Unit 18 Human Resource Development Program Assignment

Program	Diploma in Business
Unit Number and Title	Unit 18 Human Resource Development Program
QFC Level	Level 4

Introduction

This Unitt 18 Human resource development program assignment is about understanding the learning styles and their importance. Importance of training and development is also discussed in the unit. Training needs are different at different levels of the organisation. The explanation of the training needs explained the topic briefly in the unit. Some light has been thrown on the different methods of the training that can be used to deliver trainings in the organisation. The later part of the unit discusses about the evaluation of the training events that suggests the effectiveness of the training. Last part of the unit forces on the involvement of UK government in introducing the training and development programs to support the employers in training the employees.

Task 1

Presentation

Task 2

2.1 Compare the training needs for staff at different levels in an organisation.

Training need analysis refers to the process of identifying the need of the training at different levels in the organisation. Training can be given to the employees at every level I order to adapt the changes occurring in the organisation. Change is not the only reason for providing training to the employees. The need of training depends upon the level of the staff in the organisation. There are generally three levels of organization where training needs can be analyzed:

1. Organisational level: Training needs at this level can be analyzed by examining the strategies and the objectives of the organisation. Analyst need to study the vision, mission and the strategies of the organisation and need to link them with the jobs and activities required to achieve the organisational objectives. Training at this level focuses upon the achievement of the organisational goals and developing those skilled that required for the same. (Meester, 2016)
2. Occupational level: At this level of the organisation, training needs can be analyzed by observing the skills and the knowledge required by the employees to perform the activities and task. Analyst does not look for the individual characteristics of the employee at this level but tries to find out the gap between the present skills and the required skills to conduct the tasks.
3. Individual level: Individual level training needs can be assessed by observing and examining the performance of the individuals. At this level, personal will of the employees has been analyzed in order to train them with the skills they want to be trained with. One to one meetings and surveys need to be conducted in order to identify the training needs at this level. If a typist in an office wants to have a training to enhance his typing speed than it is the training need at the individual. (Piskurich, 2009)

2.2 Assess the advantages and disadvantages of training methods used in an organisation.

Training methods refer to the way in which the training has to be given to the trainees. Various training methods have been used by different organizations to provide effective training to the employees. The choice of the training method depends upon the trainees, trainers and the type of training that has to be given. Mainly, training methods can be divided into on the job training methods and off the job training methods. Some of the training methods have been discussed below that can be used for conducting the workshop:

• Mentoring: Mentoring refers to guiding the trainees. It is the process of providing training to the employees by making a relation of trust between the mentor and the mentee. In this type of training method, mentors train the employees for long time about the way they work and learn from each other. (Pritchard, 2005)

Advantages	Disadvantages
It is advantageous as mentors can help the employees for long term and builds a relation of trust.	Biasness can exist, as there will be very informal relation between the two which can hamper the main objective.

• Coaching: Coaching is the training method that can be used to provide few sessions or for the short term purpose. Coach teaches his coachee, how to develop the skills that can be useful for them. There is a formal relationship between the coach and the coachee.

Advantages	Disadvantages
It is a method of training that does not require any systematic approach and thus can be used in the situation of emergency.	The disadvantage of the method is that, it is purely performance oriented and does not include the considerations of the employees.

• E-learning: E-learning is the method of training employees that involves the use of information technology in delivering the knowledge to the employees. The information that needs to be delivered has been uploaded on the internet source so that employees can read by accessing the source address. (Reid, 2005)

Advantages	Disadvantages
This is the most advantageous method as it can be used without any arrangements of the training. Large number of employees can be given training without any interference on the desktops.	The disadvantages associated with this method are that not all the employees of the organisation have the knowledge to use the computers developement and any technical fault may hamper the training session.

