In a world of rapid change obsolescence is an interminable danger. As technology replaces more of the hands-on work, more employees will be dedicated to service functions where they will spend more time face-to-face with co-employees and customers. Organizational formats in the New Economy require more general skills. Due to complexity and scale of jobs performed today, emphasis is increasingly shifting from specialization to a broader range of competencies.
As Human Resource Management deals with people’s perspective or dimension in organizations, it should be designed and carried out in such a manner that it maximizes both employee and organizational effectiveness. The value of the organization’s Human Resource reflects the goodwill for the organization.
Human resource is utilized to the maximum extent when learning opportunities are designed to help employees grow so as to attain individual and organizational goals. An organization’s performance and productivity are directly proportional to the quantity and quality of its human resource.
Today’s organization and firms face the hurdles of effectively managing their human resource than before. Human Resource Management is needed in every organization which is interested in growing, diversifying, renewing and developing to become more dynamic in portraying leadership roles.
To manage the human resource effectively, a programme of training and development is important as it lends stability and flexibility to the firm’s growth. Every organization needs to have well trained, skilled and experienced personnel for better job performance. With the complexity of jobs, the importance of employee training also increases.
So employee training is not only an activity desirable but also an activity that an organization must commit resources to maintain a viable and knowledgeable work force.
Background of the study
Throughout our lives learning experiences are a potent source of stimulation. These learning can be achieved only through our experiences and different training programmes, which are usually rendered in the organizations. The Human Resource Department at LIC, Bangalore conducts training programme for its employees to update their skills through a well planned training schedule.
INTRODUCTION TO TRAINING
Training is no longer a question that an overwhelming majority of companies need to answer. Action on the affirmative needs begin almost simultaneously with the inception of the organization. Thereafter, training remains an integral part of company philosophy and culture right through the firm’s lifetime. Management training was once considered a luxury by the average profile company and often uses to be popular only among cash rich and multi national organizations. There too, it often remained more of an ornamental exercise, rather than a functional activity designed to improve the quality of life of the employees. The situation has changed so dramatically over the last decade or so, that there is presently an acute shortage of competent and experienced training personnel.
Training and development refer to the imparting of specific skills, abilities and knowledge to an employee. It is any attempt to improve current or future employee performance by increasing an employee’s ability to perform through learning usually by changing the employee’s attitude or increasing his or her skills and knowledge. The need for training and development is determined by the employee’s performance deficiency, which is computed as follows:
IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING
Training is the corner stone of sound management, for it makes employees more effective and productive. It is actively and intimately connected with all personnel or managerial activities. It is an integral part of the whole management programme with all its activities functionally interrelated.
Training is a practical and vital necessity because it enables employees to develop and rise within the organization and increase their market value, earning power and job security. It enables management to resolve sources of friction arising from parochialism, to bring home to the employees the fact that the management is not divisible. It moulds the employees’ attitudes and helps them to achieve a better co-operation. The management is benefited in the sense that higher standards of quality are achieved, a satisfactory organizational structure is built up, authority can be delegated and stimulus for progress applied to employees. Training, moreover, heightens the morale of the employee, for it helps in reducing dissatisfaction, complaints, and grievances and reduces the turn over.
The importance of training has been expressed in these words: “Training is a widely accepted problem solving device. Indeed, our national superiority in manpower productivity can be attributed in no small measure to the success of our educational and industrial training programmes. This success has been achieved by a tendency in many quarters to regard training as a panacea. It is almost traditional in America to believe that if something is good, more of the thing is even better”.
OBJECTIVES OF TRAINING
The primary purpose of training is to establish a sound relationship between the worker and his job-optimum man-task relationship.
To upgrade skills and prevent obsolescence. The jobs that employees do are not static. They change, sometimes without necessary awareness since technological advances are getting increasingly more rapid. To keep pace with the changing technology, mechanization, automation, electronic data processing etc, training becomes mandatory in order to update them, teach them newer skills and increase their efficiency.
To develop healthy, constructive attitudes. Training in companies are aimed at molding employee attitude to achieve support for company activities and to obtain better co-operation and greater loyalty.
To prepare employees for future assignments. People are not generally satisfied if they continue to work in the same position or at the same level for long. Mobility is major factor in motivation. One of the objects of the training is to provide an employee an opportunity to climb up the promotional ladder or to move on assignments which will help upward mobility.
To minimize operational errors. Since the training is an effort to provide to the employees opportunities to acquire new and improve existing job related skills, it follows that operational mistakes will be significantly reduced.
To enhance employee confidence and morale. With greater knowledge and finely honed skills, the employee approaches his job with greater confidence and sureness.
To bring down employee turnover and absenteeism. Training is a powerful tool that breeds in the employees a sense if pride as well as of belonging. Both these contribute in a major way to checking and reducing labour turnover as well as absenteeis