Strategic Training

Business Strategy – is a plan that integrates the company’s goals, policies, and
actions. The strategy influences how the company uses physical capital, financial
capital, and human capital. It helps direct the company’s activities to reach specific
goals.

Goals – are what the company hopes to achieve in the medium – and long-term future.

Sample of companies’ goals:

o Financial
o Employee Satisfaction
o Industry Position
o Community Service

Strategy has a particularly strong influence on determining:

1) The amount of training devoted to current or future job skills.

2) The extent to which training is customized for the particular needs of an
employee or is developed based on the needs of a team, unit, or division.
3) Whether training is restricted to specific groups of employees or open to all
employees.
4) Whether training is planned and systematically administered, provided only when
problems occur, or developed spontaneously as a reaction to what competitors
are doing.
5) The importance placed on training compared to other human resource
management practices such as selection and compensation.

The Evolution of Training’s Role

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It shows the evolution of training’s role from a program focus to a broader focus on
learning and creating and sharing knowledge. Training will continue to focus on
developing programs to teach specific skills; however, to better relate to improving
employees’ performance and to help meet business needs and challenges, training’s
role has to evolve to include an emphasis on learning and creating and sharing
knowledge.

Learning – refers to the acquisition of knowledge by individual employees or groups of

employees who are willing to apply that knowledge in their jobs in making decisions and
accomplishing tasks for the company.

Knowledge – refers to what individuals or teams of employees know or know how to do

as well as company rules, processes, tools, and routines.

o Explicit knowledge – refers to knowledge that can be formalized, codified, and

communicated. (manuals, formulas, & specifications)
o Tacit knowledge – refers to personal knowledge based on individual experience
that is difficult to explain to others. (interacting with other employees & watching
other employees)

The Strategic Training and Development Process

1. Identify the Company’s Business Strategy

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The Company’s mission, vision, values, and goals help to determine the strategy. These
are usually determined by the top management team.

 Mission – is the company's reason for existing

 Vision – is the picture of the future that the company wants to achieve
 Values – are what the company stands for
 SWOT analysis – involves an analysis of the company’s operating
environment to identify opportunities and threats as well as an internal
analysis of the company’s.

2. Identify Strategic Training and Development Initiatives that Support the

Strategy

Strategic training and development initiatives – are learning-related actions that a

company should take to help it achieve its business strategy. The strategic training and
development initiatives vary by company depending on a company’s industry, goals,
resources, and capabilities. They provide the company with a road map to guide
specific training and development activities and they show how the training function will
help the company reach its goals.

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 3. Provide Training and Development Activities Linked to Strategic Training
and Development Initiatives

It identifies specific training and development activities that will enable these initiatives
to be achieved. These activities include developing initiatives related to use of new
technology in training, increasing access to training programs for certain groups of
employees, reducing development time, and developing new or expanded course
offerings.

4. Identify and Collect Metrics to Show Training Success

Identifying and collecting outcome measures or metrics. The metrics that are typically
used to identify training success or effectiveness include trainees’ satisfaction with the
training program; whether the trainees’ knowledge, skill, ability, or attitudes changed as
a result of program participation and whether the program resulted in business-related
outcomes for the company.

Balanced scorecard is a means of performance measurement that provides managers

with a chance to look at the overall company performance or the performance of
departments or functions from the perspective of internal and external customers,
employees, and shareholders.

The emphasis and type of indicators used to measure each of these perspective are
based on the company’s business strategy and goals.

