I have only had one training experience at a job. I never thought too much about the training process I had been through until the learning materials made me consider what effective training looks like. To help you understand what effective training looks like, I will utilize my single training experience and touch on what made that training both effective and ineffective.
Overall, I would say the training prepared me for the job duties, but there definitely could be some improvements. The manager who trained me did a great job explaining the relevance of the training; ensuring I understood the importance of learning and listening. Furthermore, the content of the training was meaningful, which helps further create a learning environment. However, regular feedback was not provided for me. Therefore, I was often times confused with my own ability and wasn’t sure if I was doing the correct thing or not.
This was an onboarding process for me as well, not just simple training. Thankfully, the company did a great job meeting the three phases of socialization (anticipatory, encounter, and understanding and adaptation), for the most part. For the anticipatory phase, they provided a realistic job preview, but they didn’t reinforce their goals, values, and expectations of me. For the understanding and encounter sections, they did a great job of encouraging me to be proactive by ensuring me it is okay to try and solve problems myself before asking for help and giving me freedom in my duties. Though, I think effectiveness in this area could be improved if they pair new hires like me with coworker mentors. This way I wouldn’t have been so confused when I first started and there would have been less issues.
Overall, I didn’t feel like the company had much focus on training which isn’t good. As we learned with UPS, focus on employee training can help the company maintain high employee satisfaction and retention, which seem to be two areas the company struggles in.
Hira, Nadira A. “The Making of a UPS Driver.” CNNMoney, 7 Nov. 2007, money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/11/12/101008310/.
“Training and Development.” Week 6 – Learning Materials, 2023, canvas.oregonstate.edu/courses/1940354/pages/week-6-learning-materials?module_item_id=23034562.