Benefits of employee training

"Job quality affects worker morale, job satisfaction, and the scope workers have to apply their skills and abilities to the job - all key contributors to productivity performance."

Employee training and development programs also help with employee retention. In the book Employee Training and Development (see Links and Resources below), Noe states that:

"Studies of what factors influence employee retention suggest that working with good colleagues, challenging job assignments and opportunities for career growth and development are among the top reasons for staying with a company."

Employee training and development programs prepare staff to successfully carry out the mission of the organization. As stated by Zummach (see Links and Resources below),

"... nonprofits that invest in their own organizations, particularly in the area of employee development and training , find that they are stronger and better equipped to carry out their mission."

Benefits of employee training and development include:

• Employees are better prepared to help the organization achieve its goals
• Staff are more productive
• Employees are more motivated
• Well trained staff require less supervision
• A pool of employees are ready to replace others who leave
• Staff that engage in continuous learning are better able to meet the challenges of changes in the organization
• Staff are able to manage/work on new programs
• Your organization will be more successful at attracting and retaining employees

Distributive Bargaining

Whether negotiators are engaged in the negotiating process of acquiring a new business, a revised wage agreement, or buying a property, one of the negotiators has to make the first offer. The million-dollar questions are:

1. who should make the first offer, and
2. How will making or not making the first offer affect the negotiation process and the result?

The decision as to who should make the opening move often generates uncertainty and anxiety amongst negotiators. This is particularly true when they are missing reliable information about the other party. This will cause them to feel unsure about what offer that party will accept and what offer is likely to cause the other party to walk away from the negotiation. Additionally, it is also possible that the other party could deliberately respond with false information to gain a negotiation advantage.

Given that most negotiations are somewhat unclear at the outset, one school of thought believes that the opening offer should therefore preferably come from the other party. The basis behind this thinking is that an opening offer provides valuable information about a party's negotiating position. It also provides an indication of what type of agreement would be satisfactory. Although this appears to be good advice, it unfortunately fails to consider the critical influence first offers have on how negotiators consider the negotiation process. Reputable psychological research strongly suggests that negotiators who make first offers often attain better results.

1. Anchoring a Negotiation

Research has confirmed that the way negotiators perceive the value of any offer made in a negotiation powerfully correlates to any number affiliated with that offer. Given that numbers related to an offer tend to have a magnetic influence on the judgment of negotiators, these numbers are referred to as anchors.

First offers have a vigorous anchoring impact in situations of great fluidity and doubt, as in the case with many negotiations. First offers maintain a strong authority throughout the negotiation. This influence is so powerful that even negotiators who are aware of the hypnotic allure of anchors in terms of their judgment are often unable to resist this influence. Therefore, their assessment of a first offer seldom breaks out of the field of influence of such anchors.

Greg Northcraft and Margaret Neale researched the phenomenon of anchors. In an experiment they supplied real estate agents with manipulated price lists for properties (high and low anchors). These real estate agents were subsequently asked to inspect these properties and appraise their values and purchase prices. All participants to some degree or other permitted the list prices to influence their decisions. The list prices clearly caused them to ignore the relevant features of the properties.

Thomas Mussweiler of the Institute of Psychology at the University of Wurzburg in conjunction with his colleagues performed a similar experiment where they asked customers to approach German automotive mechanics (professionals that are well-informed about the true value of cars) with used cars that were in need of numerous repairs. After offering their own opinion of the value of these cars, they asked the mechanics for an estimate of their value. Fifty percent of the mechanics were given a low anchor by the customers stating, “I think that the car should sell for about 2800." The remaining fifty percent were provided with a high anchor by the customers sating, "I think that the car should sell for about 5,000 ". Those mechanics who were given the high-anchor approximated the value of the cars 1000 above those given the low-anchor.

Even people who recognize that they are wise to anchors are invariably influenced by anchors. This relates to the fact that high anchors selectively direct attention towards strong, positive attributes, whereas low anchors selectively direct attention towards weak, negative attributes. In the case of the estate agents, the high list price pointed their attention towards the positive features of the properties (spaciousness, a pool, etc.), while at the same time relegating the negative qualities (a small garden, one garage, etc.) to the back of their minds. The mechanics who were faced with a low anchor concentrated on the wear and tear the vehicles exhibited and did not pay heed to the positive aspects such as low mileage and the immaculate interiors.

