At all times, a workforce should have the required skills and tools to perform their duties effectively. Besides skills, factors such as the attitude towards works determine an employee’s output. Providing machinery is not enough to ensure success in an organization; just as companies gauge the efficiency of machines, they need to keep track of the performance of their human resource (Atoki, 2013) . Human resource is the primary resource in an organization, and other resources such as money, machinery, and materials only serve to enhance the performance of the human resource (Atoki, 2013) . Training is one of the ways of boosting employee performance by ensuring they maintain their current skills and acquire new ones. Employee development as well as rewarding schemes are also ways of improving human resource. Employee development aims at preparing employees to take higher roles in the organization while rewarding motivates employees to achieve the organization’s goal. Employee training, development, and rewarding are all essential for business success.
Proactive vs. Reactive Training Needs Assessment
Employee training will only deliver the desired results if it is structured. Before commencing training, organizations should first embark on training needs assessment. The aim of training need assessment is to identify the training approaches that will achieve the required employee performance (Reed & Vakola, 2006). Depending on how the organization is structured, training needs assessment can target specific employees, a department, or the entire human resource. Furthermore, training needs assessments can be proactive or reactive. Proactive training needs assessment is an approach that is planned and executed without targeting a specific problem (Reed & Vakola, 2006). That means that the weaknesses of the workforce are not known; the training assessment, therefore, aims to identify the gaps in the workforce so that new training methods and strategies can be adopted. On the other side, reactive training needs assessment is applied when a specific problem has been identified; it, therefore, aims at correcting the deficiencies identified (Reed & Vakola, 2006). For that reason, reactive training needs assessment is also referred to as the deficiency approach.
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While both proactive and reactive training needs approaches aims at improving the workforce, there are applied in different solutions. Reactive approach is mostly a short term plan to correct the deficiencies evident in the current workforce (Reed & Vakola, 2006). For example, if it is identified that inadequate skills to operate specific machinery or low morale are the reasons behind employee underperformance, the organization comes up with a plan to teach workers how to operate the machine or boost their motivation. Proactive approach mostly focuses on the long-term performance of the workforce (Reed & Vakola, 2006). It involves doing a SWOT analysis of the workforce to gauge whether it has the necessary Knowledge,Skills, and Abilities (KSAs).
Training Methods
Once the employee training needs have been identified, the next step is coming up with strategies and techniques for conducting the actual training. There are many training methods at an organization's disposal, and the business needs should be the basis of choosing the training method (London, 1989). With that said, it is difficult to declare that one training method is more effective than the other since almost every method has specific circumstances in which it is most suitable. For example, if an organization is training employees on the company’s values or recent changes in the legal policies, it would be adequate to apply presentation method. However, this method will not be effective when training employees on technical skills such as how to use a particular machine. Besides the content of the training, factors such as the rank of employees and demographics determine the effectiveness of the training method used (London, 1989). For examples, millennials are likely to be more receptive to online training methods than the older generations. The examples show that the effectiveness of a training method is contextual.
Presentation
Presentation is one of the most popular training methods. It adopts a classroom setting where an instructor delivers the content to the employees through lectures and other activities. Such training can take place within the organization’s premises or in hired conference rooms. This training method is effective when the content being covered is theoretical (Andriotis, 2018) . Also, it is useful when there is need to deliver the content to the employees at once; one facilitator can train many employees at once. The downside of the method is that it can be boring, thus turning employees into passive participants. The expenses involved are the cost of hiring instructors, and transport and accommodation fees if the training is happening off-site. These costs range from low to medium.
Role-playing and Simulation
For workplaces that involve lots of human-human interactions, role-playing can be effective in training employees. One example of such workplaces is customer service offices. In role-playing training, a facilitator guides the employees as they act out different workplace scenarios. For instance, in training on how to deal with a furious customer, one employee acts as the customer while the other takes the role of the customer representative. The exercises mimic situation employees encounter in the course of their work. The employees are likely to grasp the content since the practice is interactive. Role-playing is effective when the facilitator deals with a small group (Read & Kleiner, 1996). The costs involved are hiring facilitators as well as paying for venues, transport, and accommodation. The cost of conducting role-playing training is medium.
Simulations are an experimental learning method that is mostly applied in technical training (Andriotis, 2018) . The employees get to simulate real work situations and interact with the equipment they will be using. Since simulations require machines and one facilitator can only train a small group at a time, the cost of conducting this type of training is medium to high.
Categories of Employee Development
Employee training and development are both essential for business success. While training focuses on increasing the performance of employees in their current positions, development prepares the employees to handle higher roles or different responsibilities within the organization (DeCenzo, Robbins, & Verhulst, 2016). There are different approaches to employee development; broadly, they can be classified into assessment, interpersonal relationships, formal education, and job experience
Formal Education
Organizations can enhance employee development by giving the workers access to formal education. The education programs can be accessed on-site or off-site:
These may include workshops designed specifically for the organization’s employees, short courses offered by consultants or universities, university programs offered to employees who live on campus during the program, and executive MBA programs (which enroll managers to meet on weekends or evenings to earn a master’s degree in business administration) (DeCenzo, Robbins, & Verhulst, 2016, p. 261)
Today, big organizations are partnering with executive education providers to develop courses that are specifically tailored for their employees.
