Did You Know? Many Companies Outsource Training Tasks
A recent survey of U.S. – based corporations found that over half were outsourcing the
instruction of training courses. Almost half use contractors to develop custom content, and 45
percent use them to operate or host a learning management system.
Discussion Question and Suggested Response
1. Suppose you need to train office workers on how to use social media without
risking your company’s reputation or data security. What are some advantages of
company employees developing the course content? What are some advantages of using
a firm that specializes in training about information technology?
HR How To
Developing Training Content for Mobile Devices
Workers use or would like to use a variety of mobile devices such as smartphones, iPods, e-
Readers, tablets, and laptops. All of these devices have the potential to deliver effective training.
This vignette presents tips to help trainers ensure that m-learning (mobile learning) is well
prepared and tailored to users’ needs and the company’s objectives. These include: learn what
devices employee are already using, train employees to use the devices on which the training
will be provided, train a few employee in m-learning, provide tools make content search easy,
incorporate analytic tools such as Google Analytics into training software, and test content on all
kinds of devices.
1. Suppose your company creates an m-learning program, but the analytics tool
shows that employee almost never open the content. Which of the tips listed
here might the trainer have overlooked?
2. Suppose your company’s plan is to improve training on whatever mobile devices
employees already bring to work. Which of the guidelines listed will be more
difficult because of this plan?
HRM Social
Social Learning with Visual Impact on Pinterest
Pinterest does for social media what a bulletin board in the break room does for sharing
messages in the workplace. Pinterest lets users organize themes and ideas and training
professionals are discovering ways to use Pinterest to support training objectives. They use it to
pin training objectives or get employees excited about upcoming events. They also encourage
employees to pin items about the training session. It could be a great tool to help a new
employee find information in an organized way.
Discussion Questions with Possible Responses
1. How could photos of activities at a team-training event support transfer of training for the
members of the team who participated?
2. Besides setting up a Pinterest account, what kinds of technical support would trainers
need to provide if they want to use Pinterest to aid transfer of training?
HR Oops
Training Executive are Unimpressed with Their Measurement Processes
Discussion Questions with Possible Responses
1. Suppose you are a training leaders at a manufacturing company and you have been
asked to deliver a report about the value of your department’s work. You report the
number of training hours provided by your staff and the number of employee trained.
How do you think the company’s business managers would react to the report?
Most likely they would say, so what? They don’t care about how many people I trained
or the training hours in my department. They care about measurement that impact their
departments.
2. Give examples of few measures that might be more relevant to these managers.
The examples should be tied to the objectives of the training. A few examples could be:
decrease in costs, increase in manufacturing output, decrease in absenteeism, etc. All
things tied directly to the department and where the training can be tied to those
outcomes.
ROADMAP: CASE STUDY
Thinking Ethically
Internships: Opportunity or Exploitation?
Internships for college students are a valuable way for them to put what they are learning
into practice. Some employers pay a wage but others expect interns to work for no pay
because of the experience they are giving the students. Survey data shows that students
with paid internships are hired at higher rate than those with no internship or a nonpaid
internship. However, employers who want to offer a nonpaid internship must follow the Fair
Labor Standards Act guidelines. A nonpaid internship must be educational and not exist for
the direct benefit of the employers and may not be used as replacement employees.
Discussion Questions with Possible Responses
1. Suppose a publishing company wants to hire an intern to help the company catch up with its
paperwork over the summer. Who would be affected by this decision? What would be the
benefits or harm to each person.
1. How could a well-designed training program help make this idea meet ethical as well as
legal standards?
ROADMAP: Review and Discussion Questions
1. “Alicia!” bellowed David to the company’s HR specialist, “I’ve got a problem, and you’ve
got to solve it. I can’t get people in this plant to work together as a team. As if I don’t
have enough trouble with our competitors and our past-due accounts, now I have to put
up with running a zoo. You’re responsible for seeing that the staff gets along. I want a
training proposal on my desk by Monday.” Assume you are Alica.
a. Is training the solution to this problem? How can you determine the need for
training?
b. Summarize how you would conduct a needs assessment.
Training consists of an organization’s planned efforts to help employees learn job-related
knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors, with the goal of applying these on the job.
Training can benefit the organization when it is linked to organizational needs and when
it motivates employees. The growing reliance on teamwork creates a demand for the
ability to solve problems in teams, an ability that often requires formal training. With
training so essential in modern organizations, it is important to provide training that is
effective. In order to assist the organization with goal achievement, HR professionals
approach training through instructional design. This is a process of systematically
developing training to meet specified needs. Instructional design should begin with a
needs assessment, the process of evaluating the organization, individual employee, and
employee’s tasks to determine what kinds of training, if any, are necessary. A variety of
conditions may prompt an organization to conduct a needs assessment. The outcome
of the needs assessment is a set of decisions about how to address the issues that
prompted the needs assessment. These decisions do not necessarily include a training
program, because some issues should be resolved through other methods than training.
The students will most likely recommend conducting a needs assessment to determine if
the indicated problems can be successfully addressed by training. The responses
provided should indicate that a needs assessment provides answers to questions in the
three broad areas of (1) Organization – What is the context in which the training will
occur? (2) Person – Who needs training? and (3) Task – What subjects should the
training cover?
2. How should an organization assess readiness for learning? In Question 1, how do
David’s comments suggest readiness (or lack of readiness) for learning?
3. Assume you are human resource manager of a small seafood company. The general
manager has told you that customers have begun complaining about the quality of your
company’s fresh fish. Currently, training consists of senior fish cleaners showing new
employees how to perform the job. Assuming your needs assessment indicates a need
for training, how would you plan a training program? What steps should you take in
planning the program?
