Learning and Development: Theory and Practice - Essay Example

The company saves money in internal trainings for skills development of current employees. These internal trainings are definitely cheaper than hiring new employees and conducting introduction and skill-specific trainings for new hires. The cost of the resources needed in maintaining the present employee base is significantly lower than the recruitment process. Aside from the positive effects on the area of budget management, the focus on learning and development has a big impact on productivity, which results to greater gains for the company.

A positive organizational culture is likewise created from the employees' feeling of self worth. Positive organizational culture results to cooperation, team work and harmony in the workplace. Productivity is a result of more people efficiently working together in an organized manner. There are several factors which likewise contribute to productivity. Some of these factors are praise or appreciation for a job well done, good office environment and fairness in treatment (The Work Environment and Employee Creativity).

Superior quality of work on one hand is generated by knowledgeable, aware, conscientious, satisfied and skilled employees. Learning and development programs are reflections of how companies value their employees. These programs emphasize the importance of the employees and the need for them in the attainment of an organization's goals. They act as motivators to inspire employees to do more and to do better. Companies have varied programs available to their employees. These programs are based on the specific needs in the industry or market where the company belongs to.

Organizational objectives or goals are always the basis for the design and implementation of the programs. Programs run from international business, strategic planning, organizational communication strategies, leadership and finance management to behavioral and personal development. Specific fields or markets are likewise addressed by the programs. Examples of market-specific programs include customer service, sales trainings and system updates. There are several other programs designed to address the needs of the employees.

These needs are most effectively identified through inputs and feedback from the employees themselves. The Human Resources Department handles the collection of data for the needs analysis of the entire organization. The results or the final tally is then given to the training division under the same department, or in some cases, to a Training Department separate from the Human Resources group. In most cases the training sessions are conducted in traditional classroom set-up. This traditional classroom set-up has the instructor giving oral lectures and instructions to the trainees or to a class of students.

It is a face to face interaction with discussion among the members of the class. Aside from the classroom instruction, there are other ways of facilitating the programs which could prove to be more cost-efficient, practical and results-oriented. We will explore other means of instruction or alternative modes of delivery.ALTERNATIVE TRAINING PROGRAM: CUSTOMER SERVICE SKILLS DEVELOPMENT For the purpose of establishing the effectiveness of the alternative delivery mode of instruction in addressing