Training and Development Programme for Employee Performance: A Study of Pharmaceutical Firms in FCT, Abuja, Nigeria

The success of business organisations in today’s v ery competitive environment depends significantly on the people working in that organisations. Employee training and development happen to be one of the strategies as they positively affect both employee and organisational performance. There are different methods available for employee training and development. The aim of this research work is to improve training and development Programme in Pharmaceutical firms for enhanced employee performance. The data for the research work were generated using questionnaires and oral interviews. Data gotten was presented in tabular form using simple percentages. The results show that the level of training and development in pharmaceutical firms is at a low level. The results also show that there is a positive correlation between training and development and employee performance. Using the decision matrix, having in place a training process was found to be the most appropriate option for implementation.


Introduction
The success of business organisations in today's very competitive environment will depend significantly on the people working in that organisation.Employees have been said to be the most valuable resource of any organisation, and as such, it has become imperative that organisations device strategies for efficient and effective people management achieve sustainable competitive advantage.Core to performance improvement is the presence of a well-designed training programme.Training and development have been found to positively affect both employee and organisational performance (Khan, Khan & Khan, 2011).The world being a global village underscores the importance of training and development so that companies can continue to be relevant and at least maintain their market share.Khan et al. (2011:63) stated that "now a day, training is the most significant factor in the business world because training upsurges the efficiency and effectiveness of both the employees and organisation".Aguinis and Kraiger (2009) had earlier reference a report by the American Society for Training and Development, which stated that US organisations spend more than $126 www.afropolitanjournals.com billion yearly on employee training and development.Similarly, the global market for training expenditures in 2011 was about $287 billion (Bhatia & Kaur 2014).It was further revealed that in a study carried out in the US involving 500 traded companies, 86% higher stockholder return was recorded for companies that invested the most in training when compared to those that invested the least (Bhatia & Kaur 2014).
Employee training and development have also been considered to be of great importance in countries like India and Ireland.Bhatia and Kaur (2014) also reported that in India, investments by organisations in training is on the increase, with the IT industry spending about 3% to 5% of their revenue on training, while in Ireland, training and development happened to be the country's third largest contributor to positive economic growth.In Nigeria, employee training and development is important especially for public enterprises and government agencies.However, to some organisations, training is seen as an expensive venture, and they exhibit poor attitude to training programs (Obisi, 2011).Obisi also stated that poor attitude to the training programme is also exhibited by the employees.The steady increase in the number of pharmacies in Nigeria and Abuja, in particular, has led to unprecedented increase in competition and battle for survival.Within the Federal Capital, Abuja alone, the number of registered pharmacies rose from 397 in 2013 to 428 in 2014 and 458 in 2015.The observed trend is that Nigerian pharmacists in diasporas, especially from the US and the UK, are coming down to Nigeria -Abuja and Lagos, in particular, to set up pharmacies.Coupled with this is a gradual increase in the emergence of chain pharmacies.An instance is Nigeria's leading pharmacy chain, Health Plus which started operation in 1999, after the emergence of several pharmacies.As at 2014, Health plus had 40 branches nationwide (http://www.pharmanewsonline.com/healthplus-toopen-48-branches-in-2015/-AccessedSeptember 13,2016), while some other pharmacies have not grown as projected as it is faced with the challenges of customer complaints, sales errors, inventory errors, customer churn and poor employee motivation and performance.These are linked to inadequate knowledge and skills by the employees to provide satisfactory customer service.Such underperformances are causing these lost revenues.The underperformance of employees is a function of inadequate training and development Programme which has decreased the organisation's growth rate.Specifically, the study aims to achieve the under-listed research objectives; • Ascertain the current level of training and development in pharmaceutical practices in FCT, Abuja, Nigeria  (Jagero, Komba, & Mlingi, 2012).Jagero et al. (2012) said there are important changes today in terms of the value of the worker.Along with these shifting values are the workplace trends that have a noteworthy impact on employees' knowledge and skills.Training is, therefore, necessary to enhance the skills, knowledge, and attitude of workers.Training and development is one of the cardinal functions of human resource management that helps employees to enhance their skills, knowledge and competence thereby improving their ability to perform more efficiently (Falola, Osibanjo & Ojo, 2014).Punia and Kant (2013) posited that for organisations to make the best use of their human resource, training of the employees must be provided.Jehanzeb and Bashir (2013) in their research work put forward a definition of training as "an organised method of learning and development which expand the efficiency of individual, group and the organisation, while development bothers on the accomplishments leading to gaining new abilities and skills for the personal growth of employees or future jobs.The emergence of new technologies has made certain skills and jobs redundant.As a consequence, there is an increasing stress on the need for a well skilled and highly trained workforce.Various jobs and skills that have been replaced by machines, equipment, and other technological devices are as a consequence of their unskilled nature.Thus, this emphasises the necessity for labour to attain more training and skills to be able to protect employment in the future (Vijayaratnam, Rajasekhar & Srinivasarao, 2014).Vijayaratnam, et al. (2014) said training thus could be described as a learning experience which creates a permanent change in the knowledge, skills, and attitude of individuals on a presently held job and also enables employees to acquire knowledge which they can transfer to other job areas.According to Sharif, Ashraf and Khan (2013), training and development is 'the heart of an organisation and continues to improve employee competency and organisational effectiveness.'It is evident that in a highly competitive pharmaceutical business environment that also come with professionalism, employee training and development cannot be over-emphasised.The success of any training and development programme within an organisation is a function of both the employee and the organisation.Lee and Bruvold (2003) posit that employee development is very important in developing and upholding the capabilities of both the organisation and the employee.

