Strategic training is important for achieving business goals. A company's strategy influences how it uses human capital and determines the focus, customization, and importance of training. An effective strategic training process identifies the business strategy, strategic training initiatives, training activities, and metrics to evaluate success. Organizational characteristics like management support, global operations, and other human resource practices also influence effective training. Companies organize training departments in different models like centralized, customer model, or corporate university to ensure training aligns with business needs. Marketing training and determining whether to outsource are also important considerations in the strategic training process.

1. Strategic Training
By Sinem Bulkan
PhD in Organisational Behaviour
Marmara University
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2. Why Strategic Training?
• Business Strategy
It is a plan that integrates the company’s goals, policies, and actions.
• Goals
What the companies hope to achieve in the medium and long term future.
• The strategy influences how the company uses
o Physical capital (plants, technology and equipment)
o Financial capital (assets and cash reserves)
o Human capital (employees)
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3. Why Strategic Training?
Training Business Strategy
and Goals
skill development
positive work environment
motivating and retaining current
employees
attracting talented employees
• The business strategy helps
direct the company’s activities to
reach specific goals.
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4. Why Strategic Training?
Strategy impacts training with a strong influence on
determining:
• The amount of training devoted to current or future job skills.
• The extent to which training is customized for the particular needs
of an employee or is developed based on the needs of a team, unit,
or division.
• Whether training is restricted to specific groups of employees or
open to all employees.
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5. Why Strategic Training?
Strategy impacts training with a strong influence on
determining:
• Whether training is planned and systematically administred,
provided only when problems occur, or developed spontaneously as
a reaction to what competitors are doing.
• The importance placed on training compared to other HRM practices
such as selection and compensation.
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6. The Evolution of Training’s Role
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7. The Evolution of Training’s Role
• Learning
The acquisition of knowledge by individual employees or groups of employees
who are willing to apply that knowledge in their jobs in making decisions and
accomplishing tasks for the company.
• Knowledge
Human and social knowledge (what individuals or teams of employees know
or know how to do) and structured knowledge (company rules, processes,
tools and routines)
o Types of Knowledge
• Explicit Knowledge: Knowledge that can be formalized, codified, and
communicated.
• Tacit Knowledge: Personal knowledge based on individual experience
that is difficult to explain to others.
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8. The Strategic Training and Development
Process
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9. The Strategic Training and Development
Process
Identify the Company’s Business Strategy
Three factors influences the company’s business strategy:
• Mission, Vision and Values
o Mission: The company’s reason for existing.
o Vision: What company wants to achieve
o Values: What the company stand for.
• SWOT analysis
An anaysis of the company’s operating environment to identify opportunites
and threats as well as an internal analysis of the company’s strengths and
weaknesses.
• Competition
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10. The Strategic Training and Development
Process
Identify the Company’s Business Strategy
Decisions a company must make about how to compete to reach its
goals:
• Where to compete?
- In what matkets (industries, products, etc.) will we compete?
• How to compete?
- On what outcome or differentiating characteristic will we
compete? Cost? Quality? Reliability? Delivery? Innovativeness?
• With what will we compete?
- What resources will allow us to beat the competition? How will
we acquire, develop, and deploy these resources to compete?
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11. The Strategic Training and Development
Process
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12. The Strategic Training and Development
Process
Identify Strategic Training and Development Initiatives that Support the
Strategy
Strategic training and development initiatives are learning-related actions
that a company should take to help it achieve its business strategy.
• Vary by company depending on a company’s industry, goals, resources and
capabilities.
• The initiatives are based on the business environment, an understanding
of the company’s goals and resources, and insight regarding potential
training and development options.
• Provide the company with a road map to guide spesific training and
development activities.
• Show how the training function will help the company reach its goals.
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13. 13

14. The Strategic Training and Development
Process
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15. The Strategic Training and Development
Process
Provide Training and Development Activities Linked to Strategic
Training and Development Initiatives
These activities include developing initiatives related to use of
• new technology in training
• increasing access to training programs for certain groups of
employees,
• reducing development time
• developing new or expanded course offerings.
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16. The Strategic Training and Development
Process
Provide Training and Development Activities Linked to Strategic Training and
Development Initiatives
Analysis to Align Training with Business Strategy (SunU)
• Customers
Who are our customers and how do we work for them?
• Organisation
What is the nature of practices required to compete our mission?
• Products and Services
How do we ensure that our products and services meet strategic requirements?
• Research and Development
How do we stay current in the training and learning fields and use our knowledge in these areas?
• Business Systems
What are the processes, products, tools, and procedures required to achieve our goals?
