Placing
Training within the Organizational Context
Learning Objectives
Training and development is a measure of the culture of the organization because a organization’s priorities are best seen by how it treats the need for current and future knowledge of its employees.
Organizations that scrimp on training, or only do the
minimum necessary to keep its employees current in their respective jobs, are ignoring
both the organization’s needs for new knowledge and skills as well as the employees’
need for growth and development.
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Organizational
training involves more than learning skills and techniques.
It must be structured and presented in terms of the organizational vision,
mission and organizational culture.
Including Training in the
Organizational
Universal Weather and Aviation’s [www.univ-wea.com] mission statement includes the organization’s commitment employee training and motivation:
“Our
Universal Weather and Aviation [www.univ-wea.com] went on to detail the organization philosophy, placing great importance on training within the organization:
“To our employees, we
… will strive provide technology, training, and product innovation to develop their
skills and utilize their abilities to fulfill our common goal of providing consistent and
dependable service”.
The
organization’s commitment to training is clearly established and published for all to
see including beneficiaries, employees and prospective employees. But training isn’t just important to
individual organizations. It’s important to
any nation.
The
U.S. Department of Labor knows how important training is to the country. The mission of its Employment and Training
Administration is “to contribute to the more efficient functioning of the
Communicating Organizational Culture
see also Elements of a Strong and Healthy Culture
Organizational culture -- the
beliefs, attitudes and behaviors that commonly unite its employees -- are often unstated
and unwritten.
Organizational culture (and
the organization’s philosophy on training and development) can be communicated to
employees and prospective employees in many ways:
Annual reports
Employee handbooks and training manuals
Organization Websites
Intranet communications
Training and Organizational Culture
At
its most basic, organizational culture is described as the personality of an organization,
or simply as “how things are done around here.” It guides how employees
think, act, and feel. Organizational culture is a broad term used to define the unique
personality or character of a particular organization or organization, and includes such
elements as core values and beliefs, organizational ethics, and rules of behavior.
There are two areas of consistency that must be maintained during the training process. You must present a focus that is consistent with the goals of the organization, and your curriculum must deliver the same basic information to everyone being trained. Whether you are teaching computer skills, interpersonal communication skills, or time management, you must ensure that the employee can see the connection between what you are teaching and the goals of the organization.
If your training is consistent with each employee, then they will be able to go to each other for reinforcement. The ability to go to a coworker for reinforcement is the cornerstone of any great team, and will build self-confidence and trust into the organization.
To maintain the consistency of your training, you must develop an outline that will help you cover all of the topics of the module you are teaching. A good outline will start with a statement reaf organizationing the goals of the organization, and how the employee fits into those goals.
The first place an employee sees where they fit in the organization is during the orientation training. This is where they get a first real look at what’s important to the organization.
Orientation
Training
The
emphasis placed on and the attitude towards training within an organization can first be
determined by examining the organization’s policies on how each new employee is
welcomed into the organization. This is done
at the orientation session.
The
orientation training provides each new employee with critical information, including
employee benefits, resources and services; policies and procedures; and position and team
objectives.
Successful orientation programs communicate the organizational culture. New employees need to be told the organization's norms, customs and traditions. If a new employee knows informality is expected, then having coffee at your desk or leaving work out on your desk overnight is acceptable.
However, if rules are strictly enforced, the new employee must know to follow an unwritten dress code and carefully adhere to accepted break and lunch times. Induction training policies should also include on-the-job induction training – what is expected of the employee, how the training will be carried out, when assessments/skill testing will take place.
The orientation process usually has three stages: a general orientation, a departmental orientation, and a specific job orientation. They are conducted by different parties. The Training Department or the Human Resources Department usually conducts the general orientation. Here you will learn the general policies of the organization and fill out a lot of forms. The departmental orientation is by the Department Head telling how the department fits into the general scheme of things, while; the specific job orientation can be carried out by an experienced and trained employee.
How to Conduct a General
Orientation
For people conducting General Orientation training, a general rule of thumb for having the audience interested is to make them feel at ease by seating them in an open circle.
Make sure that participants had enough time to read the employee manual ahead of orientation time. Spend a good portion of the introduction time towards self-introductions, spiced with open questions. Get them to know who the executives are. Have a big chart in the training room, which depicts how the organization is set up, with photos of the top management team next to their respective titles.
Get them acquainted with the operations of the organization. Have another large chart in the room, depicting the flow of work and communication regarding the organization. This flow should include beneficiaries, suppliers and all parties affecting the organization.
Have them know and see departments in operation. Explain all functions of the organization and even a bit about the sector of activity. Conduct a personal tour of all the departments you discuss, including areas outside of the ones they work in. Have the Department Heads give further insights on their departments.
Allay the fears and doubts of the new employees. Cover subjects that are usually never mentioned in orientations, such as the difficulties new employees or supervisors experience, about turnover figures, about how people assimilate better after three months.
