Strategy for Effective Training and Development Programs - Term Paper Example

Strategy for effective training and development programmes As John Egan puts it , "The absolute fundamental aim is to make money out of satisfying customers". Yes that is the only way to make profits for all the businesses and there is no other shortcut for getting profits. Deriving form the quotation, the next issue is how to satisfy your customer. Customer satisfaction can be attained through better products, quality, price, etc, etc, but if we analyze all these factors, it ultimately points to one factor that is the human resource in that organization. The commitment and the competitiveness of the human resource is the deciding factor of success. Hence, in our organization much attention was given for the training and development of the workers. How to make these training and development programmes more effective is a challenge to the human resource department. Hence, alternate strategies were tried and tested. This paper explains the nature of our organization and the challenges faced by the human resource department and the level of success achieved. MY WORK PLACE AND MY JOB With the huzz and buzz created by globalization, there is opportunity everywhere because of the world becoming a small market place, thanks to internet! So when everybody talks about global competition or global standards, the focus of any organization should be on human resource. The human resource is one resource that controls other resources in an organization. In the new economy there is a lot of attention given on the development of human resource and knowledge management. Welcome to my world. With this scenario as the backdrop, I want to tell you about my company. My company is a textile yarn manufacturing company. You may ask what is yarn Yarn is the thread that is made from polyester or cotton. The thread is then dyed, woven into cloth, which is then stitched into garments. But in our company we buy polyester and make the yarn and supply them to the customer. To make this yarn, we have nearly fifteen hundred workers divided into various departments according to the various processes of production. I work in the human resource department as training and development coordinator. Our department is responsible for recruiting, staffing, counseling, separation and training and development. Of all the activities in our department the management allocates a lot of resources for the training and development part. Why is that so Firstly, our management has realized that the quality of the people decides the quality of the product. Secondly, there is a high chance of accidents happening on the job which may result in temporary and permanent disabilities of workers. Thirdly, the yarn we produce are exported to very quality conscious customers who may reject the whole order if the product is not of the specified quality. OUR TRAINING PROGRAMMES We organize workshops and panel discussions every Saturday. The main objective of these sessions are to improve the motivation of the employees, to keep them updated on the latest technology and trends and to create workable relationships to facilitate efficient functioning. The topics include quality control and assurance, better shop floor safety, machinery maintenance, excellence in a team, effective leadership, etc, etc. it is compulsory for the shop floor workers and the middle level management to attend these programmes. The resource persons for these programmes include us, i.e., from the human resource department and external faculty and sometimes professional and technical consultants. These programmes often serve as a platform for exchanging information between us and the workers. In this process we also come across various issues which were overlooked by the management and we also get an insight into those issues. ONE WAY TRAFFIC First it was difficult to make the employees come to the workshops. And then it was made compulsory and we had full attendance, but the workers tried to avoid these programmes as much as possible. The main reason was being they didn't want to be in a classroom again. When we conducted the workshops we felt that the communication was always one way. There was not much of quality feedback or views from the participants. Next, how much was the skill or idea gathered implemented in the actual job The particpants came with a mental make up that they have withstand the day to hold on to the job. So with this kind of participants how is the motivation, leadership and other development concepts going to out to work That is the challenge. PROBLEMS IN SPECIFIC When we organize motivational workshops, one was in particular about conflict management. The nature of conflicts in organizations were explained after a couple of nice thought provoking exercises. But when it came to the analysis of the reasons for conflicts on job, there was very little sharing of information ,because of the fear of embarrassing or pointing out on somebody personal. When the true reasons of conflicts is not discussed, for me as an outsider to their work group, was very difficult to carry on the session without the nagging fear that you were talking something which was irrelevant. It is more like a guessing game. We figure out the issues superficially without touching the roots of the issues. The main reason being the lack of motivation to share information and the facilitator not being a part of the workgroup does not know how much is true. If that is the case, then how come many companies are hiring professional trainers to develop their human resources. But in our factory, the purpose of the training programme was to improve the efficiency of the shop floor workers, which is directly related to their job performance. With the education level of the workers and their previous experiences in classrooms had serious impact on the learning outcome which we called as the "glass layer effect". It simply was not working. Strategy adopted To overcome this effect we had to think something new or the whole exercise is going to be a futile. So we had to analyse what was the real factor which was stopping the workers form taking the ideas seriously and considering them to implement it. If we were able to identify the factors which created the glass layer then the ideas shared will be more seriously considered for implementation from the view of each individual. So a study was carried out among all the operatives in the factory. All the 1500 operatives in all the departments were given questionnaires . The objective was to know the perception of the workers about the management and the training and development, their status in the company, their expectation from the company and how much they understood the expectations from the management. In addition to the questionnaire study, interviews were also conducted with the department head s and supervisors to gather information. It was identified again from the study that the workers were not able to correlate the relationship between what is discussed in the workshop and their job. So these workshops were parallel to their job performance. The job is done in their own way and the seminars and workshops were also attended. The main resaons for this gap is that, first we were not speaking their language. we weir workgroups, so there was always a gap in addressing the issues. Another factor was that the workers were not part of planning, organizing and the conduct of these programmes. Somebody had felt the need, so they were arranging and the workers have to spend time there. That was the attitude. ALTERNATIVE STRATEGY To overcome these barriers to communication, we made some changes in our strategy and the effectiveness improved considerable. We had to split the concepts into simpler modules which could be easily comprehended and identified with the daily issues by the operatives. Next, we identified informal leaders among the operatives in each department or work group. Then these informal leaders were first counseled about the importance of the human resource to the organization, how the work for they could contribute to the efficiency of the organization and how these workshops can create value for them. So instead of saying "we are going to discuss conflict management", now we are saying "what do you want to discuss about the last week lag in quality". Also ideas were invited from the informal leaders. the informal leaders will discuss the training requirement and communicate to the HR department. Another change made was to make the team players as the initiators and facilitators. The role of the Human resource development staff was minimized to just an organizer. As a result of it, the workers were able to identify the issues they had to discuss essentially and the areas they have to learn more. With this approach we could initiate more responses from the workers and there was a pressure on the workers to try what has been discussed as they are checked by the peers. CONCLUSION The challenges in increasing the effectiveness of the development programmes were achieved through strategic changes in communication methods. Let others talk could be a key factor for success. Another key factor for success was encouraging upward communication and creating an atmosphere of openness. With all these changes made in our strategy we were able to build the commitment to quality and efficiency at all levels in our organization. References: 1. David R. Fred, Strategic Management, Concepts and Cases, Prentice Hall, New Delhi, 2005, 155 - 161. 2. Krizan A.C, Merrier Patricia, Logan Joyce and William Karen, Business communication, Thomson South-Western Publishing Co, Cincinnati, 2007 3. Polychroniou, Panagiotis, "Relationships of Conflict Strategies to Organizational Communication: Using Integrating Style for Managing Interdepartmental Conflicts" June 2003, from SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=445780 4. Randy Ryerson, Building an effective Communication strategy, May 8th, 2007, http://www.mdm.com/stories/ryerson3305.html Read More