Training and Development: A vital tool for Performance Excellence Kar Ajit Kumar*, Moharana S.K** *Asst. Professor (HR) - Interscience Inshtute of Management & Technology, (IIMT), Bhubaneswar **Dean (Academics) - Interscience Institute of Management & Technology, (IIMT), Bhubaneswar Excellence is an art won by training and hahituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, butwe rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. Aristotle Top In the wake of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation in India, the industrial environment in which organisations conduct their business have become fiercely competitive and dynamic. The business approach and philosophies that were applicable in the past few decades are no longer relevant. Globalisation of business strongly demands Indian companies to be world class. Whereas most of an organisation resources are material objects that usually depreciate in value over a period of time, its human resources that can and should appreciate substantially as years pass. Hence the authors are of the view that organisation should invest money, time, effort and other resources to impart more skills and provide training and development to their man power making it a rich human capital to face the new challenges in today’ ever changing business environment in 21st centuries. The present paper under consideration highlights that every executives today faces the challenge of improving employee performance to a reasonable extent. As such performance excellence is not a one time event bur rather an on going ever evolving process, which needs to be supplemented through a systematic training and development programme for facilitating the desired organisational excellence. Top |
Introduction We are on the threshold of 21st century. It provides us a vantage point where from we can scan the past and prepare ourselves for the future with much of confidence and pride. Due to the impact of globalisation, India is passing through a fundamental transition and as such a sharp strategic focus on training and development for achieving performance excellence in all walks of life is becoming an integral part of the organisational life. |
Top WhyT&D Training & Development has greater significance for the success of modern organisations. Core competencies and expertise give the organisation an edge for success of modern organisation over their competitors and T&D plays a vital role in developing and strengthening these competencies. Change in technology demands that employees update their knowledge, skills, abilities and technical expertise. Jobs are becoming more interdependent demanding high interpersonal and problem solving skills, which can be acquired through T&D only. |
As Alvin Toiler puts “only change is permanent”. In our century the great issue faced by the industrially developed nations and developing nations is the problem of change and adapting to change. Change that is induced in business and industry through science and technology development demands rapid individual and social adjustment and it renders products, processes, skills and attitudes obsolete and with them men, machines and jobs. The above · two challenges are met mainly by manpower training and development. |
The primary objective of T&D is to gauge the effectiveness of training in developing employees’ skill and competency. This will provide a road map to the training catalysts and HRD professionals to evaluate the training effectiveness, which can help in future developments & better performance. In this context the specific objectives of T&D are:
To gauge the training effectiveness in the organisation. To critically review how effective is the training functions. To review how employees perceive the training. To measure about the adequacy of the training for improving skill and competency of employees for enhancing overall performance
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Top Significance of T&D In order to attain and cultivate performance excellence in relation to training & development, the following factors need to be inculcated in the mind with utmost care and concern:
Optimum Utilization of Human Resources - Training and Development helps in optimizing the utilization of human resource that further helps the employee to achieve the organizational goals as well as their individual goals. Development of Human Resources - Training and Development helps to provide an opportunity and broad structure for the development of human resources’ technical and behavioural skills in an organization. It also helps the employees in attaining personal growth. Development of skills of employees - Training and Development helps in increasing the job knowledge and skills of employees at each level. It helps to expand the horizons of human intellect and an overall personality of the employees. Productivity - Training and Development helps in increasing the productivity of the employees that helps the organization further to achieve its long-term goal. Team spirit - Training and Development helps in inculcating the sense of team work, team spirit, and inter-team collaborations. It helps in inculcating the zeal to learn within the employees. Organization Culture - Training and Development helps to develop and improve the organizational health culture and effectiveness. It helps in creating the learning culture within the organization. Organization Climate - Training and Development helps building the positive perception and feeling about the organization. The employees get these feelings from leaders, subordinates, and peers. Quality - Training and Development helps in improving upon the quality of work and work-life. Healthy work-environment - Training and Development helps in creating the healthy working environment. It helps to build good employee, relationship so that individual goals aligns with organizational goal. Health and Safety - Training and Development helps in improving the health and safety of the organization thus preventing obsolescence. Morale - Training and Development helps in improving the morale of the work force. Image - Training and Development helps in creating a better corporate image. Profitability - Training and Development leads to improved profitability and more positive attitudes towards profit orientation in the long run.
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Top Performance Drivers for Excellence How dose an organisation create reliable performance that maximises the available value? What makes some employees rise above the others and deliver amazing performance while the rest are unable even meet the expectation? The main difference between two groups is internal conviction. For the best performers, internal conviction is a driver to better performance.
