Key Success Factors of a Systematic Learning and Development Approach - Research Paper Example

Learning and development is a continuous process, this is essential for growth and improvement. Companies and organizations spend a large amount of money and time just for research in order to identify the problems and areas of improvement to structure a program for business and organizational processes for human and organizational development, product development, work ethics and company goals. The areas mentioned set the standards of a company or organization and creates its image based on the caliber of their products, services, employees and their business and operation processes. Over the years, the market demand for the improvement of products and services has been increasing and going up to a higher level every now and then. And to address these market demands is a must for companies and organizations. It is the only way to cope with the competition in the market or industry they cater to, and in order for them to achieve development, trainings for procedures or processes for product and service development are needed to educate and to feed new information or technology to new and existing employees of the company or organization. Learning and development structures in terms of education also have been evolving to better cope with the learning styles, patterns, behaviors and trend of the newer generation of learners and also for the development of the older generation. This is why every company and organization have a systematic approach of learning and development used for training their employees or learners. Upgrade in technology, changes in procedures for operations or production and value added services provided to clients and ends users of the market must be learned. This is where training comes in, the process of transferring information or technology for development in a short amount of time. A usual training course for learning and development takes about a month, which is the maximum duration for learning and development trainings. This training will cover new operational processes and procedures that will directly solve the problem. It is important that all participants will be able to meet the standards of the training basing on the metrics that was set in order for employees to meet standards in operation procedures of an organization. However, a specific systematic approach may not be effective for all kinds of problems and issues. Training courses may be specific for one or two areas of development. The training structure should be unique and should vary from one course to another. This is why the process must be flexible at the same time. This is in order for educators or instructors to maximize and fully utilize each and every aspect of learning in a specific program course to achieve the desired goal of development for the learners or trainees. We must also take into consideration that not all people, students, employees and trainees have the same learning capability. Learners are categorized as fast, normal and slow learners. With this fact, the training structure must be designed in a systematic way in which all of the three learner categories will be catered and fairly considered. A lot of key factors and approaches must be taken into consideration in order to structure a systematic process that can also be flexible at the same time. In addition to that, learning and development metrics must also be considered to monitor and evaluate learning and developmental progress of the learner or trainees. These factors will be the foundation of the training, and with continuous research, a systematic training can further be developed or improved to make it more efficient when used for future trainings. Key success factors of a systematic learning and development approach: Objective The training objective dictates the purpose for learning and development training. It also gives a standard outcome and sets the goal of a training course for learning and development in what aspect the organization wants the employees, participants or learners to improve on and on how they would improve it (D Simmons 2003). In a business process or academic set-up, a problem or issue that requires change and development occurs every now and then. Facts and data for basis should be gathered to identify the cause or reasons of these problems or issues. It is vital that the source of the problem should be identified in order for an organization or company to determine and strategize the appropriate approach to address these problems and issues. Once the source of the problem or issue has been identified, it is only then that a solution that will involve change and development can be strategized to address the problems and issues. This will create a way or opportunity for an organization to further improve or develop existing processes used for operations. Learning and development has one major objective, to further educate employees or academic learners on processes for improvement and to set new standards for operations. It is the essence of the learning process. It is considered to be the foundation in which the development or change was set for. Without an objective, the whole process will not have a structure of standards which will lead to not achieve anything. Another importance of objective in a learning and development scenario is the impact and importance it sets in regards to the training or curriculum atmosphere. It also establishes the organizational or university environment based on the standards it requires for their employees or students. Learning and development through training are factors which makes the transition of knowledge possible and the new process or knowledge to be effective. An organization’s development is inspired by an objective or goal that requires change in business or operations process and academic or curriculum based standards. Problems that arise from daily operation procedures usually compromise the standards and quality of the service or product a business or organization offers. There are also instances that the incompetency of the employees due to lack of skill contribute to these problems. The objective of a learning and development training is to minimize, if not to eliminate, all causes of errors. Evaluation of learning Learning