Training for Impact: Improving the Quality of Staffs Performance

The study reported in this article examines the effects of training, feedback, and on–the–job coaching on the quality of staff performance. Forty staff members in three units of a psychiatric hospital were trained in a new system for writing patient progress notes. Initial training (Training 1) included a) establishing the importance of progress notes, b) rules and format for good notes, and c) examples of properly written notes. Training 1 resulted in slight improvement in performance over baseline. A second training program (Training 2), including examples and non–examples of well–written notes, was followed by a substantial increase in quality of staff notes. The quality of notes reached desired levels only after a feedback component was added in which the trainer posted data showing overall quality of notes and provided individual coaching to staff members regarding quality of group notes. We conclude from these results that the quality of staff performance of an organizationally significant task can be improved by a combination of training, feedback, and on–the–job coaching. Training using both examples and non–examples of properly completed tasks is superior to training using examples only. Training followed by feedback and on–the–job coaching is superior to training alone. The results support our conclusion that omitting a basic element of performance technology will yield low quality performance.     

Solutions to Literacy Deficiencies in the Workplace; A Survey of Current Practices

Much attention has focused on employee basic skill (literacy) problems in recent years. Most authorities on the topic have focused their attention on two solutions alone: (a) offering in-house training to employees short-term solution intended to rectify existing basic skill deficiencies in the workforce; and (b) supporting public education as a long-term solution intended to ensure that future job applicants/employees possess basic skills adequate for beginning work. Few writers or authorities have suggested alternative performance improvement strategies to address basic skill problems. This article identifies a range of performance improvement strategies for addressing basic skill deficiencies and summarizes results of a recent survey of training and development professionals about how often these strategies are used in their organizations. In general, many survey respondents indicated that their organizations are using many different performance improvement strategies to address basic skill problems.     

Overview of Transfer of Training: From Learning to Performance

This article explores the background, current state, and emerging trends in transfer of training. Transfer of training can be denned as, ensuring full application of new skills and knowledge to the workplace. Typically, past training efforts have focused on ensuring learning by trainees, and not on supporting the transfer of that learning to performance on the job. Today's organizations recognize effective workforce performance as a strategic asset in the global competitive economy but face problems in attaining high performance. Experience of successful organizations shows that key stakeholders (managers, trainers, trainees, and others) must be closely involved in all phases of the design, development, and implementation of training and other performance improvement efforts, to achieve and maintain effective workforce performance. However, both managers and human performance professionals frequently overlook the need to gain stakeholder involvement to support full transfer of new skills to the job. A successful program in a government agency, and recommendations for transfer strategies for technology-based learning, illustrate the collaboration of stakeholders which is necessary to achieve high levels of transfer of skills to the workplace.     

M.A.S.S.: A Model for Producing Transfer

Transfer is the application in the workplace of the knowledge, skills and attitudes learned in training. With transfer, trainers hope to link training to increased job performance. However, training alone will not produce transfer. To affect job performance as a result of training, trainers must intentionally promote transfer using a variety of strategies based on known principles of human performance technology. The MASS model, presented in this paper, brings together four of these principles. According to the MASS model, trainers who promote transfer (and who thereby become performance technologists) 1) Motivate trainees to learn and use the training material; 2) increase trainees' Awareness of when to use new skills and ideas; 3) enable trainees to master and to apply Skills; and 4) give trainees psychological and physical Support on the job. When performance technologists follow the MASS model, they can expect to produce trainees who apply at work what they have been taught in training. Use of the model is illustrated with two examples.     

Integrating a Culture of Improvement into Skill Training

To acquire and perfect skills, trainees have to learn to accept and use feedback and to value personal improvement. To develop such reflective practitioners, performance technologists can use a method of integrating a culture of improvement into skill training. The method consists of five steps: motivate trainees to learn and apply, present a clear vision of the job skill, schedule practice, employ a consistent feedback protocol, and require an improved repeat performance.     

Surviving troubled times: Five best practices for training professionals

With the current economic downturn and signs of an emerging recovery, executives are trying to determine how to best use their organizations' funds and resources. This may mean downsizing human resource departments and eliminating positions for training personnel. The authors offer five strategies drawn from the professional literature to survive these and future trying times: (1) align efforts with organizational missions and business goals, (2) use training only when it addresses a gap between existing and desired performance arising from a lack of requisite skill, (3) craft instructional objectives that describe exemplary job performance, (4) create sound training programs that promote learning and transfer to the job, and (5) collaborate with sponsors and other stakeholders outside the training department to promote transfer of training to the job. Training personnel who employ these strategies successfully may be able to answer executives' common question, “What have you done for me recently that matters?”     