• Continuous Learning
How do we recognise that learning is continuous, is conscious and comes from many sources?
• Results
How do we obtain results according to our customers’ standards?
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17. The Strategic Training and Development
Process
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18. The Strategic Training and Development
Process
Identify and Collect Metrics to Show Training Success
Trainee
Satisfaction
Business
Related
outcomes
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19. The Strategic Training and Development
Process
Identify and Collect Metrics to Show Training Success
Balanced Scorecard
A means of performance measurement that provides managers with a
chance to look at the overall company performance or the
performance of departments or functions from the perspective of
internal and external customers, employees, and shareholders.
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20. The Strategic Training and Development
Process
Identify and Collect Metrics to Show Training Success
Balanced Scorecard
Four different perspectives are considered:
• Customer (time, quality, performance, service, cost)
• Internal ( processes that influence customer satisfaction)
• Innovation and Learning (operating efficiency, employee
satisfaction, continuous improvement)
• Financial( profitability, growth, shareholder value)
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21. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
• Roles of Employees and Managers
• Top Management Support
• Integration of Business Units
• Global Presence
• Business Conditions
• Other HRM Practices (Staffing Strategy, HR Planning)
• Extent of Unionization
• Staff Involvement in Training and Development
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22. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
Roles of Employees and Managers
Employees
Traditionally
• Perform their jobs
according to the
managers’ direcitons
High-
Performance
• Managerial duties
• Responsible for the
quality of products
and services
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23. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
Roles of Employees and Managers
Managers
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24. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
Top Management Support – CEO is responsible for:
• Vision
A clear direction for learning
• Sponsor
Encouragement, resources, and commitment for strategic learning
• Governor
Taking an active role in governing learning, including reviewving goals and objectives
and providing insight on how to measure training effectiveness
• Subject-matter expert
Developing new learning programs for the company
• Faculty
Teaching programs or providing resources online
• Learner
Serving as a role model for learning for the entire company and demonstrating
willingness to constantly learn.
• Marketing agent
Promoting the company’s commitment to learning by advocating it in speeches,
annual reports, interviews, and other public relations tools 24

25. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
Integration of Business Units
• The degree to which a company’s units or businesses are
integrated affects the training.
• In a highly integrated business, employees need to
understand other units, services and products in the
company.
• Training likely includes rotating employees between jobs in
different businesses so they can gain understanding of the
whole business.
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26. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
Global Presence
• Training is used to prepare employees for temporary and
long-term overseas assignments.
• Companies need to determine the training will be conducted
and coordinated from a central facility or will be the
responsibility of overseas facilities.
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27. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
Business Conditions
• Unemployment is low and/or business growing. (Training –
motivating)
• Unstable business environment (mergers, acquisitions,
disinvestment). (Training- to correct skill defficiencies)
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28. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
Other HRM Practices
Consist of the management activities related to:
• Investments (time,effort,and money) in staffing (determining
how many employees are needed, and recruiting and
selecting employees).
• Performance management
• Training
• Compensation and benefits
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29. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
Other HRM Practices
The type of training and the resources devoted to
training are influenced by the strategy adopted for two
HRM practices:
• Staffing
• Human Resource Planning
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30. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
Other HRM Practices - Staffing Strategy
Refers to the company’s decisions regarding
• Where to find employees
• How to select them
• The mix of employee skills and statuses (temporary,
full-time etc.)
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31. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
Other HRM Practices - Staffing Strategy
Two aspects of a company’s staffing strategy influence
training:
• Assignment Flow
The criteria used to make promotion and assignment
decisions
• Supply Flow
The places where the company prefers to obtain the
human resources to fill open positions
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32. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
Other HRM Practices - Staffing Strategy
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33. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
Other HRM Practices - HR Planning
Includes:
• identification
• analysis
• forecasting
• planning
of changes needed in the HR area to help the company meet
changing business conditions.
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34. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
Other HRM Practices - HR Planning
HR Planning
• allows the company to anticipate the movement of human
resources in the company because of turnover, transfers,
retirements, or promotions.
• can help identify where employees with certain types of skills
are needed in the company.
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35. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
Other HRM Practices - HR Planning
Training can be used to prepare employees for:
• increased responsibilities in their current job
• promotions, lateral moves, transfers
• downward job opportunities that are predicted by the human
resource plan.
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36. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
Extent of Unionization
Joint union-management programs ensure that all
parties (unions, management, employees)
• understand the development goals
• are commited to making the changes necessary for the
company to make profits and for employees to both keep
their jobs and share in any increased profits.
