An airline company has been having trouble with its training effectiveness. Front-line employees have been taking the courses to improve performance, but they have proven to be ineffective. There are several reasons why the training program has failed. First of all, when developing a training program, the HR department did not differentiate the staff according to the work they do. Training civil aviation pilots together with cargo aviation pilots cannot be effective as there are different specific tasks they face in their work, and they use different airplanes in terms of tonnage, length, and take-off time. Landing requirements are also specific for each group of planes, so for the training to be effective, it is necessary to develop a specific training program for each group of staff.
Secondly, the program may not meet the necessary criteria for training airline staff since the HR department did not have extensive consultations with all heads of the departments involved in the program. Indeed, to elaborate a fully-fledged training program that would place emphasis on practical skills and serve to bridge the gaps in employees’ knowledge, it is necessary to consult people working at the front line of the services provided (Zakiyyah et al., 2020). Heads of the departments know their staff best and know what lagunes in knowledge the employees have, so their expert advice is invaluable for developing a training program.
Thirdly, specific goals of the program were not set. It is not enough to develop some general understanding of the program by employees, but specific goals such as taking off in a strong wind and landing in the rain or snow must be elaborated. Once the specific goals are set, training should be developed to meet these specific goals through exercise and practice (Wijaya et al., 2020). Finally, no system of evaluation of results was developed; the system of tests and practical tasks with grades for each task done well that would then be all added towards a final result would check the personnel’s skills and motivate them to work hard during their practice.
To develop a new training program for the company, I would, first of all, involve in the process the heads of departments: they know best what specific skills and knowledge their subordinates lack. An abstract understanding that the personnel training system at the enterprise is necessary is not enough. I would ask heads of the departments to formulate specific goals that the program should meet to be effective with the emphasis on practical application.
Secondly, I would develop and approve local documents with which to manage the learning process. For example, the regulation on staff training and development, describing the goals and objectives of training, the procedure for developing training programs, the procedure for testing knowledge, and the principles of forming the budget allocated for employee training. This is a basic document that can be supplemented with other regulations, orders, and instructions — at one’s discretion.
I would also need to identify the target groups of employees, with a separate training strategy developed for each target group. Moreover, in order for a program that looks good on paper to work in practice, it should not be overloaded with theoretical research that an employee may never need in his or her entire long-term career but focus on useful, necessary knowledge. Finally, a comprehensive system of tests, practical as well as theoretical, should be developed, and the criteria for the evaluation of the results should be elaborated (Dessler, 2016). Once all the mentioned steps of the program are put in place, I hope it will be instrumental in enhancing employees’ knowledge and the effectiveness of their work for the company.
References
Dessler, G., (2016). Human Resource Management, (15th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Zakiyyah, Q., Abas, A., Anwar, R., Pahdeli, N., & Hati, I. P. (2020). The Effect Of Training Program And Motivation On Employee Performance At Incorporation Company Indokarlo Perkasa Otoparts. HUMANIS (Humanities, Management and Science Proceedings), 1(1), 406-415. Web.
Wijaya, R., Sofianti, T. D., & Awibowo, S. (2020, September). Knowledge Creation Cycle in Design of Training Program for Car Manufacturing Company. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering and Information Technology for Sustainable Industry (pp. 1-6).