Benefits of Training and Development
Training and development generally afford the employees opportunity to acquire new skills, knowledge, and competencies that are needed both in their current job and beyond.
It is a motivator for the employee and a source of competitive advantage for the organisation.The importance of training and development cannot be over-emphasized.As www.afropolitanjournals.com at 1988, it was reported that American industries spend an estimated $100 billion on training (Kontoghiorghes, 2001).Jehanzeb and Bashir (2013) classified the benefits of training and development into two major benefits-to the employee and to the organisation as shown in the figure below.an organisation is that it increases the effectiveness of the organisation.This comes from the fact that learning new skills and increasing once knowledge on job deliverables as earlier mentioned will lead to improved performance and overall better work output.Sung and Choi (2014) assured that investments in training and development affect the innovative performance of the organisation through the promotion of various learning practices.Aguinis and Kraiger (2009) presented different research works from other scholars that show the positive relationship between organisation's effectiveness and profitability.3. Employee Retention-This is one of the benefits of training and development in that employees are generally happier and would remain in organisations that give them the opportunity to improve on themselves.It follows then that employees would like to remain in such organisations.However as argued by Green et al. (2002), organisations that train their employees well can experience high employee turnover rates as a result of the employees being poached by similar organisations that know their worth (Saeed & Shabir, 2013).Kum, Cowden and Karodia (2014) likewise identified some benefits of training and development to both the employee and the organisation.They stated that employee training and development leads to capital improvement as employees gain more knowledge and skills, enabling them to use the optimally newer equipment.For Asad and Mahfod (2015) the various benefits of training and development include: overcoming employee's weakness, improvement in employee's performance, consistency, employee satisfaction, increase in productivity, improved quality of products and services, reduced cost and reduction in supervision cost.Ndimande, et al. (2016) stated that training and development leads to improved performance, up to date managers' skills acquisition, reduction in managerial obsolescence, provision of solutions to organisational problems and preparation for promotional and managerial successions.However, despite these benefits, Saeed and Shabir (2013) advised that organisations should be wary of some sort of dilemmas that it could present.One of these is the possibility of labour turnover as training can improve the marketability of employees to rival organisations.

