Training and development help with long term management essay

1. 0 INTRODUCTION

Our assignment group has chosen Training and Development Topic for our assignment. According to Mondy and Mondy (2012), training is defined as activities designed to provide learners with the knowledge and skills needed for their present jobs. Whereas, according to Mondy and Mondy et al (2012), development is defined as the learning that goes beyond today’s job and has a more long term success. A famous book author, Aminuddin, M(2008) quoted that training means  the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relates to specific useful skills. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at technical colleges and polytechnics. Today it is often referred to as professional development, while according to him development is defined as, learning activities implemented to aid employee grow, in which are not confined to a particular job. The importance of this study research is to identify the importance of training and development in an organization. This study research selected the Training and Development topic, since we realized that without the existence of the both concepts in an organization, employees might not equip themselves or acquire important knowledge and skills which is necessary to be successful employees. Without training and development too, a company might not be able to stay competitive with modernised business and economic environment. Individuals in organizations need to constantly upgrade themselves to stay effective and efficient, so that the organizations can benefit through their knowledge and skills. The objective of the search is to identify relevant training and developments method that World Resort is implementing in its organizations which has enable it to be the top ranking in the entertainment and hotel industry.

2. 0 CONTENT

Training and development help with long-term improvement of employees’ skills and knowledge which are enabling them to fulfill their potential and ability within their organization. In other words, Training and development (T&D) is a continuous effort designed to enhance employee competency and organizational performance. Training enable employees to learn the knowledge and skills needed for their jobs. For instance, showing how a supervisor operate and schedule their production daily. Furthermore, the purpose of training is to improve one’s capability, productivity and performance. On the other hand, development refers to the learning that goes beyond today’s job and has more future and long-term focus. It is a process to let the employees to keep pace with the ever changing business and organization environments.

2. 1 Theories

There are few relevant theories are associated with the training and development which are reinforcement theory, experiential learning, action learning, behavior modeling, business games, on-the-job training, job rotation and apprenticeship training. Reinforcement theory can be categorized as positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. In other words, this is so called carrot and stick, carrot as a positive reinforcement or rewards such as job promotion in an organization whereas stick as a negative reinforcement which strengthens a behavior because a negative condition is stopped or avoided as a consequence of the behavior (Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction (MCLI)Maricopa Community Colleges, 1999). Experiential learning, this theory asserts that without reflection we would simply continue to repeat our mistakes (McGill &Beaty 1995). Therefore, experiential learning cycle is established.(Brooks 1995, p. 66)cycle. gifFirst, the experiential learning is through concrete experience (putting it into practice), Second, it is through observation and reflection (objectively analyze the outcome), Third, it is through abstract conceptualization (reviewing your conceptual understanding), Fourth, it is through active experimentation (experimenting to find solution). Third, Action learning is a dynamic process that allows a small group of people participating and solving problems, while at the same time emphasizing on their learning and how their learning can create a mutual-beneficial relationship among themselves. The diagram below briefly describes the flow of action learning. actionLearning_diag. gifFourth, Behavior modeling is a training and development theory or method that allows a person to learn by replicating or copying behaviors of others to show managers how to handle various situations (R. WayneMondy, 2009, p. 170). The most basic application of behavior modeling in organization is to approach to the employees and physically guide them with the proper ways to do the assigned work tasks or pair them with experienced employees. Other than that, behavior modeling can be used to train managers in such tasks as conducting performance appraisal reviews, delegating work task, dealing discrimination complaints, overcoming resistance to change, orienting new employees and correcting unacceptable performance. Fifth, Business games is a training and development that permits participants to assume roles such as president or controller of two or more similar hypothetical organizations and complete against each other by manipulating selected factors in a particular business situation (R. WayneMondy, 2009, p. 170). Furthermore, this theory (Business Games) brings benefits, it develops leadership skills, it enhances application of total quality principles, it develops skills in using quality tools, it strengthens management skills, it demonstrates principles and concepts, and it explores and solves complex problem. Sixth, On-the-job training is an informal training and development theory that permits an employee to learn job tasks by actually performing them (R. WayneMondy, 2009, p. 170). The key of this training is to transfer knowledge from a highly skilled and experienced worker to a new employee, while maintaining the productivity of both workers at the same time. Seventh, Job rotations a training and development theory where employees move from one job to another to broaden their experience (R. WayneMondy, 2009, p. 170). Higher-level tasks often require this breadth of knowledge. Job rotation is often used by organizations to encourage effective teamwork. Organizations are widely applying entry-level rotational training programs. For instances, a college graduate may be given the opportunity to test his or her skills in a number of different roles such as finance, sales, and supply chain management before settling on a full-time management role within the company. Eighth, Apprenticeship training is a training theory that combines classroom instruction with on-the-job training. Such training is common with craft jobs, such as those of a plumber, barber, carpenter, machinist, and printer. While in training, the employee earns less than the master craftsperson who is the instructor. Apprenticeship program last from two to five years, with four years being the average length (R. WayneMondy, 2009, p. 170).

