Q. Where can I find information about how companies train employees and the most effective training programs?

Try These Steps

1. Books24x7. Excellent collection of online books including many titles on training and development, needs assessment. designing training programs, evaluating training programs, Web-based training and many more training topics.

2. Business Article Databases. Search the business article databases such as Business Source Premier (BSP). BSP contains both trade and professsional journals such as Chief Learning Officer, Training, Training and Development as well as academic research journals such as Academy of Management Learning & Education, Business Horizons, the Journal of Applied Psychology and many more.

Example: Search "Training Employees".

"Creating Disciples: The Transformation of Employees as Trainers."
By Harry J. Martin and Mary W. Rivnak. Business Horizons Nov2009, Vol. 52 Issue 6, p605-616, 12p

Abstract: Business realities demand that organizations place a strategic emphasis on developing knowledge workers and becoming a learning organization. Numerous programs of organizational change and renewal must also be undertaken to keep firms competitive. This requires ongoing training for all employees to succeed in today''s global marketplace. While external consultants and professional staff are often called upon to provide this training, many organizations are turning to their own employees as an effective, lower cost alternative. There are several benefits to using this strategy, but significant support must be provided to realize these benefits. Herein, we describe a systematic process to turn novice employee trainers into a powerful force for organizational change. By transforming employees into disciples, organizations can give training the impact it needs.

3. Google Scholar - cross-disciplinary search engine for academic research

Example: Search "Best Employee Training Programs" between 2008-2010

"Benefits of Training and Development for Individuals and Teams, Organizations, and Society."
By Herman Aguinis and Kurt Kraiger. Annual Review of Psychology, vol. 60: 451-474, January 2009.

This article provides a review of the training and development literature since the year 2000. We review the literature focusing on the benefits of training and development for individuals and teams, organizations, and society. We adopt a multidisciplinary, multilevel, and global perspective to demonstrate that training and development activities in work organizations can produce important benefits for each of these stakeholders. We also review the literature on needs assessment and pretraining states, training design and delivery, training evaluation, and transfer of training to identify the conditions under which the benefits of training and development are maximized. Finally, we identify research gaps and offer directions for future research.

4. Search the UF Catalog

5. Training & Development Books: A Core Collection