Essay: Lack of training & development and impact on employee performance at ministry of health

Abstract
In today’s dynamic environment the demand for professional and highly skillful workforce are necessary for every organization to perform well in this environment. The employees need to be trained and the development of an employee to be highly skilled is essential. The research proposes how the employee performance can be enhanced by proper training and development. For the purpose of research I am going to do this research proposal at Ministry of health. A questionnaire was distributed among the employees of human resource department at the ministry of health. A total of 50 questionnaires were distributed among organization, including department heads of the administrative division. The completed questionnaire forms the foundation of this research
1.0 Introduction
This paper studies, lack of training and development of employees and its impact on employee performance at Ministry of Health. In order to, develop a better understanding of training and development and factors affecting training and development. The paper includes a review of the literature and theories related to training and development. The adopt research methodology is discussed in Chapter 3. The research report also includes the findings and the results of the study. This proposal also includes a brief description of the ministry of health, research purpose, research objectives and questions and research report outline. Furthermore, research related findings by other researchers and hypothesis will also be discussed.
1.1 Background of the study
“The ergonomics of the work environment, state of the art equipment as well as quality raw materials can make production possible, but it is the human resources that actually make production happen”,
Training is necessary to ensure an adequate supply of employees that are technically and socially capable for both departmental and management positions.
According to Heathfield (2012), the right employee training, development and education at the right time, provides big payoffs for the organization , increase productivity, knowledge, loyalty and contribution.
Training and development of employees are the responsibility of the management. This study, however, concentrated on the senior and junior staff of health ministry. The senior members are the supervisors of both senior staff and junior staff and are also the heads of various departments. The interviews conducted with management and junior staff members supported whatever survey (questionnaire) that were administered to the research units.
Training is a very important part of the human resource development activity of human resource management practice. For employees to carry out their duties effectively and efficiently they must have the significant skills, knowledge, values, attitudes and competencies and well as understand their organization’s culture.
Moreover, newly employed do not have all the competencies usually required for successful or excellent performance in their jobs. Again, while in the job, employees need to be updated through training and development to gain proficiencies they did not have at the time of appointment. This is why an organization might need training and development department, often referred to as Human Resource Development. When suitable job candidates have been selected and appointed, they must be given the appropriate orientation and in addition they must be trained and developed to meet their career needs of the organization.
Training and development is a process that attempts to provide employees with information, skills and understanding of the organization and its goals. Furthermore, training and development aid an employee to continue to make the necessary positive contribution to the success of employing organization in terms of his / her good performance on the job. To start this whole process is orientation and socialization of employees into the organization.
Negative Effects of a Lack of Training in the Workplace
Some companies consider training a needless expense and expect new employees to learn on the job from supervisors and older employees. However, this type of training is often insufficient and creates problems for the business.
Employee turnover
If there is no training, they may not know how to do their jobs and none of these goals are possible. This leads to low confidence among workers, which results in employee turnover.
Low Production
If employees don’t have enough skills to perform their jobs confidently may lead to errors and injuries. Unskilled employees could spend considerable time seeking help to perform their jobs, to the detriment of the work process.. Which reduces from their work and increases the amount of time necessary to complete production.
Unsafe Work Environment
When workers lack the knowledge and skills required to use equipment and supplies safely. The problem could be fatal in work environments that contain heavy-duty machinery and risky materials.
Increased Expenses
If the company does not train their staffs, it will increase in miscellaneous expenses. It includes the cost of medical attention for staff because of injuries sustained from the unskilled use of equipment and supplies, compensation to customers for defective products, and the cost of defending the company against lawsuits.
Loss of Customers
Untrained employees cannot produce high-quality products.if the emplyees are untrained than the quality of the product will be low. They also lack adequate knowledge and skills to provide satisfactory customer service. This combination results in dissatisfied customers. The company will experience declining sales if dissatisfied customers choose competitors who can provide quality products and appropriate service. (Amo, 2006)
1.2 Overview of Ministry of Health
Ministry of health is a government body, with more than 7000 employees who provide health care service at national level and it is responsible for developing the national health policy of the country, public health protection, health service delivery as well as regulation and quality assurance of health services. To regulate and practice the conduct of professionals in relevant fields, there are regulatory bodies, namely; Maldives Medical Council, Maldives Nursing Council, and Maldives Health Services Board. Moreover, Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA) is a department which is responsible for quality and safety of medicines and food products and service. The Health Protection Agency, the former Centre for Community Health and Disease Control is responsible for regulating the public health provision and protection. (WHO Country Cooperation Strategy, 2013) From 2009 to 2012, public sector health facilities were corporatized and assets and health service delivery mandate transferred to state-owned enterprises. As a result, public hospitals and Health Centers were transferred in to Health services Corporations in eight regions. However, in 2012 the cabinet decided to reverse the change and to transfer the assets and health services delivery back to the Ministry of Health.
