5UIN Question and Answer Example

Question

Assessment brief/activity

Your CEO has asked each departmental head to undertake a critical review of their systems, processes and practices as part of a major organisational change agenda. You have been asked to review an area of HR practice and present a business report to key stakeholders with recommendations for improving practice. To provide the basis for your report, you have been asked to conduct a critical review of secondary sources relevant to the area of practice you have chosen. You should include a mix of narrative and diagrammatic forms, a description of your stakeholders and their needs from this report. You should:

• Select an area of HR practice and justify your choice
• Undertake a critical review of three secondary sources e.g. research digests, academic and professional literature, online databases, and key texts relevant to the selected area of practice.
• Summarise the stages of the research process.
• Highlight some of the different primary research approaches and comment on the advantages and disadvantages of these different approaches.
• Summarise the findings and draw meaningful conclusions from your review of the different secondary sources and make justified recommendations for sustaining and/or improving practice, including costs and time frames for implementation. Explain how you would present these to the identified stakeholders

Answer

Executive summary

Training and development is a HR practice that needs improvement especially because the employees need to improve on their knowledge and skills. The changing work environments require employees to adjust and this can only be achieved when more training programs are implemented. As a result, the development and implementation of new ideas would be easier, enhancing innovativeness and creativity, also making the organisation performs better. In selecting sources for evaluation, there is need to evaluate credibility and reliability to helping the CEO improves the practice to better support the employees.

To identify the role of HR in enhancing training and development programmes to improve employee performance

1.0 Introduction

Learning/training and development is a HR practice that has been found to have significance influence on the performance and productivity of the employees in the organisation. When learning becomes part of what the organisation does, the employees get motivated and involved a process that results to positive outcomes from the employees to the organisations they work for. Choosing the training and development practice for study and analysis in this report is important because employees always to learn new things. When implementing training and development programs, new skills are gained, and these help the employees gain knowledge on how they can address issues in the organisation as well as ensure that the goals and objectives are met. In relevance, adding new skills and knowledge to employees make them feel satisfied and appreciated, and they also become part of the organisation in meeting the strategic objectives. In order to improve performance, the CEO has to associate with improved means of promoting learning so as to facilitate better relations with the employees.

1.1 Aim and objectives of research

The research aims at explaining the role of the HR in promoting training and development within organisations to improve the performance of the employees. Specific research objectives include;

1. To identify the extent that training and development enhances employee satisfaction
2. To find out whether training and development enhanced employee innovativeness towards improving performance
3. To find out whether training and development enhances change in employee behaviour

1.2 Key stakeholders

The stakeholders in this perspective are the people involved in the development of the training programmes within the organisation, and their role in ensuring that the employees learn and gain new knowledge and skills. The diagram below identifies with the group of stakeholders supporting the HR in development of the training and development programmes.

2.0 Review of literature

There are four specific groups of stakeholders. The most important group is the management, which takes charge of all training sessions for all the employees. The management may include the senior management and the HR involved in developing the training programmes to meet the needs of the employees. The other group is the sponsors. Who are identified and approached by the management to support the organisation by providing any form of support including the financial support and support with training resources. Other group of stakeholders is the training and development personnel or team, which includes the training and development manager or leader, and the training facilitators. The final group of stakeholders are the trainees. This group consists of employees who are expected to go through training. They are the employees whose training needs have been identified and have been scheduled for training to improve their performance.

2.1 Training and development in enhancing employee satisfaction

Khan et al. (2016) researched the impacts of employee training and development on the performance in the organisation. The authors also examined the relationship between training and employee satisfaction. The research was conducted among employees in the telecom sector in Pakistan, with the aim of ensuring that they deliver the best towards securing alternatives that would prepare the employees for the challenges that they would encounter in their line of work. The objectives for the research are to find out whether training and development would enhance performance of the employees in the organisation. The other objective is to investigate the relationship between training and satisfaction of employees towards enhancing employee development.

The authors carried out a literature review of employee performance and how training facilitates such performance. The literature also reviews the changes in development of old skills to new skills, as well as changes in behaviours that facilitate changes and improve the morale of the employees. In addition, a review of job satisfaction and relationship to employee performance is also evaluate, which relates with the study of Guan and Frenkel (2019) that proves that improved satisfaction levels on employees has impact on performance of the employees.

Khan et al. (2016) used the quantitative research methodology in development of questionnaires. The researchers used self-administered questionnaires to get information from the respondents. The participants in the study were the management and the customer service representatives. The participants were from the Telecom sector, and convenience sampling was used where every individual participated voluntarily. There were only three variables used in the research, and they include training and development, performance of the employees, and job satisfaction.

