Training Program for Newly Hired Employees Will Increase Their Ability to Learn Job-Related Skills - Essay Example

Research paper: A training program for newly hired employees will increase their ability to learn job - related skills Course name: Tutor name: Date due: A training program for newly hired employees will increase their ability to learn job - related skills Introduction Employee training is a planned initiative by an institution to enable staff learning of job-related behaviors, knowledge and skills. Staff training ensures that the employees can execute their jobs in their full capability the soonest possible (DeNisi & Griffin, 2013). As a matter of fact, training assists to solve problems associated with employee knowledge and skills about certain procedures. However, employee training cannot resolve system or structural difficulties. Therefore, prior to creating a training program, it is paramount to find out the causes of the difficulties and if training is the suitable way to solve the challenges. It is assumed ‘A training program for newly hired employees will increase their ability to learn job-related skills’. Employee training is significant to the study of leadership because it is associated with the employee-oriented type of leadership. An employee-oriented leader concentrates on motivating individual staff in their jobs and involves them in decision-making. This style of leadership permits leaders to be worried about the wants of their staff and pay close attention to their interests and attitudes. In addition, a leader endeavor to increase productivity through improved work environment and conditions. Moreover, a leader utilizing this style, increases production by resolving the difficulties encountered by employees in the course of their job implementation (Palestini, 2009). The research design formulated for this research focus on finding out how employee training of new workers will increase their job-related skills. The research design uses a qualitative interview method that utilizes research questions. The qualitative interview includes a description of the research questions. Likewise, the qualitative interview will use an interview guide to collect information from the participants. In addition, it will comprise of a short explanations of the research participants and the techniques of data collection.  Literature review The importance of this research is to prove the validity of the assumption that a training program for newly hired workers will expand their ability to learn job-related skills. There is no person who is perfect at the time he or she is hired, and hence some form of training is necessary. From the r of an organization, there is no alternative on whether to empower staff or not. This is because the success and existence of a company in a dynamic environment depend in a persistence state of expansion of its resources. Employees are part and parcel of an organization’s resources, therefore, the necessity for training. The employees are considered to be human assets and are one of the most important investments in a company. Employee training is a fundamental requirement in an institution because of the fast transformations in the technology sector that result in an increase in skill obsolescence rates. For an organization to stay competitive, companies require continual training on their employees for them to be able to use and manage the current technologies. Employees are expected to undertake jobs with wider responsibilities, develop interpersonal skills and take initiatives to maintain their success and performance. In addition, employees are expected to develop broader skill foundations that can help them to participate in conflict management, teamwork and collaborations (Mello, 2014). There are standard forms of training that are performed on newly hired employees in an organization include socialization and orientation. Newly hired employees can be overwhelmed with people, forms and processes and lack sufficient skills and knowledge of activities and business which they are going to engage in. The orientation program is a form of training where new employees have a chance to come into contact with a company’s cultures and real work. Orientation, therefore, helps newly hired staff to comprehend an organization culture. During the procedure of orientation, an employee is introduced to the company’s values and norms. In addition, in the process of orientation, new staff is introduced to the colleagues they will work with and the work. In some cases, an experienced employee is selected to act as a sponsor of a new staff. Orientation program assists to minimize the anxiety that is normal for new employees. When anxiety is reduced, the new workers tend to be more productive, reached higher standards of competence and better job attendance much sooner. Furthermore, orientation enhances profitability and quality and minimizes costs. The accuracy of the details obtained by employees through orientation program is founded on the company’s commitment, met expectation, intention to quit, job satisfaction, job survival and the potential to cope (Kraiger, 2014). Socialization is the procedure through which new staff learns the way to go about a specific organization role. In addition, it is a process where a person receives social skills and knowledge critical to take over a company’s job. Socialization plays a critical role on an employees’ comprehension of fundamental company cultural norms such as the performance expectations. Likewise, a new employee is trained on the new behaviors, ways of thinking and attitudes that are paramount in becoming an efficient organization member. In addition, socialization is important because it helps to ease turnover. Turnover normally happens in the early months of employment where there are delays prior to new employees becoming ‘permanent’ members of a work group. Once the new staff becomes permanent, he or she can gain acceptance, learn ‘how things work’ and make real contributions to an organization (Rao, 2007). On the job training is a type of training that is offered to newly hired employees. It involves a new staff training directly along with an old employee. This form of training gives the new employee an opportunity to learn various aspects of the position he or she will hold. It is a cheap method of training as compared to other training techniques. This is because the organization activities are not interrupted as in the case of training offered outside the work environment. Off-the-job