Is Foreign Investment Beneficial to the Developing Countries ?
Types of Foreign Investment and its Implications for Developing Countries With the opening of the economies of the world, there has been a concomitant increase in the flow of investment from the west to the east. As capital from the west started flowing into the developing countries in search of better yields, these countries are […]
Non-Profits: Global Justice
The previous articles in this module discussed the various aspects connected with the non-profits and how they link together with the overarching aims and objectives of ensuring social justice and equity. This article looks at the theme of global justice as it applies to the non-profits and how the goal of ensuring equitable growth and […]
Braked Acceleration: A Case Study of the Indian Automobile Industry
From Maruti to Mercedes: The Evolution of the Indian Automobile Industry The Indian Automobile Industry has come a long way since the Independence times wherein its growth has broadly mirrored the changing lifestyle aspirations and the economic boom amongst the Indian consumers. Indeed, while the Ambassador car was the symbol of the Indian Automotive Industry […]
HRM Strategies for the Post Covid Era and the New Normal of Virtual Workplaces
Why HRM Needs a Paradigm Shift to Deal with the Challenges of the New Normal Like other functions in corporates in the present times, the Human Resources or the HR function too faces challenges adjusting to the New Normal brought on due to the Covid Pandemic. Right from supervising employees working from home, to ensuring […]
Credit Derivatives: An Introduction
Credit derivatives are the most important financial innovation in the field of credit risk management. These derivative instruments have been created quite recently. They have only been traded for a couple of decades as compared to other instruments like stocks and bonds which have been around for centuries. Within this short period of time, credit […]
It is the practice in many organizations to conduct training programs periodically for their employees. Often, these training programs are conducted to enhance on the job skills and to enable the employees to pick up valuable soft skills. Further, the training programs can be technical/job oriented or human resource skills oriented. For instance, it is common in technology companies and especially the big companies to provide a mandatory portion of training measured in hours per quarter for each employee.
What these points add up to is the fact that organizational training is taken seriously in many companies. However, an aspect that is often sidelined is the effectiveness of the training programs and their linkage to organizational goals. This aspect makes the training programs lose their purpose and drains precious resources as well as waste of employee time that could have been used productively.
To surmount this, organizations need to link training programs to Specific, Measurable, and Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound goals or the so-called SMART goals that is a proven method for ensuring that organizational goals are met. To explain, training programs have to be aimed at specific goals like training on a particular skill (technical or soft skill).
Conducting trainings on omnibus topics like leadership without focus on specific goals would render them useless. Next, the outputs from the training programs have to be measurable meaning that an exit test must be held at the end of the training program to assess the impact of the training program on employees.
Further, the training programs have to have realistic goals like quantum jumps in skills and not aim for drastic improvements to the skill levels of the employee.
The point here is that this focused approach to training pays off better than conducting trainings where the employees think more about what to do when they head back to their desks or are distracted by too many concepts being thrown at them.
Finally, training programs are time bound as mentioned earlier. This means that employees have to be trained periodically so that they retain their competitiveness and their edge and not become obtuse or blunted in their job.
The reason for alluding to the SMART goals is that this tool has been proved to be effective in ensuring that organizational goals are linked to training programs and that the training programs are not vague or unconnected to the big picture.
In some companies, it is common for employees to be trained offsite on experiential and exercise based training which involves physical activity. However, one should not miss the forest for the trees (literally as many of these experiential trainings happen in resorts in wooded and outskirts) and lose track of the larger goals for which the employees are being trained.
The point here is that the SMART goals must be applied here as well with emphasis on focused approach to organizational goals to be derived from the training.
In conclusion, trainings that are done without purpose or focus end up wasting the employees’ time as well as drain of organizational resources. Hence, the aim that the HRD must strive for is to maximize the effectiveness of the training programs and increase the gains from such training.
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Current Employment Trends and Their Implications for Business, Society, and Individuals
February 12, 2025
