Organized by Real Solutions Pvt Ltd on last Wednesday of English calendar every month, 63rd HR Kurakani was held on 26 July, 2017 at Real Solution's office, Minbhawan, New Baneshwor. Employees training and development being one of the key aspects in any organization, HR Kurakani on the month of July was entitled “Training – How and why?”

Mr. Shailendra Raj Giri, Managing Director of Real Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Moderated the session with the welcome note and introduction of the participated HR professionals from diverse organization. 

HR Professional outline that training is circular process that begins with needs identification and after a number of steps ends with evaluation of the training activity.  Training is a whole system and not a one-time event, what happens before and after the actual training is as important as training itself.

In the broadest view, the discussion was on the following three phases of a training process:

1. Pre Planning: 

Need assessment is the first step in developing a training program. In the Kurakani it was further agreed that cracking what organization needs in terms of training is not an easy task for HR Managers. Professionals shared variety of methods they do to research training needs. Many organization extract training need from the appraisal form, supervisor recommendation, survey, interview and 360 assessment whereas few organizations use online tools as an option for training need assessment. 

HR shares that training need recommendation along with justification as a part of performance evaluation from immediate manager, supervisor or team leader can help them simplify this process. Alternatively identifying skills for a job requires comparing them to an employee’s actual skill level helping HR to identify the skill gaps and training required by each individual applicant. Training need assessment of individual employee starts from the day he/she joins the organization. 

There are different types of hard skills and soft skills training likely to be required for a job, such as technical training, safety training, quality training,communication training, leadership training etc.

2. Implementation phase: 

This is the phase when training program is into operation. It is best for organization to prepare an annual calendar of training opportunities and inform participants and others well ahead of time about their training plans.

Trainer must be able to transform people and create good vibes for effective training said the HR Professionals in the discussion. Further they added, passing around a lengthy PDF or slideshow presentation is the easiest method of training, but there are other training methods such as group discussion, demonstration, case study, role play, Stories and fables, brainstorming etc. which can make a training lot more interesting, interactive and create an impact from within.

While embarking a training program, there are a series of consideration to made by HR managers. Few of them shared by the HR professional in the Kurakani are: 

• Objectives: Training objectives must be performance based and clear. It must be relevant to the job description of participants. Organizations usually facilitate the employees' learning through training so that their modified behaviour contributes to the attainment of the organization's goals.
  
• Deciding who is the trainer: From the diverse organization who participated in the session, many of them have in-house trainers.  However at times they all said to have an outsider who is usually an expert in facilitation to run the training.
  
• Considering learning styles of participants: A round table session by trainer as ice breaker with participants to observe their learning style, interest and attitude can create a win-win situation to everyone said the professionals at HR Kurakani. Training in today's workforce should be personalized and tailored to each individual.
  
• Deliverance mode: In the Kurakani, they believed that, every individual learns differently and it is necessary to discover whether visual, auditory, reading or kinaesthetic (learning by doing) methods of learning will be effective by the trainer to boost the engagement of participants.
  
• Motivation to the participants: HR manager agreed that training session must affect to the performance appraisal. With the monetary benefits chances are participants participate just for earning rather than learning.
  
• Planned Date, Duration: The due date of the training must be planned. Besides the actual cost of training, another cost consideration is employee’s time. If employees are in training for two hours, what is the cost to the organization while they are not able to perform their job? For this a proper delegation and communication channel is necessary said the professionals. HR Managers shared that training can be of all lengths, from a quick two-hour session to one that takes place over several weeks depending on the organization needs.
  
• Training centre, Logistic and HR Budget: Professionals at HR Kurakani agreed that training center is one of the major factor to create good vibes and motivate the participants. Once the training center is confirmed, the next step is to arrange facilities for foods, lodging, transportation, and recreation which are ultimately affected by HR budget.  All these resources need to be well managed and coordinated to run the programme smoothly.
  

3. Evaluation: 

Evaluation is collecting and analysing information about a program’s activities, characteristics, and outcomes. Training may not have an immediate outcome and parameter to evaluate training program which is very difficult to develop and monitor in reality.

HR Professional suggested that four different levels (the "Kirkpatrick levels") is the most effective way for better evaluation the training among the various approaches. The further down you go in the evaluation process, the more valid the evaluation they added.

• Level 1- Reaction: What does the learner feel about the training? (Oral/written feed-back, open ended questions/close ended questions)
  
• Level 2- Learning: What facts, knowledge and experiences did the learner gain? (Observation/reviewing data from simulated reports, plans, exercises etc.)
  
• Level 3- Behaviours: What skills did the learner develop and what new information can the learner use on the job?
  
• Results or effectiveness: What results occurred; did the learner apply the new skills to the necessary tasks and what results were achieved?