Friday 6 May 2016

How To Achieve Training And Development Among Employees

By Peter Powell


The acquisition of knowledge and skills is a continuous process that begins when we are born and only ends (or so it is assumed) when we die. Training and development occurs in two main ways. The first occurs effortlessly as we attempt to deal with our day to day challenges. This is known as incidental learning. The second is as a result of a deliberate effort to become better and is thus referred to as intentional leaning.

It is the responsibility of an institution to ensure that its employees are regularly trained. This will help them improve on their knowledge and skills. The employees should be actively involved by making themselves available for training. They should create personal development goals that are in line with the aspirations of their employers. Collaboration between the employers and the employees is necessary for this process to succeed.

The management should strive to provide the resources and the environment that makes this process possible. Such an environment should include a clear job description on which the training is to be based. The employees should be taught basic competencies needed in the present as well as in the future.

Learning opportunities should be identified in every-day activities. One should attempt to take on new challenges often. Job expanding is one of the ways of doing this. It involves the assignment of newer duties to an employee who has mastered a certain set of skills and requires greater challenge. The same benefit may be achieved through job rotation where employees get a chance to temporarily work in a different department of an organization.

Employees should conduct self-assessments that will help determine the type of training that they will need. Such an assessment is centered on the identification of skills, values, strengths, weaknesses and experience among others. There are a number of self-assessment tools that are available freely over the internet for free or for a small fee. Another alternative of doing the same is to compare oneself with persons who have a similar job description as theirs.

A committee is usually made up of members that represent different departments in an organization. When one gets a chance to sit in the meeting of such a committee, they get to learn more about the other departments. They gain skills and knowledge that help them work in greater harmony with their colleagues. The general advice is that all the employees should have the chance to be part of such committees from time to time.

Job shadowing refers to the act of one employee learning from a colleague who is, in most cases, more experienced in the field. It is one of the most effective (and cheapest) ways of passing skills and knowledge between employees in the organization. Coaching works in more or less the same way. A coach instructs the employee for a certain period of time and only lets them free after they have acquired the required skill.

Furthering studies is another way in which employees can improve their level of skills and knowledge. This can be achieved by enrolling for professional development courses offered by colleges or universities or doing it in an informal manner on the internet. This is also referred to as e-learning. A number of the websites belong to professional bodies that play a key role in imparting skills among the members.




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