Human Resource Management: Career Development activities for employees

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Career Development activities:

RANK 1 TRAINING
1. The problem for employees - Without the proper training, employees are not able to fully use their skills and abilities. They can become frustrated due to their inability to perform at an optimal level.

2. The problem for employers - If employees are not fully trained, then the work is not being performed at a high level. Undoubtedly, the quality of the organization's products and services are suffering.

1. 1) Systematically Assess Training Needs. The job skills required to be successful are constantly evolving due to changes in technology and customer needs. Carefully conducted "training needs assessments" identify gaps in employee skills. The organization can then focus on what type of training employees really need rather than on what training employees would like to have.

2) Evaluate Training Programs. Unfortunately, a very small percentage of training programs is systematically evaluated. To do so requires the following three steps:

a) Identify the objectives of the training program;
b) Establish a benchmark prior to the training; and
c) Compare the before and after results

If, for example, your objective is to increase customer satisfaction by improving the telephone skills of your staff, only by comparing the before and after customer satisfaction results will it become clear that the effort was worthwhile. Without such studies, senior management often feels that they are just wasting their money on training.

3) Invest in Training During Down Periods. Senior management must change their mindset from viewing training as an expense, to viewing it as an important investment in their business. Training budgets are often the first to be cut during challenging economic times. It makes more sense, however, to focus on training when there is a lull in business. When business is slow, employees are more able to take time from their work to attend training sessions.

4) Encourage Employees to be Open and Honest about their Needs. Employees have a tendency to say that they don't need training even if they know that they really do. Consequently, they say nothing, leaving management in the dark. Employees need to take responsibility to say to their supervisors, "I need training and here's why."

5) Use Methods other than Classroom Instruction. Traditional classroom instruction is often not the best way to teach job skills. Computer-assisted instruction, ...