In present days World is keeping on changing, new things are discovered each and every day.
However people are striving to find means to cope with radical change of the World Organisations are not exceptional, there are facing similar challenges. However the most important strategic competitive advantage for an organisation is on its workforce. How skilful are its employees to perform particular work, hence to achieve high excellence an organisation need to invest in updating the skills of its employees. This is only done through training and development process. Mondy (2008, p: 200) define training and development as “the heart of a continuous effort designed to improve employee competency and organisational performance” However the training and development are two different words and have different meanings. Mondy (2008, p: 200) further point out that “training provide learners with knowledge and skills needed for their present jobs. On other hand, development involves learning that gives beyond present job and has long term focus” This paper will attempts to describe training and development process that can be used develop new recruits in an organisationFirst thing is to determine specific training and development needs. This is a process of identifying training and development needs in an organisation with the aim of improving employee’s job performance.
This process can be achieved through conducting several analyses within an organisation. Michael (2006, P: 585) argued that task analysis is one way of identifying training and development needs, Michael further point out that analysis focuses on the task needed to accomplish the purposes of the an organization. Robert and John (2010, p: 261) noted that there is need of comparing requirements of the job with the knowledge, skills and abilities that employee have. For example Malawi Police Services analysis can identified the task performed by new recruited investigation officers. To enhance their performance management can establish training program to teach specific investigation skills that enables those officers to conduct their investigations succefully.
The second process is establishing specific training and development objectives. There must be clear purpose for the training and development, Michael (2006, p: 586) suggested that training and development must have clear and concise objectives with the aim of achieving an organisation goal. Robert and John (2010, p: 262) point out that a successful training should have to be measured in terms of the objectives set. For example, an objective for new criminal investigation officer might be to demonstrate the ability to get information from suspect using investigation skills.
This objective is considered to check whether the person has really learned and is able to apply the knowledge gained through training.Another process is selection of training and development methods. There are number of methods that an organisation use to impart knowledge and skills to their workforce. One of the method is job rotation, Mondy (2008, p: 208) define job rotation as “a method where employees move from one job to another to broaden their experience” It is one of the method that employees understand different jobs and their interrelationship. Furthermore it helps managers to observe where employees are performing better, as such they can be specialized on that particular job. For example, Malawi Police Services new recruited officers are rotated in different department such as traffic department, prosecution department and criminal investigation department. This job rotation help these recruits to get experience as well understand variety of jobs and their relationship.The last process of training and development is evaluating training and development program.
Training and development must be evaluated in order to check if the training has reached its intended aim. In this process there are also different levels of evaluation that an organisations use in training and development. Donald L. Kirkpatrick cited in (Robert and John, 2010, p: 275) identified levels of evaluation, and learning is one of them. According to Robert and John (2010, p: 275) point out that learning level is used to evaluate and measure how well trainees have learned facts, ideas, concepts, theories and attitudes.
This is achieved through test given to the trainees, the results determine either the training was effective or there is problem that need the management to redesign the training. For example in Malawi Police Services new recruits in traffic course or prosecution course are given continuous assessment every week in order to find out effectiveness of the trainingThis essay has discussed training and development process as one important role played by Human Resource Management. It is essential in an organisation because it is only way that develop employees with skills and abilities to perform in their respective jobs.
