Leading Role of a Training Professionals - Essay Example

Innovation is the planned introduction and application of new and relevant ideas, procedures or products in a group or an organization with an objective of benefiting the group, organization or the society at large (Rothwell 2002: 32). In today’s business environment, every organization requires an innovative team to produce creative ideas to propel the business successfully into the future. In organizations, employees and teams that drive the corporate strategies are crucial constituent of innovation. Therefore, human resources managers acknowledge the importance of training this important component to ensure consistent innovation that subsequently result into enhancing the organization’s competitive edge. This paper explores the role of professional training in promoting innovation and change in the current organizational setup. According to Omachonu and Einspruch (2010: 6), innovative duties require versatile people with ability to function in a wide conceptual environment. In addition, technical ability and proficient communication skills are important attributes for innovators. Unlike the previous specialists who specialized in a particular discipline, ability to multitask is a highly sought attribute in a professional in the current business environment. This implies that such a person can make valuable technical contributions and strategic decisions in diversified areas of business engagement. Therefore, promoting innovation culture in an organization does not only require recruitment of passionate innovators but also individuals with business acumen, enterprising character and negotiation skills (Resnick 2008). Recruiting a professional with these attributes requires more than just perusing resume or initiating volunteering programs in the organization. Therefore, organizations have become cognizant of the need to incorporate training programs to promote innovation and positive change in their businesses. Various writers have investigated the role of training professionals in the current business environment in delivery of innovations. Bondarouk and Looise (2005: 163) classified the roles in context of three major human resources management issues, namely work structuring, organizing design and personnel issues. According to Bondarouk and Looise, (2005: 165) work should be structured in manner that encourages creativity and innovation. This includes changing the supervision model and creation of semi-independent teams in an organization. Work structure plays an important role in determining how individual professionals apply their expertise in an organization to promote innovation. In organization design, Bondarouk and Looise (2005: 166) indentifies three major trends including breakdown of the conventional departmental boundaries, de-layering and lean staffing. Finally, personnel issues entail recruitment of employees on the grounds of education, experience and competence (Bondarouk and Looise 2005: 168) In technical and dynamic industry such as information technology, Bondarouk and Looise (2005: 162) identifies several roles of training the professionals. This includes supporting employees, whose basic skills are being overtaken by the advancing technology. The second role of professional training in information technology is the creation and empowerment of a technological champion to continuously offer and update the organization with the emerging technology in the world. These individuals play a critical innovative role especially in the start up process of a business. Encouraging participation of employees in planning is another role of training professionals in the current business setting in order to promote innovation (Bondarouk and Looise 2005: 164). Early involvement of workers in planning phase of a business encourages innovation and application of technology. Training of professionals enable easy transfer of technology from pilot level to the adoption stage in business start up process (Elaine 2002: 52). This advantage is not limited to technical based enterprises only. The trained professionals are empowered with the capacity to train other workers in business operations one the venture is established firmly. Another role of training professionals in today business is to enable easy reorganization of the labor force. This is important in reorganizations that involve reassignment of job tasks to necessitate formation of more integrated teams (Bondarouk and Looise 2005: 166).. Finally, training professionals empowers them with decision-making capacity especially in technical intensive industries. Rothwell (2002: 79) indentifies development of competence as the major role of training professionals in the current business environment to promote innovation. According to Rothwell (2002: 83), competencies play a critical role in business operations including planning for success, teambuilding, performance management and career development among others. Competency is the foundation for success and innovation at both individual and organizational level, which is provided by well-developed training programs of the professionals. Training professionals through competency-designed programs empowers them with greater focus that enhances performance and innovation (Harvard Business Essentials 2003:29). Developing competencies in the workforce enables the organization to realign the work force in accordance with its strategic goals. This makes it possible to select, coach, mentor and develop workers in line with the set strategic goals. Another importance of using competencies is evaluating the readiness of the organization in managing change. This enables the organization to identify the particular competences necessary to cope with the emerging changes in the business environment. Competence is applied in driving the initiatives of an organization by providing a mechanism of determining the difference in needs between the present and future of the business (Rothwell (2002: 95). In addition, Rothwell (2002: 79) argues that evaluation of competence enables an organization to determine its success. This is achieved by indentifying the potential of an individual employee and then planning for the training necessary