The Efficacy of Training and Development Programmes for New Administrative Staff at a Selected

16th International Conference on HRD Research and Practice across Europe, 3-5 June 2015, University College Cork, Ireland

The Efficacy of Training and Development Programmes for New Administrative Staff at a Selected University, South Africa.

By

Bernard Matsoso

Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town

Mowbray Campus, Highbury Road, 1st Floor, Office 1.34, Cape Town, South Africa

Stream 1: Assessment, measurement, and evaluation of Human Resource Development

As chaired by

Dr. Sue Mulhall

Submission type: A working paper

Introduction

One of the positive developments since the first free and fair democratic elections in 1994 in South Africa has been the increased support and promotion of Training and development (T&D) programmes provided by the South African government.This has resulted in a number of organisational and policy changes that have been instituted at national and local levels as well as business sector. For example, the South African largest Telecommunication CompanyMTN is currently operating in six African countries (Daniel, Naidoo and Naidu, 2003:383). This company has bursaries and graduate development programme initiatives to develop the South African economy, skill base and contribute to job creation. According to Desimone and Werner (2012:12), T&D focuses on changing or improving the knowledge, skills and attitudes of individuals. Ultimately, the improvement of knowledge, skills and attitudes of the workforce empowers organisations to strive to compete in the global economy (Aguinis and Kraiger, 2009:452). A highly knowledgeable, multi-skilled workforce is the most important competitive resource available to organisations, (Truman and Coetzee, 2007:4).

Training is defined by Armstrong (2009:664:665) as a process that involves the application of formal processes to import knowledge and help people to acquire the skills necessary for them to perform their jobs satisfactorily. The process involves learning a particular skill related to one’sprofessional performance. Noe, Hollenbeck and Wright (2008:267) define training as a planned effort to facilitate the learning of job-related knowledge, skills and behaviour of employees. On the other hand, development is defined as the acquisition of knowledge, skills and behaviour that improve an employee’s ability to meet changes in job requirements and in client customer demands (Noe, et al, 2008:400).

T&D is one of the government’s interventions to curb the alarming high unemployment rate in the country. Unemployment remains the major challenge for transforming the South African labour market – the government has further facilitated the placement of new entrants in the labour market through learnerships, apprenticeships, bursaries, internships and new venture creation initiatives, (Truman and Coetzee, 2007:5). According to Daniels (2007:6) learnerships were seen as a complement of apprenticeships, and a key method to improve skills development for high, intermediate and low level skills. Despite all these initiatives, the latest research shows that the unemployment rate in South Africa remains unchanged at 25.5 per cent from 2012 to 2014, (Statistics South Africa Quarterly, 2014). Given the amount of new legislation introduced, it remains a matter of great interest as to whether such legislation, particularly training, is relevant to changing market demand or passed merely for the sake of compliance.

The Department of Higher Education & Training (DHET) is gearing towards a skills development system that will contribute to the growth of employment. The work done by Truman and Coetzee (2007:4)indicates that skills development is viewed as an important way to enhance the performance capability of people in organisations. Within the South African context, skills development focuses on and improves the skills of the workforce. For this to happen systematically, public universities have a mandate to implement the principles of the Skills Development Act (SDA) No.99 of 1998 objectively. Such principles are guidelines for all stakeholders engaged in skills development initiatives, to consider during the implementation phase. Training programmes, specifically the Customer Service Care Development Programme (CSCDP) offered at a selected South African University for new administrative staff shows some gaps and flaws such as a lack of prior training needs analysis.Despite this flaw, administrators are still compelled to attend the CSCDP.

This paper argues that the CSCDP, in its present form, is neither useful nor beneficial to the daily duties of administrative staff. It leads to low morale and dissatisfaction. Existing non-alignment of this Programme with individual expectations is ofserious concern. If such a problem is not investigated in time, it will negatively affect the performance and productivity of administrative staff in the long run. This weakness may create a negative perception among administrative staff towards training in general.

Problem Statement

CSCDP conducted at a selected South African university does not effectively and efficiently address the training needs of new administrative staff. This can lead to low self-motivation among them. Subsequently, the problem can negatively affect their perception on training in general. The report on staff-development needs, and opportunities within the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), as released by the ETDP SETA (2012:15), highlights three core functions as:

Post-school teaching and learning

Publication and presentation

Community engagement.

The report (2012:11) further mentions that the DHET is dedicated to addressing the effectiveness of teaching and learning, the qualifications and research culture of teaching staff and institutional practices supporting research and scholarship. This highlightsthe anomaly that training in HEIs is largely concentrated on academic staff development. It becomes patently clear that the opportunities for administrative staff, whoprovide essential and professional support to the academics, is limited.

