Unit 23 Human Resource Development Assignment - Greenwood

Unit 23 Human Resource Development Assignment - Greenwood

Introduction:

The human resource development about the training and development programs and their effectiveness considering the case of the UK based company known as Greenwood and Sharp. The first part of the unit focuses on different learning styles of the individuals with discussion of learning curves and its importance. The unit continues with the discussion of the relationship between the learning styles and theories with the events. Further, it talks about the training methods, their importance and evaluation to test their effectiveness. It also focuses on the involvement of UK government to support the organizations to conduct training programs to improve their performances.

Task 1:

1.1 Compare different leaning styles.

Learning is the act of acquiring knowledge to improve the skills and mental level. It is a continuous process that has been conducted by the individual to gain something in order to enhance his knowledge regarding any subject. Learning brings change in the performance of an individual and enhances the potential of the same. It also helps the individual to change his behaviour in a particular fashion according to his learning. (Bhattacharyya, 2009) There are different theories given by different theorists to study about the learning styles of the employee relations. Leaning styles is about the way an individual absorbs the knowledge. The way of leaning and absorbing the knowledge differs with the difference in the individual’s personality. (HOLLAND, 2008)

Kolb’s theory:David Kolb has published this theory in 1984. He argued that leaning comes from experiences and individuals acquire the abstract concepts that can be applied to any of the situations they face. Following are the four learning styles that have been identified by Kolb in his theory:

• Diverging: The people with this learning style believe in feeling and watching. These people are imaginative in nature and resolve the problems by idea generation process.
• Assimilating: This is a watching and thinking approach. These people watch the scenario and think about it logically during the learning process.
• Converging: The people with this approach find the solution to solve the issues practically. They think logically and believe in practical implementation of the learning experiences.
• Accommodating: This approach also deals with the practicality of the things but the people with this approach believe in intuitions rather than logics.

Honey and Mumford also came up with their own approach of learning styles by modifying the concept of Kolb.

• Activists: The people who learn by doing things are called activists.
• Theorists: These people try to understand the theory behind the objectives and topics.
• Pragmatists:These people are practical in nature and try to implement the practices in real world.
• Reflector: Reflector tries to learn things by observing and thinking about the situation.

According to the above case, Greenwood and Sharp Company uses the theorist’s approach of learning. This is because the company has two-day induction programs that allow the employees to know about the company’s strategies and objectives. Theoretical knowledge has been provided to the employees in this case. (Kitching, 2008)

1.2 Explain the role of the learning curve and the importance of transferring learning to the workplace.

Hermann Ebbinghaus was the one who have first explained the concept of learning curve. Learning curve is the graphical representation of the performance of learning of an individual. It can be taken into account in two situations. It can be made to review the learning of the employee or to review the productivity of an employee performing the same task repeatedly. 

The figure can be explained by taking an example. If an employee is a typist and having the training sessions of typing speedily than the above figure depicts that the employee is performing continuously good as his learning graph is showing growth with time.

Importance of Knowledge transfer: transferring of knowledge helps the employees to know about the company at initial level of their employment and later this helps in developing the skills of the employees in their fields. Every organisation has to make systematic order in transferring the knowledge from teacher to the learner. Training is the most common method to transfer knowledge among the employees. In the above case, induction program is the medium of transferring knowledge to the new employees. This program is very important for forming the strong foundation of the employees in the organisation.

Role of learning curve: learning curve is the representation of the performance of an individual. It helps the individual as well as the evaluator to know about the position of the employee in the process of learning in organisation. Transfer of knowledge is not enough to develop the skills of the employees; the learning process needs to be monitored by drafting the learning points at every step. The combination of these points makes the learning curve. (Mankin, 2009)

1.3 Assess the contribution of learning styles and theories when planning and designing a learning event.

Learning styles and theories provides the organisation with different ways to transfer the knowledge and provide employees to the ways of gaining that knowledge. It is very critical to choose the learning styles as it depends on the employees that how they adopt the knowledge that has been given to them. It also depends on the type and period that needs to be required to transfer the knowledge. These are the reasons that suggest that it is very important to select the relevant and correct learning style to pass on the knowledge or to grab the knowledge from employee’s side. (Piskurich, 2009)

As discussed, it is very important for the organisation to choose a relevant learning style, however single learning style cannot be appropriate for every program. Organizations need to choose multiple options of combination of learning styles to transfer the knowledge to the employees. The choice of learning style determines the type of learning event. Design of learning event can only be conducted after choosing a single or combination of learning style. Learning styles are needed to examine how the people can absorb the knowledge. Learning theories provide assistance to know about the learning style relevant for particular purpose or for a particular individual according to his behaviour towards learning and his personality. As far as the organisation is concerned, trainer needs to identify the learning style of the trainees by observing their behaviour and then decide the learning event. The learning theories offer various types of styles of learning that are related to the behaviour and attitude of the learner. These learning theories provide an idea or base to design the learning event. In the above case, the learning style that has been adapted was theorists. This is because induction-training program has been designed as the learning event as theories can be explained to the employees at the initial level of their jobs in a classroom type lectures. (Mazenod, 2013)

Contribution of learning style and relationship between styles and designing event has been studied to make a clear understanding of the contribution of learning style in planning and designing a learning event. If pragmatic learning style have been considered than, it is obvious to design the learning event that compliments that style. The learning event that is conducted in this case would be role playing or on the job method of learning as the learner is pragmatic in nature and believes in practical implementation during the learning process.

