Rothwell W.J. - Beyond Training and Development[c] The Groundbreaking Classic on Human Performance Enhancement (2004)(2-e)(en)

234 SELECTING AND IMPLEMENTING HPE STRATEGIES: INTERVENING FOR CHANGE

Exhibit 12-3. A communication model highlighting feedback.

directs information, takes action, and achieves results. The receiver is the recipient of the information or the beneficiary of action or results. The message is the information, action, or behavior sent. The medium is the mode of transmission; the channel is the specified band of the medium by which the message is sent; noise is any distraction that impedes message transmission.

Generally, feedback refers to information that flows back to the sender/performer because of a message he or she has sent or because of an action or behavior in which he or she was engaged. It can be positive, negative, or neutral. Positive feedback is praise; negative feedback is criticism (constructive or destructive); neutral feedback is purely informational. Feedback regulates individ- ual—and, indeed, group—performance in a self-regulating communicationperformance system.

When Should Feedback Be a Focus of Attention for Enhancing Human Performance?

As noted in a classic treatment of feedback by David Nadler, ‘‘[F]eedback can create changes in the behavior of individuals, groups, or organizations because it both energizes (that is, motivates) and directs behavior.’’11 Attending to feedback as an HPE strategy may be appropriate in the following circumstances:

Employees and other stakeholders complain that they are not receiving information about how internal or external customers, suppliers, or distributors are responding to their behavior or the results of their work.

There is evidence, substantiated by multiple sources, that mistakes could have been avoided (or opportunities seized) if performers had received more timely or specific feedback about the results of their actions.

How Should Feedback Be Improved?

To improve the quality, specificity, and timeliness of feedback, HPE specialists can establish or improve methods that link sender-performers to receiverrecipients. To do this, they can follow this eight-step model (outlined in Exhibit 12-4):

Exhibit 12-4. A model for improving feedback.

Decide on purpose of the feedback system

(include focus, groups affected, results desired).

Select and train facilitators for the feedback improvement effort.

Brief managers and other stakeholders on the goals of the feedback improvement effort.

Orient employees to the feedback improvement effort.

Prepare and circulate a feedback instrument to collect employee and other stakeholder perceptions about the quality of feedback available to performers.

Feed the results of the instrument back to teams, individuals, or others.

Engage teams, individuals, or others in establishing an action plan

to improve the timeliness and specificity of feedback.

Assess results of the feedback improvement effort and use results to enhance the effort.

236SELECTING AND IMPLEMENTING HPE STRATEGIES: INTERVENING FOR CHANGE

1.Clarify the purpose of the feedback system to be installed or improved. Will the focus be on upward, downward, lateral, positive, negative, or neutral feedback? What groups will be affected, and why have they been targeted for improvement? What results are to be gained? What will be the value of the feedback improvement process to the organization’s strategy and customer service goals?

2.Select and train facilitators on ways to improve the timeliness and specificity of feedback to individuals, teams, or groups. This approach can be most useful in successfully installing a new approach to feedback throughout an organization.

3.Brief managers and other stakeholders on the goals of the effort. What results are sought? How do they help meet business needs? Of what value are they to the managers, employees, and other key stakeholders? What can managers do to ensure that the HPE strategy is implemented successfully? If necessary, train managers on new and more effective approaches to providing performance feedback to their employees.

4.Orient employees to the effort. Tell them the goals to be achieved. Show how those goals relate to the needs of the business, the stakeholders, and the employees themselves. Provide them with skills-oriented training as necessary on ways that they can seek feedback and provide effective feedback to coworkers, managers, and other stakeholders.

5.Prepare and circulate a feedback instrument to collect employee and other stakeholder perceptions about the quality of feedback available to performers.

6.Feed the results of the instrument back to teams, individuals, or others who are the focal points of the HPE strategy.

7.Work with each team or individual to establish an action plan to improve the timeliness and specificity of feedback given and received.

8.Ask those involved to assess how well they feel it has helped to improve feedback in the organization.12

What Problems Can Affect Efforts to Improve Job Feedback?

Although much has been written about feedback and feedback systems,13 less has been done to improve them than one might think when their importance is considered. One reason is that managers and employees are not always too sure how to improve feedback. Another reason is that managers and employees have

trouble defining the idea clearly so that others understand what they mean by feedback. A third reason is that some people confuse timely, specific feedback with the annual employee performance appraisal ritual. Annual appraisals, while representing one form of feedback, are neither timely nor are they always specific.

