Motivating Employees

Posted on October 30, 2012 by admin

motivate

A business that is suffering from poor performance problems with its employees may need to have a TNA, training needs analysis, prepared to assess what exactly the problem may be. The purpose of this analysis is to identify whether the company’s workforce has the knowledge, abilities, and skills necessary to perform their jobs accurately. It will identify who actually needs training and what type of training they may need. This comes in handy because it is unproductive to offer training to those who do not need it, or offer the wrong type of training to those who do need it. New hires and veteran employees may benefit from training, but possibly not the same type.

Offering the right kinds of training can benefit the company more than by just having knowledgeable employees. Most people continue to learn their entire lives. By offering training to the employees, it tells them they are valuable to the company. This can motivate them to want to stay with that employer because they will see it as an opportunity to grow within the company and advance their career. By motivating the employees, they will try harder to do their best at their current job.

There are several different types of training needs analysis that can be used to see if training is what is needed and whether it would be worth the efforts of getting training programs in place. The work/task analysis looks at the actual job being performed and what the main duties are as well as skill level required to perform them. It will establish whether or not training for the work being performed is needed or not. A performance analysis shows whether or not employees are performing up to the established standard needed and if not, will training help fix this problem.

There are many reasons to conduct a training needs assessment such as many new employees, new equipment or procedures being developed, performance problems, or need for higher ranked employees. It is possible that the employees knew the need for training before the company did, however kept it to themselves for fear or termination.

There can be a drawback to needs assessments; if the employees are led to think their job is at stake, they might attempt to trick the assessment so as to not lose their job. A good way to keep this from happening is to make sure they understand the point behind the training analysis is not to remove current employees, but to find out if training is necessary to do their jobs better. If advancement opportunities are being made available because of the training needs analysis, make sure they are aware of it. This can motivate them to try their best. If they still seem worried, try offering a bonus or reward for taking the training needs analysis such as a monetary reward, a fun day, free tickets to a game, a raise, or other methods of praising them. This will show them they are valuable employees and the company is just trying to improve them and their performance.

Track your career path and training needs with www.sains2u.com

Training Needs Assessment

Posted on October 24, 2012 by admin

Training Needs Assessment is often overlooked but important component of the training development process. A Training Needs Assessment is the process by which we can determine what sort of knowledge and skills someone has that can be accomplished via some sort of learning means. It’s a way of figuring out what needs the worker has that can be met with training.

Training needs are essential because they are the first step in the training design – it’s the beginning of the design phase of training and development. But training may not always be the answer. Very often there are other non-training issues that are root causes for perceived problems.

Training Needs Assessment has to be done professionally. As an example, the employer might have engineered a new process or be rolling out a new product. As they are in the preparation phase, one area that will likely be identified is training. Someone will ask or mention, “Hey, what about the employees’ training needs?” Then the employer might start to put together a training program based on those needs. Traditionally, the employer might contact their local teaching institution and ask them to assist in this identification of training needs. However, in the current era, the employer would most likely looking for professionals who are more focused on Training Needs Assessment.

Training Needs Assessments are the entire basis for the training – without a Training Needs Assessment you have no idea if you’re even doing the right training, for the right reasons, and creating the right learning objectives. It’s a step that really cannot be skipped. It’s the very first step in creating the training – without it, there is no second step.

Track your career path and training needs with www.sains2u.com

On-the-Job Training

Posted on October 15, 2012 by admin

What is On-the-Job Training? On-the-job training is a type of skill development where a person learns how to perform a specific skill-set through hands-on experience.

On-the-job training is the oldest form of training. Prior to the practice of off-site training classrooms, the only practical way of learning a job was working along side an experienced worker in a particular trade or profession—as demonstrated by the practice of apprenticeship during the Middle Ages when master craftsmen passed on skills and knowledge to novices who worked along side them.

On-the-job training focuses on the acquisition of skills within the work environment generally under normal working conditions. Through on-the-job training, workers acquire both general skills that they can transfer from one job to another and specific skills that are unique to a particular job. On-the-job training, typically includes verbal and written instruction, demonstration and observation, and hands-on practice and imitation.

In addition, the on-the-job training process involves one employee—usually a supervisor or an experienced employee—passing knowledge and skills on to a novice employee.

Track your career path and training needs with www.sains2u.com

Focus on Developing Employee Strengths

Posted on October 10, 2012 by admin

One of the great advantages of knowing what employees’ strengths are is that organisations can align people with complementary strengths.

For example, if the organisation was attempting to please a potential customer and needed to know more about it, an employee with PR strengths could be assigned to the team involved in that exercise.

If the company wanted to get into a new market it might seek out staff with analytical strengths. Or if the executive team was aware that one member had a strategic strength, that person would be singled out to be involved in any strategic planning.

Another advantage of identifying staff strengths is that managers and staff can seek help from those they know have complementary skills. This is no longer admitting failure.

Recent research shows that:

Employee performance is, on average, 36% higher when line managers focus their appraisals on staffs’ strengths and talents.
Customer retention is 44% higher in companies where people are allowed to do what they do best‟ every day.
Teams with line managers who take a strengths-based approach are 86% more effective than teams which don‟t.

SAInS works with organisations to assess employee strengths and competencies and align them with organisational goals.

Track your career path and training needs with www.sains2u.com