Preferences of Training Performance Measurement: A Comparative Study of Training Professionals and Non‐training Managers

ABSTRACT This survey‐based study addressed a perceived gap between training performance evaluation practice and decision‐making criteria required in business. Training professionals and non‐training managers in North Carolina were surveyed. The study found that the groups differ in the performance measures that motivate them to act on training issues. Non‐training managers preferred measurements of productivity, organizational climate, product quality, cost, and customer service reports. Training professionals preferred measures of opinions of the trainee's supervisor, end‐of‐training exam scores, progress/work performance reports, and opinions of the trainee. The study concluded that (1) training professionals and non‐training managers react to different training performance measures; (2) training professionals are more likely to react to job/individual‐level performance measures; (3) non‐training managers are more likely to rely on organizational‐level measures; (4) non‐training managers are not primarily concerned with converting training benefits to dollar figures; (5) on‐the‐job tests and customer service reports are valued by both the training profession and business and industry; and (6) the low response suggests a potential lack of interest for the strategic position of the training function.     

基于员工发展的绩效评估

提出基于员工发展的绩效评估体系有利于解决目前我国企业员工绩效评估中存在的缺乏反馈、沟通和妨碍．业绩改进等问题。该体系应包括工作要项、评估标准、评估面谈、绩效改进计划、培训计划及薪资安排等程序。合适的人员配备、激励体系、技术等级制度和企业文化氛围是该体系有效运作的保证。     

Evaluation of Corporate Training Programs: Perspectives and Issues for Further Research

Performance improvement interventions, including training, are investments that can yield identifiable payoffs for an organization in the form of better job performance. Evaluation is vital to continuous improvement of human performance in the workplace. Without measures of effectiveness, organizations do not know whether dollars are being spent wisely and, consequently, whether to continue, modify, or improve performance interventions. There are several approaches for the evaluation of training programs. Few adequately cover the broader perspective of performance improvement. Various schemes and terms are used to describe facets for evaluating training programs. However, sometimes different terms describe the same event. At other times, quite different training evaluation activities are discussed by different authors using the same terms. The present article reviews six overall evaluation perspectives of corporate training programs: Kirkpatrick's four‐level approach; the CIRO approach; Hamblin's five‐level approach; Florida State University approach; Indiana University approach; and Phillips' five‐level approach. And four research areas for further study are recommended: overall evaluation models, causal relationships between evaluation categories, systematic research on how to evaluate the various categories, and appropriate uses of the results of evaluations.     

The Use of Level Three Evaluation Data to Assess the Impact of Technology Training on Work Performance

The operational environment permitted the evaluation of new technology use comparing trained end‐users. Data was collected to determine:

• • use a team approach that includes diverse expertise
• • identify critical job performance metrics associated with effective tool use
• • get participation from the technology development and end‐user communities
• • collect quantitative data which can be amplified by follow‐up interviews and observations
• • get a commitment from management to use evaluation results for overall performance improvement
• • work toward a technology deployment process that routinely includes evaluation data.

     

Continuing Engineering Education in Japan

Japan has always given a high priority to continuing education of engineers ( CEE) and the training of skilled technicians. As engineering education in the universities is oriented more to basic comprehension of engineering sciences, education and training activities inside enterprises and self-education have been the major part of CEE Now almost all the major enterprises in Japan have well established education programs and facilities for CEE, and these systems have been developed with close linkage to the following characteristics of the industrial and socio-economic system of Japan: ( i) life-time employment system; ( ii) transfer of job and job rotation; ( Hi) seniority system; ( iv) improvement of education systems.     

Information Technology as Performance Technology

The articles in. this issue seem to be converging on the concept of the “performance support system”—an integrated electronic job aid designed to support all the performance requirements of a given job or job function. The concept has implications for design of hypertext, other databases, job structure, organization structure, and training needs. The economic (business) case for performance support systems seems to position them as strategic investments, and the developers and managers of the systems will be responsible for the most critical asset of knowledge-based companies.     

The effect of performance support and training on performer attitudes

While training has been a proven and heavily relied on intervention to impart job‐enabling information to performers, its ability to have a positive effect on job performance has been demonstrated to diminish over time. One intervention that has been adopted by performance technologists to provide ongoing support is an electronic performance support system (EPSS). The study presented here examined the effect of EPSS and training on user attitudes. Results revealed that participants receiving only EPSS and those receiving training and EPSS had significantly higher attitudes than participants who received only training. Recommendations on how to best combine and implement these performance interventions based on these data are discussed.     

Evaluating the Impact of a Performance‐Based Methodology on Transfer of Training

Transfer of training is the degree to which trainees can apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes gained in training to the job. Currently only between 5% and 20% of what is learned in training is ever applied on the job. At this time, little is known about the effects of work environment factors, such as support, feedback, and goal setting, on training transfer. We utilized a quasi‐experimental between‐groups design using surveys, interviews, and behavioral measures to evaluate the impact of performance‐based work environment factors on training transfer. Results indicated that participants in the experimental group reported a higher level of training transfer than those in the control group. These findings suggest that a performance‐based approach to training can be an effective method to increase the likelihood that employees transfer training knowledge to the job context.     

