Trivializing Training: BY LATIKA KAUL

Imagine this:

Your friend gets a brand new car and invites you for a drive. When you reach his house, you are awestruck at the sight of his brand new car. It’s shiny, black spotless paint is almost blinding and the smell of the interior leather is immensely inviting. You both finally sit in the car and your friend puts his key in the ignition. The roar of a new car. Wow! You relax and stretch yourself on the passenger seat and casually ask your friend.

“You didn’t even tell me, you were learning to drive and now suddenly a new car and license”

“I don’t have a license.”

“You don’t have a license?”

“No bro. Don’t know how to drive only, how will I get a license!!”

“WHAT?? You don’t know how to drive?”

“Nah. But I have played enough GTA, so don’t worry”

What will you do next?

If you will not leave the fate of your life in the hands of an untrained driver, why risk the life of your company?

Even though my experience in the training field is very limited, I often wonder why organizations even conduct trainings in the first place….

• Is it because while recruiting, employees were promised growth and development?

• Or, because they have some funds allotted for L&D, which need to be utilized?

• Or better yet, because of certain mandates?

The answers to all these questions should be a big NO, but sadly it isn’t.

Today, many organizations conduct trainings largely for the above reasons and in doing so they rob themselves and their employees of the many benefits an effective training program can offer. 

 Training will develop your employees’ skills. Skilled employees:

- Make lesser mistakes

- Require minimum supervision 

- Are better equipped to handle challenging situations. 

 Training can not only become a recruitment tool but also an effective retention tool. The youth today is not satisfied with a big paycheque. They want to develop and grow. As an employer, this trait can actually make your work even simpler. These employees will be more eager to attend training workshops, which will develop them and your organization. 

 An effective training program can help build trust of your employees in you. This, in turn, increases their job satisfaction, loyalty and reduces attrition. 

 Training can also add flexibility and efficiency. Employees can be cross-trained to become proficient in the different aspects of the organization. This will help keep them interested and will be extremely useful during times of vacant positions or absenteeism. 

 Training has become essential for knowledge transfer. In-house training, or trainings conducted by an experienced member of a team will ensure that there are enough people to take charge if the particular experienced person leaves the company. Mostly, trainings assure that both employees and organizations are not stagnant but always emerging and growing.

These benefits might provoke you to conduct trainings for the right reason. But that is not enough.

Trainings will be of no use until they are executed perfectly. This execution begins from initial planning but does not end at the completion of training. Yes, there is more to training than just arranging for a trainer and holding a two-day training workshop. Training continues even after the workshop is over, but not many organizations help in driving the post workshop training.

Even during training, employees face challenges such as:

- Urgent calls or emails

- Arriving late or leaving early due to work commitments

- Sudden meetings or clients that need to be attended to

- Attending programs which are not relevant for their particular roles

Training needs to be planned keeping the employee’s roles and competencies in mind. They need to be prioritized and arranged well so that the employee can attend the program without any baggage from work. Another important point that needs to be addressed is that of management and staff support. An employee can harness all the benefits of training only when his colleagues and his supervisors support him. These employees can be supported by:

 They should be able to focus on the training with undivided attention. This means no work related calls or emails.

 The management has to support the employees in practicing what they have learned in their training. This could mean giving them assignments that will help them inculcate their learned skills or behaviours. They need to be given time to effectively apply all that they have learned.

 Employees can be assessed on how well they apply their learned skills. This well help in keeping them motivated and can also provide a chance for the organization to assess how cost-effective the training was.

By considering the above points, a training program can be made more successful and valuable to the employees and to the organization. 

So, let us not trivialize a training program by conducting substandard TNA’s and hiring unqualified trainers.

Let us not trivialize a training program by randomly selecting a date for the workshop or by completing it as a compulsion.

 Let us definitely not trivialize a training program by trivializing its importance. 

