Training

Training is the provision of work-related education, either on-the-job or off-the-job, involving employees being taught new skills or improving skills they already have.

Training is often a response to an internal or external change for example 

• The development and introduction of new products
• Restructuring of the firm
• The development and introduction of new technology
• Changes to procedures
• High labour turnover
• Low morale
• Changes in legislation

Induction Training

Education for new employees which involves learning about the way the business works

It helps to:

• Reduce turnover
• Increase understanding of culture
• Increase motivation
• Mean employees contribute to organisation more quickly

Methods of Training

Internal Training

• Occurs inside the organisation
• Appropriate if training needs are specific to the individual organisation

External Training

• Occures outside the organisation
• Appropriate if only a few employees with a specific training need
• Appropriate if training needs are not specifically linked to organisation
• Meet with employees from other companies and exchange ideas
• Can make employees feel valued and increase motivation

On the job training

On-the-job training: where an employee learns a job by seeing how it is carried out by an experienced employee.

Advantages

• Low cost - does not require the development of potentially expensive training materials or classroom/computer-based instruction.
• Task-based - Since it is performed at the work area, training tends to be focused on performing real job tasks.
• Well suited for small groups - OJT is often the most practical training method when you only need to train one or two employees at a time.

Disadvantages

• Inconsistent - Traditional OJT relies heavily on an experienced employee to provide the instruction based on what they feel is the most important topics. What is important to one employee may not be important to another.
• Incomplete - Without a structured lesson guide, trainers often forget to cover important information.
• Lack of founding principles - Underlying theories of operation are often not covered in sufficient detail or accuracy. Without this foundation of knowledge, trainees often learn what to do, not why they are doing it, resulting in poor decision making when things don't go exactly right.
• Bad habits - The trainee observes and may adopt the trainer's habits and attitudes about all aspects of the job including safety, quality, customer service, and relationship with management. Poorly selected trainers can have many unintended consequences.

Off the job training

All forms of employee education apart from that at the immediate workplace, ie learning skills away from the workplace

Advantages

• This type of training gets employees away from their work environment to a place where their frustrations and bustle of work are eliminated. This more relaxed environment can help employees to absorb more information as they feel less under pressure to perform.
• Can be a source to supply the latest information, current trends, skills and techniques for example current employment legislation or other company law and regulations, current computer software or computerised technologies or improved/innovative administrative procedures. These new skills can be brought back and utilised within the company.
• Experts in their field would cover these courses, and this would mean that training for staff members would be taught to a reasonable standard.
• As the courses are held externally, our company would not have added costs incurred as a result of extra equipment or additional space.
• Sending an employee on a course could help to make an employee feel more valued as they would feel as if they are receiving quality training.
• As many courses or seminars invite employees from other companies to attend, this would allow employees to network and perhaps drum-up business.

Disadvantages

• Depending on the course, the overall cost could prove quite expensive for example; many courses may require an overnight stay at a hotel if the course is outside the area or the course itself may prove to be expensive due to the level of expertise or equipment need to deliver the course.
• As there is no real way to know the abilities both as a trainer and their subject knowledge of the people delivering the external training courses, there is no guarantee that sufficient skills of knowledge will be transferred or valuable.
• The different learning speeds of individuals who are usually forced to progress at a compromise rate.
• Not all the learners will be starting at the same knowledge or skill level and there is a risk that those starting at the lowest levels, if account is not taken of this, will be lost from the start.