Selecting Nontraining and Training Strategies
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You now know that you have a performance gap that is worth addressing. You also have identified the likely causes of the performance gap. The following pages describe the various strategies you can use for selecting either a nontraining or training method for closing the performance gaps.
Selecting Nontraining and
Training Strategies
There are two types of strategies for enhancing employee performance: nontraining strategies and training strategies.
It is important to match the type of strategy used to the causes of the gap in performance.
• If your causes are due to environmental or motivational factors, then you should review the section on selecting nontraining strategies.
• If your causes are due to skill/knowledge deficiencies, then you should review the section on selecting training strategies.
Selecting Nontraining Strategies
Nontraining strategies should be chosen when performance gaps are caused by deficiencies in the environment, flawed incentives, or lack of motivation. Here are some of the most common non-training strategies:
• Change feedback methods.
• Modify reward systems.
• Improve employee selection practices.
• Redesign the organization.
Let’s take a look at how each of these nontraining strategies can impact employee performance.
CHANGE FEEDBACK METHODS.
Description: Changing feedback methods involves changing the quantity, quality, and/or timeliness of feedback that you give your employees about what they do, how well they do it, what results they achieve, or how well their work results match up to desired results.
Uses: You should consider changing feedback methods:
When the performance gap is due to motivational factors
When the employee has been able to perform at the required level in the past
After training, to reinforce new skills and knowledge
Tips:
Use coaching on a short-term basis to provide timely, immediate, and concrete feedback.
Display production wall charts that give immediate, concrete feedback to employees about how much or how well individuals or work groups are performing.
Use written feedback to provide short, practical, how-to-doit guidance on handling common or unique problem situations.
Use information from internal or external customer surveys to communicate how well employees are meeting the needs and requirements of customers.
Use peer assessment to build team communication and feedback.
MODIFY REWARD SYSTEMS.
Description: A reward system is the organization’s way of linking employee actions to positive consequences. A reward system attracts people to join the organization, keeps them working, and motivates them to perform. There are many theories about human motivation and reward, but basically all conclude that employees generally do what they are rewarded for doing, avoid what they are punished for doing, and neglect what they are neither punished nor rewarded for doing. To perform successfully, employees must feel they can succeed and they must be able to count on receiving a reward they value.
Uses: You should consider modifying your reward system when:
Employees expect that no reward will result from desired performance
Rewards for performing are of no value to the employee
Employees perceive the rewards for performing as negative
Individual incentives discourage team performance
Tips:
Design incentives to deliberately encourage performance that meets job performance or organizational goals.
Be creative in designing nonmonetary rewards such as choice of projects or job enrichment.
Look for opportunities to reward team as well as individual performance.
IMPROVE EMPLOYEE SELECTION PRACTICES.
Description: Improving employee selection practices means making sure that you match people to jobs or assignments for which they are qualified or suited. Selection methods influence training because the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that people bring to the job influence what they must learn in order to perform as desired.
Uses: You should consider improving your employee selection systems when:
Turnover is high
Employees are complaining that their work activities are different from what they were expecting
Supervisors and managers are complaining that their employees are ill-equipped to perform, even after training
Tips:
Make sure that job descriptions describe what your people are responsible for doing and the results they are expected to achieve.
Develop job descriptions that are complete, accurate, and current.
Use highly structured employment interview guides to aid in your selection process.
Consult with personnel specialists to ensure that you are following selection guidelines.
Get training in interviewing and selection techniques.
REDESIGN THE ORGANIZATION.
Description: Organizational redesign is the process of changing assigned objectives, responsibilities, or reporting relationships within an organization. This can include any change in the contents, methods, and relationships of jobs to meet individual or organizational requirements.
Uses: You should consider redesigning your organization when:
Employees are confused about job responsibilities
Job descriptions are vague or unclear
Organizational charts do not reflect actual organizational relationships
Your organizational structure fails to relate to the organization’s strategic goals
There are pockets of employees doing too much or too little work, or doing boring work
Workflow processes result in unnecessary complexity, inefficiency, or wasted resources
You cannot adapt quickly enough to changing internal or external conditions (e.g., new customers or unusual requests from customers)
Tips:
Describe explicitly what people should do, how they should do it, and what results are desirable in line with the organization’s goals and objectives.
If you change reporting relationships, be careful not to create an unnecessary management layer through which approvals must pass.
Improve information-sharing by analyzing what, how much, when, and how information is communicated.
Involve your employees in the redesign effort. If your employees are represented by a union, make sure that changes in working conditions are negotiated.
