Page 669 - Business Principles and Management

Unit 7

equipment to employees who will use it. Informal training also includes self-study
by individual employees and coaching provided by a supervisor or mentor.
Studies estimate that U.S. companies spend $50–60 billion each year on
formal training programs. Informal training may cost businesses as much as an
additional $200 billion each year. Beyond the costs of training, many companies
pay some or all of the costs of college courses that employees take as part of
preparing for promotions and career advancement or as an employee benefit.
The large allocation of money for training and development can be justified if
the result is employees who are able to perform more and higher-quality work.

EFFECTIVE TRAINING
As companies recognize the value of training, they are working to develop more
effective training procedures. On the average, companies spend several hundred
dollars on every employee each year for training. Therefore, they want to be sure
the training is effective at improving employees’ performance. Trainers use many
techniques to improve employee performance. Figure 24-3 summarizes several
characteristics of effective training.

IDENTIFYING TRAINING NEEDS
An important activity for all companies is determining the need for employee
training. Some training needs are quite obvious. When the company buys new
equipment, begins new operations, or introduces new procedures, employees
must be trained for the changes. Also, when new employees are hired or experi-
enced employees are promoted to new jobs, they do not have all the skills they
need to begin work immediately. In these cases, companies should offer the
needed training.
Other training needs are not as obvious. In some instances, poor work perfor-
mance can be a symptom of insufficient training. Conflicts among employees, areas
of customer dissatisfaction, or work hazards and employee injuries often signal the
need for training. Unless companies are aware of problems and try to determine
whether training can help solve them, the problems likely will not disappear.
In some companies, each department forms a problem-solving group made up
of managers and employees. Those groups can identify training needs in addition
to their other responsibilities. Because they
FIGURE 24-3 Characteristics of Effective Training Programs work regularly with the equipment and the
procedures of the department, the groups
are in a good position to identify perfor-
TO BE EFFECTIVE, TRAINING SHOULD: mance problems and help design training
programs.
1. Be interesting to the trainee.
2. Be related to knowledge the trainee already has developed.
3. Explain why as well as how something is done. TYPES OF TRAINING
4. Progress from simple to more difficult steps.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports on
5. Let the trainee learn complicated procedures in small steps.
the common types of training provided
6. Allow plenty of practice time.
by U.S. employers. They are:
7. Let the trainee concentrate on becoming comfortable with a new
procedure before worrying about accuracy. • Basic-skills training: training in read-
8. Provide regular and positive feedback to the trainee on progress being ing, writing, arithmetic, and language
skills, including English as a second
made.
language
9. Be done in short time blocks using a variety of activities.
• Occupational-safety training: infor-
10. Involve the learner in training activities as much as possible.
mation on safety hazards, regulations,
and safe working procedures

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