Some of the important training issues facing today’s organizations are presented as follows:

• ▪ How can training keep pace with a changing organizational environment? Many training topics are provided online. As products, sales procedures, and equipment change, online content can be easily created or changed and disseminated to employees. However, does this flexibility come with a cost of poorer learning or application on the job?

• ▪ Should training take place in a classroom setting or on the job? Classroom training may lack realism and not be as effective as training that occurs while on the job. However, on-the-job training can cause slowdowns that decrease production or irritate customers.

• ▪ How can training be effectively delivered worldwide? Many of today’s organizations conduct operations around the world. Consistent quality of products or service is critical to organizational survival in today’s competitive markets. Providing training content online is an efficient way to distribute information. However, learning advanced skills or interpersonal skills may require an approach that incorporates both classroom time and face-to-face interaction. The cost of bringing employees to one central training location could become a costly proposition as a firm expands geographically. An option for a widely dispersed firm could be to offer hands-on training on a regional basis, such that face-to-face training takes place at various regional centers.

• ▪ How can training be delivered so that trainees are motivated to learn? Lectures and workbooks may have outstanding content but will be ineffective if they do not engage the trainees or motivate them to learn. A key to motivating trainees is to make sure that what they are learning is for them and their jobs. When employees are sent to training, they should be able to see how the content of the training is related to performance of their jobs. If this relevance link isn’t there, employees can’t be expected to be motivated to learn the content. Similarly, consider how motivated you are to learn course material when you don’t see how the content is relevant to you. In addition to relevance, making training a fun and active experience can be positive for the motivation levels of trainees. Incorporating activities that get people involved, such as team exercises, and including humor can improve trainees’ motivation to learn the material.

In this chapter, we distinguish between training and development. Then we discuss the major challenges managers face in trying to improve workers’ performance through training. Next we offer some suggestions on managing the three phases of the training process, explore selected types of training, and consider ways to maximize and evaluate training effectiveness. We close with a section on what is arguably the most important training opportunity: the orientation of new employees.