Discuss about the Open and Flexible Learning in Vocational.
Performance management refers to the process of providing and accessing feedback, accountability towards the organizational activities and documentation of the performance outcomes of the employees of an organization. In other words, performance management is the set of activities that ensure that the organizational goals are being met consistently, efficiently and effectively (Dooren, Bouckaert and Halligan 2015). This focuses on the performances of the organizations, employees and the departments and even the processes. Training and development have a significant role in performance management. An organization needs to arrange trainings for the employees to improve their efficiency and productivity. That in turn will help in their performance management by generating improved results in various activities and skills, such as, adaptability, analytical skills, communication, decision making and business knowledge of the employees (Elnaga and Imran 2013). Hence, training needs analysis is essential for the organizations to find out and focus on the ways to improve the performance of the employees.
Shell Oman Marketing Company is one of the major supplier companies in the oil and gas industry of Oman since 1958. The company is engaged in marketing and distributing petroleum goods in the Sultanate of Oman. A wide range of engine oils and car lubricants are supplied by this company apart from owning an oil blending plant. There are almost 180 Shell retail service stations across the country. It is a subsidiary company of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. The company is chosen for the study because as per the 2017 annual report, it provides more than 66 Further Education, Training and On-The-Job Development scopes for employees and helps in improving their performances (Shelloman.com.om 2018).
The report aims to present the findings of a study on the training need analysis and its impact on the performance management in the Shell Oman Marketing Company. Performance management includes evaluation of the performance of the employees of an organization in various aspects. Through this research, the researcher will be focusing on factors of training need analysis and how those help in improving the performance of the employees and contribute in conducting the performance management in the organization. The researcher has chosen Shell Oman Marketing Company as a case study company for the study.
The problem statement for the research study is: “What is Training needs analysis and what are its impact on the performance management system in Shell Oman Marketing Company?”
1H0: Managerial training has no impact on the performance management of Shell Oman Marketing Company.
2H0: Leadership training has no impact on the performance management of Shell Oman Marketing Company.
1) What is the concept of performance management and training need analysis?
2) What is the impact of training need analysis on performance management?
3) What is the way of improving training to improve performance management in Shell Company?
1) To know the concept of performance management and training need analysis.
2) To evaluate the impact of training need analysis on the performance management in Shell Oman Marketing Company.
3) To suggest ways of improving training to improve performance management in Shell Oman Marketing Company.
As stated by Wilson (2014), training is one of the most important sections of human resource development. It refers to the process of learning knowledge or developing skills for a specific purpose. In other words, training represents the procedures of learning the necessary skills and gaining the knowledge required to do a particular job efficiently. In any organization, human resource development is extremely important. It is necessary for improving the individual as well as organizational performance and productivity. Development represents the process of improvising the exiting knowledge, talents and skills of the employees (Ford 2014). Since, all the jobs have specific roles and responsibilities; it is the duty of the organizations to train the employees the necessary skills to perform the job efficiently. Hence, specific training programs are arranged based on the job requirements and needs of the employees.
Training consists of three activities; training, education and development. Training refers to the process of teaching the individuals about something specific; education is the process of learning and gaining knowledge from the training and development refers to the growth and improvement of the individuals in terms of skills and knowledge as a result of the training programs (Tahir et al. 2014).
Training is of various types. All types of training programs are primarily categorized into on-the-job and off-the-job training programmes. According to Pollock, Jefferson and Wick (2015), training programs are categorized into managerial training, leadership training, technical training, professional training, induction training, and soft skills training.
On-the-job training refers to the training and learning process that occur naturally while doing the work, while off-the-job training refers to those trainings, which are arranged specially for a specific job purpose (Mazur 2013). On the other hand, Employees of any organization are given training on the job requirements before and during the job. Both type of training are essential for human resource development in an organization.
Training needs analysis (TNA) is aimed at identifying and addressing the skill gaps at the institutional level, group level and individual level (Calder and McCollum 2013). This is the first stage of training and development programs of the organizations. It involves a process for determining if the training programme would actually address the identified issue or not. This is a very important analysis that should be done for the human resource development as it helps in identifying the gap between the required level and the existing level of skills and knowledge of the employees in an organization. When the gap is identified, it becomes easier to address that gap by arranging the most appropriate training programs. Training needs analysis requires the application of various tools such as, KPA (Key Performance Area) analysis, SMART objectives, one-to-one interviews to get the feedback from the employees (Chao 2013).
