Interesting piece of news from the Economic Times India.
Over 40% employers voted on-the-job training for increased productivity and 35% for enhanced employee morale in the organization in a survey concerning training and development, conducted by TJinsite, research and knowledge arm of TimesJobs.com. A considerable share of the surveyed employers also claimed to reduce attrition by using training and development methodology.
"Training is critical for growth and development of employees in the organisation and also to retain talent", expressed Vivek Punekar, Chief Human Resource Officer-HCL Infosystems. Referring to his company's strategy, he adds that their comprehensive training programs ranging from entry level to the highest-level executives focuses on all-round development of the people. "To strengthen our process, we analyse and identify key development areas for training - skills, technical and product learning - on regular basis. New technological upgrades and business needs are also taken into consideration in this approach."
During a skills dialogue session, a series of high powered panel discussions organised by TimesJobs.com, experts resonated that on-the-job training is a cost-effective way that helps employees gain knowledge about the latest developments in their industry. And also leads to promulgation of new ideas within an organisation.
Employees too appreciate learning and training at the workplace since it enables them to develop knowledge and skills without leaving the work. In the TJinsite survey, on-the-job training by seniors has been voted as the most preferred method of training by 71% employees. Other training methods come at distant second; with workshop and seminars preferred by 15% of surveyed employees, followed by external trainers (11%) and least preferred manual & journals (3%).
The fact has also been corroborated by Jobbuzz, a career research platform promoted by TimesJobs.com, which gives jobseekers the information to make intelligent career decisions, where employees listed learning and development amongst top five criterion to rate their employers.
The TJinsite survey discovered that nearly 70% of organisations have separate training departments; however barriers of budgets and structure are hindrance to its effective implication. In view of Punekar, to ensure effectiveness of training programs, continuous assessment and feedback is necessity. So, that training programs can become more motivating, directional and profitable for organisations.
Implementing Collaborative Learning
We have discussed in the last couple of blog postings on the need for collaborative learning. The discussions on the three essential components for collaborative learning - intentional design, co labouring and meaningful learning set the groundwork for our discussions. Sometimes the research on instructional methods is highly criticized for comparing average classroom sessions with carefully designed experiential learning. Hence, the need for comparing the best classroom session with the best experiential activity. Results show greater learner satisfaction, involvement and learning based on the results. Though most of the research is often in the educational setting, my own experiences in corporate training can vouch for it - I have found experiential learning extremely powerful. The criticism from practitioners that collaborative learning takes more time and results in the content not being followed is being overcome by the strong results. Collaborative learning when well done leads...
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