2.2 Relationship between training and employee innovativeness

In a research conducted by Abdullah et al. (2014), the authors explained that as employees considered as backbone of organisation, their capabilities should be advanced by helping them gain more skills and knowledge through training. The main purpose of the article is to explain the relationships between training and innovations nature of employees in the small firms. The labour market in attain competiveness should be keen on identifying with the most basic aspects of innovativeness and creativity. This according to Camps et al. (2016) enhances flexibility of the employees in the effort to improve the working environment.

From the review of literature carried out by the authors, an evaluation of the employee innovativeness framework has been done, with emphasis on the stages of innovativeness. From the initiation sage, opportunities for exploration are identified, and ideas are generated. After initiation, the implementation stage follows, with significance to promoting ides and implementing them to influence social behaviours (Eldor and Harpaz, 2016). This is significant in addressing the issues experienced within businesses, and enhancing development of solutions to some of the challenges that the organisations may be experiencing.

The methodology that Abdullah and his colleagues used is the cross-sectional survey method. Through non-random sampling technique, respondents were identified questionnaires were administered and each questionnaire had 42 set of questions that the respondents had to answer regarding the relationship between training and innovation. The data analysis was conducted using SPSS. The results obtained from the analysis are that through training, employees develop innovative behaviours, and this makes it easier for them to work accordingly to the expectations and requirements of the work.

2.3 How training and development influences change in employee behaviour

Saleem, Shahid, and Naseem (2011) conducted a research on the influence of training on the employee behaviour development, and they first defined training as a process where employees gain skills that would help them in the future. The skills help in adapt to new technologies, and also gaining of knowledge that would help them meet future challenges and address them.  They added that trainers work together with the learners with the purposes of ensuring that they become experts in the work that they do for the organisation. In the study, Saleem, Shafid, and Naseem (2011) argued that when training is well done, the employees become more productive, they get to associate with the right knowledge that would help them achieve the best in the organisation, and they also become loyal to the organisation they work for. This means when making decisions to train employees, the HR has to make considerations of issues that would create a positive form of return on investments (Al Ali et al., 2014).

The authors used quantitative research where questionnaires were administered among employees from different sectors of the economy. The need to evaluate with this kind of methodology from the researchers was because the selected economic sectors (banks and financials, pharmacy, and Small and medium Enterprises (SMEs) require personnel who are well trained to carry out the tasks and obligations from the businesses they work for.  With 100 questionnaires, the researchers concluded that the employee training and development in organisations impacts change of behaviours among the employees, with high performances being recorded as compared to the performances before training. The results are similar to the opinions of An et al. (2018) who state that organisations that give employees trainings are in better positions of associating with employee changes in behaviours. Trainers should also take responsibility in giving feedback to employees.

3.0 Critique of literature review

3.1 Justification of research selected

The research by Khan et al. (2016) is effective because it provides information on what the management has to do to enhance improvement of employees’ performance after training. With the results obtained from Khan and his colleagues, the management has the responsibility of making sure that the lead the employees to adapt to the training and development program. The management analyses situations when performance is not in accordance to the expectations, and facilitate development of opportunities to which the learning needs have to be met. In order to accomplish this, the management has to get into contact with the employees, and this can be done through meetings.

The training perspective in the research carried by Abdulla et al. (2014) is explained in relation to its benefits among the employees and the small firms in general. This is therefore a good source in explaining the basics of training and the benefits it would have to employees. Some of the identified benefits to training include increased efficiencies, the high possibilities of organisations getting to adapt to technologies that continue to rapidly change, increased satisfaction levels among the employees who have gone through training and changes in behaviours of the employees.

The selected research by Saleem, Shahid, and Naseem (2011) is important because the authors wanted to identify the main purposes of training and the impacts that they have on employee performance. Through training, the employees become motivated and they get the morale to perform better. Thus, it is the role of the human resource development team, in the organisation to ensure that the right strategies are followed in identifying the right kinds of training needs for the employees.

3.2 Advantages and disadvantages of research selected

The research by Khan et al. (2016) is a recent study conducted by different authors and dedicated to a specific company for study. This is an advantage because it means that the researchers took time to evaluate the basic aspects enhancing successful completion of the studies. The disadvantage is that there were only three variables used in the research, meaning that the research was not detailed. Getting to consider more variables would be the best option to change the situation and ensure that the right results are obtained.

The advantages of the research conducted by Abdulla et al. (2014) is that the methodology used was very effective in collecting information relating to the topic of study. The dimensions of innovation as described in the article relates to exploration of opportunities, generation of ideas, promotion of ideas, and implementation of ideas. These are important aspects that the management and HR in organisation should identify with in order to bring out the best out of the employees. This is an advantage that the source would be of great help to our organisation. The disadvantage of the source is that the method of data analysis, that is the SPSS cannot be easily understood by everyone.

The selected research by Saleem, Shahid, and Naseem (2011) is significant because it identifies with the results showing change of behaviour from training and development of the employees. The disadvantage of the research is that the authors have not developed a good methodology to carry out the research. Another disadvantage is that the research was conducted more than five years ago, and there could be better results developed from the same in the recent past as opposed to the results by Saleem, Shahid, and Naseem (2011).

