Deck 13: Training and Development

Question 1

Why is a needs assessment a requirement for determining what training should be provided? Unfortunately, too many organizations bypass the needs assessment. Why?

Answer 1

For an organization, the need assessment is very essential. The need assessment will help the organization to link the gap between the employee's present ability with expected ability which are required for the job.
The need assessment is required for the employers to determine who is the right employee to get the training and with what right approach they should be trained. The tailoring of courses to the employees or team is essential for the effectiveness of training. If the content is more relevant to the employees, then the employees will engage more into the learning and also the training will be more successful.
Many organizations bypass the needs assessment because of the below mentioned reasons:
1. The various parameters in the need assessment require proper judgment, it affect the performance of organization. The judgment made on the parameters should be accurate, that is by thorough analysis and through proper evaluation of the parameters. So, employees in the organization assume that the need assessment is a time consuming process.
2. Some organization believes that they already know the organizational needs. It creates unwanted confusions in conducting the need assessment which in turn will lead to conflicting situations among the employees.

Question 2

Describe why a performance analysis may indicate that training is now needed to solve a particular problem.

Answer 2

Training can be explained as a systematic method where employee's behavior can be altered in a direction which help to accomplish the objectives of organizations. Training is given based on the employee's current job skills.
The organizations will get a return reward for providing proper training for the employees because the employee's who are well trained will help the organization to increase their productivity and the income. The effective training will help to save the time that is spent on problem-solving and saves the money of organization in the long run by making a better working environment. The employee's performance become poor when they do not understand what exactly they should do, how they should do their work or why in certain way they are needed to work. The training will help them in solving the performance issues by describing them their job. This will reduce the employee's time spending on correcting the mistakes.

Question 3

What are the strengths and shortcomings of a decentralized approach to training managers and hourly employees? Discuss.

Answer 3

This case is about the D and DD. Both the companies promise to provide high-quality products at impressive speed. To fulfil these promises, both the companies provide intensive training to its young and inexperienced workforce. Training programs include on the job training, classroom courses at university, marketing lessons etc.
There are many strengths and shortcomings of a decentralised approach to training managers and hourly employees. Some of the strengths are;
• Decentralize approach helps in adapting the local market conditions and workforce becomes more responsive to the local market conditions.
• This approach attempts to empower the local managers and hourly employees to make their own decision as and when required and they empower them to self-operate.
• This approach helps to develop the general sense of local business.
Some of the shortcomings are;
• This approach leads to develop inconsistent training methods at various divisions or regions.
• It requires large no. of training material and equipment.
• It is a costlier approach because organisation needs to provide the training material and equipment at various divisions.
• Instructors quality may vary at various divisions which leads to reduce the quality of staff.

Question 4

Develop a plan for determining the training needs of the hourly paid staff of a Domino's Pizza franchise.

Question 5

In your opinion, why was the turnover rate among management trainees in Dunkin' Donuts' centralized program so high?

Question 6

Objective
This exercise illustrates how to properly assess training needs.
Set Up the Exercise
1. Select a job to analyze. You should choose a job that you have some familiarity with or have actually held.
2. Prepare or obtain a job description for it. What are the major duties and responsibilities? Also, what activities must be done to complete the job?
3. In specific terms, what are the observable behaviors that a job holder must perform?
4. After completing steps 1 though 3, outline what type of training would be beneficial to improve performance in this job. What training methods seem to be best suited for this job?
A Note on Learning
This exercise emphasize the type of careful analysis that must be conducted in determining specific needs for training.

Question 7

Why is training an important requirement for organizations to undertake?

Question 8

Do you believe that acceptance of training programs would be better in organizations classified as learning organizations? Why?

Question 9

What are the main purposes of orientation programs? What aspects of orientation seem to be the most neglected?

Question 10

Why is the evaluation and assessment of training and development programs so difficult?

Question 11

Will e-learning or online training replace classroom training? Why?What should training in goal setting involve, and who should participate in such training?

Question 12

How could a person's expectation about training influence what he or she learns in a formal training program?

Question 13

What barriers exist that hamper the transfer of learning from the training classroom to back-on-the-job?