Competencies Model Of Training: Safety Professional And Human Resources

One of the most important things any company can do for its employees is provide training. By providing training, companies are investing in their most valuable resources, their employees. To ensure the proper training is provided, it falls on both safety professional and human resources managers to provide critical training. To meet these demands, it is crucial that both professions understand organizational learning techniques. In order to gain a complete picture of these techniques, this essay will discuss the different models and going in depth about the competencies model. By doing so, the hope is to provide both safety professional and human resource [HR] manages a better idea on how best to provide training. When it comes to anything, everyone has opinion and they often
differ. That can be said the same for occupational training and management, with many theories and models out there. Case-base decision making, system thinking, and competency models are just some of the most prevalent theories today. Case-base decision-making is defined by IGI Global as “any decision-making using a strategy based on case based reasoning such as ‘similar problems having similar solutions”. Basically, this model hopes to provide the learner with the ability to make quick, knowledgeable decision based on past experiences of others or themselves. This can often be accomplished by preforming tablet-tops or walk troughs and can also be accomplished in a classroom setting. The second model is the system-thinking model. In her article “System Thinking in Human Resource Management”, Suzanne Simpson describes the “system” as:
Essential elements of a system derive form the interactions of its parts; … had properties that it loses when they are separated from the whole; and if each part of a system, considered separately, is made to operate as efficiently as possible, the system as a whole will not operate as effectively as possible.
The idea behind the system thinking is that a business is like a machine, and it needs all its part working together to preform its function. This can affects training by identify the “systems” parts and assisting in prioritizing training for those specific parts. The third model, and the most prevalent, is the competency model. The competency model is defined as “ a framework for defining the skill and knowledge requirements of a job. It is a collection of competencies that jointly define successful job performance” (TrainingIndusty.com). This model focus is the essential rolls preformed by each job description and by doing so assist in determining the best training and education for those positions. Because it is so prevalent, it is important to understand how the competency model of the past defers from the one today. Just as the world around us continues to change with time, so does rolls and function of job positions. Like wise, the competency model must change as well. Do to factors such as globalization, automation, and other advancement, many functions within organization change requiring the competency model within those organizations to change as well. An example of this is the changing requirements of HR professionals. “Given the dramatic changes many corporations and HR functions are facing, it is clear that the ‘good old days’ of HR functions have gone. Simply possessing good social interaction skills is no longer sufficient for handling increasingly complex and challenging HR roles and responsibilities” (Yeung, Woolcock, & Sullivan, 1996). By keeping the competency model the same, organizations as a whole will fail to meet the demands of today or those in the future. Like wise, this affects how training is preformed versus traditional training methods.
Traditions are a good thing, except when it comes down to training and education.
No one wants to learn on slide rulers anymore. By understanding the traditional training approach versus the competency-based training, HR professional and safety professional to figure out the mechanism to rely information during training. The traditional training method can be summed up as classroom. The responsibility of the material and method is all determined by the instructor, leaving the trainees no responsibility (Dubois & Rothwell, 2004). On the other hand, if an organization is following the competency model as a whole, the competency-based training could offer more to trainees, leading them to be more productive and successful in their job performance (Dubois & Rothwell, 2004). Competency-based training allows for the identification of specific need for job functions rather then educating on performance, like in traditional training. In addition competency-based training could lead to overall organizational change because it is integrate with the competency model. In either case, both traditional and competency-based training face the struggle to keep up with changing times and
advancement.
How organizations are managed will ultimately determine how organizations train their employees. Prevailing theories and models, such as case-base decision-making, system thinking, and competency models, determine what the methods will be. But as time and advancement continue to move forward and change, so do the models, such as is evident in the changes of the competency model towards HR professional. Likewise, training methods, whether traditional or competency-base, need to continue to improve, adopt, and improve to meet the demands of tomorrow.