Factors Affecting Training and Development Effectiveness
There are several factors affecting the effectiveness of training and development.The effectiveness of any organisation's training and development program is affected by factors within the organisation and the employee.Ndimande et al (2016) stated that how close a factor is related to a task will determine the level of impact it will have on the program and how it will be affected.Kum, et al (2014) reported that feedback is an important factor affecting training.They further pointed out that adequate funding is another factor affecting training and development programmes.In their research work on e-learning, Lim, Lee and Nam (2007) argued that employee motivation towards learning is a very important factor affecting the effectiveness of training.The employee must be willing and enthusiastic towards being trained.Another factor is the content of the training.They concluded that task-related training contents would lead to better training outcomes as the www.afropolitanjournals.com focal point of any training is to improve task-ability through improving knowledge and skills.Lim et al. (2007) further stated that interaction between the trainer and trainee, environment of the organisation, in terms of support from supervisors, and evaluation of the training process are factors affecting training effectiveness.The attitude and qualifications of the trainer is very important.The trainer has to possess the knowledge and skills required to deliver the training.Lim, et al (2007:24) quoted Randall (1982) that the trainer as should have the ability to provide a general outline for the training, communicate effectively so to pass on the desired message, prepare in advance the training materials needed, emphasis conceptual understanding, respond to questions asked by trainees, encourage the trainees to achieve set goals and treat them well.Kontoghiorghes (2001) argued that measurement of the knowledge of the trainee before and immediately after training session, intrinsic rewards and support for the application of the new skills and knowledge acquired by supervisors, organisational environment whereby the employees are not only well involved, but also provided with the opportunity for frequent multi-skill training and retraining program are factors that contribute to effective training programmes.Ndimande, et al. (2016) outlined the adoption of a systematic approach model by organisations in order to ensure the success of training and development.The model places emphasis on the analysis of organisational training needs, designing of the training programmes, implementing of the programme and evaluation of its effectiveness.Ndimande, et al (2016) found out in their study that trainees' negative perceptions of the training programme and methods, non-familiar with the programme evaluation process and dissatisfaction with the programme, inability of the programme to increase trainees' knowledge and take on higher responsibilities upon completion of the programmes, lead to ineffective training and development programme.

Training Process
Training has to be imparted in a systematic manner in order to be effective and bring about the desired results in terms of enhancing attitude, knowledge, and skills.Hence training process is a sequence of activities arranged in order to transfer skills, attitude and knowledge required to effectively perform on a job.Such training may be impacted by properly developing an effective training process (Rishipal, 2011).The author also said training and management development activity has to be properly planned and the first priority for anyone designing training programmes is to figure out how the proposed training enhances an organisations ability to deliver quality and thereby stay in business.For every training strategy, the main focus is on people and the difference training brings in terms of more effective behaviour and performance.Lynton and Pareek (2000)

Training Needs Assessment
Training needs analysis provide answers to the questions: who should be trained?And what training should be given?It is necessary, therefore, the need for any firm to first identify the training needs of the firm.The need for training should be recognised in accordance with a well-organised procedure looking at the training needs from the firm and employee perspective (Asare-Bediako, 2002).Training Needs Assessment (TNA) ought to be one of the first steps in the training cycle.It serves as the foundation for planning and designing a capacity-building programme.It aids the organisers to identify the current training needs of the prospective members, as well as the difficulties they face and the root causes of these difficulties.It should prioritize these needs according to the degree of urgency and importance.The outcomes of the TNA can be the basis for identifying the skills and competencies required by participants to perform their jobs efficiently and effectively (UNESCO, 2004).Rishipal (2011) opined that training programmes' design is a comprehensive blue-print of step-by-by structure, to be implemented for organisation and execution of a training plan.UNESCO (2004) have it that using the results of the training needs analysis; an organisation should be able to judiciously design a training programme in with the advice of resource persons.In designing the programme, the collaboration and dialogue should result in a programme that has genuine objectives and outcomes leading to the fulfilment of the trainees' needs that were recognised.

