Employee Training and Development at Abbott Case Study

Employee Training and Development at Abbott - Case Study Example Abbott has received numerous local, national and international distinctions for its commitment to workplace excellence. Abbott has been named one of the best places to work in the world. It has received many awards for its unique performance and its concern and care for its workforce safety, growth and development and success and excellence. The present study covers some of the important areas in employee training and development that have made it a distinct company. Strategic training is directly linked with the business strategy of a company. It begins with identifying the business strategy. Then strategic training and development initiatives that support the strategy are selected and these are translated into concrete training and development activities. The final step involves identifying measures or metrics. These metrics are used to determine if training helped contribute to goals related to business strategy. (Noe. 2008) As Raymond Noe rightly points out, the company's mission, vision, values and goals help to determine the strategy. The mission is the company's reason for existing. The vision is the picture of what company does in the future and what it wants to achieve. Values are what the company stands for. SWOT analysis really helps a company to identify its strengths and weakness and an analysis of its operating environment to identify opportunities and threats. It studies closely the internal and external factors that affect its performance. This analysis goes a long way in formulating the business strategy. The company has to consider its competition. It will decide how the company will compete with others in the market. There are three main points to consider when planning the strategy for competing. They are: 1) where to compete 2) How to compete 3) With what will it compete Abbott has a clear business strategy with its clear mission and vision statements and thorough SWOT analysis.- Once the business strategy is clear then strategic training and development initiatives that support the Strategy are identified. Strategic training and development initiatives are learning-related actions that a company should take to help it achieve its business strategy. (Noe, 2008) These initiatives are based on the business environment, an understanding of the company's goals and resources and insight regarding potential training and development options. These provide the company a road map to guide specific training and development activities. One of the initiatives in strategic training is to diversifying the learning portfolio by using new technology, facilitating informal learning, and providing more personalized learning opportunities. Expanding who are trained is another major initiative in strategic training. It includes customers, suppliers and employees. It also aims at providing training for non-managerial employees. Accelerating the Pace of Employee learning is another major strategic training initiative. It helps in quickly identifying needs and providing a high-quality learning solution, reducing the time to develop training programs and