Being a small island nation, Maldives is highly vulnerable to the impacts of political, social, economic transformations and environmental challenges of the Twenty-first Century. In 2013 a new president was elected and the president declared that Ministry of Health and Ministry of Gender and Human Rights be merged, forming a single ministry. In this regard, on 17th November 2013 Ministry of Health was renamed as Ministry of Health and Gender.
The vision of Ministry of health is Maldives will be a model society of socially protected, healthy individuals. Its people are aware, who value family ties and live healthy satisfying lives.
The mission of Ministry of Health is to establish systems for health, well-being and social protection of its people; provision of affordable, accessible and quality healthcare services and drug rehabilitation services, and strengthen mechanisms for protecting the rights of its children, women, persons with disabilities and the elderly and sustain the quality of the healthcare and social protection services. (Ministry of health, 2013)
1.2.1 Organization Structure chart
1.3 Objective of the study
The research identified the lack of training and development and its impact on employee performance of health ministry. The research has the following objectives:
To identify whether there are training and development in health ministry
To find out how training and development of employees contribute to the achievement of the goals of health ministry.
To find out whether there are organizational issues that constrain training and development in health ministry.
To investigate how training and development needs of employees are determined.
To examine how training and development contribute to the individual performance and productivity.
To establish guidelines and solutions to improve training and development.
1.4 Problem Identification
The research problem here in this proposal is associated with lack of training and development and the impact on the performance of the employees of health ministry. There are many factors that affect Training and development. The factors effecting training and development are as follows:
1. Misunderstanding of The purpose or goal of the training.
2. lack of resources.
3. lack available budget.
4. poor managerial support. etc
I have done a small pilot research among 50 employees of health ministry. 90 percent of them said that they did not get enough training to perform their job well. As well as some of them said that they have worked more than 6 years, but they did not get any promotion and any other development.
So in this research I am going to focus on this problem and how health ministry can make their employees as well skilled performed employees.
1.5 Problem Statement
The management of health ministry does not currently have a staffing policy, training and development policy as well as a succession plan. Training and development are therefore more or less unplanned and unsystematic. It looks like the majority of the employees are not trained upon appointment. As a result, administrative employees’ skills and abilities have over the years not been enhanced to enable them to become effective and efficient.
Research questions
At the end of the research, the following questions were answered:
Do training and development have an effect on the performance of employees for the achievement of organizational goals in health ministry?
What are the issues that work against training and development in health ministry?
What are the greatest problems that usually call for training and development of employees?
What are the major objectives of the training and development for the employees?
What are the desired outcomes of the training?
1.6 Significance of the study
The purpose of the research is to conduct a descriptive study on the lack of training and development and impact on employee performance in health ministry. The research specifically examines the employee training and development program within an organization. This research benefits the health ministry in its effort to train and develop its employees. It also gives the following benefits, such as:
It Improve the performance and self-fulfillment of the employees of health ministry.
It helps the management of health ministry to know the importance of giving a training to their employees
It also helps the health ministry management and other organization managements to improve the performance of their employees.
other organizations can use this information for their benefit.
1.7 Framework of the study
Chapter one I have discussed a general introduction and an overview of the background to the research, a statement of the problem, research objective, research questions, significance of the research, and the structure of the research.
Chapter two took a look at the literature review of the research. It discussed training and development concepts and definitions, organization’s need for training and development, identification of training needs, training and transfer of training, training, policy, training and development, training techniques (methods) used, evaluation of training and development, benefits of training, research related models, research related findings by other researchers and finally the summary of the literature review.
Chapter three I have focused on the research methodology in terms of research design, research population, sampling technique, sampling size, data collection procedure.
And Chapter four looked at the presentation and analysis of findings. Finally, chapter five presented the summary of research findings, conclusions from the findings and recommendations following from the conclusions on the findings.