Challenges of Training and Development
Organisations are faced with challenges implementing a successful training and development programme.One of the challenges is the adoption of a training method that both the employees and the organisation are not yet ready for as presented in the study of Nigerian organisations (Ugoji, Mordi & Ajonbadi, 2014).Abdullah (2009) identified three major challenges in his study.These challenges are a shortage of human resource development professionals or trainers, increasing demands for competent and knowledgeable employees and non-cooperating attitude of employees and managers towards the training programme.Rhodes and Beneicke (2002) noted that closer working relationship between colleagues, getting the right persons to be coaches and mentors, getting employees commitment to the training programme, use of adequate need analysis and staff time constraints are some challenges faced in coaching and mentoring training and development method.Kum et al. (2014) in their study similarly pointed out some challenges in employee training and development.These include some employers not www.afropolitanjournals.com being favourably disposed to their employee's training and development.The possible high cost involved in training and development is another factor, more so when employers are not looking at the long term benefit of it.Other factors that could pose a challenge are a lack of support from direct managers and supervisors, non-alignment of the training contents with the training needs of the employee, lack of clear cut objective of the training, and lack of evaluation and feedback in the training process.

Employee Performance
Employee's performance means how well workers perform on the job and tasks assigned them compared against the generally accepted measure of performance standards set by their establishments.This means there are general anticipations expected of employees with respect to their performance in each company.Workers can be said to have accomplished when they have met the expectations and performed up to standard (Cole, 2002).Employee performance can also be described as the functioning and presentation of workers.This means, how workers are able to effectively administer their task and tasks and also how they present their assignment to reveal the quality and good service desired by their establishments.Elger (2016) stated that to perform means taking series of complex actions that integrate skills and knowledge to produce valued result.The author further stated that developing performance is a journey, while the level of performance deals with the location on the journey.The level of performance is dependent on factors like the levels of skills and knowledge, context, the level of identity, personal and fixed factors.The author further proposed that performer's mind-set, immersion in an enriching environment and engagement in reflective practice are needed for effective performance improvements.Performance is an important subject of which there is no consensus on a universally accepted definition of it (Mensah, 2015).Ahmad, Farrukh, and Nazir (2015) defined employee performance as activities and tasks performed by an employee efficiently and effectively.They opined that employee performance helps in the improvement of the efficiency and productivity of the organisation's processes.Anitha (2014), states that employee performance is outcomes achieved and accomplishments at work.The researcher posited that training and development is one of the key determinants of employee engagement, which on its own a great determinant of employee performance.Training and development as stated help employees to boost their confidence in the area of training, thereby motivating them to be more engaged in their job.Though achieved from bottom line employees, employee performance starts from top line management.Ahmad et al. (2015) stated that factors like training and capacity building programmes, monetary and non-monetary benefits, organisational support for career development, supervisory support affect employee performance.The quality of goods and services a company produces and the level of its customer interactions and feedback is an indicator of employee performance (Kumar & Pansari, 2015).

Factors Affecting Employee Performance/Productivity
According to Anderson (2003), the following are the factors affecting employee performance to increase productivity: Experience: Hiring employees who do not have the proper background for the job is one of the things that start a performance downward spiral (Anderson, 2003).Company training should be used to enhance the employee's background.If an employee has undergone extensive training but is still experiencing performance issues, then the problem could be that the worker does not possess the necessary experience to do the job.

