PLOYEE TRAINING AND

DEVELOPMENT ON PR

Comsats Institute of Information

Technology

Term Paper

Submitted To:
Dr. Muzaffar Qureshi
Submitted By:
Wajiha Asad
Sp14-RBA-014

IMPACT OF EMPLOYEE TRAINING AND

DEVELOPMENT ON
PRODUCTIVITY
Introduction

investing in effective training and

A lot of concepts have changed

from the last few decades. Before,
the training was given only at the
basic level or at the lower level but
now it has increased its scope to
every level of management from
top to bottom. Training intervention
in human resources development is
very

crucial

issue

in

an

organization to build a leadership

pipeline of managers capable of
leading

creatively

turbulent

times.

through

Organizations

development for human resource

tend to achieve both short and long
term benefits. The effectiveness
depends

on

the

degree

of

participation of employees which

reflects in the intended effective
business

outcome.

Training

and

development is an instrument that

aid human capital in exploring their
dexterity. Therefore training and
development

is

productivity

of

vital

to

the

organizations

workforce.

Literature Review
Training is one of the several human resource practices that can have
considerable impact on employee commitment. Employee training and
development helps the organization in retention of employees and increases
employee's commitment to the company. Companies that invest in employee
training

programs

get

positive

relationship

between

training

and

commitment, and an inverse relationship with employee turnover. According

to research there is a positive relationship between training and employee
motivation,

employee

commitment

and

employee

satisfaction.

Aging

1 | Page

stereotypes are one of the principal barriers to the provision of equal access
to training in the workplace for older as well as young employees.

Training and Development relationship with productivity

As Training has traditionally been defined as The process by which

individuals change their skills, knowledge, attitudes, or behavior (Robbins
and DeCenzo, 1998). With the passage of time the new concept of training
is more elaborated. Training is systematic development of the knowledge,
skills, and expertise required by a person to effectively perform a given task
or job (Patrick, 2000). According to Armstrong (2001) Training is a
process through which learning formally and systematically modifies
behavior

through

education,

Instruction,

development

and

planned

experience.
Development typically refers to long-term growth and learning. It is related
with directing attention more on what an individual may need to know or do
at some future time. While training focuses more on current job duties or
responsibilities, development points to future job responsibilities (Robinson
and Robinson, 1995). The process of training and development is a
continuous one. The need to perform ones job efficiently and the need to
know how to lead others are sufficient reasons for training and development
and the desire to meet organizations objectives of higher productivity, makes
it absolutely compulsory (Akinpeju ,1999).
Champathes (2006) found that more developed employees would be more
satisfied with the job, more committed with the job, as a result their
performance would be increased and when employee performance would
increase, this will lead to the organization effectiveness. Husselid, Pfeffer,
and Arthur (1994) gave five major practices in their study which effect on
employee performance, i.e., Job autonomy, Organizational support, Training,
Distributive justice, Procedural Justice.

2 | Page

Training is important for all managerial posts either senior executives or the
front line managers because it tells the management how to best use the
scarce resources of the firm. Organizations invest in training and
development programs due to its sure benefit of productivity (Lee &
Bruvold, 2003). The process of training and development starts when
organization finds any gap between the current and desired situation,
organizations try to fulfill this gap to achieve higher levels of productivity
(Babaita, 2010).

Training and Development effect of aging on employee

productivity

Todays rapidly changing global business environment forces the firms to

change themselves to keep pace with the industry, employee training can be
used as a tool to make grounds for change. Due to these rapid changes
training and development become problem for the new and old employees.
Considering the medium to strong correlations found between age and
performance in research, it is surprising to find very little relationship
between age and job performance (McEvoy and Cascio, 1989; Sturman,
2004; Waldman and Avolio, 1986). The current and upcoming cohorts of
older workers (those now in their 40s) are less likely than younger workers to
have had an extensive exposure to technology such as computers (Czaja
and Sharit, 1998; Czaja et al., 2006)
Older workers sometimes benefit from positive stereotypes, such as levels
of loyalty, reliability, experience and job commitment (McGregor & Gray,
2002). Negative Stereotypes among employers are also prevalent. There are
four popular age stereotypes: older workers do not want to learn; older
workers cannot learn; older workers have great difficulty learning new
technology; and an investment in training older workers provides a poor
returns (Gray and McGregor 2003)

3 | Page

Related Theory
Donald L Kirkpatricks Evaluation Model
Kirkpatricks model is one of the best known evaluation method used for
judging learning processes of employees. It has four levels of evaluation:

Reaction of learner What they thought

and felt about the education and training.

