BSBHRM613 Contribute to The Development of Learning and Development Strategies Assessment

Content

Overview

The Student Guide should be used in conjunction with the recommended reading and any further course notes or activities given by the trainer/assessor.

Application of the unit

This unit describes the skills and knowledge required to contribute to improving organisational learning, and the quality of training and assessment products and services. It covers contributing to strategy formation; designing, developing and implementing an organisational learning strategy, and reviewing and improving overall organisational learning and development.

The unit applies to individuals working in an enterprise where learning is used to build capabilities and contribute to organisational strategies, business plans, goals and values.

No licensing, legislative or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time of publication.

Learning goals

Learning goals include:

• You are able to contribute to learning and development strategy formation.
• You are able to contribute to design of organisational learning and development strategy.
• You are able to recommend improvements to strategies.

Topic 1: Contribute to learning and development strategy formation

Organisation learning requirements

Training and development are critical to improving performance in an organisation. This also applies to leadership as it leads to the formulation of organisational learning strategies. Leadership helps facilitate processes fundamental to the implementation of learning and development programs to achieve an organisation's vision and mission. There are organisations around with beliefs that training is an expense and will only implement training programs if required by authoritative institutes such as government. On the other hand, some organisations see training as their top priority; therefore, they invest in training with an expectation that training and development of employees, management and leaders will improve their company's performance and profitability. Therefore, learning and development programs are only effective if the leaders of the organisation believe that learning and development initiatives are essential to organisational success.

What is training?

It is usually the human resource (HR) department or Learning and Development department (L&D) who are responsible for facilitating training programs in an organisation. They work closely with the stakeholders like organisation's leaders, line managers and employees to build skills, knowledge and organisational capability to deliver high performing standards. Let's define some keywords here. According to Saks & Haccoun, Managing Performance through Training and development (2016):

Learning Theories

Some top learning theories are cognitivism, constructivism, collectivism, humanism and connectivism learning. Let's take a closer look at these:

Behaviourism – external factors condition behaviour as a universal learning process. Positive and negative reinforcement, like rewards and punishment, are used to learn behaviour modification.

Cognitivism – developed by Jean Piaget. A child develops cognitive pathways in understanding and physical response to experiences. Involves reading and receiving instructions.

Constructivism – people create their understanding of the world. Previous experiences play a significant role in how we process and absorb new information.

Humanism – Learning is a natural process that helps a person reach self-actualisation. Experiences, exploring scenarios and observing others are import learning factors here.

Connectivism – Based on the idea that people process information by forming connections. Evidence in our digital and technology age suggests that people no longer stop learning after formal education. We continue to gain knowledge through various activities: job skills, networking, experience and access to information with new tools in technology.

Models of training and development

The three types of training and development models are:

1. Systematic model – involves training analysis, design, development, implementation/ execution and evaluation.
2. Transitional model – involves vision, mission, values and realisation. The outer loop describes the vision, mission, and values of the organisation based on which the inner circle is executed.
3. Instructional systems design model – involves training analysis, planning, development, execution and evaluation.

Contemporary model of training and development

Models of training and development will differ from one organisation to another, based on an organisation's situation and leadership style. However, it is not uncommon to see many organisations use blended models of training to drive learning strategies. Technology plays a massive role in how we learn and develop our knowledge, skills and use our abilities in ways we could not imagine a century ago.

Contemporary or current models of training and development involve high levels of employee participation in training design. In the modern model, blended learning approaches are used. Technology is used vastly so that learning can occur anytime and anywhere: at work, off work or at home, at one's desktop computer, mobile devices (tablets and smartphones) and even on social media! Organisations are also transitioning from keeping hard copies of business documents such policies and procedures to building knowledge management systems by storing electronic copies of documents on their local area network or intranet. This transition has made learning in organisations quicker as these documents are available and accessible any time of the day.

The contemporary model of learning and development fosters a training design and development system that draws information from internal stakeholders and various external resources intending to fill the gap between "what the organisation knows" and "what should the organisation know" from a future perspective. Similarly, this model also encompasses feedback and analysis capability to determine the effectiveness of training programs. In high performing organisations like learning organisations, negative feedback information is fed into their continuous improvement systems to identify issues and improve training products, processes or services.

