The main reasons for the rapidly growing demand for training and development are for selfenrichment

and survival in response to the chaos of the current workplace. Employees are realizing that the knowledge and skills they acquired in college are becoming obsolete, and they need to constantly stay flexible, marketable, and competitive. Japanese companies are as committed as ever to workers training; and skill development. This will be helpful in combining over all organizational growth along with personal growth, which enabled fulfillment to the individual as well as the organization. Training used to be focused more on enabling an employee to perform his/her current job effectively and efficiently and the evaluation used to be based on whether it contributes to current strategic goals. Wachovia Corporation assesses the impact of training on the business performance of the company through meeting the expectations of the top management; development of evaluation strategy and data collection plans, improvement of work performance. The New Zealand's Advertising Guru states, "The single biggest waste of training dollars is when management spends money on training but doesn't understand why." He further quotes that "Investing in skills isn't something enterprises should do because someone tells them to, but because it's central to their future success." In the modern era as globalization and competition increase training systems have to change focus. With the knowledge economy enveloping the world, the traditional hierarchical organizational structures are giving way to flatter and flexible organizational structures. Work pressures are on the increase due to the increasing stresses and strains. Organizations now work with flexible teams and an employee is a member of different teams simultaneously. Employees expectations in terms of responsibility as well as rewards have changed dramatically. Rewards come when the organizations starts identifying the relationship between the training and bottom line performance. To prove this, the American Society For Training and Development Study reveals that 25% of the companies invested in training got back 24% of the higher profit margins, 50% enjoyed the Total Shareholder Return i.e. 86% higher than bottom half. When the company's spent $680 per employee to get suitable training fetched 6% increase in Total Shareholders Return. Positions of higher responsibilities call for a different attitudinal perspective and hence methodologies have to be developed which build this attitudinal perspective. In the fast changing world such a process will strengthen the organization further and makes the organization competitive. For example, in India, Infosys is imparting leadership training by setting up a training institute for future leader. From a policy, which began from an assessment of current, needs of the organization it will now have to encompass even emerging needs of organization. Suitable training calendars will have to be developed to cover both these aspects as well as impart skill as well as attitudinal training. Training needs analysis done to identify training gaps will also undergo suitable changes. The most critical area where top management will have to play major role will be in terms of suitable budgetary allocations for capability enhancement of people within the organizations. Training records will have to be suitably maintained and information technology can play a major role in this aspect to provide learning opportunities to align with the organizational objectives and manage change effectively to achieve continuous improvement.

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Since training is an investment in people its effectiveness will have to be quantified. Here lies the real challenge for HR professionals. When the world economy is undergoing the recession, training needs are increasing but budgets are decreasing, which clearly shows the importance of forecasting the Return on Investment is the best way to show that what they do provide is an essential value for their organizations. Holistic approach There is evidence from industry that, when companies have embraced some of the principles of training and development, they have reaped rich rewards. Motorola claims that for every dollar that it spends on training it gets back 33 dollars as benefits. GE uses its training programs to identify the high flyers and develop best inter personal relations among managers and senior managers. Pepsi views training seriously and the chairman himself involves in the conduct of workshops for senior executives. Unless organizations follow a holistic approach towards training and development they may end up as dysfunctional organizations. Fred Kofman and Peter Senge (1995) characterize three "cultural dysfunctions" that prevent organizational learning. They argue that: Organizations respond to challenges in a fragmented manner, and therefore, solutions are often piecemeal and insufficient. While competition tends to drive the need for professional development, it often leads the organization to focus only on short-term, measurable results. "Fascinated with competition, we often find ourselves competing with the very people with whom we need to collaborate."

Most organizations are limited by an approach to learning that is primarily reactive. In other words, most learning is usually in response to some outside force that often prevents the systematic improvement of products and process. "For too long I have thought the traditional training model has focus on classroom activity at the expense of more dynamic and involving methods" says Rob Gordon, Operational Director, Catalis Rail Training. "So, when the recent take-over by the ATA Group gave us access to ATA's Recruitment and People Development resources, it allowed us to take a long look at our approach to training and incorporate some of the broadened group's skills base." At Dupont training has been used as a vehicle not only to help employees understand what was going on but also to improve their stakeholder orientation. Conclusion Continuous learning is possible for an organization only through training and development of human resources. Only then the organization can bring the suitable changes which will transform the organization into a learning organization. To become successful and compete in the global market a holistic approach towards training and development is required. Training programs should focus on the organizations priorities and objectives encompassing latest market driven techniques to equip their human resource competently. Finally, since training involves an investment its benefits or returns should be suitably quantified and measured The author is an expert in custom essay writings services in the field of human resource management.
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