Sunday, February 8, 2009

What is the most influential factor that affects training (positive and or negative)? How does this influence training? Provide examples. As a trainer, how would you support or combat this influence?

When a business chooses to train their workers there are many factors that affect the training process. Top management needs to have a “buy-in” and commitment to the training and development. Training needs to be part of the corporate culture. If employees feel they are not supported by their management while training, they may not give the attention and commitment that the training deserves. Training needs to be tied to business strategy and objectives and needs to be linked to bottom line results. Workers want their organization to do well. They want to be able to contribute to the bottom line, especially in this economic climate. Employees that contribute to the bottom line are less likely to be laid off during tough times. Organizational environments are “feedback rich”; they stress continuous improvement, promote risk taking, and afford opportunities to learn from the success and failures of decisions. Without this freedom of allowing changes to the status quo workers are not able to use the training that they have acquired. Employers need to make a commitment to invest the necessary resources, to provide sufficient time and money for training. Training is more than classroom time. There needs to be commitment of resources and funds to allow for the implementation of the training to take affect in the work environment. In the case of Six Sigma training the classroom is only the beginning of a much longer process. As a trainer it would be important to get the buy in of management before attempting to start training the workers. Training is a team effort.

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