Developing Talent [WLOs: 1, 2, 3] [CLOs: 1, 3, 5, 6]
Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, readEnhancing the Organization’s Workforce: Guidance for Effective Training Sustainment(Links to an external site.)
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In an initial post of at least 350 words or more and citing at least two required resources:
- Assess the necessary elements of an effective talent development program.
- Identify what is needed for employees to develop and thrive in organizations beyond training.
- Discuss the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for 21st-century
- Evaluate which talent development programs can benefit you as both an employee and a leader.
- Outline what you will do as a leader to enhance the knowledge, skills, and abilities of your workforce.
ENHANCING THE ORGANIZATION’S WORKFORCE: GUIDANCE FOR EFFECTIVE TRAINING SUSTAINMENT Elizabeth H. Lazzara1, Lauren E. Benishek2, Ashley M. Hughes3, 4, Stephanie Zajac5, Jacqueline M. Spencer6, Kyle B. Heyne7, Jordan E. Rogers8, and Eduardo Salas9 1 Department of Human Factors and Behavioral Neurobiology, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University 2 Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins University 3 Biomedical and Health Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago 4 Edward Hines JR Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Hines, Illinois, United States 5 MD Anderson, Houston, Texas, United States 6 General Dynamics Information Technology, Falls Church, Virginia, United States 7 Simpluris Inc., Winter Park, Florida, United States 8 Human Factors Engineering and User Research, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University 9 Department of Psychology, Rice University Human capital is typically an organization’s most valuable asset; however, hiring and retaining talented employees is a costly enterprise. Investing in employees with training and development to provide them with a competent, competitive edge is one way to retain employees and mitigate turnover. To truly reap the benefits of training, organi- zations must commit to securing the acquired competencies and training sustainment to ameliorate decay. Without such commitment, there is substantial deterioration in knowl- edge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) following training. Despite the importance of training sustainment, little instruction and direction are available to assist practitioners in miti- gating decay. Consequently, the purpose of this article is to provide practitioners with scientifically grounded guidance by offering 14 assumptions about training sustainment. Elizabeth H. Lazzara X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3495-0595 Lauren E. Benishek X https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0220-8481 Kyle B. Heyne X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1192-8053 Jordan E. Rogers X https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7270-5366 The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Illinois at Chicago, MD Anderson, General Dynamics Information Technology, Simpluris Inc., the Department of Veterans Affairs, or the U.S. Government. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Elizabeth H. Lazzara, Department of Human Factors and Behavioral Neurobiology, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, 1 Aerospace Boulevard, Daytona Beach, FL 32114, United States. Email:
[email protected] T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an Ps yc ho lo gi ca l A ss oc ia tio n or on e of its al lie d pu bl is he rs . T hi s ar tic le is in te nd ed so le ly fo r th e pe rs on al us e of th e in di vi du al us er an d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research © 2021 American Psychological Association 2021, Vol. 73, No. 1, 1–26 ISSN: 1065-9293 https://doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000185 1 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3495-0595 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0220-8481 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1192-8053 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7270-5366 mailto:
[email protected] https://doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000185 We organize these assumptions into four tenets: (a) creating a mandate to sustain trained KSAs, (b) championing sustainment of trained KSAs, (c) empowering employees to use trained KSAs, and (d) evaluating sustainment success. What’s It Mean? Implications for Consulting Psychology Consulting inherently entails one of an organizations’ most valuable assets—human capital. The retention, though, of human capital is contingent upon training and development. The longevity of training relies on concerted efforts related to training sustainment. This article provides four tenets to provide guidance on maximizing training sustainment. Keywords: training, training and development, training sustainment, training maintenance The coronavirus pandemic shocked the global economy and irreversibly changed the way work is accomplished. Now, perhaps more than ever, an organization’s human capital is one of its most important assets. It exceeds physical capital (e.g., technology, real estate, and inventory; Korn Ferry Institute, 2016) because people are uniquely situated to add value, make decisions, and solve problems to meet business goals. Therefore, organizations rely on a talented workforce to substantially contribute to innovation, productivity, profit, and branding. To illustrate, O’Boyle and Aguinis (2012) demonstrated that superior employee talent contributes to increased productivity, with high performers 400% more productive than average ones. Similarly, a talented workforce is key to effectively building and maintaining a company’s brand (Kaplan, 2019) or the unified, corporate identity or ethos (Greyser & Urde, 2019). Ultimately, organizations are reliant on a talented workforce to remain competitive and successful, especially in the current job market (Brower, 2019), and some research has suggested that human talent will become increasingly valuable (Korn Ferry Institute, 2017). However, the current workforce landscape presents a complex picture for numerous reasons. First, the 2020 coronavirus pandemic has