3.3 Application of research to the business

The research conducted by Khan et al. (2016) is very significant in helping the organisational stakeholders realise their potential and ensure that they deliver the best expectations, for the purposes of enhancing competitive advantage. The ideas from the authors are relevant in the current trends in the organisation where the employees have realised the need to improve their skills and knowledge. When this happens, new ways of performance will be achieved, and this also associates with new ways of solving business problems. Change through the implementation of training and development programs results to improved performances.

Research by Abdulla et al. (2014) focuses on explaining the impacts that training has on the employees’ nature of competitiveness and innovativeness. This is an important source in guiding the HR on the benefits of providing training with the purpose of ensuring that they develop new mechanisms to which changes in the performance and operations of work would be enhanced.

The research by Saleem, Shahid, and Naseem (2011) is an important source of study in determining the impact of training and development on employee behaviours, and the role of HR in enhancing such behavioural changes. Different training approaches including on the job and off the job trainings should also be considered to help employees gain skills needed to carry out organisation roles and better the future of organisations.

4.0 Proposed presentation of findings

The proposed findings will be presented to the stakeholders using the following materials as descried in the table because it will involve identifying with the information on how specific the HR should involve the employees on the different aspects of training to enhance performance.

Stakeholders	Level of interest	Method of giving feedback
Management and HR	High	Meetings among the management and  with employees
Sponsors	Medium	Report
Training and development personnel	High	Meetings and reports
Trainees	High	Hand outs

5.0 Conclusion

When employees are well trained, they become satisfied. Satisfaction enhances employee motivation, and results to the development of new ways through which employees get to address issues in the organisation. Employees who go through training also become innovative and creative. They come up with ideas and implement them to ensuring that they deliver in accordance to the expectations. Training and development also enhances improved performances from the employees. This is a great issue that associates with improvements in the nature in which the behaviours of the employees get to change, in most cases positively. There are instances when the employees seek to generate new ways of doing things, and this enhances self-satisfaction and results to improved organisational performances. Thus, the CEO has to ensure that together with the senior management, they identify the right training programmes to support the employees and facilitate developments to support them in all ways possible.

5.1 Recommendations

The CEO has the responsibility of making sure that with the help of senior management and the supervisors, they survey the employees in order to identify the employee learning needs. This associate with the development of means through which learning gaps are identifies and programs are developed to help close the gap and ensure that the needs are well addressed. This is the first recommendation that would enhance higher levels of employee satisfaction and motivation, thus resulting to new means of higher employee performance.

The CEO should encourage the employees to continue innovating and son as to ensure that the performance is higher compared to the performance of competing firms. Thus, training has to be offered in line with the individual, team, and organisational objectives. When this happens, the CEO and senior managers will also feel motivated to support the employees by investing in training and development, with the fact that they would get return on investment on what they have done.

Finally, the CEO should improve the training and development practice by involving the HR in ways to support the employees. This involves identification of the various means through which a changed culture is identified, with new skills and knowledge to address the needs of the employees. When this is done, a culture of positive behaviours is developed, with positive mind set among the employees and all other organisational stakeholders.

References:

Abdullah, NH, Oing, LL, Wahab, E & Shamsuddin, A. (2014), Perception on Training and Employee Innovativeness: An Evidence from small firms, IEEE

Al Ali, R. A. A. M., Yusoff, R. M., Ismail, F. B., & Kazi, A. G. (2018). The Effect of Training on Employees’ Productivity in Public Organizations in UAE. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Research, 1(1), 15-18.

An, S. H., Meier, K. J., Bøllingtoft, A., & Andersen, L. B. (2019). Employee perceived effect of leadership training: Comparing public and private organizations. International Public Management Journal, 22(1), 2-28.

Camps, J., Oltra, V., Aldás‐Manzano, J., Buenaventura‐Vera, G., & Torres‐Carballo, F. (2016). Individual performance in turbulent environments: The role of organizational learning capability and employee flexibility. Human resource management, 55(3), 363-383.

Eldor, L., & Harpaz, I. (2016). A process model of employee engagement: The learning climate and its relationship with extra‐role performance behaviors. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37(2), 213-235.

Guan, X., & Frenkel, S. (2019). How perceptions of training impact employee performance. Personnel Review.

Khan, AA, Abbasi, SB, Waseem, RM, Ayaz, M, & Ijaz, M. (2016), Impact of training and development of employees on employee performance through job satisfaction: A study of telecom sector of Pakistan. Business Management and Strategy 7 (1), pp 29-46

Saleem, Q, Shahid, M & Naseem, A (2011), Degree of influence of training and development on employee behaviour, International Journal of Computing and Business Research, 2 (3).