Employee Development Lecture 7

1
Employee Development Lecture 7

• Employee Development and the Links to Strategic
  HRM
• The Influence of Environmental Factors on
  Training and Development
• Education and Training Cross-Country
  Comparisons
• Management and Training The Current State of
  Play
• Aligning Training and Development with
  Organisational Objectives
• Linking Training and Performance Some Choices
• The Strategic Purpose of Training Some
  Possibilities
• The Strategic Positioning of Training Some
  Difficulties

2
Employee Development

• The Influence of Senior Managers on Training and
  Development
• Senior managers as shapers of culture
• Senior managers as sponsors of training and
  development
• Evidence of Strategic Approaches and Outcomes
• The incidence of training and development
• The strategic impact of training and
  development
• In any development strategy there are likely to
  be three areas of focus
• Organisational level, where corporate
  requirements such as induction, Quality
  Improvement, Leadership, Customer Care and
  Culture Change Programmes are addressed

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Employee Development

• Departmental/Business Unit level, where
  job-related training and development is likely to
  take place
• Individual level, where people are usually
  motivated to close the gap between their current
  and desired capabilities
• Some areas of development. Such as identification
  of talent, high-flyer
• schemes and succession planning, usually involve
  all three levels
• Expenditure on the development and training of
  employees (especially
• managers) is highest in those companies where
  developmental and
• learning are part of the corporate plan

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Employee Development

• Senior managers need to believe that investment
  will allow
• them to respond more effectively to a changing
  environment.
• Companies in markets, which have become
  increasingly more
• turbulent in the last few years (e.g. retailing,
  leisure and brewing,
• and finance and property) demonstrate this, being
  almost the
• largest spenders on management development and
  training.
• So is it possible to map out a strategic approach
  to training and
• development? Can learning activities be devised
  and implemented
• in such a way that they tangibly impact upon the
  capacity of a
• business to deliver its medium to long term
  objectives? Can the
• various actors and internal levers and political
  systems be
• galvanized around a concerted and effective human
  resource
• development strategy

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Employee Development

• BUSINESS STRATEGY
• SENIOR MANAGERS SUPPORT ALIGNMENT WITH
• Promote Learning ORGANISATIONAL
  OBJECTIVES
• INVOLVEMENT OF LINE MANAGERS
• Involvement in planning, coaching
• and mentoring
• TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT (COURSE, EVENTS
  ASSIGNMANTS)
• QUALITY OF DESIGN AND DELIVERY
• MOTIVATION OF TRAINEES INTEGRATION
  WITH HRM POLICY
• HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGY
• Recruitment and Selection, Appraisal Assessment
  Rewards Development

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Employee Development

• Environmental Factors
• Technological Investment
• Social and Political Issues
• Institutional Factors
• External Labour Markets
• Demographic Pressures
• Changes in the Regulatory
• Education and Training Some Cross Cultural
  Comparisons
• UK and Ireland are performing badly when
  compared with Germany and France

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Employee Development

• The degree to which the national education and
  training system supports in-firm training is
  obviously a key social-political favor and one
  that is closely linked to skills supply.
• During the 1980s and 1990s in Britain the
  Conservative government was clearly of the belief
  that the provision, content, finance and legal
  provision of training is largely the
  responsibility of the employers and that the role
  of government institutions is to provide guidance
  and research, as well as being directly involved
  in the training of the unemployed
• During the last decade training institutions in
  Britain have consequently been reorganized to
  give a greater role to private sector employers
  

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Employee Development

• Management Training the State of Play in the UK
  and Ireland
• Strong indicators in terms of both resources and
  finance,
• Larger companies invest more in management
  training
• Advances in management education are often only
  evident in leading edge companies, typically in
  the private sector and large enough to be able to
  afford the luxury of training investment and
  innovation
• It is essential to distinguish between the
  rhetoric of what could and should be done, from
  the reality of what actually does get done.
• National training strategies based on
  prescriptions need careful contextualization
  depending on the sector, product/service and
  workforce expectations of the organizations
  concerned

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Employee Development

• Linking Training and Development to Performance
• Skill gaps are a common feature as a trigger for
  strategic Change
• There are a range of possible responses that a
  firm can make when a skill gap has been
  identified
• 1) The exposure may prompt a concerted attempt
  revise the overall human resource strategy by
  increasing such things as recruitment criteria,
  rewards strategy, increased or decreased use of
  flexible workers
• 2) Change in the HRM policy may also result in a
  shift in the organizations approach to training
• 3) Performance gaps may focus attention on the
  organisations HRD policy

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Employee Development

• 4) The higher importance placed on schemes like
  graduate recruitment, tiered recruitment or the
  appraisal process and assessment centres it is
  likely that such activities would stimulate
  demand for off the job training as well as
  secondments, mentoring and self development.
• The Strategic Purpose of Training
• 1) Assessing the capabilities necessary for staff
  to perform effectively in the future
• 2) Training can act as a catalyst for change
• 3) Training can give an organisation a
  competitive edge
• 4) Training can encourage the development of a
  learning climate

11
Employee Development

• The Influence of Senior Managers
• 1) Senior managers as shapers of culture
• 2) Senior managers as sponsors of training and
  dvelopment
• The incidence of training and development
• The Strategic Impact of Training and Development
• Evidence for both academic researchers ad
  practuitioners
• The Way Forward
• Summary