Training and development of human resources
"Knowing others is smart, knowing yourself is wise" Albert Einstein
Today it is no secret to any manager of any organization that the most important asset they have to achieve the objectives set is their human capital. At present, there is no successful organization that has not based its results on an adequate provision, application, maintenance, development and control of its human resources. Cuesta, (1997), Chiavenato, (1988). However, throughout the history of business development, the employee was not always seen in this way, but there have been different aspects that in this sense allowed us to conceive what has been called Human Capital Management (GCH) today.
Concept and characteristics of training
Within the functions of the same (GCH), the training and development of the human resources available is essential, hence the understanding of the concept of training requires the analysis of other aspects, which, although they have their specificity, are related to the end of this function. In this sense, according to Aguilera (2008) the following definitions are often found:
- Information: Process from which a sender sends a message to a receiver, with no other interest than showing it and without waiting for information in return. The data is very important. Indoctrination: It has the connotation of assuming ideologies, something rejected by society, it is also given meaning to teach social manners and manners. The important thing is the doctrine. Training or Training: It is a level where the person seeks to acquire skills and abilities for the performance of a specific activity. The important thing is to do. Instruction: It is the most used term in most organizations. Its use implies that in addition to influencing technical aspects (skills and knowledge) they influence attitudes. Attitudes that must be shared by all members of the company. It tries to improve the individual more completely. Education: It has the intention of transferring values that allow the human being to give meaning to his work and to expose all his possibilities. It is usually a long-lasting action and has school overtones. Training: It is a systematic and planned effort to modify and develop knowledge, techniques and activities through the learning experience to achieve the appropriate performance of an activity or range of activities. Its purpose in the world of work is to train an individual so that they can conveniently perform a given task or job. Learning: Process for the individual to acquire knowledge. Techniques and attitudes through experience, reflection, study or instruction. Education: A process and a series of activities aimed at empowering an individual, to assimilate and develop knowledge, techniques, values and understanding; factors that develop not only with a narrow field of activities, but also allow defining, analyzing and solving a wide range of problems. Development: The general increase and intensification of the techniques and capacities of an individual through conscious and unconscious learning.
There really is a clear distinction between Education and Training since the former is person-oriented, that is, a process of change and its objectives lend themselves to a less precise definition; while training is mostly directed towards work.
In training, the learning of specific behaviors with a certain degree of uniformity is within the limits set by the different individualities. Instead education is dedicated to increasing the variety of individual differences by teaching in such a way that the individual behaves in a particular way.
Training is therefore oriented towards providing knowledge and techniques, and inculcating attitudes necessary to carry out a matter of leadership, organizational aspects, development of specific and own techniques, while education is endowed with theoretical and conceptual structures designed to stimulate analytical capabilities of the individual.
In practice these concepts are used as if they were synonyms, although the important thing is to give them a broad meaning. Training is not limited to teaching manual skills or expanding knowledge, but rather provides a global development program in which attitudes are as important as skills. The training will fulfill its objectives if, in addition to being technical, it helps individuals to develop their personality.
Thus understood, training would be based on and based on organizational policies and strategies and would have the following characteristics (Cerna, 2010):
- It is an investment, since it allows the potential capabilities of people to be developed within the framework of business strategy. It is aimed at improving performance, because it reduces real and expected training. Participation of managers, is sought in the use of its planning, impulse and support. The need of the company, this allows adaptation to constant changes in technological evolution. Interest by the employee, it is about seeking personal commitment to fundamental values. It is motivating, because It generates an entrepreneurial environment allowing the recruitment of the most qualified and the permanence of a good professional. It allows assuming the values of the company, while training is a contribution to elevate and strengthen the culture of the company.
The training process
The training process must be characterized by being continuous, that is, if an organization wants to maintain its competitive level, it must continually adapt to internal and external changes (technological, environmental, market). This criterion of continuity consists of several stages, these according to the author himself:
- Analysis and diagnosis of training needs: Depending on the deficiencies, objectives, culture of the organization, hierarchical levels and strategies to be followed by the company, which constitute the training pillar. Define the group or groups to be trained. the functions that the members of that (or those) collective (s) have to perform; so that once these are known, we can analyze the deficiencies and organize the appropriate training process to correct them. Analyze the deficiencies of each of the people who occupy these jobs, taking into account that it will have been defined from the policy to medium and long-term of the company. Define the training needs structured and grouped according to the needs and professional characteristics of the group. Define the training program;that you will have to consider for each group of needs and groups to form the following:
- When and how they do it What does the training process (content and programs) address? Place of teaching; Instructors and teaching aids to be used; Forms and ways of evaluation; Control of results.
Taking these aspects as a starting point, the required training program and the modalities in which this will be carried out are established.
