Systematic Training - Essay Example

Systematic Training – Training Needs Analysis Contents Systematic Training – Training Needs Analysis Contents Introduction 2 Literature Review 3 Outline of the TNA Process 5 Analysis & Recommendations 6 Conclusion 8 References 9 Appendix A  9 Introduction Every organization strives to improve its competitiveness and enhance business. To achieve this, effective training of the firm’s employees is highly essential. The productivity and efficiency of employees will not remain constant at all times unless the organization takes adequate steps to improve worker skills and motivation. For example, the skills of workers can decline with time, the business may expand into new areas or the existing skills of workers may not be useful any longer with improvements in technology. In such cases, providing effective training to management through appropriate methods is the most effective strategy. Firms regularly employ ‘Training Needs Analysis (TNA)’ to train their employees in order to serve their employees with quality services. TNA allows companies to assess their internal requirements for improving staff skills. For this purpose, a determination of job roles and responsibilities is undertaken at every level and category with respect to the employees working in the various departments. This paper details the outcomes of a TNA study conducted on an electrical engineer (referred to as the ‘subject’) who works at ESB International, a prominent energy company. The subject works in the ‘Engineering and Facility Management’ department and his roles primarily include the design and management of projects related to electrical sub-stations. The subject works in a team of five people and is the technical manager of the group. Literature Review The study has been influenced by the recommendations of Garavan et al (2003) in identifying the training needs of entities at various levels within the organization. Thus, the literature review and the analysis are driven by the key aspects outlined by Garavan. Essentially, an ideal TNA process should be carried out at 3 levels: Organizational level Departmental/Job level Individual level The different levels mentioned above are important elements of assessing the training needs and are highly interrelated. Thus, performing a study based on this structure will provide a balanced analysis that can address the requirements at each of these levels. A typical TNA analysis begins with a review of the strategic and operational objectives of the organization. For example, the SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis is a technique to identify such objectives. At the departmental level, the role of managers is widely studied and the skills of team members are reviewed against all identified objectives. This is important as organizational success is only possible if all departments and teams are in a position to realize their goals. Normally, performance reviews are common avenues for such assessments. While the evaluation of factors at these two levels is important, the analysis in this study has also focused extensively on the training needs analysis at the individual level, whose characteristics are elaborated below: Individual level Meetings with supervisors and managers allow employees to identify their individual needs for further learning and development. Workers are frequently provided the opportunity to identify any additional skills that they may require to achieve their objectives and aspire for career advancement. The need to take account of employees’ personal development and ambitions is of particular significance in flatter organizational structures where there are not many options for career advancement. Such situations are likely to discourage people in the absence of an incentive or challenge to work harder for better results and recognition. However, it is also important for managers to understand the limitations of their employees and not raise expectations beyond a certain achievable level. Care needs to be taken when determining learning requirements at the individual level as it is not confined to what needs to be learnt, but also requires the identification of the best practices and methods to achieve it. For this study, a questionnaire based approach has been adopted with the aim to obtain answers to the following questions at the individual level: 1. Employee expectations from work 2. Key strengths 3. Areas where the individual wishes to improve 4. Areas where more responsibility is required 5. Difficulties and issues preventing personal development 6. Skills and talents to develop 7. Preferred methods of learning 8. Skills and practices that would provide more confidence at work Outline of the TNA Process The analysis of the subject is based on a 4 step model whose details are described below: Step 1 – Preparation of the review: The initial phase of the study was to identify the potential subject and determine the manner in which the required data would be obtained from the subject. A number of techniques such as direct observations, 360 degree feedback, interviews and focus groups are available for this process. However, it was decided to obtain information through a questionnaire based survey as it provided information on a number of areas related to the problem and was an easy way for the subject to answer. Step 2 – Collection and initial interpretation: Another challenge when questioning an employee is to identify the specific topics or areas that would prove useful in getting the most qualitative information from the subject. For this purpose, the questionnaire was designed into a set of 5 rows and 2 columns with the rows containing important skill areas (Planning & Coordination, People management, Quality & Cost, Communication and