1.8 Activity duration (task chart)
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
2.1 Introduction
What is a literature review?
A literature review is an account of what has been available on a topic by qualified scholars and researchers. The purpose of the literature review is to deliver to the reader what knowledge or idea have been established about the topic, and their strengths and weaknesses are. (Taylor)
In This chapter I am going to discuss training and development concepts and definitions, importance of training and development, objectives of training and development, training techniques (methods) used, research related models and summary.
Concepts and Definitions
What is training?
According to the Smriti Chand Training institutes a basic concept in human resource development. It is concerned with developing a particular skill to a desired standard of instruction and practice. Training is a highly useful tool that can bring an employee into a position where they can do their job correctly, effectively, and thoroughly. Training is the act of increasing the knowledge and skill of an employee for doing a particular job. (Chand, 2015)
What is training and development?
Training and development defines the formal, ongoing activities that are made within an organization design to improve the performance and self-fulfillment of their employees through a variety of educational methods and programs. (FRIESWICK, 2013)
Importance of training and development
In an ever changing and fast paced corporate world, training and development is an essential function. The importance of training and development are as follows.
New Hire Orientation
Training is particularly important for new employees. This can be conducted by someone within the company and should serve as a platform to get new employees up to speed with the processes of the company and address any skill gaps. (Chopra, 2015)
Challenge shortcomings
Every individual has some shortcomings and training and development helps employees iron them out. For example, at Rate Gain we have divided the entire headcount in several groups to provide focused training which is relevant to those groups – sales training, first time managers, middle management, senior leadership, executive leadership. (Chopra, 2015)
Improvement in performance
If shortcomings and weaknesses are addressed, it is obvious that an employee’s performance improves. Training and development, however, also goes on to amplify your strengths and acquire new skill sets. (Chopra, 2015)
Employee satisfaction
A company that invests in training and development generally tends to satisfy employees. It will be futile if the training and development become tedious and dull, and employees attend it merely because they have to. As a company, we stress on industry specific training and send many employees for international seminars and conferences that can be beneficial to them. (Chopra, 2015)
Increased productivity
In a fast developing landscape, productivity is not only dependent on employees, but also on the technology they use. Training and development goes a long way in getting employees up to date with new technology, use existing ones better and then discard the outdated ones. This goes a long way in getting things done efficiently and in the most productive way. (Chopra, 2015)
Reduce cost
Training and development results with ideal usage of resources in an organization. There is no wastage of resources, which may cause extra expenses. Accidents are also reduced during working. All the machines and resources are used economically, reducing expenditure. (Star, 2014)
Objectives of training and development
a. Maintain proficiency in their current jobs.
b. Learn new, procedures, or technologies.
c. Acquire job-related knowledge, skills, and abilities after selection for or job to a specific position or duty.
d. Develop knowledge, skills, and abilities as part of the succession planning and leadership development process.
e. Obtain and enhance knowledge, skills, and abilities unrelated to their present duties in order to attain self-determined goals or career objectives. (n.d., 2015)
Methods of training and development
According to Paul Ekman the methods of training are subdivided into two methods. They are cognitive and behavioral methods of training.
The cognitive method refers to the giving theoretical training to the trainers. The several methods under Cognitive approach provide the rules for how to do something, written or verbal information, demonstrate relationships among concepts, etc. These methods are related to changes in knowledge and attitude by inspiring learning.
Behavioral methods refer to giving practical training to the trainees. The several methods under Behavioral approach allow the trainee to behavior in a real manner. These methods are best used for skill development. (ekman, 2015)
Research related models
There are three models of training. They are:-
 System Model
 Instructional System Development Model
 Transitional model
System Model
This model contains five phases. And for further improvements, it should be repeatedon a regular basis.
in system model The training should achieve the purpose of helping employee to perform their work to required standards. The steps involved in System Model of training are as follows:
1. Analyze and identify
2. Design and provide training
3. Develop
4. Implementing
5. Evaluating
1. Analyze
Analyzing the department, job, employee requirement, who are the employees needs training, what do they need to learn, guessing training cost, etc.
2. Design
In this step it provides training to meet recognize the needs. This step requires developing the objectives of training, and identifying.
3. Develop
Developing phase involves listing the activities in the training program that will assist the participants to study, selecting a delivery method, examining the training material and authenticating information to be reported to guarantee whether it finishes all the aims and objectives.
