Training and Development - Essay Example

Training and Development Training and Development Introduction Human resource is a vital tool in production, besides capital and land. Labor is the key factor that shapes and arranges the raw materials to form the final usable product. Human input in the production process primarily defines the production of services. Human resource, therefore, should be enhanced to the prime levels in order to attain the desirable competitive advantage in the market. However, there are challenges that various, especially servicing companies, face in the management of human resource. Since this factor of production involved humans directly, there are safety precautions that must be in place, and observed with utmost care as demanded by most of the occupational health and safety regulations (Brumitt & Human Kinetics (Organization), 2010). In many industries, people have succumbed injuries caused by poor human resource management. Professionalism, besides safety management is a crucial consideration as far as managing human input is concerned. Employees should be adequately equipped with the appropriate skills required in various production areas, which calls for sufficient implementation of training and talent development measures. The proper establishment of favorable working conditions is also important to this pursuit – management of human resource in the residential roofing installation company. When the employees are safe and enhanced professionally, they would eventually attain the highest performance ratios (Landy & Conte, 2010). Needs Assessment To initiate the training and development programs successfully, a needs assessment should be conducted effectively. The management should conduct the systematic process of addressing and determining the needs emanating from the current and desired conditions. To identify the need appropriately, the measurement of the wanted (future) conditions as well as the current conditions is imperative. This would help notify the needs of the operational situations that need to be tackled in the process of human resource management. Numerous requirements are needed to curb the challenges faced by the company to ensure employees are safe and well cared for during their operations such as the use of safety tools besides training. Conducting the needs assessment, prior to training, helps the company in many ways. For instance, it enables the company to identify the prospective needs for the production process. The needs assessment procedures also establish the nature and causes of needs experienced by the company. Lastly, by the realization of the needs, their causes and nature, the company can, therefore, come up with relevant solutions to the needs and set appropriate priorities for future actions. The entire process of needs assessment entails designing, launching, implementation and evaluation (Brumitt & Human Kinetics (Organization), 2010). Sometimes, companies fail to conduct a needs assessment. That is promoted because, in an ideal situation, it is virtually impracticable to satisfy all the wants and most companies always fail in their attempts to meet all their needs. At some point, companies may fail in performing the needs assessments due to the lack of time and commitment. Meeting strict deadlines hinders the companies to conduct the needs assessment process, which requires a considerable span of time. The concept of needs assessment can sometimes lead to unrealistic expectations and some companies prefer dealing with problems as they prevail, other than performing a needs assessment in order to avoid time and resource wastage. Stakeholders in the Needs Assessment and their Importance The needs assessment this project holds is basically the evaluation of the discrepancy or gap that lies between the currently existing situation and the target or desired state, what is prevailing and what should be instead. It is neither the present nor the future states but the gap that lies between them. This gap usually harbors various stakeholders within the system. Management usually performs the risk assessments to address the needs of the people involved in a system. Therefore, they are normally directed toward specific target groups or stakeholders within a system. The three stakeholders involved in the needs assessment include the management, the supervisors and the employees who are mainly students. It is important to include the management in the assessment. Management is the engine that drives all the company’s operations. It should be in a position to execute roles in an effective manner (Landy & Conte, 2010). This would be strengthened by the results of the needs assessment. The employees are the key stakeholders in the assessment since they are affected by the operations directly, so are the supervisors. The supervisors should be able to execute their roles appropriately, which is vital to include in the needs assessment. It is also crucial to include the clientele in the needs assessment. Clientele satisfaction is an important consideration for the company. To gather information from the employees, the use of questionnaire would function best while the clientele should be handled by conducting individual interviews, which is recorded. Interviews involve direct communication with the group and this creates an advantageous atmosphere that enhances effective communication. Communicating with customers on a face-to-face basis has an advantage over the use of questionnaire for it lays an environment conducive for production of responses; hence, enables immediate generation of solutions to the problems that, therefore, would enhance the needs assessment outcomes. Interviews would provide direct and detailed information regarding