1. Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 2e
Gary Dessler

2. Training and Developing Employees
Chapter 6

3. When you finish studying this chapter, you should be able to:
Describe the basic training process.
Discuss at least two techniques used for assessing training needs.
Explain the pros and cons of at least five training techniques.
Explain what management development is and why it is important.
Describe the main development techniques.
When you finish studying this chapter, you should be able to:
Describe the basic training process.
Discuss at least two techniques used for assessing training needs.
Explain the pros and cons of at least five training techniques.
Explain what management development is and why it is important.
Describe the main development techniques.

4. Orienting Employees Employee orientation
Provides new employees with basic background information needed to perform their jobs satisfactorily
Employee orientation provides new employees with basic background information needed to perform their jobs satisfactorily.
Orientation programs range from brief, informal introductions to lengthy, formal programs of a half day or more.

5. Orienting Employees Socialization
The continuing process of instilling in all employees the attitudes, standards, values and behavior patterns expected by the company
Orientation, often called onboarding today, is one component of the employer’s new-employee socialization process.
Socialization refers to the continuing process of instilling in employees the attitudes, standards, values, and patterns of behavior that the organization expects.
Developing an appreciation for the company’s culture and values is what distinguishes onboarding from traditional orientation.

6. Orientation Programs Covers: Employee benefits Personnel policies
The employee’s daily routine
Company organization and operations
Safety measures and regulations
Orientation program typically cover:
Employee benefits
Personnel policies
The employee’s daily routine
Company organization and operations, and
Safety measures and regulations

7. Orienting Employees The new employee should: Feel welcome
Understand the organization in a broad sense
Be clear about what the firm expects in terms of work and behavior
Begin the process of socialization
The purpose of an orientation is to help the new employee feel welcome and understand the organization in a broad sense—its past, present, culture, and vision of the future.
The employee should clearly understand what the firm expects in terms of work and behavior, and begin the process of becoming socialized into the firm’s preferred ways of acting and doing things.

8. Training’s Purpose and Process
Methods used to give new or present employees the skills they need to perform their jobs
Training is the process of teaching new employees the basic skills they need to perform their jobs.
It has an impressive record of influencing organizational effectiveness, and its effect on productivity scores higher than appraisal and feedback and just below goal setting.

9. Training Today Training is increasingly technology based.
Trainers tend to focus more on improving organizational performance.
Training’s focus is broader today than it was years ago.
Three things characterize today’s training:
It is increasingly technology based, either online or via computer.
Trainers focus more on improving organizational performance than in the past.
Training’s focus is broader than it used to be. Today’s companies demand a different type of employee and a different type of training that goes beyond technical skills.

10. Training and Development Process
Needs Analysis
Instructional Design
Implementation
Evaluation
The training and development process includes four steps:
The needs analysis step identifies the specific knowledge and skills the job requires, and compares these with the prospective trainees’ knowledge and skills.
The instructional design step formulates specific training objectives, reviews possible training program content (including workbooks, exercises, and activities), and estimates a budget for the training program.
The implementation stage begins the actually training.
Finally, the evaluation step assesses the program’s successes or failures.

11. Training Needs Analysis
First step: Determine what training, if any, is required
“Skills gapping”
Employers determine the skills each job requires, and the skills of the job’s current or prospective employees.
The first step in training needs analysis is to determine what training, if any, the employee requires. Some call this process “skills gapping.” Employers determine the skills that each job requires and then compare them to the skills of the job’s current or prospective employees. If a skill gap exists, a training program is designed.

12. Training Needs Analysis (cont.)
Task analysis
Detailed study of the job to determine what specific skills are required
There are two traditional ways to identify training needs—task analysis and performance analysis.
Task analysis is a detailed study of a job to identify the skills required, so that an appropriate training program can be designed.
Job descriptions and job specifications are helpful in a task analysis to provide a basic reference point in determining the training required. You can also uncover training needs by reviewing performance standards, performing the job, and questioning current job holders and their supervisors.

13. Training Needs Analysis (cont.)
Performance analysis
Verifying that there is a significant performance deficiency and determining whether that deficiency should be rectified through training.
Distinguishing between “can’t do” and “won’t do” problems is the heart of performance analysis.
For current employees whose performance is deficient, such as those who receive too many complains from call center clients, task analysis is usually not enough. Instead, a performance analysis is needed.
Performance analysis means verifying that there is a performance deficiency and determining whether to rectify the deficiency through training or through some other means, such as transferring the employee or changing the compensation plan.
Distinguishing between “can’t do” and “won’t do” problems is the heart of performance analysis.

