Learning and Development Process Analysis - Term Paper Example

 Learning and Development Introduction Learning is a work-based process leading to increased adaptive capacity of an individual that helps in talent development (Bersin, pp. 20-29, 2004). Development is a longer process of learning, where employees acquire skills and knowledge through different means, such as coaching and mentoring. Coaching is a professional relationship that helps individual to produce extraordinary results in their careers and organizations (Bersin, pp. 49-56, 2004). The process of coaching allows individuals to deepen knowledge and improve their performances. Coaching accelerates the progress of individuals by providing focus and awareness. Coaching improves skills for the current job; however, at the same time, the knowledge gained can be helpful during a career transition, and it is observation that most organizations outsource the coaching process. Mentoring, on the other hand, is usually an internal process during which, experienced managers, or supervisors play the role of mentors (Bersin, pp. 63-67, 2004). However, sometimes external coaching is required for senior managers. The distinguishing factor between coaching and mentoring is that the relationship tends to be of a longer duration in the case of mentoring. One such organization, which has strived hard to maintain its competitive edge through its human capital, is the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS, 2010). The bank used to have the second largest market capitalization in the world just before the financial crisis. It was growing its operations significantly using both internal and external growth. The European network focused its growth through the organic methodology and new branches were set up to expand the global network. Since the bank did not have experience of operating in the non-European markets, it chose to expand its global operations through mergers and acquisitions. Benefits and limitations of coaching and mentoring “Coaching is an increasingly popular tool for supporting personal development of an individual” (Wilkinson, pp. 5-14, 2007). In this regard, coaching focuses on improving performance and developing skills. Emphasis is essentially on performance at work and the goal is to meet both organizational and individual goals. It assumes that the individuals are psychologically well and thereby, counseling is not required (Wilkinson, pp. 5-14, 2007). It is a skilled activity and delivered by trained professionals, and it provides a feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of individuals. In addition, coaching acts as only one of the development interventions that an organization may use to meet identified learning needs. Due to the costs involved, the benefits must be substantial compared to internal mentoring techniques, training courses and on the job training. It is also important to keep employees’ preferences in mind while designing a learning process. However, the danger of viewing coaching as a solution to all problems is widespread as coaching has its limitations. Coaching may be suitable to help individuals improve their interpersonal or managerial abilities, or to provide individuals with career support and perhaps, to develop a strategic perspective of employees after promotion (Wilkinson, pp. 5-14, 2007). The human resources department also plays a crucial role in the success of the coaching process. Its goal is to guarantee the quality of coaching by choosing the most appropriate coaches. Mentoring, on the other hand, is a support function of the development process. It also allows individuals to discuss their personal issues more closely and get mentoring through a long lasting relationship to develop skills necessary for the career. In specific, mentoring usually tends to be more informal when compared to coaching (Merrick, pp. 52-54, 2008). As a process, mentoring can significantly improve the retention of employees, and it harnesses individual for a better future within the organization. Mentoring provides self-awareness to individuals and can often result in behavioral improvements. Development mentoring focuses on the needs identified directly by the individuals, in order to address their professional needs. Another form of mentoring popularly used for graduate recruits is sponsorship mentoring (Clutterbuck, pp. 102-103, 2004). It allows the supervisor to step into a work process and to solve the issue at hand before it further complicates. This form of mentoring allows the individual to take a closer look into solving intricate work related problems spontaneously. However, the result of any kind of mentoring depends on the ability and the absorption capacity of the subject. The need for learning and development Despite improvements in technology, the focus on learning and development remains paramount. Companies are seeking a highly trained workforce and view development of human resources as a very important factor in maintaining their competitive position in a global environment (Gerber, pp. 120-132, 2000). Technology has made work more efficient but it has created an even higher demand for trained employees who can understand the working mechanisms of new systems used by these companies (Evans, pp. 42-48, 2002). In order to develop their human resources, companies are using a combination of all available learning techniques from electronic learning delivery systems to multicultural training solutions (Billet, pp.12-23, 2001). In this dynamic environment, every company seeks to have an edge over its competitors and maintaining the highest level of human capital is one of the most important factors in determining the success of a company in its environment. Most large-scale institutions and firms are hiring a chief learning officer and they now demand to see quantifiable results of the