Soft skill acquisition is a topic of career readiness for high school students. Soft skills are known as noncognitive skills, life skills, or people skills and are important to develop in high school students for career readiness. Organizational leaders understand technical and professional skills without developed soft skills do not achieve…

In the United States today organizational leaders are concerned with skills gaps, or the limited availability of qualified workers to fill open positions. The reason for their concern is the impact of skills gaps on organizational performance in a number of areas including productivity, customer satisfaction, profitability, and the ability to…

The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which workers patronize distance learning approach to further their education. Other purposes include: determine problems facing workers in the process of improving their knowledge and skills through distance learning approach; establish the level of attainment of manpower development…

The purpose of this study was to explore alternative relationships between training opportunities and employee outcomes. A cross-sectional survey of 343 trainees from a broad range of Norwegian service organizations showed that the relationship between perceived training opportunities, and both task performance and citizenship behaviors were fully…

Firms with the ability to provide superior customer service can accrue significant competitive advantage and research suggests that frontline service employees' (FLSEs) actions have a considerable influence on the success of service operations. Yet, the high level of customer defections consistently attributed to poor and indifferent service…

If training is to make a real difference in the organization, we need an alternative to the vacuum of performance. A view exists that springs from two fundamental premises: (1) every individual operates in the context of a performance system and (2) improvements in performance will occur only if we understand the variables in that system. (JOW)

The Skills Standards Projects have provided further emphasis on the need for benchmarking U.S. vocational-technical education (VTE) against international competition. Benchmarking is an ongoing systematic process designed to identify, as quantitatively as possible, those practices that produce world class performance. Metrics are those things that…

This document contains four papers from a symposium on the performance evaluation process and human resource development (HRD). "Assessing the Effectiveness of OJT (On the Job Training): A Case Study Approach" (Julie Furst-Bowe, Debra Gates) is a case study of the effectiveness of OJT in one of a high-tech manufacturing company's product…

This handbook introduces a new training model that reflects the complexity of organizational life, changes in the human resources (HR) function, and the need to involve line management. Part I outlines the new context in which training must be delivered. It discusses the changing organizational requirements for training and the changing position…

Training interventions can be evaluated by calculating return on investment (ROI) and cost-benefit analysis. The four-level model proposed by Kirkpatrick is the dominant evaluation model used. Calculating ROI has been a critical issue for trainers and executives, but only a few organizations have implemented the process that is considered as…

A study was conducted to determine what factors of human resource development (HRD) or other learning interventions impede or enhance improved performance. A review of the literature suggested theories of HRD effectiveness, where HRD effectiveness is perceived as the extent to which HRD goals and objectives are achieved. Various authors state that…

A project developed a model curriculum to be delivered by computer-based instruction to teach the required literacy skills for entry workers in the health insurance industry. Literacy task analyses were performed for the targeted jobs and then validated with focus groups. The job tasks and related basic skills were divided into modules. The job…

These four papers are from a symposium on evaluation in human resource development (HRD). "Assessing Organizational Readiness for Learning through Evaluative Inquiry" (Hallie Preskill, Rosalie T. Torres) reviews how evaluative inquiry can facilitate organizational learning; argues HRD evaluation should be reconceptualized as a process…

This document contains papers from 23 of 25 symposia held at the 1995 Academy of Human Resource Development (HRD) conference. Keynote speeches, symposium 6, and symposium 25 are not included. The 23 symposia are on the following topics: (1) HRD town forum; (2) core directions in HRD; (3) university instruction in HRD; (4) evaluation in HRD; (5)…

This document contains four papers on organizational enhancement and human resource development (HRD). "Motivation to Improve Work through Learning in Human Resource Development" (Sharon S. Naquin, Elwood F. Holton III) argues that HRD's traditional conceptualization of motivation should be expanded to incorporate motivation to use…