position specific details). The first column was the ‘importance’ level that the subject associated with each skills area while the second column required a selection of the current efficiency with which the objectives within each skill area were being met. Step 3 – Data analysis: A deep evaluation of the subject’s responses for each skills area under each column was undertaken and relevant conclusions were identified. This particular step was performed together with the subject, taking into account his reasons and beliefs for providing these ratings. Step 4 – Identification of T&D priorities: The conclusions derived from the previous step were grouped together and useful outcomes were described. Based on the responses, the top three priorities have been listed in the conclusion section. The details of the questionnaire responses can be found in the Appendix A. Analysis & Recommendations The primary use of the two columns in the questionnaire is to determine the most important skill areas and job dimensions that need to be addressed and separate them from those that are functioning in a satisfactory manner. This was achieved through a two step process involving the columns in question whereby a job dimension that is relatively important in nature but has received a low rating is categorized as an area that needs immediate attention. In the other cases, jobs with a low importance and high or average ratings can be ignored as the available training resources must be devoted to improving those skills that were identified as highly or moderately critical. A large portion of the subject’s responsibilities is devoted to planning and coordination of the team’s activities. Based on the responses, it appears that while all job dimensions within this skills area are highly important, almost all of them except the planning and scheduling of individual units are not progressing according to plan. The subject has been able to achieve up to an average of 50% of his goals in this area and has attributed this to delays among team members in achieving their individual objectives. The subject also emphasizes the need to attain skills in improving team management and bringing in better controls within his group. The survey has also focused on the important question of managing people within the team and department. Compared to planning, the subject has given a lower priority towards people management by showing lesser importance to tasks within this skill area. The low ratings of job completion in all these tasks further suggest serious problems that the subject is facing in managing his team efficiently, which are ultimately leading to missed deadlines, decline in quality and lack of individual motivation. In any business, the efficient management of cost and quality is a primary aspect when comparing the team and the manager in general. In fact, the success of any project depends highly on the proper control of quality and cost and their differences from initial targets. As expected, the subject gives more priority to effective control over cost and quality and realizes the importance they can have on future prospects at both the team and personal levels. However, the efficiency ratings also suggest that despite recognizing the critical role of this area, the current skills and efforts of the subject have not proved successful in enhancing productivity beyond 50-60%. According to Richter (2006), team communication is the essence of successful completion of individual and organizational objectives. The responses suggest that the subject’s firm has been successful in managing a good communication platform through an efficient IT infrastructure. Further, the subject understands the importance of communication in group projects but has also noted the partial success of his team in maintaining clarity and timely reporting. In this context, the subject has further noted the need to improve organizational and situational awareness through additional training. Conclusion The current analysis has identified several potential areas that the subject may wish to improve upon through proper training and improvement of relevant skills. Each of these is elaborated below: Most importantly, there is a primary need to give more recognition to effective people management within the organization. The subject must gain further knowledge on the efficient management of human resources and apply these skills in currently deficient areas like worker motivation, training and appraisals. Secondly, it also appears that while the subject realizes the importance of all other skill areas and related job dimensions, there is a lack of achievement in fulfilling individual objectives. On an average, the efficiency rate of completing tasks has been estimated at only 50% and is unacceptable for an important activity such as constructing and managing electrical sub-stations. Thus, more practical training that can assist the subject’s team in applying techniques to real situations could be beneficial in improving these results. Lastly, it is also recommended that the subject widen the scope of his digital communication platform to include timely reporting, goal setting and clarity in details. In general, it is seen that the subject mostly recognizes the importance of all the required skill areas to deliver his duties effectively but lacks the knowledge and expertise to achieve them at acceptable levels. There is a wide scope for further improvement and the subject must find suitable practical training methods that will allow him and his team to gain additional skills and attain the experience to implement them in their regular work. References 1. Garavan, TN., Hogan, C., & Cahir O’Donnell, A. (2003) Making Training and Development Work – A Best Practice Guide Appendix A  Read More