Review Questions: Training Management

Review Questions

1. You are the training manager for your organization and must consider whether to create training in house or purchase training from a vendor. Describe the considerations you must take into account for both decisions.

Creating training in house is time-consuming, but it does have its own set of benefits. Vendor training is more expensive, but there are certain things an outside training resource may not be able to get across. Vendors are educated in training specifically, so they will better understand how to implement new processes and explain the new information to an organization’s employees; however, if the company has very technical information, it may be difficult for a training company to understand the new material well enough to convey it effectively to the employees. In addition to this, the cost of materials must be considered. As the text explains, it is often the case that materials provided by an outside vendor during training, may remain the property of said vendor afterward, which means if a company wanted to review the training materials after the fact, it would come at an additional charge (Noe, 2010, p. 113). At least if I developed my own training program, I own the materials needed for it. Employees may also be reluctant to accept instruction from outside vendors who are not experts in the employees’ field. On the other hand, employees may be more receptive to outside individuals, as opposed to in house trainers, as they know that the vendor’s only job is to make sure they understand the new training. They do not need to feel intimidated about asking questions for fear of appearing incompetent in front of their employers. There is also the question of time; it can be very time consuming for an in-house training to be developed, but most vendors do require a period of time to develop training specific to the organization—10 to 20 hours per hour of instruction, according to the text (Noe, 2010, p. 113). It seems that cost versus time versus the employees’ needs must all be considered. Before I would decide whether or not to purchase training from an outside vendor, the topic that would require the greatest amount of consideration would be the level of technicality needed to understand the new information. More technical work may benefit from in-house training. Training for policy or new technologies that have more to do with office practices (as opposed to the technical work of the job) may have a better outcome if delivered by an outside source.

2. Discuss the methods used in needs assessment, and provide examples.

A needs assessment is a performance intervention and begins with one or more analyses: organizational, person, and task related. The organization analysis consists of deciding whether or not the business can achieve its goals and objectives without training, and deciding whether or not the budget allows for said training. Person analysis identifies who needs to be trained and in what capacity. Finally, task analysis decides which tasks in the company require training to be completed accurately and to the best of the employees’ abilities. These three analyses can be completed through several various methods which may work alone or in conjunction with one another. The basic methods of needs assessment are observation, questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, documentation, and online technology. Each has its own positives and negatives, and not every method is effective for every organization. Observation is used to generate data that is relevant to the specific environment. It allows for a wider collection of information than some of the other methods. Observation, however, requires an individual who is skilled at this type of observation. An observational needs assessment is not just a matter of watching the employees. Also, there is no promise that employees will not alter their behavior due to the observation. The text provides an example of classroom observation, where instructors are observed to see how effective their methods are. Questionnaires are inexpensive to create and administer. Employers can gather a great amount of information from a large amount of people, and it is easy to summarize this data. On the other hand, questionnaires do take a longer amount of time to create, administer, collect and review the data, and employers will only get information that is directly related to the questions asked. Interviews may be better that questionnaires in that employers may be able to better understand and uncover specific details related to the needs of their employees, and questions can be altered to fit responses in a way that questionnaires cannot, but interviews are even more time consuming, and they can be more difficult to interpret and analyze. On top of this, employers must be sure to use someone who has skilled at interviewing; plus, employees may feel threatened by direct questions related to their knowledge and abilities. The text explains that focus groups are helpful regarding topics that the employees may not feel comfortable discussing with an interviewer one-on-one, and like the interviews, content can be modified and adapted as the focus group goes on. However, focus groups are also time consuming and complicated to organize, and employees may find it difficult to be honest about issues in a room full of other employees—especially if there are people who are not on their direct level. Documentation provides a quick route to a large amount of information related to objectives, tasks, and procedures, but the documentation may be too technical or become outdated quickly. Lastly, there are online technologies which can be used to track and monitor employee skill and performance, but as the text explains, these are limited to individuals who work in jobs which consist of phone or web based interaction with consumers. A call center is a good example of an organization that can benefit from this type of analysis.

3. You have just been assigned as your organization’s training manager and must conduct a new needs assessment for a new project. Describe the method you would use.

Without knowing exactly what the products and services my employees are responsible for, as well as what the possible upcoming advancements in our field might be, it is difficult to say which method would be most appropriate. The text explains that companies often use more than one strategy, which I think would be the best approach. Direct observation seems effective, but only over a long period of time, so that my employees could become comfortable being observed. I know that for the first few days, they would probably be hyperaware of being observed, so their behaviors may be either too vigilante, or their performance may be hindered due to the pressure of performing perfectly under the watchful eye of the observer. I would likely leave out one-on-one interviews, because I know that most people do feel intimidated in that type of atmosphere, and I would be reluctant to accept an individual’s answers as genuine because of this. I also wouldn’t want my employees to feel threatened, and I feel like this may cause them to, even if there were no reason. I do like the idea of a focus group because often, people feel that they are the only one with a question or concern about an issue, and simply putting them in a room of like-minded individuals and allowing them the freedom to speak up may make them feel more at ease voicing these concerns. It also allows for more collaboration regarding the concerns, and it may turn out that an issue is resolved without the need for more formal employee training and development. Questionnaires are a great way to gather information, and I would hope that my employees would be receptive to this since a questionnaire can be completed at an individual’s own speed, and they have time to think about and consider their answers without feeling on the spot, as they might during an interview or focus group. Documentation may be helpful, but I do worry that my employees would have progressed passed what the documentation provides before the employees can utilize the documentation, and I am reticent to use online technologies because I do believe they are only helpful as a deterrent in stopping individuals from exhibiting behaviors they may otherwise, if unsupervised, engage in, but they do not actually work as a training tool. I would hope that between a questionnaire, direct observation, and at least one focus group, I would be able to determine exactly what type of training would be necessary and in what capacity for which tasks and employees. It does not seem that using only one method would be satisfactory.

4. Using your own words, summarize the process for learner analysis.

Learner analysis requires an employer to recognize, understand and work with their employees learning styles. Because working adults learn differently from conventional students, they must be educated according to this. Employers must understand that training needs to be tailored to this idea. Not only that, but training must be tailored to individual learning styles. Adults are no longer used to learning information for the sake of learning. They need to know why the information is important and how it relates to their work. They must see practical applications for the knowledge they are being given. Adult learners also often feel that they cannot learn new concepts that are out of their comfort zone, so a trainer must understand that explaining to the trainee just how the new knowledge relates to what they already know can help ease their troubles. It is important that employers be able to recognize and work with the various learning styles, which are diverger (they use their own experiences to come up with new ideas and are good at considering multiple perspectives), assimilator (better at abstract ideas and theoretical models), converger, (also good at abstract conceptualization but prefer interacting directly with new information) and accommodator (these learners need direct experience and active experimentation, but are great at implementing new ideas and making confident decisions). Understanding learner analysis is necessary as being able to analyze various learning behaviors and styles will make training that much more effective for the trainer.

Reference

Noe, R. A. (1999). Employee training and development, fifth ed.. Boston: Irwin/McGraw-Hill. (Original work published 1999)