2. Making or not making a first offer

Research into the affect of anchoring strongly suggests that negotiators who present a first offer frequently enjoy a substantial negotiation advantage. In many studies sellers who make the first offer have been found to achieve higher negotiated prices than buyers making first offers. Making the first offer anchored the negotiation in the favour of the sellers.

Furthermore, researchers have also discovered that the likelihood of a first offer being made powerfully associates to an increase of the negotiator's confidence and sense of control at the negotiation table. Those who are lacking confidence and who feel disempowered by the structure of a negotiation or the availability of alternatives are less apt to make a first offer.There is also a great deal of evidence that the size of the first offer impacts the outcome of a negotiation - with higher or more aggressive first offers delivering better outcomes. First offers predict final settlement prices more so than ensuing concessionary offers.

Naturally, there are no hard and fast rules that can be applied to every negotiation situation. It would obviously give an advantage to a negotiator who makes a first offer when they have insufficient information regarding the other party. They should be aware that the other party is better informed about the issues being negotiated, and possess better market and industry data. Sellers or buyers of property, who utilize experienced real estate agents, have access to more and better information than buyers and sellers who act on their own behalf. The lesson is that negotiators should prepare sufficiently to be on par or ahead of the other party in terms of their knowledge of the issues at hand, and of market and industry trends. This allows them the necessary confidence to propose first offers that will anchor the negotiation in their favour.

3. How a first offer should be constructed

Although it is apparent that first offers should be strong, negotiators should always be on guard against becoming too aggressive. This would push them outside the range of what would be acceptable to the other party. The fear that many negotiators experience in this scenario is that aggressive first offers may possibly scare or annoy the other party to the extent that they break off the negotiation is often highly exaggerated. It causes most negotiators to err on the side of being overly-cautious and the resulting consequence that they fail to form the best possible agreement.

Aggressive first offers work is advantageous to negotiators for the following reasons:

• Such offers assist sellers to attain higher final agreements;
• Higher list prices lead to higher final selling prices, as it causes buyers to concentrate on the positive features of a purchase; and
• Aggressive first offers generate leeway for negotiators to give concessions without exceeding their BATNAs.

First offers that are timid generally place heavy limitations on the ability of a negotiator to agree to and extract concessions / counter-concessions, or not to go beyond their real base (walk away value). On the other hand, aggressive first offers allow the other party the scope to negotiate concessions. The ensuing result is that it increases that party's sense of achievement and satisfaction, and consequently the possibility of a mutually beneficial outcome.

First offers provide early insight into the contracting zone (the range between each party's real bases), and the range of possible agreements. However, such offers could, if they are absurdly aggressive, create the perception that a mutually beneficial agreement is impossible, and thus result in a party invoking its BATNA (Next Best Option).

4. Using an "Aspiration Base" focus

When negotiators ponder aggressive first offers, they should make such offers within the context of the following;

• The strength of their BATNA,
• Their aspiration base (the target at which their hopes and desires would be fulfilled) and,
• Their real base (the bottom line beyond which their BATNA kicks in).

Although a clearly defined real base is an exceedingly important component of any negotiation, it is important that negotiators concentrate on their aspiration base when developing a first offer. Research findings reveal that negotiators who concentrate on their aspiration base when considering first offers are inclined to make more aggressive first offers. They generally achieve more beneficial outcomes than negotiators who focus on their real base.

Another means to ensure that first offers are not so aggressive as to result in the other party walking away from the negotiation is by focusing on the other party's BATNA, and real base, and on market trends. John Oesch and Glenn Whyte have discovered that the best first offers are usually those that fall outside the contracting zone, but are not sufficiently far beyond the real base of the other party to cause an extreme reaction.

When negotiators become too fixated on their aspiration base, they are blinded to advantageous outcomes that exceed their BATNAs. Their challenge is to focus on their aspiration base and make an aggressive first offer, but to remain open to making concessions. This prevents the possibility of rejecting beneficial agreements which ensures a mutually beneficial agreement.

5. A defense against first offers

When a negotiator doesn't have the opportunity to present the first offer, their protection against anchoring rests in making an forceful counter-offer firmly centered around the other party's BATNA, real base and aspiration base. The ideal means to propose such an offer is in a manner that creates a positive climate and blunts the other party's first offer. The key to protection lies in a negotiator knowing their aspiration base and the other party's limitations.

