HRM textbook

246 PART 3 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
ORIENTATION TECHNOLOGY Employers use technology to support orientation.
For example, some employers put all or some of their orientation media on the Web.
At the University of Cincinnati, new employees spend about 45 minutes online learning
about their new employer s mission, organization, and policies and procedures. IBM
uses virtual environments like Second Life to support orientation, particularly for
employees abroad. The new employees choose virtual avatars, which then interact
with other company avatars, for instance to learn how to enroll for benefits. 6 ION Geophysical
uses an online onboarding portal solution called RedCarpet. Ion s CEO uses
RedCarpet to offer a streaming video welcome message. New hires can view things like
photos and profiles of members of their work teams. 7 With Workday s iPhone app,
employers can provide their employees easy mobile access to their employee directories.
Users can search their company s worker directory for names, images, and contact information;
call or e-mail coworkers directly; and view physical addresses on Google Maps. 8
OVERVIEW OF THE TRAINING PROCESS
Directly after orientation, training should begin. Training means giving new or
current employees the skills that they need to perform their jobs. This might mean
showing new Web designers the intricacies of your site, new salespeople how to sell
your firm s product, or new supervisors how to complete the firm s weekly payroll.
It might involve simply having the current jobholder explain the job to the new hire,
or a multi-week training process including classroom or Internet classes.
In any case, training is a task that managers ignore at their peril. Having highpotential
employees doesn t guarantee they ll succeed. They must know what to do and
how to do it. If they don t, they will improvise or do nothing useful at all.
Inadequate training can also trigger negligent training liability. As one expert
puts it, It s clear from the case law that where an employer fails to train adequately
and an employee subsequently does harm to third parties, the court will find the
employer liable. 9 Employers should confirm the applicant/employee s claims of skill
and experience, provide adequate training (particularly where employees use dangerous
equipment), and evaluate the training to ensure that it s actually reducing risks.
Aligning Strategy and Training
The employer s strategic plans should ultimately govern its training goals. 10 In essence,
the task is to identify the employee behaviors the firm will require to execute its strategy,
and from that deduce what competencies employees will need. Then, put in place training
goals and programs to instill these competencies. As one trainer said, We sit down with
management and help them identify strategic goals and objectives and the skills and
knowledge needed to achieve them. 11 For example, Caterpillar Inc. created Caterpillar
University to oversee all its training and development programs. Company executives
comprise the university s board of directors. They set the university s policies and oversee
the alignment of the corporation s learning needs with the enterprises business
strategy. 12 The accompanying Strategic Context feature illustrates strategy s role in
training and development.
THE STRATEGIC CONTEXT
Having spent about 6 years consolidating and cutting costs to navigate its way
through the recession, Macy s top management turned to a new strategy in 2011.
As its CEO said, We are [now] talking about a cultural shift . . . becoming more
of a growth company.
13 However, Macy s top management knew that growth
would not occur without a dramatic improvement in how its sales associates
treated customers. (For example, studies by the consulting firm Bain & Co. showed
that when customers had positive interactions with sales associates, customer
purchases rose by as much as 50%.) To produce the improved customer service
that Macy s new growth strategy depended on, Macy s installed a new training