Training and Development

Introduction:

Now a day's companies are experiencing a great change due to new technologies, rapid increase in knowledge and globalization of business. So companies have to take steps to attract, retain and motivate their employees. Training and development process are used to help new employees to adapt to their new organization and to make them fully productive. These processes (training and development) strongly influence the performance of the employees and also organizational stability and it also provides information to the employees how to do a job. Training is not a luxury; it is necessary if companies have to participate in the global and electronic marketplace. In this report we will investigate or search the field of training and development of employees.

1. Orientation

Byars & Rue, (2006) elaborated orientation as the introduction of new employees to the organization, their work, and their jobs. Employees usually receive orientation from their senior employees or from the heads of organization. Orientation is of two types, first one is unofficial which is given by coworkers, and second one is official orientation provided by the organization itself in a planned way. Orientation had a great impact on new employees.

1.1. Levels of Orientation:

Byars & Rue, (2006) state that orientation should be conducted at two distinct levels: -

* Organizational orientation

* Departmental and Job orientation

Human Resource department is responsible for initiating and coordinating both levels of orientation. Some organizations have instituted a "buddy system" in which one of the new employee's coworker's conduct the job orientation. If it's work successfully then the employee carefully selected and properly trained for such orientation.

1.1.1. Organizational Orientation

Orientation must be done in order to satisfy the needs of both organization and the new employee. Generally new employees are interested in pay, benefits and specific terms of the employment. On the other hand, organizations are more inclined towards profit earning and satisfying their clients and customers.

1.1.2. Departmental and Job Orientation

Both experienced and inexperienced employees need some basic orientation regarding specifics needs of the department, they are going to be part in and skills required to perform the particular job. It involves a tour of the department, a formal introduction to all the employees of the department job duties etc.

1.2. Orientation Kit

It's a packet of written information prepared by the HR department for new employees. This kit provides variety of material e.g. company organization chart, copy of policy and procedures, list of holidays, emergency and accidents prevention procedure etc.

A form must be signed by the employees to ensure that new employees were aware of certain company policies and procedures and they have received and read the orientation kit. (Byars & Rue, 2006)

1.3. Orientation length and timing

It is almost impossible for any individual to absorb all the information given in one long orientation session where a bundle of information is showered upon the new employees. Hence orientation should be brief, not to exceed two hours, and insure that employees understand easily. Many organizations conduct a perfunctory orientation program lasting for half day or full day. This resulted in a negative attitude on the part of new employees. (Byars & Rue, 2006)

1.4. Follow-up and Evaluation

In follow-up the managers regularly check on that how well the new employees are doing. The human resource department conducts a schedule of follow-up after the employee has been on the job. The human resource department is also responsible for conducting an evaluation of the total orientation program. By this we get the feedback from employees. Feedback can be obtained using the following methods.

* Unsigned questionnaires completed by all new employees.

* In-depth interviews of randomly selected new employees.

* Group discussion sessions with new employees who have settled comfortably into their jobs.

So, it is in the best interest of the company to have a well-planned, well-executed orientation program. (Byars & Rue, 2006)

1.5. Reasons for Orientation

Bohlander & Snell, (2005) believe that the effective orientation helps to retrain and motivates employees and other benefits are also as follows: -

1) Lower turnover.

2) Increased productivity.

3) Improved employee morale.

4) Lower recruiting and training cost.

5) Facilitation of learning.

Orientation is designed to influence employee attitude about the work they will be doing and their role in the organization

2. Education, Training and Development:

Training is the process which organization start for enhancing the learning of the employees so that overall objectives of the organization could be achieved as well as training contributes in trainee's personal goals achievement. Most of the people use terms education, training and development interchangeably. But their lies a small difference between these three in actual practice.

 Education is used in vocational sense, the activity used to improve overall competence of employee irrespective of the current job.

 Development is more general and helps to prepare employees for present and future situation individually and groom their selves.

 Training: here employees learn from their experience and advice of their seniors.

(Nankervis et al. 2002)

2.1. Education:

Education is theoretical learning in a particular class or institute. It is offered to all the employees without any consideration of their grades. Training and Education differ in nature & orientation, yet they are complementary to eachother. For Instance;