Should the other party propose a first offer that is near to the aspiration base of its counterpart, the immediate inclination is to agree to that offer and wrap up the negotiation. Research, however, suggests that immediate acceptance of a first offer is apt to leave the other party filled with remorse and discontent about not having made a more extreme first offer. It is also not uncommon for doubts to arise about the quality of the product or service purchased. A disgruntled party is less likely to live up to the terms of an agreement and may start to immediately begin plotting how to amend the agreement, extort concessions or gain revenge. Even highly acceptable first offers should be met with a request for concessions. If nothing extra is imminent the other party would at least have the gratification that it has achieved a significant victory where both parties have benefited.

COUNSELLING –GUIDING FOR POSITIVE EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

As we have seen in the preceding sections, if the problems relating to indiscipline, grievance and job stress are not effectively resolved, they invariably tend to lead to strained employee relations which, in turn, affect the performance and satisfaction levels of the organisation members. Several strategies have been suggested for resolving these problems. One thing, however, that emerges is that ultimately the individual employee's capacity and willingness to respond positively to a problem situation will determine the effect on organisational performance and individual well-being. The effective management of these problems presupposes development of problem solving orientation and positive attitudes to work and people among the employees. Counselling is primarily used for this purpose and, thus, it requires the status of an important managerial function.


Counselling is a professional form of interpersonal communication whose purpose is to assist the employees with which eventually to question the knowledge stores. It is a planned systematic intervention in the life of an individual who is capable of choosing the goal and the direction of his own development. Counselling, therefore, is aimed at maximising human freedom by increasing one's long term control over his environment and responses which are evoked by it. It is liberating in nature, develops responsible independence, increased autonomy and assists an individual to help himself.

Nature of counselling

Non-directive counselling is being more widely used in dealing with problem-employees who exhibit maladaptive behaviour in organisations. Counselling has been described as a helping relationship between the person seeking help (client) and the person providing help (counsellor). It uses a positive approach. The underlying assumptions of counselling are as follows:

(i) People can grow; they can improve. The counsellor must believe in the worth of the individual and in that person's ability to do better.
(ii) Counselling is an investment in the individual which will result in future pay offs for both the parties.
(iii) Counselling is a learning process. The client is encouraged to diagnose his own inadequacies and to become aware of the need for initiating corrective steps. The change achieved is more lasting than any change that is imposed.
(iv) Counselling involves confrontation. The client must learn to confront his own inadequacies and problems. The problems, therefore, will have to be brought out. Confrontation can cause stress, which is a necessary condition for change.
(v) Acceptance of an individual as he is by the counsellor is important. The client must be accepted as a worthy human being capable of growth and development.
(vi) Counselling is a continuous and time-consuming process that is likely to involve several sessions.
(vii) The effectiveness of counselling is determined by specific change in behaviour taking place in the client.

BENEFITS OF EMPLOYEE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

"Job quality affects worker morale, job satisfaction, and the scope workers have to apply their skills and abilities to the job - all key contributors to productivity performance."

Employee training and development programs also help with employee retention. In the book Employee Training and Development (see Links and Resources below), Noe states that:

"Studies of what factors influence employee retention suggest that working with good colleagues, challenging job assignments and opportunities for career growth and development are among the top reasons for staying with a company."

Employee training and development programs prepare staff to successfully carry out the mission of the organization.

"... nonprofits that invest in their own organizations, particularly in the area of employee development and training , find that they are stronger and better equipped to carry out their mission."

Benefits of employee training and development include:

• Employees are better prepared to help the organization achieve its goals
• Staff are more productive
• Employees are more motivated
• Well trained staff require less supervision
• A pool of employees are ready to replace others who leave
• Staff that engage in continuous learning are better able to meet the challenges of changes in the organization
• Staff are able to manage/work on new programs
• Your organization will be more successful at attracting and retaining employees

Regards

Manish Dwivedi

EFFECTIVE CONTENT WRITING

Content writing and content reading has always been a source of benefit and information for the writer and the reader respectively.