and development through training are factors which makes the transition of knowledge possible and the new process or knowledge to be effective. An organization’s development is inspired by an objective or goal that requires change in business or operations process and academic or curriculum based standards. One of the most important aspect or key success factor for a systematic approach in learning and development courses and training is the program or training’s owns evaluation. This is necessary to improve the systematic approach of the program or training. In every learning and development courses or trainings, there are areas of improvement of little errors that will occur every now and then, or changes in academic requirement or organization’s business and operation process that needs to be incorporated with the current systematic training approach. The primary role of line managers of training is to evaluate its effectiveness to develop its strategies and systematic approach to enhance the training’s effectiveness and efficiency. Through this, not only will the organization or institute maximize the training’s full potential in delivering and feeding new information to learners or trainees, it will also be cost effective at the same time. Training is expensive, planning and strategizing a systematic approach will take time, it is better if an organization gets the right systematic approach at the first time, but more often than not, trial and errors are also part of change. This is also one reason why the evaluation is important to a training program or learning and development course. Through this, the company saves money in creating new materials like manuals and computer based programs and time for research and planning as well (Goldsmith and Nickson 1997). Identifying learning needs Identification of learning needs is one of the key success factors that need to be highly considered in creating or developing a systematic approach for a learning and development course of training program. In order for us to determine how the approach of a learning and development course or a training program in a systematic way through training should be, we must first identify or assess the needs for training. The need for research and planning is essential for the program to have a high success rate. This is also to identify which systematic process will be used for the delivery of the needed knowledge and development for the organizational and operational procedures. Analysis on individual performance and organizational analysis based on current organizational work environment processes and procedures and its need for development or change, must be taken into consideration (Sadler-Smith 2006). After the cause of an issue has been identified and the problem acknowledged, the need for change and development must be implemented or collaborated to the existing business or operation process of an organization to create a more sufficient and effective process that will raise the quality or standards of the organization. In this case, the need to develop current standards and processes will require training. But before an organization could start training, the factors and tools which will make the training effective in delivering information and learning must be taken into consideration. These factors and tools may vary depending from the problem or issue at hand. If an organization or even a classroom academic teaching lacks the proper tools for training, the whole learning process will be incompetent in providing sufficient information and knowledge that will be essential for development. After a number of brainstorming sessions regarding the issue has been done by all the concerning departments of an organization, the key factors or critical areas can be uncovered. From there, a solution that will directly address or solve these small contributing issues which leads to one big problem will be determined. After the solution has been determined, the breakdown on how these issues will be structured in a way for employees or learners to understand the new process easily. Delivery of learning activities Planning is part of every business organizations and institute’s daily activity. It was well explained how training can be expensive, and that it is important for trainees or learners to absorb all the information provided in the course, in addition to that training or learning and development courses are usually shorter than academic courses. Having all this factors taken into consideration, it is then of great importance for the training department to see that all activities incorporated in the course must be related to the training’s objective. Another key success factor in learning and development training programs and courses is the delivery of activities. in a systematic approach in a learning and development program or training, training activities may vary from one another. This is why the flexibility of delivering the activities chosen for each course must be delivered in a sequential manner that will lead to a conclusion. Trainings and learning and development courses are always leading to a conclusion that is in favor of the training objective. The advantage of planning and strategizing the delivery of activities is to make the flow and transfer of information more clear and understandable for the participants as a group in a learning and development class or training course. Another advantage of having a systematic approach in training activities is to fully develop and bring out one’s potential and skills. Through this, managers and supervisors can maximize the use of one’s skill for the improvement of their operations Team or individual activities for learning and development in trainings must have activities to enhance teamwork and ensure that the technology used or materials will maximize the spread of information in the process (Harrison 2005). Discussions are sometimes used as a strategy or activity to take a break from classroom lectures but still being productive at the same time. Discussions are also used as a tool in training. This allows the trainers to check for knowledge and gauge how the class is following or coping with the lecture. Refreshers are also in a form of discussion, making it interactive for the participants or the trainees. It is sharing