A continuous improvement system is when an organisation puts an ongoing effort to enhance its products, services and processes. Here, work processes are improved systematically to reduce or avoid errors.

Reasons for training

Consider the following reasons for training:

4. Environmental factors – external changes in the environment caused by global competition, technology and labour market are some of the reasons for organisational learning to adapt to external environmental factors. Employees need to be upskilled and developed to meet the challenges of continually changing external environments.
5. Laws and legislations – several laws and legislations require organisations to train their employees. Following are some examples:

• Workplace training requirements, e.g. Fair Work Ombudsman https://www.fairwork.gov.au/
• Workplace health and health, e.g. WorkCover QLD https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/
• Government and other authoritative institutional requirements, e.g. Registered Training Organisation standards in Australian Skills Quality Authority https://www.asqa.gov.au/
• Industry regulations, standards codes of practice

6. Organisation context – employees need to learn an organisation's values, culture, policies and procedure to perform jobs that help in achieving organisational goals:

• Implementation of organisational strategies to achieve organisational goals.
• Achieve organisational effectiveness to increase the quality of products and services that in turn, impact positively on the company's performance and profitability.
• Human resource recruitment and retention strategy:
• Attract and retain employees which in turn reduces employee turnover costs
• Build a workforce with knowledge, skills and abilities for future
• Address performance management requirements

7. Employees want to learn!

• Intrinsic satisfaction – new knowledge and skills help improve an employee's confidence and efficacy allowing them to perform better in their roles
• Extrinsic satisfaction – higher knowledge, skill and experience levels, usually equate to increase in pay, employability and opportunities for career progression.

8. Society and citizenship

• Educated and employed population – reduces unemployment and produces more skilled workers
• Health and safety – reduce errors and risks and help improve own and public safety
• Economy and standard of living – primary means of increasing productivity and economic growth of a country.

Organisational learning

Organisational learning is a process of creating, sharing, diffusing and applying knowledge in organisations. It is imparting information and instructions to improve an employee's performance or to help him/her to retain knowledge, skill and ability to improve their work performance.

If organisations want to be profitable, sustainable and agile, they need to learn and become a "learning organisation continually". A learning organisation considers all of its employees as "learners". Employees learn through both formal and informal learning, and they are supportive of change. In learning organisations, training is a norm and part of continuous business improvement strategies.

An organisation's knowledge

What is learnt becomes knowledge and application of knowledge becomes skill that boosts one's ability and capacity to perform at effective levels. But how does an organisation learn and retain knowledge and why is learning important at all levels of an organisation?

1. An organisation learns through:

• Explicit and tacit knowledge – knowledge bought through copyrights, patents, licenses or any type of intellectual property. Knowledge is tacit if it comes from experience, intuitions, trick of trades and instincts.
• Intellectual capital – this is organisational knowledge and experiences that it builds through innovation, its presence and discoveries in an industry market.
• Communities of practice – employees with common interests share knowledge and skills with each other by interacting with others. This has proven to be an effective way of learning inside and outside of organisations.
• Formal and informal learning

2. An organisation retains knowledge by managing knowledge. Knowledge management is a process of creating, saving, compiling and sharing the "know what to do" and "how to do". Knowledge management has five parts:
3. Learning in an organisation occurs at three levels, and their importance is explained below.

• Organisational level learning – acquisition and sharing of knowledge and information is prevalent in the organisation's environment. Management needs to develop and implement learning strategies that will promote a learning environment that will assist in building organisational efficiencies crucial for the achievement of an organisation's vision.
• Group level learning – at this level, employees have opportunities to share knowledge. Here, culture, workplace processes, climate and norms support and encourage knowledge sharing. Management and leadership play a crucial role in facilitating an organisational culture, practices and procedures that inspire facilitation of formal and informal learning.
• Individual level learning – individuals are given opportunities to train and develop through formal and informal learning systems. However, management has the responsibility to encourage learning and ensure individuals have structured learning programs to help them grow in their role and for future career progression.

Source: Saks & Haccoun, Managing Performance Training and development, 2016

Organisational learning strategy

A training implementation strategy includes three key elements that are namely before, during and after the transfer of training. The trainee, trainer and management play a critical role in the transferral of training. According to Waddell, Cummings, Worley (2011) implementing an organisational learning strategy requires clear communication of requirements of the trainee, trainer and management before, during and after training.

