Training in Organisations

A Cost-Benefit Analysis

John Talbot

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317008286
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Formación profesional

For many organisations, training and development remain an aspiration rather than fundamental to their business, and the consequent investment is subject to reductions or reallocations when times get tough. Yet increasing pressures from business globalisation mean that organisations are absolutely dependent on the skills of their workforce if they are to remain competitive. John Talbot's Training in Organisations: A Cost-Benefit Analysis, provides the basis for measuring and analysing the cost and value associated with training. It looks both at manual skills and management training analysis to explore the various approaches for costing training, controlling those costs and applying value analyses to the investment that is being made. Also included is a series of international comparisons across a variety of industry sizes and types which provide organisations with an important benchmark for their own spending.

1
Scope of Training

For many years, training has been seen as an extension to the educational process within business and administration. This has been reflected even in the titles of managers working in the field with the result that attitudes within business have been strongly conditioned to accept a traditional teaching approach. Companies appointed ‘education officers’ who were inevitably concerned mainly with the use of relevant courses at technical colleges. Training is thought about in terms of courses. Even outside assessors asked for training records rather than evidence of learning and improvement. The learning process was seen as something which almost unavoidably took place outside the business. Emphasis in discussion was on means of arranging release for study and, even in areas which were totally outside the scope of further education, first thoughts were to arrange suitable training ‘off-the-job’.

This educational bias is still found, both within industries and the civil service. Publications dealing with the training of various categories of workers are frequently little more than an examination of the educational background required. There are still suggestions that the effectiveness of training in key areas, such as that of engineering apprentices or commercial trainees, depends on the facilities provided for day release on expensive courses.

This growth of educational awareness within industry is, of course, entirely desirable, but it must be recognised as only a first step towards the establishment of effective training throughout industry, commerce and administration. Unless a broader view of training is adopted, there is some danger in any new training development getting off to a false start and being thought of as only very marginal value by line managers. It is important that training energy is not dissipated or training efforts misconstrued at this vital period of the country’s economic challenges. Stimulated by the activities of government initiatives and human resource managers, most managers now recognise that training is vital, but if too much effort is channelled into apparently academic and unproductive areas, this enthusiasm could easily evaporate, with tragic results in terms of productivity and adaptation to change.

The key requirements for trainers in the immediate future will be the ability to use their educational skills to influence fundamentally the development of learning within industry in both the long and short term. Effective learning is now more than ever an essential element in the management of human resources and in the use and adaptation of material development. Learning problems within industry must be clearly analysed and their implications for training made clear. In many ways this requires new educational skills, very different from the classroom techniques of the past. In spite of generally derogatory references to ‘sitting next to Nellie’, much crucial learning must take place in the job situation and techniques must be found to control and manage it. Except in certain cases of lack of knowledge, opting for off-the-job training will not necessarily provide adequate solutions.

The necessary change of emphasis is a reflection of the fact that training, as it is now understood, is expected to contribute to a much wider range of organisational problems than previously. It is, therefore, important to draw a clear distinction between the more traditional problems and the problems of the future. This will illustrate the greater integration required of any training operation as well as the wide range of skills needed by the trainer.

Traditional Problems

Training has normally been expected to contribute to four main types of problem; lack of knowledge, preparation for promotion, adjustment to new organisational structures, and unsatisfactory performance.

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE

This is the classic situation and will always be of very great importance. It is the area where traditional teaching methods may still be highly effective and where training away from the job can be most easily organised. The process of direct transfer of knowledge will be steadily improved as new techniques are developed. Programmed learning will make an increasing contribution alongside other tutorial, IT and classroom techniques.

Despite its continuing importance, however, it must not be allowed to influence unduly the total approach to training which must consider other problems at the same time.

PREPARATION FOR PROMOTION

Training in this area is again of longstanding importance although sometimes referred to by other names, such as management development. Part of the problem here may well be lack of knowledge, but it has been clearly recognised in this area for sometime that job experience and career patterning is essential. However, no ideal formula has been found for approaching the situation and some of the traditional concepts, such as systems of job rotation, may need to be changed.

ADJUSTMENT TO NEW ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURES

The explanation of organisation change is a growing part of any training manager’s job. It is important, but basically a fairly straightforward exercise in communication. Limitations in this area have very often been related to the lack of any early integration of training thinking with the reorganisation process itself. This has led to effective efforts being somewhat frustrated by their greater concern with explaining the results of change than with influencing the process of change. Structural changes in organisation have frequently been considered separately from changes required in individuals. The aim must be to bring these projects together. For instance, if decision levels are changed, those concerned have to be equipped to make decisions at new levels.

LOW INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE

This is frequently related to lack of knowledge, but by no means always so. Training must always make an effective contribution to improving skills, knowledge and attitudes related to individual competence. In many cases this is a question of retraining often of mature adults, with all the problems that this involves. Much useful development has taken place in this area recently, but here also, perhaps rather too much attention has been paid to traditional teaching approaches rather than to the total adjustment of individuals to situations which have developed beyond their competence.

Training contributions in these areas will always be important, but many companies have devised reasonably effective means of meeting requirements of this type and training managers should find it relatively easy to obtain information which will help to provide solutions in their own situations. The important thing is that these traditional areas may not be the priority areas for new developments or the priority areas in terms of cost and payoff. For instance, lack of individual competence may still be widespread and important, but not necessarily the cause of major organisational difficulty. It is more disturbing that the necessary degree of competence often appears to be present but is poorly used. Similarly, training designed to attack the problems behind structural change may be more important than training concerned purely with adjustment to a new organisation.