The purpose of this analysis is to provide the adequate and necessary support to the employees to increase their efficiency and productivity at the job. It is a part of the system development process. The analysis considers the strategic objectives of the organization along with the career goals of the individuals for determining the training needs (Mazur 2013). There are few steps in the training needs analysis, as shown in the following diagram.
Apart from identifying and analyzing the goals and objectives of the organizations, the training needs analysis is performed to identify the skills required to fulfill those objectives, followed by the evaluation of the existing level of skills in the employees and in teams, identifying the relevant courses needed to meet the skill gap and developing the training programs for the employees (Jehanzeb and Bashir 2013). The methods that are useful for carrying out a training needs analysis are surveys, interviews, discussions with focus groups and appraisal for understanding the existing skill levels.
As highlighted by Milhem, Abushamsieh and Pérez Aróstegui (2014), the training theories are mainly categorized into scenistic methods and human capital theory. The scenistic methods include a set of process or approaches that focus on the situations, case studies, events and the narratives, furnishing particular setting for the performance issues, requirements, deficiencies and actions for specific situations. These methods are based on the following theories, such as:
Situated learning theory focuses on creating an operational context for the individual for the training. Under constructivism, Abdullah and Jin (2015) stated that skills and knowledge can be improved in various ways without having any particular ideal solution, that is, it focuses on constructing different ways to handle different type of skill gap. Under the transformative learning theory, the employees are encouraged to actively participate in the shaping the content and application of the learning. This helps in personality development. Lastly, in action theory, the learning process is regulated and people change their behavior for meeting the objectives dynamically. On the other hand, Return on Training Investment for Employer-Empirical Evidence Theory falls under the category of human capital theory. This addresses training as an investment on the human resources and the outcome is treated as the return on investment (Kulkarni 2013).
According to De Waal (2013), performance management refers to the on-going practice of active communication between the supervisor and the employees occurring throughout the year, to support the accomplishment of the strategic objectives of the organization. The process of communication includes the clarification of the expectation from both the sides of organization and employees, setting up the objectives, identification of the goals, providing the feedbacks and review of the results (Shields et al. 2015).
Performance management process is a cycle including planning, checking-in and review. Planning is the first step in this cycle. In this process, the employers and the employees discuss and review the overall expectations including the collaboration about the performance objectives development. The individual developmental goals are also considered and a performance plan is developed. It helps in directing the efforts of the employees to achieve individual goals as well as organizational goals (Bach 2013). In the second step, throughout the year, the goals are discussed and check-in meetings are arranged to check the progress. This is helpful in getting a framework for ensuring that the employees are achieving the results through the trainings. In the last step, that is, in the review process at the end of the year, the employers review the employees’ performances against the expected outcome, along with the means used and attitude of the employees during the assessment period (Dooren, Bouckaert and Halligan 2015). After that the cycle starts again for the next year.
Performance management is important as it helps in keeping the employees motivated by rewards and recognition to improve their performances and increase their productivity. Cascio (2018) states that, to achieve the organizational goals and objectives, performance management is important, as it allows the employers to tap the full potential of the employees. It helps to push the employees to do not only their regular job, but do it with the best of their ability also, which increases their as well as the organization’s productivity and profit.
There is a strong relationship between the performance management and training needs analysis. The performance management is a system that helps in identifying the full potential of the employees in an organization and developing a plan for utilizing it to the fullest (Hvidman and Andersen 2013). On the other hand, the training needs analysis identifies the skill gaps and weak areas of the employees, that create obstacles for putting the best effort or achieving the best outcomes, and thereby provides a solution for minimizing those gaps through appropriate training program (Buckingham and Goodall 2015). At the same time, the training programs that are arranged after the needs analysis, are helpful in enhancing the required skills and improving the performance of the employees, which gets reflected in the performance management review (Goetsch and Davis 2014).
From the literature review, it can be inferred that, training is an essential part for the human resource development in any organization and the outcome of training is measured through performance management. The training needs analysis is done to identify the problem situations in employee performances and the type of training required to improve that. However, it is essential for the organizations to assess the requirement properly to plan and implement the most relevant training programs to achieve the best outcome.
|
Dependent variable |
Independent variables |
|
Performance management |
1. Managerial training 2. Leadership training 3. Technical training 4. Induction training 5. Soft skills training |
Quantitative research method will be chosen by the researcher to conduct the research study. Both the primary and secondary data will be collected and will be analyzed using quantitative method.
