AN ASSESSMENT OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES: THE CASE OF WEST ADDIS ABABA DISTRICT OF COMMERCIAL BANK OF ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Training and development helped people to learn how to be more effective at work by modifying knowledge, skills or attitudes through learning experience to achieve effective performance. In particular, this study assesses the training and development practice and challenges in the West Addis Ababa district (WAAD) of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE). It used questionnaire, interviews and document review as instrument of data collection. Convenience sampling method was used to select samples frame from the target population. The study employed quantitative survey research design to gather data from a total of 283 employees of the WAAD of CBE. Semi structured interview was also scheduled to gather the qualitative information from the team leaders of learning and development department of the WAAD of CBE. In order to assess the existing training and development practice and challenges of the WAAD of CBE, the study emphasized on the four process of training and development and its challenges. These are training and development needs assessment, training and development design, training and development delivery method, and training and development evaluation. After the required data are collected descriptive (i.e. frequency, percentage and mean) analysis were used to analyze the data using SPSS. The results of this study revealed that each of the training and development processes of the WAAD of CBE are not conducted properly. Moreover, the overall training and development practice of the WAAD of CBE are not effective as they should be. And this is due to the gaps that are seen in each training and development process and these in return decrease the effectiveness of the training and development program of the WAAD of CBE. Furthermore, it provided practical suggestions to overcome the problems that were seen in the training and development process of the WAAD of CBE. In order to have an effective training practice the WAAD should have to conduct each and every process properly. The existence of training and development programs in place by itself doesn’t assure the effectiveness of the training and development program unless it is supported by systematic training process and with alleviating its challenges. Therefore, since each processes are interrelated they need to be conducted with due care and on- time delivery of the training and development should also be given the necessary attention to have an effective practice in place and in order for it to make impact on employee performance improvement.