Their strategies are shared here.

Barriers to transfer of training include:

• no support from immediate managers for training
• culture does not support training
• skills cannot be applied to job because there is no time or resources and sometime there are no opportunities to use new learnt skills
• systems and process do not support skills
• skills become redundant as job responsibilities change or skills do not match work unit or department
• old habits are hard to change
• no reward system to support new skills.

Implement strategies before training

Management – decide who attends the training, discuss training program with employees, involve trainees in the training process, provide time, resources and support for training, develop training contract with the trainee.

Trainer – uses Instructional Systems Design model application (used for systematically assessing and developing training programs), determine manager and trainee learning needs and expectations, ensure both trainee and manager understand the training program, and make sure trainees are prepared for undergoing training.

Trainee – determines what the training program is before attending the course, develop action plan with supervisor, and get ready for training.

Implement strategies during training

Management – contribute in the training program, attend the program before trainees, ensure trainees' work is reassigned so that trainee can focus on training and not worry about "check-up with workload".

Trainer – integrate adult learning theories and relevant learning theories in program design, use content and examples applicable to trainees, offer the transfer of training intervention, get trainees to create a performance agreement or contract for the transfer of training to their job setting.

Trainees – have a positive attitude, find motivation for training, engage through active participation, develop an action plan for the transfer of training to the job setting.

Implement strategies after training

Management – provide trainees with immediate opportunities to transfer training at work, reinforce and encourage trainees to use newly learnt skills, develop an action plan with trainees to transfer training at work, support trainees to practise new skills, allow time and resources and reduce work pressure whilst trainee is mastering new skills, track progress, celebrate successes and evaluate and provide feedback promptly.

Trainer – conduct workplace or work desk visits to observe and provide feedback to trainees, continue to provide support where possible.

Quality policies and processes in organisational learning

Implementing training and development strategies work better when they are supported by an organisation's robust training and development policies and procedures. The policies and practices function as a guideline and in some cases are used as a means to meeting compliance requirements of authoritative responsibilities, such as obligations to meet the compliance requirements of government institutes. However, the essential elements of training policy and procedures are that:

1. It sets the guidelines for obtaining learning resources that must be compliant with specific international, national, industry and workplace needs.
2. It sets the guidelines for training assessment and evaluation compliance with course; this can also include guidelines for conditions of "recognition of prior learning."
3. The policies and procedures are reviewed continually using continuous improvement systems, that they are current.
4. They meet the quality management compliance requirements
5. Includes guidelines for outsourcing resources or designing the training program and selection of training program vendors
6. It outlines who will pay for training employees: company subsided programs, employee contribution, information on training contracts etc.

Authoritative requirements examples

These are laws, rules and business obligations stipulated by government bodies like:

• Work Health and Safety Act stipulate the primary duty of care. It requires duty holders to ensure health and safety, so far as is reasonably practicable, by eliminating risks to health and safety.

https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018C00293

• Fair Work Ombudsman promotes employee rights and stipulates employer obligations. Employers need to create an inclusive work environment where every employee has an equal opportunity to training and development. It enables workplace obligations towards apprenticeship and traineeship programs and stipulates minimum wage rates based on employees' qualifications and work experience in the industry.

https://www.fairwork.gov.au/

• Australian Skills Quality Authority requires Registered Training Organisations (RTO) to implement continuous professional development strategies to ensure that trainees are learning from trainers who have maintained current and relevant experiences. Additionally, RTOs must meet many other legislative requirements to deliver accredited training in the vocational education sector.

https://www.asqa.gov.au/vet-registration/deliver-training-and-assessment-qualifications

• The Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS) is a register of Australian education institutions that recruit, enrol and teach overseas/international students. Registration on CRICOS allows providers to offer courses to overseas students studying, or intending to learn, in Australia on student visas. Organisations also need to meet heavy compliance requirements and therefore need to maintain training policies and procedures.

https://www.asqa.gov.au/cricos-registration  

Industry Institutes requirements examples

• Australian Building and Construction Council (ABCC) promotes understanding and enforces compliance with Australia's workplace laws in the building and construction industry. It requires employers to ensure employees/contracts are trained and qualified as Asbestos Removers, have construction industry training and certified white card for working at heights safely.

https://www.abcc.gov.au/

• Australian Hairdressing Council promotes industry standards and supports training and development of youths who are engaging in working in the hairdressing industry

High performing organisations examples

• Policies, procedures, standards and codes of practice are learnt and modelled at all stages of the organisation.
• Employees are continually learning either through formal education or informal learning through self-directed initiatives.
• Learning and development is an investment, not an expense.
• View learning and development as contributing to becoming a better organisation and becoming better social and corporate citizens.