Survey method of data collection will be adopted by the researcher to collect the primary data from the employees of Shell Oman Marketing Company. It helps in obtaining the perceptions of the people directly associated with the research topic and specific knowledge about different aspects of the issue.
The researcher will prepare a survey questionnaire as a data collection instrument with 10 close ended questions. The questions will be framed in a manner that will focus on different aspects of the topic of the research, that is, on various facets of performance management, training need analysis and its impact on the performance management. This is expected to generate information that would be helpful to evaluate the training needs and find out the ways to improve the performance of the employees.
Secondary data on the company’s performances over the years, its training and development programmes will be collected from the annual reports and company website to reflect on the research topic and validate the findings from the primary data analysis.
Probabilistic sampling method will be used as the population of the company is known. The number of employees in Shell Oman Marketing Company is 263, 87% of which are Omanis (Bloomberg.com 2018). Hence, the population for the study consists of 263 people and 100 people will be chosen for the survey. Therefore, sample size would be 100. Simple random sampling technique will be used for choosing the 100 participants from the total employee force.
Data analysis will consist of the following methods and tools.
The researcher will be applying both the qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis. Charts, graphs and tables will be used for visual representation of the findings, obtained through descriptive and inferential analysis. Correlation and regression analyses method will be applied to find out the strength of the relationship among the factors of training needs and performance management, and also the relationship between the dependent and independent variables.
The expected outcome of the research is that analysis of the training needs has a positive and significant impact on the performance management in the Shell Oman Marketing Company, as it helps to identify the areas, where the employees need training to improve their performances.
The researcher must frame the questions of the survey in a manner that it would contain the most appropriate questions to find out the areas where training is needed for performance improvement. At the same time, it is also recommended that which type of training should be arranged to address the problem issue in the organization.
References
Abdullah, D.N.M.A. and Jin, C.S., 2015. Determining the types of training and development supports for expatriates. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 172, pp.548-554.
Bach, S., 2013. Performance management. Managing human resources: Human resource management in transition, pp.221-342.
Bloomberg.com, 2018. Shell Oman Marketing Company SAOG: Private Company Information. [online] Bloomberg.com. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=10304996 [Accessed 11 Apr. 2018].
Buckingham, M. and Goodall, A., 2015. Reinventing performance management. Harvard Business Review, 93(4), pp.40-50.
Calder, J. and McCollum, A., 2013. Open and flexible learning in vocational education and training. Routledge.
Cascio, W., 2018. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.
Chao, G.T., 2014. Unstructured training and development: The role of organizational socialization. In Improving training effectiveness in work organizations (pp. 141-164). Psychology Press.
De Waal, A., 2013. Strategic Performance Management: A managerial and behavioral approach. Palgrave Macmillan.
Elnaga, A. and Imran, A., 2013. The effect of training on employee performance. European Journal of Business and Management, 5(4), pp.137-147.
Ford, J.K., 2014. Improving training effectiveness in work organizations. Psychology Press.
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Hvidman, U. and Andersen, S.C., 2013. Impact of performance management in public and private organizations. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 24(1), pp.35-58.
Kulkarni, P.P., 2013. A literature review on training & development and quality of work life. Researchers World, 4(2), p.136.
Mazur, A., 2013. State feminism, women’s movements, and job training: Making democracies work in the global economy. Routledge.
Milhem, W., Abushamsieh, K. and Pérez Aróstegui, M.N., 2014. Training Strategies, Theories and Types. Journal of Accounting, Business & Management, 21(1).
Pollock, R.V., Jefferson, A. and Wick, C.W., 2015. The six disciplines of breakthrough learning: How to turn training and development into business results. John Wiley & Sons.
Shelloman.com.om, 2018. A History of Shell Oman. [online] Shelloman.com.om. Available at: https://www.shelloman.com.om/en_om/about-us/who-we-are/country.html [Accessed 11 Apr. 2018].
Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., Johns, R., O’Leary, P., Robinson, J. and Plimmer, G., 2015. Managing Employee Performance & Reward: Concepts, Practices, Strategies. Cambridge University Press.
Tahir, N., Yousafzai, I.K., Jan, S. and Hashim, M., 2014. The Impact of Training and Development on Employees Performance and Productivity A case study of United Bank Limited Peshawar City, KPK, Pakistan. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 4(4), p.86.
Van Dooren, W., Bouckaert, G. and Halligan, J., 2015. Performance management in the public sector. Routledge.
Wilson, J.P., 2014. International human resource development: Learning, education and training for individuals and organisations. Development and Learning in Organizations, 28(2).
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