Conducting an effective training program is a huge responsibility which if shouldered correctly will reap your organization a sizable yield. This responsibility will obviously require a great deal of effort. There is a 100% certainty of headaches and maybe some ulcers and perhaps what organizations avoid the most- “spending money”. But, once again please imagine this situation:

CFO asks the CEO: “What happens if we invest in developing our people and then they leave us?”

CEO: “What happens if we don’t, and they stay?”

THE SYMBIOTIC MODEL: NEXT MODEL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Dynamics within organizations are fast changing. There is a vast difference in managerial and employee orientation in organizations. With the increase in young entrepreneurs, the need of the hour is changing drastically. Recruiters are now hunting for talent in innovation and creativity rather than just desired competencies. These changing trends call for a new model of organizational behavior which defines the intricacies of new organizations.

Organizational behavior has been present ever since the end of the Barter system and the start of the Feudal systems, although the term ‘organizational behavior’ was not coined until the 1950s. Models of organizational behavior have changed with the economic development in the world. The ever changing economic climate, now, demands a new model of organizational behavior.

The present state of the organizations

A leading magazine has published that the last decade has seen a sudden emergence of new, young entrepreneurs. Recruiters now are looking for talent that will take their organization further. The economy and technology is changing rapidly. With such changing times, it is necessary for employers to have a team of people with innovative and creative ideas. Organizations are now supporting new entrepreneurs instead of seeing them as a threat and waste for the company. Hence, the changing dynamics have opened gates for a new model of organizational behavior: The Symbiotic Model

 THE SYMBIOTIC MODEL

The Symbiotic model is based on a horizontal structure of organization where hierarchy is extinct. The components of the model are the organization and its partners who all work to accomplish a common goal. In this structure, the commitment felt only comes out of ‘symbiosis’. The partners and the organization trust each other with the divided work because each person has earned mastery in their field. Hence, there is no boss, only partners who are encouraged to give their ideas and suggestions.

The profit or the income is equally divided amongst the partners and each has a share of the organization in the market. The organization encourages its partners to open new ventures and businesses.

Basis of the model: This model is based on Autonomy. Every partner is responsible for his/her work. Thus would require people to have mastery in their field and the trust of the organization that ‘yes, the work will be the best’. Symbiotic model is based on a horizontal structure of organization; hence Autonomy is its key feature.

Managerial Orientation: The managerial orientation is partnership where the manager is present only to give support to start the work and later gains from the profit of the partner. The manager and partner work only till the time the apprenticeship is completed and then the partner is on his own.

Employee Orientation: The employee orientation is Ownership and Commitment. Since the worker or the partner has his own set-up, the partner is bound to take his work as his own baby. His sole responsibility is the completion of the work as no one else can do it.

Employee Psychological Result: Since the partners have a sense of commitment along with the reward of using one’s talent and earning every profit of it, the partner is left feeling Self-Actualized and content.

Employee needs met: According to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, by now the partners are at the highest peak wherein all their needs are met. At this point, the partners will have the need to give back to the environment. The need is to create new things, bring about innovations and contribute in the progress of the world. The ‘creative’ need met here is the self-motivating drive that is almost non-exhaustible.

Performance Result: The resultant performance is that of beyond commitment. The partner is self driven and constantly making his/her own goals and contributing to the progress of the world through the progress of the organization and oneself.

The model of organizational behavior is in sync with developing technology and the changing need of the people. As the world’s wealth of knowledge increases, people will resist the hierarchy structure or the idea of ‘working under someone’.

In recent trends many companies are giving financial backing to their employees to start their own ventures. Companies like Google, Infosys are providing loans to their workers to contribute to the growing technology. With such growing trends, a horizontal structure of symbiosis is not far.

This study describes the upcoming trend in the organizations and its relations with its employees. It can be used to prepare oneself for the change and plan the organization to adapt to such changes. One must welcome such changes instead of resisting it; after all, history has shown us that organizations that resist change soon die out in this fast-changing world.

Hence, this study is a good start