Employee Training and Development – The Ultimate Guide

Introduction to Employee Training and Development in HRM

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Employee training and development is a program that helps to learn a particular skill as well as knowledge to improve?employee productivity?& performance in their current organization or job role. It developed future performance & helps focused on more employee growth.

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Companies that have a proper training and development process can retain more employees, see?higher profitability, and have more engaged employees. Furthermore, it helps the organization avoid the costs linked to losing talents.

Training and developing an employee doesn’t simply help their growth but pushes the company to grow as well. Likewise, it helps employees know that they are valued in the organization.

A formal definition of training and development is “Training and development is an attempt to improve current or future employee performance by increasing an employee’s ability to perform through learning, usually by changing the employee’s?attitude?or increasing his or her skills as well as knowledge”

An organization that nurtures its employee skills and thinks about its growth certainly attracts better talent and?sustainability.

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“Training and developing an employee doesn’t simply help their growth but pushes the company to grow as well.”

Employee Training and Development Definition

Employee training & development may sound similar but both have different meanings and roles. An Employee training refers to a short-term activity that focuses on the specific role of the employee. It focuses on the immediate need or requirement of the role. In a more formal sense, employee training is the process of providing the required skills to an employee for a specific task.

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Whereas, employee development has a broader scope. It is a long-term activity that focuses on the development of an individual. Employee development can be defined as the process of?employees honing, developing, and learning new skills that align with the goals and the vision of the company.

What is Employee Training and Development?

The relationship between employee training and development is close. However, employee training is very different from employee development. Employee development has open-ended goals and doesn’t focus on one single role.

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It focuses on the entirety of an individual. It hones the skills of an individual to be able to?grow as a person. If done right, employee development can lead to more job satisfaction which results in a more?engaged employee. Employee development also helps groom employees for newer possibilities and roles.

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While employee training focuses on helping the employee do the current job better. It focuses on helping the employee solve the problems that they are facing and helps them develop the skills to solve them. It acts as an upgrade in the current job role.

Breaking Down Employee ‘Training’ and ‘Development’

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Employee training and development may sound similar but both have different meanings and roles. An Employee training refers to a short-term activity that focuses on the specific role of the employee. It focuses on the immediate need or requirement of the role.

Whereas, employee development has a broader scope. It is a long-term activity that focuses on the development of an individual. Employee development has open-ended goals and doesn’t focus on one job but the entirety of an individual. While employee training focuses on helping the employee do the current job better, development?helps groom?employees for newer possibilities and roles.

Case Study

To understand the benefits of Employee Training and development better, let us also look at how ICICI benefited from training and developing their employees through a collaboration with a University.

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Organizations like?ICICI?bank in association with?Sikkim Manipal University?have gone ahead to design tailor-made management courses that bring out an overall development in a fresh graduate employee. These training are designed for the right fit-out for a job, post-training, to a specific organizational culture, practices, processes, overall grooming & management. Furthermore, it also provides real-life banking experience with access to the core banking software that ICICI bank uses to stimulate learning.

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The employees attending this full-time management program are given a monthly stipend as well as a guaranteed job with a higher post after the training.

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This way ICICI bank trains and develops its employees to take on better tasks in the future while also?securing employees?for their future hiring's.

Why Employee Training and Development is important in HRM?

It is no secret that organizations prosper under?continuous learning. The winning advantage is often with the organization that adapts not also changing scenarios but and welcomes the development.

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Several aspects can be considered trainable under various departments and verticals. However, once the gap is understood, individual training can be designed to affect a solution. Furthermore, a feedback or evaluation system is mandatory to create a successful training program closely.

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Here are a Few Benefits of Employee Training and Development in an Organisation:

This is How You Can Create Highly-Impactful Employee Training and Development

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1. Business Impact

As we all say health and wealth go hand in hand in the similar way training and development of an employee also impact the business of the organization, the better the skillset is, the more effective that employee would be for providing great service to the organization.

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You have to design your training program in such a way that it meets the organizations’ overall goal because the right set of employees will be your most reliable asset.

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If the employee receives the right training then he can develop future?leadership skills?and can be more goal-oriented. It’s as simple as” If you invest in your employee their growth will invest in you.

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2. Analyze Skill

Every employee in your organization will be having one great skill in which the organization can train him and make him the best working employee in that field. Opposite to this, there will be some employees in your organization lacking certain sorts of skills so you can analyze it and train that employee well and provide him the opportunities to grow. This process will ensure that every employee gets proper training and can be efficient to perform various tasks.

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Analyzing Skill can be categorized and impactful through these 3 following methods:

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Increasing Productivity:

The employee who’s been provided proper training will for sure increase his productivity level and will be more aware of the opportunities to grow in the company. In addition to this, the confidence level of the employee will also be rising which would lead to an employee being more productive.

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Motivation:

This word “Motivation” plays an important role in an organization but as we all know Motivating every single day would be quite difficult and there will be days often where employees could be feeling low so here’s what you can do: You can tell them about a purpose to achieve which will keep your employees motivated in a proper manner.

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Decision-Making Skills:

Every employee may perform different activities but decision-making skills are one common skill every employee needs. You can first evaluate the situation, look for the possible numbers of solutions(options), look around the pros and cons of the options you have, and then choose the appropriate option. An employee who has good decision-making skills will definitely help the organization to progress.

