The Effectiveness of Training
Training is vital to a company because it can impact employee performance, mitigate the risk of employer liability, and create organizational change within the company. The training I have had through past internships was required and regular training. The training was conducted as 60-minute zoom meetings where all new hires would hop on and listen to an employee cover topics including safety, benefits packages, and ethics within the company. Having interns complete this training was for us to feel like ‘real’ employees even though we were only with the company for a few months. They also used the training as a recruitment piece so we could see what they have to offer and hoped that interns would choose to sign on later. I liked the idea of being interns being included in this training because it did make me feel like I was being valued as an actual employee and not as an intern. The meetings also allowed me to meet and see new people within the company, which was incredible for me as an intern because I probably won’t have crossed paths with these people since I was only there for a short time. The downside of this training was that the company usually only offers them quarterly or until they have a group of new employees so that the training is more interactive. Meaning, that when I was there (June-August), I didn’t start the training until mid-July and finished around mid-August. This seemed odd because I felt like I had been there for a while and understood a lot within the company. The advice I gave the HR team upon the closing of my internship was that if they are going to have interns go through the training, try to schedule it a little sooner. That is what would sell it as feeling like a ‘real’ employee.
Compared to the other internship I had, no training was provided, so I was not aware of various things within the company. Not that any of them necessarily applied to me because I was an intern, but it would’ve been nice to have some background of who would be giving me feedback about my work or make me feel like my performance was contributing to the company.
Citations: MGMT 453 Week 6 Material Outline – “Training and Development”