Learning and Development in Organisations - Essay Example

?Running Head: Learning and Development in Organizations Learning and Development in Organizations [Institute’s Learning and Development in Organizations Learning and development are two words that have strong relationship with each other because of learning people have developed themselves since the beginning of world. Without learning, no one in this would cam ameliorate the conditions of his families, societies, countries and the world. Every individual in the world has to learn constantly otherwise he would not be able to compete with the world. In today’s world, competition is very tough, without reducing the expenditures and expanding the opportunities, no one can get huge success (Dansereau, et al., 1979, pp. 64-73). However, for reducing expenditures, first it is necessary to spend money so that people can learn how to reduce expenditures and expand opportunities. Most companies and organizations in the world are arranging trainings, seminars, and other such things through which they can learn how to expand their profits. This paper would focus on Young Men’s Christian Association London South West. It is a registered charity working in many diverse areas; Supported Housing; Health & Fitness (Y+ Fitness); Children's Work (Space); Youth Work (Room) and community cafes (Canteen at YMCA). Working in partnership with other like-minded organization is something they have found to be very effective and current partners include the NHS, Kingston Churches against Homelessness and Age UK. It provides housing to the homeless in southwest. Along with this, it also provides emotional help to the people who are going through a tough time. They help people who are emotionally disturbed or lack some skills, which are necessary to survive. For these services, they require individuals who are expert in human skills. These individuals are not very easy to find and once found they need constant training and guidance because human behavior is unpredictable. YMCA also provides Fitness Facilities. They call their fitness facilities Y+ Fitness because they provide some extras that one would not find at other fitness clubs. These extras include ‘Get Started’ program, IFI accreditation and certain supple membership alternative including the choice to ‘pay as you go’. The major extra is that YMCA uses all profits from Y+ to help run other YMCA projects and helpless young people. YMCA has also been providing childcare for years. It does not provide this care just for the sake of providing it but it also makes sure that children are happy with the services they get. The team that is responsible for taking care of children should get continuous trainings regarding the activities, moods and habits of children so that they can easily handle them. Moreover, team should also be aware of first aid because children enjoy experimenting and they are hit during their experiments especially in summer camps (Kraiger, Ford, & Salas, 1993, pp. 31-32). Therefore, teams should be ready to treat them so that the injury does not get worsen. Even small trainings are very costly these days so YMCA needs to be very wise in spending the money on these trainings. YMCA does not need to bring professionals for this however, the people who have been doing this for years at YMCA can also give this training and save the funds for other activities. YMCA is doing a phenomenal job by giving youth opportunity to learn interesting activities such as dance, sports, and music. They have qualified professionals who make young people learn different instruments; these young people also get chances to talk to their coaches regarding their problems. People also get chances to complete their education if they left it without completing it or expelled from their institutions. They also have floors on which people have healthy discussions about religion, faith and other such topics. They do not charge any fees for these activities, they are completely free, and YMCA gets funds to sponsor these activities from donations, funds, and grants. As this organization does not charge any fees, it needs to be very efficient and effective in resource allocation (Lyles & Marjorie, pp. 25-109). However, it gets many grants and fund but it needs to learn how to reduce expenditures so that it has money for rainy days. In YMCA London southwest, Learning and Development was present but the way in which its management was taking place did not make it worth for the organization. Each department of the organization was arranging trainings at its own individual level. The Learning and Development Manager Gloria Ssali said, “We didn’t have all the data to know what courses people were doing and what records were being kept. It was difficult to monitor the training budget and to know the impact training had on individuals”. This statement clarifies the whole situation of YMCA. This is not as simple as it looks; when each department takes care of its training system itself, and keeps no record, it leads to bigger issues. In a company when different departments arrange different trainings, it causes the dissimilarity between the levels of people working for different department. One cannot deny that people of different departments should have different levels; however, these levels should not be entirely different because this could create a problem for the company. Senior level managers were not even aware of the courses and subjects that the employees were learning in the training. Information regarding the expertise of employees is very important for the managers to know about because company can use employees’ expertise at many places. Moreover, this also helps managers take decisions regarding promotions and demotions of employees. In well organized companies, managers maintain full records, which include strengths, weaknesses, skills, expertise and other important aspects of employees’ personalities in database of the company so that in the time of need company can contact any employee which possesses