Unit 21 Training & Development
This report will be covering why a selected business trains its employees, the types of
training and development the business uses, the impact training has on the business and the
costs and benefits of each training method in order to help the business achieve its
objectives.
Introduction:
Tesco is a British multinational grocery and general
merchandise retailer, which carries out business
through its multi-format stores, as well as online through
home deliveries. Tesco is the market leader in the
grocery market in the UK, with a market share of 27.9%
in January 2022 (Statista, 2022). Sainsbury’s, which is
Tesco’s main competitor, had a market share of 15.6%
in January 2022 which shows that Tesco is the market
leader by a large percentage. Tesco is also the 6th
most valuable brand in the UK for 2021, and the 16th
most valuable brand in the world for 2021 (Statista,
2021). Tesco currently operates 4,008 stores,
employing 367,321 staff, across the UK and the
Republic of Ireland (Statistia, 2022). However, Tesco is also in 10 other countries around the
world, such as Poland, Thailand and the Czech Republic.
Tesco has a core purpose of serving their customers, communities and planet a little better
every day, by keeping customers at the heart of what they do and reflecting their
responsibilities to the communities Tesco serve, as well as society more broadly (Tesco
PLC, 2022). Therefore, it is important that Tesco train and develop their employees to help
them carry out their jobs effectively, by giving employees the skills, knowledge and
understanding needed to be successful in their job role.
Training and Development:
Training and development are both educational activities that a business creates for their
employees in order to improve the efficiency of the business, as training and development
will help employees develop their knowledge and skills, keep them motivated and could help
,them progress into higher positions in the future. However, there are some differences
between training and development which this report will focus on.
Training:
Training is what a business will do in order to make sure their employees gain new essential
skills, knowledge and competencies in order to carry out all the functions of their job.
Business training can be used in a range of different situations, such as teaching existing
employees how to use new technologies within the business, teaching new employees the
essential skills they need in order to do their job or training employees to achieve specific
goals in order to improve their efficiency within the business. There are four main types of
training that a business can do, these include:
In-house training is where a business will train their employees internally, using their own
resources, staff and premises in order to educate employees and give them the skills and
knowledge they require to be successful and improve their efficiency.
External Training is when a business will use an outside business to train their employees
for them so that the business does not have to use their own resources and employees. This
could mean that employees might need to travel to another business in order to get training,
or the trainers may come to the business. This could potentially give the business access to
better resources and trainers compared to in-house training, however, it will be more
expensive for the business.
On-the-job training is where a business will train their employees in the workplace, to help
them gain the knowledge, confidence and essential skills to do their job in an efficient way.
On-the-job training is usually completed by employees listening to more experienced staff
explaining and demonstrating key processes and tasks within the business, and then getting
the employees to carry these tasks out themselves under manager supervision.
Off-the-job training is where the business will take their employees away from their job role
in order to be trained, such as getting employees to attend a training centre or complete self-
study. This will give employees knowledge and skills from outside specialists and experts,
which can help them gain a wider range of skills than on-the-job training, although this
means there will be a loss of working time from employees which could negatively affect the
productivity of the business.
Training is important to businesses for many reasons. One reason that training is important
to businesses is, training helps to improve employee performance quickly, as exposing
employees to training during a short amount of time, will give them the opportunity to learn
policies and work processes within a business in order to do their job role efficiently. Once
employees are trained on policies and work processes within the business, staff will apply
and follow these procedures in their work which will help the business to reduce wastage, as
employees will know how to use resources efficiently. As well as this, training will improve
customer satisfaction because once staff have better self-confidence they will take more
responsibility in their work and will be motivated to work hard in order to see the business do
well. Customers might notice the improvement in quality from the business which could
improve the business’s reputation as well as result in customers returning to the business.
