Contemporary HRM. Training and Development

1. Contemporary HRM

Training and Development
Dr Kirsteen Grant
[email protected]
Room 2.38, Craiglockhart

2. Session plan…

• Definitions and differentiations
• Knowledge and skill (national, organisational and
individual levels)
• Learning theories and learning styles
• Systematic training cycle
• Trends in learning and development
• Practical exercise

3. Session objectives…

By the end of this session you will be able to:
• Critically examine the importance of and different
approaches to learning, training and development
• Analyse and apply the stages in the systematic
training cycle
• Discuss current trends, issues and controversies
within learning and development

4. Definitions…

• Learning
• Training
• Development
What do these terms mean to you?

5. Definitions…

• Learning: ‘a qualitative change in a person’s way of seeing,
experiencing, understanding and conceptualising something
in the real world (Marton and Ramsden, 1988; in Harrison,
2005:xx)
• Training: ‘a narrower concept and usually involves planned
instructional activities, or other developmental activities and
processes’ (Foot and Hook, 2005:228)
• Development: ‘a process of becoming increasingly complex,
more elaborate by virtue of learning and maturation’
(Beardwell and Claydon, 2007:266). ‘Changes in the whole
person and what they can do’ (Banfield and Kay, 2007:240)

6. Human resource development…

‘The procedures and processes that purposely
seek to provide learning activities to enhance the
skills, knowledge and capabilities of people, teams
and the organisation so that there is a change in
action to achieve the desired outcomes’
(Bratton and Gold, 2007:306).

7.

Discussion questions:
• For what reasons is learning important to individuals
and organisations?
• How can individuals’ learning can be turned into
organisational learning?
• How does learning thence impact on organisational
performance?
• What are the individual and organisational barriers to
learning, training and development?

8. Three levels of learning needs…

Organisational
General weakness, issue or gap in the organisation
where learning is required; often generated by change.
Occupational
Skills, knowledge or attitudes required for different
specialisms and/or professional institutes.
Individual
Gaps in skills, knowledge and/or attitude.

9. Context..

• Increase in ICT and AI – less knowledge required?
• Employers in industry concerned about lack of basic
and soft skills; not lack of ‘smart knowledge’
• Universities focusing on skills development as well as
knowledge development (employability)
• Knowing how to does not = being able to do it
(knowledge v competence)

10. Skills and jobs…

• The ability to work to the required standard in
employment and practice
• Low skill v high skill jobs
• Economic implications
• Low skill jobs = low skill economy = few driving forces
to develop human potential
• High skill jobs = substantial and sustained development
(Grant et al., 2014)

11. However…

Who has responsibility?
Many organisations are not interested in up-skilling
beyond what the job requires/ for other
organisations/ or for society in general.

12. UK skills situation…

• The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness
Index (2016/17) ranks the UK as 7th
• There is regularly updated data on the UK’s relative
performance in investment, innovation, skills, enterprise
and competition (the five drivers of productivity)
Leitch Report 2006:
• Gaps due to relatively poor skills in UK
• Skills for Scotland (2007; 2010) – UK productivity gap

13. The organisational level…

Successful employers view investing in skills as one
of the most powerful things to do to gain competitive
advantage
But:
There is a need to create a culture in which
employees consider improving their skills to be one
of the most important things they can do to realise
their career aspirations
Employees need to take ownership of their skills and
development

14. The individual level…

• Those getting on
• Those getting by
• Those getting nowhere
• Depends on:
Education
Motivation levels
Participation levels
Opportunities and resources

15. Changing emphasis – personal qualities and generic skills…

Skills are increasingly being defined in attitudinal, even
emotional, terms.
Competency-based approaches:
• Communication
• Problem solving
• Team working
• Improving personal learning
• Judgement
• Leadership
• Initiative
• Emotional Intelligence (Goleman, 1999)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQqyeWBZrLQ

16.

Discussion question:
• What organisational risks are there of identifying
generic lists of skills/competencies?

17. Training and learning…

Learning as a process, rather than a product
• Training as a product
• We all learn differently
• We learn every day
• Learning affects our behaviour
• Reflective practice is important

18. The learning process…

Learning theories:
• Behaviourism
• Cognitivism
• Constructivism
• Experiential learning

19. Behaviourism…

• Key Figures: Pavlov (1927);
Skinner (1953)
• Related to objective, observed
behaviour
• We learn by conditioning
• Use of reinforcement to
indicate a correct behavioural
response (reward and
punishment)

20. Cognitivism…

• Knowledge is organised
into structures – new
experience and prior
experience must overlap
• Learning as information
processing

21. Constructivism…

• Knowledge is internal to the
individual and is created by
personally constructing meaning
out of experience within social/
work environments
• Learning occurs in a dynamic
interaction between the individual
and their environment

22. Think about an excellent personal learning experience…

• What did you learn?
• How did you learn it?
• Why and how was the learning effective for you?