4. Many organizations turn to e-learning as a less expensive alternative to classroom
training. What are some other advantages of substituting e-learning for classroom
training? What are some disadvantages?
5. Suppose the managers in your organization tend to avoid delegating projects to the
people in their groups. As a result, they rarely meet their goals. A training needs
analysis indicates that an appropriate solution is training in management skills. You have
identified two outside training programs that are consistent with your goals. One
program involves experiential programs (adventure learning) and the other is an
interactive computer program. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each
technique? Which would you choose? Why?
6. Consider your current job or a job you recently held. What types of training have you
received for that job? What types of training would you like to receive? Why?
The responses provided will vary. However, all responses should indicate understanding
of the chapter concepts.
7. A manufacturing company employs several maintenance employees. When a problem
occurs with the equipment, a maintenance employee receives a description of the
symptoms and is supposed to locate and fix the source of the problem. The company
recently installed a new, complex electronics system. To prepare its maintenance
workers, the company provided classroom training. The trainer displayed electrical
drawings of system components and posed problems about the system. The trainer
would point to a component in a drawing and ask, “What would happen if this component
were faulty?” Trainees would study the diagram, describe the likely symptoms, and
discuss how to repair the problem. If you were responsible for this company’s training,
how would you evaluate the success of this training program?
8. In Question 7, suppose the maintenance supervisor has complained that trainees are
having difficulty troubleshooting problems with the new electronic system. They are
spending a great deal of time on problems with the system and coming to the supervisor
with frequent questions that show lack of understanding. The supervisor is convinced
that employees are motivated to learn the system and they are well qualified. What do
you think might be the problems with the current training program? What
recommendations can your make for improving the program?
9. Who should be involved in orientation of new employees? Why would it not be
appropriate to provide employee orientation purely online?
10. Why do organizations provide diversity training? What kinds of goals are most suitable
for such training?
How Mas Tec’s Training Helps Keep Workers Safe
Mas Tec Utility Services Group is a contractor who hires individuals to work in dangerous and
difficult situations. The director of employee development developed a “culture of learning” with
training programs to enable workers to be skilled and safe at their jobs. Three objectives of the
program were: develop a curriculum for the employee orientation, implement a learning
management system, and star an apprenticeship program for line workers. They developed a
system with easy online access and designed the apprenticeship program to be tied to
promotion and pay increases.
Discussion Questions with Possible Responses
1. Based on the information given, what issues did Congemi and his employee
development group consider that would be part of a needs assessment and readiness
for training?
They visited construction sites and met with operations managers and safety professionals
to help them understand the workplace challenges.
2. What training methods are described in this case? Would you recommend Mas Tec use
other training methods besides these for its line workers? Why or why not?
The case describes computer based training with the use of a learning management system
and apprenticeship training.
Managing Talent
Hewlett-Packard Builds Its Own “University”
Meg Whitman, CEO, wanted to rekindle growth with a strategy of rebuilding Hewlett-Packards
technology reputations. She charged Tracy Keogh, EVP of HR to craft a plan for talent
management. Keogh had to identify the needs of 300,000 employees in 19 business funtions in
100 countries. Keogh decided to put all the training under one system, named HP University.
The team developed career paths and learning requirements with physical training locations and
online offerings. The system launched in 2012 with 10,000 course offerings and during the first
week nearly 80,000 employees logged into the site. With employee feedback, more courses
were developed and 84% involve some type of online learning. Games were developed to help
make the learning more engaging.
Discussion Questions with Possible Responses
1. What aspects of HP University effectively link training to the organization’s needs?
2. Hewlett-Packard is a technology company, yet it turned to a contractor to create
computerized training games. Evaluate the pros and cons of using a contractor in that
situation?
HR in Small Business
How Nick’s Pizza Delivers Training Results
This case describes the success of Nick’s Pizza, a pizza restaurant in two locations in northwest
Chicago that has a 20 percent turnover rate (in an industry that has a 200 turnover rate) and
operating profits of 14 percent (in an industry that has an average operating profit of 6 ½
percent). Nick’s is choosy about who get hired and then provides them with enough training to
operate skillfully and exercise sound judgment.
Questions
1. To the extent that you can provide details from the information given and a visit to Nick’s
Pizza Web site (http://www.nickspizzapub.com), prepare a needs assessment for
training kitchen staff at Nick’s. Remember to include organization, person and task
analyses.
2. How does the work environment support training at Nick’s? In what additional ways
besides those described, could the work environment support training?
3. Do you Do you think an outside contractor could provide training for Nick’s as effectively
as its current methods do? Why or why not? Are there some types or topics of training
for which a contractor might be appropriate? If so, which ones?
HRM DVD Vol 3 Suggested Video with Discussion Questions and Possible Responses
Johnson and Johnson eUniversity (9:32)
Video Summary
Johnson and Johnson has 200 operating units in the healthcare and personal care industries.
They have manufacturing operations in over 62 countries, and sell their products to nearly every
country in the world. Their decentralized policies and practices are considered a strength and a
part of their competitive advantage. Under decentralized practices, each of its business units
operate on their own
The credo, a set of value statements that guide the organization, of Johnson and Johnson is a
source of competitive advantage which helps to create the common culture of its organizations.
Corporate competitive advantage is created by allowing the diverse group of companies to
create their own identities and follow their own market.
Johnson and Johnson created an eUniversity in 2002 to help solve their problem of consistent
and productive knowledge management. This electronic platform makes training and
development available for all employees, worldwide.
Discussion Questions
1. What is knowledge management and why is it so important to today’s employers?
2. Johnson and Johnson has been highly successful using a decentralized structure. What are
some of the risks associated with decentralization? How do you maintain a decentralized
structure but provide development for all employees?