The importance of organizational culture and the trainer in the employee training process is the underlying foundation for proper training. I know, from experience, that organizational culture and employee training must go hand in hand in order to be successful. I have had a few jobs that have had effective training—such as the way that some companies integrate their organizational mottos and themes into the training. One such training was a popular chain restaurant. I know this from my best friend who was a server. It was interesting the effect that the training had because this person soon was speaking like a worker even after work hours. However, I have also experienced extremely ineffective training at my own employment. I was an intern at a small publication in high school. I truly had no idea what my job was. This is because there was little to no specific training.
What was wrong with the training? The training did not prepare me for my job. This is because the training consisted of watching a video about the paper’s history. It had nothing to do with my job. The trainer was my mentor, and he was not sure of his own job. Basically, I quickly identified that the organization itself had no succinct values and did not understand any effective training models. I felt like the model of training was passed down from management to employees to interns. Because of this, I was unproductive: “The rate of production is low when employees don’t know enough to perform their jobs confidently” (Amo, 2018).
What role did the organization play in the support or lack thereof of the training? The role that the organization played in the training was one that was not involved in actively changing the training per the needs of the employee and the organization. It seemed not me that their role was basically to give the new employee a nice history of the organization; however, this type of training did not prepare me for any of my specific job duties. What this means is that I did not know what was expected of me. The correct training would have prepared me: “Employees know how top management wants them to respond to any situation, employees believe that the expected response is the proper one, and employees know that they will be rewarded for demonstrating the organization’s values” (SHRM, 2017).
What was the role of the trainer? The trainer was a “hands-on” trainer. However, since he was unsure of his exact job duties, it made it difficult for his hands-on training to work well. Hand-on training includes apprenticeships and that is the time that the organization can help mold unskilled workers to fit new and existing jobs (BLR, 2016). My internship was similar in model structure to an apprenticeship.
How was the content delivered, and what would have been a better way to address the content? I feel that the content should have been delivered through more than one instructor—the hands-on approach of learning did not have any training prior to just launching into the job. Therefore, along with the informative video, I think that the content could have been web-based and specific to the employee, not just the organization.
Do you think that the trainer was a subject matter expert, but did not know how to deliver the training properly? No, I do not think that my trainer was a subject matter expert; however, he could have been if he had proper training. I think that he would have been able to deliver material properly if he had been trained well.
- Amo, T. (2018). The negative effects of a lack of training in the workplace. Chron. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-effects-lack-training-workplace-45171.html
- BLR. (2016). The most effective training techniques. Training Today. Retrieved from http://trainingtoday.blr.com/article/most-effective-training-techniques/
- SHRM. (2017). Understanding and developing organizational culture. SHRM.org. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/understandinganddevelopingorganizationalculture.aspx
