Managing the Training and Development Function

Managing the Training and Development Function (1994) by Allan D. Pepper. Gower. ISBN: 9780566029776. Condition: Good. Before every employee had an online learning portal containing seventeen overdue courses on password security, fire safety and the correct emotional response to a suspicious email attachment, organisations had training departments. These were staffed by real people, equipped with overhead projectors, flip charts and an apparently inexhaustible supply of marker pens that worked perfectly until somebody actually needed one. Allan D. Pepper?s Managing the Training and Development Function is a substantial guide to the serious business of making sure employees know what they are doing?or can at least produce a certificate suggesting that somebody once attempted to explain it to them. It examines how training should be planned, organised, delivered and evaluated, rather than simply announced in a memo and forgotten until the annual management review. The book considers the position of training within the wider organisation, including the identification of development needs, the design of suitable programmes, the management of resources and the eternal challenge of proving to senior management that training has achieved something measurable. This last task has traditionally required patience, diplomacy and the ability to translate ?people are now better at their jobs? into a spreadsheet containing arrows, percentages and reassuringly precise-looking figures. Published in 1994, it comes from a fascinating transitional period in workplace life. Computers had arrived, but had not yet become clever enough to interrupt every meeting with software updates. Email existed, although employees could still plausibly claim not to have received it. Human Resources was steadily replacing Personnel, and ?learning and development? was beginning its long transformation into a strategic organisational function rather than the department that booked conference rooms and handed out ring binders. Pepper treats training as a management responsibility rather than an occasional corporate ritual involving weak coffee and a visiting speaker. He explores how development activities can support organisational objectives, improve performance and prepare people for changing roles. In other words, training should have a purpose beyond allowing everyone to spend Tuesday afternoon away from their desks while pretending to enjoy a role-playing exercise. There is also the awkward matter of evaluation. Did the course work? Did anyone learn anything? Did they apply it afterwards? Or did they simply return to their departments carrying a branded folder that remained unopened until an office clear-out twelve years later? These questions remain surprisingly current, despite modern organisations now possessing learning dashboards capable of confirming, with magnificent accuracy, that 84 per cent of employees clicked ?Next? until the final quiz appeared. For trainers, HR professionals, managers, consultants and students of organisational development, this is a detailed period guide to the principles behind a function that remains essential, even though nearly all of its terminology has since been rebranded. ?Training plans? became ?learning strategies,? classrooms became ?blended environments,? and staff development became ?talent enablement,? but sooner or later somebody still has to explain how the new system works. This copy is in good condition , which suggests that it has survived several reorganisations, at least one departmental merger and the arrival of PowerPoint without being converted into a doorstop. It may contain more practical management knowledge than many modern courses costing several hundred pounds and concluding with a downloadable badge for LinkedIn. From Crappy Old Books ?developing people through the time-honoured training method of selling them a book and trusting them to read it.…