Task 2:

2.1 Compare the training needs for staff at different levels in an organisation.

Training needs of the employees differs at every level. The employees at management level have different needs than employees at operational level. It is important for the organizations to determine the training needs of the employees at every level and provide them with the same where required. Training needs is the gap between the present skills and knowledge of the employees with the future required skills that needs to be possessed by those employees. (Reid, 2005)

At management level:

• Senior managerial needs: As the company is going through many changes, there is a need to make strategic planning regarding the functions of the company. Training should be provided to the senior managers in order to make strategic plans for the organisation.
• Low-level managerial needs: Training should be provided to the younger employees regarding development of their skills and commitment to their work.

At operational level:

• Senior management needs: as the company has been recruiting new line managers and graduates with specific technical skills. Induction training should be given to the line managers and the new graduates in order to make them familiar with the mission and vision of the company.
• Employees need: technical training needs have been required by the employees to replace the traditional crafts skills. (Steffens, 2015)

2.2 Assess the advantages and disadvantages of training methods used in an organisation.

Training methods: Training methods refers to the techniques by which training is to be provided to the employees. Multiple training methods have been used by the organizations at different levels to train the employees according to the requirement. In the above case, induction training has been given to the new recruits in terms of providing them with the knowledge about the strategies and culture of the organisation. There are various methods that have been proposed during the training course and have their advantages as well as disadvantages associated with it. Majorly these training methods have been divided in two categories that are, on the job and off the job trainings. The company in the case is mainly using on the job training methods to train the employees belongs to the family and some of methods are off the job. (Turner, 2007)

2.3 Use a systematic approach to plan training and development for a training event

Training and development planning: Planning for a training and development event required a systematic process to be followed by the T&D department. This systematic process involved a training design cycle. The scyclic process needs to be followed to deliver the training

• Training need analysis: Analysis has to be done in order to identify the areas where training is required. These areas can be identified by observing the performance of the employees and the department as a whole. Evaluation of the individual as well as the organisational performance helps in determining the training needs at organisational as well as employee level.
• Design: This step requires creating an action plan including some of the decisions like, date of the event, time of the event, training style, learning style etc.
• Development: Development involves the practical initiation of the training process according to the design.
• Delivery: This is the most crucial step as it involves the actual delivery of the training to the employees.
• Evaluation: It is the method to find out the effectiveness of the training. Various techniques can be used to do so. Some of the techniques are questionnaire, feedback, observation etc. (Uktd.co.uk, 2016)

Training and development plan for Greenwood and sharp company:

• This case discusses about the induction-training program for the new recruits
• Introduction of new employees with the management team.
• Lectures by different head of the departments to convey about the basic goals and working of the company.
• Explanation of their roles and responsibilities by the relevant managers.
• Explanation of all the policies that have been implemented in the organisation.

This case also discusses about providing training to the managers with new technical skills and strategic planning

• Introduction of managers to the trainer.
• Different methods like role-playing and simulation can be used to train the managers for strategic planning.
• Evaluation of the performance of the managers.

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Task 3:

3.1 Prepare an evaluation using suitable techniques.

Evaluation of training is very important in order to know about the effectiveness of the training program. Many questions need to be answered to know about this aspect. Training evaluation plan includes determining some of the factors like methods used to evaluate the program, approach to determine the need of the program and documents that needs to be presented in order to evaluate the outcome of the training event. (Trainanddevelop.co.uk. 2016)

• Approach:a five-tier approach has been used to analyze whether the training program conducted was required or not. This approach analyzes the need of the program at different levels.
• Need assessment: This stage talks about the answer to whether the training program that have been conducted has been required or not. In the above case, the induction program was required to train the new employees.
• Monitoring and accountability: This stage deals with the participants of the training and the services that have been delivered during the training program.
• Program clarification: This stage discusses about the improvement in the event.
• Progress: This stage of evaluation determines the progress of the training program by evaluating the learning progress of the employees getting training.
• Impact: This is a long-term approach as it deals with the evaluation of the long-term impact of the training program over the organisation.