Selecting Training Strategies
There are many ways to provide training. In a learning organization, training often occurs through work-based learning opportunities, which are alternatives to traditional classroom training courses. The following pages provide an overview of both traditional training and alternative learning methods.
Training Methods
First you must decide the type of training methods to be used. The flowchart on the following page lists the questions you should ask when deciding if classroom-based training is appropriate.
Alternative Learning Opportunities
There are many opportunities for learning that take place outside the traditional classroom setting. Some alternative learning opportunities are:
| STRATEGY | DESCRIPTION |
| Critical Incidents | Important events involving successes, mistakes, or experiences in the organization that can be talked about and learned from (for example, case studies based on actual events within the organization) |
| Participation on Teams | Task forces or working groups can offer opportunities for individual and team learning if the members take time to examine the lessons learned from solving an urgent problem or improving a process and communicate those lessons to other groups. |
| Conferences and Seminars | Participating in professional seminars and conferences can help employees keep up-todate on current topics. |
| Team Learning Events | Planned events facilitated by someone outside the organization that provide opportunities for the entire staff to participate. |
Work-Based Training Strategies
In a learning organization, managers incorporate training into the work setting. The potential advantages of work-based training include:
Time and Money. It is likely to take less time to train your employees at or near their job location than to send them to a training course. In addition, the total costs of work-based training strategies are often less than those of off-the-job training.
Flexibility. Work-based training strategies can flexibly accommodate the individual needs of your employees and the circumstances in which they work.
Transfer. It may be easier to transfer what has been learned in real job conditions than from simulated conditions used in training courses.
Some of the most common kinds of work-based training strategies include:
• Coaching
• Mentoring
• Structured on-the-job training
• Job performance aids
• Special projects and rotational assignments
• Shadowing assignments
COACHING
Description: Developing and extending the ability and experience of employees by giving them systematically planned and progressively “stretching” tasks to perform, along with continuous appraisal and counseling.
Uses: You should consider using coaching when:
There is a need to enhance, improve, or develop skills already being demonstrated
Employees have the ability and knowledge, but performance has dropped or is no longer meeting expectations
New procedures or technologies are introduced to the work setting
Employees have not performed job functions recently
Coaching can also be used with nontraining strategies to provide timely, immediate, and concrete feedback.
Tips:
Provide training to individuals who will serve as coaches.
Ensure that coaches:
• Establish an environment conducive to coaching. If possible, provide the coaching in a private setting.
• Set structured objectives for learning and improvement.
• Jointly agree on an action plan.
• Select progressively more difficult assignments.
• Review progress and provide assistance. Reinforce improvements.
• Review and confirm new learning.
Reinforce coaches.
MENTORING
Description: A process whereby mentors and “mentees” work together to discover and develop the mentee’s hidden abilities. Mentoring can be formal or informal, a long-term or short-term investment, a single action or an agreed-upon plan. In a learning organization, anyone can be a mentor: The goal is the empowerment and continuous development of the mentees by developing their abilities and expanding their awareness, insight, and perspective. Mentors can provide exceptional learning experiences for their mentees and can highlight the key ideas and information that make events meaningful.
A good mentoring program provides networking and visibility as well as a good role model.
Essential components of a mentoring program include:
• Identifying and matching mentors/mentees
• Training mentors and preparing mentees
• Monitoring the mentoring process
• Evaluating the program
The mentor must consider:
• What knowledge and wisdom to impart
• What skills need to be taught
• How to best teach the subject matter
• What training schedule should be used
Uses: You should consider using mentoring when:
Orienting new employees
Grooming someone to take over a job or function or to master a craft
There is a need for an employee to have special insight, understanding, or information outside the normal channels or training programs
Tips:
Provide training for individuals who will serve as mentors.
Match mentoring styles to each mentee’s learning style when making assignments.
Have both parties state what they hope to gain from the relationship.
Ensure that mentors:
• Identify mentor and mentee expectations before the relationship begins, and develop a timeframe to complete each goal.
• Develop a mutual agreement that specifies specific key indicators that can be measured to ensure that the relationship is working.
• Check the key indicators periodically.
Deal with problems between mentors and mentees as they arise.
Reinforce mentors.
STRUCTURED ON-THE-JOB TRAINING (OJT)
Description: Training that takes place in the normal workplace of the trainee and covers the knowledge, skills, and attitudes appropriate to the correct performance of a task or job. On-the-job training (OJT) may include one-to-one instruction or coaching. The goal of OJT is to master new skills while using them. OJT is not a casual process. You must set up organized programs that include time for practice and coaching during the practice.