training efforts. Before implementing a training course, you have to explain the financial impact on the company in terms of costs and benefits to get it approved (Kariger, pp. 143-144, 2002). A few years ago, these types of quantitative results were not available for from a learning program instead presentation of returns was in qualitative terms. Recently, there has been a concentrated focus on improving efficiencies and to control associated costs but the overall budget on learning programs for employees has continued to show an increase over time (Garrick, pp. 121-123, 2000). Superior human resources provide a cutting competitive edge to an organization, and they tend to perform well in difficult situations. Moreover, a highly trained workforce provides better quality of services to the clientele. Learning and development process analysis for Royal Bank of Scotland In order to maintain this growing network, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS, 2010) decided to recruit and train the best human resources. During the same time, many other financial and non-financial institutions were expanding aggressively and the competitive forces peaked. Every company desires to have a strong competitive standing against the other. In this ruthless environment, the idea for these companies was to develop a rigorous training plan. In an expanding network, an organization usually faces a severe shortage of leaders and that has resulted in most global companies to develop a global or an international leadership development program (Salas, pp. 20-24, 2001). This program includes the development of future leaders and managers in the company through a rigorous two-year training program. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS, 2010) developed its international graduate program in order to develop global managers for its operations. The international graduate program (RBS, 2010) hires recent graduates from top universities around the globe. The graduates are initially located in their local country head quarters, where they receive basic induction and training to get started with the training. The second phase of training is in an international environment where the graduates are re-located to an international location where they learn about the global environment. Many graduates are placed in the developing economies around the world to learn about the dynamics of emerging economies. Finally, these graduates are located in another location where they actually implement the knowledge they acquired during the program through a project. After project assessments, these graduates are ready to become global managers for the bank. The international graduate program is a method of developing human capital through multicultural interaction. For development of local leaders for European markets, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS, 2010) has a Management Associate program. This program focuses on maintaining the local competitive position of the bank. Graduates from around the European universities are inducted into the program and are provided a rigorous training for twelve months in their local country headquarters. The associates are first given an induction program through the Institute of Bankers (RBS, 2010) in their local country. This builds their knowledge of the commercial banking system and introduces them to its operational side of the business. Later, graduates choose between the commercial and the consumer banking programs of their interest. They undergo rotations of three months each in four different departments of their chosen interest. After the rotations and assessments, the associates are hired as managers in their local country. Development of managers is a continuous process and learning continues throughout their careers at every different level (RBS, 2010). Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS, 2010) has an ambitious electronic learning program. This program includes various modules for learning and development of the employees. Every employee has access to a global database of learning resources. These resources cover various aspects of the business and are available on the internet. All employees can use the electronic learning system known as GOLD in their free time. Moreover, since this program is available both at home and from office, it provides extreme flexibility to employees. Initially, when employees are hired, they are required to take three courses in the first three months as a pre-requisite for confirmation. These courses included content on the bank’s compliance policies and integrity. When employees pass these courses with a score of ninety percent, only then they can get confirmation from probation. This methodology provides employees with a strong base to begin a journey of continuous learning. After one gets familiar with the system, employees can learn on their own pace (RBS, 2010). Coaching and mentoring is the second phase of the induction process. Mentoring of employees continues throughout the career. This is an important methodology to develop employees to full potential using the immediate resources available (Broad, pp. 12-17, 1992). A mentor is usually the direct supervisor assigned to employee. In most organizations, the mentor aims to help the assigned employees understand true potential and to help them perform effectively. A key element of the mentoring process is to maintain an individual’s level of motivation. At Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS, 2010), every employee has a mentor and some employees have a “buddy.” The supervisor is the mentor and aims to understand the true potential of the assigned. In the early stages of development, the supervisor attempts to challenge employees by increasing workload of assigned gradually, in order to assess potential. In the second phase, the