Method of evaluation:

• Observation: The employees need to be observed in order to evaluate their performance after training. Observation results in formation of performance report of the trainee that determines the effectiveness of the training. (Bhattacharyya, 2009)
• Feedback:Feedback from trainers and trainees after every training event determines the position of the training event. Positive feedback from the trainer or trainees determines that the training event that has been conducted to train the employees is worth conducting and will provide positive effects.
• Comparison: Comparison of performance of the same employee or department is done in order to find the gap between the performance levels. This gap between the performances of the employee determines the improvement level and the effectiveness of the training.

Documents used to determine the effectiveness: Improvement in the quality, productivity, change in sales and engagement of employees are some of the determinants that help in identifying the improvement of the performance after conduction of training program. The level of the improvement determines the efficiency of the training event.

Induction training has been evaluated by feedback method:

Feedback form:

3.2 Carry out an evaluation of a training event.

Evaluation of the induction-training event:Evaluation of the training program refers to estimation of the effectiveness of the training program that has been conducted in order to improve the skills and development of the organisation. There are four level of evaluating a training program. These levels involve reaction, learning, behaviour and results. (HOLLAND, 2008)

Reaction:At this point, reaction of the participants in the training program has been observed to determine their satisfaction level. According to the case, the new employees were very eager to know about the company and show their interest in the 2-day training program by keenly listening and practicing the training courses.

Learning:This is the second level that determines the point of learning or the progress of learning of the trainees. In the case mentioned, the new recruits learning graph has found to be progressive in nature. Feedback has been taken from the employees as well as from the trainers after every training event about their learning and the resulted feedback was positive in nature from both the sides. (Kitching, 2008)

Behaviour: Behaviour of the employees determines the effect of the training program on them. The new recruits have absorbed the basic knowledge of the company and were behaving according to the policies. This determines that they are adopting the training processes effectively.

Results: Results are the last step that finally determines the effect of the training program. These results include the practical performance of the employees. It has been observed that the new managers were working exactly according to their roles and responsibilities. Some of them have been found little bit confused about the functionality but they were also trying to adapt the policies as soon as possible by taking guidance from the seniors. 

3.3 Review the success of the evaluation methods used.

Review of success of evaluation methods: The five-tier approach of evaluation has been used to determine the relevant need of the training event. Many questions need to be answered in order to identify the need of training event. This method has been used to evaluate the real life implementation of the training events. In the above case, this approach determines that the induction program was important to be conducted in the organization to educate the new employees about the vision, mission, policies and structure of the organisation. This program has also effectively train the employees about their roles and responsibilities in the organisation. (Mankin, 2009)

Different methods like observation, comparison and feedback results in determining the actual performance of the employees to gain knowledge and the knowledge of implementation. Feedback from the trainer and trainees gives a positive result and helps in determining the drawbacks of the training program that can be improved later. Observation of the employees determines their learning style and position and comparison of the performance after some time helps in determining the effectiveness of the training event. In the above case, the trainees have filled the feedback evaluation form to evaluate the training event conducted.

Feedback from the trainees provides the overall information regarding the effectiveness of the method that has been used to deliver the training. The overall rating of the training event is calculated as 7.6. This is the above average rating. The fault in the training has been found as the duration. Some of the trainees felt that the duration of the training hours were so long that at times they get exhausted.

Task 4:

4.1 Explain the role of Government in training, development and lifelong learning.

Government of UK plays a very important and significant role in training and development programs of the organizations. UK government not only supports the government but also helps the private firms to conduct training programs for the employees. Government involve themselves in arranging the training programs for the firm by providing them with the expert trainers that can give proper knowledge to the employees of the firm. The main aim of the government is to provide basic knowledge to each employee to reach at the minimum standard level. Greenwood and Sharp is the company with potential in the industry ad requires government assistance in conducting some of the training programs like apprenticeship. A national apprenticeship services assist the employers who wants to employee apprentice to their company. This government organization helps the companies to design the framework for apprenticeship and help them by conducting many training programs. (Mazenod, 2013)

Lifelong learning is an contemporary issues of providing learning and educating the employees by the employers at every stage to improve their skills. Lifelong learning UK is a Sector Skills Council in UK that supports the employers to invest in the development of the skills of employees. Their main aim is to increase the participation of the employers and employees in education and training. It is responsible for the professional development of all those working in community learning and development, further education, higher education, libraries, archives and information services, and work based learning across the UK. Lifelong Learning UK ceased to operate as a Sector Skills Council on 31 March 2011. Many of LLUK's responsibilities transferred to the Learning and Skills Improvement Service, but there is no longer a formal sector skills council in this sector.

