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Introduction:
Training has been defined as “a method of enhancing human performance”
(Silberman, 1998). In this competitive world it is very important for organization to
have skilled & talented employees to achieve sustainable growth. The talent of the
employees includes in depth knowledge in the subject matter, up to date skills to
perform the work, motivated attitude to perform the job. The performance of the
employee depends upon their knowledge, skills and attitudes. Engineering industries
facing continuous demand to produce more with less input, better quality products
and services in shorter production cycles.
Increasing demand, technology upgrade, obsolete technology, energy efficient
and environment friendly technology are some of the main reasons forcing the
employees to update their existing knowledge and skills to achieve sustainable results
for the organization.
Training is important to improve the performance of employees (Rummler and
Brache, 1990), impacting general growth of employees (Swanson, 1994), and
recruiting and retaining the best employees (Olesen, 1999).
Large size organizations do have their own training and development centers to
update the knowledge, skills and attitudes of their employees time to time. But the
new skills, knowledge available in the market must be updated to trainers of such
organizations to give the opportunity for them to train their employees. This can be
achieved by means of external specialized trainers with specialized skills, knowledge.
The training is usually a short-term activity comparing the teaching, which is usually
long-term activity.
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Methodology:
The key to effective training is designing learning activities so the participants
acquire knowledge and skills rather than receiving them (Silberman, 1998). Trainings
are designed to emphasize the importance of building upon the learner’s prior
experiences while integrating new concepts and promoting improved self-efficacy
(Berthelsen, 2002). A reputed global engineering company with around 44000 strong
employees across the world and present in over 160 countries with more than 100
production plants across the world involved in conducting external training for their
customers across the world made an attempt to find the employee competency gap in
their specialized field of work.
The organizational support to employees through training to acquire new
knowledge, self empowerment to do better work and recognition for their best results
will impact positively on employee commitment towards their job, retention and job
satisfaction. A group of Fertilizer, power, food processing, refining, water
transmission and petrochemical industries were selected for this project and specific
skills related technical trainings had been given to 129 employees. The qualification
of employees ranging from diploma level to engineer level and having the industrial
experience ranging from 1 year to 32 years in their respective industry. During each
training a pre-training and post-training evaluations were carried out. The
characteristics of adults as learners (Cross, 1981) that consists of two variables,
personal and situational characteristics respectively. In this study the personal
characteristics are taken to test the hypothesis. The personal characteristics include
aging, life phases and developmental changes.
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Analysis and Discussion:
Any proactive engineering company will identify the organization’s priorities
and plans training to address those needs (Rita, 2002). A technical training in
industrial machinery vibration diagnostics methodology has been conducted for 39
selected people who are working in fertilizer production plant and power production
plant. Organizational training includes the areas of personnel development, technical
skills development and interpersonal skills development (Rita, 2002). The experience
of people attended the training range from one year to thirty years. The mean average
industrial experience of the employee is 8 years. Two days condensed format training
has been given for these selected people. Prior to training pre-training evaluation has
been carried out. The results shows, even though they are well experienced in their
field, the technical knowledge is well below the best industrial standard. The pre-
training evaluation marks mean average is 19%. The main reason for this is due to
continuous development in engineering technology, new techniques in industrial
production and implementing electronics in mechanical field to automate the
industrial process, which were not adopted by the company, thus lagging in the
knowledge. After two days training, the post-training evaluation mean average is
74%.
As mentioned by Silberman (1998), training is a method of enhancing human
performance. In another instance there was a root cause analysis of rolling element
bearings training has been arranged by a fertilizer plant-training department, through
an external training provider and the training was conducted onsite for selected 24
attendees from mechanical maintenance. They all are Oman nationals and having
minimum qualification of higher diploma in mechanical engineering. The average
industrial experience of the attendee is 3.6 years. Pre-training evaluation result shows
the mean average score by attendees are 10%. This is a very clear indication of poor
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knowledge transfer during their induction and in-plant training. After successful
completion of two days intensive training in root cause analysis of rolling element
bearings, the post-training evaluation result shows significant improvement of 72 out
of 100 marks.
The employers are constantly searching for the key to retention, employee
satisfaction and improved productivity (Rita, 2002). There was a public training
arranged by world leader bearing manufacturer, in which there were 33 attendees
participated to acquire latest knowledge in the field of rotating equipment machinery
alignment by using laser alignment technique. This is the latest advancement in this
field improves the quality of work over 95%. The people who have attended this
training are from different countries (India, Philippines, Oman and Bahrain) and the
average industrial experience is 7 years. They are from different industrial
background includes fertilizer plant, power production and aluminium smelter plants.
Pre-training score shows mean average of 14% and post training average score shows
average of 70%.
Training sessions are planned to improve productivity, to increase technical
knowledge and skills and to adopt new technologies available in the market to
produce efficiently (Rita, 2002). In a fertilizer plant, the internal training department
decided to send its 28 technicians for lubrication management system training. In any
process plant, it is very significant that the lubrication management plays a vital role
in machinery health monitoring and improving machinery availability. The average
experience of the attendee is 3.8 years. Pre-training evaluation results are ranging
from 0 – 40 mark out of 100. It is evident that the lubrication is treated as blood for
the machines, hence it is very important to manage the machinery lubrication at right
time. But the lack of knowledge in this field results in higher machinery failures. Post-
training evaluation the marks mean average is 70 out of 100.
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Conclusion:
It is always challenging to motivate employees to learn new skills and possess
high levels of satisfaction and to increase retention (Rita, 2002). Based on above case
studies conducted in various industries like power generation, fertilizer production,
water transmission it is evident that the knowledge of employees can be improved by
providing appropriate trainings time to time. The degree of learning and satisfaction
through the training by the trainees is mainly based on the learning environment,
trainer behavior and training methodology (Rita, 2002). This is mainly due to the
technological advancement, new innovations in the engineering field etc. Thus
employee training at right time provided by right people (external source or internal
source) is really an investment to the company never being expenditure for the
company.
References:
1. Cross, K. P. (1981). Adults are learners. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
2. Drucker, Peter F.. Management Challenges of the 21st Century. New York:
Harper Business, 1999.
3. Eskildsen, J., and Nussler, M. L. (2000). The managerial drivers of employee
satisfaction and loyalty. Total Quality Management 11(4), 581 – 589.
4. MSC – Manpower Service Commission (1981), Glossary of Training Terms,
Third Edition, HMSO, London.
5. Olesen, M. (1999). What makes employees stay? Training and development,
October 48 – 52.
6. Rita Tworek Berrhelsen., University of Nebraska, Lincoln, December 2002.
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7. Rummler, G. A., and Brache, A. P. (1990). Improving performance: How to
measure the white space on the organization chart. San Francisco: Jossey
Bass.
8. Silberman, M. (1998). Active training: A handbook of techniques, designs, case
examples and tips. San Francisco: Josey-Bass Pfeiffer.
9. Swanson. R. (1994). Analysis for improving performance: Tools for diagnosing
organizations and documenting workplace expertise. San Francisco: Jossey
Bass.
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