Work-home balance:
As much as an employer may not want to be affected by the personal life of his employees, personal problems can sometimes affect employee performance.Managers need to be sensitive to employees' personal problems and be prepared to discuss the issues with employees when necessary.If an employee requires time off to deal with a personal problem, then granting that time off will help to show all employees that the company values them.Manager interaction: If an employee does not get feedback from his/her manager, then he/she has no idea how to rate his/her performance.Managers should be trained to give positive and negative employee feedback.In negative situations, the manager should work with the employee to create a programme that will help address the performance shortcomings.It is easier for employees to improve their performance when they know what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong.Setting goals: To help employees improve their performance, employers need to set goals that employees are required to achieve.Performing to the minimum standards means the employee is doing his job, and that can help an operative understand what is expected of him at a minimum.It would also be helpful to create incentives that will give employees motivation to go beyond the set goals.Employees referred as the rare, non-imitable and valued resource of the firm and the success or failure of any trade mainly relies on its worker's performance.Thus, organisations understanding the fact are willing to finance training programs for the development of their workers.Effective training is well-thought-out to be a key factor for enhanced performance; as it can augment the level of employee and organisation competency.It backings to fill the gap between what performance if necessary and what performance is happening that is a gap between desired performance and real employee performance (Elnaga & Imran, 2013).

Theoretical Framework
This study is founded on human capital theory offered by Schultz in 1961 and developed by Becker in 1994.Consistent with the theory, Human capital theory recommends that education or training raises the output of workers by imparting valuable knowledge and skills, hence raising workers' future pay by increasing their lifetime earnings (Becker, 1994).The human capital model proposes that an establishment or individual's decision to invest in training is built upon an examination of the net current value of the costs and benefits of www.afropolitanjournals.com such a venture.Organisations and individuals are expected to invest in training during an early period and receive returns to the investment in successive periods.In the proponent's view, human capital is akin to "physical means of production," for example, factories and machines: one can finance in human capital (through education, training, medical treatment) and one's yields depend comparatively on the rate of return on the human resources one owns.

Methodology Study Design
In this research work, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were the research instruments used to generate data.This is a mixed method as the use of questionnaires was quantitative in nature providing a link between empirical observation and mathematical expression while the interview was qualitative.

Population of Study
In carrying out this research work, the targeted population for the questionnaire comprised of selected employees in FCT based Pharmacies.This includes twelve (12) pharmacists and forty-four (44) customer care representatives.The researcher also enlisted the two management staff of the company, the general manager and the accountant for the semistructured interview in the study.Source: Field Survey, 2016

Sampling and Sampling Technique
The sampling technique used for these employees was a census study as the population size is rather small.However, fifty-five (55) out of the fifty-six (56) employees took part in the study.One employee, a customer care representative, who was on leave, was not included in the study.As stated earlier, the two management staff in the organisation were also involved, but for the qualitative aspect of the research.Source: Field Survey, 2016

Data Administration and Collection
The data for this research work were gotten from the questionnaires and semi-structured oral interviews.The respondents to the questionnaire were the 55 employees who were available during the period the research were carried out.The questionnaires were sent to each branch by a non-staff of the company, for them to respond to.The burden of responding was not more than 15 minutes.The completed questionnaires were all returned and analysed.The oral interviews were conducted in the offices of the accountant and general manager at different days.Each of the interviews took upwards of forty-five minutes largely due to disruptions.

Data Analysis
The data obtained from the questionnaire were analysed using simple statistical tools.For each questionnaire item, the frequency of occurrence was gotten and percentages calculated.Simple charts were used to present the data results.However, the data obtained from questionnaire items 17 and 18 were obtained in prose but were analysed quantitatively.The data obtained from the semi-structured oral interviews were analysed qualitatively.

Result and Discussion
Section A -Analysis of Data from Questionnaires-Quantitative Research Question 1: What is the current level of training and development in pharmaceutical practice?
In providing answers to research question 1, questionnaire items 1-5 were used.
Questionnaire item 1: Many pharmacies organise induction training for new employees.Source: Field Survey, 2016 Table 11 show that 49.1% of the employees assessed the training programs they have attended to be of good quality, while 18.2% of them assessed the quality of the programs to be very good.However, about 11% of the employees rated them to be of poor quality.Another 21.8% responded that they are of average quality.
Research Question 3: How do training and development affect employee performance?
In providing answers to research question 3, questionnaire items 10 -13 were used.Questionnaire item 10: Training will provide you the opportunity to gain more knowledge of your work.