mentoring part of the process begins. This is usually when assigned is in a state of confusion and is having time management difficulties. The mentor is supposed to keep employees motivated, and at the same time, to enhance potential. To achieve this, the mentor first attempts to help the assigned prioritize work responsibilities from most important to least important. Then the assigned is trained to assess the urgency of the tasks assigned. This process in mentoring is very important to such an organization as a delay in urgent tasks can have grave consequences. Once employees are comfortable in prioritizing the tasks based on importance and urgency, the mentor attempts to intensify the training process once again. As workload continues to increase time management, becomes a major concern. The mentor then steps in to help the assigned understand the importance of meeting deadlines. The idea is to maintain a balance between the quality and timing of an associated task or project. The mentor then helps the employees to remain competitive and organize work to maintain efficiency (RBS, 2010). Once individuals have learned the processes of prioritizing and time management, the next step is to understand the importance of teamwork in associated tasks. Individuals now become an integral part of the team, and play an imperative role in representing the team as a whole with performance. At this point, the employee could get defensive and needs mentoring for becoming a better member of the team. The idea is to integrate them in to the team and to share responsibility and accountability between the team. At Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS, 2010), teamwork plays a very important role, as all tasks are interrelated. The delay in one process could delay a complete transaction and have an adverse impact on the image of the bank. For example, an employee working as a relationship associate in commercial banking provides quality financial analysis and prepares the credit approvals for a corporate clientele. The relationship associate is dependent on the relationship managers to obtain the required financial and non-financial information for preparation of the credit approvals. On the other hand, the relationship managers rely on the associate for timely reports and recommendations. Similarly, the risk management department of the bank (RBS, 2010) relies on the credit approvals prepared by the associate and the relationship managers provide the memo in order to approve the transaction. If the risk management department does not receive the reports on time, the approval is delayed and so is the transaction. At the same time, risk management department also needs approval from the credit administration and legal departments before it can approve a transaction. It is suffice to say that this organization cannot survive without a strong sense of teamwork in the employee. When an employee shows defensiveness working in teamwork, mentors often use selected trainings and presentations to guide employees about the importance of the process and encourage them to work as a team inducing a sense of belonging to the team into the assigned. This form of coaching is very helpful but has certain limitations to the process. The limitations can be both on the part of the mentor and the assigned employee. Employee might still not prefer to work on teams for extended periods, just because they have an individualistic personality. In addition, a suitable mentor who would understand the limitations of the assigned is not always available to monitor the process. An adequate training program should take into account the corporate environment or the corporate culture of a company (Dunn, pp.167-171, 1998). At induction, the employees are generally unaware of the corporate culture and principle values of the company. It is important to bring alive the corporate values and the goal towards achieving a corporate mission together. Unless employees receive proper training, they cannot perform up to expectations. Therefore, any organization needs to integrate an employee into its values through awareness about its expectations. At Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS, 2010), the human resources play a pivotal role in introducing the corporate culture of the bank to its new employees. This happens through a series of presentations provided by the human resources. After the initial presentations, key employees from various departments speak to the employees regarding their experience in the organization and the tasks they perform. This is an excellent way to introduce the corporate values of the bank to its employees and to convey its expectations. For senior employees training is required to maintain their level of expertise and to introduce them to changes in the global environment and new techniques in the sectors concerned (Sims, pp.10-22, 1990). The senior management that has a crucial role in the mentoring process needs training to maintain its ability to train the future managers. In a dynamic global environment, managers need to update their skills on a regular basis to avoid redundancy. At Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS, 2010), training for senior and middle managers plays a crucial role. Such training is available both locally and internationally and includes rigorous courses to update skill and to make managers aware of any changes in the global banking environment relevant to their particular skill set. After the start of the financial crisis, risk management became the most important skill set. Banks now understood that they had lost their competency due to poor risk management techniques. To strengthen the human capital, the bank (RBS, 2010) initiated a full-scale one-week training program for middle and senior management on risk management dynamics of the industry and communicated the strategic change in risk management policies of the bank. Service quality to the clients is an important factor for the success of any organization. To improve the service quality experience for the clients, employees need proper training. Any organization performs well only if its customers are happy. On the other hand, service quality improves in the end only if an organization has satisfied human resources. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS, 2010) is involved in the financial sector, which is part of the services industry, and therefore service quality improvement is integral to the company. To improve the service experience for the clientele, the bank (RBS, 2010) trains its customer facing employees through a Service Quality certification program. To make it cost effective the bank operates it through an internally operated training academy and the course runs for only two days. The idea is to motivate the employees by making them understand that it is a privilege to serve and not just a duty. To encourage this belief real time footage is available from senior management of the bank, where the senior management extends the idea that it is there to serve the lower and middle management. Therefore, a strong sense of motivation is available to the staff to serve its clients through the replication of a similar structure internally for the organization. Some companies are also outsourcing their training activities to the specialists in the field (Sims, pp. 48-49, 1998). This includes different levels of outsourcing, from content design, development of learning resources, its acquisition, and even delivery to the audience in some cases. Most companies outsource the development of their learning technology infrastructure as well as their automated recruitment testing and application systems. Companies often outsource learning administration or operational services, strategic learning operations or even an entire learning function (Sims, pp. 48-49, 1998). Recommendations Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS, 2010) has outsourced its testing and application system to maintain its cost advantage and efficiencies. This also provides for a strong base for recruitment, because it improves the transparency of its testing systems and would eventually lead to a better and deserving work force. The bank attempts to maintain a balance between outsourcing learning systems, by doing what it can do best internally. Outsourcing learning systems have limitations, as there is a possibility of duplication of these resources by other organizations resulting in a loss of competitive edge. Once trained it is important to retain the top talent in the organization (Ford, pp.88.91, 1997). It is common to lose highly trained staff to your competitors. Many organizations use this as a means of acquiring strong human capital. It is tempting for companies to hire trained employees instead of training them internally. The benefits include a wide variety of experience coming in to the company to strengthen its operations. However, if all employees are externally hired an organization will not have strong corporate values. It might even result in conflicting values and ethical standards within the company. Theories for enhancing the Coaching process A number of coaching theories have evolved over the last few decades. Systems theory to coaching (Stober & Grant, pp. 314-318, 2006) provides a model that helps in the communication of perceived reality. The focus here is on effective communication systems for coaching. This theory predicts little or no success of coaching unless a systemic approach is used. Another popular theory is the goals theory, which focuses in establishing goals for an employee, provides a regular feedback regarding improvement in performance of an employee, and finally, aims to support coaching through the established goals. This theory (Stober & Grant, pp. 314-318, 2006) implies that employees need to be motivating not by forcing them to do something, but by allowing developing goals for themselves and motivating them to achieve or exceed the established goals by the help of coaching. Personality theory of coaching (Peltier, pp. 35-38, 2009) understands that each individual has unique needs and a distinctive personality. Therefore, it aims at developing a coaching system that helps individuals to adopt personality of an organization properly, and at the same time, maintain their individuality. This theory also considers the role of choosing the right coach for individuals based on personality to be very important. Conclusion A learning program needs to be ambitious to be able to attain its goals in the global environment. However, there has to be a balance between learning and achieving results out of the learning process. An organization needs to focus on quantifiable results instead of just focusing on the learning process. It is imperative to have a strong human resourcing system for a modern organization if it intends to defend its corporate values. A learning system that encourages integrity and strong ethical standards by employees is necessary for a company to maintain its values. Training is important at both the induction and at the professional level. Initially employees receive rigorous training to adopt corporate values. Conclusively, mentoring plays an important role in the modern corporate world through which employees are learn to prioritize work, to effectively learn managing deadlines for assigned tasks and to become an integral part of a team. References Bersin, J. (2004). The Blended Learning Book. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Billet, S. (2001). Learning in the Work Place. Melbourne: Allen & Unwin Publishers. Broad, M. (1992). Transfer of Training. New York: Perseus Publishing. 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