Other reasons and examples

• Quality management system – organisation policies are usually accompanied by a set of procedures to conduct effective training and development. The procedures include instructions, service level agreements for training delivery, flowcharts, checklists and templates, all of which can be used to implement, monitor effectively and evaluate training and development.
• Organisations have training policies and procedures because it is the "norm" to have one even if training and development do not eventuate.
• Organisations that pay for employees' training costs would include training contracts in the policy and that if a worker leaves the job before training contract is fulfilled, the worker will need to pay for the training expense usually at pro-rata rate.
• Policies can be used to enforce the behaviour of workers in the areas of ethical work practices, inclusiveness and diversity, anti-discrimination. It can also include training employees on acts such as the Privacy Act to mitigate legal implications.
• Policies and procedures help organisations maintain the ground rules at the workplace.
• Ensure that the organisation is diverse, inclusive and anti-discriminatory. Varied and inclusive environments are a good source of creativity and innovation.

Source: Saks & Haccoun, Managing Performance Training and development, 2016

Analyse, align and plan learning strategy with organisation

Organisational learning and development strategies can be improved with continuous improvement practices. The training strategies must be evaluated from end to end to ensure that training design, development, delivery and implementation strategies are current and consistent with the organisation's operational strategies. This also ensures that the training and development system in the organisation meets the quality management compliance requirements. Some ways to improve learning strategy formulation are discussed below.

Culture

An organisation must have a culture conducive to learning and development. Start with conducting a learning culture survey. The following questions can be asked to assess the commitment of management to organisational learning and then formulate the learning strategies based on survey feedback.

Human resources

When managed effectively, human resource can use learning and development programs to promote employee engagement, growth and succession. Learning and development and effective human resource management also promote collaborative thinking: creativity and innovation encourage employees to take challenging tasks which increases their motivation to learn, develop and grow in roles.

Integrate organisational learning into strategic human resource planning and function:

• Strategic alignment of human resource practices and policies to business strategy
• Strategic alignment of an organisation's training programs to an organisation's business strategy
• Aim for development of high-performance workforce systems
• Use performance management as a tool for identifying and developing training strategies
• Ensure learning and development policies are current
• Analyse training needs at organisational, functional and individual levels and as a team
• Check with human resources if there are any budget or resource limitations for training and development solutions.

Technology for greater flexibility and engagement

Integrate online aspects to training programs to give employees autonomy to complete elements remotely in their own time. This adds flexibility within a strategic learning and development program, saves the cost of travel expenses for off-job training and price for creating instructional training materials.

Online learning systems can track training performance very quickly. With cloud-based software programs, you can evaluate progress during the learning process, results and completion times. This will allow management to identify areas of weakness, provide targeted and constructive feedback and motivate and recognise efforts for individual staff members. Additionally, this becomes a good source of data to evaluate training programs and individual training outcomes giving organisations in-built flexibility to quickly develop reports for management decision making and report compliance to authoritative organisations when needed.

Use graphic visuals, interactive contents, gamification, quizzes, to stimulate active participation by trainees. This contemporary model of training has proven to increase trainee motivation which consequently allows them to retain information better in the long run.

Other learning requirements and plans

Environmental scan

Conduct thorough environmental scans (political, economic, social and technology) to keep well-informed of future training needs. Formulate learning strategies based on current and expected industry benchmarks, codes of practice, and any new legislation that affect your industry of operation and customer trends.

Cost efficiency

Build a partnership with the industry and government training providers. The benefits of these partnerships can be advantageous if executed and managed correctly. But how? It reduces the cost of training, helps build quality systems and increases an organisation's reputation for future business opportunities with authoritative institutes and industry bodies. Industry or government-funded training programs are generally more credible because their courses come with nationally recognised certifications or qualifications which is also a right motivation for employees to participate in training.

