HR Metrics How Does Training and Development Improve Employee Job Satisfaction, Increase Moral and Increase Retention?

Executive Overview

Employee training and development is generally thought of in terms of employees learning or requiring new skills of some kind to serve more of a functional need. Training and devolvement can be instituted in an ongoing formalized process or can also be in response to an organizational change. Although training and development has direct implications for an employee's skillset and role in the organization, it can also affect employees in a number of other ways. For example, the literature indicates that training and development can also make beneficial contributions to factors such as job satisfaction, morale, and employee retention. The interactions between such factors are not as clear and there are undoubtedly mediating factors that are inherent in this relationship. This analysis will attempt to provide insight as to the relationship between training and development and how this affects job satisfaction, morale, and employee retention.

Statement of Problem

The modern business environment is dynamic and evolves at speeds that were previously unimaginable. Organizational change can place a significant amount of pressure on an organization to adapt. As a consequence of perpetual organizational change, employees must continually learn new skills to keep pace with the changing external environment. Training and development has a functional role to play in providing the skill sets that can make an organization competitive. However, there are many indirect benefits for effective training as well. Studies have found that training programs can have a significant influence on turnover rates when analyzed using a survival analysis model (Mattox & Jinkerson, 2005).

Therefore, not only does an organization invest a significant amount of resources in the training of employees, but this investment can only be rewarded if the employees remain employed with the organization so that they have a chance to utilize the skills that they gained. Thus one challenge for human resource management in this environment is how efficient their workforce is at obtaining new skills and how they can retain employees so they can see...

Modern organizations must generate the greatest value possible out of there human resources in order to create a competitive advantage and employee satisfaction and retention are critical components to this equation.
Since training programs represent a significant investment to organizations in terms of both time and money, it is critical that these programs are effective for multiple reasons. For example, one study found that an employee's satisfaction with their level of training correlates to their overall job satisfaction (Schmidt, 2007). Therefore the costs of any training program go far beyond the just the time and money to offer the programs. This would suggest that if an employee is dissatisfied with their training and development levels then they are more likely to become dissatisfied with their job in general.

Employee development is generally considered more of a long-term process related to a series of employee training events that can occur over the duration of an employee's career (Lepak & Snell, 1999). Training is often associated with technical skills or functional skills that are provided in a training session or series of sessions. With a specific beginning and end date involved in a training session as well as a desired outcome, these sessions are comparatively easy to evaluate in regards to their effectiveness. Thus the desired outcome can be compared against the actual outcome in most circumstances.

Yet even though the end result of the intended skill transfer may be quantifiable, it is difficult to identify all the components that constitute an effective training program let alone determine how these components will influence satisfaction and job turnover. One model that was developed to account for the categories of factors that are present in training is the Holton's Factors Model (Min, 2010). This model outlines the effectiveness of a training session into three key factors; the individual's motivation to acquire the skills, the climate in which the skills are transferred, as well as the design of the training program. Since these factors influence training outcomes, it is also likely that they mediate training and development and factors such as satisfaction and intention to quit.

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