2. 2 Contributions

Training is including everything that is needed for the enhancement of organizational development and competencies. In order to improve the performance, organizations need to have trained and experienced people to work with them. The major contributions of training and development programs are that trained employees need lesser supervision as compared to the new employees. Perhaps, training is a good way to build the confidence among the employees so that they can run the tasks without any obstruction with maximum efficiency and effectiveness. The reason for conducting training and development programs is to save money because a company is likely to bear heavy expenditure on hiring new employees which are new and without experience. Besides, training can affects employee retention since training provides opportunity to learn new skills and knowledge. Most of the employees may view the training as a promotion opportunity for them to learn and promote to a new job position. It can be a valuable commodity if viewed it as an investment rather than as an expense, perhaps, it can produce high returns in term of performance .

3. 0 CASE DEVELOPMENT

Resorts World Berhad was incorporated on 7 May 1980 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Genting Berhad. Upon conversion into a public company in Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange on 22 December 1989, its name was changed to Resorts World Berhad from the year 1989 to 2008 and subsequently changed to Genting Malaysia Berhad. When hear about Resort World Berhad, most Malaysians will recognise it as the rise of its namesake hill resort. The idea was lighted on by late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong. (Genting Malaysia Berhad-Profile, 2012)Resort World Berhad is involved in the tourist resort business at Genting Highlands, Malaysia and the main activities of the group include leisure and hospitality services such as amusement, gaming, hotels and entertainment, property development and management, investments, tours and travel related services and timeshare ownership scheme. One of the largest employers in the country, Resort World Berhad is currently provides employment to over 9, 000 people housed mainly at Genting Highlands. Its loyalty card programme which is ” Genting World Card” has attracted over 3. 3 million members in Malaysia. Resorts World Genting is classified as an integrated leisure for family and resort of entertainment which attracted more than 19 million visitors annually in the past five years. (Genting Malaysia Berhad-Profile, 2012)Resort World Berhad offers 6 hotels, 200 dining and retail outlets, business convention facilities, mega shows, 40 fun rides and a serial of entertainment. Maxims Genting, Genting Hotel, Highlands Hotel, Resort Hotel, Theme Park Hotel, Awana Hotel and First World Hotel which is one of the world’s largest hotels are the hotels available in Resort World Berhad. Genting Malaysia is also owns two beautiful seaside properties which attracter lots of visitors each year, namely Resort World Kijal in Terengganu and Resort World Langkawi in Langkawi. (Genting Malaysia Berhad-Profile, 2012)Besides, Genting UK is also one of the leading casino operators and innovator in the provision of high quality and customer focused gaming. In United Kingdom, Genting are operating 6 casinos in London namely Maxims Casino Club, London Mint, Crockfords, The Palm Beach, The Colony Club, Fox Poker Club and 37 regional casinos in the UK. These casinos are offering memorable experiences with bar, restaurants, various slots and table games. (Genting Malaysia Berhad-Profile, 2012)Along these few years, Resorts World Berhad was voted by World Travel Awards as the Asia’s Leading Casino Resort from the year 2005 to 2010 and the World’s Leading Casino Resort on the year 2005, 2007 to 2010. Besides, at Malaysia International Gourmet Festival 2011, Resorts World Berhad has also won various culinary awards and Hospitality Asia Platinum Awards (HAPA) from year 2011 to 2013 in Regional Series. (Genting Malaysia Berhad-Profile, 2012) Therefore, this has brings confident to Resort World Berhad to keep on improving on their services and upgrading their facilities in order to satisfied customers’ needs. Employees are an integral part of Resort World Berhad, therefore, the organization keeps supporting the employees development in order to achieve the organizational objectives. As at 31 December 2011, Resort world Berhad has a global workforce of 47, 077 employees while 1, 818 employees were honoured with Long Service Awards ranging for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 years of service which proven the strong commitment of employees to the organization. (Genting Malaysia Berhad-Sustainability, 2011) Employees’ training is one of the key trusts for the organization. Therefore, in order to maintain the thrust between employees and the organization, Resort World Berhad has been actively involved in providing different types of high quality training, development programmes and opportunities for career development of each staff. One of the human resource practices that apply by Resort World Berhad is job rotation. This has made employees to move from one job to another within the organization in order to broaden experiences and helps new employees to understand variety of jobs. Resort World Berhad had inaugurated Hotel Management Trainees programmes to career and growth opportunities for high potential employees. The trainers will undergo a rigorous 12 months training with the exposure to various hotel