Source: Field Survey, 2016
Almost all the employees (96.4%) agreed that training will provide them the opportunity of gaining more knowledge of their job.It is only an employee that did not agree with this, while another employee responded not to be too sure about it.Questionnaire item 11: Training and development will motivate you at work Source: Field Survey, 2016 As shown in table 14, 67.3% of the staff agreed strongly that training will increase their confidence in performing duties.27.3% of the staff also agreed to this, while 2 staff disagreed and one not sure.Questionnaire item 13: Training will improve your productivity

Source: Field Survey, 2016
As shown in table 17, only about 16% of the staff agreed to the fact that their firm asks for feedback after a training programme while about 56% of the respondents disagreed with this.However, about 27% of the staff was undecided.Questionnaire item 16: My firm creates career development opportunities for employees.The raw data which were collected in prose is presented in appendix 3. Themes were developed for the data and analysed quantitatively.Each theme was assigned a code and the number of times it was reported was taken as the frequency.This gave rise to the total frequency of 64 as different staff would have reported same particular problem.The two respondents said their firm conducts induction training for new employees in form of orientation course.The reason for this they said is to formally welcome the staff to the organisation, educate him on the company's vision, mission and goals.During this training, the new employee is also informed of the rules and regulations of the company, culture and how the company operates.This exercise they said takes place usually on the first day the employee resumes.

Does your firm have a manual or a workbook for employee training and development? Give reasons.
The two respondents said their firm do not have any manual or workbook for employee training and development.While the general manager said that such is yet to be developed, the accountant said that it was an oversight.

How regular do you organise trainings for your staff?
The two respondents said that they do not organise regular trainings for staff.The general manager further said that trainings are organised once a year for all the staff.This training he said takes place during the company's annual get-together as one of the activities for the programme.Usually, resource personnel is invited to give a short training to all staff, mostly on customer service.

Do you consider training and development as part of organisational strategy? Give reasons
The respondents said that they consider training and development as part of organisational strategy.The general manager said that the reason is that it helps impact knowledge on www.afropolitanjournals.com employees, and also a tool for delivering goals and objectives of the company effectively.
The accountant stated that training and development as part of organisational strategy will enable workers understand how the company operates and be abreast with current and latest development within the industry.

Would you think that a well-articulated training and development program could reduce employee turnover? Give reasons
The two respondents said that employee turnover can be reduced by a well-articulated training and development programme.The general manager opined that such will motivate employees and give them a sense of commitment to the organisation.The accountant in addition said that a well-trained worker with good career development prospects feels that he has a future with the company and that will make him stay as job security is guaranteed.

How do you motivate your employees and get them to improve their performance?
The respondents said that currently motivation of employees is by way of incentives payout when targets are met and commendation.Also, bonuses are given at the end of the year.Once in year, appraisal is carried out and rewards given sometime in form of pay rise.

Are there training and development programs in place that motivates employees and enhances their performance? Give reasons
The respondents said that at present, there are no such programs though it is important to have such.However, the general manager said that such will be articulated in the coming year.

Does your organisation provide the enabling environment for career progression? Give reasons
The general manager said yes that the organisation does as staffs are being encouraged to further their education.Apart from encouragement, the work schedule for employees schooling is made in such a way that will accommodate their studies.However, the accountant said that aside from the pharmacists within the organisation, the company does not provide enabling environment for career progression.The reason he said was that it is an oversight as other staff in the company need such as it will enhance their performance on-the-job.