what they have learned in lectures and other training related activities. This is also a good practice in which it can feed more information and additional knowledge about the course to co-trainees. During this time it is best to remind and reiterate on the objective of the training. Make sure that the participants or learners know their training objective. Knowing their training objective will create balance from lecture and discussions that will lead to a conclusion that will define the goal or reason for development or change. The information given to the participants or trainees must be adequate to make the discussion meaningful and productive, and even provide or come up with more ideas for a solution or development of the issue the topic addresses (Hackett 2003). Design of learning activities Designing and strategizing learning and development activities which will be used for trainings must be calibrated with the issue or the objective why change or development in organizational process or business procedures is required or needed. A large number of organizations from different sectors and academic institutes look at development trainings as an enhancement of their on-going operational activities. This is why designing of learning activities is also considered one of the key success factors in learning and development programs or training courses. This is why the design of activities that will be incorporated in training and learning and development courses must be long term, and must have to set the new workplace environment in the operation process or organizational procedures (Kirkpatrick 2006). Coaching is also part of training and learning and development activities. Coaching is another tool used in training to feed information to a participant. This tool is used to discuss personal development and progress of a participant in the process of the training. Coaching sessions also cover the areas of improvement for a particular participant. Coaching is very important specially in setting a participant in the right pace and focus on areas he needs to develop on. After taking an assessment and based on the interaction and attitude of the participants in the lecture and discussions. Coaching sessions are also documented. This is where an action plan is created or structured for the participant’s progress is being agreed upon. Coaching is usually being conducted after every assessment, but not limited to that. Coaching is a tool used for the development of an employee, student or trainee. Trainers, instructors and even teachers give out coaching when they see that it is necessary. At the next coaching session the performance of a student, trainee or employee is then evaluated based on the individual’s performance after the previous coaching and action plan agreed on. It is important that training ensures that all trainees or participants of a training or learning and development course review the outcomes of their development activities. the need to answer the following questions is important to evaluate their progress. What went well? What are others ways the participant could have done to make the process better? And why? What can I do to improve my approach next time? What have I learned? How will I use the new knowledge or information in my future dealing or transactions? This pattern in coaching activities will back-up classroom training activities on helping individual participants understand their progress and needs for development (Thorne 2001). Without proper classroom training activities like discussions, lectures, interactive group activities, individual activities and coaching activities, the chances of the training program for learning and development will be unstable or slim in-terms of how successful the process of providing information will be. This will in result compromise the quality of the product or service provided by the organization could also result to more operational errors. Reassessment of Current Systematic Training Approach An organizational training metrics model is a list of key factors and their statistics to ensure that learning and development through training is meeting the needs of both staff and the organization. These statistics are used to determine if the participants are actually meeting the required standards to perform better. It is also used as a basis for performance development coaching. Without training metrics it will be impossible to monitor and gauge the development or progress of every individual and participants as a group. A systematic approach is also developed from previous experiences and data. These experiences and data are gathered through training or learning and development evaluations. This is also where they determine what and which aspects of the training needs to be developed. Adjustments on approaches are also done to calibrate its learning and development system to further make the program more effective in delivering information and enhancing employees or the participants’ skills. Training needs assessment and training evaluation to further improve its process and increase the quality of results it produces (Rohmetra 2005). Analysis and results from individual performance and group performance in class room training will gauge the efficiency of the training. Having the results, it will be then studied and analyzed to determine if there are changes that needs to be done with the training process which will result to a more developed and more effective systematic approach in training that will be used for future learning and development courses. The use of learning and development training is widely known in organizations and companies. And the importance of having a systematic approach has been recognized. The major benefit of having a systematic approach is the organized and strategic way of delivering or transferring of information depending on the issues that needs to be resolved. A systematic training approach will basically and technically cover all the key success factors which will be the foundation of learning and development trainings in delivering their goal to develop existing processes and personal development of their employees, which in result will unleash the full potential of their employees in utilizing their skills. 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