The researcher has observed that the University does compile the Workplace Skill Plans (WSPs) without prior needs analysis of the administrative staff; in a word, they offer training programmes for the sake of compliance. This study believes that training practices as commissioned by the DHET presently are not entirely adequate. For example, the annual performance plan report (2011/12:17) shows that there were no records between 2008/9 and 2009/10 to indicate thatthe departmental staff trained in line with skills plan. The main purpose of a WSP is the interaction between management and employees that emphasiseskills in the workplace. Such process is done through a skills audit. However, from my reading it appears that most departments do not submit their Human Resource Development Plans (HRDPs), and Personal Development Plans (PDPs), appear to becompleted merely for the sake of compliance. Barbazette (2006:06) asserts that conducting training without establishing the needs is a waste of time and resources. Training is measured through perceived change in employee knowledge, skills and attitudes that occur as a result of training. Management responsible for training should carry out employee assessment after training programmes have been completed. This would inform management about the effectiveness of training administered to the employees.

Research methodology

The study intends to glean information from relevant participants. This can purposefully inform an understanding of the research problem and central phenomenon in the study, (Creswell, 2013:156). The researcher is employed in the institution where the problem is being studied; therefore, a convenience approach was more favourable to the researcher due to accessibility of administrative staff who participated in the CSCDP.

Literature shows that there are many design types found and classified from different disciplines such as education, business and management, (De Vos, Strydom, Fouche and Delport, 2011:439). The study employed a mixed methods approach framed within a constructivism paradigm. Creswell (2009:04) defines mixed methods as an approach to inquiry that combines both qualitative and quantitative forms. This method involves philosophical assumptions, the use of qualitative and quantitative approaches and the mixing of both approaches in a study. According to De Vos, et al. (2011:442), this involves the concurrent, but separate collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data in order to compare and contrast the different findings. This enables the researcher to converge or emerge with quantitative and qualitative data in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of the research problem (Creswell, 2009:14). The rationale behind selecting mixed method, derived from data collection, analysis and mixing both approaches in a single study would ensure a comprehensive understanding of the problem under investigation.

Research Aim and Question

This paper aims to investigate whether the CSCDP effectively and efficiently addresses the training needs, expectations and necessary up-skilling of new administrative staff or not. The main research question is: to what extent CSCDP, conducted within a selected university,effectively and efficiently addresses training needs of new administrative staff.

Participants

The study used primary data obtained from new administrative staff members.Questionnaires based on a purposive sampling were distributed to thirty one (31)participants. The main goal of purposive sampling is to focus on particular characteristics of a population who will best answer the research questions.For the purposes of this study, only new administrative staff members with fewer than five years of service at one South African universitywere included. Participants sampled are spread across four different campuses. The sample was 9.7% male and 90.3% female. Both open- and closed-ended questions which involved combination or integration of qualitative and quantitative research were employed.

Findings

Demographic Criteria:

This section reflects the demographic characteristics of the participants.

Gender Composition

The statistical pattern shows a 90.3 per cent female compared to 9.7 per cent male participation. The pattern clearly shows a dominance of females in administrative positions lower than management.

Age Composition

The ages of participants range from 25 to 58 years. This was further categorised into six datasets covering the groups- 25-30; 31-35; 36-40; 41-45; 46-50 and above. The majority of the participants - 52 per cent-reside between 25 and 35 years, followed by 24 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.

Job Grade Composition

The purpose of the study was to target participants employed from lowest grade 13 to the highest grade 10 as per university grading system. CSCDP is mainly designed to cater for administrative staff between levels 10 and 13. The majority of participants occupy grade 12, 13, 11 and 10. This translates into 47 per cent, 33 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.

Qualification Composition

30 out of 31 participantsresponded to this section. 37 per cent (11 out of 30) have acquired the university degree, 33 per cent of participants have also acquired a national diploma, 7 per cent have the highest qualification in master’s degree and 3 per cent have the national certificate. The other 20 per cent is made up of the lowest qualification which is a school leaving certificate. Given the range of highest qualification attainment, it is possible that the majority of the participants have experience in customer skills. Therefore, they may have other training needs beyond customer service skills.

Training Criteria:

The next section focused on the CSCDP

Participants provided categorical responses for the training under investigation. They were asked about the relevance of this training (with response options of “yes or no”) in relation to their prior knowledge on customer service skills. Participants were asked if they had attended the CSCDP since its inception. Approximately 61 per cent have not yet attended the training and only 39 per cent have done so. The other research question asked was whether or not they had customer service skills prior to attending the CSCDP. Over 68 per cent reported having prior knowledge on customer service skills and only 32 per cent did not. The next question focused on the new knowledge gained from the course and its effectiveness. Interestingly, 61 per cent compared to 39 per cent revealed that the course did not lead to acquisition of new knowledge. This clearly indicates that the vast majority of participants have previously acquired customer service skills, compelling those participants to further attend the CSCDP.