This leads to posing some conclusive theses to know.
- Training plans must be supported by senior management. Training and development must involve all hierarchical levels. Training and development needs vary according to positions, people, aspirations, possibilities, etc. Methods are determined according to training and development needs.
Training programs
Following this idea, it is appropriate to reflect on the tool to guide this purpose, since a Program that is capable of integrating itself with the requirements described must comply with the definitions of this type of instrument, that is:
Set of planned actions aimed at achieving a goal or objective or Harmonic set of objectives, policies, goals and activities to be carried out in a given time and space, with certain resources. (Hernández, 1998)
In the same way, it is necessary to specify the claims of the same, valuing that the development of Human Capital is a continuous and simultaneous training process aimed at achieving knowledge, multi-skills and values in the workers that allow them to carry out positions of broad profile, with the competencies to superior job performance. (Hernández, 1998)
This process ensures the training of the worker during his working life, enables him to promote to higher-level positions and be prepared to take on the changes that occur in the organization.
There are four main levels in the development, implementation and evaluation of training activities. (Cerna, 2010)
Needs estimation consists of examining goals at the levels of the organization, the job, the task, the knowledge-ability-capacity, as well as the person-individual. This process identifies the gaps that become the goals of instruction. In the training and development stages, objectives are used to select and design the instructional program, and to deliver the training. Finally, the evaluation phase covers the application of criteria that reflect the objectives and the evaluation models in order to determine if the training met the original objectives. The results of this evaluation form the basis for a new estimate of needs, and the process continues.
Estimating training needs is a special case of the general process of choosing objectives and evaluation models. In fact, the objectives of human talent planning are the beginning for the analysis of training needs. Gaps between desired and actual results, unit achievements, worker performance levels, and other worker characteristics may be the objectives of training under two conditions:
- They must be considered important enough to merit the attention of the organization. They must be obtained through training.
Often what at first appeared to be a training problem is best addressed through other activities. Sometimes the training is designed directly in response to the employer's request. More often, however, needs must be developed through the needs analysis process. Training needs can be identified at the organization, job, task, or job level, and at the individual-person level.
The analysis of the needs at the organization level includes the examination of the general directions of the organization and the need to determine the adjustment of the training. The «organization of learning» is cataloged as a key to competitiveness, flexibility and the elevation of living standards. As long as there is no consensus on the exact meaning of the learning organization, many will agree that the learning organization will abound in uncertainty, empower middle managers, constantly strive to improve, and foster collective loyalty. The organization of learning provides examples of needs at the organizational level that could be addressed through training. Organizational needs can be categorized as maintenance, efficiency andorganization culture.
The culture of the organization reflects the value system or philosophy of the organization. By examining this factor, you can identify areas where training can help clarify or achieve acceptance of values among employees.
For its part, the analysis of the person involves examining whether the characteristics of the individuals meet the characteristics necessary to achieve the individual and organizational objectives can reveal the training needs. The most obvious characteristic to examine would be employee performance, and the evaluation process would be the logical place to identify gaps between actual and desired employee behaviors. However, managers often refuse to carry out such developmental evaluations because employees often have negative reactions caused by the identification of gaps in their performance. It is often better to conduct evaluations for reward or feedback purposes than to identify training needs. (Cerna, 2010)
Individuals enter training with different experiences, different degrees of material familiarity, and various physical and mental abilities. The people in charge of designing the training must ensure that their demands match the student's abilities. Training that is very difficult or very easy is likely to be very ineffective. General intelligence or other skills can predict later performance, but the skills that contribute to performance differ according to the stage of the learning process at which the students are. Testing them before training begins can help ensure they achieve good results. It has been shown that work sample testing can predict readiness for training,although this disposition is better forecast in the short term than in the long term.
In this sense, even the most skilled students will not learn unless they are motivated to do so. Factors that affect student motivation include goal setting, reinforcement, and expectations.
- Goal setting: Goal setting models postulate that the conscious goals or intentions of individuals regulate their behaviors. So the job of the trainer is to get students to adopt or assimilate the training goals of the program. Kenneth Wexley and Gary Latham (cited by Cerna 2010) identify three key points in student motivation:
- The learning objectives of the program must be communicated at the beginning and at various strategic points during the program. The goals must be difficult enough to constitute an adequate challenge for the students and, in this way, allow them to feel satisfaction when they reach them, but not They must be so difficult that they cannot be achieved. The final goal of the entire program should be complemented by sub-goals (work tests, questionnaires, newspapers), in order to maintain feelings of achievement and motivate them to prepare for the next hurdle.