To overcome these problems, HPE specialists should lead the way to define feedback, ensure that feedback improvement and measurement approaches are incorporated in the organization’s communication policy, and draw attention to the many methods of improving timely, specific feedback. They can do this by making it a practice to collect customer, supplier, and distributor information regularly and feed it back to performers; providing training on feedback as appropriate; and finding ways to encourage interaction between groups inside and outside the organization.

Improving On-the-Job and Off-the-Job Training

When training and development professionals think of a solution to a human performance problem, training is (not surprisingly) the first thing that usually enters their minds. Traditional training methods have long been governed by the Instructional Systems Design (ISD) approach.14 New models of ISD have been emerging in recent years to keep pace with growing, technologically oriented instructional support options, the declining half-life of knowledge, and the growing popularity of performance support systems.

What exactly are on-the-job and off-the-job training? When should they be used? How can on-the-job and off-the-job training methods be improved? What problems can affect training as a method of enhancing human performance?

What Are On-the-Job Training and Off-the-Job Training?

Training that occurs in the workplace and during the workday is called on-the- job training (OJT); training that occurs off-site and off-line is called off-the-job- training (OFJT). One of the most frequently used but least publicized forms of training, OJT prompts employer expenditures three to six times greater than those for OFJT.15

Both OJT and OFJT can be unplanned or planned. Unplanned OJT often amounts to nothing more than ‘‘following Joe around the plant’’ or ‘‘sitting by Nellie.’’ Planned OJT, on the other hand, helps learner-performers reduce the unproductive breaking-in period that typically follows new employee selection,

238 SELECTING AND IMPLEMENTING HPE STRATEGIES: INTERVENING FOR CHANGE

transfer, or promotion. Increased attention has been directed to OJT in recent years because it is a real-time change strategy. Unplanned OFJT includes inservice training in which employees ‘‘huddle’’ with their supervisors or coworkers to address common problems. Planned OFJT, like planned OJT, has been carefully prepared to maximize the time employees spend away from their jobs. It is most appropriate when many workers share a common training need.

When Should OJT and OFJT Be Used?

Not every human performance problem lends itself to a training solution. Training should be used to solve human performance problems only when workers lack the competencies to perform. It should not be used when workers lack motivation, appropriate tools or equipment, appropriate supervision, or when other issues are affecting performance. Training is the HPE strategy of last resort because rigorously designed and delivered training is expensive.

Training should be used when workers lack knowledge to perform and:

Appropriate resources are available to design, deliver, and follow up the training.

Alternative HPE strategies will not address the underlying causes of human performance problems or capitalize on human performance enhancement opportunities.

Planned OJT is appropriate when the conditions just listed can be met and:

Daily work distractions can be minimized.

Training on the work site will not pose health, safety, or productivity problems for other employees.

Benefits can be derived from offering training in real time and in the work setting.

Off-the-job training, on the other hand, is appropriate when many employees share a common training need and when sufficient expertise and resources are available to design and deliver the training.

How Can On-the-Job and Off-the-Job Training Methods Be

Improved?

A seven-step model may be followed when planning and delivering OJT or OFJT (see Exhibit 12-5).

Exhibit 12-5. A seven-step model to guide training design, delivery, and evaluation.

Analyze workers, work requirements, and the work environment.

Conduct training needs assessment.

Specify and sequence instructional objectives.

Make, buy, or modify instructional materials

to meet instructional objectives and training needs.

Test training materials (formative evaluation).

Deliver the training.

Conduct summative evaluation (establish and measure transfer- of-training strategy).

1.Analyze the workers, work requirements, and work environment.16 Who are the learners, and what do they know about the issues on which the training will focus? What are the requirements for demonstrating successful performance, and how are they measured? Under what conditions will the workers be asked to perform? Be sure to separate training from nontraining needs.

2.Conduct a needs assessment. A needs assessment determines only the training needs of the targeted learners. It specifies the difference between what is happening and what should be happening as it relates to the required competencies of the targeted participants.

3.Specify and sequence the instructional objectives governing the training. Instructional objectives are derived directly from the results of the training needs assessment.17 While training needs suggest performance defi-

240 SELECTING AND IMPLEMENTING HPE STRATEGIES: INTERVENING FOR CHANGE

ciencies or opportunities, instructional objectives suggest ways to meet the training needs and should clarify the desired outcomes of training.

4.Make, buy, or modify instructional materials to meet the instructional objectives and thereby meet the training needs. At this point, HPE specialists should decide how to deliver the training and what materials are necessary to meet the objectives. Possible choices for delivery include selecting external consultants, using internal training and development professionals, relying on a combination of internal training and development professionals and external consultants, offering on-the-job training, or developing media-based instruction to be delivered by videotape, audiotape, or computer-based support. Additional choices include selecting and purchasing off-the-shelf training materials from commercial publishers or vendors, purchasing and modifying off-the-shelf training materials, locating internal training materials already in use within the organization, and preparing internal training materials.