Skills Criteria:

The section focused on the skills of the participant. It addressed four research questions. It was considered important to investigate whether or not CSCDP effectively and efficiently addressed the training needs of the new administrative staff.

Research Question 1

Participants were provided with 33 set of soft skills as required by different administrative positions. They were asked to indicate the skills they need training on. This was further categorised into three datasets comprising of scores from the lowest to highest: 0-5, 6-10 and 11-15.

The second dataset score (6-10) reported that half of the participants (52 per cent) would need training on skills such as project management, mentoring, coaching, writing, conflict, database, budgeting, financial management, negotiation etc. When relating all these skills to the CSCDP, the number suggests that training in this regard is irrelevant as it does not necessarily address their training needs.

Furthermore, CSCDP aims to equip administrators with basic customer skills because of their interactions with student clients on a daily basis. In contrast, customer skills which is the main domain of the CSCDP, falls under the first dataset (0-5). That is, 33 per cent of the participants would need training on skills such as interpersonal, communication, administration, time management, recording, office administration including customer skills. Finally, about 15 per cent (as represented by dataset 11-15) of the participants reported that they would prefer to receive training on counselling, research, occupational health & safety, computer and employee wellness skills.

Research Question 2

Participants were asked if their line managers had given them an opportunity to suggest relevant training programme, with “Yes and No” as response categories. The data revealed that 55 per cent of the participants were given the opportunity to suggest their own relevant training program. Although this study does not allow for further analysis on an individual basis, it would be of interest to ascertain whether the training programme suggested by the participant was honoured and used as part of addressing that particular need. The fact that personal development plans do not seem to be taken into account as it should, is cause for concern and may require further investigation in future.

Research Question 3

Participants were asked to indicate the type of training intervention that they have attended in line with research question 2. The response options were: none, short courses, formal education, distance/online learning, skills programme, workshop, conference and other. The findings show that an overwhelming number (39 per cent) of the participant did not receive any training intervention. This means that training needs of the administrative staff is merely a wish-list while they continue to be trained on competencies/skills they have previously acquired. However, 26 per cent of the participants have received training intervention through workshop and 10 per cent through attending short courses and distance/online learning respectively,while only 6 per cent have attended conferences and other intervention programmes. Only 3 per cent attended a formal education beneficial to their current jobs.

Research Question 4

Participants were asked about how often they undertook a performance review with their line managers, with a 4- point response scale ranging from “Never reviewed” to “Annually reviewed”. Data shows that the majority of the participants (39 per cent) never had performance reviews, 23 per cent were partly reviewed, and 19 per cent had their performance reviews on a quarterly and annual basis respectively. Performance review is done by line managers in order to obtain regular customer feedback, track actual performance and most importantly, identify any performance deficiencies. Although performance management is driven by human resources department, it is a process that is really “owned” by line managers, (Mone and London, 2010:2). The training under investigation is done without necessary consultation between management and training department. This disjunctive relationship can be remedied if management engages with the training department in order to identify relevant training needs of the administrative staff.

Research Limitations

This study is limited to administrative staff working across four campuses in Cape Town , South Africa namely; Mountain, District Six, Central and Ocean campuses. The target population was restricted to participants with fewer than five years’ service and have attended/ have not yet attended an induction programme as facilitated by the University’s training department. The researcher included participants as per job grading system ranging between levels 10 and 13. Since the training programme under investigation has been in inception from 2013, participants were limited to those who started working at a selected University between 2010 and 2014. The study does not look at all training programmes, but rather CSCDP. For further data collection involving semi-structured interviews, the Head of Departments (HoDs) representing these four campuses will also be targeted as they are responsible for identification of the training needs in their respective departments.

Practical Implications

The findings of this research are expected to help the University’s internal training-structures to carefully avoid offering inappropriate T&D programmes. This should be achieved by providing administrative staff with relevant training programmes that are addressedtowards both organisational and individual goals. The findings should further benefit the Human Resource Development Practitioners (HRD) responsible for policy development and implementation-phase related to T&D programmes.

Conclusion

Based on the ground covered in this presentation, it is hoped that the shortcomings pointed out in the T&D will be turned into positive policy-guidelines in respect of relevant training for administrative staff. There is a clear need for management and training department as discrete units to address the hiatus that is at the root of a problem. Perhaps my conclusion could have been more cogent if I had the time to engage the HoDs across the four campuses mentioned.