Meaning and Definition of Training

Selecting and placing the right person on a job is only half the work of building an effective workforce — even a well-selected employee rarely knows, on day one, every specific procedure, machine, software system or documentation practice that a particular employer actually uses. Training is the planned, systematic process by which an organisation closes exactly this gap: it improves an employee's knowledge, skills and attitude so that they can perform their present job more efficiently, safely and confidently.

Training can be described as an organised activity aimed at imparting information and/or instructions to an employee so as to improve their performance, or help them attain a required level of knowledge and skill for the job they currently hold. A few points bring out what this definition really means in practice:

• It is planned and systematic, not casual or accidental — training follows a designed programme with a clear objective, rather than an employee simply "picking things up" informally over time.
• It is job-specific and present-oriented — training is concerned with improving performance on the job the employee holds right now, not with preparing them for a different, higher-level role in the future (that broader, future-oriented process is called development, covered next).
• It benefits both the employee and the employer — the employee gains confidence, competence and often better pay/promotion prospects, while the employer gains a more productive, safer and more adaptable workforce.
• It is an ongoing need, not a one-time event — training is required not only for a freshly selected employee, but again and again whenever technology, machinery, products, procedures or laws change and existing employees need to be brought up to date.

Training, then, sits inside the staffing function of management, coming right after selection and placement and running alongside performance appraisal throughout an employee's working life. The methods used to deliver it are the subject of this chapter, and the same basic distinction — training given actually on the job versus training given away from the job — is the framework almost every Indian commerce/business-studies syllabus uses to organise this topic; the treatment and examples here are TN's own.