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

matsosot@cput.ac.za

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

Company MTN 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’s professional 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 of serious 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 highlights the

anomaly that training in HEIs is largely concentrated on academic staff development. It

becomes patently clear that the opportunities for administrative staff, who provide 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 that the departmental staff trained in line with skills plan. The main

purpose of a WSP is the interaction between management and employees that emphasise

skills 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 be completed 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 s tudy i n t ends t o g l ean in fo rm a t i on f rom r e l evan t pa r t i c ipan t s .

Th i s can pu rpose fu l ly i n fo rm an unde r s t and ing o f t he r e se a r ch p rob lem

and ce n t r a l phe nomenon i n t he s tudy , (C re s w e l l , 2013 :156 ) . The

r e s ea r che r i s emp l oyed i n t he i n s t i t u t i on w he re t he p rob l em i s be i ng

s t ud i ed ; t he r e fo re , a conve n ience app roach w as more f avou rab l e t o t he

r e s ea r che r due t o acc ess ib i l i t y o f admi n i s t r a t i ve s t a f f w ho pa r t i c ipa t ed

i n t he CSCD P .

L i t e r a t u r e s how s tha t t he r e a r e many des ign t ypes found and c l a s s i f i e d

f rom d i f f e r en t d i sc ip l i ne s s uch a s educa t ion , bus i nes s and

mana gemen t , (D e Vos , S t rydom, F ouche and D e lpo r t , 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 university were 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 participants responded 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

addressed towards 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.

Training and development programmes should be tailor-made to meet both organisational

and individual goals. The principles of SDA should be implemented when designing a

training programme. This will ensure that training intervention is aligned with individual

expectations and needs. Training conducted this way is likely to increase administrative

staff’s motivation and general performance.

Keywords: training and development programme, skills development, customer

service care, administrative staff, training needs.

References

AGUINIS, H and KRAIGER, K. (2009). Benefits of Training and Development for

Individuals and Teams, Organisations, and Society. The Annual Review of Psychology.

60:451-74

ARMSTRONG, M. (2009). Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 11th Ed.

Philadelphia: Kogan Page

BARBAZETTE, J. (2006). Training Needs Assessment: Methods, tools, and techniques.

The Skilled Trainer Series.

CRESWELL, W. (2009). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods

Approaches. SAGE Publications, Inc.

CRESWELL, W. (2013). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design Choosing Among Five

Approaches. 3rd Ed. SAGE Publications, Inc.

DANIELS, R. (2007). Skills Shortages in South Africa: A literature Review. Development

Policy Research Unit.

https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/item/7377/DPRU_WP07-121.pdf?sequence=1

DANIEL. J,. NAIDOO and NAIDU, S. (2003). The State of the Nation: South Africa 2003-

2004. HSRC Press.

DE VOS, A. et al. (2011). Research at Grass Roots: For the Social Science and Human

Service Professions. 4th Ed. Pretoria: Van Schaik.

DESIMONE, R and WERNER, J. (2012). Human Resource Development. 6 th Ed. South-

Western, Mason: Erin Joyner.

DHET. (2011). Revised Strategic Plan and Operational Plans for the 2011/12 Financial

Year.

http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/upload/South%20Africa/

South_Africa_DHET_Revised_strategic_plan.pdf

ETDP SETA. (2012). Public Higher Education: Sector Skills Plan 2013-2014 Updated.

MONE, E. and LONDON, M. (2010). Employee Engagement through Effective

Performance Management: A Practical Guide for Managers. New York: Routledge

NOE, R., HOLLENBECK, J. & WRIGHT, P., (2008). Human Resource Management:

Gaining a Competitive Advantage. 6th Ed. New York: Mc Graw Hill

QUARTERLY LABOUR FORCE SURVEY. (2014). Statistics South Africa

http://beta2.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0211/P02113rdQuarter2014.pdf

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT ACT. 1998. Department of Labour, South Africa.

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT LEVY ACT. 1999. Department of Labour, South Africa

TRUMAN. K and COETZEE. M. (2007). Practising Education, Training and Development

in South African Organisations. Cape Town: Juta