What would you recommend to the management FCT based pharmaceutical firms?
The respondents gave the following recommendations • Setting up of a standard system for training and career progression • Organising periodic in-house training for all staff • Sponsoring staffs to external workshops and seminars that are relevant to their professions as it will enhance their performance and make them have a sense of belonging • Appreciating and commending staff through various ways that may not be monetary like sponsorship to trainings • Having a more detailed induction/orientation programme for new employees

Interpretation of Research Results
The following presents the interpretation of the result obtained from survey.Research question 2; the survey shows that different training methods/techniques can be found applicable in the studied firms.On-the-job training method appears to be the preferred training method though a mixed method can be employed in which case both onthe-job and off-the-job can be utilized.For the on-the job training method, the survey further shows that coaching and mentoring technique is the preferred technique but job rotation and transfers could as well be used.For the off-the -job method, seminar technique appears to be had been the one preferred most by the employees.
Research question 3; findings from the survey showed a positive correlation between training and development, and employee performance.Training and development as seen in the survey is a source of employee motivation.The survey also showed that employee's productivity, confidence in carrying out duties can be increased through training and development.In the like manner, the survey showed that training provides employees the opportunity to acquire more knowledge and increase their competencies at work.Research question 4; findings from survey show that pharmaceutical firms ought to make employee training and development a matter of priority and a clear cut strategy for it put in place.Most of the employees preferred that, trainings be organised either quarterly or twice a year.However, T&D should be tailored towards the needs of the employees.It could also be seen from the survey that the management team of these firms are uninterested in training session feedback.The employees are of the opinion that they will be empowered through training and development.Career development opportunities which are not in place should be institutionalized. www.afropolitanjournals.com

Discussion of Findings
Training and development has a direct impact on employee performance as seen from the survey.Participating employees reported that their performance in terms of productivity, confidence in performing duties, service delivery, will all increase if they are adequately and regularly trained.This is in line with what has earlier been reported in literature (Ameeq-ul-Ameeq & Hanif, 2013:78;Kum, Cowden & Karodia, 2014: 72;Falola, Osibanjo & Ojo, 2014:161).It follows that when employees are not well trained, the reverse will be the case and this will ultimately affect the company's bottom negatively.Training and development is also a source of employee motivation as seen in the survey and also in literature (Lee & Bruvold, 2003:983).It means that in absence of a clear training and development programme, employees may be de-motivated and this could lead to high labour turnover.This may be the reason why 43.6% of the respondents are less than one year in their firm.

Conclusion and Recommendations
The findings of this research work which was aimed at improving the training and development programme in pharmaceutical firms to enhance employee performance, have been presented above.It is evident from the findings that many of these firms have no clear training and development programme in place.This is worrisome as training and development have been said to be a very important process helping to improve workers' performance in an organisation (Kum, et al.2014).A proper induction programme should have a guide, and be a well-planned programme so to get the best out of the new employee.This is deficient in many pharmacies.Aside from the induction programme, the company organises a training session during the annual get-together.This will not be very effective as many respondents reported.The challenge with this is that there may not be enough time for the training process due to other activities.More so, such trainings are generic in nature.The trainee may find it difficult to carry both a customer care representative and a pharmacist along on the same training topic.Development programs, that may be tied to career progression is also not in place.As earlier reported, there was a preference for onthe-job training method by the respondents.This training method which is training while the job is going on may have been preferred as it is a hands-on training.However, for this to be effective, the training needs of each employee must have been identified.The beauty of this is that the employee has a coach or a mentor who is teaching and guiding him on the different job processes.This technique as evident in the survey can be combined with job

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Benefits of training and development programmes.Source:Jehanzeb and Bashir (2013) in their training model for development have discussed training process.According to them, the training process is divided into three phases: pre-training, training and post training.The pre-training analyses the need for training and accordingly designs and develops a training programme.The training phase consists of conducting the training programme or bringing the designed and developed training programme into practice.Finally, the post-training phase starts when the training phase concludes.It deals with the transfer of training to the job.
One important function of Human Resource Management to the effective use of human resources is centre on training and development.Virtually everyone now recognises the importance of training on the success and growth of organisations.Employees are however a very crucial and expensive resource to every organisation

Table 1 :
Population Distribution

Table 2 :
Sample Size Distribution

Table 3 :
Employees responses to questionnaire item 1

Table 4 :
Respondents responses to questionnaire item 2 Source: Field Survey, 2016As shown in table 4, 81.8% of the respondents agree to the fact that they have had some form of training since joining their organisation.16.4% disagrees with this while 1.8% are undecided.Questionnaire item 3: At what interval do employees undergo training?