the relevant skill. This system is mainly important for YMCA because its work is such that it can require any type of skill at any time. The main problem raised because of working of different departments separately is the allocation of amount of budget. Not every department of the company requires same amount of budget for organizing trainings and seminars. Needs, requirements, operating procedures, equipments, and other such items of different departments are diverse according to their responsibilities (Pisano, 2006, pp. 85-100). Therefore, budgeting and financing departments of companies arrange meetings in which they sit for hours only to decide the amount of budget that each department should get. This shows the significance of allocation budget amount to the departments. If bigger departments get smaller amount of money they would not be able to fulfill the requirements of their staff. Similarly, if smaller departments get bigger amounts of money they might waste the money in areas, which are of no use. Moreover, it might become the reason of de-motivation of the employees. If learning and development is to take place in a company it should take place in a manner that every element of the company gets its benefits and ultimately company grows. Today, if companies do not regulate their learning systems according to needs of time, they leave behind in the race of success. Coordination of departments, technological skills, decision-making skills and authorities all are parts of learning system of the company. Companies want to hire people who are always is quest of learning because world is constantly changing and only those can grow and even survive who are ready to adopt change and learn as much as they can. Another big issue created because of this is that management was unable to measure the impacts of training on the employees’ productivity. It is obvious because when management is not aware of the subjects that the training catered how it would be able to evaluate its impacts. Feedback mechanism possesses great importance for not only business purposes but also for every matter of life (Tannenbaum, 1997, pp. 437-452). If managers do not get proper feedback, they would not be able to know that which factors of the training were effective and which did not leave any positive impacts. Many people would have an opinion that separate trainings for different departments are more effective because when smaller numbers of people are catered, each of them gets equal importance. This argument is not at all wrong because in such trainings people get opportunities to polish their previous skills and learn new skills; however, collective training unleashes aspects, which are the most important things for companies to consider today. When all the departments get opportunities to attend a collective training, they would learn to work collectively. They would learn how each department is important for the other one and learn to respect other employees. A company cannot run if its employees have clashes and grudges among themselves. Unity is very important for achievement and if employees learn, how to work collaboratively they would be able to meet the challenges of today’s world. Moreover, in long-term collaboration is going to work because people can survive on their own only for a shorter period ultimately they would need others to survive. Since primitive ages, people have been learning constantly but had they kept this learning to themselves how would this world grow. A saying goes that by sharing, one’s knowledge expands. These were the problems of YMCA and there are many solutions to resolve them. The first thing to do is to bring the entire training budget to one department, then the manager must see that what courses have been previously taught in the training and how they can be modified. Manager can ask employees that what types of skills they require, after doing this he can ponder over the responses and the skills that most of the people require. Because of these responses, the manager can include them in the training module. Along with this, the manager can also come up with certain standards through which he can measure the performance of employees each month and gives them rewards accordingly. The manager should also update the application form of trainings in such a manner that they can know which employees might leave the organization within 12 months or less so that they do not waste their resources on them. The manager can also use the application form to evaluate the improvement of employee, department and the whole organization. Form should contain such elements, which are able to identify the level of employees before and after the training at a particular subject (Senge, 1999, pp. 55-58). After the completion of training, manager should review the budget for upcoming trainings and events. For example, if organization has spent a lot of amount on first aid, next time they should make it as in-house training. Manager should make Learning and Development a part of strategic planning. The manager of learning and development department should constantly meet the department heads to know about their progress and needs so that their training module in future contains those factors. She can also ask the department heads about the most promising employee so that next time she can engage such employee as training providing mentor. The manager can also give employees freedom to tell what they want to learn which help them accomplish their personal goals. For example, employees can come up with interests to learn to write and speak English. If employees get opportunities to learn English, their love and passion for their work and organization would increase and they would give their best to the organization. YMCA needs to pay great attention to the courses they provide during training. The main reason behind failure of trainings is the selection of courses and modules. Courses should not be boring, long and entirely power point based. If the Learning and Development team wants