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Research paper topic: Informal And Formal Training, Development - 1530 words

.. s that must be addressed, ranging from shelter to more sophisticated drives. In his hierarchy of needs, Abraham Maslow shows the gradual escalation of workers' drives and motivations in this pyramid: Self-Actualisation Ego Social Needs Safety Needs Physiological Needs MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS Applied to workers, it translates as follows: Physiological Needs Basic physical needs: the ability to acquire food, shelter, clothing and other basics to survive Safety Needs A safe and non-threatening work environment, job security, safe equipment and installations Social Needs Contact and friendship with fellow-workers, social activities and opportunities Ego Recognition, acknowledgment, rewards Self-Actualisation Realizing one's dreams, using one's gifts, talents and potential. Once basic needs are satisfied, people want more. Progress is the essence of human nature. When people's basic needs are addressed, their mind and soul, free of threat and insecurity, open up to some of their innermost drives.

People are often confused between superficial wants and inner drives. Some individuals are in pursuit of material luxury, while others pursue their thirst for knowledge, artistic expression, a need to lead or help others, play the hero or shine in society. We cannot play the role of psychologists or psychoanalysts. However, it benefits the company if we discover who every worker is, his/her drives, special gifts, abilities, hopes and plans for the future. If we take time to discover this, understand what makes this person tick, we will be able to utilize this worker in the position, which is the best fit, a step ahead towards employee motivation. We must also clarify management values, design and implement effective policies and techniques.

Every employee has a need for self-expression, entertains plans for professional development and career advancement, and wishes to be accepted as family member, feel respect towards management and pride in his/her work, receive acknowledgment and reward, be listened to and trusted. Through strategic communications (including meetings) our duty is to share with employees' company goals, market, industry and business information and future plans, and invite employees to give feedback. We must learn how to place people in a role where they can use their abilities and make progress towards the realization of personal goals. Misplacements can cause a company substantial financial loss due to turnover, accidents, lawsuits, rebates, refunds, loss of customers and sales. We must learn how to create a corporate culture and a supportive work environment.

This is done through leadership and management excellence, a human approach, effective human resources strategies, positive discipline, fair and just treatment to all, clearly defined policies, career and personal development training programs (including cross-training and job rotation), career pathing, organizational communications, tools to facilitate communication, team assignments, reward programs, objective appraisals, adequate pay, benefits and company activities. It is important for employees to know that management is aware of their existence, recognizes them, remembers their names and greets them. Managers who fail to greet employees or respond to greetings lead to a high degree of de-motivation, lack of trust and loyalty. Individuals and departments need to be thanked for hard work and special feats and be rewarded for contributions. Managers who encourage employees to use initiative and set higher challenges for themselves achieve more positive results than those who cause employees to compete with each other. Personal accomplishments at the expense of others defeats teamwork and negatively affect service to customers.

Managers can win over employees' loyalty and best input by treating employees as partners by showing care, listening and sharing. Workplace Example In order to achieve long-term results through training, we must broaden our vision to include people development as part of our strategic planning. Although training covers a broad range of subjects under the three main categories (skills, attitude, knowledge), using the term training without linking it to development narrows our concept of the training function and leads us to failure. When we limit our thinking, we fall into the trap of: Classifying people into lots and categories Thinking of trainees as robots expected to perform a job function Dismissing the individual characteristics of people and the roles they play Focusing only on what needs to be done without adequately preparing the trainees involved to accept and internalise what is being taught. We are dealing with human thoughts, feelings and reactions, which must be given equal (if not more) attention than to the skill itself. We thus create a double-focus: people development and skills training.

These two simultaneous objectives will give us the right balance and guide our actions to reach our goal. To clarify our training and development objectives, and identify our criteria for success, we must ask ourselves a few questions: Do we expect an automatic, faultless job performance? Does attitude count? Does goodwill count? Do loyalty and dedication count? Does goal-sharing count? Does motivation count? Do general knowledge and know-how count? Do people-skills count? Does initiative count? Does a learning attitude count? Does a sense of responsibility count? Do team efforts count? Do good work relations count? Does creative input count? Do we want employees to feel proud of their role and contribution? How can we expect such qualities and behaviour if we consider and treat our personnel as skills performers? However, we could achieve the desired results if we address the personal development needs of the employees involved. When we plan for both training and development, we achieve a proper balance between the needs of the company and those of the trainees. The synergy created takes us to new levels, to a continuing trend of company growth. Our consideration of the people involved results in work motivation, goal sharing, and a sense of partnership. Not only do the employee-trainees perform at the desired levels, but they offer to the company and its customers their hidden individual gifts and talents, and this reflects itself in the quality of service.

Customers feel and recognize efficient performance, motivation and teamwork. They become loyal customers. We can learn from the case of a small restaurant operator who had become desperate at the negligent attitude of his servers, resulting in customer complaints. He decided to seek professional expertise to help him replace his employees with motivated, trained people fresh out of a waiter's training school. Following some probing questions it came to light that, besides hourly pay, he did not offer much to attract and retain loyal and dedicated employees. Through professional consultation, he came to realize that even if he paid higher wages to new trained employees, the problem would persist because employees want more than wages from their work place. They want: Organization and professional management Information regarding the business and its customers Recognition for their role in the company's success Acknowledgement of their individual capacities and contributions Positive discipline / fairness A say in the way the business is run. The restaurant operator realized that until then he had treated his employees as plate carriers and this is exactly how they had behaved and performed.

He was ready to change his mode of operation: he diverted his focus to the needs of his employees, re-structured his organisation, planned new operational strategies, a human resources strategy, training and development guidelines, disciplinary rules and regulations. He communicated and shared these in a meeting with his employees and handed out the employee handbook prepared for that purpose. He also reminded them of their responsibilities towards the business, the customers, and themselves (taking charge of their own training, development, and work performance). They were more than pleased when he asked them to express their opinions, make comments and suggestions. He was surprised at the immediate transformation that took place.

He began receiving excellent reviews from his customers, the employees worked as a team, their motivation skyrocketed and he never had to replace them! All this was accomplished by extending the previous concept of training to that of training and people development. Training and Development represents a complete whole that triggers the mind, emotions and employees' best work performance. It is not only business managers and owners who must do this shift in thinking, but Human Resources Directors and Training Managers (whose title should be Training and Development Managers). By their actions, they should offer a personal example, coaching and guiding all the people in an organisation to think beyond training and invest efforts in people's: Professional development Personal development. Contrary to what some managers think; people do not quit a place of work as soon as they have grown personally and professionally through training and development programs - at least they do not do so for a long while.

They become loyal to their employer and help him/her grow business-wise, which offers them more opportunities. They chart their own course for career advancement within the broader framework of organizational growth. References: http://www.mapnp.org/library/trng dev/methods/slf drct.htm. For additional information about self-directed learning http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~rouda/T1 HRD.html. A perspective on improving organizations and people Appendix Informal and Formal Training and Development o Informal Training and Development o Formal Training and Development o Formal, Systematic Training and Development Self-Directed and Other-Directed Training o Self-Directed Training o Other-Directed Learning Cross Training Employee Motivation Workplace Example Business Reports.

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