23. Experiential learning…

Honey and Mumford’s learning styles questionnaire:
• Activists: ‘Doing’ people: Enthusiastic – tend to be involved in
generating new ideas – action oriented – act first, consider
consequences later
• Reflectors: ‘Reflective’ people: Stand back and observe
experiences, avoid reaching conclusions for as long as possible.
Sometimes take back seat
• Theorists: ‘Theory’ people: Try to understand and predict
behaviour – produce step-by-step analysis. Value rationality
and logic
• Pragmatists: ‘Move on’ people: Always planning next step,
keen to try out new ideas, eager to try out new things. Act
quickly and confidently on ideas. Hate long discussions

24. Experiential learning…

• Key Figure: Kolb (1984)
• Learning through
experience
• Some individuals are
more comfortable with
certain elements of the
process
(Foot and Hook, 2005:199)

25. Group discussion:

• Which is your preferred
learning style?
• How can this help you to
understand the learning
activities that are more effective
for you?
• Can you identify any barriers to
learning?

26. Systematic Training Cycle (Foot and Hook, 2005:209)…

Assess Training
Needs
Evaluate Training
Programme
Design Training
Programme
Conduct Training
Programme

27. Assessing training needs…

• A training need exists when there is a gap
between present skills and knowledge of
employees and skills and knowledge they require
for effective performance
• Training needs arise for three reasons:
Job changes
Person changes
Performance deficiencies

28. Identifying a training gap…

Where we ARE:
Where we SHOULD be:
Corporate results
Corporate standards/
objectives
Existing skills/
knowledge
Actual performance of
individuals
Training
Gap
Required knowledge/
skills
Targets/ standards
required

29. Designing training programmes…

• Establish overall aims and learning outcomes for the
programme
• Entry behaviours and learner analysis – learning
styles
• Design appropriate assessment instruments
• Choose an training strategy and method(s)
• Consider learning transfer
• Design evaluation strategy (positioning)?

30. Writing learning objectives…

Objectives should be SMART(ER):
S…………
M…………
A…………
R…………
T…………
E…………
R…………

31. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Objectives (1956)…

Creating
Evaluation
Analysis
Application
Comprehension – understanding
Knowledge - remembering

32.

% of what we remember when we…
Based on Dr Vernon Magnesen,University of Texas, cited in Colin Rose, Master it Faster (The
Industrial Society, 2000).

33. Learning/training methods…

Internal
External
Courses
Training providers
Coaching/ mentoring
Conferences/ events
Action learning
Collaborative activities
Problem solving groups/
project work
Self-learning, e.g. ICT

34. The (new) global classroom…

35.

Pause for thought
Google – 1998
Wikipedia – 2001
LinkedIn – 2003
Facebook – 2004
Youtube – 2005
Twitter – 2006
Pinterest and Instagram – 2010
Snapchat – 2011
Tinder – 2012
Periscope – 2015

36. Purpose of learning technology?

• Communication
• Instruction
• Training
• Learning
• Development
Learning how to learn?

37. Example virtual environments…

Virtual Operational Meetings
Serious Games
Virtual Conferences and Exhibitions
Simulations

38.

Game created to give students a more interactive experience in
developing disaster victim identification

39.

40.

41.

42.

Group discussion, ‘virtual
learning’...
• What does the future virtual landscape look like?
• Implications for learning and training?
• Mobile learning
• Social media
• Opportunities and barriers

43.

Key considerations
• Clarity on organization and learner needs and
expectations?
• Organization culture
• Resource implications
• Facilitator and learner competency
• Training or learning? Formal or informal?
• Equality and inclusion
• How to monitor (control?)
• How to evaluate – and why!
• Technological capability

44.

Training delivery…
The Delivery Continuum
Instruction
Facilitation
Programmed
Scripted
Directive
Flexible
Improvised
Participative
(Source: Gibb, 2002)

45. Evaluating training…

‘A process to identify the total value of a learning
event or process, thereby placing it into its
organisational context and aiding future planning’
(Harrison, 2005:143).

46. Kirkpatrick (1956), cited in Foot and Hook (2005:218)…

1. Reaction – immediate impressions – ‘happy sheet’
2. Learning – have training objectives been met?
Assessment
3. Behaviour – has the trainee’s performance improved?
(Performance appraisal)
4. Results – has the ‘new’ performance produced
improved results overall? (RoI)

47. Evaluation methods…

• Feedback form
• One-to-one discussions
• Focus groups
• Individual performance review meetings
• Table on agenda at team meetings
• Improvement in individual, team or organisational
performance
• 360 degree feedback

48. Trends in learning and development…

• Linking learning to strategy (strategic HRD) – organisational
learning?
• Focus on learning, not training
• Action learning, social learning
• e-Learning and blended learning
• Work-based learning – formal-informal methods
• Continuing professional development (CPD)
• Lifelong learning – “we need to create a culture…in which
individuals see improving their skills as one of the greatest things
they can do to realise their career aspirations” (Kevin Brennan,
Minster for Further Education and Skills, 2009).

49.

Group activity:
Design a short training intervention:
• Purpose
• Learning objectives
• Delivery plan
• Delivery methods
• Evaluation method(s)

50. Some conclusions…

• Training is important for the development of
individual and organisational capabilities – depends
on skill levels required for jobs
• Training and development is not straightforwardly a
‘good thing’ – not all training is developmental and
not all development is integrated into work (Redman
and Wilkinson, 2009)
• Organisational (learning) culture plays a role
• Studies show decline in workers’ discretion (learning
transfer) (Felstead et al., 2007)