4. Implementation
This is the most difficult part of the system. Because one wrong step can lead to the failure of the whole training program.
5. Evaluation
At this stage all the phases are evaluated in order to make sure that it has achieved the goals in terms of subsequent work performance. Making necessary modifications to any of the previous stages for the purpose of improving failure practices.
Sources: (Chand, Models of Training Employees: Steps, Transitional and Instructional System Development Model, 2014)
Instructional System Development Model
This model was made to answer training problems. Now a days this model is broadly used in the organizations, because it is concerned with the training need on the job performance. This model helps in determining and developing the favorable strategies, sequencing the content, and delivering media for the types of training objectives to be achieved.
This system includes five stages. They are:
1. Analysis
2. Planning
3. Development
4. Execution
5. Evaluation
1. Analysis
This stage includes training need assessment, job analysis, and target audience analysis.
2. Planing
In this phase it contains setting of goal of the learning outcome, instructional objectives that measure behavior of a participant after the training, types of training material, media selection, methods of evaluating the trainee, trainer and the training program, strategies to convey knowledge i.e., selection of content, sequencing of content, etc.
3. Development
Development stage converts design decisions into training material. It includes developing course material for the trainer including handouts, workbooks, visual aids, demonstration props, etc. course material for the trainee including handouts of summary.
4. Executions
Execution phase is focusing on logistical arrangements, such as arranging speakers, equipment’s, benches, podium, food facilities, cooling, lighting, parking, and other training decorations.
5. Evaluation
This stage make sure that the training program has achieved its aim in terms of subsequent work performance. This phase involves of classifying strong point and weaknesses and making essential adjustments to any of the previous stage in order to remedy or improve failure practices.
Transitional Model
Transitional model attentions on whole organization. The outer loop describes the vision, mission and values of the organization on the basis of which training model i.e. inner loop is executed.
Vision:
Vision Attentions on the signs that the organization aims to achieve after the defined point of time. this statement tells where the organization realizes itself few years down the line. A vision may include setting a role model, or bringing some internal change.
Mission:
This is the reason of organizational survival. It identifies the position in the community. The reason for developing a mission statement is to encourage, and inform the employees regarding the organization. It tells how the organization would like to be viewed by the customers, employees, and all other participants.
Values:
It is the translation of vision and mission into communicable standards. It reflects the deeply held values of the organization and is independent of the current industry environment.
The mission, vision, and values come first the objective in the inner loop. This model deliberates the whole organization. The objective is framed keeping these three things in mind and then the training model is further implemented.
Sources: (Chand, Models of Training Employees: Steps, Transitional and Instructional System Development Model, 2015)
 
3.1 Introduction
The way you approach your question will have a thoughtful effect upon the way you build your dissertation, so this section I am going to discuss the types of research undertake for the dissertation. The use of literature and case studies is considered and the merits of primary research are discussed and advice is given on the use of existing research data. The potential relevance of a quantitative approach will be considered and similarly, and also the idea of qualitative analysis and conducting own research may produce valuable data. More over The possibilities of using quantitative and qualitative data are also discussed.
This chapter in concerned with a description of Choice of Research, Sample Size, Constraints to sample size, Data Collection Methods and Method of Data Analysis.
3.2 Research Design
The type of research I am goin to use in this project is descriptive research. In descriptive research various limits will be chosen and examining the variations between these limits. This was done with an objective to find out the effect on employees performance due to training and development.
Data Sources
The data I am going to collect for this study is mainly through the distribution of questionnaire to be accurate the data collect for study was both primary and secondary sources.
Primary Data
Primary data is the information collected for the first time, there are some methods in which the data is observed. In this project it was gained by mean of questionnaires. Questionnaire was prepared and distribute to the employees.
Secondary Data
Secondary data needed for conducting research work were collected from company website and also by direct interview.
3.3 Methods used for survey
Data are usually collecting through the use of questionnaires, although sometimes researchers directly interview subjects. Surveys can use qualitative or quantitative measures. There are two basic types of surveys: cross-sectional surveys and longitudinal surveys.