Table 5 :
Employees responses to questionnaire item 3

Table 6 :
Employees responses to questionnaire item 4

Table 7 :
Participants responses to questionnaire item

Table 8 :
Employees responses on training methodsAs shown in table 8, 71% of the employees responded that their firms use on-the-job training method, while 7% responded that the organisation uses off-the-job and another 22% said the company employs both methods.Questionnaire item 7: Which of the following on the job training would you prefer? www.afropolitanjournals.com

Table 9 :
Staff responses to questionnaire item 7Table9shows that 38% of the staff preferred job rotation and transfer, and another 38% equally preferred both job rotation and transfer, and coaching and mentoring.However, 17% preferred job rotation and transfer only, while 7% preferred other on-the-job training methods.Questionnaire item 8: Which of the following off-the-job training would you prefer?

Table 10 :
Staff responses to questionnaire item 8

Table 11 :
Employees responses to questionnaire item 9 Vol. 14, No. 2 2024 African Journal of Management and Business Research www.afropolitanjournals.com

Table 12 :
Employee responses to questionnaire item 10

Table 13 :
Employee responses to questionnaire item 11As shown in table 13, all the respondents with the exception of an employee agreed that training and development will motivate them to perform better at work.Questionnaire item 12: Training will increase your confidence in performing your duties www.afropolitanjournals.com

Table 14 :
Staff responses to questionnaire item 12

Table 15 :
Employees responses to questionnaire item 13 64% of the staff as presented in table 15 strongly agreed that training will improve their productivity.34.55% also agreed, while 1.81% of the respondent strongly disagreed.

Table 16 :
Employee responses to questionnaire item 14 Table16presented that 29.1% of the employees strongly agreed that they would want training and development tailored to their needs.56.4% of the employees also agreed, while 5% disagreed.9.1% were undecided.Questionnaire item 15: Pharmaceutical firms ask for employee feedback after a training programme.

Table 17 :
Employee responses to questionnaire item 15

Table 18 :
Employees responses to questionnaire item 16 www.afropolitanjournals.com Table18show that 47.3% of the employees disagreed that their firm creates career development opportunities for them, while 16.4% strongly disagreed.However, 10.9% of the employees agreed with this and another 5.4% strongly agreed.It could also be seen that 20% of the respondents were undecided.Questionnaire item 17: Generally, what are the problems you face in your firm with regards to training and development?

Table 19 :
Employees responses to questionnaire item 17

Table 20 :
Employee responses on if they will feel empowered through training

Table 21 :
Employees responses on number of trainings they wish to undergo every yearThe majority of employees would like to participate in training sessions every quarterly.Another set (16) preferred every six months, while others preferred monthly, every four months and once a year, as shown in table 24 above and figure 27 below.

from Semi-Structured Oral Interview-Qualitative 1. Do you carry out induction training for every new employee in your organisation? Give reasons.
the survey results show that the level of training and development programme at the moment in FCT based pharmaceutical firms is rather at a low level.It does appear as if training and development is at present not a priority in these firms as there in no clear training and development strategy in place.The company does not have any formal or a standardized training and development programme in place.At best, what the company has in place is an induction/orientation training given to new employees on resumption.Many pharmaceutical firms have little or no development programme in place for the employees.
It is imperative that pharmaceutical firms improve on training and development programme.These firms need to set out a blue print for training and development, encompassing the entire employee.Improving on the pit falls earlier pointed out like ensuring that need analysis is done (Asare-Bediako, 2002), constant feedback on the training programme and having a training schedule will help improve training and development programme.It is important that management get the employees to buy into any training and development programme set out.This is to ensure employees commitment.