functions. This initiative is also part of the organization effort to retain talent. Upon completion, they will be evaluated to measure their readiness for company’s position. Other than that, this opportunity was also extended to external from selected colleges and universities. Besides, regular departmental team building activities are aimed to foster team spirit, skills transfer and also improve the communication among all levels of employees. (Annual Report of Resort World Berhad, 2007)There are some advantages in job rotation; Resort World Berhad will end up with a work-force that is cross-trained in different fields with job rotation. Resort World Berhad can encourage its employee self-discovery and the opportunity to learn new things, it’s a great way for it’ employee to gauge their staff’s natural skills and abilities. Resort World Berhad also can avoid monopoly of job and enable the employee to learn new things and enjoy his/her job and avoiding fraudulent practice to undertaken to prevent employees from doing and kind of fraud. The disadvantage in job rotation are frequent interruption, reduces uniformity in quality, and misunderstanding with the union member. Resort World Berhad results in frequent interruption. For example, an employee who is doing a particular job and gets it comfortable suddenly finds himself shifted to another job. This interrupts the work in both the jobs. Resort World Berhad reduces uniformity in quality with job rotation, for example, a new employee rotated in the department, he/she will takes time to learn the new job, makes mistakes in the process and affects the quality of the job. Resort World Berhad also will misunderstanding with the union member with job rotation. The union might think that employees are being harassed and more work is being taken from them. Besides, on-the-job training practice is also applied by the organization. This practice is an informal and most common training and development method that permit employees to learn job tasks by actually performing them. As an effort to support the Skim Latihan 1Malaysia (SL1M) which is launched by the Prime Minister on 1st June 2011, Resorts World Berhad has provide on-the-job placements to unemployed or underemployed graduates with appropriate qualifications. The objective of SL1M is to overcome unemployment among graduates by enhance their employability to secure jobs that commensurate with their qualifications. This scheme requires applicants to achieve a minimum CGPA of 2. 5 for degree from any recognized tertiary institution and possess the ability to communicate in Malay and English. Shortlisted trainees will be given 2 to 3 months soft skill trainings and 9 to 10 months on-the-job training. During the training period, trainees will assist and involve in organizational activities and departmental functions. Subsequently, trainees are evaluated on their suitability for vacancies in Resorts World Berhad. Besides, employees will also undergo training beyond induction. For examples, front liners will be trained to deliver services par excellence to guests and supervisors and managers will be undergoing training in management. (Frequently Asked Questions on Genting Malaysia’s SLIM Programme, 2013)Resort World Berhad’s employee can be given specific job training and can be shown what to do and as they practice under the supervision of more experienced staff, they’ll gain more confidence in their work as well as the trainer being able to guide them towards doing the job correctly and being on hand to point out any errors and to give feedback. In addition to the job training being tailored to specifically suit the needs of the Resort World Berhad and its workforce, this also allows a new trainee to be integrated far more easily and quickly into the company as opposed to them learning similar skills externally which might not be entirely suitable for the specific role they’re being asked to do. Resort World Berhad can lower the cost with on the job training; it does not require the development of potentially expensive training materials instruction. Additionally, worker training within the Resort World Berhad also means that the employee is actually working as they are learning and they’ll become more productive as they become more adept. (D. Jeff, 2012)There are some disadvantages of on the job training which is inconsistent, incomplete, lack of founding principles, and bad habits. Resort World Berhad found that on the job training relies heavily on an experienced employee to provide the instruction based on what they feel are the most important, but what is important to one employee may not be important to another, this is inconsistent and the result is what is learned may vary greatly, depending on who is assigned as the trainer. On the job trainers often to cover important information of Resort World Berhad, it made that what is leaned is likely to be based on what happened that day rather than on what a new employee needs to know to be safe and productive. Resort World Berhad faced that on the job trainees often learn what to do, not why they are doing it, resulting in poor decision making when things don’t go exactly right. Resort World Berhad also found that the bad habits of the trainees, for example, the trainee observes and may adopt the trainer’s habits and attitudes about all aspects of the job including safety, quality, customer service, and relationship with management. Poorly selected trainers can have many unintended consequences. (D. Jeff, 2012)In addition, scholarships are also awarded by Resort World Berhad high potential employees. In year 2008, 25 scholarships were awarded to high performing employess and students to pursue in any field relevant to the business, with the objective of providing financial assistance to internal staff and offer employment upon graduation. (Annual Report of Resort World Berhad, 2008) Scholarships are also awarded to the 21 deserving employees in the year 2009 so that they could further their studies at Kolej Antarabangsa Genting Inti (KAGI), MAHTEC and Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). (Annual Report of Genting Malaysia Berhad, 2009) In the year 2011, 22 scholarships worth RM1. 