14. Identifying Training Needs
Supervisor, peer, self-, and 360-degree performance reviews
Job-related performance data
Observation by supervisors or other specialists
Interviews with the employee or his or her supervisor
Tests of things like job knowledge, skills, and attendance
Attitude surveys
Assessment centers
Requests for training often start with supervisors expressing concerns about their employees productivity or performance.
Several methods that help identify employees’ performance needs include:
Appraising supervisor, peer, self-, and 360-degree performance reviews
Analyzing job-related performance data, such as productivity, absenteeism, accidents, grievances, late deliveries, and customer complaints
Observation by supervisors or other specialists
Interviews with the employee or his or her supervisor
Tests of things like job knowledge, skills, and attendance
Administering attitude surveys
Using assessment centers

15. Competency Models Competency
Consolidates, usually in one diagram, a precise overview of the competencies (the knowledge, skills, and behaviors) someone would need to do a job well
Many employers use competency models to help compile and summarize a job’s training needs. They provide a precise overview of the competencies—that is, the knowledge, skills, and behaviors—that someone needs to do a job well.

16. Competency Model for Human Resource Manager
Let’s look again at the competency model for a human resource manager that we saw in Chapter 4. The top of the pyramid shows the four main roles the human resource manager needs to fill. Beneath are the areas of expertise, such as selection and training, in which he must be expert to carry out these roles. The next level down contains the HR manager’s essential or “foundation” competencies, such as communicating effectively.
Figure 6.1

17. Setting Training Objectives
Specify the employee and organizational outcomes that should be achieved as a result of the training
Should specify what the trainee should be able to accomplish after successfully completing the training program
After identifying training needs, trainers set measurable training objectives.
These training or instructional objectives specify what the trainee should be able to accomplish, individually and for the company, after successfully completing the training program.

18. Training Techniques On-the-job training Informal learning
Apprenticeship training
Behavioral modeling
Vestibule training
Audiovisual and traditional distance learning techniques
Computer-based training
DVD-based training
Simulated learning
Learning portals
Mobile training
Now that you’ve determined the employees’ training needs and set training objectives, you’re ready to design and implement a training program.
Here we see an overview of some of the most popular training techniques, which we’ll look at in more detail in the following slides.

19. On-the-Job Training Effective coaching Preparing to coach Planning
Active coaching
Follow-up
Every employee gets some on-the-job training when starting a job, usually coaching.
Effective coaching can be best thought of as a four-step process:
Preparation: Your aim is to figure out what the problem is by observing the employee and reviewing objective data on the employee’s performance.
Planning: Requires that the coach and employee reach agreement on the problem and consensus on what changes are needed.
Active coaching: This is the actual educating, instructing, and training.
Follow-up: Observe the employee’s progress.

20. Some Popular Apprenticeships
More employers today are implementing apprenticeship training programs, an approach that began in the Middle Ages.
Apprenticeship training is a structured process by which individuals become skilled workers through a combination of formal instruction and on-the-job training, usually under the guidance of an expert.
Here we see a list of popular apprenticeships. The U.S. Department of Labor’s National Apprenticeship System promotes apprenticeship programs, and more than 460,000 apprentices participate in about 28,000 programs.

21. Behavioral Modeling Behavior modeling
Involves showing trainees the right (or model) way of doing something, letting each person practice the right way to do it, and providing feedback regarding performance
Behavior modeling shows trainees the right (or “model”) way of doing something. It then lets trainees practice the model way, and gives feedback on the trainees’ performance. It is a widely used, well researched, and highly regarded psychologically based training method.

22. Behavioral Modeling (cont.)
Role Playing
Social Reinforcement
Transfer of Training
Studies suggest that behavioral modeling results in significant improvements in knowledge and skill learning.
The procedure for behavior modeling has four steps, as we see here:
Modeling. First, trainees watch live or video examples that show models behaving effectively in a problem situation.
Role playing. Next, the trainees are given roles to play in a simulated situation where they practice the effective behaviors demonstrated by the models.
Social reinforcement. The trainer gives praise and constructive feedback based on how the trainees perform in the role-playing situation.
Transfer of training. Finally, trainees are encouraged to apply their new skills when they’re back on their jobs.