Management skills
To achieve maximum learning, there needs to be active practice of the skills to be acquired. Practice should continue beyond the point where tasks can be successfully performed repeatedly. Distributed (segmented) practice sessions are more effective than mass practice, a fact often overlooked in training programs because of convenience.
All this has very demanding peculiarities when it comes to training skills that condition the best performance of those who direct tasks or people, so it is necessary to analyze them with the greatest possible objectivity and sensitivity.
The concept of ability comes from the Latin term habilĭtas and refers to the capacity and disposition for something. As detailed in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, ability is each of the things that a person executes with grace and skill and the entanglement arranged with ingenuity, dissimulation and skill.
In other words, ability is the degree of competence of a person against a certain objective.
The skill can be an innate or developed ability. Practice, training and experience allow a subject to improve their skills.
It is also considered as an ability to the ability and willingness to negotiate and achieve goals through relationships with people.
Finally, it should be noted that managerial skills are those necessary to manage your own life as well as relationships with others. These skills involve a good management of social relationships and communication.
The training process designed to develop Management Skills is a term that has been valued by many authors for a long time. Katz (1955), in one of his works on the subject, states that managers should have three basic types of skills: technical, human, and conceptual.
Technical skill, as the ability to use the tools, procedures, and techniques of a specialized discipline, as required by the engineer and the physician, to carry out what he calls the "mechanics of his work." Human skill, as the ability to work with other people, as individuals or as groups and to understand and motivate them. And, conceptual skill, as a mental capacity to coordinate and integrate all the interests of the organization and its activities. Ability to see the organization as a whole.
The technical skill can be identified in two angles: knowledge of the specificity of the "business", and of the techniques to develop the "work mechanics" of the executive, where the aforementioned skills would fit, as well as in relation to human skills (similar to those demanded by Minztberg).
Finally, "conceptual skill", rather than a skill, involves the development of a way of thinking, a way of approaching situations, the methodological basis of which is the theory of "systems analysis" applied to administration and which, in concepts More modern about administration takes shape in the so-called "strategic approach", which is much more than strategic planning.
Whetten and Cameron, in their book "Development of Management Skills", present the contents and techniques for the development of these skills in three groups:
- Personal skills, including: development of self-knowledge, time and stress management, and problem solving with creative methods; Interpersonal skills, including: effective communications, development of power and influence, motivation, and conflict management; and Skills of what they call «applied communications», which include: conducting meetings, presentations, and interviews.
The demand for knowledge and skills for effective management can be as broad as desired. It may include aspects related to technology, work processes, the market, the economic and political environment in which the entity operates, as well as the instruments that it must use to direct, such as: financial indicators and ratios, management of Working capital, from possible sources of financing, the exchange rate, the effect of inflation, to name a few.
Given this wide spectrum of alternatives, it is preferred to focus attention on managerial skills related to interpersonal relationships, which is based on the results of different investigations and specialist work, among which the following can be cited.
According to Robbins, “The Center for Creative Leadership estimates that more than half of managers and administrators have some kind of difficulty in relationships with people. A survey from Fortune Magazine revealed that the biggest reason for managerial failure was their inadequate interpersonal skills. It is surprising to know that it is very likely that more managers are fired due to the poverty of their interpersonal skills than to the lack of technical skills in the position. (Codina, 2001)
Goleman (1999), in his investigations on Emotional Intelligence, reaches the same conclusions: «Now we are judged according to new norms: it is no longer just sagacity, preparation and experience that matters, but how we deal with ourselves and the rest. By tracing data on stellar performance talents over several decades, two skills emerged that had relatively little influence in the 1970s, but have become crucially important in the 1990s: team building and adaptation to change. According to her conclusions and that of her followers, the most successful are not the "smartest" or the most knowledgeable in the business, but rather those who know how to work best with people.
Mintzberg (1991) states "… in my ideal management program I would emphasize the training of the following skills: interpersonal, to collect information, to make decisions in conditions of uncertainty…".
Codina (2001) explains the importance of interpersonal skills in managerial work, based on three approaches to management:
- Leading is getting results through others; Leadership is a combination of science and art; science provides the knowledge of previous experiences that, converted into regularities and approaches, provide a theoretical-conceptual base; art is the creative application of knowledge to particular situations; the socio-technical approach considers that organizations and management processes have a technical component and a social component.
Focusing on interpersonal skills does not negate the need for managers to be able to handle issues such as: the main technological aspects of the activity they direct, of the processes that generate value in their business, of the financial instruments and indicators, of marketing tools, among other technical or functional aspects. But interpersonal skills allow him to obtain higher levels of information, collaboration, and results from subordinates who are the "specialists" of the different spheres, as well as achieving teamwork that fosters the integration and consensus of different approaches, to making more effective decisions, among other benefits.