The training manager of the future will need to make a much more thorough analysis of the fundamental organisational problems facing the business if there is to be real success in making contributions to productivity and profitability. The provision of new routine training answers to traditional problems will not be sufficient. The requirement is for a much more extensive diagnostic skill which looks behind the learning processes of individuals and of groups and assesses the impact of this on the business’s need for growth and adjustment.

New Problems

Although many of the techniques will be the same, training should now be expected to contribute to much broader problems concerned with both organisational effectiveness and individual effectiveness.

INTEGRATION OF MANAGEMENT EFFORT

Many managerial practices and organisational structures have not been particularly conducive to the effective use of human resources and the best integration of effort. Learning in this area has been relatively slow. It requires fundamental changes in attitudes and approach and is a very worthy target for training activity. Integrated development can be stimulated by the use of recognised standards such as ISO 2001:2008 and Investors in People. Individuals and the organisation are developed at the same time. Team development is encouraged as well as individual learning. Challenges are met successfully, developing a culture that can respond to future challenges.¹

CLARIFICATION OF INDIVIDUAL GOALS AND THEIR LINK WITH MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES

This is again an organisational problem, but one which is really concerned with consolidating learning and directing development of the whole group.

DEVELOPMENT OF NEW THINKING

Training which emphasises the teaching of accepted knowledge tends to overlook the equally important need to check the spread of ideas and practices that are likely to stifle new thinking and attitudes. Training should challenge accepted thinking and attack the conditioning of the past which acts as a major brake on growth and the use of resources. The training techniques are those referred to in the jargon as ‘unfreezing’ processes. This term does, in fact, give a vivid impression of what is required to swing an organisation in a new direction.

Redirection of training effort of this kind is primarily related to a search for techniques which influence fundamental problems of management and organisation. It requires not only a change in direction but also a change in scale. The more general objectives require a more wholesale approach. Everyone becomes involved. The emphasis is on training the business rather than training individuals within it.

Thinking of this kind completely alters the starting point for training managers. They are no longer teachers in industry. They are managers contributing a special skill to the diagnosis of basic business and organisational problems. They use educational techniques, but the real skill is in translating them into business practices. The scope of training becomes much broader and its management much more akin to that of other areas of industrial development.

Role of the Trainer

It is often argued that training must start at the top and it may well be that many training problems can be traced to bad management. It is often possible for the outside training consultant to start at the top and may usually have sufficient status for recommendations to be accepted. The internal trainer, however, cannot and should not emulate the outside consultants who can determine their own point of entry into the organisation. The trainer has a position in the organisation already established – usually somewhere in the middle. The approach must be from this position. The skill must be to build a basis for action. A trainer must have a learning and integration process as shown in Figure 1.1. Initially, the identification and interpretation of problems may be at or below the trainer’s level. This will demonstrate skill in the area in such a way and on such problems that the operation will naturally and rapidly expand from the base focal point to the broader policy and organisation problems which are in the top management area. Further crucial developments in training may stem from the top but the approach will in fact be a ‘realistic’ one tackling problems at all levels. From this point onwards the trainer should have little worry about the level of training or the credibility of his position in the hierarchy. The problems will dictate the levels of operation.

Figure 1.1 Developing the trainer

Because of this it is very clear that the trainer’s first approach to the identification of problems is crucial. Breadth and depth of thinking at this early stage may well determine their own future and the level and nature of the function’s contribution for some time to come.

This will enable the company to benefit from a total approach to training not by looking immediately for ‘top-level’ problems and top-level connection, but by tackling clearly definable training problems well and following them through – to the top.

The responsibilities of the trainer are most succinctly described by means of a job description. Two such job descriptions are given in Appendix 1 to this chapter and define the duties of trainers at two levels. The position of training supervisor (engineering) provides for the translation of the work of the technical development training manager into the company situation.

Appendix 1a: Job Description – Training Manager

TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT

The technical development training manager is responsible for the development and maintenance of a training organisation which will meet the internal requirements of the department and anticipate and ensure provision for the technical training requirements arising from development projects. The job will provide the foundation and focus for technical training developments throughout the company. Particular duties are detailed below.

TRAINING FOR DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

• Appraisal of the training implications of development projects.

• Systematic integration of training arrangements within the projects facilitating effective translation from the development to operational stage.

This will involve:

• Identification and analysis of skills, knowledge and attitudes required at all levels.

• Formulation of training programmes based on this analysis.

• Liaison with managers in carrying out the necessary local training.

• Liaison with manufacturers in obtaining information on specialised training.

• Preparation of training manuals and other training aids.

• Organisation of training courses for staff.

• C...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• Preface – A Word About the Trainer
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 Scope of Training
• Chapter 2 Defining Investment in People
• Chapter 3 Who Has to be Trained and When?
• Chapter 4 Understanding Learning Problems
• Chapter 5 Techniques of Establishing Training Needs
• Chapter 6 Case Study 1: Training Analysis of a Manual Skill
• Chapter 7 Case Study 2: Operation of a Special Purpose Machine and Learning Design
• Chapter 8 Management Training Analysis
• Chapter 9 Initial Requirements for Costing and Evaluating Training
• Chapter 10 Cost of Not Training
• Chapter 11 Cost-Value Relationship in Training
• Chapter 12 How Training Costs are Caused and Recorded
• Chapter 13 Costing Treatment of Training Costs
• Chapter 14 Planning for Training and Controlling Training Costs
• Chapter 15 Evaluation of Training
• Chapter 16 On-Line Training
• The Last Word?
• Bibliography
• Index