The human resources department of a company is responsible for making sure employees have the training and development they need to be successful in their roles and promote the growth of the company. Human resources associates use training and development plans to create an organized schedule of course offerings for specific employees to improve their skills and knowledge.
What is training and development?
Training and development is an ongoing educational process in which a human resources department helps employees improve their skill sets, learn new concepts and gain more knowledge about their specific job or function to improve their work and overall performance. Providing employees regular training and development helps the company grow and improve.
As technology continues to advance and is becoming more prominent in the workplace, it is crucial for companies to create training and development plans that help employees stay current with new trends, technology and skills.
HR departments may also provide training on updates to company rules, policies and procedures, as well as instruction on updated laws relating to the workplace and health and safety training. Training and development can come in the form of classroom training, college courses, workshops, online courses or in-house training. It is up to the HR department to organize these classes and budget for material, transportation and lodging involved with the training.
Why training and development is important
Employee training and development is important to an organization because it helps your team members contribute to the overall success of the company by increasing employee confidence, efficiency and productivity. When you provide your team with training that helps them continuously improve upon their skills and knowledge, you also encourage them to contribute to the growth of the organization by contributing new ideas. The benefits of a continuous learning and development plan include:
• Increasing employee performance and productivity
• Identifying and strengthening areas of opportunity
• Creating and maintaining consistency throughout the team
• Increasing employee morale and satisfaction
• Creating opportunities to learn new skills and technology
Increasing employee performance and productivity
When you provide ongoing training and development to employees, they are able to gain the knowledge and skills they need to do their job properly. Continuous training and development helps reinforce knowledge and skills they may forget over time. They will also have a better comprehension of what their specific role is and the responsibilities associated with their position. This combination of knowledge, skills and comprehension of their role helps boost their confidence which also helps improve their overall work performance. When employees stay informed of fast-changing industry standards and new technology, they can help the company stay ahead of competitors.
Identifying and strengthening areas of opportunity
Employees have both strong attributes they contribute to the workplace and areas of opportunity upon which they can improve. It’s the responsibility of the HR department to help the company identify these areas of opportunity for individual employees and create training and development plans that help them strengthen the areas that need improvement. This will give employees the added confidence that they can do their job properly which will help motivate them to do their best.
Creating and maintaining consistency throughout the team
When everyone in the workplace receives the same training they all have the same foundation of information to work upon. This helps create consistency within the workforce. It is your responsibility as a human resources associate to implement training and development programs for company procedures and policies to make sure everyone has the same base knowledge.
Increasing employee morale and satisfaction
You can also help increase employee morale and satisfaction by providing them with the information they need to feel confident in their position. When a company takes the time and money to train their employees, it shows employees they are valued and that the company wants to help them grow as well. This helps boost overall employee morale and job satisfaction.
Creating opportunities to learn new skills and technology
Many industries today are adopting new technologies at an accelerated pace and in order for employees, especially ones who have been with the company for a long time, to learn new skill sets they need training. When the company adopts new technology into the workplace, you will likely be responsible for training existing employees on how to use that technology to improve their efficiency and productivity.
