HRM300 Week 4 Individual Assignment

Employee Training and Career Development

HRM300

Introduction

In any successful business or organization, employee training and career development programs

are necessary to build a very strong foundation. In order to properly identify a strong training or

development program, it is important to process the various parts. This process includes the definition,

methods, successes, HR involvement, and any specific needs involved with a plan. We will define

training and development in organizations, describe different ways to train and promote development in

the workplace, describe the relationship between organizational growth and success, the role of HR in

career development, and finally any employees looking forward to a length future in their career. To

start with the process, the first thing to understand is how training fits into various organizations.

Development and Training

Development and training is one of the most important facets of an organization because it

deals with the growth of a company from employee to employee. A company can only really grow if

each of the employees slowly grows amongst themselves. In order for a company to grow, the

organization must stay current with their competitors with current practices and technology. By

definition, development and training is “the official and ongoing educational activities within an

organization designed to enhancement the fulfillment and performance of employees” (The Business

Dictionary, 2012). Therefore, current employees should be given the opportunity to complete

continuing education credits. By doing so, a company ensures that ALL of their employees are on the

same page and current with any changing practices. Now, the various methods of training come into

play during continuing education.

Training Methods

When continuing education is used in an organization, they can take a number of different

methods to implement any training. These methods include assistant-to positions, committee

assignment, job rotation, lecture courses and seminars, outdoor training, or simulations. Each of these

methods provides a unique and different way to bring about training to employees in a company.

Assistant-to positions allow certain qualified employees to work for special department managers or

department heads to get direct experience from these different people. Committee assignments bring

employees to partake in decision making. Therefore, the mid level and lower level employees are given

the opportunity to make some managerial decisions that directly affect themselves. Job rotation moves

employees to different departments in the company to learn and gain experience from other areas.

Lecture courses and seminars require employees to take classes to learn about a new topic or item in

the workplace. This can be completed either online or in-person seminars. Outdoor training is usually

done by companies on a yearly basis for company retreats that help people with things such as team

building activities. Finally, simulations allow employees to run through scenarios of stressful situations to

help understand how someone would come under pressure. These various training methods are

available to any company to help train their employees. They can all be used individually or with any

number of combinations for growth and success.

Growth and Training

In order for a company to be successful, it is imperative that employees always continue to grow and

learn in the workplace. Often times, companies choose to scale back or cut training costs as a way of

maximizing the bottom line. However, without proper training employees have no way of evolving into

the management the company will need further down the line. According to Department of Labor

statistics, companies usually one average only train an employee approximately 40 to 50 hours a year

through job mentoring (BLS, 2005). Since this is usually only done through job mentoring, employees

lack the standardized training that is often sought out in classroom sessions. However, since training

affects employees over a period of time companies don’t notice or understand how a lesser training

budget affect their productivity. If company could realize how much training can increase productivity

and effectiveness, it would be important to a company. Training is a worthwhile expense for

organizations to evolve.

Career Development and HR

Careers are very different from person to person because they can culminate over a long period

of time. A job history can include information from jobs held, titles earned, and progress or training

made over their entire work experience. Therefore, two employees can do the same amount of training

and progress throughout a company. However, one employee might be able to move up the corporate

ladder in one company while the other moved from different organizations. It is up to the individual to

further themselves and improve their own qualifications to get a better job, position, or title. Human

Resource Management shouldn’t be responsible for a person’s move up the corporate ladder. Instead,

they should offer information for all of the programs for training. In short, they can’t force an employee

to partake in mandatory training, but have programs that are available to help an employee progress

through the company. However, HR is responsible for ensuring talent, recruiting and retaining

employees, ensuring diversity in the workplace, improving quality, and promoting a healthier work

environment.

Career Reflection

As the career of an employee progresses, often times they reflect on how to possibly get to a

management level position. If an employee wants to move up in a company after already being a senior

level employee, they must ask themselves a number of questions. Can the current company facilitate

moving up the corporate ladder? Do they have the infrastructure? Does the company have the proper

training programs in place? Does the company have the ability to promote in the first place? Most

companies would rather promote people from within rather than paying for high priced talent from

another company. Some companies’ offer in house training, has a training budget, and sometimes offers

tuition reimbursement.

Conclusion

In my current personal career development, my level of education is what is keeping me from

being in a complete managerial position. While I am being paid the level of a manager, and I am a

supervisor of a number of employees, I need to go outside of the company to have the minimum

management and education credits to progress in my company. When I complete my degree, I will be

back on track to move up past a senior employee into the realm of management. My pay grade,

benefits, and retirement will all move up into the management tier and allow me to actually get paid

and have the qualifications of my current position. I see myself being one of the main managers of my

office within 5 years. While my company has provided me with years of continuing education at the

office, I have to get to an educational institution to move any further. My years in the military also

helped to provide me the experience to be where I am today. Due to my on the job experience, I was

able to work this position without the proper qualifications.

Works Cited

Department of Labor. (1995). Bureau of Labor Statistics: Hours of Training Per Employee by Selected Establishment Characteristics. Retrieved from: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/sept.t08.htm

Training and Development. (2012). The Online Business Dictionary: Training and Development. Retrieved from: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/training-and-development.html