people to enjoy the training rather than considering it as a burden they will have to design the courses in such a manner that employee involvement becomes very high. The courses that are of high value today are Team Building and Difficult Conversation. Rather than these topics, if trainings include boring management topics, which does not contribute in developing employees’ skills then training is of no use. YMCA’s services are such that they want their employees and workers to be united because at times conditions occur that one person cannot handle it. Moreover, the employees at YMCA need to be aware of the significance of the work that they doing (Mayoc, 2004, pp. 67-90). Trainings should be flexible; they should allow employees to learn in their own ways and at time, which is most favorable for them. They should not be time-bounded and space-bounded especially when teams live in dispersed countries. This also helps reduce the amount of budget. In much training, teams make mistakes of making the training so long that employees have no choice other than sleeping. When employees can understand something in five minutes, what is the need of making it of five hours? Today, people do not have much time, they do not only go to office for work but they have many side businesses, which they have to look after so that they do not fall down in the time of economic disturbances. The shorter the better, this should be the thought behinds every training. Employees want to participate in the trainings so that they get to know how to implement practically what they learn. Using power point and computerized methods in everything is not creative (Wilson, 2005, pp. 45-100). Letting employees do things without use of computer is also exciting, they would take help from each other and this would create synchronization among them. Trainings need to interactive because more ideas bring in more creativity. The goal of learning and development team is to help people achieve their aims utilizing their own potential. Their goal is to make people aware of their own strengths and use them for the benefits of organization. This team’s responsibility is to make people capable of taking new challenges. This thing cannot happen only with the help of courses but the individuals who are responsible for conducting trainings need to be very strong and motivated and create the same spirit in employees. They need to make learning as exciting; they need to create scenarios because of which people get excited whenever they hear of attending any conference or training. They need to make people love their work. Organizations usually have employees who belong to all ages, therefore learning and development department has to design the training in such a way that all of them enjoy the way they learn. Older people favor classroom sessions whereas youth want to have online learning. Nevertheless, one thing that both the groups prefer is effective learning in shorter period. As per need of today’s busy schedule, Learning and Development teams should start planning trainings that the mentors can conduct online. People do not have time for leaving their offices for two or three days and training sessions unless the training worth something big. If organizations are, arranging huge training sessions, which are going to be very productive for their employees and the organization only, then they should expect from the employees to leave the offices. Practical implementation is very important but it is not necessary for everything. If people can learn something effectively, only with the help of power point then it should not be replaces by anything else. People believe that future learning will be very concerted. With the existence of social networking, email and speedy communication in our personal lives, people anticipate their training to be concerted as well. This suggests more assisted webinars, more searching with social networking, and augmented usage of active eLearning with imitation and interactivity. In-classroom trainings will have to focus less on the ‘preach and teach’ plan, and more on the experimental, interactive exercise module of learning. Attendance has always been a concern for trainings. Organizations drag the employees in many tracks, which become a reason of last minute cancellation of trainings. This happens because employees cannot give their proper attention to even one thing when they have many activities to perform. When employees need to attend any training, managers should not remind them constantly of the work that they have to complete. It would be better for both the company and the employee if the employee give complete attention to the training (Holmqvist, 2004, pp. 70-81). Training experts should not only consider organizing training as work for which they would get money at the end. They should keep in mind that organizations spend a lot of money on the training and it is not just a formality; however, company’s growth depends on the training. YMCA needs to arrange proper meetings before execution of any training so that individuals get a chance to ponder over the courses, format, budget, and activities of the training. Moreover, they should not call outsiders to conduct trainings if insiders can do the same thing in same manner (Hamilton & Scandura, 2003, pp. 388-402). However, experts should conduct them when insiders are unable to do it in the same manner. References Dansereau, D. 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P. 2006. Knowledge, Integration, and the Locus of Learning: An Empirical Analysis of Process Development. Strategic Management Journal, pp. 85-100. Senge, P. 1999. The dance of change: The challenges to sustaining momentum in learning organizations. Performance Improvement, pp. 55-58. Tannenbaum, S. I. 1997. Enhancing continuous learning: Diagnostic findings from multiple companies. Human Resource Management, pp. 437–452. Wilson, J. P. 2005. Human Resource Development: Learning and Training for Individuals and Organizations. Kogan Page Publishers. Read More