Four Perspectives and examples of metrics used to measure those includes:

 Customer (time, quality performance, service, cost)

 Internal (processes that influence customer satisfaction)
 Innovation and learning (operating efficiency, employee satisfaction, continuous
improvement)
 Financial (profitability, growth, shareholder value)

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Organizational Characteristics that Influence Training

 Roles of Employees and Managers

Employees’ roles were to perform their jobs according to the managers’ directions

Managers in traditional work environment are expected to do the following:

o Manage individual o Coordinate interdependent

performance groups
o Develop employees o Manage group performance
o Plan and allocate resources o Monitor the business
environment
o Represent one’s work unit

 Top Management Support

The CEO, the top manager in the company, plays a key role in determining the
importance of training and learning in the company. The CEO is responsible for:

o A clear direction for learning (vision)

o Encouragement, resources, and commitment for strategic learning
(sponsor)
o Taking an active role in governing learning and providing insight on how to
measure training effectiveness (governor)
o Developing new learning programs for the company (subject-matter
expert)
o Teaching programs or providing resources online (faculty)
o Serving as a role model for learning for the entire company and
demonstrating a willingness to constantly learn (learner)
o Promoting the company’ commitment to learning (marketing agent)
 Integration of Business Units

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Employees need to understand other units, services, and products in the company.
Training likely includes rotating employees between jobs in different businesses so they
can gain an understanding of the whole business.

 Global Presence

For companies with global operations, training is used to prepare employees for
temporary or long-term overseas assignment.

 Business Conditions

When unemployment is low and/or businesses are growing at a high rate and need
more employees, companies often find it difficult to attract new employees, find
employees with necessary skills and retain current employees. Companies may find
themselves in the position of hiring employees who might not be qualified for the job
and need to retain talented employees.

 Other Human Resource Management Practices

Human resource management (HRM) practices consist of the management activities

related to investments in staffing, performance management, training, and
compensation and benefits.

Two Types of HRM practices:

 Staffing Strategy refers to the company’s decisions regarding where to find

employees, how to select them, and the desired mix of employee skills and
statuses.
Two aspects of a company’s staffing strategy influence training:
 Assignment flow – the criteria used to make promotion and
assignment decisions
 Supply flow – the places where the company prefers to obtain the
human resources to fill open positions
 Human resource planning includes identification, analysis, forecasting, and
planning of changes needed in the human resource area to help the company
meet changing business conditions.

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  Extent of Unionization

Unions’ interest in training has resulted in joint union-management programs designed

to help employees prepare for new jobs. The unions may see the programs as just
another attempt to make employees work harder without sharing the productivity gains.

 Staff Involvement in Training and Development

If line managers are aware of what development activity can achieve, they will be more
willing to become involved in it and they will also become more involved in the training
process if they are rewarded for participating.

Training Needs in Different Strategies

Four Business Strategies

 Concentration Strategy – focuses on increasing market share, reducing costs,

or creating and maintaining a market niche for products and services.
 Internal Growth Strategy – focuses on new market and product development,
innovation, and joint ventures.
 External Growth Strategy – emphasizes acquiring vendors and suppliers or
buying businesses that allow the company to expand into new markets.
 Disinvestment Strategy – emphasizes liquidation and divestiture of businesses

Models of Organizing the Training Department

This review of these structures should help you understand that the organization of the
training department has important consequences for how the training department
contributes to the business strategy.

Five Models that are used to organize the training department:

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Marketing the Training Function
Internal marketing involves making employees and managers excited about the training
and learning. Internal marketing is important for trainers who act as internal consultants
to business units.
Here are some successful internal marketing tactics:
 Involve the target audience in developing the training or learning effort.
 Demonstrate how a training and development program can be used to solve
specific business needs.
 Identify a “champion” who actively supports training.
 Listen and act on feedback received from clients, managers, and employees.
 Advertise on e-mail, on company Web sites, and in employee break areas.
 Designate someone in the training function as an account representative who
will interact between the training designer or team and the business unit that is
the customer.
 Determine what financial numbers from operations, or net profits/loss top level
executives are concerned with and show how training and development will
help improve those numbers.
 Speak in terms that employees and managers understand. Translate jargon.

Outsourcing Training
Outsourcing refers to the use of an outside company that takes compete responsibility
and control of some training or development activities or that takes over all or most of a
company’s training including administration, design, delivery, and development.
Business process outsourcing refers to the outsourcing of any business process,
such as human resource management, production, or training.
Two Reasons companies do not outsource their training are:
 The inability of outsourcing providers to meet company needs
 Companies’ desire to maintain control over all aspects of training and
development, especially delivery and learning content

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