Designing Training and Development Systems

Book excerpt: Now in its third edition, Designing Training and Development Systems has stood as the definitive guide to creating, maintaining, and measuring training systems for more than two decades. Its success is due in large part to author William R. Tracey's far-reaching but practical approach to training--training that makes a substantial contribution to company productivity and profitability. "The system has continued to yield positive gains," reports Dr. Tracey. "It has produced better-trained personnel--employees at all levels who are more confident, flexible, responsive, and competent than their counterparts under former training and development systems...It has reduced training time and trainee attrition and has improved motivation and communication." But the role of training has undergone considerable changes in recent years. No longer just a nice-to-have option in organizations, training is now recognized as a vital part of management. And executives are no longer requesting, but demanding, that its value be proven--financially. The third edition of Designing Training and Development Systems was written to answer this demand. Thoroughly revised and updated, the book provides a complete system for the design, development, implementation, and--most important--validation of training programs. Designing Training and Development Systems covers twenty-two key topics--every element a human resources manager, trainer, or course developer needs to know to achieve outstanding training--and details how to document each area. Among many other critical topics, you'll find up-to-the-minute information on how to: identify the major challenges and issues that face training professionals, including changing demographics, economics, technological advances, shifting value systems, and new organizational concepts; understand and apply Dr. Tracey's highly effective 19-step system approach; assess training and development needs; collect and analyze job data; and create and write a clearly defined statement of training objectives. New chapters in this edition look at: developing and implementing strategies; choosing a delivery system (with a close look at the benefits and drawbacks of computer and video technologies); conducting the actual training (with a special section on training the disabled); and calculating costs and benefits. By absorbing and applying the techniques and ideas presented in Designing Training and Development Systems, you will net impressive results. You will be able to produce better-trained employees in less time and at a lower cost than ever before, and you'll be able to document the cost savings. Training isn't a "soft" issue anymore. Designing Training and Development Systems provides you with a hard-edged approach to creating training systems that produce a better workforce--and a better bottom line.