THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN WORKPLACE

 

Employees are the major assets of any organization. The active role they play towards a company’s success cannot be underestimated. As a result, equipping these unique assets through effective training becomes more effective in order to maximize the job performance. Also position them to take on the challenges of the today’s competitive business environment (Nassasi A, 2013).

Employee development is the integration of individual, career and organization development roles in order to achieve maximum productivity, quality, opportunity and fulfillment of organizations members as they work to accomplish the goals of the organization. Training and development is one of the lowest things on the priority list of most companies. When it's organized, it is often at the persistence of the human resources department. Training allows employees to acquire new skills, sharpen existing ones, perform better, increase productivity and to become better leaders.

Organizations have to obtain and utilize the human resources effectively. Organizations need to be aware of face more realistically towards keeping their human resources up - to date. To do that, managers need to pay special attention to all the functions of human resource management as this plays an important role in organizational, social and economically areas among others that are influential to the attainment of the organizational goals and organizations successful continuation in the market. 

Employee training plays a vital role in improving performance as well as increasing productivity. This in turn leads to placing organizations in the better positions to face competition and stay at the top. This therefore implies an existence of a significant difference between the organizations that train their employees and organizations that do not. 

Wright & Geroy (2001) note that employee competencies change through effective training programs. It therefore not only improves the overall performance of the employees to effectively perform their current jobs but also enhances their knowledge, skills an attitude of employees necessary for the future job, thus contributing to superior organizational performance.

MAIN ADVANTAGES OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE EMPLOYEE WORKPLACE-

        Increase Productivity

                 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.

        Addressing employee weaknesses-

                    Most employees have some weaknesses in their workplace skills. A training program allows you to strengthen those skills that each employee needs to improve. A development program brings all employees to a higher level so they all have similar skills and knowledge. This helps reduce any weak links within the company who rely heavily on others to complete basic work tasks.

        Improving employee performance-

                        An employee who receives the necessary training is better able to perform the job. The training may also build the employee's confidence because she has a stronger understanding of the industry and the responsibilities of her job. This confidence may push her to perform even better and think of new ideas that help her excel.

        Structured Training and Development-

                  A structured training and development program ensures that employees have a consistent experience and background knowledge. The consistency is particularly relevant for the company's basic policies and procedures.

        Employee job satisfaction-

                Employees with access to training and development programs have the advantage over employees in other companies who are left to seek out training opportunities on their own. The investment in training that a company makes shows the employees they are valued. The training creates a supportive workplace.

Hatton National Bank PLC is a financial institution which has over 4900 employees and provide a full and wide range of financial services all over the country. They have invested more than Rs 48Mn in year 2019 for training and development of their staff.  According to their annual report 2019, training per employee is 38.5 hours. Below are some of the key initiatives they have implemented.

• Rollout of the new organizational structure
• Refinement of job descriptions
• Talent fitment for branches
• Development programmes
• Digital mindset programme for the top management team.

• CORE TRAINING AREA	NO OF PROGRAMMES	NO OF BENEFITTED PEOPLE
  Sales Culture/ Selling Skills	59	1,081
  Service Culture/Customer service excellence	30	899
  Credit Culture	31	109
  Leadership	20	222

CONCLUSION-

Training and development is one of the key functions of organization. The sustainability of the organization depends on how employees perform their duties. Therefore continuous training and development provide both the company as a whole and the individual employees with benefits that make the cost and time a worthwhile investment.

references-

Chopra B, (2015) The Economic Times, Importance of training and development in an organization. Available at

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/hr-leadership/people/importance-of-training-and-development-in-an-organization/articleshow/48739569.cms

Chron, Shelly C, 2019, Importance of training and development in the workplace

available at

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-training-development-workplace-10321.html

Hatton National Bank PLC, integrated report 2019

Nassazi, N. (2013). Effects of training on employee

performance: Evidence from Uganda (Unpublished

doctoral dissertation). University of Applied Sciences,

Vassa, Finland.

Nassazi N,(2013) Effects of training of employee performance: Evidence from Uganda. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation).

Wright, P and Geroy ,D (2001), Changong the mindset: the training myth and the need for word, a class performance, International journal of Human Recourse Management.