training is another form of training that is offered to new employees away from distractions of work. In most cases, the training is led by specialist staff who give a more in-depth knowledge about the work. This form of training occurs outside the work area and is more expensive compared to on-job training. Companies should look at training as a process that unfolds in an employee’s tenure where training of new employees is paramount to boost the abilities and skills to perform the new roles effectively. Training offered should be updated to reflect the changing environment. It is worth to point out that the level of timely and sufficient training received by a new employee has a big effect on how quickly they contribute to the company in a positive manner. Inadequate or lack of initial training results in a longer delay in getting the new staff to catch up, this, results in frustration. New employees join an organization with high expectations and degree of motivation to give in a significant way but they are not able to have an immediate effect that makes them frustrated. Frustrations are severe where the performance goals for the new staff are not set at the standard suitable to their abilities and skills. On this note, the performance expectations for new employees should be increased gradually at a rate that is equal to their enlarging potentials. Failure to do this, the frustrations goes beyond to affect the long-tenured staffs who are loaded with the responsibility of picking up the delay developed by new colleagues failing to contribute in meaningful ways. In most cases, employees have the potential to improve their contribution to a company with suitable training because they possess untapped potentials. Although, the managers should be in a position to identify the important training offers that are available to match employees with opportunities (Royal & Agnew, 2012). Nevertheless, organizations and managers should recognize the existing obstacles that limit employees to take advantage of available training programs. For instance, insufficient support for training by managers is a critical concern for organizations as well as individuals. On the other hand, financial resources used on creating training programs would go to waste if employees have no time to attend. It is necessary for managers to be sensitive to the changing job demands and, therefore, watch closely the needs of the workforce from a development and training point of view. Managers should collaborate with their teams to define the training needs. Lack of efficient collaboration in a company restricts job performance by individuals. Interdependence exists between work groups, individuals and jobs in an organization and should integrate in a constructive and positive way with a comprehension that they all work towards one purpose. Effective collaboration is attained through positive cooperation and teamwork in every work unit. The work units need to cooperate well with each other to attain the organizational objectives and hence the need to train new staff (Royal & Agnew, 2012). When engaging employees in training, there is a need for a lesson plan. A lesson plan is a training writing with all activities, instructions, and materials that are required to fulfill the objectives. A lesson plan is normally time-consuming, but it is the critical component of the instructional structure. In actual sense lesson, plans are the instructions that when followed give the same results. The topics to be included in training are determined by the information gathered about needs assessment. Methods used in training include lecture and demonstration. The most preferred method is a demonstration because it involves training individuals how to work out something physically (Jaszay & Dunk, 2003). Research design A qualitative research interview method is utilized to prove the assumption that a training program for newly hired employees increases their potential to learn job-related skills. This research proposal will test the hypothesis through semi-structured interviews. The semi-structured interview will motivate an exchange between the interviewee and interviewer which is important in qualitative research. In addition, the interviewer will refer to an interview guide to make sure that all the necessary areas are covered. Nevertheless, the interviewer has a chance to modify the questions to suit each interview as may be required by certain situations of the interviewee and the specific answer anticipated (Roller & Lavrakas, 2015). Data will be gathered from 10 HR managers using telephone and face to face interviews where possible that will be taped and transcribed. The motive of this research is to obtain a rich comprehension of how training newly hired employees results in a growth in their job-related skills. Construction and implementation of qualitative research interview The procedure of construction and utilization of qualitative research interviews is divided into four levels. The four steps include a definition of the research question, creating an interview guide, raising participants and performing the interview. Defining the research question The research questions focus on how the participants explain and make sense of a training program for newly hired employees. The fundamental concern is to quantify personal encounter, and the research questions reflect the researcher’s presuppositions. The research questions in this research include: 1. Is training newly hired employees effective in terms of learning job-related skills? 2. What is the result of effective and adequate training on employee’s knowledge and skills? 