Human potential is a broad area which looks into the capabilities of people in life and especially in organisations. Potential of individuals for self-fulfilment, realisation and actualisation are very important to people since they make a person capable of handling many tasks and duties given.
When people in organisations accept their status, accept the realities in life, are independent, have the ability to make their own decisions, and have a feeling of being attached to others, they usually feel that they have achieved their self actualisation goal. People also feel that they have a potential to express or perform a task when they have a good expression to people such as goodness, beauty and uniqueness, or when they feel capable of defending their values such as self sufficiency, richness and completion of growth and development, (Harrison 2005).People should be provided with an opportunity to develop their potential regardless of their age, economic conditions, their cultural backgrounds, or personal talents. The most important thing that should be looked at by the organisations is what a person does in the organisations.
As the saying goes that 'charity begins at home', development of a person's potential usually begins at the place of work that he/she is in. Good executives and managers of organisations should conduct a study to identify employees weaknesses and strengths and then go further to provide opportunities where the employees can be able to show their talents and utilise them. Their weaknesses are then looked at and a system is developed to bolster them. Managers should therefore not rush to make a quick judgement and assumptions about the capabilities of their employees but rather, they should train themselves not to make any rush judgements which may be superficial and destroy other people's potentials. (CIPD)Potential development in individuals can be done through learning and development of an individual so that the potentials in the person can be portrayed.
Learning can be defined as a self directed or a work based process which leads to increment of one's capacity and hence be able to help employers in building and retaining a competitive advantage. Development on the other hand is the longer learning process where a person is able to acquire skills and knowledge which help in organisation development1. The key challenges that modern organisations face in evaluating learning and development interventions.There are many challenges that are faced by organisations in evaluating learning and development interventions in today's organisations.
This is because global economy is continuously changing due to the economic, social and technological forces. The need to adapt new technologies, the rapid knowledge obsolescence, the increasing of just in time learning and the need for cost effective ways to meet the learning needs for organisations workforce have led to a redefinition of the processes of training and education. It can therefore be said that a very small percent of today's workforce will have the required skills and knowledge for almost 60% of jobs in the year 2020, therefore, there is a likelihood of reduction in the number of people who will have leadership role in the coming years, (Harrison 2005).The main challenge faced by organisations today is employees resistance to change.
Basically, when adopting a new learning and, development of doing things in a business, it is very important to include all the stakeholders who are important in the process. This process of change and involvement of everyone in the organisation requires appropriate time and focus on the strategy and resources such as human labour and finances. Even though many organisations are able to go through the process well, the major challenge faced is the actual implementation of the organisation's learning vision and strategy. The main reasons why this has become a challenge is because; one, a lot of time is taken to implement and significant effort is needed to implement the learning initiatives in the entire organisation, especially if it is large, complex and an international company. The learning vision of the organisation is usually faced by multiple cultures, different languages and many other factors which impact on the strategy, (Fisher 2001).Due to all these problems, it may take a significantly long time for the organisation to realize its achievements.
Leadership support which is given to the organisation by the managers and employees may deteriorate due to the changing needs in learning. This will have have a negative impact on the future initiatives of learning. Second reason is that there are a number of new initiatives which needs to be implemented. These initiatives impact roles in learning organisation and can therefore lead to resistance by leaders and employees. Examples of the initiatives includes the need to outsource a number of the learning activities and systems, centralization of specific learning activities as well their decentralization, implementation of a learning strategy which is blended, and finally the automation of the learning business processes in the organisation.
(Warren 2005)Due to resistance to change by different stakeholders, serious barriers can be created which make the implementation process very difficult. It is therefore important for the team which is concerned with bringing the change to build time in the implementation plan so as to address the issue because if not looked into, it can bring competency problems for the organisation in the industry.Another challenge faced is in building a true learning organisation. Organisations need to extend their efforts beyond the formal learning and development interventions which are found in a typical classroom-based model of learning. The learning organisation further needs to give more attention to a broader scope of initiatives which support performance improvement. This includes talent development, workplace learning, use of technology-based learning method, development of feedback and mentor classes as well as coaching.