2.3 Use a systematic approach to plan training and development for a training event.

Planning in any context is systematic approach. It needs a stepwise distribution of the activities that can be conducted in order to plan a training event. Many questions need to be answered and many steps need to be followed for effective plan. Below is the systematic approach to plan training and development for a training event:

• Training need analysis: This is the first step that needs to be followed in order to identify the needs of the training in the organisation. This step recognises the areas where training needs to be done. Training need analysis has been conducted at all the levels of the organisation. (HOLLAND, 2008)
• Define the learning required: After determining the training areas and the need of the training, next step is to define the learning that has been required. This involves what type of training has to be given to whom and on which subject.
• Set objectives: After identifying the learning requirement, it is mandatory to set the objectives for the training event. Objectives are used to match up with the training results so that training effectiveness can be identified.
• Implementation: This is the most crucial stage as it involves the practical implementation of the plan; that has been discussed so far.
• Evaluation of the training event: The last step is to evaluate the effectiveness of the training program. This step is necessary to be conducted in order to monitor the improved performance. (Kitching, 2008).

Issues in planning training event:

• Number: This is the first issue that has been raised during planning for training event. This involves the decision about the number of trainees that needs to be given training.
• Trainer: Decision is trainer is also crucial. Trainer can be internal or external according to the type of the training.
• Content: What content needs to be explained in the training program is also great issue to include.
• Location: It is the most important decision as the training location must be in the reach of the trainees as well as the trainers.
• Training budget: Budget sometimes acts as the constraint in the training plan. Every above decision needs to be taken while considering the training budget given by the management of the organisation.

Training plan

Training need department	Human resource management
Learning required	Business Communication skills
Set objectives	Improvement in e-mail etiquettes and oral communication
Number of trainees	10
Trainer	Internal
Location	Training room of office
Training method used	Lecture sessions and practical training

Task 3

3.1 Prepare an evaluation using suitable techniques.

Evaluation of the training method is the process of measuring the effectiveness of the training. It also involves the answers to what, why, when and who organizes the training. Evaluation of the training program is also a systematic approach that has been used to check the progress and to match the objectives with the results. Following steps have to be assessed in evaluation process:

1. Need assessment: It is the process in which the answer to “why” has been given. It argues upon the need of the training. The training is really needed or not. (Mazenod, 2013).
2. Monitoring: It is the evaluation of the training services and the participants of the training. This step provides the answer to who all are included in the training program.
3. Progress: This stage relates itself to the improvement and progress of the training event.
4. Impact: This is the last stage in which the impact of the training event has been evaluated for long term. If there is no improvement after the training than it has been identified that training event was not successful.

Techniques

• Questionnaires: This is the method in which some of the relevant questions have been asked from the participants of the training event. It has been analyzed to take out the result of the effectiveness of the training. (Reid, 2005)
• Trainer/trainee feedback: It can be conducted during or at the last of the training event. Feedback from the trainer for the trainee refers to their experience during the training sessions. It determines the worth of the training for them.
• Observation and training audits: These are methods that can be used to evaluate the training event. The management members can observe the event during the sessions and can conduct training audits to evaluate whether things are going in the right directions or not.At last, documentation has been done in order to match up the set objectives with the actual performance of the employees. These documents can be progress in the performance, percentage error, improvement in productivity etc. (Pritchard, 2005)

3.2 Carry out an evaluation of a training event.

It is very essential to carry out the evaluation of the training event so that the management can fins the limitations and the benefits of conducting the same. This leads to further improvement in the process of the training event and provide assistance to the management about the effective results of the training too.

• Reaction: Reaction of the participants during the training determines its effectiveness and their interest.
• Learning: It determines the progress of the learning and improvement among the trainees.
• Behavior: Behavior of the trainees provides the idea of the impact of training o them.
• Results: Results includes the practical performance of the trainees. It can be determined by matching the objectives with the actual performance.

Evaluation plan

Need assessment	Poor oral communication has been found the reason for less number of recruitments as HR team fails to attract the candidates.
Evaluation method used	Observation and feedback
Documents	Recruitment reports before training and after training E-mail error percentage
Results:   Objectives	Reduction in E-mail error by 35% More number of application for the vacancies Met

3.3 Review the success of the evaluation methods used.

Review of success of evaluation methods

The success of the evaluation method can be examined by the results and the relevant approaches used by the management in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the training event. The five tier approach was very beneficial to find out the answers like why the training has been conducted, who are involved, whether training is needed or not etc. answer to these questions helps in determining the success. The evaluation plan that has been discussed above clearly shows that the training event conducted was very necessary and to has its impact on the trainees in positive way. Need assessment determines that there was a need to conduct this training in order to improve the business events skills of team. Training method used for conduction of training was very appropriate as employees have learned the theory as well as done it practically that helps them in a better way. (Piskurich, 2009)

Reduction in the E-mails error and the improvement in the number of recruitment determine the benefits of the training. Feedback from the trainer suggests that some of the employees were not found so much interested in the training session as they are not motivated to perform well. Management need to take some of the steps to motivate people and to educate them about the importance of training in individual as well as organisational development.