Encourage friendships among new employees. Try to create a team spirit among the existing group of newcomers. By the end of the orientation, you will have created a group of employees at different levels and from different departments who will cooperate and enhance communication across the organization.
Does the organization operate in-house training programs? Do all employees have access to in-house
organization training programs? For example,
an increasing number of organizations are forming their own "organizational
training universities", often in collaboration with nearby traditional academic
universities. Policies on access to the “university” need to be communicated.
In-house training programs might include a one-day overview for
managers and team leaders, a two-day action sponsor/beneficiary-focused introduction for sales and marketing
people, a two-day course in usage-centered user and action sponsor/beneficiary interviewing skills, or
in-depth three-, four-, and five-day training programs for design and development staff.
However, as the demands for training
become more complex, the use of "off-the-shelf"
or "canned" training programs will decline and the demand for customized
training will increase dramatically. This need
for customized training will stretch the human resources of organizational training
departments.
Further, as training materials get more
technologically complex (more realistic and job relevant) enormous demands will be placed
on training departments. As such, more of organizational training department budgets
will be spent on external training programs. The resources required for such complex
training will fuel this shift from predominately in-house to external vendors.
When
interviewing for a position, don’t be afraid to ask if
potential employees are encouraged to attend on-going external training programs. Also ask if these programs are promoted through the
organization’s website, on notice boards, or via email.
Tuition
Reimbursement
Most employers
want to encourage continuous learning and development for their employees. In today's
effective workplace, an educated workforce advances organizational goals. Studies
show organizations realize a $10 return in productivity for every $1 invested in employee
education. At the same time, employers know their staff cannot necessarily afford rising
education costs; in the
Organizations want to make sure the money and tuition benefit is actually helping their project/programme purpose and employees; the resulting programs are diverse and tailored for the type of organization.
Tuition reimbursement policies vary greatly. Some organizations don't reimburse anything. Others reimburse education costs within a discipline relevant to the project/programme purpose. Others reimburse 1/2 or 2/3 or 100% of all expenses, regardless of the relevance. Such policies will say a great deal about the organization’s attitude towards training, as well as its attitude about the personal development of its employees. A organization that scrimps on paying to educate its employees is sending a definite cultural signal – we are more interested in saving money now than making money in the future!
One of the trends in training and
development is that there will be a significant increase in cooperative agreements between
traditional institutes of higher education (colleges, universities and technical schools)
and e-learning providers. As the degree of cooperation increases, training programs will
increasingly inorganizational new findings in educational research, leading to more
effective ways of learning.
Mentoring Programs
Mentoring programs pair
knowledgeable, senior employees with new recruits. The goal of such programs is to help
new employees "fit in" and feel more comfortable on the job.
The following is an example of a organizational mentoring program from
Georgia-Pacific [www.gp.com]:
“Organizational
Mentoring Program
The Organizational Mentoring Program enhances employee development by providing and
receiving feedback on career development, as well as professional and personal growth. The
one-on-one mentor and mentee relationship provides opportunities to gain knowledge and
skills that can only occur in a specific project/programme purpose relationship.”
A mentor should provide an orientation to setting expectations, to improving the quality of an employee’s performance, and to changing the norms of the organization. The mentor is a model of a continual learner, open to feedback, is collaborative, and wants the protégé to improve. The mentor's roles and tasks are activity-based, to guide and direct the protégé through each job responsibility, as well as to observe and coach the protégé to reflect on and modify practices to improve their learning results.
A mentor should be selected, not only based on experience and having "people" skills, but also on being the kind of cultural role model that the organization wants to pattern its next generation of leaders after. If you are assigned a mentor, make sure that this is the kind of person you are or want to become. If not, you may be in the wrong position or the wrong organization.
How does a Organization’s Culture Effect Employee
Training?
Terrence
Deal and Allen Kennedy, pioneers in study of organizational culture, feel that a strong
organizational culture has a significant impact on people’s behavior on the job. In the most general sense a strong organizational
culture provides organizational identity, a sense of uniqueness, and sense of connection
for all members within the organization.
Both internal and external stakeholders benefit from a strong organizational culture.
Internal stakeholders benefit from a strong organizational culture because people are a organization’s greatest resource and the way to manage them is by the subtle cues of culture; strong culture helps employees do their jobs better. A strong culture fosters better employee motivation because internal stakeholders are better able to understand what is expected of them and are able to more strongly identify with the organization when the culture is strong.
Deal and Kennedy note that a strong organizational culture has an impact on how people do their jobs: “A strong culture is a system of rules that spells out how people are to behave most of the time.” Knowing the rules of behavior allows employees to act without wasting time trying to figure out what is expected of them. The clearer the expectations of how we are to behave, the easier it is to act.
Also, according to Deal and Kennedy: “A strong culture enables people to feel better about what they do, so they are more likely to work harder.” This aspect of a strong organizational culture also has a powerful influence on employees. Most people find it much easier to work—and to work hard and effectively—when they feel good about the job that they perform, the people they are working with, and the organization they are working for.