The organisation needs to recognise that its employees are not concern with the departments which helps in the development of skills or enhance their learning opportunity, but the only thing that they are concerned with is to be able to quickly and easily find quality learning and knowledge so that they can have the ability do their best in their work place, (Kingston 2007)This poses a big challenge in many organisations because most of the learning initiatives and processes are owned by other departments in the working place such the information technology, human resources and the business leadership ( such as the performance management, employees counselling, feedback) departments among others. The team dealing with the new learning process therefore needs to work closely with many different constituencies so that the learning process will provide seamless opportunities for employees in the learning process, (Keep 2006).Another challenge faced by modern organisations in evaluating learning and development interventions is the issue of creating a cost effective as well as an efficient learning process for employees. Organisations need to create value for their shareholders and ensure that they have a competitive advantage over other organisations. To achieve this, organisations need to reduce their costs such as worker related costs which include the learning process. According to American Society for Training & development (ASTD), the cost of education in the entire organisations can add up to 4.
16% of the payroll cost. The costs are usually distributed over different categories which include the analysis of training needs, the learning design and development, delivery, acquisition, lodging and travel, salaries and benefits, lost opportunity costs, lost productivity and wasted training investment cost. All these costs may pose a challenge to the organisations because they reduce its productivity and revenues, (Johnson 2007).Organisations are faced with many challenges in ensuring an effective learning initiative which involves achievement of multiple goals and use of the available skills and resources effectively. The organisations is therefore faced with the challenge of launching new products and services in the market at a faster rate, faster development of new information systems and business processes, ensuring a ready job for new hires, increasing the sales force productivity, reducing costs so as to gain a competitive edge, supporting mergers and acquisitions, attracting, developing and retaining talented employees, building a new generation of leaders for the future, and building a capability for human capital, (Grugulis 2003).All these requirements for results poses a challenge on the business because efficiency and effectiveness of a business does not only rely on what the business uses but also how well the organisation's accounts are managed.
This proves to be a hard task for many of the organisation because they have to balance the costs with organisation's results. (CIPD).Another challenged faced by an organisation when dealing with issues of learning and development is the issue creating value in the business through learning. Organisation central goal is usually to create a shareholder value. Drivers towards value achievement include increasing revenue, enhancement of operating margins, efficiency of business assets and an overall expectations of organisations.
Shareholders future expectations are also key drivers of shareholder value in a business. Businesses are therefore faced with the challenge of ensuring great human productivity and have a pool of knowledgeable people which will help in gaining valuable results. If the organisations does not have the required pool then it might not be able to achieve value and may lead to withdrawal of investors and shareholders, (Syedain 2007).1. Analysis of opportunities for evaluating learning and development interventions within Ofsted.Measuring the return on investment for learning and development is becoming is very important for organisation.
organisation therefore needs to identify and adapt appropriate tools for carrying out the evaluation process. The objectives of evaluation of learning and development is to be able identify the responsibilities of the participants in the evaluation process, design validation forms which are effective, identify the drawbacks and the benefits of the methods of evaluation and selecting the best evaluation method for the organisations. Reaching or attainment of the set standard, inputs cost efficiency and cost effectiveness should also be among the set objectives. The main importance of the evaluation process is; to improve the entire organisation's learning and development possesses. Second is to ensure existence of a learned workforce, and to access the worth of the learning and development possesses adopted by the business.
(Garavan; Gunnigle ; Morley 2000).There are many factors which need to be evaluated by an organisations in the learning and development interventions. One of them is the employee's reaction towards the learning and development interventions; do the employees embrace the changes or they are reluctant to adapt them. Another factor to look into is whether the process has achieved a learned pool of workforce, the behaviour of people, the results or outcomes of the process on the side of the learner, the workplace, a specific department and the entire organisations.
Evaluation should be done before the intervention of learning and development, during the learning process and after so as to know how the process has changed the organisations; whether the organisations has become better due to the learning process or it has become worse. The evaluation process should be carried out by the learners, the customers of the organisation, managers or business sponsors, the trainers and facilitators, external consultants and the entire personnel function. (Phillips 2007)Ofsted faced many challenges due to its process of restructuring and the re-organisation of the organisations. Many of its employees lost their jobs due to the process of streamlining it so that it can be able to improve the works of the organisation and deliver a unified regional structure. This damaged the front line services of the organisations and compromised their standards. The process was also aimed to get the financial managers close to the inspectors o that they can work together and reduce the running costs.