Task 4

4.1 Explain the role of Government in training, development and lifelong learning.

UK government significantly involved in the training and development programs of the organisation. They take many initiatives to train the employees at their level and support the organisations to do the same. Government supports the private and the public organisations by funding for conduction of the training programs. It engages in the activities like arrangement of the training programs for the firms, provision of the training experts, funding of the activities etc. UK government aims at providing the training to every employee of the UK organisations in order to maintain the minimum standard of the employees in terms of learning. Some of the organisation of the government like National Apprenticeship services assists the organisations who want to introduce apprenticeship program in their organisation. This service provides assistance in designing the framework of the programs that needs to be conducted in the organisation to train the employees. (CIPD, 2016)

Lifelong learning is the concept that draws attention of the many employers. It refers to the provision of training and development to the employees at every stage of their employment time. Sector Skills Council is the council that supports the activities of lifelong earning in UK. This council motivates more and more employers to invest in the training and development activities of education and training.

4.2 Explain how the development of the competency movement has affected the public and private sectors.

Competitive advantage is the most important factor to be achieved by the organisation in order to compete with others. Competency movement in UK relates to achievement of the competitve advantage by the organisations. This movement affected UK widely. According to this movement, the organisation needs to attain the competitive advanatge by their skilled employees. In order to get skilled workers, employers need to invest some of the amount in training and development of their employees that in turn developed them individually as well as help in the development of the organisation. Private companies in UK show much of the interest in the concept. They identifies that there is reduction in the productivity of the organisation due to poor performance of the employees. This poor performance is the result of unskilled workers. The companies like Deloitte then started making huge investment in training and development program for their employees. It has been observed that learning with the training program results in steeper learning curve of the employees. The employees were found to be more confident and skilled. (Xperthr.co.uk, 2016)

Enhancement in the performance of the private sector forces the public sector companies to engage in the activities of training and development. Companies like “East Coast Trains” in UK have been working on providing training to the employees in order to improve performances. Higher success rates of never ending process of learning drives almost all the firms to implement this practice in their organizations. Employees are feeling motivated and getting diversified responsibilities.

Attaining competitive advantage by the employees of the firm helps the company to builds it’s image in the industry as well as help the organisation to retain its talent with them.

4.3 Assess how contemporary training initiatives introduced by the UK Government contribute to human resources development for an organisation.

UK government has taken many initiatives in order to train and develop the employees working in the UK based organisations. The programs that have been introduced by the government of UK are Investors in people standard, National Vocational Qualifications, Apprenticeships, National training awards and train to gain. The government aims at providing the minimum working standards to the employees by conduction of these programs. These programs and the councils associated with it help the employers to frame and design the training and development activities. UK government has analysed the present scenario of the employees in the UK and formulate the policies and programs to meet the future needs that aims at improving the productivity of the organisations. UK government help the organisations to train the employees in order to get the resultant productivity and performance. Train to Gain aimed to assist employers of all sizes to improve the skill-sets of their employees, with training provided from basic level to higher levels, and even management training. Investors in people also provide the tailored assistance to the organisation as well as the start ups to train their employees. (GOODALL and Press, 2016)

Conclusion

Understanding the learning styles is very important in designing the learning event. Every individual have different way of learning and thus; leaning style should be adopted according to the learners. Training and development is the important part of the employment duration of the employees. Different training methods have been uses to deliver the trainings according to the training type. UK government has shown a great interest in introducing the programs that supports the employers to train their employees. UK government aims at providing training to the employees so that they can maintain the minimum employment standards in UK.

References