Organizations that will succeed in the future are thoughtfully developing their most important resource: the people they employ.  Developing custom content to help them achieve their desired outcome requires that the training professional assess needs and make recommendations about activities, readings, lessons, classes, work assignments, and pedagogical approaches that will help the learners—employees—reach success.

Training and Development also needs to measure that success.  According to the Learning Resources Network, 77 percent of organizations use reaction measures to measure training effectiveness; 36 percent use learning evaluations; 15 percent measure behavior change; and 8 percent measure results.

Trainers have the platform skills needed for effective training delivery, yet people who work on the line have the knowledge about and control of the work processes.  Trainers are increasingly asked to impart training skills to people who are experts in subject matter. Thus, training others to train is a desired competency. With non-trainers conducting training, the training professional needs to hone his or her skills in locating resources, needs assessment, training design and development, and performance consulting.

Training delivery systems are in transformation.  Approximately 80 percent of instruction is by live teachers, but about six percent now is remote, mostly online.

Computer-based training with no live instructor accounts for about 13 percent of training, while 9 percent is by on-the-job, self-study or other means. Currently, most computer-based training is primarily delivered via CDs. Training via intranet and over the Internet is likely to expand in the future.

As performance management systems and individual development plans replace the traditional appraisal system, increasingly your training beneficiary will be the individual employee. Training will be delivered just-in-time, not just-in-case.  You'll see more training provided in response to individual development plans just when the employee needs the training. 

External Factors

Economic

The external, or macroenvironment, continually impacts the every organization. Although there are many environmental factors that impact organizations , we will look at five general factors that will affect any organization. Internal macroenvironmental factors that affect all organizations are economic, technological, demographic, legal and regulatory, and social.  We’ll also look at international macroenvironmental factors.

The price of labor has caused many lower-skilled manufacturing type jobs to be sent overseas from many developed countries, as domestic manufacturers try to keep a lid on the cost to produce goods.  The cost of labor is often up to 70% of the cost of manufactured items.

We also cannot forget the role of government spending in the economy.  Many large projects like dams and the armed forces could not be privately funded. When the government spends more than it takes in, inflation is often the result.

Technological Factors

Technological factors that affect organizations include satellite and wireless communications, cellular telephones, computers, and the Internet.  They also include things like the use of programmable semiconductor chips, which have become an ever present part of many consumer goods, not just electronic ones.  It is difficult for younger people to imagine, but many of us grew up in a world without computers, where the letters cc: actually meant that someone typed a carbon copy of the document.

Other technologically based trends in technology are listed at www.iaap-hq.org, and include the following:

1.      Wireless technologies will reshape the computer sector of activity, no longer binding us by wires to our homes, offices, or buildings. Data compression will allow for larger amounts of information to be squeezed through limited bandwidths.

2.      Voice and data will converge. Voice will be used to activate a system and "voice-mail" will have a whole new meaning.

3.  Space-based satellite networks will allow for communications that are free from political whims, portable, and secure from vandals.

4. The rise of the Internet, intranets, and ERP ( organization resource planning) has inundated project/programme purposees with more information than they can possibly digest. To avoid information overload, IT managers will be spending more and more time on knowledge management.  Many organizations are even creating a new position, that of chief knowledge officer, to oversee the effort.  Many organizations even already have a Chief Learning Officer to help in the application and use of new technologies for the organization.

Legal Factors

New laws are passed all the time that organizations must comply with.  Recently, California enacted a law that bans all cigarette smoking in restaurants and bars—in fact in all buildings open to the public. New York has a law that bans the use of cell phones in cars unless they are hands-free.  There are laws against discrimination and sexual harassment; laws against parking in certain places; laws against pollution in water and in the air.  Public utilities are regulated, as are governmental functions.  In the United States, the Supreme Court hears cases that can fundamentally affect daily lives, not just those affecting the workplace.

Other laws and regulations that will impact project/programme purposees deal with environmental issues.  These laws deal with defining clean air and water, nuclear and electric utility pollution and have a profound impact on any organization.

International Factors

There are numerous international factors that impact organizations .  The following are just a small sample of the kinds of international trends that organizations need to be aware of.

According to Andrew Crockett, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements, consolidation in the financial sector of activity is likely to be reflected increasingly in cross-border mergers and alliances, as well as in the formation of groups spanning different financial activities such as commercial banking, insurance, investment banking, and financial consulting.

The traditional emphasis on physical, chemical and biological hazards in the workplace is still important and in many cases still accounts for the majority of research expenditure in Europe.  However, in many countries the research focus is shifting toward working life issues such as work organizational matters, the aging workforce, and labor market changes. Working life issues, although not the major focus, are becoming increasingly important in the work of national agencies in the UK, France and Finland.

Demand for petroleum product is anticipated to increase by 11 million barrels per day, or by 16 percent, between 1995 and 2002, most notably Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim countries. China's petroleum consumption alone is expected to increase 46 percent between 1995 and 2002, with other nonindustrialized countries of Asia and the Pacific Rim expected to increase their petroleum consumption by 44 percent.

Recently, the OECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy investigated four burgeoning issues in biotechnology: patent protection, safety problems that might arise in industrial mass production, R&D priorities, and economic impacts of biotech.

Suppliers

Buyer-supplier partnerships have emerged as excellent tools for organizations to use to maintain and enhance competitiveness. Without supplier management, organizations risk devastating quality problems, escalating costs, and ill-timed product shortages. When a part fails or a plane arrives late, beneficiaries do not ask who your supplier was; they hold you responsible.

Many organizations not only manage their suppliers to keep costs down and reliability up; they form partnerships with suppliers to deliver higher quality goods and services and lower cost than they could on their own, sharing risks as they explore new technologies and markets.

How can organizations create and maintain high-performance supplier partnerships? How can they successfully manage their suppliers? And how can suppliers work most effectively with the organizations that buy their products while building a strong long-term relationship, which benefits both supplier and buyer?

organizations must develop a strategic measurement system, which also tracks employee, beneficiary, financial, and other key areas. Integrated into that system, supplier measurement is linked directly to the organization's strategy and goals, and is used in day-to-day decisions. 

 People are the key to change, not to mention trust, information sharing, and teamwork. Culture, shared beliefs and behaviors, and motivation have a proven, dramatic impact. Communication is the key to successfully managing the partnership. 

Where Training and Development comes into play is that employees in both organizations must be trained together as partners.  Cross-organizational team building is very effective to maintain good working relationships.

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