Reduction of the budget however meant reduction in the number of employees. (Garavan 1997).Other challenges faced by Ofsted was the need to support home working for the staff. Many of those who were required to work from their homes resisted the move saying that they are not used to be based at home and that they were constantly harassed and bullied by others. They also claimed that there was no social life at home home because they are used to working together with other people in the working place.
(Philpott 2006).However, despite of the many challenges faced by Ofsted, there are various ways of learning and development interventions which can be of use to meet these challenges. Learning and development interventions in Ofsted need to be built around a learning need due to the need for new focus and skills in adapting the change in the working environment. Ofsted needs to identify the learning need in its people and then design an effective learning intervention.
Cultural issues or the organisation and learning styles of individuals have to be put into consideration before choosing the kind of intervention. (Wilson 2005).Developers usually do not have enough time to work through the process every time there a need for development, this brings a temptation to to cut corners with the learning and development process which is designed. However, the developers should realize that this move is short sighted because good value of the investment made in learning and development may not be met.
Therefore it is important to provide the organisations with something which works and be of value to the entire organisations. (Caley 2002).One of the ways in which Ofsted can adapt to deal with the challenges faced is by mentoring the employees. The primary aim of mentoring is to develop capabilities and potential in the role of a person rather than looking at performance and skills.
Mentoring kind of intervention brings benefits to the organisations such as a significant impact on recruitment and retention, effective succession training, it make an organisations to adapt to change and increases its productivity. The mentored person benefits from development outcomes such as knowledge and technical improvements, better career goal management and increased confidence. (Walton 1999).Mentoring operates on three levels which are exploration; which includes paying attention, clarifying mentoring objectives and support and counsel the employee. Second level is new understanding which includes giving constructive feedback, supporting and counselling, coaching and demonstrating of skills. The final is action planning which involves examination of options for the actions and their consequences, attending the mentoring process and negotiate the plan of action.
In Ofsted, mentoring can be best used when employees require specialist, information and knowledge, during induction for people to get speed, in career progression as they assist to identify potential talents, and during new projects to help in rapid assimilation and delivery and help employees to adjust to change. Employees which were required to work from home can therefore be helped through mentoring process. Through mentoring, evaluation also becomes easier and Ofsted managers will be able to get better results from the learning and development process carried. (Beardwell & Claydon , 2007).
In conclusion, the rate of change in organisations today is faster than ever. People therefore need to have effective learning and development methods which are greater than ever so that they can be able to keep up with changes in competition, technology and customers’ demands which are constantly changing with time.Learning and development process plays a crucial role in changing and adapting of organisation in present times. It is not enough for a manager of the learning and development function to have sound operational design or just to delivery capabilities in people, the manager also needs to have a robust plan which is linked to the organisation’s goals so that they can be able to market their plan, gain commitment from people , measure organisation's success, and a make suitable intervention which will act as an internal consultant to help in achieving the required success. (Brown ; Hesketh 2004).
Challenges which are faced by the managers in creating and sustaining the current learning methods in organizations are daunting and multiple. The process of engaging the organisation's leadership and learning in support of a new and a more comprehensive vision for learning , which is supplemented by different learning methods and new technology for demonstrating the contribution of learning methods to the value which is achieved for shareholders, the scope of the managers and executives roles in learning and development is enormous.Leaders need to address the specific learning needs in individuals and at the same time, they should coordinate learning ways in different learning functions which are available. A learning structure ensure that leaders from different departments are able to collaborate in different areas in the organisations. These areas are in developing a learning vision and strategy, implementation of the learning strategy, sharing of the best learning practices acquired, identifying funding needs for the process and gaining access to senior leadership for intervention.The benefits derived from a well-established learning structure in an organisations includes the opportunity to implement a shared vision and strategy for learning, usage of the best resources, avoidance of duplication of course work and development initiatives and enhancement of efficiency and effectiveness of the learning function.
These benefits helps the organisations to fair well in the industry by gaining a competitive edge and having a work force which is reliable and cost effective.