There are many websites which are providing us free content writing that is very helpful for us and usually provides the information on all the fields of the life. With the passage of time, competition among the companies is increasing and therefore, the effective content writing is more preferred than the free website contents. But there are different ways through which a writer can come up with his writing according to his writing skills but still there are different formal styles which are needed to be followed to come up with the effective piece of writings. Tips for content writing provide you a way to get all guts for effective writing and to get good reputation in the content writing.

Tips For Content Writing

There are various ways through which the websites come up with the article writing and one of them is the outsourcing of the content writing but it is riskier than the other options. The reason is that the outsourced writers need to follow the complete set of the Tips for Content Writing. There are some of the top Tips for Content Writing which will be surely useful for you in writing the website content.

1. The starting paragraph of the article has to show the introduction to the up coming paragraphs and also the behind the whole article topic. In most of the articles it will be very useful for you if you start the article with the question based on the topic of the article.



2. Organization of the article is very important and the organization includes the proper formatting and designing of writing the contents. You can write the whole article in one paragraph or you can also arrange the headings to make each of the paragraphs very distinctive and very much organized. The relevancy of the points should be carefully handled and the reader can analyze the distinction of the paragraph from the very first line.



3. The ultimate of the reader is to provide the convenience to the readers and therefore, for doing so there are many things that need to be considered. Therefore, always use the very simple words and the straight forward language so that the average of the people can be able to understand the language.



4. It will be very better for you to use the headings as the paragraphs consisting of few lines are understandable.



5. The authenticity of the text should be also considered because giving the wrong information to the readers can give the negative impact to the website. Therefore, make that sure that all of the information is very authentic.



6. Inclusion of the examples and the other tool can be very useful for making the write up more solid.



7. Tell all of the important information to the reader and in the case of the selling of the products; never forget to tell the buying process and tips.



8. Give the link websites for the further information o the readers. In this way you can save the time of the reader and can get the positive image in the market.



9. Always provide the easiness to the readers because such practices are not only beneficial for the reader but also for the writer.

CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING

Career development is essential to implement career plan. Career development consists of personal improvements undertaken by the individual employee, training, developmental and educational programmes provided by the organisation and various institutes. The most important aspect of career development is that every employee must accept his responsibility for development. Various career development actions prove useful if an employee is committed to career development. The career development actions are:

• Job performance: Employee must prove that his performance on the job is to the level of standards established, if he wants career progress.
• Exposure: Employees’ desire for career progress should expose their skills, knowledge, qualifications, achievements, performance etc., to those who take the decisions about career progress.
• Resignations: Employees may resign the present job in the organisation, if they find that career opportunities elsewhere are better than those of the present progress.
• Change of job: Employees who put organisational loyalty above career loyalty may change the job in the same organisation if they find that career opportunities in other jobs in the same organisation are better than those in the present job.
• Career guidance: Counselling provides information, advice and encouragement to switch over to other career or organisation, where career opportunities are better.

Thus, there are two types of employee mobility in career development actions. They are internal and external mobility.

a) Internal Mobility vs External Mobility: External mobility refers to movement of an employee from one organisation to another seeking better placement based on his skills and the requirements and needs of various organisations. Employees resort to external mobility techniques and the organisation resort to external candidates when the chances of suitable placement on either side or both the sides are non-existent within an organisation. An employee prefers internal mobility as long as he is sure of getting suitable placement/employment within the organisation. Similarly, organisations may resort to internal mobility until they find suitable candidate for different jobs.

b) Need for Internal Mobility: Basically internal mobility is necessary to match the employee’ skill and requirements within the requirements of the job and those of the organisation continuously. Internal mobility is needed because of the following reasons:

1. Changes in job structure, job design, job grouping etc.

2. Changes in technology, mechanisation etc. , resulting in enhancement of job demands.

3. Expansion and diversification of production/operations.

4. Adding different lines of auxiliary and supportive activities.

5. Taking up of geographical expansion and diversification.

6. Introduction of creative and innovative ideas in all the areas of management resulting in increased job demands.

7. Chances in employee skill, knowledge, ability aptitude, values etc.

8. Changing demands of trade unions regarding protecting the interests of their members.

9. Changing government role in human resources management.

10. National economic and business trends and their impact on job design and demands.

11. Problem of maintenance of interpersonal relations and sound human relations.

12. Social and religious conditions of the employees of the region.

c) Purposes of Internal Mobility: The purpose of internal mobility are:

i) to improve the effectiveness of the organisation,

ii) to maximise the employee efficiency,

iii) to ensure discipline, and

iv) to adopt organisational changes.