7 million were awarded under Genting Malaysia Education Fund to outstanding employees and other external recipients. (Annual Report of Genting Malaysia Berhad, 2011) Moreover, the organization partners with colleges and universities and professional associations such as Genting INTI International College (GIIC), ACCA, CIMA and ICAEW are providing opportunities for employees to enhance their qualifications. (Annual Report of Resort World Berhad, 2005) For examples, Resorts World Genting’s Finance Department has been recognized by professional accountancy bodies such as ACCA, CIMA and ICAEW to provide trainings to accounting field’s employees to become qualified accountants. There are some advantages for Resort World Berhad by providing scholarship. Resort World Berhad can raise the profile and awareness and products among the brightest talents of tomorrow and it’s families. Resort World also can position it’s company as caring about education, training and development of future generations. Resort World Berhad may achieve specific marketing objectives through tailored marketing activities to applicants and the wider student audience. And also create a resource for future graduate recruitment. Providing scholarships also help Resort World Berhad to attract and retain loyal employees through an employee benefit program and Help talented students achieve their educational goals and become valuable members of the workforce. Furthermore, Resort World Berhad is also offering internship to students from colleges or universities. Internship is a training approach where universities students divide times between attending classes and working for organization. This will enable students to integrate theory with practices. For instance, students from Genting Inti International College (GIIC) will undertake 6 months of internship in Genting Highlands Hotels and Resorts while studying for your diploma program in Malaysia. (Genting Inti International College, 2010) In year 2009, 29 management trainers involving candidates from universities were engaged to undergo a structured development programmes into managerial position in the future. In November 2010, the 22nd Genting Malaysia Senior Managers’ Conference was held in Manila, Philippines. The theme, ‘ Stepping Up to Stepping Out” emphasised the importance of being able to face new challenges with confidence. Therefore, during the year, 15 management trainees were recruited to undergo internship within selected internal departments. (Annual Report of Genting Malaysia Berhad, 2010)There are some advantages in Resort World Berhad via internship, which is workload relief, job candidates, industry updates, and community. Workload relief is an intern is an affordable option for handling a portion of the workload for Resort World Berhad, if it’s staff is stretched thin to cover all of their duties, an intern can take over some of those work tanks to learn the trade while helping out its full-time employees. Job candidates are an intern program doubles as recruitment method for Resort World Berhad, it get a steady stream of college students studying in the industry on a trial basis. Resort World Berhad industry updates is about college students learn about the latest treads in Resort World Berhad through their coursework, while an intern learns about the industry through hands-on experience at resort World Berhad, it also can learn from the intern about the cutting-edge industry concepts. Community beyond Resort World Berhad benefits, is an internship program offers advantages to the community, Resort World Berhad is supporting local college programs, giving the students an opportunity to learn beyond the classroom.  The interns may realize through the experience they want to stay in the community rather than move away after graduation. (Advantages and Disadvantages of internships, 2012)By the way, there are some disadvantages for internship too. Some internship is detrimental to the individual’s progression in the Resort World Berhad. Many interns are taken advantage of and made to do pointless tasks that will not give them any additional knowledge or understanding about the industry or a certain position. Often interns flit from one department to another and are regarded as an ‘ assistant’ rather than an apprentice, meaning that they learn basic, menial tasks that are of limited value. Many interns come out from the experience feeling frustrated and as though they haven’t gained any valuable skills. They get trapped in one department and their exposure to the Resort World Berhad overall is therefore limited. Most internship isn’t that glamorous and it is extremely difficult to be offered an internship opportunity for a highly regarded and paramount Resort World Berhad. In addition, internships can become extremely expensive to maintain, particularly if there is no funding available and they are maintained for a prolonged period of time. (Advantages and Disadvantages of internships, 2012)

