THE EFFECT OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF BANK EMPLOYEES IN NIGERIA ( A CASE STUDY OF UNION BANK)
Category>OND Project
Introduction
The private and public sector of the Nigeria economy have tried in their effort to address some of the problems associated with manpower training and development. Since independence, both the state and federal government determination to achieve self sufficiency in the workforce has called for higher level of technical and manpower to steer up commercial and industrial activities.
Ogbonna (1984) observed that plan at the preliminary stage, however faced inaccurate statistical data for effective national labour force planning. The planner also encountered problems of whether to focus on higher or lower level of education to meet up with the higher, demand for industrial, governmental machinery and democratic ideas of equal opportunity for all citizens. The plan is aimed at striking a balance between the need for skilled manpower and general mass education.
Also in the 1980 plan, government gave priority to the issue of training and development of its manpower but rather than solving the problems and ensuring adequate training of the employees, it suffered some set back arising from lack of infrastructure and takes off tools such as good road, accommodation etc.
The banking industry like any other industry in Nigeria was also affected by manpower problems. Oyebola (1980) observed that the earliest bank such as standard bank now First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Barclays bank now Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Arab bank, National bank, other indigenous banks, faced a lot of managerial, technical and operational skills problems. These problems lead to the collapse of some indigenous banks, which could not withstand the competitions posed by foreign banks. The common training given to the personnel in the bank then was on the job training or instruction as to how and what job to be done. Thus, there were no formal and informal training.
Ejiofor (1981), identified some major courses of failure in manpower development effort in Nigeria, these include:
- There is more concentration of training between the top management rather than sharing the training between the top and lower level management personnel.
- Planning without adequate manpower statistics leading to problems of implementation.
- Both government and business organization under funded manpower development programme.
2.1 History of Training in the Banking Industry
In overcoming the problems above, modem training was pioneered in Nigeria banking industry by first bank of Nigeria PIc, 1949 and had its training school in 1953. Since then, other banks have aspired to do likewise and it has resulted in the emergence of many training schools in the banking sector. However at the global level employee training programme was greatly influenced by the following bodies:
- Industrial Training fund (ITF) came to being in 1971and it aimed at encouraging adequate training of manpower to run industry and commerce. ITF decree of 1971 enforced all companies having at least 23 persons in the payroll to pay one percent (1 %) of their annual rolls in the fund. The money is used to promote and acquire skills to generate a pool of indigenous trained manpower to meet the nation requirement.
- Centre for Management Development (CMD)
- National Institute for Policy and Strategy Studies (NIPSS)
- Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON)
- Higher institutions such as universities and polytechnics also contribute. It trains personnel in bank and other financial institutes. it also promote, protects and advances knowledge.
2.2 Training and Development
Isa Mohammed (2001), by way of definition, manpower en to represent a systematic process of training and growth by which individual gain and apply skill, knowledge, insights and attitude to manage work organization effectively. He defined training as the organized procedure by which people learn skills and knowledge for a definite purpose. Also training is a process of preparing human resources for the best service to their organization. He said at one extreme, training of a few hours or minute of induction by the supervisor who gives the new employees a skeletal outline of the bank, policies location etc. At the other extreme, training consist of several year of formal course designed to develop qualified specialist. Development on the other hand is not specific but it is more general in its application. It is used in facilitating managerial employees who perform non routine jobs to improve their managerial, administrative and decision making abilities and competence.
To Ojo (1998), Training refers to the way in which specific knowledge and skills necessary to perform a specific job are taught: and learnt. To him development implies a parallel process in which people acquired more general abilities and information, but in ways that cannot always be tied directly to a particular task they perform.
G.A. Cole (1997), Training will be understood as any learning l activity which is directed toward the acquisition of specific knowledge and skills or the purposes of an occupation or task. The focus of training is the job task. While to him, development is any learning activity which is directed towards future needs rather than present needs, and which is concerned more with career growth than immediate performance. The focus of development tends to be primarily on an organizations future manpower requirements and secondly on the growth needs of individuals in workplace.
2.3 Training Need’s and Job Analyzed
In some cases, the determination of training need is fairly straight forward process that may be conducted without an extensive analysis of the organization for instance; all new employees normally undergo orientation training. An impending technology change such as the introduction of new computer hardware will automatically require the need for training requirements to resolve deficiencies in skills or to address career developmental needs, necessitate much greater analysis by training needs that result from performance problems, the trainer must systematically collect and analyze employees output, product quality and attitude.
Training needs may be gathered by using variety of methods. Some of these methods include:
- Advisory committees: This generally comprises various levels of management and some organization creates committees to represent the various functions such as production and accounting.
The committee is charged with the responsibility of determining whether a particular problem is a training problem and establishes training priority.
- Assessment centre: Assessment centre are mostly used for management development, the assessment center requires participants to undergo a series of exercise and test to determine their strength and worked in performing management tasks. The center is used primarily to predict success in managerial vote, its in measuring to aiming needs is increasing.
- Attitude Surveys: This is most effective in measuring the general level of job satisfaction but the data gathered may show various areas where training need exist.