Training and Development Program

Question: Discuss about the Training and Development Program. Answer: Introduction Training and Development Training and development is one of the most important core functions under human resource management. Training and development aims at making the workforce of a business organisation more competitive by planning and implementing programs that can help them in learning new skills and techniques, which can bring about an improvement in their job related skills or help them in bringing about an overall development in their knowledge and careers. Contemporary business organisations are giving a lot of importance to training and development programs because they are now operating in a very complex and competitive business environment where human resources can play a vital role in achieving market competencies and helping business organisations in surviving the market competition in the longer run. There are two factors that can create a need for training and development of employees. These factors are changes in the market or the industry and for the general development of the organisatio n (Training and Development - Meaning, its Need and Importance, n.d.). Company Background Toyota motor corporation, also known as Toyota, is an automotive company that is headquartered in Japan. Toyota became the ninth largest country in the world in terms of revenue in 2016 and is the second largest car manufacturer brand in the world. The company manufactures more than 10 million vehicles per year and has an approximate workforce of 3,38,875 employees. The company has established itself in very tough times by performing very well and showing exceptional product design and development. Toyota operates in a sector that is highly complex, competitive and vulnerable to a number of global environmental factors. The company also has a large workforce, which makes it important for the company to keep on arranging for training and development programs that can help in increasing their competencies and assist them in serving their customers in a better way. One of the subsidiaries of the company has been experiencing a lot of complaints with respect to the quality of customer care services that the employees have been offering to the clients who visit Toyota service centres to get their vehicles services. Therefore, the company has decided to conduct a training need assessment in that particular subsidiary and analyse if the reason for the lack of performance is due to lack of a training or development program. Needs Assessment Analysis Need assessment analysis is a process that a human resource management undertakes to determine the training needs that will help the employees and the organisation in achieving their personal as well as collective goals (Training Needs Assessment Survey, n.d.). In other words, a need assessment analysis helps organisations in identifying the gaps that exist between their present position and the position where they want to be in the future. A training needs assessment helps business organisations in identifying the competence level, skills and knowledge of employees and compare it with the market trends or the position where the organisation wants its employees to be. Assessment of training needs should be executed as a continuous process i.e. at the time of hiring, at the time of performance reviews, during career development or succession planning or during the implementation of change. Some techniques or sources that can be used to conduct a training need assessment are listed below: Needs assessment questionnaire Employee interviews Employee opinions Exit interviews Employee complaints Customer survey feedbacks Performance measurement systems Observations Assessment centres Employment skill test Focus group (Training Needs Assessment Survey, n.d.) The situation that the Toyota Motor Corporation is facing in the global market is tough and can have a huge impact on the market reputation of the company because it is important for the employees working in service sector to be competitive and satisfy the needs of the clients. For conducting a training need assessment at the Toyota Motor Corporation, the following methods can be used: Customer survey feedback as the company is operating in manufacturing and service sector, it is important that it takes regular feedback from its customers who visit the retail outlets for getting their vehicles services because customers are highly attached to their vehicles and want a higher value for their money. Taking feedback from the customers will allow the company to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the services that the staff has offered to them. The company can take regular feedback from the customers who have recently availed their services and also from the ones who are returning customers or have visited the outlets in the past. The company can ask the clients some important questions, such as: how were you welcomed at the service centre? Did you book an appointment before coming? Was your paper work ready before your arrival? Was the staff cooperative? Were you given estimates before the commencement of the service? Was your vehicle ready within the time period mentioned by the staff member? Do you have any grievances related with the behaviour of the staff? Do you think the staff was efficient in testing and servicing your vehicle? Did the staff provide you instructions and information regarding the next services of you vehicle? Would you like to appraise a specific staff member that put in extra efforts to make your vehicle better? etc. Such questions can greatly help the management in gathering important information about the performance of the employees from the clients perspective and identifying the areas where the employees lack competencies so that they can be trained or developed in the areas identified. Employee interviews another efficient way of analysing the training needs of the employees is by conducting interview sessions where experts can ask job and skill related questions from the employees and analyse their responses to identify the training needs. To analyse the training needs effectively, the staff as well as their seniors should be interviewed in an controlled environment. The questions that they can be asked during the interview process are: Do you think that you are competent enough for the industry? Do you think you possess the skills or technicalities that are required to carry out your job duties properly? Do you think that you lack certain competencies or skills? Do you think that a training or development program is required for the staff? If yes, then what specific skills or areas should be targeted? Are there any skills or competencies that could make the entire workforce more competitive and improve their performance? Performance measurement systems