i) To improve the effectiveness of the organisation: The organisational effectiveness depends largely on how well the policies, programmes and procedures are implemented in actual practice, which in turn depends on suitability of employee’s skill, knowledge, commitment etc., to the job requirements. Employees suitability to the job requirements can be mostly secured through proper placement and job reassignment to internal employees as and when vacancies occur. Employees contribution and commitment would be maximum to the organisation when they are placed in the right job. This right placement, in addition to other factors contributes much to improve the organisational effectiveness.

ii) To maximise employee efficiency: The employees existing skill, knowledge etc. , can be aptly utilised when a proper job is assigned to him besides other factors. Upward job assignment to an employee certainly helps in motivating the employee, boosting his morale and improving his commitment to the job and organisation in addition to utilising the skills of higher order which were highly to unutilised. Even horizontal mobility of employee helps in reassigning the job were employees skill can be better utilised. Thus the internal mobility helps for optimum utilisation of employee skills and in turn maximise employee efficiency through motivation.

iii) To ensure discipline: Discipline is highly essential to implement the programmes in right time and in correct manner. Demotions can be used to ensure discipline and to correct the wrong placements and job assignments.

iv) To adopt to organisational changes: Organisational changes include operational changes like changes in production levels and schedules, market levels, share, schedule and direction, economic changes like inflation and deflation, changes in technology, expansion, diversification, geographical spread etc. All these organisational changes should be met by proper job reassignment to the existing employees. Promotions meet the demand for higher order skills, transfers meet the demand for any adjustment in the same or similar level of skills, knowledge etc., whilst demotions meet the demand of the depression.

Regards

Manish Dwivedi

Training and Development

India is passing through convulsive changes due to advancement in science and technology but, at the same time, over 1,100 million people of this country are caught in the twilight zone of development and under-development. Despite the fact of viewing human resource as an asset, there is a gloomy side to this issue. An element which has surfaced in the warning signal of the World Bank as related to India is that by the turn of this century, India has nearly three-fourths of the world’s illiterate population. On one side we have an abundance of human resource, the brain trust of a nation, and on the other side, we are in a state of emergency to convert the human recycling of human resource through formal, informal and non-formal education involving training and retraining.

Training- Meaning and Scope

Training is an organised procedure which brings about a semi-permanent change in behaviour, for a definite purpose. The three main areas involved are skills, knowledge and attitudes (sometimes called social skills) but always with a definite purpose in mind. It differs from education in many ways, for all practical purposes training is aimed at specific, job-based objectives rather than the broader society-based aims of education. Historically, trainees were expected to learn their jobs by ‘exposure’, i.e. by picking up what they could from experienced fellow employees. They were not termed trainees since they were not systematically trained, but, they enjoyed such titles as helpers, apprentices, in industrial circles. But this method of learning was haphazard, learning time was lengthy, motivational needs often neglected with the possibility of many incorrect procedures being passed on. There was also a certain fear from experienced members of the workforce that passing on their skills would ultimately lead to their own exit. Planned economy and economic growth in the country has given emphasis to the need for a more systematic means of training for jobs skills. Thus, was born a more analytical approach of training.

Caution: It is important that due attention is paid to training right from the time when one first starts doing a job.

If not, as is the unfortunate experience of many, it attempts at learning games and sports, it will be extremely difficult, if not almost impossible to unlearn what has once been learnt wrongly on one’s own during the initial stages.

A job is not learnt merely by instructions. By telling and showing step by step the way it ought to be done, the job is perhaps presently learnt but not done well when left on one’s own. By showing and making the trainee do the job step by step along with instruction, the chances are, that the job will be learnt and yet there is no guarantee that the job will be done well for long. The job will be really learnt satisfactorily by making an individual repeat and demonstrated step by step during instruction. By keeping a watchful eye at close intervals in the initial stages and by checking progress periodically later on, one can ensure that the job will be well done for all time to come.

