IMPACT OF TRAINING ON THE JOB PERFORMANCE OF SECRETARIES

IMPACT OF TRAINING ON THE JOB PERFORMANCE OF SECRETARIES
 
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUTION
1.1     BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The secretary success book is computer the core skill needed by any secretary seeking promotion or a move into management. The important outline represents the most demanded course in training programmes run by the author over 27 years in the past 5 years we have been delivering these courses to secretary for over 150 of the top sectors and international organization. The courses have addressed the real-world problem and issues of the model secretary. Extract report from those courses have been 100 percent, positive. Furthermore, feedback from delegates on the course has indicated that they are able to use the materials for career progress job enhancement and other training objectives of the course, which are reflected in these books to meet the varied need of the secretary who want to make more of their jobs, acquire skill that will take them become executive secretary.
Right from the beginning of Nigeria’s nationhood in 1960, it was clear that the rate of national development and technological advancement evolved not so much on the availability of means and resources but on the articulation and effective utilization of Nigeria’s vast human and material resources, Hacket (1979:41) highlights this when he observes that awareness of the necessity for training in Nigeria is low as reflected in productivity in Nigerian organizations. In order to get the best from employee, it is important for his employer to develop, train and retrain him to acquire and improve his skills, which enhances his productivity.
Training of employee has become a major pre-occupation in modern organizational objective of growth.  To achieve this basic objective of growth and profitability, it means that management as well as employees must improve their input into the organization. This is because the performance of an organization is a function of the collective performance of employees. Garavan, Costine and Herathy (1995) opine that there are many critical factors which organizations must consider as they face the future. This alone implies that the success of an organization depends on who works to achieve the organization’s objective, that is, the presence of qualified manpower.
The internal and external environments of any organization are dynamic. They change as time changes. For instance, changes have resulted from advancement in science and technology, intensified pattern of competition, quest for competitive advantages brought about by closer customer relationship, devolved decision making, quality improvement of products and services to mention just a few. This dynamic nature of organization’s environment triggered the thought of improvement in the performance of employees, in order to outweigh competitors by providing quality goods and services. In an attempt to remedy this basic quest for improved job performance, the issue of getting qualified staff as well as retain high calibre employees and develop a more flexible adaptable skill base to cope with the volatile market is therefore important. Armer (1970:30) emphasizes that over time, people become uneducated and therefore incompetent to perform at a level they once performed adequately. Training enhances this, as they are organizational efforts aimed at helping an employee acquire basic skills required for efficient execution of the functions for which they are hired.
One would add that training is a set of activities, whereby, practitioners, managers or would be managers are assisted in improving their individual competence and performance as well as the organization’s environment with the ultimate goal of raising the standard of organizational performance. It therefore follows, that employee training are at the heart of employee utilization, productivity, commitment, motivation and growth. An organization may have employees that are determined with appropriate equipment a managerial support, yet employee performance falls below expected standards. The missing factor in many cases is lack of adequate skills and knowledge, which are acquired through training, Ubeku (1995:10) sees human resource management as a control function exercised by all managers in an organization and/or by a particular department often designated as personnel or human resources. It is therefore, important that the need for training be identified and provided for. It is an indispensable part of management function in terms of operational efficiency and effectiveness. This is because an organization which puts great emphasis on employee training is directly planning for its survival and steady growth.
1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Secretarial practice and its relevance to the upliftment of an institution. Advancement cannot be over-emphasized. Hence to build a solid foundation of the secretary in an institution it has been observed over the years that secretaries is very important in an institution essential for running in an organization has not been encouraging.
The issues of employee training were not taken seriously by many organizations This is because of the failure to acknowledge the fact that the business environment has become very dynamic and only those organizations with the right manpower to meet the modern technological and informational need in the business times can succeed in the globalized business world.
Training is paramount to the success of any modern organization, for organization to compete effectively it must train its manpower to meet with the requirements for sustainability. However, organisation that do not train or embark on inadequate training encounter certain problems, these include low performance, poor coordination, increase labuor turnover, inadequate manpower low capital base, loss of market share, and the inability to cope favorably with the technological and informational demands of the business environment. What organizations could do to handle these problems is to engage on effective training of employees. Thus, a study on training becomes necessary.
1.3      OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objective of the study is to determine the relevance of secretarial practice to the progress of a federal government, that is Federal Polytechnic Nekede. The objectives of the study are as follows:
1.      Identify the extent to which training programmes have help to improve the job satisfaction of secretaries.
2.      Find out the adverse effect of not giving the employees training.
3.      Determine the various ways in which an organization can train its employees.
4.      Know whether training affect secretaries’ performance in any way.
1.4       RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This research work seeks to answer the following questions.
1.      What extent does training help to improve job satisfaction of secretaries?
2.      What are the adverse effects of not giving the employees training and developing employees in an organization?
3.      How does organization train employees in various ways?
4.      Does training affect secretaries performance?
1.5    SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This research work is aimed at serving certain significance in relation to individual, group of individual or a particular event
1.      Employees: employees will benefit from this study in the sense that it will help them to know the importance of being trained to acquire knowledge and job skills, which will increase their market value.
2.      Management: management of organization will also benefit from this study as it will enable them to know the suitable training strategies/methods that will be given to employees in order to make them efficient and productive.
3.      Students/other researchers: this study will be beneficial to student and other researcher as it will help them to know were about training of employees.
1.6      SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This research work is limited to the impact of training on employee performance in an organization only using Federal Polytechnic Nekede as the case study.
1.7      Limitation of the Study
This study was greatly affected by certain constraints which becomes unavoidable within the link.
1.      Time constraints: the research was constrained by time limits. This posed a threat to the successful coverage intended in course of this study.
2.       Finance cost factor: it is not usual that the prevailing economic predicament posed to a great extent a problem in procuring the whole material information needed for this research.
1.8      DEFINITION OF TERMS
1.  Apprenticeship: careful work experiences that are sequenced and graded which allows the training to more from simple desk to more complex job.
2.  Class room instruction: method of training whereby an employee takes a corresponding course in a nearly school or some time employee can persuade a school to offer special course tail lord to the need of the company.
3.  Development: is the improvement of skills and abilities of employees in the organization in order to prepare them for tasks ahead.
4.  Filed trips: organized observational experience outside the work place for stipulated set objectives.
5.  Induction training: method in which newly recruited employees are introduced to their jobs and fellow workers  
6.  Job rotation: a situation where employee given the opportunities to gain experience on the specific job.
7.  Man power: this referred to as the human resource or resource of the organization.
8.  Off the job training: this is the type of training covering ll other training programmes other than those conducted will on the job.  This type of training is conducted outside the work place.
9.  Performance appraisal: this is the process where by a manager evaluates the performance of his subordinates of assessing their character and attitude towards their work and past performance on the job.