Investing in Employee Training: Benefits vs. Challenges - Essay Sample

Introduction

Training and development provide crucial opportunities for corporations to increase the knowledge base of their workers (Kulkarni, 2013). However, the majority of corporations in the US in the current business environment find them expensive, and employees attending training and development sessions tend to miss job time that, in most cases, delay the conclusion of assigned tasks and projects. Despite the presence of such demerits, training, and development offer merits to both the employees and corporations, making it a worthwhile investment (Kulkarni, 2013). If solid guidance is provided to such businesses, it might enhance the effectiveness of their present training and development departments or offer direction to those in the process of creating such departments. Besides, this helps them transform into pioneers of the global business and expand into large corporations not only in the United States but also globally. As the Chairperson of the President's Council on Training and Development for Corporations in the US, the quality and value of both the training and development should be exceptional. Thus, I would recommend that businesses should improve the effectiveness of their training and development departments by the use of technology, establishing a clear roadmap, adopt gamification as an incentive, and embrace cross-departmental sharing of knowledge.

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The idea of training and development is a significant investment that businesses will use to enhance the performance of their employees. If employees receive appropriate training, they can gain the capacity to perform in their respective positions (Kulkarni, 2013). They also acknowledge efficient processes and safety practices for fundamental duties. Thus, giving them an opportunity for training and development will provide employees with a deep comprehension of their duties, and in the end, it improves their confidence. Besides, this confidence may motivate them to be creative and perform better not only for their benefit but also for the general performance of the business. Thus, training and development will lead to competent employees that will help corporations in the US to be strongly competitive in the global market.

Training and development will also enhance the prospects of the United States corporations in addressing the weaknesses of their employees. The majority of the workers in various businesses have different weaknesses within their job skills. While an effective training program will allow the businesses to strengthen the competencies that every worker wants to improve, a development program will take them to a higher place, which will ensure they have similar knowledge and skills (Kulkarni, 2013). This facilitates businesses to decrease any possible weakness link in corporations for employees who depend on others to accomplish basic job activities. Thus, where businesses provide essential training and development, they create comprehensive knowledge among their workers who can perform independently or as teams in the absence of supervision or continuous aid from others such as employees and managers.

Training and development also increase employee morale and satisfaction. Workers that go through effective training and development programs tend to have an advantage over those in other corporations with no access to such programs (Kulkarni, 2013). Besides, when businesses invest in training and development, they show their workers that they are valued, which establishes a supportive working environment. This, in turn, makes employees feel appreciated via training opportunities, which results in more satisfaction towards their professions and work achievements, increasing their productivity that is both beneficial for the corporations.

Recommendations

Corporations should utilize technology for greater flexibility. Barkhodaee (2014), reveals that the most profitable and productive corporations globally utilize digital tools while training their employees. It is no wonder there is a considerable trend with corporations shifting to video solutions primarily to increase flexibility and save expenses. Besides, smart training and development ventures are beginning to utilize technology for their advantage (Franko & Tirrell, 2012). Nevertheless, most corporations are currently unwilling to give their employees leaves from their desks or offices to attend in-person training and development. Thus, businesses intending to enhance the efficiency of their training and development departments should incorporate digital tools where they can, to permit its workers to accomplish the required elements remotely in their free time. This will hence introduce flexibility for the corporation and, in the long run, save them instructional and material expenses as well as travel costs incurred if in-person employee training and development programs were used.

They should also establish a clear roadmap of the training and development programs with different goals. The training and development department, in most cases, has two parallel objectives that include facilitating corporations to attain its goals, such as improved employee retention, increased sales, and more productivity. The other objective is allowing the employees of the corporation to achieve their learning and development goals, for example, learn the responsibilities of their jobs and acquire new skills. The prosperity of a training and development department relies on the roadmap, which stipulates the main areas that it will cover as well as the anticipation of the program it will run. Such departments should ask businesses different questions, such as the kind of skills the business wants its employees to attain, to aid them to customize their training and development programs. Such questions may help them gather essential information about employees' profiles and team operations. This allows the training and development department to adopt practices that improve their effectiveness and employee's learning experience. In this manner, training and development departments will be able to identify the primary gaps and concentrate on creating training and development programs that address the needs of the corporations.

Training and development departments in businesses should also adopt gamification as an incentive for employee participation in the training and development program. Dubey et al. (2017) discovered that one among three workers view training and development as a barrier to learning and content uninspiring. Besides, heavy and dense content decreases employee concentration in training and development programs. For example, a few years ago, a prominent company known as Cisco had invested a considerable amount of money in social media training and development programs purposely to enhance their worker's use of essential network links. Besides, this program encompassed 46 courses that appeared unattractive and daunting for employees to enroll and accomplish (Dubey et al., 2017). Thus, as a solution, Cisco implemented three certification levels that included, master, strategist, and specialist primarily to ensure there is competition across its different departments to identify the best performing and those who scaled the levels rapidly. Following its introduction, over 650 Cisco workers were certified, having taken approximately 13,000 different courses (Dubey et al., 2017). Therefore, the use of gamification stands as one of the most essential strategies to enhance the effectiveness of training and development departments.

Besides, the training and development department should embrace cross-departmental sharing of knowledge. According to Kulkarni (2013), approximately 12% of workers utilize the skills they acquired during their work training. It is an astonishing statistic since it suggests that the majority of the employees receive inadequate knowledge concerning the corporations during their training and development programs to use it in specific duties in their routine responsibilities. This approach provides workers with knowledge about the functions and roles of an organization. Thus, embracing cross-departmental sharing of knowledge provides an opportunity to strengthen client support using knowledgeable workers since employees comprehend the effects of their daily activities on the corporation and other departments.

Training and development are essential for business in the United States. It enhances the employees' performance, addresses their weaknesses, and increases their morale and satisfaction. It is, however, essential for businesses to have clear guidelines to enjoy these benefits, such as the use of technology, establishing a clear roadmap, adopt gamification as an incentive, and embrace cross-departmental sharing of knowledge. These recommendations ultimately improve not only the performance, morale, skills, and satisfaction of employees but also improves the efficiency of the training and development department and, in general, the overall productivity of the business.

References

Barkhodaee, S. (2014). Nearly Half of Fortune 500 Companies Use E-learning. Why Aren't You? Retrieved May 5, 2020, from https://skyprep.com/2014/12/16/nearly-half-fortune-500-companies-use-e-learning-why-not-you/

Dubey, M., Chavan, V., & Patil, D. Y. (2017). A Conceptual Study of Selected Companies using Gamification for Employee training & development as Engagement Approach. Global HRM Review, 73.

Franko, O. I., & Tirrell, T. F. (2012). Smartphone app use among medical providers in ACGME training programs. Journal of medical systems, 36(5), 3135-3139. DOI: 10.1007/s10916-011-9798-7

Kulkarni, P. P. (2013). A literature review on training & development and quality of work life. Researchers World, 4(2), 136. http://hdl.voced.edu.au/10707/304601