Consider the following:

• Industry partnership programs and initiatives – fund full or partial training and development to develop knowledge and skills for the industry
• Government-subsidised training programs – employees may be eligible for subsidised training.
• Registered training organisations (RTOs) – usually deliver a range of nationally recognised skillsets and qualifications that are subsidised by the government. A lot of RTOs are capable of providing online, workplace or blended training programs and they can coordinate setting up of training programs too. The trainers and subject matter experts from your organisation can work together to deliver programs effectively.
• Apprenticeship and school-based training programs are subsided by the government and or industry bodies. This is an excellent way to attract future employees. It also helps organisations to connect with their community.
• Professional associations – several professional bodies offer a discount for organisation membership. These professional associations have an array of professional development short courses and certification processes which can be leveraged as part of organisational learning strategy. They have the latest information on trending knowledge and skills requirements and regular updates on how the related industries are performing.

Leadership and management training

Enhance the calibre of the leadership and management team so that they can take challenging tasks, break the old habits and learn newer ways of building organisational excellence. Some programs that can be targeted at management are:

• management development programs
• management training programs
• emotional intelligence
• business ethics
• project management
• lean or quality management systems
• encourage networking.

Setting performance expectations for key stakeholders

One of the critical roles that human resources and company leaders include setting performance expectations for personnel involved in the development and implementation of learning and development program. Setting performance expectations is one method to make relevant stakeholders responsible and accountable for the success of the training program.

Usually, companies set performance expectation as key performance indicators (KPI's) on job descriptions. The KPI's, however, must be developed in alignment with company goals and guided by company policies and procedures.

Quality management systems

Policies and procedures

Policies and procedures liaise with educators, learners and others and monitoring learning and development strategies and learning and development resources play a crucial role in the effective use of the organisation's resources.

Continuous improvement systems

Build continuous improvement systems to continually evaluate and resolve issues of functions and programs in the organisation. Create and maintain a continuous improvement register to identify problems or bottleneck and note action plans to develop solutions. This process can also be applied to registering customer complaints and resolutions to ascertain training towards customer service excellence. This is a great way to keep a register of areas that need improvement that can become part of the training and development program.

Topic 2: Contribute to the design of organisational learning and development strategy

Training design is a process of preparing and planning events and ways in which learning can be facilitated. It answers the questions of what training is needed, who needs training, how will the training be delivered, and when it will occur.

Designing organisational learning and development strategy involves working collaboratively with relevant stakeholders to determine what the company's training needs and how training needs will be addressed.

Determine training needs analysis

Training or assessment needs analysis is a process of identifying gaps or deficiencies between the workers or the organisation's current and desired performance gap. When an organisation's or individual's performance becomes concerning, the key stakeholders who can influence and support training and development program must be contacted. Information about what is causing the gap between the desired and actual gap must be collected. This can be done by analysing any or all three levels of a company: organisational, task and person analysis. Stakeholder consultation, collection of information and outcomes all form part of the training needs analysis.

Stakeholders can include:

Three levels of training need analysis

Adult learning principles

Adults that have learnt throughout their lives bring organisations their skills, knowledge and experience. Training adults can be challenging if they do not know why they are being trained. Therefore, communication and support is crucial in motivating adults to learn. Adult learning principles that affect their motivation to learn include:

• trainees' cognitive ability – their knowledge
• training motivation – what's in it for them?
• self – efficacy
• goal orientation
• personality characteristics – are they self-motivated to learn?
• job-related attitudes
• self-directed learning.

Training objective

Objective training states what a trainee will be able to do after undertaking a training program. It addresses the following:

• Who will be trained?
• What behaviours are expected of trainees to demonstrate mastery of training content?
• What are the conditions (time, tools) of assessing desired behaviour?
• What are the observable and measurable standards of performance criterion post-training?

Design flexible learning, development and assessment strategies

The process of training design involves choosing and making a decision on appropriate training materials and methods.

Outsourcing or designing training materials

• Using vendors that have externally prepared materials that can provide training and development help save costs, time, and accuracy and usually involves satisfying the compliance requirements of government institutes and industry standards.
• The decision to purchase materials will be also be determined by how soon the training needs to be delivered and the size of the trainee class.
• Before committing to outsourcing, management must prepare a proposal outlining the nature of training solutions, ensure proper training and other resources that may come with purchase to meet their training objectives effectively. Additionally, check the credibility of the vendors before purchase.

