MEANING OF EMPLOYEE TRAINING

Employee training refers to the process of imparting specific skills to the employees via classroom OR practical training programs. The training programs make the workforce more efficient and has numerous other benefits. Let us look at some of these benefits below

BENEFITS OF EMPLOYEE TRAINING

Employee training ensures employee retention and prevents burnouts by removing performance deficiencies, drive employee engagement making employees stay long, minimizing accidents, scraps, damage and meeting future employee needs. Strong training programs ensure greater stability, flexibility and capacity for growth in an organization. Training contributes to employees in many ways, efficiency heading the chart. Efficient employees contribute to the growth of the firm. Growth renders stability to the workforce for the trained employees who tend to stay with the company. They seldom leave the company. Training makes the employee versatile in all operations giving increased flexibility to the organisation. Leading to growth and prosperity which is reflected in increased profits from year to year.

Employee training is not only advantageous for individual employees but also gives an added advantage to the firm/company. If we look into these two broad categories closely we would see how individual employee training has an overall impact on the entire organization.

1. Profitability:

   Beginning with how training benefits the organization,  leading with improved profitability for the company because of efficient employees, building a positive attitude towards profit orientation.

2. Job knowledge:

   Employee training enhances job knowledge and skill at all levels of the organization which helps to create a better corporate image. Proficient job knowledge through training boosts employee confidence leading to improved morale of the workplace.

3. Avoids confusion:

   Elaborate employee training ensures clarity of mind among the employees which helps to foster authenticity, openness and trust. Not just clarity of mind, it also helps an individual in making better decisions and effective problem-solving skills. Employee training also provides information for improving leadership knowledge, communication skill and attitude of the employee. Confusion among employees reduces, therefore a healthy relationship is maintained between the employer and employee.

4. Boosts Confidence:

   Once an employee is confident about the job that they are doing and is well acquainted with the job knowledge he or she can handle stress, tension, frustration and conflict in a smoother manner. employee training also provides information for improving leadership knowledge, communication skill and attitude of the employee.

5. Motivation:

   It motivates an employee towards his or her personal goals while improving interactive skills. Training not only aids in development for promotion from within but also helps in developing leadership skills, motivation, loyalty and other aspects that successful workers and managers usually display. Increased motivation leads to an increase in productivity and quality of work which insures growth in the organization leading to more profits. When an employee is well aware of the job and has enough knowledge about the job that they are performing it negates the element of fear in attempting new tasks. Here are Top 50 Motivational quotes for Employees & Workplace to further aid an HR

TYPES OF EMPLOYEE TRAININGS

Throughout the years we have seen a lot of employee training methods and types such as instructor-led training, eLearning, simulation employee training,  hands-on training, coaching or mentoring,  lectures, group discussion and activities, role-playing, management-specific activities, case studies or other required reading. Training for every sector is different as per their  requirements and is supported with a specified description about the training. Trainings are broadly categorised in 2 heads

1. Functional Trainings:

   Functional Trainings are usually given to increase the functional competency of the Employee. These trainings are usually given by domain experts aimed to make people better at their Jobs.

2. Behavioural Trainings:

   These training programs are usually focussed around interpersonal skills of employees. Behavioural training improves communication between individuals, also among employees at every level of the organization, maintaining a healthy communicative relationship between individuals and groups. Not just communicative clarity, it also ensures cohesiveness in groups which makes the organization a better place to work in. From a wider perspective employee training also provides information on equal opportunities in affirmative action.

   Now that we have a basic idea about how employee training programs are beneficial to individual employees belonging to every level of the organisation impact on the overall growth of the organisation, let’s put some light on the benefits of employee training in personnel and human relations, intragroup and intergroup relations and policy implementation.

EMPLOYEE TRAINING PROCESS

A training program is tailored through a well-defined process. Starting with need assessment and various issues in need assessment the plan leads to deriving instructional objectives which gives a blueprint about the training and development design and the various types of training. On having a satisfactory training design, the appropriate one is selected with instructional programs which is further implemented as the final employment training program.

Trainings are necessary, not just for new joinees but also for professionals & the leadership team 

• Training Programs for Freshers: New joinees have a prior formal education and it is recommended to give them specific training programs to make them industry ready. Classroom training and On-Job training are complementary in nature and are a part of the entire training program for Freshers. These trainings are mostly functional in nature
• Training for Professionals: Professionals are required to regularly undergo training programs to keep their knowledge updated & stay abreast of the best industry practices. Trainings at this end are a mix of functional & behavioural trainings.  
• Training for Organizational Leaders: Mostly behavioural in nature, these trainings are usually around team building, decision making, motivating team members and improving cross functional communication. Since the stakes are highest at Leadership positions, it is all the more necessary for organisations to invest more time & resources in employee training. 