Critique on HR Practices

Practice of job rotation is proven to have positive impact of variation, such as reduce boredom, reduce work stress, increase innovation and etc. Nevertheless, job rotation also lead to low job productivity and inefficiency whereby unspecialized labor is unfamiliar with new job scope. People who do not perform the same task repeatedly tend to do it slower than those who do the task regularly. Job rotation would probably make employee unhappy as an employee has a prioritized tasks he/she like and employee who likes his/her job would naturally put his job ahead of other desires. Most experienced workers are not likely to learn new type of works and not willing to ” lend” their machine to others. Job rotation also giving great contribution in encouraging job hopping as job rotation educate and train workers for new jobs. (Kennedy, 1993). Resort World may faces low employees work rate as the job rotation would bring low effectiveness as it is time consuming for employee to learn new skill required. Unfit trainer could mislead trainees and subsequently affect their working performance. The mistake in assigning guide to new recruit is critical to educate them the right way to perform tasks. Certain instructor does not see and take steps to implement the most productive ways to complete tasks and does not have to freedom and coaching ability to reach trainee’s full potential. Factor of causing this phenomenon might entitle to very limited compensation of training effort for both trainer and trainee as they may spend extra time to master knowledge or skills and turn into dissatisfy workers before real industry job commence. Ineffective training would lead to serious incompetent worker which reduce work productivity of Resort World. Scholarships have been used by plenty of organization to bring up academic talents by using the name of carry out Corporate Social Responsibility. Most companies would come with contractual agreement to prescribe scholar’s service in their company for a specified period. Job hopping has been observed among these academic achievers after fulfilment of contract as these scholars have undergone self discovery and aware what the ” right job” looks like. They would attempt in seeing brighter career path and exposure of variety of skills, knowledge and wide range of people. Company might suffer a fail in securing talent and outflow of expertise to job market. Internship has been providing valuable job experience, skills and exposes students to real working environment. However, several drawbacks are spotted with implement of internship. First and foremost, unpaid interns tend to have low working morale because very limited financial incentive has been served. Furthermore, tremendous demand for internships have made job finding much harder in the recession much harder for graduates, more companies have started to offer unpaid internships, or those only covering expenses which could result loss of good permanent worker who would contribute their precious knowledge to organization. Resort World might lose opportunity to recruit good employee as worker to assist organization to achieve goals.