customer response on satisfaction through question-answer basis. Analytical data from observation and operational results is perfect for gathering information from the management and supervisors. The disadvantage of using a questionnaire is that some employees may fail to deliver results or provide incorrect information for personal interests. Questionnaires are delivered to the intended groups. The feedback is never guaranteed and when the feedback is provided and the forms returned, the groups may fail to deliver accurate information. Unlike in the interviews, the use of questionnaires does not support direct generation of responses and, therefore, requires data interpretations and analysis that need extra skills in the development of required information. The use of interview has a drawback of accessibility. It can be cumbersome assessing some clients especially when they involved in many other activities. One needs to directly access the targets and engage them on a face-to-face communication. Therefore, accessibility is a key requirement of this method of gathering information, which can be challenging as compared to the use of questionnaire where the forms can be left for the groups to fill at their own convenience. On the other hand, gathering information by analytical means of existing or resultant data can provide incorrect information due to data errors and improper analysis. The Safety Needs Skills The first safety need for roofing supervisors is train them on the precautions that include employees’ issues such as emotional and communications needs of the workers. Some accidents occur at workplace due to employees engaging in tasks when they are emotionally unstable. The supervisors are trained on skills of identifying such employees and allocating them tasks that are less dangerous. Another skill set needed by supervisors is the ability to use the safety equipment properly since employees can be provided by the equipment but use them in an inappropriate way. The proper usage of the safety materials such as headgears is necessary when observing employees occupational safety and health. Another need is to be able to keep the safety records properly to track the trends, which pinpoint the areas of operations that need assessment and improvement. Studying the trend would also identify the vulnerable target group that needs immediate and more focused attention. Additionally, the safety skills needs in this case also involves the ability to set a safe working environment, which includes the placement of tools and arrangement of the working area. Safety-related Learning Objective Some of the safety-related learning objectives include reducing the rate of injuries caused by employees by fellows in the working atmosphere; injuries caused by own due to ignorance or carelessness. Another objective is establishing a set of employees that are aware of the safety precautions, rules and regulations (McClelland, 2005). Having the right safety equipment is an important objective and lastly, to have an informed set of supervisors that would effectively engage the employees through assignments in a safe and healthy manner. The behavioral changes that would result from the above safety-related learning objectives are establishment of careful employees, informed set of workers regarding safety procedures and precautions, developing a management system that is concerned about safety and well-shaped and organized supervisors that are cognizant of the safety protocols that must be observed by all employees respectively. Non-Safety Related Skills Gap One non-safety related skills gap is poor management and supervision of workers. This might have contributed to the accidents because such a management would hesitate to train the supervisors and employees about safety measures. Supervision requires keenness and is responsible to the effectiveness of the use of the resources that have been provided by the management. Supervisors’ skills should incorporate the ability to check and control the use of resources, which must ensure that the working environment is safe for all the employees. A non-safety related skill gap that must hae contributed to the accidents is the lack of the supervisors to use the available resources appropriately. For instance, in the purchase of safety equipment that would protect the employees from dangers at the work place. Supervision requires proper allocation of funds that have been disbursed by the management, which should primarily consider safety of the workers alongside the availability of production materials. Training Before the training takes place, a suitable venue that would be at the convenience of every employee would be indispensable. It is also crucial to select an effective and qualified team of trainers to attend to the supervisors and employees. While the training is taking place, it is proper to maintain an environment conducive for the training (Barbazette, 2006). Convenient scheduling of tasks and management of time is also crucial to enhancing the efficiency of training. After training, the skills are placed into trial and evaluated. In case of any malfunctioning of the learned skills, the training manual is put into scrutiny and evaluation in order to rectify the drawback that causes the identified negative results of the training. Delivery Methods The training of the roofing supervisor entails the use of verbal and audio-visual techniques such as projectors that would screen the detail of the training. The use of power point presentation and demonstrative techniques is effective in preparing the supervisors for actual practice in the field. The use of audio-visual techniques vividly conveys the information to the trainers. Presentational techniques like