Many countries supported the vocational education system for adult and targeted learning at workplaces. In Australia, employees can choose from many institutes that deliver government accredited short courses and qualifications. For instance, Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) and the government run system Training and Further Education (TAFE) have strict compliance requirements for what training they deliver, how they provide it, when they deliver training. These institutes usually offer qualifications that are subsidised by government and deliver workplace training that significantly reduces the cost of training. Additionally, training can also encompass non-accredited learning, such as short courses that are run in-houses or other training or consulting organisations. Non-accredited courses are much quicker to start and at affordable prices. Whether choosing an accredited or non-accredited course, it is crucial that purchase orders for procuring training are organised, and the suppliers of the training commit to delivering training as per the agreed training contract. It is crucial that an organisation's training policies include that the organisation must select the supplier that best fits the organisational training needs and be prepared to sign a training contract.

Designing training content

When designing training content, consider the following:

• Content must be based on the training needs of the organisation, task or targeted individuals.
• Address the gap between the desired results, future skills and organisational requirements to current performance results and abilities.
• Involve a subject matter expert who is familiar with the skills, knowledge and ability components of the training gap.
• Keep the learning material as enjoyable as possible by involving case studies, questionnaires, role plays, presentations, gamification, allowing participation and discussions
• Beware of laws, legislations and acts that must be abided by during collecting training data and developing content, e.g. Privacy Act https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/the-privacy-act/, Copyright Act https://www.communications.gov.au/what-we-do/copyright

Training Methods

Training can be delivered in many ways; however, learning occurs, through:

• Active practice where trainees are allowed to practise performing tasks and knowledge during the training. Providing trainees with learning materials before learning, which is known as pre-training intervention, additional support, feedback and advice help motivate trainees and create conditions for effective learning.
• Active learning allows trainees to have control over their own learning experience. This can be enhanced by allowing trainees to explore, discover and follow procedural instructions to complete a training task.
• Error-management training which allows trainees to make errors in a controlled environment during training so that they learn from their mistakes. Making errors forces trainees to develop their thinking process on knowledge and skills that need working on. Sometimes errors also lead to creating new positive ways of performing a task that would not have been thought of before.

A well-strategized training design will encompass training methods to optimise trainees' learning. Choosing a method of training will depend on the cost and resource ability, relevance to job and job application, trainer's skills and preference and trainee characteristics and preferences. Organisational learning can be enhanced by choosing the appropriate method for a training program. Information on current accredited training and assessment requirements can be accessed on: https://training.gov.au/Home/Tga

Off-the-job-training methods

This method involves trainees receiving training outside of the work environment which may include:

• Lecture methods – trainees, receive training content from their trainer
• Discussion methods – two-way discussion between trainee and trainer or trainees
• Role play – trainees practise new skills in a controlled environment
• Simulations – situations designed to represent reality
• Case study method – discussing, analysing and problem-solving using real scenarios
• Case incident method – tends to focus on a particular topic where trainees resolve issues using a specific concept
• Behaviour modelling – trainees imitate models' behaviour
• Games – encourages trainees to learn new skills through competition
• Action learning – small groups, working on a problem together
• Instruction media – use of media to deliver training.

On-the-job-training methods

These methods involve an experienced employee or trainer providing training to workers or trainees at their regular workplace. Some examples are:

• Job instruction training
• Observing performance and providing feedback
• Performance aid
• Job rotation
• Apprenticeship

• Mentoring

Technology-based training

This method involves the use of technology to deliver training programs. Some examples are:

• Computer-based training
• Instructor-led training (online classes and discussions) that promote self-directed learning allowing trainees to participate in training programs at their initiative
• Asynchronous (where pre-recorded training programs that are available for training at any time, e.g. webcast, podcasts, video or multimedia)
• Synchronous (live training on computers requiring participants to be present at their computers and may involve interaction via video or web conferencing or chats, webinars or virtual classroom)
• Electronic performance support systems (use of internet and intranet to provide employees with information, recommendations, policies and procedures, service level agreements that help employees' performances.
• Mobile learning or m-learning (use of portable devices such as smartphones and tablets)
• Social media and Web2.0 technology.