Learning The resulting increase in

knowledge or capability.

Behavior Extent of improvement behavior and capability and

implementation.

Results The effects on the business or environment resulting from the

learners performance.
Stage

Kirkpatricks

Evaluation tools

s
1.

levels
Reaction

Feedback forms, verbal reaction, post-

2.

Learning

training surveys or questionnaires

Observation, interviews, assessments or

3.

Behavior

tests before and after the training

Observation and interview at different

4.

Results

times
Normal management systems and
reporting

Kirkpatrick's concept is quite useful as it makes an excellent planning,

evaluating, problem solving tool and adopting learning process.

Theory Limitations:
Kirkpatrick (1977) confirms that the usefulness of stage one evaluations is
dependent upon the honesty of the learners who complete and feel
4 | Page

comfortable in being able to tell the truth. This would limit the opportunity
for the trainer to provide additional support for learners where they felt that
their objectives were not met. Lee and Pershing (2002) believe that
Kirkpatrick provides insufficient guidance on how stage one can be achieved
through a questionnaire and suggests guidelines in this area would be useful.

Discussion
Training is not provided just to get knowledge or improve certain skills but it
also helps to enhance ones entrepreneurial skills, confidence or creativity
and helps them to be more welcoming toward the changes in the
organization. It is also being provided to increase the employee decision
making skills, which eventually lead an employee to perform well and
increase the productivity of an organization. As discussed in model below:

Model

(Dependent Variables)

Age

Employee Training
and Development

(Independent

Variable)

Employee
Productivity

Research shows that; if organizations implement employee training and

development programs, then productivity level of employees will increase,
but age of employees act as the moderator variable which will affect the
productivity of the aging employees.

5 | Page

Due

to

age

discrimination

of

employees

training

and

development

organization believes in fall of productivity. Employees skills and knowledge

considered outdated when technology changes. As older workers thinks that
they are receiving less promotion or a pay than their younger colleagues.
Organization also pay no emphasis on older employee training because they
are not adopting rapid changes with pace of time, they are less flexible and
employee themselves are not responding favorably. Training programs help
to maintain and promote the active participation of ageing employees in
society, and also limit the pressures on social care, health and pension
systems and to improve individual quality of life.
On the other hand older employees are loyal and reliable investment for the
organization to increase its productivity then new comers. Young employees
turnover rate is higher than older employees.

Younger workers face

negative assumptions about their maturity and reliability, their emphasis on

their social life and a reduced likelihood to stay with a company, because
they are at an early point in their careers. The increase in unemployment
generally has made issues around skills shortages due to an ageing
workforce. Work motivation among older workers may be enhanced by
organizational strategies and managerial practices that take into account
normative patterns of adult development.
Training of employees should allow the learner to make errors, and should
provide immediate feedback regarding how to correct mistakes. The older
employees should be actively involved in the learning process, and an
engaging environment that captures the attention of the learner should be
created.

Providing

training

is

not

more

important

than

its

actual

implementation by employees on their actual job and managing older and

newer employees to adopt environmental fluctuations. In todays changing
global environment training is very important to keep the employees uptodate and help them to cope with the changing environment, technology and

competition. It also helps an organization to get a competitive edge on their

competitors and increase its sales profit and provide learning culture in
organization.

Conclusion
The result that derived from research that there exists a strong positive
relationship exist, when employees are provided an opportunity to get some
work related training, such employees showed impressive improvement in
their productivity level. Aging stereotypes are one barriers which exist for
establishment of equal access to training in the workplace for employees. To
overcome their barriers organization must provide equal employment
opportunities for training of the employees. Training is also helpful in making
the employee efficient and motivates them enough so that they can grab
future opportunities and make better decisions.
A manager should be vigilant to know that, are the employees satisfied with
the training they are getting and will it be helpful for the organization in
increasing its productivity or not. Organization should try to retain the highly
trained employees by providing them high prospects within the organization.
They should provide more training opportunities to newly appointed
employees as well as old employee and also provide full support and
guidance to employees during the times they are in training.
The increases in youth unemployment are taking the focus away from the
retention of older workers and onto employment at the younger end of the
workforce. Indeed, the increase in unemployment generally has made issues
around skills shortages due to an ageing workforce. Training molds the
employees attitude and helps them to achieve a better cooperation within
the organization. Training and Development programs improve the quality of
work-life by creating an employee supportive workplace.

Reference

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