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Aetna Life and Casualty Health Plan’s Education and Training Department (ETD) embarked on a large-scale program to redesign its role and function so that is would be more responsive to changes in the company’s strategy. The redesigned department emphasized the idea that ETD staff should comprise multiskilled educators (as opposed to trainers) and be assigned to a specific business group. The design, which senior management approved, also included the following ideas and practices:
1. A 360-degree-feedback review process
2. An internal network of coaches
3. A resource-allocation team
4. A commitment to the ongoing development of staff members
5. Project managers with increased responsibility and customer exposure
The new design has been successful. Among other there has been more dispersed leadership among the training staff, an increase in productivity and quality within ETD, an increase in information sharing and employee development opportunities, and the development of partnerships with other support staff departments such as human resources and customer administration. This change was accomplished at minimum cost and without a major disruption in ETD services. The effectiveness of the new design was noted outside of Aetna for its redesign effort.
Summary
This chapter traced several historical events that contributed to the establishment of human resource development. Many of the earlier training programs (such as apprenticeship) focused on skilled training. At the turn of the century , more emphasis was placed on training semiskilled workers in response to the Industrial Revolution. It was during World War II that training department as we know them today were introduced in many large companies. The establishment of the professional trainer led
SOURCE : L. Overmeyer –Day and G.Benson (1996). Training success stories.