Assessment and Feedback
This approach involves gathering information from employees, assessing it, and giving them feedback on their skills and behaviors. Such data can be collected from team leaders, peers, or the employee themselves. For example, if an organization wants to identify managers to promote, it can ask the employees to rate the candidates on different strengths and weakness. For the assessment approach to support employee development, the employees must receive feedback on the information collected (DeCenzo, Robbins, & Verhulst, 2016) . The feedback should also have suggestions on the strategies the employees can use to address the weakness identified (DeCenzo, Robbins, & Verhulst, 2016) . The organization can use the information collected from the employees when developing training and formal education programs.
Job Experiences
Job experiences combine different aspects of the workplace; it, therefore, one of the most effective approaches to employee development (DeCenzo, Robbins, & Verhulst, 2016) . The Center for Creative Leadership conducted a study in which managers were asked to identify events in the course of their professional careers that had the most significant impact (Leslie, 2009) . Most of the respondent indicated challenging job assignments, the transition from one role to the other, and their relations with supervisors as the top factors. (Leslie, 2009) Job experiences training approach is based on the assumption that development mostly occurs when employees are assigned tasks that are above their skills; the employees, therefore, push themselves to acquire the new skills ( DeCenzo, Robbins, & Verhulst, 2016) .
Developmental/Interpersonal Relationships
In this approach, employees develop by continually interacting with a more experienced employee. The experienced employee helps the junior gain work experience by guiding them, giving them feedback, and providing resources and recommendations. The relationship between the new employee and the experienced one can develop formally or informally.
Like the training methods, employee development approaches are contextual, making it hard to choose one over the other in general. The different categories of employee development should complement each other. Nevertheless, job experience combines several aspects of formal education and interpersonal skill. Also, it is more effective for an employee to learn by doing rather than sitting in a formal classroom. Job experience approach would, therefore, be effective in many contexts.
The Effectiveness of the Total Rewards Strategy
The total reward strategy is an approach in which the business set specific goals and reward employees who achieve the goals with monetary rewards and professional growth opportunities. Organizations have many benefits to gain for applying the total rewards strategy.
The total rewards strategy increases employee retention by having professional growth as a benefit. Businesses incur losses when their best employees move to other companies: There is a possibility of business interruption, and the organization will have to bear the cost of hiring new employees. Total reward strategies give employees control of their career trajectories. Since the employees know what is required of them to reach a certain level, they can predict and plan where they will be in the coming years (Miller, 2018) . That eliminates the uncertainty that makes employees switch jobs.
Besides improving employee retention, the total rewards strategy boosts employee performance. Employees have personal financial and professional goals, and they are likely to be more motivated by personal goals than business goals (Miller, 2018) . Total rewards strategy wraps personal goals within the business goals; as the employees strive to reach their targets, they help the business achieve its objectives.
Finally, with the total rewards strategy in place, it is easier for organizations to manage the costs associated with employee training and incentives. Their employees are informed beforehand on what they stand to gain if they achieve specific business goals; their development trajectory can, therefore, be estimated. This enables organizations to measure the benefits they will gain against what they will spend on the employee (Gish,n.d.). Further, the total rewards strategy enables businesses to centralize the administrations of employee-related expenses.
In conclusion, human resource is one of the most critical resources in any business. Businesses should, therefore, improve and maintain the resource at all times. Training, development, and rewarding employees are some of the strategies companies use to enhance their human resource. Employee training aims at equipping workers with skills to perform better in their current roles while employee development prepares them for greater roles or new responsibilities. Both employee training and development have different approaches, and the effectiveness of the methods is contextual. Total rewards strategy is one of the ways businesses can reward and motivate employees. The strategy combines business and personal goals.
References
Andriotis, N. (2018, December 27). 5 Popular Employee Training Methods For Workplace Training. Retrieved September 5, 2019, from E-learning Industry: https://elearningindustry.com/how-choose-training-methods-for-employees
Atoki, O. (2013, September). An Investigation of Training Needs Assessment Processes in a Libyan Organisational Context: Case Study of the Libyan General Electricity Company. Retrieved September 4, 2019, from Semantics Scholar: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ab90/a86f1c2346240aa56ddab38444d020a90690.pdf
DeCenzo, D. A., Robbins, S. P., & Verhulst, S. L. (2016). Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, Binder Ready Version . John Wiley & Sons.
Gish, W. (n.d.). The Advantages of Having a Total Reward in Organizations. Retrieved September 4, 2019, from Small Business: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-having-total-reward-organizations-14161.html
Leslie, J. B. (2009, June). What you need, and don’t have when it comes to leadership talent. Retrieved September 04, 2019, from Center for Creative Leadership: https://www.ccl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/leadershipGap.pdf
London, M. (1989). Managing the training enterprise: High-quality, cost-effective employee training in organizations . Jossey-Bass
Miller, S. (2018, May 31). How Total Rewards Can Drive Performance Management Success. Retrieved September 04, 2019, from SHRM: https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/benefits/Pages/total-rewards-can-drive-performance-management.aspx
Read, C. W., & Kleiner, B. H. (1996). Which training methods are effective?. Management Development Review , 9 (2), 24-29
Reed, J., & Vakola, M. (2006). What role can a training needs analysis play in organizational change?. Journal of Organizational Change Management , 19 (3), 393-407.
