International Journal of Management

Volume 1 • Issue 1 • May 2010 • pp.104-110

http://iaeme.com/ijm.html

TRAINING EFFECTIVENESS – A STUDY ON PRE-TRAINING AND

POST-TRAINING EFFECTIVENESS

S. Ganesan 1, Dr. V. Badrinath

2, Dr. N. Panchanatham

3

Abstract:

Training is a planned process to modify attitude, knowledge or skill behaviour

through new learning experience to achieve effective performance in an activity or

range of activities (MSC, 1981). In 20th

century it was considered the machines and

technology were the most important assets for organization, but in 21st century it is

considered that the skilled employees are the best assets to organization (Peter

Drucker, 1999). Training is essential to facilitate improved performance and everyone

seems to have one opinion on the best way to train (Berthelsen, 2002). Even though

the employees are experienced in the organization with their existing jobs, due to

several factors like technology upgrade, obsolescence of products etc, they must be in

a position to go for new trainings time to time to update the knowledge and skills.

The organizational culture provides a sense of identity for employees and this

identity increase the employee’s retention and satisfaction (Eskildsen & Nussler,

2000). Trainings in organizations have an extensive history of research regarding

active training, learner driven training and impact of training on performance. The

wise organizations always assess the market situation, plan and priorities the training

requirements for their employees (Berthelsen, 2002). This article is an attempt to find

the gap in the competency level of employees even though they are in the same job

over several years, and this competency gap is mainly due to redundant technology,

obsolescence and lack in technology updates etc. From an employee point of view,

competencies were seen as assets tradable for higher salaries (Rita, 2002). The results

of this article proved significant increase in their knowledge shift to higher level.

I J M

© I A E M

1Training Manager & Research Scholar.

2Dean, School of Management, SASTRA University, Thanjavur – 613 401, India.

3Professor & Head, Department of Business Management, Annamalai University – 608 002, India

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Introduction:

Training has been defined as “a method of enhancing human performance”

(Silberman, 1998). In this competitive world it is very important for organization to

have skilled & talented employees to achieve sustainable growth. The talent of the

employees includes in depth knowledge in the subject matter, up to date skills to

perform the work, motivated attitude to perform the job. The performance of the

employee depends upon their knowledge, skills and attitudes. Engineering industries

facing continuous demand to produce more with less input, better quality products

and services in shorter production cycles.

Increasing demand, technology upgrade, obsolete technology, energy efficient

and environment friendly technology are some of the main reasons forcing the

employees to update their existing knowledge and skills to achieve sustainable results

for the organization.

Training is important to improve the performance of employees (Rummler and

Brache, 1990), impacting general growth of employees (Swanson, 1994), and

recruiting and retaining the best employees (Olesen, 1999).

Large size organizations do have their own training and development centers to

update the knowledge, skills and attitudes of their employees time to time. But the

new skills, knowledge available in the market must be updated to trainers of such

organizations to give the opportunity for them to train their employees. This can be

achieved by means of external specialized trainers with specialized skills, knowledge.

The training is usually a short-term activity comparing the teaching, which is usually

long-term activity.

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Methodology:

The key to effective training is designing learning activities so the participants

acquire knowledge and skills rather than receiving them (Silberman, 1998). Trainings

are designed to emphasize the importance of building upon the learner’s prior

experiences while integrating new concepts and promoting improved self-efficacy

(Berthelsen, 2002). A reputed global engineering company with around 44000 strong

employees across the world and present in over 160 countries with more than 100

production plants across the world involved in conducting external training for their

customers across the world made an attempt to find the employee competency gap in

their specialized field of work.

The organizational support to employees through training to acquire new

knowledge, self empowerment to do better work and recognition for their best results

will impact positively on employee commitment towards their job, retention and job

satisfaction. A group of Fertilizer, power, food processing, refining, water

transmission and petrochemical industries were selected for this project and specific

skills related technical trainings had been given to 129 employees. The qualification

of employees ranging from diploma level to engineer level and having the industrial

experience ranging from 1 year to 32 years in their respective industry. During each

training a pre-training and post-training evaluations were carried out. The

characteristics of adults as learners (Cross, 1981) that consists of two variables,

personal and situational characteristics respectively. In this study the personal

characteristics are taken to test the hypothesis. The personal characteristics include

aging, life phases and developmental changes.