Creativity & Innovation Creativity and innovation continue to be the driving forces of human progress and change. The development of information sciences and the convergence of technologies coupled with liberalization of market have increased opportunity for the fast transfer of knowledge leading to global competition. The organisation that fosters a culture of creativity and innovation and harness the products of knowledge capital will be able to sustain their market leadership and competitive advantage (ex. Sony, P&G, GE, DuPont &3Metc). Performance Management In the interest of furthering the organizational goals, managers must create a climate of continuous learning in the organisation, encourage employees to develop their competence, professional growth, job related skills, knowledge and experience etc. It is also essential to draw performance development plans at each stage of the performance management process. Managers, based on such studies can initiate developmental activities such as:
On the job training Coaching or consulting Individual career counselling Mentoring Management development programmes Computer-based training
Dimensions of Excellence Peters and Waterman came up with plenty of lessons from America's best run companies, in their classic In Search of Excellence. They have identified eight attributes of excellence as detailed below:
A bias for action: The excellent companies employ a host of practical devices and quickly experiment the ideas. Close to the customer: These companies learn from the people they serve and provide unparallel quality service and reliability. Autonomy and entrepreneurship: Such companies foster innovation, encourage practical risk taking and support good tries. Productivity through people: Excellent companies give immense respect to the individual and do not regard capital investment as the fundamental source of efficiency improvement. Hands on, value driven: Such companies focus more on their achievements and closely accesses their services on factors like quality, cleanliness and value. Stick to the knitting: While there were few exceptions, the odds for excellent performance seems strongly to favour those companies that stay reasonably close to the business they know. Simple form, lean staff: The underlined forms and systems in excellent companies are elegantly simple. Simultaneous loose tight properties The excellent companies are both centralised and decentralised on the one hand they push autonomy to shop floor and the other hand they are fanatic, centralists around the few core values they hold dear.
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Top Impact of Training & Development on Performance Excellence Ensuring that employees have the right skills is crucial to the growth and success of business. The business case for developing staff is compelling - research shows that training can:
increase productivity and quality of work increase profits reduce staff turnover and absenteeism improve customer satisfaction improve motivation
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Training that achieves these results is typically:
linked to business goals and performance part of a company-wide strategy focused on setting tangible objectives for employees part of a company policy, which sets out who is responsible for planning, implementing and evaluating training
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By choosing the right type of training, we can make sure that employees have the right skills for business, and are kept up to date with best and new practices. This is applicable for all employees, right up to management level. |
Investment in People Investment in People in terms of T&D offers a standard of good practice in training & development to be followed for achieving performance excellence in the long run. This is based on the three principles of:
Plan - developing strategies to improve the performance of the organisation through T&D efforts. Do - taking action to improve the performance of the organisation. Review - evaluating the impact on the performance of the organisation.
The Investment in People is a business improvement tool designed to advance an organisation's performance through its people by matching what people can do and are motivated to do, with what the organisation needs them to do. Businesses of any size or sector can easily align the above framework with their existing business planning model. Through this model, organisations are encouraged to work towards continuous improvement. Top A Few Case Examples Now, let us discuss some cases about T&D being imparted to the human resources in some of the well known organisations: |
Infosys Technologies Former Infosys Chairman and Chief Mentor, N.R, Narayana Murthy, said about the training centre at Mysore (a 260 crores training centre, in a 270 acre campus), “We are setting up the biggest corporate training facility in the world with 2000 rooms which can house 4000 people on a twin- sharing basis”. American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) has rated the T&D of Infosys as the world's best T&D programme. The company also has programmes to enhance managerial ability and leadership abilities to enable better customer satisfaction, achieve organisational vision and create high performing multicultural teams. At Infosys, the education philosophy is to help employees find the best solution rather than teaching “one way to do it.” Maruti Udyog Training helped Maruti bag the customer service award. Their training comprises of useful interventions at different levels like customer management, attitudinal issues, etc. All these help the company top the Customer Sales Index (CSI) and the Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI). Training sessions on ’customized leadership’, ’business planning and ’self- empowerment’ were conducted for managers. Similarly, training sessions on ‘behavioural intervention’ for the mechanics were also conducted. All these initiatives have helped Maruti top in four out of the five CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index) factors of the JD power survey that determines service satisfaction to the customers. Top Conclusion It is immensely clear from the above discussion that some of the top performing companies have given enough importance and seriousness to the issue of training and developing their human resource, and are investing in their human capital. That is one of the major reasons that they are the top performers. |
In a dynamic work environment and a rapidly changing economic scenario, there is need for training and re-training personnel in order to enable them to adapt to the new situations. In this age of knowledge worker s every person needs embrace a life time of learning and it is up to the organizations to give their employees such rare opportunity. Only those organisations which are able to give relevant training to their employees in order to prevent obsolescence will be able to survive in the market-driven and competitor-ridden economic environment of the 21st century. |
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