performance measurement systems are given a lot of importance in human resource management because they are not just helpful in improving the workforce performance but also plays a great role in analysing the lacking competencies in the workforce. As a result, almost all top companies in the world have their own customised performance measurement systems that help them in analysing the training needs of the workforce. If Toyota Motor Corporation already has a performance measurement system in place, it will become easier for the company to assess the training needs of the employees. Through its performance measurement system, the management will already have some information about the training needs of the employees and the management can use this information to shape the other methods of conducting a training need assessment. For example, a performance measurement system hints that the employees lack competitiveness when it comes to providing accurate estimations and costs of services to the clients or fail to deliver the vehicle within the mentioned period of time. Thus, using this information, the management can shape its employee interviews and can also include questions regarding the same in the customer feedback forms and can design training and development programs to target some specific skills and technicalities (Rossett, 1987). Potential Issues in needs Assessments It is imperative for business organisations to be accurate when conducting a training needs assessment because an inefficient training needs assessment plan can identify wrong training or development needs and ultimately result into a wastage of a lot of important resources of the company. It has been observed that only 6% of the expenditure in training actually results in transfer of the learned skills and technicalities back to job. To avoid such conditions, it is important that the human resource management staff of business organisations possess the business acumen and have experience in performing training needs assessment (Iglicki, 2012). Some potential issues on training needs assessment are discussed below: First of all, using a customer feedback method can be a complicated way to identify the training needs of the workforce. Using a customer feedback questionnaire might not help the company in gathering the information that it desires as some of the customers might not provide a feedback for the survey at all. Further, the answers to the customer surveys can be biased and it might also be difficult for the company to understand the responses of the customers and come to a strong conclusion. Secondly, higher dependency on employee interviews can also increase the chances of inefficiencies because the process is time consuming. Organising employee interviews is a difficult job and the employees might not be honest in replying to the questions designed for the interview. For example, most of the employees will not be ready to accept that they lack certain skills of competencies that prevents them from performing better. Further, it is also possible that the interviewer is not able to get the desired information out from the employees and the purpose of the process might be defeated altogether (Wicaksana, 2014). Finally, another issue that arises in the assessment of training needs is whether there is actually a need to plan and implement a training or development program for the skills that have been found to be missing in the workforce or not. The management can obviously not afford to plan and implement training or development programs that are not required because it will cause wastage of a lot of important resources, which otherwise might have been used somewhere else. Failure of Training needs Assessment Training and development programs are important from the perspective of the employees as well as from the employers perspective. Toyota Motor Corporation must ensure that it is able to assess the right training needs to achieve higher competencies and better outcomes on the overall. The failure of assessing the right training needs can result into the training of wrong people at the wrong time and for the wrong skills. This will not only result into wastage of time and resources but will also hinder the progress of the organisation and make it difficult for the company to achieve its objectives. Further, it is also important for the company to identify whether the training program will be compatible with the work schedules of the employees because if it is incompatible then it would make the subsidiaries lose their productivity and efficiency due to shortage of staff (Deborah, 2011). Thus, assessing the right training needs if very important for the company at present as a wrong asse ssment might in the present situation might be the end to the business of the company. Conclusion Training and development of employees is very important for the employees as well as for the employers. Training and development of employees not only helps the employers in achieving a highly competitive, motivated and engaged workforce but also helps the employees in increasing their competencies, becoming better performers at work and developing better career prospects for them in the future. To achieve such advantages, it is important for the company to assess the right training needs and identify those skills that are missing in its workforce so that it can help its workforce in learning those skills and can ensure that the employees are able to contribute more towards the achievement of organisational goals and objectives. References Training and Development - Meaning, its Need and Importance. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2017, from www.managementstudyguide.com: https://www.managementstudyguide.com/training-and-development.htm Koshal. (2015, January 1). Difference Between Five (5) Star Hotel and Seven (7) Star Hotel. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from www.differencebetween.com: https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-five-5-star-hotel-and-seven-7star-hotel/ Training Needs Assessment Survey. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2017, from www.hr-survey.com: https://www.hr-survey.com/TrainingNeeds.htm Rossett, A. (1987). Training Needs Assessment. (J. W. Arwardy, Ed.) Educational Technology Publications. Iglicki, D. (2012, February 23). Hurdles To Accurate Assessment Of Training Needs Within Organizations. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from evolllution.com: https://evolllution.com/opinions/hurdles-to-accurate-assessment-of-training-needs-within-organizations/ Wicaksana, S. (2014, April 10). Training Need Assessment. Deborah. (2011, May 9). Why a training needs assessment is important . Retrieved April 25, 2017, from laurelandassociates.com: https://laurelandassociates.com/tip-374-why-a-training-needs-assessment-is-important/