to empower him or her undertake new responsibilities. Moreover, training professionals enables an organization in formation of a favorable working environment that attracts, retains and develop creative and talented work force. Elaine (2002: 117) indentifies talent assessment and development as the major role of professional training in the current business environment. Training process ignites innovation among the employees and it enables the organization to identify, develop and utilize the discovered talent in the workforce. Elaine (2002) argues that since innovation is not taught in the conventional education system, training opportunities in the work place provides a favorable opportunity for an organization to evaluate and nurture talent. Training professionals use various approaches of designing and delivering training and development programs. However, these approaches apply various techniques to ensure success of the innovation team. The first technique involves outlining the organization’s innovation goals by using clear communication channels. This process ensures that innovation team is aware of what the organization expects from their contribution. The second method involves utilization of individual employee profiles to identify their training requirements. This enables the professional trainer identify the necessary resources and develop appropriate courses to improve on the employee’s strengths (Harvard Business Essentials 2003: pp37-43). Another approach is developing ambitious goals and objectives that compel the innovating team to work beyond their comfort zones (Harvard Business Essentials 2003). When aggressive goals are set and the training professionals set a favorable environment that embraces risk, the innovative team becomes highly motivated to succeed in their undertaking. Finally, the training professionals provide a mechanism of rewarding failure. This is necessary because not every undertaking by the innovative teams ends in success. Rewarding failure is necessary to motivate the members and encourage further trials and experiments that eventually provide better prospects for success (Harvard Business Essentials 2003). Elaine (2002; 93) argues that employees should be allowed to learn from their errors and rewarding them reinforces their confidence after a failure. In addition rewards from the organization fuels the innovating team to persist and make improvements in their quest to achieve. In summary, training professionals enhance the performance of innovating teams by inculcating innovation leadership in people with high potentials, developing legitimate programs for mentoring and encouraging motivation in addition to creating suitable channels for promoting creativity in the individuals. University of Sydney and Australian National University are globally renowned academic institutions of higher learning. Both universities attract students from all parts of the world including Africa and other developing regions. To encourage innovation, the universities offer scholarships to students who have achieved exemplary grades in their academics (Universities Australia). After completing undergraduate studies, students who record highest achievement in their studies are awarded scholarships to proceed to graduate school irrespective of their countries of origin. To encourage innovation, the universities have established partnership with leading corporate organization and leading industries in Australia. These industries provide the students with incentives to excel in their areas of specialization and to formulate new discoveries. Some of these industries include leading information and technology firms, medical and pharmaceutical companies, engineering firms among others. The industries provide students with demonstrated academic potential with resources to undertake further research in particular areas of interests. This encourages innovation and the entire academic fraternity is motivated to excel in education and research. Most students with excellent academic credentials from Australian National University and University of Sydney are offered employment opportunities in firms with partnership programs with the respective universities (Universities Australia). The current business environment requires consistent innovations in order to ensure sustainability and maintenance of a competitive edge in the dynamic market. Unfortunately, innovation is not taught in academic systems and organizations must device effective methods of recruiting top talent in their businesses. Human resources departments are charged with the responsibility of hiring employees but potential innovative individuals cannot be recruited from their profiles or resumes alone. In this respect, most organizations have training programs, targeting employees with potential for innovation. Training professionals design and deliver specially tailored programs to the targeted employees. To ensure high level of innovation, it is important to motivate the employees especially when they encounter failures in the course of their innovations. Therefore, training professionals have a leading role in promoting change and innovation in organizations. References Bondarouk, T., and Looise, K.(2005). HR contribution to IT innovation implementation: Results of three case studies. Creativity and Innovation Management. 14(2):pp160-168. Elaine, D.(2002). The seeds of innovation: Cultivating the synergy that fosters new ideas. 1st ed. New York, NY. American management Association. Harvard Business Essentials. (2003). Managing creativity and innovation. Boston, MA: Harvard business school Press. Omachonu, V., and Einspruch, G. (2010). Innovation in healthcare delivery systems; a conceptual framework. The Public Sector Innovation Journal. 15(1);pp 1-15. Resnick, D.(2008). Building an innovative innovation team. [Online]. Available from http://www.ninesigma.com/Uploads/Resources/Building%20an%20Innovative%20Innovation%20Team.pdf [Assessed 13 September 2011]. Rothwell, W.(2002). The workplace learner: how to align training initiatives with individual learning competencies. New York: AMACOM. Universities Australia.(Online). Accessed from www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/ Read More