Issues with Training &

Development
Week 4 - HRM 4440
January 28, 2025
 ROOM CHANGE!
Beginning on February 4 th

lectures will be hosted in:

Curtis Lecture Halls (CLH) –
Room H
Guest Speaker – February 4 th

Haley Baxter
Faculty Member and Program
Coordinator, Recreation & Sport
Administration at Conestoga
College

Lecture topic: HRM Issues in

the Non-Profit Sector
Topics Rundown
• Why is employee learning and development a major strategic
issue for firms?
• Influences impacting how contemporary employees are trained and
developed
• Developing staff in the age of AI
• Defining competent training and skill development for
employees
• Planning & Strategizing Learning (micro view)
• Organizational Development (macro view)
• Integrating learning and development into performance
management systems and compensation
Do you think that you are a good instructor?
It’s often said that the hallmark of the best teachers is their ability
to explain complex concepts, theories, and phenomena in a
format that is understood by the broadest audience.
With this is mind:
1. Think of skill that you use on a regular basis in your
professional or personal life.
2. Develop a plan to teach the skill in five (5) steps or less.
Distinguishing Between Employee Training,
Learning, & Development
• Training is a process focused and specific to internal tasks within
a firm
• Learning involves employees acquiring knowledge and skills that
they will be able to use immediately
• Development reflects activities that will aid both the organization
and employee later in their career
• Contemporary executives are steering away from the traditional
focus on training because learning and development better
emphasize results.
Training & Development as Major Strategic
Issue for Firms (1/2)
1. Rapid changes in technology continue to cause increasing rates
of skill obsolescence.
2. The redesign of work into jobs having broader responsibilities
requires employees to assume more responsibility, take
initiative, and further develop interpersonal groups skills to
ensure their performance and success.
3. The frequency in which employees switch employers is at its
highest rate to date.
Training & Development as Major Strategic
Issue for Firms (2/2)
4. Mergers and acquisitions have greatly increased meaning there
is a greater need to integrate employees across a variety of
cultures and processes.

5. Globalization of business operations has required managers to

acquire skills and knowledge related to language and cultural
differences.
Training & Development Mindset

HUMANS (EMPLOYEES) = ASSETS

Much like financial and infrastructure
investments, ROI is dependent upon the
investment made in the assets.
The Benefits of Investing in Learning &
Development (1/2)
1. Enhanced Employee Performance:
1. Increases skills and expertise, leading to improved productivity and efficiency.
2. Encourages innovation and adaptability in a dynamic work environment.
3. 8/10 people say learning adds to purpose to their work
2. Higher Employee Retention:
1. Boosts job satisfaction by demonstrating a commitment to employee growth.
2. Reduces turnover costs and retains top talent.
3. 7/10 people say learning improves their sense of connection to their
organization,
3. Improved Organizational Agility:
1. Equips employees to handle industry changes and emerging technologies.
2. Enhances the ability to pivot in response to market demands.
The Benefits of Investing in Learning &
Development (2/2)
4. Stronger Employer Brand:
1. Attracts high-quality candidates looking for growth opportunities.
2. Establishes the organization as a leader in employee development.
5. Increased Profitability:
1. Better-skilled employees contribute to higher quality outputs and
services.
2. Leads to measurable ROI from reduced errors and streamlined
processes.
AI & Employee Learning

