either internally within a company or externally using outside trainers. Many large companies will engage in a great deal of internal off-the-job training.
External training: Boots
Boots training requires special performance management training that is worked around the internal training. The internal training is done within the Boots stores, as the manager will ensure his employees are good enough to train a new member of staff, the skills required.
Boots external training, this is done by mostly sending management or supervisors to large Boots organisation to gain more skills and experiences about the company. With this experience they can help their store to improve its outlet.
Off-the-job training: Boots
For off-the-job training, Boots use internal trainers. This is when trainee's train within the company's premises. Boots also have external trainers, they are mainly employees who work within the Boots company but are sent to another county.
Reference
Assessor
Grading
National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs).
National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) is an important part in raising the standards of the training and development in the last few years. People now days are doing more training education and development skills, with half of the people going to university. This qualification is enjoyable and worth while.
NVQ is a key part in a person's career as it able to do the job satisfactorily and is also awarded with exams and assessments referring to within the workplace. It is important for everyone to start work or training to check he or she is being given the opportunity to obtain the relevant NVQ.
National Vocational Qualifications: Boots
When NVQ was introduced to Boots, Boots the chemists had 6,000 employees that had joined the NVQ scheme. This course attracted 20 per cent of the store staff and 3,000 achieved high levels, from NVQ levels 1 and 2.
Boots introduced NVQs to its staff in order to:
* To provide staff with the opportunity to take responsibility for their own developments.
* To maintain the standards in training, developing and motivating staff to reach their full potential.
* Give staffs a recognised qualification that is very useful within the business term.
NVQs is popular with Boots the chemists' staff because this allows them to work on their own pace and apply new knowledge in their daily tasks. A poll survey formed by the company showed that 80 per cent of the Boots staff rated the NVQ training as useful.
Apart from Boots encouraging its staff to gain good qualification, Boots the chemists works with the NVQ Awarding Bodies to help both the develop and evaluate the training.
Reference
Assessor
Grading
Unit 4: Human Resources
3
Vickremjit Gill