4. 0 Recommendation

Based on the critiques and disadvantages of the practices that currently Resort world has practicing, we would have come out several recommendations to improve on the practices on their training and development sector. First of all, for the problem faced when Resort World practicing Job Rotations as one of their training and development practices in the company, the company may faces problem on where employees would feel dissatisfied on the job rotations. To improve on dissatisfaction would face by the employees, the job rotations should be planned in a more detailed matter and the employees involved in the job rotations has to be carefully monitor as he/she able to fit in the job rotations and willing to move out of the boxes instead of doing the same job all the time. It is because to have successful job rotations has to be having an end goal to the employee. Every employee have different goal on their job, therefore to be in the successful job rotations, a careful planning and a clear end goal on the participant (chosen employee) is essential to make the job rotations a success. (humanresources. about. com, 2013)Other than job rotations, training programme do consist of some disadvantages that lead to bad affect to the employees such as ineffective training outcome and bad trainers. To overcome on the ineffective training outcome, Resort World may educate the employees first before they attend to training as to let them know what outcomes or result Resort World would needed the employees to gain from the training and why it would be important to their job and also company. (humanresources. about. com, 2013) It would help to increase the effectiveness of the training programme when employees have clear goal on what they should gain and the reason to gain the knowledge or skills in them instead of just blindly follow on the instruction of the upper management. Besides that, for the case of bad trainers, the employers shall choose some senior expertise in the company that is qualify to train the employees to hold training. Resort World also can outsource the training programme to professional training agency which it would bring better efficiency as they are paid professionals on the industry of training. On the area of scholarship, the employers would afraid that the employees who also academic achievers that receive scholarship from the company would job hopping to another company once the bind contract ends. To improve on this case, firstly the employers would need to have career opportunities for the employees to have motivation on their job with your company. Other than that, rewards and compensations are essential to keep the potential or high quality employees in the company to remain the satisfaction and loyalty to the company as they felt appreciated for every effort to the company. (humanresources. about. com, 2013)Lastly for the internship programme, it’s a bridge to hired talented employees into the company and provided them a real working experience with a lower cost. Most of the interns has faced problem when they enter to work with Resort World as they will be given minimal task which sometimes has minimal impact on their knowledge. Therefore, to overcome this problem, interns should be treated as permanent employees. It would help to develop the potentials in the interns hence the company would have a better vision on the interns on the field they are expert in. It would help to open a job opportunity for the interns and also help Resort World to hire potential high quality employees as the interns has been trained during the internship period.

5. 0 Conclusion

In conclusion, by completing the research and practical part of this research, we have derived that proper training and development, an employee will not be able to expand and grow his or her capabilities, besides improvising on their human capital. Expansion of human capital, or also known as the increasing knowledge, skills and capabilities possessed by employees is important, because different organizations have different style of management, and process implementing and carrying out their job. In order for employees to stay competitive, training and development is required by companies in order to complete organizations task and responsibilities at a more complex level, whereby difficulty rate is always higher than other job task within an organization. Through training employees will be able to improve their self-proficiency on their job task. This step is important as improving employees in terms of job proficiency means that, employees are usually more effective and efficient. As when employees are more effective and efficient, the productivity level of particular employee also increases, which means employees are able to meet the organizations standards, and if often performing higher work standards. Development is more towards the implementing and teaching if important knowledge that might be necessary in the future. This measure is important, as due to modernization and globalization, the ways of carrying out a task and responsibilities may change, thus needing employees to possess such knowledge is important. Some employees might oppose the idea carry out jobs in a different way, as they have mastered and believe that the previous method of carrying out job task and responsibilities suits them best. This is however untrue, as companies will only introduce simplified, and easy training and development seminars, with proven record of success to employees. In most organization, employees are encouraged to join trainings and development seminars such as soft skills, and job knowledge organized by the Human Resource Department or by some external professional speakers. Besides that, companies also emphasis their employees to further their studies. At times, when there is vacancies in top level management, companies usually prefer hiring highly qualified employees within the organization itself, as they have sufficient experience on the company and its internal and external processes. This is the importance of training and development.