23. Computer-Based Training
Trainee uses a computer-based system to interactively increase knowledge or skills
In computer-based training (CBT), trainees use computer-based systems to interactively increase their knowledge or skills.
CBT can range from reviewing PowerPoint slides online and taking a quiz to presenting trainees with computerized simulations and virtual reality to help them learn the job.

24. Simulated Learning Virtual reality-type games
Step-by-step animated guide
Scenarios with questions and decision trees overlaying animation
Online role-play with photos and videos
Software training, including screenshots with interactive requests
“Simulated learning” means different things to different people. Here we see five popular methods of training using simulations, the most popular of which is software training with interactive requests, followed by virtual-reality games, scenarios with questions and decision trees, and online role-play.
Employers use computerized simulations to inject more realism into their training. For example, at ConAgra foods, managers use a simulation called The Executive Challenge to make realistic business decisions while rotating through various (simulated) functional jobs and fighting for market share. Top executives decide which teams won, based not just on financial results but on teamwork and collective decision making.

25. Learning Portals Learning portal
A section of an employer’s website that offers employees online access to many or all of the training courses they need to succeed at their jobs
A learning portal is a section of an employer’s website that offers employees online access to many or all of the training courses they need to succeed at their jobs. Most often, the employer contracts with training applications service providers (ASPs) that provide trainees with access to their server and the menu of courses that the employer contracted the ASP to offer.

26. Application Service Providers
Search “e-learning companies” in Google to find applications service providers such as these:
Skillsoft (
Plateau Systems (
Academee (
Enspire Learning (
Here we see a partial list of vendors for e-learning and training applications service providers, with which many companies contract for training applications.

27. Virtual Classroom Virtual classroom
Uses special collaboration software to enable multiple remote learners, using their PCs or laptops, to participate in live audio and visual discussions, communicate via written text, and learn via content such as PowerPoint slides
Conventional web-based learning is already familiar to students who have read PowerPoint presentations and taken online exams.
The virtual classroom takes online learning to an exciting new level. It uses collaboration software to enable multiple remote learners, using their PCs or laptops, to participate in live audio and visual discussions, communicate via written text, and learn content via PowerPoint slides.
For example, Elluminate Inc. makes the popular virtual classroom system, Elluminate Live!, which enables learners to communicate with two-way audio; build communities with user profiles and live video; collaborate with chat and shared whiteboards; and learn with shared applications, such as PowerPoint slides.

28. Mobile Learning Mobile learning
Delivering learning content on demand via mobile devices like cell phones, laptops, and iPhones, wherever and whenever the learner wants to access it
“On-demand learning”
Mobile learning (or “on-demand learning”) means delivering learning content on demand via mobile devices like cell phones, laptops, and iPhones, wherever and whenever the learner wants to access it.

29. Mobile Learning (cont.)
Capital One Bank purchased 3,000 iPods for trainees who had enrolled in one of instructor-led courses at its Capital One University.
The training department then had an Internet audio book provider create an audio learning site within Capital One’s firewall.
Employees used it to download the instructor-requested books and other materials to their iPods.
Capital One Bank is one of many companies using mobile learning to train or keep its employees abreast of new developments and information, such as new product data for salespeople.
The banking firm purchased 3,000 iPods for trainees enrolled in one of 20 instructor-led courses at its Capital One University. The training department had an audio learning site developed within Capital One’s firewall so employees could download the instructor-requested books and other materials to their iPods.

30. Training for Special Purposes
Providing employees with lifelong learning    
Diversity training  
Training for teamwork and empowerment
Training today does more than prepare employees to perform their jobs. It also requires employees to train for special purposes, such as we see listed in this slide. We will talk in more detail about lifelong learning and diversity training next.

31. Training for Special Purposes (cont.)
Lifelong learning
Providing employees with continuing learning experiences over their tenure with the firm, with the aims of ensuring they have the opportunity to learn the skills they need to do their jobs and to expand their horizons
Providing lifelong learning means making continuing learning experiences available to employees to ensure that they can obtain the knowledge and skills they need to grow professionally and do their jobs effectively.
Such training may range from basic remedial skills to advanced decision-making techniques throughout employees’ careers.

