Trade unions have long recognized that proper education and training for officials, activists and members in general helps to make the union a more effective provider of services to its members. In contrast, the training of members as employees has traditionally been low on the list of trade...

Companies need to redefine value for money in the context of training and find new ways of matching employer and employee development needs. So said delegates at the Institute of Personnel and Development (IPD) 1996 Human Resource Development Week. Highlights some of the debates.

Workers need to be able to adjust quickly to rapid changes in the international and domestic economic environment. Creativity, problem‐solving and communication skills are increasingly at a premium. Vocational‐training systems established in a gentler era need to be brought up to date to...

In today’s increasingly competitive business world, training is gaining the same kind of status as motherhood and apple pie. But a Japan‐based multinational supermarket chain offers a more thorough and all‐embracing training programme to its Japanese graduates than to those it recruits in...

The pace of change in training in recent years has been frantic and shows no signs of slowing. There have been many innovations in methods of delivery, as straightforward lectures give way to distance learning, company‐based training or individualized contract learning. Learners are often...

Many companies are restructuring key business processes to break down barriers between departments. Underlying these efforts is the belief that value is created through horizontal work flows ‐ flows which cut across traditional vertically organized functions and end at some point of contact...

Significant benefits can be gained from teamwork. But when companies face tough decisions and challenges, the team‐player mentality can be more of a hindrance than an advantage. Explains why and shows how companies can get round the problem.

Concurrent engineering is all the rage in new‐product development. It is helping such US high‐technology firms as Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp. to improve their designs and get new products on to the market faster. But it throws up a number of important human‐resource problems....

Once upon a time, companies were like ocean liners. Anyone fortunate enough to secure a berth cruised through a career and disembarked at retirement age. Those days have gone, probably for ever. Argues that it is no good believing things can be the same, only a bit different. A fundamental...

Highlights the increasing interest in how and why employees seek feedback on their performance, the role it plays in their ability to learn from past behavior and improve on it, and the consequent importance it has for the company.