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3. Time & Costs Saving

This is one of the key points of Employee Training and Development, as training an employee requires a good amount of time and planning but it’s all worth the efforts because the time you invest in training will result in a great performance of the individual and as far as the cost is concerned there are some effective ways through which you can lower the cost which is: Choosing?online learning platforms?as it’s very cost-effective and is convenient, Involving everyone in the organization so that the seniors and juniors can interact with each other and exchange knowledge, etc.

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4. Positive Employee Retention

Most organizations spend resources and time in hiring well-qualified talents however, that effort stops once the talent is hired. This is the reason employees often leave organizations, as there is a lack of growth in their roles. Therefore, training and developing talent will help them grow and be engaged with the organization. As we know, engaged employees are less likely to jump ship and will want to stay in the organization.

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5. Trains Future Leaders

?Training and developing the skills of your employees doesn’t just benefit them but it also benefits the organization in the long term. It helps your employee be prepared for better roles and will provide them with the skill set to handle more difficult situations. It helps develop promotional skills that benefit them and will save the company recruiting expenses in the future. Furthermore, the employee at the leadership level will understand the grassroots of the organization.

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6. Increases Workplace Engagement

?Stunted growth in the workplace can create negative habits and boredom. Training and developing employee skills will help employees feel more involved with the organization. Furthermore, it pushes employees to build a better skill set and guides them towards a better path. It also influences the company culture to change from being static to being in motion.?

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7. Helps Improve Weak links

Every employer recognizes a few weak links in their teams. Employees who clearly do not have the required skills. Therefore, a training program truly helps an organization understand these weaknesses and build their employee’s skills. Specific training related to the employee’s job will help them get better.

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Furthermore, helping the employee develop will help them understand their shortcomings on their own. This will push them to find resources to improve, themselves

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8. Employee Empowerment

When employees feel?more empowered, they are able to lead and inspire other employees better. Furthermore, empowered employees are much more likely to have better confidence, autonomy, and a sense of value. Therefore, empowering employees through employee training and development is truly valuable to the company.

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“Employee Training refers to short term activities that focus on the specific role of the employee. Employee development focuses on honing, developing and learning new general skills”

Organizations Employee Training and Development Programs

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Training & development is a crucial part of any organization’s growth, aligning the organization’s workforce with its goals.?for this reason,?where an organization is unwilling to spend on training, the consequences can be?catastrophic.

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1. Increase in employee turnover due to stunted growth.

If an employee doesn’t see personal growth in an organization it is likely that they will jump ships. So, employees who already possess the necessary skills will see better opportunities to grow outside the organization.

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2. No learning atmosphere means a static growth culture.

When an organization doesn’t cultivate a learning environment it trickles down and becomes the work culture. If there isn’t a learning atmosphere in an organization it will be difficult for employees to adjust and adapt to the newer technologies. Furthermore, it will add to the stunted growth of the company.

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3. Existence of obsolete practices

Over a period of time, newer and better possibilities of similar tasks can be implemented. This also helps save resources and expenses. However, without proper training & development employees will not be able to keep up with the upcoming practices. This will lead to wastage of time, resources, and money

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4. Teams, tasks, and processes are falling apart

This can happen due to a lack of skills in particular roles. The burden of untrained employees will be passed on to skilled employees. and, this will create extra workload and unhealthy deadlines for?skilled employees, thereby pushing them to quit.

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5. Employees being unable to adapt to new requirements of their roles.

Almost every field has had to adapt to a certain aspect in these past few decades. If an organization is unable to adapt to these changes then it will cost the organization a lot of money and time. Lack of employee training & development in an organization will lead to employees that aren’t able to adapt to the new requirements. In a fast-paced world, that is a huge disadvantage to a company.

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1. Training Need Analysis

Training?need analysis?is a systematic approach towards determining the gaps in the organization as well as advocating the right training.

A training needs analysis considers:

1. Current industry scenario

2. Current skill competencies

3. Industry as well as organizational benchmarks and visible gaps

4. Technical advancements

5. Recommended training methods as well as practices

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2. Cost Factor Analysis

Organizations that invest in training do a?cost factor analysis?on training.?This analysis is on:

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1. The Training duration.

2. The productivity time that an employee spends in training.

3. Training expenses.

4. Content generation time.

5. Evaluation process.

6. Investment v/s visible productivity.

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A?structured process?of training supported by analysis and evaluation will be able to affect positively.

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Training Policies

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An organization with an inhouse training & development department also has a minutely framed employee training &?development policy?that encompasses the scope of training and?employee engagement. The Training & Development policy also lists the more intricate aspects and structure of training.

Conclusion

Whether you hire the top talents or not, it is important to keep training and developing your employees so that the company keeps running successfully. and, The cost of not doing it is simply too high. Furthermore, employees that are in a habit of growing and learning will surpass those that aren’t. Learning is a lifelong journey, and also cultivating that in your employees will help make the company more resilient to change. As an?HR professional, it is your duty to ensure that the correct employee training and development take place in the organization.

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Employee development will help you have a more-rounded workforce. and also capable of taking up challenging tasks and employee training will help you have better-skilled employees. Therefore, they both are equally important and should be focused on.