HRM textbook

250 PART 3 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
deficiency and determining whether the employer should correct such deficiencies
through training or some other means (like transferring the employee).
The first step in performance analysis is usually to compare the person s actual
performance to what it should be. Doing so helps to confirm that there is a performance
deficiency, and (hopefully) helps the manager to identify its cause. Examples of
performance deficiencies might be:
I expect each salesperson to make 10 new contracts per week, but John averages
only six.
Other plants our size average no more than two serious accidents per month; we re
averaging five.
There are several ways to identify how a current employee is doing. These include
reviewing:
* Performance appraisals
* Job-related performance data (including productivity, absenteeism and tardiness,
grievances, waste, late deliveries, product quality, downtime, repairs, equipment
utilization, and customer complaints)
* Observations by supervisors or other specialists
* Interviews with the employee or his or her supervisor
* Tests of things like job knowledge, skills, and attendance
* Attitude surveys
* Individual employee daily diaries
* Assessment center results
* Special performance gap analytical software, such as from Saba Software, Inc.
CAN T DO/WON T DO Ferreting out why performance is down is the heart
of performance analysis. Why spend time training inefficient employees when the
problem isn t training, but weak motivation?
The manager s aim is thus to distinguish between can t-do and won t-do problems.
First, determine whether it is a can t-do problem and, if so, its specific causes. For example:
The employees don t know what to do or what your standards are; there are obstacles in
the system such as lack of tools or supplies; there are no job aids (such as color-coded
wires that show assemblers which wire goes where); you ve hired people who haven t the
skills to do the job; or there is inadequate training.
On the other hand, it might be a won t-do problem. Here employees could do a
good job if they wanted to. One expert says, Perhaps the biggest trap that trainers fall
into is [developing] training for problems that training just won t fix. 25 For instance,
the solution may be to change the reward system.
Designing the Training Program
Armed with the needs analysis results, the manager next designs the overall training
program. Design means planning the overall training program including training
objectives, delivery methods, and program evaluation. Sub-steps include setting
performance objectives, creating a detailed training outline (all training program
steps from start to finish), choosing a program delivery method (such as lectures or
Web), and verifying the overall program design with management. The design should
include summaries of how you plan to set a training environment that motivates your
trainees both to learn and to transfer what they learn to the job. It is also at the design
stage that the manager reviews possible training program content (including workbooks,
exercises, and activities), and estimates a budget for the training program. 26
We ll look more closely next at several specific program design issues. (Chapter 18
describes a streamlined training design process for a small business.)
SETTING LEARNING OBJECTIVES Requests for training often start with line
managers presenting concerns, such as we re getting too many complaints from call