Another reason that training is important to businesses is training can help to decrease staff
turnover levels, as employee retention will increase through training. This is because, by a
business offering training to their staff, employees will feel more valued and trusted within
the business, as the managers are showing that they are committed to working with their
,employees by giving up time and resources to help train them. By giving employees the
training they need in order to be successful in their job role, employees are more likely to
enjoy the work that they are doing and stay at the business for longer than they would if they
did not receive this training if they know what is expected of them, how to follow company
policies and procedures and do not need additional supervision in order to do their job. This
is shown by the fact that 40% of employees with poor training leave their job within the first
year of employment, whereas only 12% of employees who have had excellent training
opportunities want to leave their job (Working Voices, 2018). Therefore, it is important that
employees are getting the training opportunities they need to succeed in their job role and
complete work efficiently, as employees that struggle at their jobs will be demotivated and
want to leave the business as a result. A final reason why training is important to businesses
is, training will lead to increased revenues for the business. This is because as training
improves the skills of employees and gives them new opportunities within their job role, this
can give them new ideas of how the business should be run, which they can pass on to their
manager in order for them to make better business decisions when making an important
choice about the future of the business. As training will also create a better workplace
environment, as employees will enjoy the job that they do if they are well trained, this will
bring a better working environment for the business which will encourage staff to go to work
every day, and reduce rates of absenteeism within the workplace as a result, as staff will be
motivated to go to work every day if there is a good workplace environment which leads to
an improvement in business efficiency as more can be achieved when all staff are at work.
Companies that invest in training have 21% higher income per employee (Working Voices,
2018), which shows that it really is important that a business has training for its staff in order
to be successful. Another way that training will lead to an increase in revenues for the
business is because trained staff will increase customer satisfaction rates, as employees will
want to work efficiently to achieve business goals and see the business be successful. If
customers are satisfied with the business, then they are more likely to return to the business
in the future to buy more goods and services, which can grow the business as well as
increase revenues leading to more profit.
Development:
Development is what is likely to take place after training. Development is an informative
long-term process that helps the understanding and overall growth of the business’s
employees. Businesses will use development in order to give employees the skills and
knowledge they need to be successful in their job role and achieve business goals, as well
as to manage any future challenges that may impact the business.
Development is important to businesses because it can help to address any weaknesses
that individuals have, which could negatively impact their efficiency within the business and
stop employees from progressing in their careers. By having a development program in
place, the business will be able to develop their employees individually in order to make sure
they are better skilled at every factor of their job role to help them be the best that they can
be. Development will also help to improve the confidence of employees, as existing skills of
an individual can be upgraded through development, for them to become more confident in
their job role as they will be more trusted with more responsibilities in order to benefit the
business. Developing individuals within the business will also improve performance within
the business, as the workforce can develop the skills they need to progress in their career
, and get promoted in order to fill job vacancies in the future. As well as helping the business
stay competitive, developed staff will help the business outperform their competitors as
employees will have the knowledge and skills they need to be efficient in their job role, as
well as having employees that are better prepared for future challenges, as developed
employees will be able to handle constant change better than employees who have not had
development. A report which focused on the impact that employee development has on
performance showed that a business investing as little as $500 in employee development,
created an improvement of 46.1% within the business, which could be a substantial
improvement for some businesses. (Valamis, 2021).
Differences between training and development:
Differences: Training: Development:
Definition: Training is the process of Development is used to help
educating employees in employees reach their
order to increase the potential through the
knowledge and skills that business growing their
the business’s workforce employees as individuals by
has to increase the giving them further training
efficiency of the business. or responsibilities to help
them grow more advanced
and make sure they are
prepared for future
challenges the business
could face, as well as
making sure individuals
have the skills and
knowledge they need to do
their job role and future job
roles more effectively.
Time Length: Training is short term, as As development is used to
businesses will usually train develop each employee
their employees in a short over time to help prepare
amount of time, such as one them for future challenges,
day, one week or a few development is long term.
weeks.
Job or career-oriented: Training is a job-oriented Development is a career-
process as this gives oriented process as
employees the knowledge development will be used to
and skills they need to help employees get the
perform their existing job knowledge and skills they
role. need to face future
challenges, like a new job
role.
How many employees are Training involves Many Development is focused on
taking part: employees, as they will be the individual, as
taking part in training development is used for
together, and learning new individual growth.
skills and knowledge as part
