Training Programs Organizational Psychology

¶ … industrial/organizational psychology provides the evidence-based framework for corporate training programs, as well as the methods used to evaluate the success of those programs. Industrial/organizational psychologists can help organizations improve their current human resources strategies and make changes that can help promote organizational goals. Analyzing job roles, recruiting, and training all involve firm understanding of the principles of industrial/organizational psychology. The industrial/organizational psychologist "researches and identifies how behaviors and attitudes can be improved through hiring practices, training programs, and feedback systems," (Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2016).

Because each organization will have different values, missions, and goals, their training programs will vary accordingly. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but there are ways to ensure that a training program works to meet the specifications of its leaders and stakeholders. According to Training magazine's annual list of the top 125 training programs, Jiffy Lube and Keller Williams Realty boasted the most successful training programs in 2014 ("Training Top 125," 2014). Factors that determine rankings are similar to those used to measure training program outcomes from an industrial/organizational psychology perspective.

Business objectives are a crucial measure, as a training program is only as effective as it is with helping the company achieve quantifiable goals. Those goals could include profit margin increases, sales order increases, or expansions. Other issues that are taken into account when evaluating the training programs include the ratio of trainers to trainees, and the presence or absence of leadership development and mentoring programs.

Leadership development and mentoring programs help to ensure the future of the organization, preventing it from stagnating as the next generation of leaders can identify weaknesses and help the company grow. Other issues include measurable like employee turnover and retention rates, and the total budget allocated to the training program versus its results. Measuring the effectiveness of a training program can also involve qualitative analyses.

As Markgraf (n.d.) points out, subjective reports from surveys and interviews with employees who underwent the training can help inform leaders as to what changes need to be made with the training. Specific performance measures can often be quantifiable, as with sales in Keller Williams Realty. Other performance measures cannot be easily performed in the short-term, as Jiffy Lube would need to measure long-term customer relationship building as opposed to short-term sales.

Other qualitative measures include the changes to organizational culture; some training programs might be specifically designed to increase gender or cultural sensitivity and promote a more egalitarian, democratic, or harmonious workplace in which all employees are empowered. As these types of changes take time, longitudinal research may be required. Personality tests can help organizations to identify the qualities they are looking for in specific employees, with the ultimate goal of creating an organizational culture reflective of core values.

Ethical concerns are often raised with training programs that capitalize on the use of personality tests (Goldman, 2007). However, they can be instrumental in maximizing the value of training programs. Effective training programs must also take into account legal and ethical issues related to sexual harassment, discrimination, and workplace safety ("Developing a Training Plan for Legal Compliance," n.d.). Outcomes of these programs will reveal whether the number of infractions in areas of concerns has changed.

The Jiffy Lube training program was ranked first out of 125 other companies partly because it included sections on diversity, workplace safety, and discrimination ("Training Top 25," 2014). Tuition assistance is also an ethical measure of a training program, as it helps level the playing field and minimize the impact of favoring those with more privileged backgrounds. An organization should invest in those employees that it values, with the understanding that the investment will pay off with improved overall performance.

Tuition assistance also signals that the organization has become committed to ongoing learning; all the companies in the top ten in the Training list have tuition assistance programs. Jiffy Lube's training includes state-of-the-art technologies to help with developing specific skills, one of the hallmarks of a progressive program (Friedman, 2012). The training is also mandatory for all new employees, creating an egalitarian environment free of favoritism.

The Keller Williams program includes its own university, Keller Williams University, which addresses key aspects needed to succeed in the real estate industry, as well as a program called Mega Achievement Productivity System (MAPS) (Keller Williams, 2016). These unique features of its training program have created an environment in which all employees can reach their highest potential in the organization. Effective training programs like these also endear the employees to the company and increase loyalty. Even the public sector has.