Uses: You should consider using OJT when:
The trainee is new to the task or job
It is important to train under actual on-the-job conditions
There is a need to refine knowledge and skills learned through other training methods
New procedures or technologies are introduced
Training time and/or budget is limited
Tips:
Base OJT instruction on a thorough job analysis, which identifies what the job tasks are, how they are to be done, reasons why they are done, and standards for task performance.
Train OJT instructors in one-to-one instructional techniques, coaching skills, and feedback skills. Teach OJT instructors ways to explain how and why to perform tasks. Make sure OJT instructors can demonstrate correct methods for performing a task.
Reward OJT instructors for participating in the program.
Identify expected outcomes of the training and communicate them to the OJT instructors and trainees. Make sure that OJT instructors know how to assess the intended performance levels.
Develop a work progression (simple to complex assignments) that will maximize the trainee’s ability to succeed. Adjust the OJT instructor’s workload to allow for training time.
Develop checklists to ensure that all objectives have been covered during OJT. These checklists can also be used for documenting performance and providing feedback.
Provide specific feedback on the trainee’s and the OJT instructor’s performance. Identify areas for further practice and/or learning.
Schedule time and space for the trainees and the OJT instructor to meet privately to exchange feedback.
JOB PERFORMANCE AIDS
Description: Job aids provide employees with guidance on how to perform in the context of their work. Anything that provides on-the-spot, practical guidance can be a job aid. Some examples are checklists, decision aids, procedure manuals, work samples, and algorithms or flowcharts.
Uses: You should consider using job aids when:
The consequences of errors are critical
Procedures are complicated
Tasks are performed infrequently
There is a need to reinforce new skills and knowledge learned through other training methods
New procedures and technologies are introduced
Time and/or budget for training is limited
Tips:
Create job aids by listing tasks of an activity or procedure in the order in which they are supposed to be performed. (You can use a flowchart to identify the tasks.) Keep your task descriptions as short and simple as possible. Use algorithms and flowcharts only for short procedures.
Use “IF–THEN” tables to show the consequences and outcomes/products of each activity or procedure.
Use procedure manuals to provide step-by-step guidelines and examples of how to comply with policies, solve workrelated problems, and complete typical work duties.
Provide work samples for employees to save them time and to show them how the work should be done.
Test your job aids before distributing them.
SPECIAL PROJECTS AND ROTATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS
Description:
• Special projects are short-term and long-term assignments aimed at a specific outcome over a few months to a year and usually are taken on as an assignment in addition to the current job. Projects are normally carried out with tight deadlines and require individuals to work with unfamiliar people and subject matter.
• Rotational assignments are details to another position (preferably outside the current unit) that last one month to one year to help an employee broaden his or her horizons and gain a new or better understanding of how other units operate. Working in a different office with unfamiliar co-workers and new responsibilities can be a challenging learning experience.
Uses: You should consider using special projects and/or rotational assignments as a training strategy to:
Add enrichment to a job
Develop employees in specific areas of knowledge and/or skills
Cross-train employees
Help employees learn new skills
Train people for career advancement
Tips:
Provide training on organization-specific policies, procedures, and/or guidance needed to complete the special project or rotational assignment.
Determine if merit selection procedures must be used for making these assignments. Merit selection procedures must be used to select candidates for programs that:
• Prepare employees for career or occupational changes
• Are part of a promotional program such as upward mobility
• Are required before an employee can be considered for promotion
SHADOWING ASSIGNMENTS
Description: During shadowing assignments, employees “shadow” another employee in a position different from their own for a period of time (usually no less than a day and no more than a week). The “shadowee” is able to observe a daily routine and get a sense of the duties and responsibilities of that job.
Uses: You should consider using shadowing assignments as a training strategy to:
Promote cooperation with employees from other work units.
Educate employees about the needs of internal customers.
Introduce employees to alternative careers or positions within the organization.
Tips:
Establish specific objectives to be derived from the assignment. Develop a list of questions that the shadowing employee must answer based on his or her observation.
Provide background information prior to the assignment to prepare both employees.
Meet with the employee after the assignment to discuss what was learned.
Determine if merit selection procedures must be used for making shadowing assignments.
Summary
You have just reviewed some nontraining and training strategies for enhancing employee performance. The next section, Managing Training Resources, provides information about weighing the costs and benefits of the type of training you selected, and provides guidelines for acquiring training resources.