Case Study: Training Milieu

Veriphone India in Bangalore is a software development company and it has a turnover of ` 200 crores. It employs 400 persons.

The company is professionally managed. The management team is headed by a young dynamic Managing Director. He expects high performance at every level and more so at the supervisory and managerial levels. However, the junior level vacancies are filled up by different types of trainees who undergo training in the company.

The company offers a one-year training scheme for fresh computer engineers. During the first six months of the training, the trainees are exposed to different functional areas. This is considered to be the core training for this category of trainees. By the end of the training, the trainees are identified for placement against the available or projected vacancies. Then, further training in the next quarter is planned according to individual placement requirements. During the last quarter the training will be on-the-job. The trainee is required to perform the jobs expected of him after he is placed there.

The training scheme is broadly structured keeping in mind the training requirements of computer engineering graduates. The company has a reasonably good system of manpower planning. The intake of trainees is generally planned on the basis of project requirements.

Mr Anuvab Rao joined the company in 1999 after his B. Tech. degree from a reputed Institute. He was taken as a trainee against a projected vacancy in the CAD/CAM Division.

In Verphone, the areas of interest for a trainee in CAD/CAM are few. Moreover, since Mr. Anuvab Rao specialized in CAD/CAM in his B. Tech., Mr Rao's training was planned for the first 3 months only. Thereafter, he was put for on-the-job training in the CAD/CAM Department. He took interest and showed enthusiasm in his work there. The report from his Divisional Head was quite satisfactory.

The performance of trainees is normally reviewed once at the end of every quarter. During this review, the Training Manager personally talks to the trainees about their progress, strengths and shortcomings.

At the end of the second quarter, the Training Manager called Mr Rao for his performance review. He appreciated his good performance and told him to keep it up. A month later Mr Rao met the Training Manager. He requested that his training period be curtailed to 7 months and he be absorbed as a regular Computer Engineer. He argued that he had been performing like a regular employee in the department for the last one quarter. As such, there was no justification for him to be put on the training any more. Further, he indicated that by doing so, he could be more effective in the department as a regular engineer. He would also gain seniority as well as some monetary benefits as the regular employees were eligible for many allowances, like conveyance, dearness, house rent, education, etc. which was a substantial amount compared to the stipend paid to him as a trainee.

He would be tried in some other department where he could have another lease for developing better rapport. But unfortunately, in the case of Mr. Rao, there was no other department to which he could be transferred, since that was the only department where his specialisation could have been put to proper use. By the time he completed his training he turned out to be one who was not at all acceptable in the department for placement due to his behaviour. In view of this, the Divisional Head recommended that he be taken out of that department. When Mr. Rao got information about it, he was thoroughly depressed.

One of the primary objectives of the training department is to recruit graduates who had good potential and train them to be 'effective' in different departments. They are taken after a rigorous selection process which includes a written test, a preliminary and a final interview. During the training period their aptitudes, strengths and weaknesses are identified.

Their placement in departments is decided primarily on the basis of their overall effectiveness. Here is a case where the person happened to be hard working in the beginning but turned out to be a failure in the end. The Training Manager was conscious of this serious lapse and was not inclined to recommend his termination. But at the same time it was difficult to retain a person whose track record was not satisfactory. He still felt that a fresh look be given to this case but was unable to find a way out. He was faced with a dilemma - whether to terminate or retain Mr. Rao.