试论求职技巧的训练与指导

求职过程是求职者全面展现自身综合素质的过程,求职技巧作为综合素质的表现始终贯穿于求职过程的全部。目前,中国的就业形势比较严峻,求职者面对的竞争越来越大,企业对求职者的要求也越来越高,面试方式更趋多样化,为此,对求职者进行求职技巧的训练和指导对求职成功与否起着至关重要的作用。本文采用实例法进行研究,从阐述求职技巧的内涵及求职技巧训练与指导的重要作用出发,针对求职者求职技巧的现状进行分析,提出求职技巧训练与指导的具体措施。     

发挥高职院校教育资源开展企业培训的优势

高职院校,尤其是企业承办的高职院校除了承担培养学历教育学生的任务外,另一个重要的角色是为企业承担相关的培训任务,它可以利用自身教育资源优势针对企业发展需求开展提高员工专业技能、职业竞争、工作绩效和其他的一些特殊能力而进行的有计划、有系统的培养和训练。目标就在于不仅使企业符合整个社会可持续发展的需求,而且也可以使高职院校的教育资源最大化的发挥作用。     

Forget EPSSs: How You Can Marshal Mobile Geographic Information Systems (GISs) and Spatial Awareness for Performance Improvement

Mobile geolocation applications identify global coordinates of mobile devices and can be enriched with performance‐context data. This technology has potential to integrate job aids, learning bursts, and parts of manuals with work tools (such as checklists) at the point of performance to better support individual and team performance. Emerging uses of mobile geolocation allow human performance technologists to move from generic electronic performance support systems (EPSSs) to spatial support systems. These increase the potential for performers to access more context‐aware information at the time and space in which the actions occur. Mobile geolocation can also automatically send data about the performance to enterprise databases so that actions taken and the use of training or job aids at the point of performance can be tracked. This article explores how mobile geolocation functionality can be orchestrated to support performance, enrich enterprise databases, and aid human performance technologists.     

Training Transfer and Transfer Motivation: The Influence of Individual,Environmental, Situational,Training Design,and Affective Reaction Factors

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of individual, environmental, training design, and affective reaction factors on training transfer and transfer motivation. To determine the relationship between these factors and their influence on training transfer and to test the model, the researchers collected data from employees in the Malaysian banking sector. Structural equation modeling with Amos 16 was used to test the model and determine the relationship. The study suggested that training stakeholders should manage the training program effectively. Transfer is maximized when trainees have social support, high performance self‐efficacy, and transfer motivation. Stakeholders (e.g., trainers, trainees, supervisors, and peers) are important to the training transfer process, as are learner readiness, trainee reaction, instrumentality, and training retention. This study revealed that perceived content validity and transfer design work together and influence the trainee's performance self‐efficacy. In other words, if trainers want to improve the performance self‐efficacy level of trainees, they need to explain how the trainee can transfer the learned skills at the workplace and make sure the content of the training is similar to the actual job. The main objective of training programs is to align the employee's expertise with organizational goals. Organizations can achieve their desired objectives only when employees transfer the learned skills on the job. Unfortunately, employees often transfer only a small percentage of skills they have learned in training. To effectively manage their training programs, organizations need to identify and focus on the factors that resist effective training transfer.     

Career Development: The Linkage Between Training And Organizational Development

Improved organizational efficiency can only be accomplished if the employees within an organization have developed the skills, competencies, knowledge, and attitudes to perform at the highest possible levels. To a limited degree this can be accomplished via training, but employees develop the fundamental skills, competencies, knowledge, and attitudes related only to their current job. As a result, the organization is only indirectly impacted. This refers to the micro perspective of improved organizational efficiency. Organizational efficiency can also be accomplished through organizational development, but the individual employee is often overlooked during this process. Without employee commitment to improve efficiency, it will be short-lived. This approach refers to the macro perspective of improved organizational efficiency. Both the micro and macro perspectives of improved organizational efficiency have their weaknesses. Thus, a combination of the two processes is necessary. Career development is that combination. Career development is a process which enables employees to develop beyond the fundamental skills, competencies, knowledge, and attitudes required for their present job assignments. It is a process which is focused on improving organizational efficiency while relying on the development of the individual employee. Performance improvement practitioners can provide learning activities which improve employees' skills, competencies, knowledge, and attitudes by viewing improved organizational efficiency from an individual (micro) perspective while remaining dedicated to the overall enhancement of the organization (macro). However, many performance improvement practitioners fail to see the connection between training and overall organizational development. These terms are often used interchangeably which leads to the increased confusion and misapplication of each process. It is necessary, therefore, to arrive at an acceptable definition in order to communicate effectively the intent as well as the similarities and differences of the processes. This will enable performance improvement practitioners to better understand the commonalities of each process. It is this understanding that serves as the basis of this article and the forthcoming recommendations.     

The applicability of undergraduate education in jobs

The primary goals of this study are to determine the degree of applicability of undergraduate education in jobs and to evaluate some of the benefits accruing to a college educated person in the labor force. Closely related to this study is the question of whether a relationship exists between the usefulness of college training in jobs and the levels of job satisfaction and income. Some of the principal findings suggest that a large percentage of college graduates feel that their college major is related to their jobs and that the quality of job performance is dependent upon college training and on-the-job training. In addition, where college majors are applicable to job requirements, job satisfaction is high.