TRAINING NEED ASSESSMENT

The most crucial element in a training plan is the need assessment. The need assessment is the diagnosis that presents all the problems and the future challenges to be met through training. The issues to be addressed in need assessment generally comprises organizational support, organization analysis, task and KSA analysis, and lastly person analysis. After need assessment, comes deriving instructional objectives which is the next phase in the training process which is to be identified. The instructional objectives help in preparing a blueprint that describes the objectives to be achieved by the trainee upon completion of the training program. Next, comes the designing phase which mainly includes

• Who are the trainers?
• Who are the trainees?
• What methods and techniques are being used for the training?
• What are the principles of training?
• Where is the program being conducted?
• What should be the level of training?

EMPLOYEE TRAINING TEMPLATE

A well proof training plan ensures optimum utilization of every human resource that is available at hand and ensures that no talent is being wasted . Hence comes the main role of an employee training plan template, which schedules the training program for every employee in a customized manner so that the employee and employer get most out of it. Similar to an itinerary, a training plan template includes the name of the employee the group that the employee belongs to, the number of hours that the employee is training for and the tasks involved in the training plan. Employee training plan template is used extensively in the Army or Airforce services where every cadet is assigned a task and a log/record is kept which acts as their personal training plan template. A general plan template looks like the following:

COMPANY NAME:

PROJECT OVERVIEW:

NAME OF CANDIDATE :

POSITION OF CANDIDATE :

DATE	TIME	TASK	PURPOSE	NUMBER OF HOURS

Feedback from the reporting manager of the employee is also recorded while developing an employees’s training plan. The final employee training plan is approved by the HR manager of the company. The HR manager is required to look after the needs of the employees and how the betterment of the employees is going to have a positive impact on the organisation as a whole and accordingly make changes to the training plan as & when required. A general training plan mainly includes the following :

Example,

For any company a general employee training plan looks something like the chart/table given below.

Employee Training Template Example

DATE	TEAM	AREA	DESCRIPTION	TRAINER	STATUS
01/09/2020	SALES AND MARKETING	TARGETS AND GOALS	Training on how to reach the goal and acquire the required sales target.	MR. XYZ	COMPLETED
02/09/2020	SALES AND MARKETING	COMMUNICATION SKILLS	Soft-skills, interpersonal skills, negotiation skills.	MR. ABC	IN-PROGRESS
03/09/2020	HUMAN RESOURCE	PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT REVIEW	Advanced training on how to review employee performance and manage employee performance on certain scales.	MR. MNO	COMPLETED
04/09/2020	HUMAN RESOURCE	PAYROLL AND INCENTIVES	Effective use of software for payroll management.	MR. RST	COMPLETED
05/09/2020	INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY	SOFTWARE	Introduction to new software and enhanced new technology.	MISS. J	IN-PROGRESS
06/09/2020	INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY	SOFT SKILLS	Training on communication skills.	MRS. T	IN-PROGRESS
07/09/2020	ACCOUNTING	SOFTWARE	Introduction to new accounting software and it’s working.	MISS. FGH	IN-PROGRESS

Be it and an on-the job training and off-the job training, the HR manager needs to look out for the fulfillment of the needs assessed in the first stages of the training process. Scheduling an employee training plan is not  just enough,  an HR manager needs to keep a track of the training program and how effectively it is working.

MEASURING TRAINING EFFECTIVENESS

Finally once the training process is reeling we cannot put a full stop to it without a measurement of how effectively the training process has been going. There are a lot of ways to check the level of usefulness of the training process by measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of employees individually and whether it’s having a greater impact on the organisation as a whole or not. One may resort to checking the level of productivity of the employees which could be a yardstick of measurement of the training procedure or a log record could be kept where the employees have to register about their work change and the level of their individual output after the training. As much as feedback from the HR manager is required for approval of an employee training plan,  feedback from the employees also prove to be essential.

Conclusively, an employee training plan has to strike a balance between the management, administration and the employees of the organisation and how the needs of individual employees and of the organisation could be put down on paper as a directive plan for training the employees of the organisation, for them to prove to be a strong asset. To sum up, we can say

TRAINING NEED =  STANDARD PERFORMANCE-ACTUAL PERFORMANCE

and to fulfill the deducted performance amount,here comes in the need for training  which can lead to further development of the organisation providing them with a competitive advantage.