Training Is the Answer but What Was the Question? Article Critique Example

Throughout studies of business and management, it is clear that it is necessary to train employees effectively in order them to perform well. Ultimately, well-trained employees results in a greater productivity and profit for the company, so there is typically incentive to do so. However, we often lose sight of why this is the case. The 1999 article, “Training is the Answer…But what was the Question?”, by Rob Rosner addresses this thought. The author opens up with a story about a health care employee who was trained for two full days, and at the end of training, felt like his time had been wasted. The rest of the article is used to demonstrate appropriate reasons to train employees and that training should not be coordinated by someone without experience just for the sake of saying training had taken place.

The author’s main point is that company’s often train their employees without putting much though towards the training programs that are being offered. While training programs are necessary, they are not worthwhile if they are not being conducted in a manner that contributes significantly to an employee’s job performance or leads them in the correct direction in their work. In order to determine whether a training program is worthwhile, the employer must first consider whether there is a problem that needs to be solved or an opportunity for improvement, if the best solution to the particular problem is training or whether there is an alternative, whether this problem has come up in the past and how it was solved the first time around, and what the intended goal of the training program is. Once these questions are considered and a company decides to move forward with the training program, it is then necessary to decide who will train the employees and whether they have the appropriate experience, whether the necessary timeline and budget is effective and worthwhile, and whether training within the company has been successful in the past. The last series of considerations to consider are how the content of the training program should actually be delivered.

Ultimately, training is not always an effective solution. For a training program to be effective, it is essential to have a knowledgeable leader who is able to identify gaps in knowledge in his or her trainees and increase their understanding of a particular technique or methodology. Furthermore, this content must be delivered in a way that is memorable and useful in the employee’s day to day functions. Training programs should not be a one-size-fits all requirement either. It is essential to consider that employees have different experiences and that some may deem a training opportunity as completely useless while some may consider it helpful. For training programs to be successful, therefore, it is of utmost importance to consider the audience and to design a program that either has aspects that will help everyone or certain programs to target specific sub-groups of the staff.

I agree with the author because it is important to not waste valuable company resources. Employee training programs are valuable tools, but their value is only present to the extent that they help the employees perform well. Many companies recognize that training programs are needed, but past this initial thought, they fail to think more deeply into what is needed to effectively train their workers. This article serves as an excellent reminder that employee training programs are not all created equal. It is essential for an employer to put a lot of thought into what they teach their employees because this will ultimately direct how they will work. Another aspect of this article I agree with is that employee training programs too frequently waste the time of new employee’s. While training that is provided the first few days is designed to acclimate the employee to the new company, they are often provided with information that is obvious or redundant. To avoid this, which is necessary because the employee will leave their first few work days feeling that their new company is unorganized, it may be essential to provide this information to the employee in the form of a booklet for reference, and to use the training time to discuss more specifically aspects of the job that the employees are less likely to have encountered. An alternative solution would be to provide a brief introduction to new staff members as a group, and then allow them to begin working immediately. Their immediate supervisor should make themselves more available during this time so that they may be able to address questions as they occur.

A major theme of the textbook is the development of organizational objectives and strategies. In order to introduce new employees to the organizational culture and to allow their personal philosophies to become aligned with company goals, it is essential to train them in a manner that reflects these principles. While an employee may develop these beliefs over time, more effective workers will be introduced to these concepts earlier. Thus, it is important for training programs to focus on the overall goal of the company, while acclimating the individual to the skills that he or she will need for optimal job performance.

This article supports the course because although training has been mentioned many times in the textbook and in course work, we fail to think about what training is critically. Although it is a term that is often thrown out in discussion, it refers to a very specific method to engage employees and create productivity, which contrasts the broad sense of improvement we typically refer to it in. Ultimately, to be a good manager, one has to be able to create successful training programs in order to further develop the team. Without this capability, a manager would be essentially useless and the team may fall apart.

References

Blanchard, P. N., & Thacker, J. W. (2010). Effective training: Systems, strategies and practices (Custom 4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Rosner, Bob. (1999). Training Is the Answer…But What Was the Question?Workforce. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&sid=62630d9e-d45c-4552-b822-     01e3a732e64a%40sessionmgr115&hid=124&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY2            9wZT1zaXRl#db=a9h&AN=1850268