Paper on Employee Training & Development: Vital for Organizations to Beat Competition

Introduction

Employee training and development is a vital role any organization must consider. It helps the employees in the organization to develop excellent organizational skills for the specific jobs they are assigned. Training of employees also helps the organization to beat the competitive levels in the industry setup. It involves a professional in that field of work, training the new or existing employees in the new skills or innovation in the place of work. Every organization, therefore, needs an employee who is fit and skilled enough to perform specific duties and roles assigned. Most experienced employees got knowledge from college or previous work environments. As the experience level of the employees is essential during selection, the company needs to instill the skills to the new employees to fit the needs of operations in various departments. Not all organizations have precisely the same format of activities. Employee development goes hand in hand with the training. It helps the employee improve their expertise and gain skills in doing the work assigned to them with ease and higher experiences level. Development involves the growth of the capabilities of an employee to a higher level as accepted in the organization. It is the activity designed to help the employee in the future career, not in the present as training.

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Purpose of Training the Employee

Every organization thrives for a competitive advantage in the market center. With good and well-equipped employees, the organization will be in a position to work towards keeping their performance at the level of competition and the ability to provide excellent customer satisfaction results. Employee training, therefore, helps in raising employee morale and energy to work better in a company. In the world today, technology keeps on advancing every day. For the company to keep up with these advancements, there in need to acquire and upgrade the systems. The employees, therefore, are to be trained on how to apply specific skills and techniques in doing their day to day activities. The success of every organization lies in the expertise and capabilities of the staff. Training also helps the employees to adapt to the new methods of work in a working environment. It ensures that necessary and essential skills are shared with the employees to improve work productivity.

Methods of Employee Training in a Call Center Setting

Call center agents are employees to provide customer services and solutions to the customers. The agents act as an intermediary between the customer and the company. Therefore the agents must always know about the products the company provides for them to answer all the customer questions as asked and be able to solve a problem. In an internet company call center, the customers call when their routers are not connecting to the internet when there is an outage, slow speeds, and also available packages. As we all understand, technology keeps on changing, and the company has a competing process with other service providers.

There is stiff competition in the service providers' business; therefore, the employees or the agents need training on how to retain the customers who not satisfied, solve internet problems, and provide a quick response to on-site visits. Also, preparation is necessary when the company finds out there is laxity in employee performance and customer satisfaction. Exercise is essential to boost the skills of the agent in problem-solving and communication skills.

Training also is conducted when there are new systems installed in the work area setting. The agents, therefore, need training on the systems applications and use to ease the workload in the workplace. Also, new employees undergo training for about one month on different systems and products the company offers.

On-the-job Training Methods

In this type of training method, the employees learn from experienced workmates or supervisors and try to imitate their ways of work. For example, in a call center, after new employees have undergone one month's training, they are inducted at the workstation and assigned a mentor to help them how to navigate different systems, how to receive customer calls, and troubleshoot internet problems. In this method, the new employee gets to know what is being done on workstations before they are given their login details. After a week of shadowing, the new employee moves to their workstation, and the assigned supervisor monitors them for a while.

Off-the-Job Training

In this method of training, the employees are trained outside workplaces in the form of seminars and conferences. The training not only provides the skills to the employees, but also contributes to their general development in careers, and leadership. Most off-the-job training covers a broader area, not necessarily work-related. In a call center setting, the agents are given weekly training on leadership management, soft skills and communication, and also on cultural activities of the diverse cultures they represent. The customers are not limited to any person from certain cultures and community ethics. It is, therefore, essential to consider their cultural needs in terms of language and behavior. The training only helps the employee in the workplace but also their future endeavors and career development

Ways of Improving the Management of Employee Training Program

As much as the training program of the employees is essential, how to manage the training is also necessary. The Human resource manager, therefore, has ways on how to improve the management of training programs in the organization it includes:

They are encouraging managers to participate in employee coaching in their various departments. Managers have been the first contact with employees in the everyday workplace. Therefore, the managers can participate in coaching the employees in work-related setup. Although they have a lot of responsibilities in their various departments, managers can set aside a few minutes and organize coaching sessions with employees maybe during morning hours before offices open or evening before they go home. The company can motivate the managers by giving them incentives to help in coaching and employee development.

It is understanding employee needs

Employees also can contribute to the management of their training programs. The company, therefore, needs to involve the employees in setting up training programs to get their needs captured. It is done through goal setting and provision of feedback channels. The supervisors help the employee set up their goals and own them to develop their career paths

Build authentic leadership in the work

Trust is an essential factor in the management of every organization. If the employees can trust their leaders, they will be in a position to be open and straightforward with them. There will be a mutual understanding in the workplace, thus creating an open channel for communication. For the training program to work, the leaders should be in a position to show their team that they are involved in training for their career development as well.

The organization should provide flexible and inclusive training options

For the training programs to be effective, the company must provide the option of attending training, including remote training, conferences, or finding a convenient time for the employees to participate. Training cannot be conducted when the employees have a workload to clear up.

SWOT Analysis

Problem-Solving Training

SWOT-analysis helps in any business decision making in a company. It helps identify potential strengths, weaknesses, identify business opportunities, and threats to the business. Strengths and weaknesses are majorly internal factors, while opportunities and threats are external. SWOT analysis can be used in problem-solving decision making in companies. Application of SWOT analysis in training employees on issue solving skills helps to determine the aligning rule on and approach on how to conduct the training, what skills to instill the customers. Problem-solving training help introduces skills on how to identify customer problem, determining the possible solutions to the issue in question and also select a potential thus implementing and following on the answers given to the customers. The training will help the employees understand how to troubleshoot and problem by active listening.

SWOT analysis, in this case, will help in a brainstorming session during training. Trainers will come with different ideas and opinions on possible problems and try to solve them.

Challenges with SWOT Analysis

Using SWOT analysis in developing problem-solving training does not provide explicit threats and opportunities. It just helps to identify the weakness of a business opportunity, thus can not be useful in the practice. The managers tend to miss the critical problem that might affect the business; therefore, the problem cant is covered in training. SWOT analysis can mislead in identify the threat and may end up concluding that you are well conversant with the question, thus not fully solving it. But brainstorming with the team will help get the ideas and consolidate them in one so that it can make the training a success.

References

Alexander, J. (2019, December 6). Is it time for an HR SWOT analysis? | Work blog. Work | Your Small Business Resource. Retrieved August 3, 2020, from https://workful.com/blog/hr-swot-analysis/

Armstrong, M. B., & Landers, R. N. (2018). Gamification of employee training and development. International Journal of Training and Development, 22(2), 162-169. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijtd.12124

employee training and development. (2000). PSNA COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY. Retrieved August 3, 2020, from https://www.psnacet.edu.in/courses/MBA/HRM/14.pdf

Oduwusi, O. (2018). Employee training and development as a model for organizational success. Academia.edu - Share research. https://www.academia.edu/36485680/EMPLOYEE_TRAINING_AND_DEVELOPMENT_AS_A_MODEL_FOR_ORGANIZATIONAL_SUCCESS

Ferrazzi, K. (2015, July 31). 7 ways to improve employee development programs. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2015/07/7-ways-to-improve-employee-development-programs

Saengchai, S., Siriattakul, P., & Jermsittiparsert, K. (2019). The mediating role of employee engagement between team and Co-worker relation, work environment, training and development, and employee performance. International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, 23(4), 853-864. https://doi.org/10.37200/ijpr/v23i4/pr190414