For technology-based training to be effective, organisations need to provide electronic equipment and support systems. The current trend in learning and development involves online learning and distance education. Both learning styles require technology to deliver training content to the students/trainees, e.g. computers, headsets, printers, scanners, projectors and interactive whiteboards can aid trainees to access training programs with ease.

Blended training method

This method includes a mix of training methods like a combination of classroom learning, off-the-job and on-the-job training. This allows trainees to learn in different styles and can be suited to target job-specific learning outcomes.

Establish processes, resources and staff to implement a training program

Implementation of training programs requires the controlled execution of processes, resources and staff to ensure effective delivery and benefits of the training program. The methods, resources and staff in implementing training program activities include:

• Developing a lesson plan – an outline of the sequence of training events that will occur in the training program
• Choosing a trainer – the trainer be subject matter expert, be expressive and have linguistic devices to keep the trainees motivated and engaged during the lesson. Sometimes subject matter experts are not the best trainers; therefore, they will need to be trained (train the trainer) on how to design and deliver the training program.
• Decide who should attend the training
• Determine what training equipment and materials will be required
• Select and prepare a training site where training will occur
• Training administrator – is the person who will assist with organising training materials before the training day, obtain trainee details and record on systems, inform trainees and their managers of training objectives, plans or outline of the training program
• Implement the training program – on the training day:
• Ensure the training environment is conducive to learning. Trainers must be prepared with content and materials, meet and greet trainees, learning facility is well-lit, safe and accessible, and trainer styles include good listening, empathy and respect towards trainees' opinions. Robert Gagne's nine events of instruction principles can help trainers deliver training more effectively:

1. Gain trainee's attention
2. Describe the objectives of the program

• Stimulate or encourage recall of prior knowledge

1. Present the material to be learnt
2. Guide learning
3. Elicit performance practice

• Provide informative feedback
• Assess performance

1. Enhance retention and transfer of knowledge to job duties.

Training strategies must be evaluated because it is the management's responsibility to improve training. Reasons for reviewing organisational learning strategies are discussed below.

Topic 3: Recommend improvements to strategies

Review current organisational learning strategy

The review of an organisational learning strategy's effectiveness begins with collecting data on how the training program impacted the trainees. Kirkpatrick's 4 Levels of Evaluation (reaction, learning, behavioural, results level evaluation) and cost-benefit analysis are as follows:

1. Reaction level - evaluation assesses the reaction of participants to the program: what they thought and felt about the effectiveness and quality of the training, speakers, venue etc. It is not uncommon for some organisation to not evaluate their programs. All training programs must be assessed at this level. Trainees must be requested to complete an evaluation at the end of each course. The assessment criteria must be predetermined, which may include the quality of training content, course material, venue, trainers, sometimes quality of food and noise in the environment, etc.
2. Learning level - measures the learning, which increases knowledge or capability. Here, trainees can be asked to complete a questionnaire or survey on how their learning and capabilities have changed post taking the training course. This level of assessment will include pre and post-course tests, question and answer sessions, group work, individual activities, quizzes, etc. For nationally recognised or accredited courses, formal assessments and examinations should be conducted.
3. Behavioural change level - examines the extent to which participants' behaviour changed on return to the workplace after training. Trainees and their managers complete a training plan questionnaire with details on areas of development and their expectations of post-training. Training plans are reviewed at regular intervals post-training and transfer of learning to the workplace in terms of trainee's new behaviour is reviewed. The employee and managers usually do this, or their peers and results are reviewed.
4. Results level – assesses the results in terms of the trainee's performance in the workplace post-training. Employee's performance is compared with their last review. This practice must be conducted at least quarterly or biannually. Constructive feedback must be provided at this level. Employees can undertake refresher courses. Once again, the effectiveness of training can be assessed as in 3.

Review the performance of resources and people

Return on investment level – last but an important, and sometimes a difficult, evaluation. Here, a cost/benefit analysis exercise is undertaken to determine the return to the organisation on its investment in training. This can be time-consuming, but the use of technology and software can make ROI calculations easier.

Return on investment = Benefits – Costs of the program

Cost of the program

The returns (benefits) of training must be greater than the cost of training to ascertain the effectiveness of training programs and similarly for training strategies.

Other models of training evaluation include:

• COMA model
• Decision-based evaluation model
• Internal Referencing Strategy (IRS) (compromise evaluation model).