Human Resources Training and Development Study Guide
Why is evaluating training an important part of strategic training?
The goal behind strategic training is to ensure that that all employees receive the training they need for their position as well as to increase their level of productivity. Strategic training can also assist in reducing the mind-set that training alone can solve most of the employee or organizational problems (Mathis, Jackson, & Valentine, 2014, p. 262). While it is important that all employees receive the training they need to not only succeed but also to excel at their job, it is also important that all of the training sessions given are both useful, cost effective, and targeted. Training sessions cost employers money, resources, and time, so it is very important that each training is evaluated to ensure that it is not only accurate and reliable, but also necessary. In order to ensure that the employees acquire the intended capabilities, it is important for all companies, organizations, and firms to evaluate training as part of the strategic training process.
The evaluation should begin with a review of the intended goals behind the training, the curriculum, and the intended participants. Each training session should be targeted for the group of people attending the training in order to give them the skills or knowledge necessary for their position without any unneeded information. The evaluation should monitor the productivity levels of the employees that participated in the training for two to three weeks and then compare them to the level of productivity the employees showed prior to the training. The level of productivity can change from before the training to after the training and should then be used when considering the cost of the training. If the training had only minimal results, but was expensive, then the training should be discontinued, altered, or replaced. However if the training was expensive, but showed marked improvement from employee productivity levels, then the level of increased productivity could offset the cost of the training thus making it worthwhile. Evaluating training is an important part of strategic training as it ensures that employees are only receiving training that is both useful and helpful, instead of training that does not offer any positive effects.
References
Mathis, R. L., Jackson, J. H., & Valentine, S. (2014). Human resource management (14th ed.).
Singapore: Cengage Learning Editores.
What errors a supervisor make when doing a performance appraisal on a clerical employee and how could the error be avoided?
If I was a supervisor, performance appraisals would be an important part of my job as they can be a source of development information and performance data on productivity, employee relations, job knowledge, and other relevant dimensions can be gathered in such assessments (Mathis, Jackson, & Valentine, 2014, p. 317). If I was tasked with performing a performance appraisal on a clerical employee I would need to take care to avoid making any errors as an error could affect the employee, the performance, data, and the development information. In order to avoid making errors during a performance appraisal I would want to be aware of all of the possible errors I could make so as to avoid making them. The errors I would need to be aware of are: varying standards, recency effect, primary effect, central tendency error, leniency error, strictness error, rater bias, halo effect, horns effect, contrast error, similar-to-me error, different-from-me error, and sampling error.
In order to not make the varying standards error I would need to avoid applying different standards and expectations to employees performing similar jobs; meaning I would need to appraise the clerical employee based on only his or her job description and not based on the job description of similar jobs (Mathis, Jackson, & Valentine, 2014, p. 337). I could avoid the recency and primary effects by taking care to not give greater weight to recent events and information I receive first; this means that I will need to give the same weight to all aspects of the performance appraisal of the clerical employee. In the case of the central tendency, leniency, and strictness errors, I would need to appraise all of the employees’ performance fairly and evenly; this means that I cannot decide to give all employees an average rating, decide to boost the ratings of the employees, or use only the lower part of the scale to rate the employees. Rater bias occurs when the performance appraiser's own values or prejudices distort the rating; to avoid this I would need to take care to set aside all of my own personal values and prejudices when rating the employee; if I am not sure if I can be unbiased in the case of an employee's performance appraisal then I could ask a different supervisor to either perform the appraisal or to review my appraisal. The halo and horn effects come into play when a rater decides to base their entire rating off of one job criteria or characteristic; to avoid this I would rate each of the clerical employee's performance in sections making sure to observe the different job criteria and characteristics separately in order to rate each one accurately. The contrast error is when a performance appraiser rates employees based off of other employees instead of the job criteria; to avoid making this error I would do my best to observe only the employee I was appraising in order to avoid rating his or her performance based on other employees. I would also make sure to keep the performance standards for the employee's job description in the front of my mind. The similar-to-me and different-from-me errors occur when a rater becomes influenced by whether or not the employee whose characteristics are similar or different from the rater; I would avoid making this error by reminding myself that I am appraising the employee based on the job standards of the position only. In order to avoid making the sampling error I would take care to observe more than just a small percent of the employee’s work so as not to base my performance appraisal on only a small piece of the employee's work; instead I would want to get a full understanding of the employees' performance.
References
Mathis, R. L., Jackson, J. H., & Valentine, S. (2014). Human resource management (14th ed.).
Singapore: Cengage Learning Editores.