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37. Organisational Characteristics That
Influence Training
Staff Involvement in Training and Development
• If managers are not involved in the training process, training
may be unrelated to business needs.
• Training’s potential impact on helping the company reach its
goals may depend on the manager’s attitude towards it
(Realising what can be achieved, rewards..).
• Continuous learning philosophy
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38. Training Needs in Different Strategies
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39. Models of Organising the Training
Department
• Faculty Model
• Customer Model
• Matrix Model
• Corporate University Model
• Business-Embedded Model
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40. Models of Organising the Training
Department
Centralized Training means that training and development
programs, resources, and professionals are primarily housed in
one location and that decisions about training investment,
programs, and delivery methods are made from that
department.
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41. Models of Organising the Training
Department
Advantages of Centralized Training
• The ownership of training to one organisation and the elimination of the
course and program variation and duplication in the training system.
• Helps drive stronger alignment with business strategy
• Allows development of a common set of metrics or scorecards to measure
and report rates of quality and delivery
• Helps to streamline processes
• Gives the company a cost advantage in purchasing training from vendors
and consultants.
• Helps companies better integrate programs for developing leaders and
managing talent with training and learning during the times of change.
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42. Models of Organising the Training
Department
Faculty Model
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43. Models of Organising the Training
Department
Faculty Model
Training departments look like the structure of a college.
Advantages
• Training staff are clearly experts in the area they train in.
• The training department’s plans are easily determined by staff expertise.
Disadvantages
• A training function that has expertise that does not meet the needs of the
organisation.
• Trainers may be unaware of business problems or unwilling to adapt
materials to fit a business need.
• Skill and knowledge emphasized in programs may not match the needs of
the company.
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44. Models of Organising the Training
Department
Customer Model
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45. Models of Organising the Training
Department
Customer Model
Responsible for the training needs of one division or function of the company.
Advantages
• Training programs are developed more in line with the particular needs of a
business group.
• Selection, training and compensation, and development are all based on a
common set of knowledges, skills, abilities, or competencies.
• Trainers are expected to be aware of business needs and to update courses and
content to reflect them.
Disadvantages
• Trainers have to spend considerable time learning the business function before
they can be useful trainers.
• A large number of programs covering similar topics may be developed by
customers.
• It may be difficult for the training director to oversee each function to ensure that
o A common intructional design process is used
o The company’s quality philosophy is consistently emphasized in each program. 45

46. Models of Organising the Training
Department
Matrix Model
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47. Models of Organising the Training
Department
Matrix Model
Trainers report to both a manager in the training department
and a manager in a particular function.
Advantages
• It helps ensure that training is linked to the needs of the business.
• The trainer gains expertise in understranding a spesific business function.
• Because the trainer is also responsible to the training director, it is likely
that the trainer will stay professionally current.
Disadvantages
• Trainers likely will have more time demands and conflicts because they
report to two managers: a functional manager and a training director.
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48. Models of Organising the Training
Department
Corporate University Model (Corporate Training Universities)
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49. Models of Organising the Training
Department
Corporate University Model (Corporate Training Universities)
The client group includes not only employees and managers but also
stakeholders including community colleges, universities, high schools, and
grade schools.
• Offer a wider range of programs and courses than other models.
• Important culture and values tend to be emphasised more often in the
training curriculum of corporate universities than the other models.
• Centralizes training to make sure that ‘best training practices’ that may be
used in one unit of the company are disseminated across the company.
• Enables the company to control costs by developing consistent training
practices and policies.
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50. Models of Organising the Training Department
Business Embedded Model
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51. Marketing the Training Function
Tactics to Market the Training Function
• Involve the target audience in developing the training or learning
effort.
• Demonstrate how a training and development program can be used
to solve spesific business needs.
• Showcase an example of how training has been used within the
company to solve spesific business needs.
• Identify a ‘champion’ who actively sports training.
• Listen and act on feedback received from clients managers and
employees
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52. Marketing the Training Function
Tactics to Market the Training Function
• Advertise on e-mail, on company websites, in employee break areas.
• Designate someone in the training function as an account
representative between the training designer or team and the business
unit that is the customer.
• Determine what financial numbers top-level executives are concerned
with and show how training and development helps improve those
numbers.
• Speak in terms that staff understand. Translate jargon.
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53. Outsourcing Training
Outsourcing – the use of an outside company that
takes complete responsibility and control of some training or
development activities
takes over all or most of a company’s training including
administration, design, delivery and development.
Business Process Outsourcing – the outsourcing of any business
process
such as human resources management, production and training.
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