BUSN2030: Training & Development - The Key to Competitive Success

This essay argues that training and development are crucial for an organization's competitiveness and success in today's dynamic business environment. It highlights how training enhances employee skills, boosts confidence, and facilitates the effective use of resources. The essay emphasizes the importance of aligning training programs with organizational strategies to achieve both short-term and long-term goals. It also addresses the challenges of managing diversity and the need for continuous talent upgrading through training, especially in the context of digitalization. Furthermore, the essay underscores the role of training in fostering job satisfaction and adaptability to strategic changes, ultimately leading to improved client satisfaction and a stronger competitive edge. The solution uses 5 primary refereed academic sources to answer the questions.

TRANNING
AND
DEVELOPMENT

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Training and development is the single most important factor competitiveness and
success of an organisation.
The ways of doing business have transformed globally. Changes in the global
business environment and needs of the organisations have increased the need of providing
timely trainings to the employees. In the competitive market it has become crucial for the
firms to make sure that they have an effective and highly skilled labour force (Salas, et al.,
2012). A skilled labour always adds value to the products and services of the organisation.
For the development of employees on the longer run company needs to have a specific
program for the training of their employees. Development programs not only help the firm in
increasing the efficiency but also assist them in facing the competitiveness. It’s the
employees that take the firm to the new levels hence their overall development is necessary
for the firm. This essay highlights the ways in which training and development helps in
increasing the competitiveness of the organisation as well as the ways in which it ensures it
success.
Modern day firm are facing lots of competition in their industries. If the company has to
make sure that can sustain the competition, then the first and foremost thing that they need to
do is to train their employees. The training must be as per the requirement of the firm in the
industry (Garavan, Carbery and Rock, 2012). Training must be provided to the employee
checking their capability to grow as well as the future requirements of the firm. First the
company must have a performance management system that will help them in identifying the
needs of the employees. After that a proper training module must be implemented by the
company in order to make sure that they do not fail in achieving their goals (Pruis, 2011).
Necessity of training in the present competitive market can be understood by the fact that a
skilled employee always adds value to the operations of the firm. It is necessary to face the
competitive challenges in the market (Garrick, 2012). Training enhances the skill set of the
workers which helps the company in their growth. A Highly skilled labourer always reduces
the chances of operational failure as well as failures in the final product. It is essential that a
company understands the training demands of the employees. In the longer run this will
enhance the productivity of the company.
The statement that it is the single most essential factor for the competitiveness and success of
the firm can be justified by the fact that every other resources that are present with the
company is dependent on human resources for its use (Webb, 2013). A company that has an

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efficient human resource can always take proper use of other resources so as to achieve the
task. A better human resource always facilitates in taking proper utilisation of resources as
they always tends to reduce the amount of wastage in the operations. This is necessary in the
modern day business since the competition they are facing is very intense where effective
utilisation of resources becomes highly necessary. Growth of the organisation in the
competitive market becomes easier when their employee works as per the demands in the
market (Elnaga and Imran, 2013).
One of the most essential things that training does is that it enhances the confidence level of
the employees. It acts as a confidence booster for the company that helps them in emerging as
a leader in their respective fields. This helps the firm in solving the problems in their daily
operations which can arise due to lack of talent (Nilsson and Ellström, 2012). Confident
employee never backs down from taking decisions in the situations where they need to take
fast decisions. Various theories of motivation also suggest the same thing that a motivated
employee always works in a better way. This kind of program always reduces the burden on
the upper level staffs since the lower level staffs needs less supervision while doing the work.
This brings smoothness to the operations which automatically increase the competitiveness of
the firm. This helps the firm in solving the problems that may arise at ground levels.
Effective workforce always helps in increasing the productivity of the firm as they can give
their full assistance in completing the task. Training programs always helps a firm in
achieving their short and long term goals which is necessary for the growth of the firm as
well as increasing their competitiveness in the market.
Training and development of the human resource always helps in achieving the strategies that
a company has made for itself. This is due to the fact that human resources are the only
factors that help in successful implementation of the strategy and hence expected outcome
can be achieved. It can be understood by the fact that strategies are made by the firms for
achieving success in the market and it is the role of the human resources to apply methods for
achieving expected outcomes (Ndulue, 2012). Any company that does not train their
employees according to the strategies they have made for themselves always fails achieving
their goals.
One of the biggest challenges that modern day firms are facing is of managing diversity. This
hampers the growth of the firm as the people that are coming to the firms are from different
parts of the society and if they cannot work then there will be problems for the company. In