4 in 5 people want to learn more

about how to use AI in
their profession.
AI, HR, & Employee Learning (Dima et al., 2024)
Five primary effects of AI on HR activities:
1. Task automation
2. Optimized HR data use
3. Augmentation of human capabilities
4. Work context redesign
5. Transformation of the social and relational aspects of work.
Table 2 – Dima et
al., 2024
AI Impacting Reskilling & Upskilling in
Organizations (Tamayo et al., 2023)
Three Key Paradigm Shifts in Reskilling
1. Reskilling as a Strategic Priority
• Recognized as critical for staying competitive in a rapidly evolving
business environment.
2. Integration into Talent Strategy and Learning
• Embedded in the employee value proposition and corporate learning to
attract, retain, and develop talent effectively.
3. Broadening and Enabling Talent Success
• Expands access to diverse talent pools and fosters a culture that
supports continuous learning and adaptability.
“Robot Proofing” Your Workforce (Morandini et al., 2023)
• The integration of AI systems into organizations has raised
awareness about the importance of identifying and cultivating
transversal skills in their workforce.
• Transversal skills, also known as transferable skills or soft skills,
are those that can be applied across various tasks and industries.
• These skills include critical thinking, problem-solving,
communication, and collaboration, which are essential for
working effectively with AI systems.
Planning & Strategizing Learning (Mello, 2025)
Planning & Strategizing
Learning: Assessment
• Determine why specific learning
activities are needed and ensure they
are placed at the appropriate level of
organizational context.
• Important to assess whether you are
meeting the career progress goals of
your employees (this can touch all
levels)
• Learners who set career goals engage with
learning 4x more than those that don’t.
Planning & Strategizing Learning: Objectives
• Objectives must be described specifically (i.e., clearly related to a
learning activity identified from needs assessment) and be
measurable.
• Measures should reflect desired employee behaviours.
• Four categories of skill & abilities linked to employee learning:
• Performed – acts regularly demonstrated if not mastered
• Implied – act not directly performed but deemed essential to those
performed (e.g., communication)
• Professed – those in which the employee has declared capability (i.e.,
ability to generate new business)
• Aspired – those in which the employee would like to pursue with support
(i.e., management)
Planning & Strategizing Learning: Design &
Delivery
• Any employee learning and development initiative must consider
interference and knowledge transfer in its design and delivery.
• Interference occurs when prior learning or established habits act as an obstacle
to the learning and development process (significant issues in technical jobs).
• Knowledge transfer can the learner perform the new skills in actual job setting.
• On the job simulations (e.g., apprenticeships) most effective learning
and development model.
• Greater shift to online learning across sectors; however, requires self
motivation of employees away from work and can often be easily
cheated.
• Learning and development professional shifting to micro credentials
(quick-paced courses) endorsed by organizations
Design & Delivery: Informal Workplace Learning (IWL) (Decius et al.,
2021)

The Octagon Model: Components of Informal

Learning
• Experience/Action
• Trying/Applying Own Ideas: Experimenting with new solutions to
problems.
• Model Learning: Observing the actions of colleagues (based on social-
cognitive theory).

• Feedback
• Direct Feedback: Receiving evaluations of one's own work
performance.
• Vicarious Feedback: Exchanging experiences without direct reference
to one's own performance.

• Reflection
• Anticipatory Reflection: Planning problem-solving steps in advance.
• Subsequent Reflection: Considering improvements after task
completion (based on Schön's reflection typology).

• Intent to Learn
• Extrinsic Intent: Learning to seize career opportunities.
• Intrinsic Intent: Learning for the joy of discovery (based on self-
determination theory).
 Planning & Strategizing Learning: Evaluation

**Imperative to develop evaluation criteria prior to learning delivery and in conjunction with learning objectives
Organizational Development (OD): Macro
Perspective on Learning & Development
• OD focuses on delivering initiatives that improve its overall
effectiveness.
• OD delivered through interventions on organization-wide processes,
efficiency, profitability, and culture.
• Culture change, mergers, acquisitions, knowledge management, organizational
learning
• OD initiatives are driven by humanistic values because appropriate
interpersonal relationships drive success at macro-level.
• Investments made in leadership development programs (see Enterprise)
• Team building (i.e., retreats)
• Corporate universities
Integrating Learning With Performance
Management
• Aligning Learning with Strategic Performance Goals
• Develop competency frameworks linking learning initiatives to measurable
business outcomes Prioritize skills that directly impact innovation, productivity,
and organizational growth.
• Dynamic Performance Development Models
• Transition from static annual reviews to continuous, data-driven performance
tracking.
• Integrate learning data into performance dashboards to create actionable
insights – often noted best learning model is apprenticeships (depends
feasibility)
• Leadership-Driven Learning Culture
• Embed learning as a core leadership competency, emphasizing mentorship and
coaching.
• Align leadership KPIs with fostering team development and skill-building (i.e.,
align with employees' personal career goals)
Sophisticated Integration of Learning and
Compensation
• Skill-Based Compensation Frameworks
• Shift towards value-driven pay scales tied to mastery of high-impact, future-
oriented skills.
• Use market data and predictive analytics to align rewards with skill demand.
• Incentives for Learning Agility
• Reward employees not just for skill acquisition but for applying new skills in
ways that drive business outcomes.
• Incorporate learning-based incentives into long-term compensation structures,
such as equity or profit-sharing.
• The ROI of Learning on Compensation Strategy
• Demonstrate how investing in learning impacts key metrics: talent retention,
employee engagement, and organizational performance.
• Use analytics to measure the correlation between learning efforts and business
results, justifying compensation investments.