Chapter 6: Orientation, Training & Development Flashcards
Define orientation
Familiarizing new employees with the org., their jobs, their work unit and embedding org. values, beliefs, and accepted behaviours
Define training
Ensuring the acquisition of skills, behaviours and abilities to perform current work
Define development
Ensuring the acquisition of skills, behaviours and abilities to perform future work, or solve a problem
Why are orientation, training, and development important?
These processes allow employees and the org. to learn thus increasing its human capital (competencies)
What is Quebec’s “training tax” (Loi sur les compétences)?
- Organizations with a payroll > 1 million$ must spend 1% of payroll on training, or pay 1% tax
- Unique in North America
- Positive results? not clear
What is the goal of orientation, training and
development?
Foster individual and organizational learning in order to contribute to the attainment or the organization’s goals
What is learning?
Ongoing change in behaviour and thinking
Orientation is the formal process of:
- familiarizing new employees with the organization, their jobs, and their work units
- embedding organizational values, beliefs and accepted behaviours
Orientation is a type of ____
training
Why do we do orientation? What are the benefits?
- productivity
- employee morale
- learning
- Turnover
- Recruitment/training costs
- New employee anxiety
How to do orientation? What is the process like?
- Continuous : for all, “re- orientation” as org. changes
- Cooperative: involves HR, supervisor, employees
- Planned : predetermined goals, topics, methods
- Systematic : follow-up and evaluation
What are the important things to consider for orientation?
• Design a process, not an event • Make a good first impression • Don’t bury a new employee in paperwork! • Make it personal and meaningful. • Help new employees understand and build their network • Make information accessible • Assign a buddy.
What are the fundamental skills to have at a workplace?
- read and understand information presented in different forms
- write and speak so that others understand
- use relevant knowledge and skills to explain and clarify
- identify the root cause of the problem
- evaluate solutions to make a decision-
- use numbers to complete tasks, such as making estimates or making calculations
- manage information by locating, gathering and organizing information with appropriate technology
What are the fundamental personal management skill to have at a workplace?
- be flexible and adaptable
- be honest and ethical
- be responsible for setting goals
- be able to work safely
- demonstrate positive attitudes and behaviours, such as dealing with people with honesty and integrity
- be willing to keep learning
What are the fundamental teamwork skills to have at a workplace?
- understand and contribute to the organization’s goals
- understand and work within the dynamics of the group
- plan and make decisions with others and support the outcomes
- respect the thoughts and opinions of others
- adapt to changing environment
- understand the role of conflict in group dynamics and resolve as appropriate
Systematic training and development: What is the process like?
- training needs assessment: analyze training needs, identify training objectives and criteria
- training design: pretest trainees, select training methods, plan training content
- training delivery: schedule, conduct, monitor
- evaluation: measure training outcomes, compare outcome to objectives and criteria
What are the 3 levels of assessing needs in training?
Organizational level:
- What is happening with the org. environment & strategy?
• Merger/acquisition?
• Change in technology? Etc.
- Is training for this issue required for success of the organization?
Task Level:
- What does the task require ? (Helps determine content)
• Specific KSAs required?
- Competencies employees need vs. have = GAP –> Action Plans
Person Level:
- Who should receive training? (Helps determine participants)
• Employees with performance issues due to lack of ability?
• Employees being groomed for different responsibilities? Etc.
What are the 4 issues to consider when designing a training program?
Create a program and choose a method (or combination) which meets training/development needs previously identified.
4 issues to consider:
- instructional objectives
- trainee readiness/motivation
- characteristics of the trainers
- principles of learning
What are the principles of learning?
- modeling
- goal setting
- individual differences
- active practice and repetition
- whole-versus-part learning
- massed-versus-distributed learning
- feedback and reinforcement
- meaningfulness of the presentation
What are the methods that could be used to implement the training program?
On-the-job training • Hands on experience, provided by manager or trainer • Requires: - Good planning and structure - A trained manager / trainer - Clear job perf. criteria
Apprenticeship training
• For skilled trades, on- and off-the- job instruction and experience (theoretical and practical)
Coop. training /internship
• Combination of practical on-the- job experience and formal education
Classroom instruction
• Instruction offered by one instructor to many trainees through a combination of methods (lecture, demonstrations, films, etc.) in a classroom
Self-directed learning
• Learners work at their own pace, typically through books, manuals, computers.
Audio-visual
• Use of audio- visual media (webinars, video conferences, etc.)
• Useful for skills and procedures in
production jobs (visual component) or when participants are geographically distant
Simulation
• Use of realistic equipment and operation
• Useful when it is impractical or unwise to use real equipment for training
E-learning
• Use of electronic media (e.g., web, computer-based)
• Flexible, popular
What are the methods often used for management development?
On-the-job experiences
• Provide hands on experience
• Various methods (coaching, mentoring, job rotation, special project, etc)
• Requires careful planning and structure
Seminars & conferences
• Involve group of people with similar needs/interests
• Useful for communicating ideas, policies, procedures, discussing issues…
Case studies
• Use documented examples to learn how to analyze and synthesize facts, be aware of important variables, and improve decision making skills
• Emphasize both process and solution
Management games
• Use hypothetical situations to improve communication, decision- making skills, etc.
Role playing
• Learners assume roles & behaviours of others
• Helps improve interaction abilities
• Requires learners to be very comfortable with each other
How to evaluate the training program?
Gather trainee reactions
• Ask participants whether the liked the training, most useful content and
techniques (simple, but satisfaction not a guarantee of success)
Assess extent of learning
• Test knowledge and skills after training, compare with before
Assess behaviour change
•Assess whether transfer has occurred: participants apply in their jobs
what they have learned in training
Measure results (ROI) • Calculate ratio cost (salary of trainer, materials, etc.) vs. benefits (+ quality, productivity, - rejects/wasted material, etc.) --> shows value of the training
What is career development?
Career development programs are dynamic processes which seek to help employees plan their careers and meet their career goals, as well as meeting organizational goals.
What is the importance of career development?
Important: link individual needs (personal and professional) and organizational needs (strategic and operational)
What are the favourable conditions in career development?
- Set and known goals (org. and employee)
- HR practices that facilitate employee development (job rotation, transfers, promotions,…)
- Support from top management
What does specialized career development include?
Setting up mentoring relationships
- A senior employee coaches, advises and encourage a more junior one
Including diverse employees
- Offering career dev. programs that include special groups (e.g., women, dual-career couples, youth)
Emphasizing work/life balance
- Encouraging employees to invest in other areas of their life
