learning  and a no learning institution

 learning  and a no learning institution

Training and development is part of human resource whose objectives is to improve the performance of groups and individuals (Swanson & Holton, 2009). Training is a learning process that involves improving the skills and knowledge of employees. Trained employees will eventually improve the overall performance of an organization. An organization that invests in training records increased performance because the employee’s morale and motivation have increased and there will be low labor turnover. The training process involves identifying the needs, establishing objectives, selection of training methods, conducting and delivering training and evaluation of performance. Training is meant to add additional skills, while the development objective is to develop the overall personality of an individual (Mattox, 2016). There are benefits and costs of training and development. The benefit will include the increased performance of an individual or group and cons will include costs associated with training and development incurred by an organization. The paper seeks to compare and contrast; learning  and a no learning institution.  Learning institution conducts a thorough training and development, while a no learning institution does not. The learning institution is based on Emerson and no learning institution  Amazon will be taken as an example.

All companies are seeking to train their existing workers in order to retain them and improve their performance and avoid the costs of losing experienced employees; that provide similarity between the two companies. However, there are some differences. In Emerson, the objective of training and development is to train and have a measurable outcome, “the finishing line.” Emerson aims to train their employees and then the employee to work for the company and the management is interested in tracking the improved performance.  In contrast, in Amazon, there is no measurable performance for the outcome of training and development. Amazon’s objectives are to improve their performance but necessarily to work for the company in the future. According to Amazon, the trained employee can leave the company and work for other organizations. In Amazon, the management is not concerned about following up on the performance of the employees after training and development.

Amazon expects to train and develop one-third of its staff by 2025 and incur a substantial amount of funds (Düthmann, 2014). In contrast, Emerson trains its staff throughout. Studies indicate the labor turnover in Amazon is high, which means by the time they intend to complete the training process, most of its employees will have left the organization. Amazon will continue incurring losses of retraining the new employees and opportunity costs of losing the experienced staff. In contrast, Emerson will have the benefit of having incurring lesser costs since the employees are motivated and the labor turnover will be lower.

In Emerson, management and employees believe the training and development are not over until such knowledge gained has been transferred to employees and improved results recorded. They believe attending the training with the improvement of performance is a wastage of a firm’s resources. The employees do not want to become a “learning scrap.” The learning scrap means attending training without delivering any positive outcomes. They developed an idea of “new finish line,”; using the knowledge of learning to increase the performance. Every employee, Emerson, embraced the concept quickly. In contrast, in Amazon, such concepts are not emphasized and the objective of training have not stuck in employees mind.  Amazon employees will take training lightly. Besides, the management in Emerson is really part of the training process. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO), records video during training; the video is played at the end of the training. The video emphasizes the need and importance of training. In contrast, in Amazon, the top management will not be involved in the training process, but the Human Resource Department will do the work.

In Emerson, the unit presidents had recorded a video explaining his expectations from the supervisors. The supervisors were required to transfer the knowledge to their juniors. After training, the supervisors were excited and thanked their facilitators. In contrast, in Amazon, there is no such concept of transferring knowledge to other employees to improve work performance.

In Amazon, the training is dedicated mostly to Information Technology (IT) workers. Although the firm has adopted the e-commerce platform, training should be across all departments. In Emerson, the concept of training seems to cut all departments. It is important for training and development to include all workers, including the senior managers.

Amazon fails to meet the criteria of learning institutions due to various reasons. Amazon training is done for the benefit of an employee, not necessarily to increase the performance of the company. The trained employees can leave the company at their will. Amazon fails to have a measurable way of tracking employees after training, to find whether there was improved performance. The management of Amazon is not directly involved in the process of training and developing employees.

In conclusion, every company needs to invest in training of their employees. The trained employees are motivated, which leads to the improved overall performance of the company. Training is an investment made by the firm and employees are expected to increase their performance. The management or facilitator should communicate clearly the goals of training. Emerson has a better learning program as compared to Amazon.

References

Düthmann, C. (2014). Amazon bezahlt Weiterbildung. Lebensmittel Zeitung, (20), 0038. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=96155439&site=ehost-live

Mattox, J. R. (2016). Learning Analytics : Measurement Innovations to Support Employee Development (Vol. 1st edition). Philadelphia, PA: Kogan Page. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1346909&site=ehost-live

Swanson, R. A., & Holton, E. F. (2009). Foundations of Human Resource Development (Vol. 2nd ed). San Francisco, Calif: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=260701&site=ehost-live