using power point and demonstration are illustrational and put what is expected of the supervisors in a more practicable manner. The site or facilities where the training should take place should be in a large hall. To conduct demonstrative techniques, the trainees should be taken into an open air to allow for sufficient room for illustrations. Employing externally designed training programs is suitable for this needs assessment training program. This is recommended as it provides the perfect ground for attaining the skills. External training programs involve hired trainers that are from external training companies. They are normally professionals who understand the nature of their tasks and are suitable for the assessment and evaluation of what is required to attain the best results for the needs assessment. Internal trainers had failed to identify the dangers involved before the needs assessment program is initiated and may lack proper assessment the situation. Professional trainers that would assess and deliver the best skill set are usually without the company set-up (Barbazette, 2006). The training involves demonstrative orientations that would require more space for illustrations. All the materials that are needed for the training should be available or transported to the training areas. The company management is the key body that should facilitate the safety training for the roofing supervisors. However, this should entail the hiring of expertise that would design the training manual and then proceed with the actual training of the roofing supervisors. As mentioned earlier, the management is the primary engine that drives all the company’s operations. It coordinates the functions and is responsible for the decision-making processes. It, therefore, would include the choosing of the team of trainers that would be appropriate for the service delivery. Professionals trained to experience the course without facing major dangers would conduct the pilot testing of the training program. Some relevant period is set for the training program in order to allow the testing of all then program’s sections. Any recorded flaws are restructured to meet the acceptable standards before delivering the final product to the supervisors. The pilot training would include conducting a trial exercise on a model ground with high-trained professionals who have the skills to evade danger in case of any flaw in the training program. During this process, information is recorded through observation. In case the trainers notice any flaw, the section of the program is rectified. The final program that is delivered must go through the procedure. The roofing supervisors should be motivated in order to embrace the training program whole-heartedly. They should include both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. One of the ways of motivating the roofing supervisor is to issue specific rewards upon successful completion and achievement of set standards. Proper scheduling of training programs in a manner that do not inconvenience the supervisors’ plans is an assurance that the trainers would actively involve in the training program. The importance of evaluating the training program is to identify any prospective flaw that might cause failures of the program. The reaction part is to observe the responsiveness of the program (McClelland, 2005). Learning involves studying the outcomes of every implementation of the sections of the program. The behavioral change among the employees implies the influence of the training program for the employees and the results indicate the effectiveness and efficiency of the general program. The reaction is evaluated through observation while the learning is evaluated through The change in the rate of injuries is evaluated through recording and the level of information attained by the trainees is evaluated the effectiveness of resultant implementations. The sufficiency of the safety equipment would insinuate the changes influenced by the program. Observation will be used to evaluate the changes that emanates for the increase in knowledge about safety measures among the employees. To indicate that tremendous change has occurred among the roofing supervisors, the rate of injuries among the employees would decline. The supervisors would be able to execute the program without difficulty and employees would be playing along in an acceptable way to the measures that have are formulated. The roofing supervisors would carry out the practice through steps and rules that they have formulated, and that comply with the acceptable standards and demands of the training program. Specifically, the roofing supervisors would be involved in the purchase of the safety equipment. They would even supervise the effectiveness of the materials purchase before they are deployed to the working sites. Supervision would take a whole different dimension, for instance, machines used at the sites would be supervised for stability before workers are allowed to operate them. Additionally, supervisors would show proper selection of employees to work on different sections of the general task depending on their levels of competency and experience. References Barbazette, J. (2006). Training needs assessment: Methods, tools, and techniques. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer. Brumitt, J., & Human Kinetics (Organization). (2010). Core assessment and training. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Landy, F. J., & Conte, J. M. (2010). Work in the 21st century: An introduction to industrial and organizational psychology. Malden, Mass: Wiley-Blackwell. McClelland, S. B. (2005). Organizational needs assessments: Design, facilitation, and analysis. Westport, Conn: Quorum Books. Read More