It has some main strategic goals:

• To encourage the employer for more and more investment in training
• To provide credible and respected labour market intelligence to the employers
• To develop relevant learning and skills solution
• To enhance the quality of learning programs

4.2 Explain how the development of the competency movement has affected the public and private sectors.

Competency movement is about getting a competitive advantage over others. This movement has affected internationally including many countries like UK. This movement forces the companies to attain the competitive advantage by training and developing their employees. Some of the factors need to be included in order to make the employees competent. Proper job description by the company allows the employees to understand their responsibilities. Job description is the overall explanation of the roles and duties associated with the job. Training need analysis is to be done before conducting training. Training need analysis is the process of assessing the requirement of training in the departments. Recruitment should be done according to the requirement and along with the professional skills, it is important for the organisation to develop the employees personally by improving their social skills as well.

Private companies found to be more affected by this movement as they were researching more about this sector and implementing the measures to attain the competitive advantage. (Reid, 2005) Private companies determines that fall in the performance of the employees results in insufficient production, poor service quality etc. this pushes them to conduct training programs for their employees. A private company like Deloitte makes huge investment in training their employees to improve the individual as well as organisational performance. They to develop the expertise of the employees have provided steeper learning curve. The learning through this is never ending and results in improved performance and enhancement in the confidence of the employees. By reviewing the performance of the private sector, public firm also gets motivated to implement the training practices in order to enhance their performances. Companies like “East Coast Trains” in UK have been working on providing training to the employees in order to improve performances. Higher success rates of never ending process of learning drives almost all the firms to implement this practice in their organizations. Employees are feeling motivated and getting diversified responsibilities. (Steffens, 2015)

4.3 Assess how contemporary training initiatives introduced by the UK Government contribute to human resources development for an organisation.

Many training initiatives have been taken by the UK government in order to support the small and medium scale companies to improve their performance by training their employees. Some of the programs that have been initiated are Investors in people standard, National Vocational Qualifications, apprenticeships, National training awards and train to gain.

• Investors in People: It is the framework that provides the standard to the organisations to manage the employees.
• National Vocational Qualifications: It is the qualification award that has been achieved by the companies that have the ability to work according to its standard.
• Apprenticeships: It is the training program conducted by some of the organisations for fresher.
• Train to Gain: It is the government funded initiative to train the employees of the UK based organisations.

All these programs by UK government help the organizations to train their employees for resultant effective performance that in turn contributes in the national economy. The main aim of the government by conducting these programs is to provide minimum working standards to each employee in UK. Observing the present scenario of the organisation and identifying the needs of the future, government has designed many training programs and services to support these programs. Government of UK has been putting all its efforts in designing the programs that can fulfil the future training needs of the organisation at every sector. (Turner, 2007) . Contemporary training programs by the UK government help the companies like Greenwood and Sharp to engage them in apprenticeship business by hiring apprentice in their organisation behaviour.

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Conclusion:

Different individual according to their way and purpose of learning has adopted different learning styles. The training event is based on the learning style of the employees and the reason behind the conduction of training event. It is a planned process that needs to be conducted in order to get effective results. Various training methods have been used by the organizations to train the employees. This depends upon the training need, which needs to be analyzed before conducting training program. The effectiveness of training program needs to be evaluated by various methods like feedback, performance check, observation etc. UK government plays a very significant role in taking initiatives for training and development. It supports many organizations to implement training programs to motivate and train their employees.

References:

Books:

Bhattacharyya, D. (2009). Human resources development. Mumbai: Himalaya Pub. House.
Mankin, D. (2009). Human resource development. New York: Oxford University Press.
Piskurich, G. (2009). Rapid training development. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.
Reid, G. (2005). Learning styles and inclusion. London: Paul Chapman Pub.
Turner, S. (2007). Learning theories. Chandni Chowk, Delhi: Global Media.
Werner, J. and DeSimone, R. (2006). Human resource development. Mason OH: Thomson South-Western.

Journals:

HOLLAND, P. (2008). Cognitive versus stimulus-response theories of learning. Learning & Behavior, 36(3), pp.227-241.
Kitching, J. (2008). Rethinking UK small employers' skills policies and the role of workplace learning. International Journal of Training and Development, 12(2), pp.100-120.
Mazenod, A. (2013). Engaging employers in workplace training - lessons from the English Train to Gain programme. International Journal of Training and Development, 18(1), pp.53-65.
Muniute-Cobb, E. and Alfred, M. (2010). Learning from evaluation by peer team: a case study of a family counselling organization. International Journal of Training and Development, 14(2), pp.95-111.
Steffens, K. (2015). Competences, Learning Theories and MOOCs: Recent Developments in Lifelong Learning. European Journal of Education, 50(1), pp.41-59.

Websites:

Uktd.co.uk. (2016). Employer Responsibilities for Apprenticeships - UKTD. [online] Available at: http://uktd.co.uk/employers/employer-responsibilities/ [Accessed 17 Oct. 2016].
Trainanddevelop.co.uk. (2016). Training & Development Solutions - UK Training & Development Solutions Provider. [online] Available at: http://www.trainanddevelop.co.uk/ [Accessed 17 Oct. 2016].