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Designing an effective training program for a BusinessIn order for training to be effective, it must be coordinated with the company’soverall objectives. At the same time, it is important to design a training program that will allow employees to fulfill their personal goals. There are five steps that I would take to create an effective systems approach to training that recognizes both of these needs: make a needs assesment, develop instructional objectives, foster a learning environment, develop learning expectancies, and finally, develop a system to evaluate the training. These steps make up the systems approach to training, which has recently become popular due to its effectiveness. As a human resource director for a new company, I would first assess the needs of both the organization and the person. To assess the needs of the new organization, I would conduct interviews with each department managerand the president. In the interviews with the new managers, they would identify the skills that an employee needs to perform his/her duties, called a task analysis. This analysis would aid me in determining the content of the training program and hopefully gain the managers’ approval. Next, I would interview the president of the company. He or she would tell me the strategy and mission of the company. It is important that the training program is tied into the organizational strategy. For instance, it would be unnecessary to train an employee in advanced computer applications when the organizational strategy revolves around relationship selling. Person analysis is also an important step, as I would not want to train an employee who is not capable of, or who already knows, the task. Next, I would develop the instructional objectives, or desired outcomes, of the training program. This “end to beginning” approach of setting the desired results before designing the program will provide a basis for selecting a good methos to reach these objectives. The goals I set would be specific, measurable, and challenging, and would be clearly typed on paper. This paper would be distributed to the employees before undergoing training, so that they are fully aware of management’s expectations.
Selecting the proper environment in which to train employees is the next step that I would take. Considering that the new employees are non-managerial, I would have to choose between on-the-job training (OJT), an apprenticeship (is the skill needed was a trade skill), cooperative training, or an internship program. The environment in which the training will occur will be based solely on my belief that the employee wants, and is able, to achieve the instructional objectives in the prospective environment. From all the gathered information, I will compile an effectively structured training program. Then the employees of the company would participate in the program. Evaluations are done last, but I would develop them the same time that I structure the program. Evaluations will measure whether the training program has led to improved employee behavior and job performance. I would first test a control group that has not received training in order to compare them against the trained employees. The control group will allow me to see how effective the training really was. Finally, I would evaulate the trained employees on one of the four following goals which is relevant: training validity, transfer validity, intraorganizational validity, or interorganizational validity. These terms have all been discussed during class time. There is no doubt that training increases employee effectiveness and enables them to reach jobs at higher levels. This reason is why I, as a human resource director, choose to follow the above steps to ensure an effective systems approach to training.
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