THE TRAINING PROCESS

Generally, training programs consist of six steps. These are the following:

I. Assessment of Organisational Objectives

First of all, in an organisation, there should be a proper assessment of objectives. Employers today have to adopt to technological changes, improve product and service quality and boost productivity to stay competitive.'

II. Assessment of Training Needs

Before an organisation takes decision regarding training of its workers and allocates huge resources for it, organisations have to assess the training needs of its employees. In this regard, a trainer has said, "we sit down with management and help them identify strategic goals and objectives and the skills and knowledge needed to achieve them. Then we work together to identify whether our staff has the skills and knowledge and when they do not that's when we discuss training needs."'

Training need analysis step is crucial for many reasons. For example, employees' performance may be down because the work standards are not clear to them, due to faulty selection, due to

lack of motivation, poor job design, less supervision or personal problem. In these cases, the problem may be solved just by proper job design, offering incentives to motivate, improving supervision, etc. Where the deficiency in performance is because of lack of knowledge or skill, there training is essentially required.

The two main ways to identify training needs are task analysis and performance analysis. Task analysis is a detailed study of a job to identify the specific skill required and it is especially suitable for determining the needs of employees who are new to their jobs.'° Whereas, performance analysis is the process of verifying that there is performance deficiency and determining if such deficiency should be corrected through training or through some other means (like transferring the employee))' Apart from task and performance analysis supplementary methods can be used to identify training needs such as supervisors' reports, personnel records, management requests, observations, test of job knowledge and questionnaire surveys.'2

III. Establish the Training Objectives

Once it is clear that training is the solution of performance deficiency then the training objectives are set. In other words, once training needs are assessed, then the objectives of training are established. These objectives will specify what a trainee should accomplish after the successful completion of a training programme. For example, to type 60 words per minute without difficulty and 2 to 3 errors per page, to program a single website in half a day, etc.

IV. Designing the Training Programme

Once it is decided that there is a need to train employees and what they should learn, now this is the time to design the training programme. This refers to deciding about the contents of the training programme, i.e. deciding about trainers, methods and techniques of training.

Regarding trainers, these are usually recommended by the HR department. Most of the professional organisations have a centralised database of their employees, by regular evaluation of the skills reouired the^y iust inform the regional heads to send their employees for training. For example, Indian Airline's (now known as 'Indian') training programmes are conducted at Hyderabad. Trainers can be HR department's staff, consultants, supervisors, university faculty members, etc. Selection of trainers is linked with selection of training methods and techniques. Generally, training is divided into two broad categories, on-the- job training (OJT) and off-the-job training.

V. Implementation of Training Programme

Once a training programme has been designed now there is need to implement it. This involves finding a suitable place for the conduct of training, schedule the whole training programme in such a way that it does not disrupt the smooth functioning of organisation, keep record about the performance of trainees during the training period and monitor trainees progress side by side.

VI. Evaluation of Training Programme

After the completion of the training programme, the organisation evaluates the programme to see the effectiveness of training efforts. This is done to check whether the training programme accomplish specific training objectives or not. Also, the conduct of training programme is costly; this includes needs assessment costs, salaries of the training department staff, purchase of equipment (computers, video, handouts), programme development cost, evaluation costs, trainer's costs, rental facilities and trainees wage during the training period." Thus it is important to assess the costs and benefits associated with the training programme, in order to convince the top management that the benefits outplay costs.