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order to make sure that companies are able to fight with the situation it is facing. Training of
the employees to work as a group irrespective of their language, ethnicity and social value
can be dangerous for the firm. Group trainings are also helpful for enhancing the productivity
of the firm as individual’s work better within a team. There is direct impact of the individual
enhancement of performance on the performance of the company.
Training helps as a capacity builder for the employees which is necessary for their personal
as well as the growth of the firm. Any company that is aiming to achieve higher results needs
to have the employees that continuously upgrade their talents. The building up of talent also
helps the employees in bringing creativity in their approach. A highly creative employee
always gives ideas that are beyond the expectation which acts as a problem solver for the
organisation.
Training related to the digitalisation of the workplace processes always helps the firm in
coming at the top in the competitive market. This is necessary for the overall growth of the
firm as well as giving them edge in the market. Becoming digitally active employees always
gives a firm an extra edge over the other competitors as with the use of digital training a firm
can make the processes simpler.
For achieving success many a time it has been seen that the organisation requires changes
that are not generally supported by the employees. This kind of reluctance always reduces the
chances of the firm to achieve success. It can be removed by the use of training and
development programs (Qureshi, 2016). If there are strategic changes that are taking place
within the firm then it is responsibility of the firm to provide trainings to the employees
accordingly so that they may not face problems in adopting it. This seems to be a very small
factor but has higher impact on the business of the firm.
Apart from this what training and development program does is that it results in higher job
satisfaction which is compulsory criteria for the modern day firms that achieves successes.
This provides them with great abilities to execute their duties. This kind of focus always
reduces the amount of errors in the work process which is necessary for achieving higher
client satisfaction. Consumer satisfaction is the only thing that matters when any company is
in competitive market and is facing a lot of challenges.
This training program must be designed in a way that every employee gets to enrol in it after
a certain period of time. This is crucial for both boosting up their moral as well as making

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sure that company’s employees are up to the standards of the industry and sometime beyond
that. In the competitive business where the margins of profits is very less as well as brand
name is at stake every time it is necessary for the firm to have a labour force that is more
skilled and trained (Harrison, 2012). Any mistake from the side of the employee can lead to
image failure for the company.
In the concluding statements it can be said that the amount of competition is increasing at
much faster rate and it is the challenge for the firms to develop their workforce accordingly.
Since a better workforce always gives strategic edge to the company in front of the rivals. It
is also to be noticed that training needs to be given after evaluating the requirements of the
employees as well as that of the company in the longer run. Design of training must be
aligned with the strategy that firm has made for its future operations. This helps them in
aching success in the competitive market. Training is not only meant for the employees at the
lower level but it must be properly implemented at every levels of the organisation. This
helps in bringing creativity in the minds of employees which helps the firm in removing the
obstacles in their work and hence ensures growth.

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REFERENCES
Elnaga, A. and Imran, A., (2013). The effect of training on employee performance. European
Journal of Business and Management, 5(4), pp.137-147.
Garavan, T.N., Carbery, R. and Rock, A., (2012). Mapping talent development: definition,
scope and architecture. European Journal of Training and Development, 36(1), pp.5-24.
Garrick, J., (2012). Informal learning in the workplace: Unmasking human resource
development. Routledge.
Harrison, R., (2012). Employee development. Universities Press.
Ndulue, T.I., (2012), September. Impact of traning and development on workers performance
in an organisation. In Book of Proceedings, Proceedings of International Congress on
Business and Economic Research (ICBER2012), International Association for Teaching and
Learning, Granada(Vol. 1, pp. 135-148).
Nilsson, S. and Ellström, P.E., (2012). Employability and talent management: challenges for
HRD practices. European Journal of Training and Development, 36(1), pp.26-45.
Pruis, E., (2011). The five key principles for talent development. Industrial and commercial
training, 43(4), pp.206-216.
Qureshi, H. (2016) Benefits of training and development in an organisation. [Online].
Available at: https://kashmirobserver.net/2016/opinions/benefits-training-development-
organization-3983 . [Accessed on: 4th April 2018].

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Salas, E., Tannenbaum, S.I., Kraiger, K. and Smith-Jentsch, K.A., (2012). The science of
training and development in organizations: What matters in practice. Psychological science in
the public interest, 13(2), pp.74-101.
Webb, G., (2013). Understanding Staff Development (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.

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