Introducing: Worker Training & Development

Downloads

• PDF version of these lecture notes.

Common reasons to implement Worker Training & Development

[video]

• The company is under new legislation that requires changes in work procedures, products, or other outcomes.
• The company has a lack of essential skills among its workers.
• Company workers’ performance and/or outcomes are not at good-enough levels.
• The company has good-enough performance and/or outcomes, but wants to increase them (e.g., efficiency, effectiveness, etc.).
• There is some new technology that the company’s workers want or need to learn.
• The customers are requesting something that requires that the company workers be trained.
• The company wants to change the products/services it offers, and those things require training.
• Customers are dissatisfied, and the company can address that via training.

What really is T&D?

In this video, I provide complementary insight and elaborations beyond the lecture notes. The video is not redundant with the lecture notes.

[video]

• Fundamentally, there is little difference (sometimes no difference) in the meaning of these terms:
  • training
  • learning
  • development
  • influence
  • conformity
  • compliance
  • obedience
  • control
  • conditioning
  • leadership
  • teaching
  • instruction
  • intervention
• Training typically connotes a specific type of learning context: typically something that is imposed or required by some person or entity, rather than being self-directed.
• Learning:
  • Modern organizations have been using the term learning & development instead of training & development. This shift reflects this modern trend in how people interpret these words:
    • training: teaching people to do a task, vs. learning: fostering a culture of continuous growth.
    • training: control/compliance/obedience, vs learning: autonomy & engagement.
  • Modern organizations increasingly emphasize self-directed learning, social learning, and developmental feedback.
• Development is the broader process of growth over time, often including learning but also involving maturation, role expansion, and identity formation
• The word instruction is often used by persons who use the expression instructional systems design. An instructional system is part of a T&D system. The instructional system is the part that focuses on the learning process/activities.

Synonyms of worker T&D

• In this course, we use the term worker in worker training & development because it broadly refers to any type of worker, including employees, owners, partners, volunteers, and any other working contributor and/or stakeholder.
• Common synonyms include:
  • workforce T&D
  • talent development (common in HR)
  • human capital development (common in HR)
  • personnel T&D (common in HR and military)
• Keep in mind: personnel connotes paid employees, it doesn’t usually include volunteer workers, owners, partners, nor other working contributors and/or stakeholders.

Talent Development

• In everyday English, the word talent can mean an ability to do something well. In organizations, the word talent is often used to mean a worker or a specific type of worker (e.g., “She is our top talent”). In that context, the word talent can refer to at least two types of workers:
  1. Inclusive definition (broad):
     • Using the inclusive definition, talent refers to anyone and everyone in the organization, with the assumption that every employee has valuable skills, abilities, and potential that can and should be managed and developed. In this view, talent management is essentially comprehensive human-resource management with a special emphasis on growth and optimization.
  2. Exclusive definition (narrow):
     • Using the exclusive definition, talent refers specifically to high-potential (HiPo) or high-performing individuals—those whose abilities, achievements, and growth potential are critical to the organization’s strategic success. Here, talent management is about identifying, nurturing, retaining, and deploying these key individuals—sometimes called the leadership pipeline or critical roles.

Evidence about the usefulness of worker T&D

• For scholarly peer-reviewed empirical studies about the usefulness of worker T&D, please see our Zotero Group Library for this course (you must be added as a member of that Zotero library).
• Worker T&D is associated with these benefits:
• changes in worker behaviors (including but not limited to: cognition, áffect, and overt behaviors):
  • innovation and tacit skills
  • adaptive expertise
  • technical skills
  • self-management skills
  • cross-cultural adjustment
  • feeling empowered
  • communication, planning, and task coordination in teams
• Changes in outcomes at the organizational level of analysis (aka: company level of analysis):
  • profitability
  • effectiveness
  • productivity
  • operating revenue per employee
  • reduced costs
  • improved quality and quantity
  • employee turnover
  • organization’s reputation
  • social capital

When T&D is vs. isn’t the right solution

• T&D is a great solution if the problems at hand can be meaningfully improved via a change in the worker’s skills/competencies. However, sometimes the performance of workers is strongly influenced by:
  • the structure of the work tasks/jobs
  • the behaviors of their supervisors
  • the climate/culture of the organization
  • low rewards (e.g., low pay; low chances for a pay raise)
  • the worker’s personality, which can be difficult to change
• Consider these examples:
  • Worker’s tasks or duties are unclear or conflicting (e.g., workers receive mixed messages about what to do or how to do it)
    • In this case, the T&D system would need to focus on training the managers on how to design the tasks/duties of the other workers.
  • Managers don’t thoughtfully plan the workload of other workers. This can create overwhelming workloads for some workers. Also, if only some workers are receiving overwhelming workloads, they may perceive it unfair if other workers have much lighter workloads.
    • In this case, the T&D system would likely need to focus on training the managers on how to thoughtfully plan the workload of other workers.
  • Workers don’t receive feedback about their performance/outcomes.
    • In this case, the T&D system would need to focus on training the managers on how to give feedback.
  • Workers lack the tools, resources, or technology (equipment, software, etc.)
  • The consequences for good performance are negative (e.g., takes up more time, which isn’t rewarded)
  • The compensation, bonuses, or incentives are too low or are designed in a counterproductive manner.
  • There is a toxic culture or there is interpersonal conflict.
  • Hiring the wrong people:
    • The workers have relatively enduring personality features that have some amount of incompatibility with the work demands (e.g., a sales worker who is shy).
    • The workers have physical features that have some amount of incompatibility with the work demands (e.g., low physical strength in a job that requires much physical strength).
    • In this case, the T&D system could focus on training the selections personnel on how to hire the right workers.