3. What training techniques are embraced by organizations? Creating the interview guide Development of the interview guide is influenced by reading of important research literature. A single guide is designed that will be used by all HR managers. Sample of the interview guide 1. Is it important for an organization to design a training program for newly hired employees? Probe: If YES, how? If NO, why not? 2. Do the newly hired employees benefit from the training program? Probe: If YES, how? If NO, why not? 3. Does the organization benefit from the training program? Probe: If YES, how? If NO, why not? Recruiting participants for the study In this research, the participants will be recruited from various companies that will involve big, middle and small organizations across the country. This will ensure variety regarding experience, location, and size of the companies. The participants will comprise those who respond positively to a request communicated through e-mail. All participants will be assured that the information gathered is confidential and will be briefed on the purpose and the objectives of the study. Therefore, the approach does not provoke conflict but concentrates on building a trustworthy relationship where the information is respected, and secret disclosures can survive because it is confidential. In addition, permission to tape-record the interviews will be obtained from the participants. In addition, the participants will be notified on the exact time they will receive feedback. Carrying out the interview The interviews will be conducted using a sample guide provided. The interviews are flexible such that the questions will not follow the specific order they appear in the interview guide. An interviewer will introduce the questions where they are naturally appropriate in the course of the interview (Cassell & Symon, 2004). Internal and external validity of the research Internal validity concentrates on the cause and effect relationships. On the other hand, the external validity describes the extent to which the findings that are based on the research sample can be applied to the population from which the sample is collected or other individuals and the research settings. The results found in this research are collected from a group of 10 HR managers from different companies. These companies differ in their industry, size and are from various locations across the country. Therefore, the opinions expressed by the HR managers represent various backgrounds. This implies that the outcomes of this research can be applied to the sample group as well as other populations. The source of the information is credible since the results are collected through interviews carried out through phone calls and face to face. In the event the research is conducted on a different sample using the same method, the results would be similar under the same circumstances. The only distinct issues among the participants are the methods applied in training. The financial stability of each company determines the type of training they engage. Training is an expensive process that involves benefits and salaries for HR representatives as well as the new employees. In addition, training consumes much time. However, compared to how much the companies loose in reduced productivity, it becomes a necessity. Nevertheless, in a situation where the financial resources are scarce, training may be regarded to as unnecessary cost (Cascio & Boudreau, 2011). Conclusion All in all, a training program for newly hired employees will increase their ability to learn job-related skills. All the human resource managers participating in this research regardless of the company size acknowledge that it is critical to develop their human resources. The role of training that is referred to as human resources development integrates the company’s attempts to give training and growth encounter to its employees. All participants agree that employee training is an effort to enable employee learning job-related behaviors, knowledge and skills that assist them to modify their performance deficiencies. In addition, the participants will acknowledge the fact that successful companies are those that react rapidly to the concern of training and development- associated difficulties. Successful companies invest in their greatest resources, which is, the employees. Moreover, the transformations experienced in the business environment, makes training a most effective tool to assist companies sustain its competitiveness and be ready for the future. Training needs are different for various organizations and are designed to fit each company’s structure and strategy. Due to the recent emphasis on the learning organization and continuous learning, companies now embrace training as part of the changes. In continuous learning, employees are expected to comprehend the whole work system. The work system includes their work units, the organization and the relationships among jobs. Whereas, in a learning organization, employees are expected to try continuously to learn new things and implement their learning to enhance service and product standard. Most of the contemporary organizations have embraced a learning organization with improved capacity to change, learn and adapt. In all organizations, the learning procedures are cautiously examined and placed with the institution goals. Training forms part of a system created to develop intellectual capital and attain strategic objectives. In addition, training is a focal point in the execution of a company’s culture change, for instance, creating a commitment to consumer service and adoption of total quality management (Sims, 2002). The new staff are trained on the skills required in productive work. In addition, leadership skills concentrate the manager’s potential to handle the employees that he or she is responsible. A good manager should, therefore, be able to give help, handle difficulties of dependence and authority, as well as train and motivate them. References Cascio, W. F., & Boudreau, J. W. (2011). Investing in people: Financial impact of human resource initiatives. Upper Saddle River, N.J: FT Press. Cassell, C., & Symon, G. (2004). Essential guide to qualitative methods in organizational research. London [u.a.: SAGE Publ. DeNisi, A., & Griffin, R. (2013). HR 2. Cengage Learning. Jaszay, C., & Dunk, P. (2003). Training design for the hospitality industry. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Learning. Kraiger, K. (2014). The Wiley Blackwell handbook of the psychology of training, development, and performance improvement. Chichester, West Sussex : John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Mello, J. (2014). Strategic human resource management. Cengage Learning. Palestini, R. H. (2009). From leadership theory to practice: A game plan for success as a leader. Lanham: Rowman& Littlefield Education. Rao, P. L. (2007). Enriching human capital through training and development. New Delhi, India: Excel Books. Royal, M., & Agnew, T. G. A. (2012). The enemy of engagement: Put an end to workplace frustration--and get the most from your employees. New York: American Management Association. Roller, M. R., & Lavrakas, P. J. (2015). Applied qualitative research design: A total quality framework approach. Sims, R. R. (2002). Organizational success through effective human resources management. Westport, Ct: Quorum Books. Read More