Cross-sectional survey
Cross-sectional surveys are used to gather information on a population at a single point in time. An example of a cross sectional survey would be a questionnaire. A different cross-sectional survey questionnaire might try to control the relationship between two factors, like religiousness of parents and views on Internet filtering. (Hall, 2013)
Longitudinal surveys
Longitudinal surveys gather data over a period of time. The researcher may then analyze changes in the population and try to explain them. The three main types of longitudinal surveys are trend studies, cohort studies, and panel studies. (Sincero, 2012)
3.4 Conceptual Frame work
Under this section I am goint to discuss about the dependent and independent variables of efect of training and development. Here the independent variables are the factors that affect training and development, and the dependent variable will be employees performance. The conceptual frame work of this project will be shown in below diagram.
3.5 Hypothesis
According to (Shuttleworth, 2008) hypothesis is “the statement created by researchers when they speculate upon the outcome of a research or experiment”.
A hypothesis is an uncertain explanation or assume by the researcher of what the researcher the outcome of an investigation will be. It is an informed guess. It indicates the expectations of the researcher regarding certain variables. It is the most specific way in which an answer to a problem can be stated. Research hypotheses are the specific testable predictions made about the independent and dependent variables in the study. Hypotheses are implied in terms of the particular independent and dependent variables that are going to be used in this study. (cherry, 2015)
Here I am going to explain what will happen to the dependent variables and independent variables. Moreover I am also goin to discuss here the meaning of lack of training and development and meaning of employees performance.
3.6 Determining Sample Size
A limited subgroup of population, selected from the total population with the objective of investigating is called a sample. A sample is a representative part of the population. (Boyd, 2003) The population of whole health ministry is 7000 employees, including all the employees in health centers of every island in Maldives and all the staffs including hospitals. I am goin to do this research among 80 emplyees, that is only from the employees from the health ministry main office. The main office of health ministry has 165 employees.
The answer to various elements under each questions were totalled for the purpose of various statistical testing.
3.7 Summary
The empirical data for the study were I am going to collect through a well-structured questionnaire, which was prepared and distributed among the randomly selected employees of health ministry. The sample size in this research was 80 employees among 165 employees.
 
4.0 Introduction
Data analysis is the process of developing answers to questions through the examination and interpretation of data. The basic steps in the analysis process consist of identifying issues, determining the availability of suitable data, deciding on which methods are appropriate for answering the questions of interest, applying the methods and evaluating, summarizing and communicating the results.
4.1 Data analysis and testing of hypothesis
The most common kind of statistical extrapolation is hypothesis testing. Statistical data analysis lets us to use mathematical principles to decide how likely it is that our sample results match our hypothesis about a population.
The formal statistical procedure for performing a hypothesis test is to state two hypotheses and to use an appropriate statistical test to reject one of the hypotheses and therefore accept the other. The first hypotheses are referred as Null hypothesis and the second hypothesis are called Alternative hypothesis. (statistically significant consulting, 2003)
In this section I’m going to analyze the data’s using SPSS (statistical Package for Social Science). SPSS is a Windows based program that can be used to accomplish data entry and
Analysis and to create tables and graphs. SPSS is capable of handling large amounts of
Data and can perform all of the analyses covered in the text and much more.
4.2 Data Presentation
In my project report I will be presenting the data reporting in both textual. Such as diagrams, maps, graphs and tables.
To shorten the interpretation of the information, the data are often processed advance and transformed into a visual presentation which can be more readily realized. The most common methods of presenting data are based upon graphical techniques. In this section I am going to describe five methods suitable for presenting social science data. Describing information by means of a bar graph is particularly useful when dealing with data gathered from discrete variables that are measured on a small scale such as the data in marital status.
5.0 Introduction
In this section I’m going to include conclusions drawn from the findings and results of the data analysis. Findings from the present study should provide the primary information for drawing conclusions. Frequently, conclusions provide answers to hypotheses or research questions posed in Chapter 1. While conclusions may be 25 written in narrative form or listed one at a time, listing them one at a time is generally easier for readers to follow and helps maintain clarity of focus for each conclusion.
5.1 Limitation of the study
There are several limitations integral in this study. Some of the limitations may be difficulties in data collection where several employees included in the sample had difficulties in answering the questionnaire due to lack of English proficiency. Also, certain employees were unable to return the questionnaires on time which took me even longer to finalize data collected.
Another problem may arise is that, I am a employee of health ministry, I don’t have rights to do my project work in working hours, and I have taken my break time after working hours for filling the questioners and other works. Besides I am who involves in procurement activities, I had to face the time limitation where at times, I ran out of time in meeting project tasks due to other pre- set urgencies.