In addition to the interaction between its component parts, Codina (2001) considers that the "management skills system", to be consistent, must have a logic and for this it proposes a system made up of 10 skills. In her vision, the process begins with the strategy and ends with the management of change, summarizing the set of policies, measures and actions that must be adopted to achieve the transition from the "Current State" to the "Desired State", which was.
The skills found in the intermediate process are aimed at guaranteeing the processes of interaction, influence and motivation that they foster, from the formulation and implementation of the strategy and the processes of change to obtaining results.
The skills are as follows, supporting their inclusion:
- Strategic direction or approach. Interpersonal communications. Negotiation strategies and techniques. Conflict management. Teamwork. Leadership and motivation. Problem diagnosis and decision making. Time management and delegation. Productive meetings. Change management.
The Directorate or Strategic Approach acts, fundamentally, on the organization's link with its environment, guaranteeing that it responds to the demands and opportunities that can be identified, taking into account the threats that may generate difficulties for the fulfillment of the mission and the organization objectives. The main result of a strategic process should be to organize the activities of the entity so that its impact on the environment is as effective as possible, both in the use of inputs and opportunities received from it, and in the delivery of products and services that meet current and future needs that may be demanded.
To develop skills in his Interpersonal Communications, the manager must know the laws, principles and component parts of the communication process, identify the characteristics, disposition and possibilities of the receiver, adequately formulate the message to be effective, know how to listen, use the feedback appropriately., and knowing how to communicate with different types of receivers, among other aspects. (Codina, 2001)
The Negotiation Skills will allow the manager to get the best results, both in its relations and exchange with environment factors (customers, suppliers, banks) and internally, within the organization. A classic work in this sphere by Lax and Sebenius (1986), highly recognized specialists, has the suggestive title of "The Manager as a Negotiator", in which they state that "negotiation is a way of life for managers.
The successful application of this skill should make it possible, among other things, for the manager to discover what may be of interest to the "other party" that he can satisfy with the least possible cost, obtaining in return something of greater value. In addition, identify what strategies and tactics and how you should use them, to obtain the best results in each situation.
The skills in Conflict Management must provide the manager with the possibilities of turning conflict situations into opportunities, to improve work processes and relationships between different organizational units, groups and individuals. In addition, identify and apply the most effective strategies to face different types of conflict that can range from avoiding them to avoiding unproductive confrontations; to stimulate them to a certain extent, when it is convenient to put in tension the greatest potentials of each group.
Teamwork skills should allow you to make decisions are taken considering the different factors necessary, that each member of your team is able to put above the positions and interests of the entire organization, which must translate into the existence of a climate of collaboration and mutual support between the different factors and dependencies of the organization.
In Leadership and Motivation two closely linked management skills are integrated. On the one hand, effective leadership is ultimately expressed in the level of motivation that the manager achieves in his subordinates to achieve the vision, goals, and objectives that have been proposed. On the other hand, in order to motivate people, it is necessary, among other things, for the boss to be able to identify and interpret the factors that can most influence the motivation of his followers.
Although Kotter (1990) recognizes that there is no generally accepted definition of leadership, he defines it as “the process of leading a group (or groups) in a certain direction, mainly by non-coercive means. We define efficient leadership as one that produces a movement towards achieving what is best, in the long term, for the group.
The problem diagnosis and Decision Making is an essential component in the work of a manager. Its proper management should allow you to: accurately formulate the problem, identify the main causes that are influencing, the generation of alternative solutions, the definition of criteria for the selection of the most effective solution alternative (s) and the elaboration of the implementation plans, control and evaluation of the results.
The need to develop skills for conducting Productive Meetings is based on the fact that this activity, according to research, occupies between 25-35% of managers' working time. In the extensive work by Whetten and Cameron (1998) on managerial skills, it is stated that "about 15% of the expenses of the personnel budget are spent in meetings…". From this they point out that «… becoming a skillful leader of meetings is a prerequisite for organizational effectiveness and management work…».
The Management of Change is essential, among other reasons to help the managers understand that the factors of the environment where moving your organization changed so fast and depth that the ways of doing things that were effective in a period determined, they will not necessarily be in the future; Let them be clear that any change, no matter how small, will generate their opposition, resistance, therefore, we must learn to manage it; and that they identify models and processes that can contribute to guaranteeing the greatest effectiveness in the implementation of the changes.
In this way, based on the fact that the main challenge facing society is the continuous improvement of the organizations that comprise it; that human talent management exists to improve people's contribution to organizations and that in order to carry out its function, it is necessary to face social, organizational and personal needs; This theoretical approach is carried out, which attempts to cover the visions and demands of a program that allows training and developing managerial skills, taking into account some of its pedagogical and methodological demands.
Bibliography
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