The essential elements in any commercial enterprise are materials, equipment and human resource. Training, allied to the other human resource specialisations within management, ensures a pool of manpower of the required levels of expertise at the right time. But, firstly, consider the attention given by an average organisation to the provision of materials, machinery and equipment. Then compare the commitment to the third essential factor in the production cycle, viz human resources. One of the most important factors in this regard is the traditional view of training and trainers. They are seen as an expense, a service, as second rate to production or as a necessary evil. Training has tended to fall behind other management activities, especially in the planning phase. It is often carried out as a reaction to immediate needs, a patch up operation in many cases, instead of an ordered activity.

If we accept the fact that people are a company’s greatest asset, one remedy for these traditional attitudes is to convince the top management that training is a principal management function. Another remedy is for the trainers to display an increasing professionalism and so demand a chance for their voice to be heard at top level, along with other managers. The image of training in the concern is often based on concepts of cost-effectiveness. The alternate view of training as welfare activity is that it withers away in the face of depression in the trade cycles. So training must be an activity open to the analytical eye of the accountant. Yet, in some respects, it is an act of faith to pass on one’s knowledge, skills and attitudes to those who follow.

Beneficiaries

The beneficiaries of training are:

1. Organization:

• — Gets more effective in decision-making and problem-solving
• — Improve the morale of the workforce.
• — Helps people identify the organizational goal.
• — Aids in developing leadership skills, motivation, loyalty and better attitude.
• — Aids in improving productivity and quality of work.
• — Aids in understanding and carrying out organizational policies.
• — Aids in organizational development.
• — Creates an appropriate climate for growth and communication.
• — Helps employees adjust to change.

2. Employees:

• — Increases job satisfaction and recognition.
• — Moves a person towards personal goals while improving interactive skills.
• — Helps in eliminating fear of attempting new tasks.
• — Provides the trainee an avenue for growth.
• — Through training and development, motivational variables of recognition, achievement, growth, responsibility and advancement are internalised and operationalised.
• — Provides information for improving leadership, communication skills and attitudes.
• — Helps to handle stress, tension, frustration and conflict.

3. Personnel and human relations:

• — Improve inter-personnel skills.
• — Improves morale.
• — Builds cohesiveness in groups.
• — Makes the organization a better place to work and live.
• — Provides information on other governmental laws and administrative policies.

Forces influencing working and learning

Till the sixties, training activity in most of the Indian organisations was either totally absent or partly present in a rudimentary form. Even this was limited to some well established industries in the corporate sector. However, in the seventies the Indian organisations became aware of the need for development of managers for better management of industries. Thus began the Executive Development Programmes started mostly by a few educational institutions like the Administrative Staff College of India and the Institutes of Management. Some large organisations like TISCO established their own training centres and some more started programmes with the help of outside faculty. All these programmes were limited to ExecutiveDevelopment only. Four decades ago, a fillip was given to Training Within Industry (TWI) by ILO to which many industries started TWI programmes which were mostly on-the-job training to the workers. This programme also decipated after some time as it was introduced in the industry at the instance of the government and not by the conviction of industrial organisations. Even though the importance of human resource in the industry was felt by many organisations in the seventies, the training was given mainly to the executives with a view to develop the organisation. Many organisations considered that trained managers would manage to improve production and productivity through the workforce in the industry. The worker’s training was limited to on-the-job for better production and productivity.

For quite sometime now, there has been a crying need in the country that all agencies have a role to play in influencing and developing our vast human resource. Timperly, a British authority on the subject of Manpower Planning has recommended the creation of a central agency in each nation the sole purpose of which would be to develop human capital, and ensure its investment in the development of the national economy. It is only after the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s stress on Human Resource Development (HRD) that training has taken a front seat in the national economy. He had even established a separate Ministry for Human Resource Development in November 1985.

All the industrial organisations realised the importance of training their employees for better production and for improved productivity. But still the stress was more on management development and less on worker development. If one analyses the way the present day training and development programmes for workers take place in the country, even these half-hearted training programmes for workers neither meet the requirement of the organisation nor of the individual in the public sector approach while in the private sector it is mainly for the development of the organisation.

Most of the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and many large and medium sized private sector establishments have taken up HRD in big way. However, training in industry is done on an ad hoc basis. There is no systematic approach for training. The long and short-term objectives are not identified. There is no survey of training needs. In most instances the training is either a deviation from the busy work life or respite from the tedious industrial environment.