IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN AN ORGANIZATION

In addition to being a core function of human resource management, training and development is also a subsystem of an organization. What it ensures in an organization is continuous skill development of employees. The process of learning for putting knowledge to work is also habituated to it. In other words, it is the foundation through which quality output can be generated from employees continuously.

For a number of organizations, it has become a continuous and most common task for getting up-to-date with communication skills and knowledge within the framework of environment that is constantly changing. Companies, both large and small, have felt the pressing need to optimize the cost with whatever limited resources they have to improve the productivity and efficiency of employees. And the only way this can be achieved is through proven and efficient training methods and development activities.

MODERN AND TRADITION WAY OF LOOKING AT TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

For most organizations, the modern approach has been to embrace corporate training and understand its importance. For many, training is nothing but an efficient retention cost and not an added cost. In various industries, the training systems ensure a smarter workforce and guarantee you best results possible.

The traditional approach which most organizations believed not so long ago, actually never considered training as an important aspect of skill development. Most of them believed that managers were born and could not be developed! Also, others believed that training actually contributed to the cost of employees and that it was not relevant. The current scenario in most organizations, however, is fast changing.

OBJECTIVES

While the main objective of training in organizations has always been to supply willing and skilled workers to various teams, there are four other objectives one has to look at in this regard – Organizational, Individual, Societal, and Functional.

• Organizational objectives: Help bring individual effectiveness to ensure organizations meet their primary goals.
• Individual objectives: Enable employees to get their personal goals achieved. This, in turn, will help the individual contribute better towards the organization.
• Societal objectives: Makes sure the organization is socially and ethically ready to meet the challenges and needs of the society.
• Functional objective: Maintain the contribution of the department to a level that is in accordance with the needs of the organization.

From the point of view of human resource management, training and development is related to organizational activity that is directed towards improving the performance of groups and individuals in an organizational setup. Depending on the organization, it can also be called as learning and development, human resource development and employee development.

Typically, learning and development includes three activities – training, education and development. Training is normally focused upon and evaluated against an individual’s job. For education, the focus is mainly on the jobs that may be held by the individual in the future and is judged against those jobs. For development, the focus is entirely on those activities that an individual carries or will undertake in the future and are difficult to predict.