Organizations are faced with a myriad of challenges that deters them from gaining competitive advantage within a business environment. This challenges ranges from technological adoption to talent management. However, organizations can overcome some of these challenges through employee training. Organizations that ensure that their employees are continuously trained in line with technology and service provision enhance their productivity hence enabling them to gain a competitive advantage in the market. It is on this basis that Noe et al. (2017) hold that for organizations to strengthen their human capital they should invest in employee training and development.
Introduction
Employee training and development is one of the vital functions of an organization’s human resource management department. According to Milhem et al. (2014) training is a systematic setup whereby employees are taught and instructed on how to carry out tasks related to their jobs with greater efficiency. Employee training is normally focused on how to use newly adopted technologies or effective ways of carrying out tasks (Noe et al., 2015). On the other hand, development denotes the overall growth and maturity of employees in their daily work routine within an organization (Rafles, Fadhlan, and Asmar, 2018). Employee development encompasses attitudes, job satisfaction, leadership, adaptability, and human relations.
According to Hsueh, (2016) the current business environment continues to be influenced by globalization trends which are characterized by rapid technological adoption to enhance service delivery and reduce costs of production for businesses. It is in this light that Peng (2016), argues that it is important for organizations to invest heavily in employee training and development at all levels. When employees possess the required knowledge related to their work they become effective which in turn enhances organizational performance.
Due to the rapid technological innovations and the current globalization trends, there have been continuous technological innovations and changes, demands from the external environment, and social norms change thus making employee training and development compulsory for the organization (Peng, 2016). However, most organizations have been found to focus on training and development for managers while negating employees at lower levels. Considering the number of these junior staff within an organization, their inability to adapt to any form of changes either technology or external environment demands due to lack of training and development is always accompanied by detrimental effects which often hinder an organization’s productivity and performance.
There are two prominent reasons why employee training and development are of great essence to organizations. First, employee training is critical for new employee before they assume their new jobs within the organization. Secondly, employee training and development is important for older employees because it ensures that they are abreast with ethics and technological changes within the organization (Noe et al. 2017). Therefore, continuous training of employees ensures that skills are updated and realigned with the organization’s goals and objectives in meeting market demands.
However, a study indicates that most of the organizational efforts have been directed toward technology adoption such as the enhancement of machines and technical know-how of the newly incorporated technologies. Other organizations have been found focusing excessively on employee training and development targeting top-level managers alone. This approach in organizations has ignored the need for providing training to junior employees thus limiting their performance and productivity (Ilyas, et al. 2017). Even though numerous studies have sought to elucidate on the importance of employee training and development, these studies have predominantly focused on larger organizations thus leaving a gap in the impact of employee training on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Consequently, previous studies have emphasized on more research on this area for comparison purposes amongst various organizations.
The objective of the Study
This study seeks to determine the impact of staff training and development on organizations and organizational success.
Research Question
Does employee training increase productivity and performance within the business organization?
Literature Review
The impact of employee training and development on organizations’ productivity and performance has received the attention of researchers, particularly from the business management and organizational psychology disciplines. The findings of these studies have made organizations increasingly acknowledge that employee training and development is accompanied by an array of benefits that can enable both small and large organizations to attain competitive advantage in any business environment. Therefore, this section of the study seeks to explore previous studies and their findings concerning employee training and development in organizations.
According to Hanaysha, & Tahir (2016) employee training and development lead to job satisfaction among organizations’ employees. While examining 242 employees of public universities in Malaysia, pieces of training were found to have enabled these employees to change attitudes while at work apart from learning efficient ways of performing their duties hence developing the feeling that their job was satisfactory. The feeling of job satisfaction was attributed to the reduced work hurdles that were significantly reduced after each training. Top et al. (2015) and Khan et al. (2016) argue that satisfied employees are likely to become committed to the success of an organization hence leading to increased productivity and performance within the organization.
While investigating the impact of employee training and development on the quality of services offered in Indian hotels for tourists, Dhar (2015), interviewed 494 employees to establish their perception of employee training and development programs before and on-the-job training in relation to their provision of services to clients. This study established that employee training and development programs enabled hotel workers. The provision to offer high-quality services as they learned new trends within the hospitality sector. Provision of high-quality services is critical for customer satisfaction which leads to good reviews for a business organization that will in return attract more customers thus boosting organization revenue.
Employee training and development has also been identified as one of the employee retention strategies (Cloutier, et al. 2015). Employee retention is of great essence to the organization as it promotes organizational growth, stability, and revenue. When employees are retained they become loyal and committed to an organization and their productivity significantly increases due to the accumulation of working experience. The obtained organization’s stability, growth rate, and revenue are key to gaining a competitive advantage in any business environment. Consequently, Memon et al. (2016) sought to find out the nexus between training satisfaction, turnover intention, and work engagement. The study established that training satisfaction contributed to the level of employee engagement in an organization thus enhancing organizational productivity. Therefore, Memon, et al. (2016) provide further insight that organizations should also go further to focus on employee training satisfaction as it has an impact as well. Lastly, Weber (2015) argued that pieces of training often encompasses ethics which is a contributory factor towards employee productivity and enhanced organizational performance. This is because ethical and honest practices provide a strong foundation for the success of any business.
The above studies are among a few pieces of research that have attempted to provide illumination on how employee training and development contributes towards increased productivity and performance within the business organization. Research evidence has indicated that employee training and development programs enable organizations to obtain a competitive advantage within a business environment due to job satisfaction, high-quality services, and employee retention outcomes the training. However, the study has also pointed out that employee training satisfaction and incorporation of ethics in pieces of training is critical as it shows the effectiveness of the provided pieces of training and inculcation of values such as honesty which provides a strong foundation for a business respectively.
Research Methodology
A research methodology is a term used to denote techniques or procedures employed in the identification, selection, and adopted processes of collecting data and information concerning a particular phenomenon Quinlan, et al. (2019). collecting two types of data; primary Research methodologies entail the collection of two types of data; primary data and secondary data. Primary data refers to the unique data collected in a study directly from the new or first-hand source while secondary data refers to data obtained from previous studies such as published periodicals, journals, reports, and the internet, this is the existing information concerning a particular phenomenon under investigation (Quinlan, et al. 2019).
This study will only utilize secondary data. This data will be obtained from peer-reviewed journals, published articles by reputable organizations, both publish and unpolished theses in the school library and any other relevant information. The study will use keywords such as; employee training, employee productivity, organization performance, and organization productivity while searching for relevant peer-reviewed journal articles from key databases such as informit Business collection, Business Source Complete, CCH Online- Australia, and Scopus among others. Only journals and other secondary sources relevant to the impact of staff training and development on the organization’s performance and success will be used.
The study will collect both qualitative and quantitative data. The Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) will be used for the analysis of data. Quantitative data concerning the impact of employee training and development programs on organizational productivity and performance will be subject to rigorous analysis using SPSS. The independent variables in this analysis are the training and development programs for employees with organizational productivity and performance being the dependent variable. Qualitative data will be thematically analyzed using percentages and frequencies before being matched with quantitative data. The analysis of qualitative data will be focused on describing and explaining variables under investigation. For easy understanding, data will be presented using tables.
Thereafter, the existing relationship between independent and dependent variables is the relationship between employee training and development programs and business organization performance and productivity. The existence of the relationship will be tested using the Chi-square technique. Chi-square will be used because the analysis will involve both categorical and numerical data. It will also aid in the establishment of the relationship between variables.
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