Interpersonal Skills Training

It is estimated that interpersonal skills training is offered by 83 percent of organizations. Interpersonal skills training programs cover a wide range of topics namely, 1) interpersonal communications, customer service, conflict resolution, interpersonal relations, teamwork, business ethics, time management and leadership skills.

The most common ones being team building (67 percent), listening skills (63 percent), and delegation skills (61 percent). Three types of training that can be considered interpersonal skills training: sales training, customer service training, and teamwork training.

Joint Training Programs

A joint-training program is an extension of the management-labor union relationship in which the goal is to provide meaningful training and personal developmental opportunities for union members. Unlike employer sponsored HRD programs. Joint training programs vary in content. A study of 152 programs revealed that the four most common content areas are 1) safety and health (30 percent), 2) job skills training (25 percent), 3) communication skills (20 percent), and 4) assistance for displaced workers.

In the wake of the layoffs that result from mergers, acquisition and divestiture, the challenge to the alliance is to address the needs of displaced workers. To deal with this, the alliances do establish displacement projects, relocation assistance, job placements, and a host of retraining opportunities.

Company-Sponsored Continuing Equation

Organizations also play an important part in offering continuing education opportunities for the professionals they employ. There appears to be a continuing trend toward developing on-site corporate universities. It is estimated that above 1000 organizations have developed centralized training curricula, called “university”, “college”, or “institute” of learning, that are based on academic metaphor. Organization hire faculty for their on-site programs, both from among their senior professionals (many of them at retirement age) and from outside experts.

An enabler the HRD department of organizations must establish policies and procedures that foster an effective and equitable distribution of continuing education throughout the organization. As a resource provider, the HRD department should consider program support options, including tuition reimbursement, educational leave, paid professional association fees, and compensation of travel expenses to off-site professional development sites.