Jessica Berry
Kaplan University
AB203: Human Resources Management – 02
Jennifer Bryant
May 23, 2014
In simple terms, training and development refers to the imparting of specific skills, abilities and knowledge to an employee. A formal definition of training & development is… it is any attempt to improve current or future employee performance by increasing an employee’s ability to perform through learning, usually by changing the employee’s attitude or increasing his or her skills and knowledge. Employee development is extremely important when running a successful business. It is vital for the employees, so that they can learn and grow with the company. Organizations and their employees must constantly expand their knowledge, skills, and behavior to meet the customers needs, and compete in todays demanding and rapidly changing business environment (Gerhart, Noe, et al., 2013).
Employee development should benefit the employees the investors, as well as the customers. Employees need to stay marketable, and in order to do that they must develop new skills continually. These skills and the knowledge that employees are gaining is the benefit for them because it will be valuable to them to further their career. The investors reap the benefits by the company becoming more successful. The company becomes more successful and profitable because their employees are more knowledgeable and have more skills to be better at their job due to their development. The developmental programs that the company provides for the employee are beneficial for the customers because they have the proper training to give the customer the best customer service experience possible.
There are many approaches to employee development, they fall into four broad categories, formal education, assessment, interpersonal relationships, and job experiences (Noe, 2013). If an employee participates in a developmental program I think it would be unethical to just take what they learned and leave the company. Development programs cost money to run, and the employers provide these programs so that their employees will excel within their company.
Organizations of today have a variety of methods to choose from when training their employees. There have been many technological advances in the training industry, however most employers prefer to utilize the traditional methods due to viability and effectiveness of these training formats. The most used traditional training methods are instructor-led, hands-on, and interactive. There are many types of instructor-led trainings such as blackboard or whiteboard, overhead projector, video, PowerPoint, and storytelling. Storytelling is the most effective technique because trainees can