upended the way work is accomplished. Even before coronavirus pushed remote work to its limit, virtual work was on the rise. There was a 159% increase in telecommuting between 2005 and 2017 (FlexJobs, 2017). Now, in the wake of stay-at-home orders forcing organizations to pivot, we can expect virtual work to be more prevalent, necessitating organizations and employees alike to strategize, learn, and adapt to new approaches to work. Second, evolving technologies and business practices mandate novel and specialized expertise and technical skills to meet company needs (ManpowerGroup, 2018). Third, employers indicate the applicant pool has a shortage of talented, skilled workers who are able to be competitively advantageous (Society for Human Resource Management [SHRM], 2016b). Fourth, there is a discrepancy between the job seekers and the requisite competencies to complete the job (Work Institute, 2018). Projections suggest that by the year 2030, there will be a surplus of 85 million workers who lack the competencies employers seek (Korn Ferry Institute, 2018). Consequently, this gap leaves potential employees with mismatched employment or without employment altogether (Vogtenhuber, 2014). Given these factors, retention and turnover are among the top workforce management challenges that companies face today (SHRM, 2018). Unfortunately, hiring and retaining such talented employees is expensive (Blatter et al., 2012). Some estimate that the average cost-per-hire is $4,129 (SHRM, 2016a). Meanwhile, not retaining an employee (i.e., turnover) is also expensive, and the average turnover rate is nearly 20% (SHRM, 2017). Conservative estimates of turnover costs approximate an average of 33% of the employee’s base pay and result in nearly $600 billion nationally (Work Institute, 2018). Compounding these costs, turnover has also been negatively associated with morale, sales growth, firm profitability, and market value (Hearn, 2020; Markovich, 2019). One strategy to deal with these problems is to invest in employees with training and develop- ment that provides them with a competent, competitive edge. Employees factor growth opportunities as well as training and development into their turnover decisions (Work Institute, 2018). Work T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an Ps yc ho lo gi ca l A ss oc ia tio n or on e of its al lie d pu bl is he rs . T hi s ar tic le is in te nd ed so le ly fo r th e pe rs on al us e of th e in di vi du al us er an d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. 2 LAZZARA ET AL. Institute’s (2018) annual survey results indicate that lack of career-development opportunities was the leading reason employees left their jobs, even though career development is considered to be a preventable reason. Research demonstrates that well-trained employees are less likely to quit compared with those who receive little to no training (Shift Disruptive Learning, 2018). Under- standing these benefits, organizations collectively spent nearly $90 billion on employee training and development in 2018 (Training Magazine Network, 2018). In fact, training is so integral that it is becoming part of the organization’s brand (Cascio, 2019). To truly reap the benefits of training, organizations must invest the resources to design, deliver, and evaluate training efficaciously. Essentially, a “just do it” approach will likely not result in the desired goals; training must adhere to the science to be capable of making substantial gains in employees as well as the organization itself. When training does abide by the science, evidence has repeatedly demonstrated its effectiveness (e.g., Hughes et al., 2019; Salas et al., 2008). Further, organizations must commit to securing the acquired competencies and training sus- tainment to ameliorate decay. We define training sustainment as the long-term retention and proficient use of trained knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) on the job. In other words, training sustainment is the retention of attitudinal, behavioral, and cognitive changes within the organization maintained longitudinally. Sustainability is the extent that training interventions are delivered and subsequent KSAs are exhibited over time (Chambers et al., 2013). The notion of time or a temporal lens is crucial for sustainment because it is arguably the defining feature compared with simply training development. We postulate that within the context of training sustainment, time is not simply a backdrop; rather, time is arguably the focus. In fact, previous researchers have called for greater emphasis on a temporal lens pertaining performance in organizations (Mohammed et al., 2009). This temporal lens is particularly important as some research suggests that it takes 18 to 254 days to reach automaticity (Lally et al., 2010), indicating a need for efforts to enhance and sustain newly trained KSAs. When analyzed further, the temporal lens can be dissected into two facets. One, time affords for longevity of interventions; evidence suggests that simply sustaining interventions leads to longitudinal change (Nunez et al., 2013). Two, time serves a means for dosing. The concept behind dosing is that multiple types and opportunities of training interventions are beneficial for strengthening outcomes compared with employing one single opportunity only (Wai et al., 2010). With respect to the temporal lens, time affords the ability to provide an increase in breadth as well as depth of training opportunities. Without such a commitment to sustainment, trained KSAs can start to deteriorate within a period of only 24 hr after training (Wang et al., 2013). As imagined, additional strategies must complement training interventions to promote sustainment and prevent KSA deterioration. Ultimately, training sustainment requires deliberate, thoughtful, and systematic practices. Despite the importance of training sustainment, little instruction and direction are available to assist practitioners in mitigating decay. Because training is a resource-intensive endeavor, turnover is correlated with negative out- comes, and retaining talented employees is a prioritization, training sustainment is fundamental. Consequently, the purpose of this article is to provide practitioners with scientifically grounded guidance