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Analysis and Discussion:

Any proactive engineering company will identify the organization’s priorities

and plans training to address those needs (Rita, 2002). A technical training in

industrial machinery vibration diagnostics methodology has been conducted for 39

selected people who are working in fertilizer production plant and power production

plant. Organizational training includes the areas of personnel development, technical

skills development and interpersonal skills development (Rita, 2002). The experience

of people attended the training range from one year to thirty years. The mean average

industrial experience of the employee is 8 years. Two days condensed format training

has been given for these selected people. Prior to training pre-training evaluation has

been carried out. The results shows, even though they are well experienced in their

field, the technical knowledge is well below the best industrial standard. The pre-

training evaluation marks mean average is 19%. The main reason for this is due to

continuous development in engineering technology, new techniques in industrial

production and implementing electronics in mechanical field to automate the

industrial process, which were not adopted by the company, thus lagging in the

knowledge. After two days training, the post-training evaluation mean average is

74%.

As mentioned by Silberman (1998), training is a method of enhancing human

performance. In another instance there was a root cause analysis of rolling element

bearings training has been arranged by a fertilizer plant-training department, through

an external training provider and the training was conducted onsite for selected 24

attendees from mechanical maintenance. They all are Oman nationals and having

minimum qualification of higher diploma in mechanical engineering. The average

industrial experience of the attendee is 3.6 years. Pre-training evaluation result shows

the mean average score by attendees are 10%. This is a very clear indication of poor

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knowledge transfer during their induction and in-plant training. After successful

completion of two days intensive training in root cause analysis of rolling element

bearings, the post-training evaluation result shows significant improvement of 72 out

of 100 marks.

The employers are constantly searching for the key to retention, employee

satisfaction and improved productivity (Rita, 2002). There was a public training

arranged by world leader bearing manufacturer, in which there were 33 attendees

participated to acquire latest knowledge in the field of rotating equipment machinery

alignment by using laser alignment technique. This is the latest advancement in this

field improves the quality of work over 95%. The people who have attended this

training are from different countries (India, Philippines, Oman and Bahrain) and the

average industrial experience is 7 years. They are from different industrial

background includes fertilizer plant, power production and aluminium smelter plants.

Pre-training score shows mean average of 14% and post training average score shows

average of 70%.

Training sessions are planned to improve productivity, to increase technical

knowledge and skills and to adopt new technologies available in the market to

produce efficiently (Rita, 2002). In a fertilizer plant, the internal training department

decided to send its 28 technicians for lubrication management system training. In any

process plant, it is very significant that the lubrication management plays a vital role

in machinery health monitoring and improving machinery availability. The average

experience of the attendee is 3.8 years. Pre-training evaluation results are ranging

from 0 – 40 mark out of 100. It is evident that the lubrication is treated as blood for

the machines, hence it is very important to manage the machinery lubrication at right

time. But the lack of knowledge in this field results in higher machinery failures. Post-

training evaluation the marks mean average is 70 out of 100.

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Conclusion:

It is always challenging to motivate employees to learn new skills and possess

high levels of satisfaction and to increase retention (Rita, 2002). Based on above case

studies conducted in various industries like power generation, fertilizer production,

water transmission it is evident that the knowledge of employees can be improved by

providing appropriate trainings time to time. The degree of learning and satisfaction

through the training by the trainees is mainly based on the learning environment,

trainer behavior and training methodology (Rita, 2002). This is mainly due to the

technological advancement, new innovations in the engineering field etc. Thus

employee training at right time provided by right people (external source or internal

source) is really an investment to the company never being expenditure for the

company.

References:

1. Cross, K. P. (1981). Adults are learners. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

2. Drucker, Peter F.. Management Challenges of the 21st Century. New York:

Harper Business, 1999.

3. Eskildsen, J., and Nussler, M. L. (2000). The managerial drivers of employee

satisfaction and loyalty. Total Quality Management 11(4), 581 – 589.

4. MSC – Manpower Service Commission (1981), Glossary of Training Terms,

Third Edition, HMSO, London.

5. Olesen, M. (1999). What makes employees stay? Training and development,

October 48 – 52.

6. Rita Tworek Berrhelsen., University of Nebraska, Lincoln, December 2002.

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7. Rummler, G. A., and Brache, A. P. (1990). Improving performance: How to

measure the white space on the organization chart. San Francisco: Jossey

Bass.

8. Silberman, M. (1998). Active training: A handbook of techniques, designs, case

examples and tips. San Francisco: Josey-Bass Pfeiffer.

9. Swanson. R. (1994). Analysis for improving performance: Tools for diagnosing

organizations and documenting workplace expertise. San Francisco: Jossey

Bass.