32. Training for Special Purposes (cont.)
Diversity training
Techniques for creating better cross-cultural sensitivity among supervisors and nonsupervisors with the aim of creating more harmonious working relationships among a firm’s employees
Due to an increasingly diverse workforce, many firms are using diversity training programs. Diversity training uses various techniques to create better cross-cultural sensitivity among supervisors and nonsupervisors to create more harmonious working relationships.
Many training programs aim at counteracting potential problems associated with a diverse workforce. These include packaged programs for improving interpersonal skills, understanding/valuing cultural differences, improving technical skills, socializing into corporate culture, indoctrinating recent immigrants into the U.S. work ethic, and improving bilingual skills for English-speaking employees.
For example, Adams Mark Hotel & Resorts conducted a diversity training seminar for about 11,000 employees that combined lectures, video, and employee role-playing to emphasize sensitivity to race and religion.

33. Managerial Development and Training
Attempt to improve managerial performance by imparting knowledge, changing attitudes, or increasing skills
Management development is an attempt to improve managerial performance by imparting knowledge, changing attitudes, or increasing skills.
It includes in-house courses, coaching, and rotational assignments; professional programs, such as SHRM seminars; and university programs, such as executive MBA programs.
The aim of these kinds of development programs is to enhance the future performance of the organization itself by:
Assessing the company’s needs, for instance, to fill future executive openings or to make the firm less bureaucratic),
Appraising the managers’ performance, and
Developing the managers themselves

34. Principles for Designing Leadership Development Programs
Here we see a summary of several principles for designing leadership development programs:
Make sure the program flows from and advances the company’s strategy and goals.
Involve top management in formulating the program’s goals.
Design the program to improve the managers’ deficiencies and needs that you identify ahead of time.
Aim for practicality rather than just theory.
Specify concrete competencies and skills outcomes using realistic learning methods, like action learning projects where trainees solve real company problems.
Aim for short, high-involvement, 3- to 4-day programs rather than longer immersion programs.

35. Managerial On-the-Job Training
Job rotation
Moving management trainees from department to department to broaden their understanding of all parts of the business
Coaching/understudy method
The new manager receives ongoing advice from the person he or she is scheduled to replace
On-the-job training isn’t just for nonsupervisory employees; it’s also a popular manager development method.
Job rotation means moving management trainees from department to department to broaden their understanding of all parts of the business. The trainee learns the department’s business by actually doing it, whether it involves sales, production, finance, or some other function.
With the coaching/understudy method, the new manager receives ongoing advice, often from the person he or she is scheduled to replace.

36. Action Learning Action learning
Giving groups of managers released time to work full-time analyzing and solving problems in departments other than their own
Another method of on-the-job training is action learning, a training technique by which management trainees are released from their regular duties and are allowed to work full-time analyzing and solving problems in departments other than their own.
Each carefully selected team has 5 to 25 members and is assigned real-world business problems that extend beyond their usual areas of expertise, using structured learning through coaching and feedback.

37. The Case Study Method Case study method
Presents a trainee with a written description of an organizational problem
Trainee analyzes the case, diagnoses the problem, and presents findings and solutions
The case study method presents a trainee with a written (or sometimes online or video) description and history of an organizational problem. The trainee reads and analyzes the case, diagnoses the problem, and presents findings and solutions in an interactive discussion with other trainees.
The idea is to simulate an actual managerial situation and give trainees realistic experience in identifying and analyzing complex problems, under the guidance of a trained discussion leader.

38. Managerial Development and Training
Computerized management games
Improvisation
Outside seminars
University-related programs
In-house degree programs
Learning portals, executive coaches
Managerial development and training can be fun. Here we see a few of the most popular methods:
Computerized management games divide trainees into groups that compete against each other in a simulated marketplace.
Improvisation teaches trainees to be creative by playing games that require improvised answers and solutions.
Outside seminars and conferences are offered by many vendors and professional organizations.
University-related programs provide executive education and continuing education programs in leadership, supervision, and more.
In-House degree programs are offered by firms with in-house development centers or “universities.”
- Some firms’ websites have learning portals that offer online access to many training courses.
- Executive coaches are consultants who coach the executive-to-be in-house.

39. Management Games
Nike Corporation asked Second City Communications to help prepare some Nike engineers for an assignment.
The engineers were to spend a month watching kids in playgrounds, so as to design new Nike shoes.
Second City trainers put the engineers through an improvisational game called “word ball“ to get the Nike engineers “to instantly react without thinking, …to be unafraid to look foolish.”
A management game is a development technique where teams of managers compete by making computerized decisions regarding realistic, but simulated, situations.
For example, Nike Corporation asked Second City Communications, the consulting arm of the improvisational comedy group Second City, to prepare some Nike engineers for an assignment. The engineers were to spend a month watching kids in playgrounds to inspire their design of new Nike shoes. Second City trainers put the engineers through an improvisational game called “word ball” to get the engineers “to instantly react without thinking, …to be unafraid to look foolish.”