5.Test training materials before widespread delivery. This is called formative evaluation.18 Its aim is to improve training materials by trying them out first on a small group and then revising them.

6.Deliver training to the targeted audience. Appropriate delivery options depend, of course, on the medium (or media) chosen for delivery. Many training and development professionals are experimenting with distance education, which involves the application of many instructional media over many sites. Examples of distance education technology include videoteleconference, audioteleconference, electronic mail, and programmed print instruction.

7.Conduct summative evaluation. This is a follow-up evaluation to find out how well the training has been applied by learners on their jobs and what organizational outcomes or return-on-investment resulted from the training.19 The key to success in summative evaluation is establishing a transfer-of-training strategy to ensure that what the targeted learners master is applied on their jobs.20 There are more than one hundred possible transfer-of-training strategies.21 (The worksheet in Exhibit 12-6 can help you structure your thinking about ways that transfer of training can be improved.) The results of summative evaluation should be fed back into future analyses of workers, work requirements, and the work environment and into future training efforts to create continuous training improvement (CTI).

Exhibit 12-6. A worksheet to improve transfer of training.

Directions: Use this worksheet to structure your thinking about ways to maximize the effective transfer of training. Answer the questions appearing below. Ask employees and their immediate organizational superiors to answer these questions before and after an employee participates in off-the-job training. There are no right or wrong answers.

1.Training represents an investment made by the organization. Why is the employee being sent to training? What measurable job-related results are needed from the training experience? Try to be as precise as possible in your answer, since measurable criteria are the best means by which to demonstrate on-the-job returns resulting from off-the-job training investments.

2.How do you feel that the participant in this training course can prove on-the-job improvements?

3.What is the responsibility of the immediate supervisor of the participant in ensuring that the participant applies on the job what he or she learned in training? What is the best way you could recommend that be conducted?

4.What is the participant’s responsibility in ensuring that he or she applies on the job what he or she learned in off-the-job training? How should his or her improvement be measured?

Some differences may exist between the model for on-the-job training and that for off-the-job training.22 Terminology may also differ somewhat, depending on the group targeted for training. For instance, on-the-job training is more often associated with nonexempt than with exempt employees, although the same principles will work.23

What Problems Can Affect Training as a Method of Enhancing Human Performance?

Training is increasingly becoming the HPE strategy of last resort. Interest has been growing in OJT more than in OFJT. OJT is commanding renewed interest because it is a real-time change strategy and because in OJT supervisors and coworkers take active roles in training, reducing transfer-of-training problems. They all have a stake in the performer’s success, and they are better positioned than off-the-job training and development professionals to hold the performers accountable on their jobs for what they learned during the training.

In recent years, attention has also been shifting from training to learning.24

objectives to be achieved by learners and scheduling the structured practice, allowing regular access to it. If possible, a facilitator can be assigned to ensure that individuals are given planned practice.

What Problems Can Affect the Use of Structured Practice?

Two key problems afflict structured practice. First, it may be chosen for the wrong reasons. It should not be substituted for training; rather, it should be used as a stand-alone method only when learners already know what to do but have forgotten how to do it because of infrequent practice. Second, structured practice may suffer from being unplanned. HPE specialists should caution managers to avoid limiting access to structured practice to downtime only, since that usually leads to inconsistent opportunities for practice among many learners.

Improving Equipment and Tools

Equipment surrounds the performer; tools are used in daily work. Without appropriate and available equipment and tools, performers cannot work competently. Imagine a pilot trying to fly without a plane or an accountant trying to function without a calculator, and you can easily see how important equipment and tools are to achieving desired results.

When should improvements in equipment and tools be applied to enhance human performance? How should they be used to lead to those enhancements? What key problem can affect the use of equipment and tools for enhancing human performance?

When Should Improvements in Equipment and Tools Be Used to Enhance Human Performance?

Improving equipment and tools is an appropriate HPE strategy when employees are complaining that their equipment or tools are outdated, unavailable, or inappropriate to their needs, when evidence suggests that superior advantage can be gained over competitors through investments in state-of-the-art equipment or tools, or when such investments can improve an organization’s safety record (thereby demonstrating commitment to employees and legal compliance to regulators), ensure a match between human and machine requirements, or make reasonable accommodation for the mentally, physically, or learning disabled.