Training methods and how they transfer to the job - Essay Example

Effectiveness of Transfer of Training Transfer of training is an important training component in every organization. It allows employees to transfer skills learned in one area into another that is unrelated. The three major categories of transfer of training are positive, negative and zero transfers. My personal experience was a positive one, especially when I was an intern at a renowned organization. I went through all the major organizational training areas including on-the-job training, mentoring, and coaching.

Effective training allows employees and followers to adapt their training skills into other areas through transfer of skills (Blanchard & Thacker, 2013). As a young intern, I underwent training in various departments and acquired management skills through rigorous coaching, mentoring, and on-the-job training and how such training modes change the undercurrents of raining transfer. Effective training transfer like the one I got during my internship occurs through three major phases. The phases are; input process and output.

Training input entails the resources and the efforts that are basic for the training activities to be formulated and implemented. The resources or efforts are learning theory, training needs, and organizational constraints. The learning theory that I possessed before training is the leadership and management. The management staffs of the training organization were supposed to equip me with the practical aspects of leadership and management; through coaching, mentoring and on-the-job training.

The training needs involved acquisition of practical management and leadership skills. Major organizational constraints entailed the limited time duration allocated for my internship training program (Daft, 2012). During and after my training, I can attest to the fact that the outcome was positive, considering the wide range of application of the skills that I acquired. Since I was stationed in the Human Resources department, my major area of training was leadership and management where I learned numerous skills concerning organization management.

My training involved both theory and practice since I could interact with a number of clients and employees of different levels within the organization. I have to give credit to my supervisor who was consistent in ensuring that I learn a new thing about organization management every day. Since leadership and management skills are essential in any organization, I was privileged to learn many aspects of leadership that are applicable across many organizations. The training processes entailed the determination of the training objectives.

My main training objectives were, to get practical and theoretical skills required for leading teams in institutions. The second objective of training is, to develop competencies for implementing the management functions of planning, organizing, controlling and directing. The organizational staffs shared their knowledge, skills and experience with me during coaching and on-the-job training sessions. After the internship, I vied for student elective politics and secured an office as the president of the students.

Most of the leadership skills that I applied in my campaigns emanated from the skills that I acquired at the internship. In this regard, it is worth indicating that the transfer of training was positive since it yielded positive results in a different platform. One of the essential skills that worked for me was leadership ethics. Although I learned the skill from an organizational perspective, I applied the same to student politics and it worked perfectly, in fact, more than I had anticipated.

Another skill that came to my rescue was student activism, although what I learned from the organization was employee activism and empowerment (Blanchard & Thacker, 2013).  In order to change behavior, I would do certain things differently, having had hands on experience. Primarily, I would approach student leadership from a political perspective rather than from an organizational perspective. Student politics involves more activism and requires hands-on leaders than organization leadership where a manager can delegate certain tasks to his/her employees (Blanchard & Thacker, 2013).

In this respect, I would consider my political followers as dynamic minds who are not bound by my ideologies, but are free to chart a new path. This mindset is unlike in managing organizations where a leader instructs and supervises his/her followers to ensure that they adhere to organization culture and policies. In student politics, students are free to choose their leaders through competitive elections and act in any way that does not offend university policies, even if they offend their leaders.

When given a second chance, I would change the mindset of student to take student leadership like any other leadership that requires loyalty, discipline, and professionalism (Daft, 2012).  Coaching, mentoring and on the job training (OJT) have various impacts on the trainee, depending on the level of commitment by the trainee to learn. Coaching involves the training, instructing and directing an individual to acquire a certain skill that is usually a professional skill. Managers and top executives undergo coaching with the specific aim of developing their skills or expertise in certain areas of interest.

The overall impact of coaching is that the trainee acquires high level and transferrable skills that they can use to improve the performance of their organization (Werner & DeSimone, 2012).  When it comes to mentoring, it is worth noting that employees can uplift the skills of their colleagues through constant interaction. For example, an experienced employee can guide and direct a less experienced employee on the appropriate ways of advancing the objectives of the company. In the process, the less experienced employee acquires organizational skills and abilities requisite in their professional development.

Mentoring is effective because it allows employees of various statures to mingle freely and support one another towards developing a strong organizational policy and culture. In addition, experienced employees transfer their skills to the less experienced employees thus enhancing the efficiency of the workforce (Daft, 2012).  On-the-job training (OJT) is reminiscent of mentoring although the organization does the selection in this case. Unlike mentoring where fellow employees interact at personal level to improve the organization performance, On-the-job training (OJT) is more proactive in the sense that the management chooses an experienced employee to adopt a less experienced employee and guide him/her in all matters that appertains to the organization.

In this case, the trainee has some level of responsibility and accountability in terms of commitment and performance. The impact of On-the-job training (OJT) is that the less experienced employees become skilled through organizational support besides developing cordial working relations with their fellow employees.On-the-job training (OJT), mentoring, and coaching would not change the undercurrents of training transfer since they promote various levels of training for employees and employees can acquire skills that they can transfer to other areas of their professional and personal lives (Blanchard & Thacker, 2013).

The training output was illustrated is positive. Three aspects of the output illustrated positive results. The aspects are; determining factors influencing the learning and transfer of competencies, identifying alternative instruction approaches, and evaluating the training objectives. One major factor that enhanced training transfer of competencies is the availability of adequate training resources. The organization has adequate human resources, financial capital and infrastructure, required for the training process (Blanchard & Thacker, 2013).

The managers embrace coaching and mentoring aspects of transferring experience and skills to the trainees. Training activities are also adequately factored in the financial budget. Organizational trainers are empowered to choose the most appropriate training technique for a given work context. For example, technical training requires on-the-job training approach, while leadership training involves mentoring. Evaluation of objectives is carried out to determining is the training needs have been met.

My training experience was positive due to achievement of adequate management and leadership competencies. References Blanchard, P. N., & Thacker, J. W. (2013). Effective training: Systems, strategies, and practices. Boston: Pearson Education. Daft, R. L. (2012). Management. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning. Werner, J. M., & DeSimone, R. L. (2012). Human resource development. Mason, OH: South-Western.