40. In-House Development Centers
Usually combine classroom learning (lectures and seminars, for instance) with other techniques, such as assessment centers and online learning opportunities, to help develop employees and other managers
Many firms have in-house development centers or “universities,” which usually combine classroom learning with other techniques, such as assessment centers and online learning.

41. Executive Coaches Executive coaches
Outside consultants who question the executive’s boss, peers, and subordinates to identify strengths and weaknesses
Counsel the executive
Many firms use executive coaches to develop their top managers’ effectiveness.
An executive coach is an outside consultant who questions the executive’s boss, peers, subordinates, and sometimes family to identify the executive’s strengths and weaknesses, and then counsels the executive.

42. Lewin’s Process for Overcoming Resistance
Unfreezing
Reducing the forces that are striving to maintain the status quo
Moving
Developing new behaviors, values, and attitudes
Refreezing
Building in the reinforcement to make sure the organization doesn’t slide back into its former ways of doing things
International competition means that companies have to change quickly.
Psychologist Kurt Lewin formulated a model to implement change with minimal resistance. To Lewin, all organizational behavior is produced by two forces: one striving to maintain the status quo and the other pushing for change.
Lewin’s process consists of three steps:
Unfreezing means reducing the forces that are striving to maintain the status quo by getting people to recognize the need for change and to search for new solutions.
Moving means developing new behaviors, values, and attitudes.
Refreezing means building in reinforcement to make sure the organization doesn’t slide back into its old ways.

43. Organizational Development
Change process through which employees diagnose and formulate the change that’s required and implement it, often with the assistance of trained consultants
Organizational development (OD) is a development method aimed at changing the attitudes, values, and beliefs of employees so that employees can improve the organization.

44. Organizational Development (cont.)
Action research
Gathering data about the organization and its operations and attitudes, with an eye toward solving a particular problem
Feeding back these data to the employees, and then having them team-plan solutions to the problems
Action research, the foundation of most organizational development programs, means gathering data about the organization and its operations and attitudes, with an eye toward solving a particular problem.
The next step is feeding back the data from action research to the employees involved and having the employee team plan solutions to the problems.

45. Organizational Development (cont.)
Survey feedback
Sensitivity training
Team building
Specific examples of organizational development programs include survey feedback, sensitivity training, and team building, as illustrated here.
Survey feedback uses questionnaires to survey employees’ attitudes and to provide feedback to make it clear to managers that there’s a problem.
Sensitivity training aims to increase participants’ insights into their behavior and that of others by openly expressing their feelings, attitudes, and behaviors in the trainer-guided group.
Team building refers to OD techniques to improve the effectiveness of teams at work. The typical team-building program begins with the consultant interviewing each group member prior to the group meeting.

46. Evaluating the Training and Development Effort
Two basic issues:
How to design the evaluation study
What training effect to measure
There are two basic issues in evaluating a training program. The first is how to design the evaluation study and, in particular, whether to use controlled experimentation. The second is what training effect to measure.

47. Evaluating the Training and Development Effort (cont.)
Controlled experimentation is the best method to use in evaluating a training program.
Uses both a training group and a control group.
Controlled experimentation is the best method to use in evaluating a training program.
It is a formal method for testing the effectiveness of a training program, using a control group that does not receive training and an experimental group that receives training, preferably with before-and-after tests for both groups.

48. Training Effects to Measure
Reaction
Learning
Behavior
Results
As we see here, there are four basic categories of training effects, or outcomes, that can be measured:
Reaction. First, evaluate trainees’ reactions to the program. Did they think it was worthwhile?
Learning. Second, test the trainees to determine whether they learned the principles, skills, and facts they were supposed to learn.
Behavior. Next, ask whether the trainees’ behavior on the job changed as a result of the training program.
Results. Finally, ask what final results were achieved in terms of the training objectives previously set. Did the number of customer complaints about employees drop? Was turnover reduced?

49. Online Survey
In today’s metrics-oriented business environment, employers increasingly demand quantified training evaluations of reactions, learning, behavior, results, or a combination of these. Here we see a sample of an online survey.
Figure 6.5

50. Copyright
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