The Training Context

1
The Training Context

• Dr. Steve
• Training Development
• INP6325

2
What is Training?

• U.K. Dept of employment The systematic
  development of the attitudes/knowledge/skill
  behavior pattern required by an individual in
  order to perform adequately on a given task or
  job
• Goldstein The acquisition of skills, concepts,
  or attitudes that result in improved performance
  in another environment

3
Training vs. Education

• Both involve instruction
• Learning is necessary, but not sufficient to be
  considered training
• Must have improved performance
• Performance may not reflect learning
• Education aims at developing knowledge and
  understanding across a broad spectrum of
  activities (language, creativity, social
  influences, etc.)
• Glasers criteria to differentiate training and
  education
• Degree of specificity of objectives
• Whether aim is to minimize or maximize individual
  differences

4
Training vs. Selection vs. Human Factors

• Training tries to improve KSAs at job
• Personnel selection tries to select people with
  appropriate skills for the job
• Human factors tries to design tasks for known
  KSAs of people
• Which option one chooses depends on
• Availability of labor money
• Current practices of the organization
• Time constraints
• Availability of expert advice
• Equipment being used
• Attitudes of workers and management
• Trends in human resources

5
Training Contexts

• Any occupation, sport, activity (e.g., driving)
• Training new workers
• Refresher training
• Train to keep up with technology, laws,
  procedures

6
Training Applied Psychology

• Apply psychological principles and scientific
  model to training
• Empirical studies to solve training problems
• Training evaluation held to rigor of scientific
  method (e.g., control group, statistics).
• Training solution generalizes to other problems

7
Importance of Training

• 55 billion/year spent on training (40 bill in
  previous edition)
• 91 of orgs train middle management
• 75 of orgs conduct sales training
• 56 of orgs conduct secretarial training
• 51 of orgs conduct executive development
• 44 of orgs conduct technical training
• Examples demonstrating importance
• FAA replaces simulator training time for actual
  flight time
• Polaroid spent 700,000 to train 1,000 workers
  math english
• How much will now be spent on counter-terrorism
  training?
• percentages of fortune 500 orgs

8
Associations for Trainers

• American Society for Training Development
  (ASTD) www.astd.org
• Society for Industrial and Organizational
  Psychology (SIOP) www.siop.org
• American Psychological Association (APA)
  www.apa.org
• American Psychological Society (APS) www.aps.org
• American Educational Research Association (AERA)
  www.aera.net
• Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
  www.shrm.org
• Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES)
  www.hfes.org

9
What Trainers Do

• Needs analysis diagnosis
• Determine appropriate training approach
• Program design and development
• Develop material resources
• Manage internal resources
• Manage external resources
• Individual development planning and counseling
• Job/Performance-related training
• Conduct Classroom training
• Conduct group org development training
• Conduct research
• Manage working relations with managers and
  clients
• Manage the training development function

10
Ethical Considerations for Trainers

• Overselling training program
• Compromising confidentiality
• Mistreatment of trainees
• Voluntary consent
• Discrimination
• Cost Effectiveness
• Accurate Portrayal
• Competency in Training
• Values

11
Training Delivery Methods

• Classroom lecture
• Videotape
• Workbooks
• Business books
• Audiotape
• Computer-Based Training
• CD-ROM

• Videoconference
• Multimedia
• Audioconference
• Videodiscs
• Electronic Performance Support Systems
• Intranet
• Internet

12
Goals of Training

• Why Train?
• Improve product quality
• Increase production efficiency
• Improve safety
• Meet customer demands
• Improve worker health decrease absenteeism and
  insurance costs

13
Obstacles facing trainers

• Organizations rarely evaluate training
• 42 of orgs had no evaluation plan
• Most of those with plan only evaluated whether
  trainees liked the program (reaction criteria)
• Organizations want a quick fix
• 27 of orgs never do needs assessment
• Dont know whether training is best solution
  without it
• Reason for both Bottom line
• Orgs must be convinced of the importance of
  developing training the right way

14
How Needs for Training are Changing

• Workforce will grow more slowly
• Many new workers (16-24) will not possess
  necessary skills
• Proportion of entry level Whites will decline
• 1/3 of all new employees will be from minority
  pops
• 600,000 immigrants/year enter U.S., 400,000
  taking jobs
• Workforce will include more older workers and
  women
• 2/3 of all new employees will be women, 61 of
  all working age women hold jobs

15
Impact of Technology

• Need for computer skills
• Less physical labor, more programming
  monitoring
• More service orgs, less production

16
Ramifications For Training

• Re-training
• Displaced manufacturing workers will need to
  learn skills for service-oriented jobs
• Skills training
• High demand for skilled workers creates a worker
  shortage
• Educational systems
• Programs such as technical high school will have
  to take some of the burden of teaching
  entry-level skills

17
What skills will be required?

• U.S. Dept of Labor suggests the following KSAs
• Ability to assess information
• Ability to understand worksystems (big picture)
• Computer/High Tech skills
• Interpersonal skills

18
Other Training Issues

• Legal Aspects
• Training development and delivery must not be
  discriminatory
• Training one part of larger system
• Social factors (group dynamics, roles, norms,
  etc.)
• Environment (economic market, technology, etc.)
• Alternatives to training
• Job re-design / Human factors
• Personnel Selection

19
Dogbert Solutions for Training- Dogberts Top
Secret Management Handbook (Adams)

• Your employees will often whine about the need
  for training. Try to ignore them. Training can
  lead to no good. In the short term it causes
  missed work. In the long term it causes
  employees to leave for jobs that pay a living
  wage. Nobody wins when that happens.
• Your first line of defense is logic. Try to talk
  your employees out of taking training classes by
  using this bulletproof argument
• why do you need all of these technical training
  classes? I didnt need any training to do this
  job.