An Assessment of the Effects of Training and Development on Employees’ Performance in Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, (2015-2019)

Systematic and timely training and development of employees is crucial to attaining optimal performance in both the private and public sectors. This study examines the extent to which employees' training and development enhance employees' performance in the Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development. The study adopted a survey design with a questionnaire and unstructured interview as the instrument of data collection. The study has a population of 271, out of which 155 was sampled through stratified and random sampling techniques. Data were presented using tables and simple percentages, while chi-square was used to test the research hypothesis. The study found no significant difference among the staff in the perception that training and development does not support employees' performance in the Ministry as training and development programmes are not being organised for staff. The study also established that the Ministry's leadership had not shown a good appreciation of the critical role of regular training of staff in enhancing employees' performance. The study recommends, among others, a change in the disposition of the leadership of the Ministry and the Office of the Head of Service to the training of staff through the development of mechanisms for establishing employees' skills deficiency; and requesting the Government to make a budgetary line for staff training in the State’s yearly budgets.


Introduction
Organisations are established to pursue the realisation of predetermined goals and objectives. In the pursuit of their dreams, organisations attract both human and material resources, which are subsequently deployed in the organisation's services. Human resources are particularly of inestimable value to organisations. Oshionebo underscores this point in his argument that: "The human resource is the most valuable asset of any organisation. It not only helps the organisation to activate all other resources which are otherwise dormant and inactive but also, in the process, ensure that the organisation synergises and consistently delivers value to its stakeholders, including shareholders, customers, employees, the public etc. (Oshionebo, 2007;p.131). The indispensability of the human resource in the functioning of an organisation rests in the assumption that such employees would always possess relevant skills and mastery of job roles in an organisation both before their employment and afterwards. Training, defined as any learning activity directed towards acquiring specific knowledge and skills for an occupation or task (Salah, 2016, p.37), thus, represents an effective tool that ensures that employees' skill remains relevant to optimal job performance.
Employees' performance on the other hand refers to the actual output of the employee in the discharge of his/her job. It is concerned about whether or not an employee is able to accomplish assigned task. Cooke (2000) sees performance as the achievement of specific task which is measured against predetermined standards of accuracy, completeness, speed and cost. Scholars are unanimous about the fact that continuous training of employees is one of the potent strategies for attaining optimal employees' performance. This study, therefore, examines the effect of training and development on employee's performance in the Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs. The Ministry is essentially a social service delivery one and thus has the mandate to provide many social services to the society, particularly to the less privileged persons, vulnerable group and women empowerment, specifically women political participation.
of Women Affairs and Social Development, Gombe. Training and development refer to the processes of acquiring new knowledge and skills for carrying out responsibilities (Iyayi, 2007, p.164). Barzagar & Shahroz (2011) opines that the most crucial impact of training and development on employees and organisation performance is to improve the quality and quantity of organisation output, increase the organisation's profitability, safeguard the organisation stability, minimising the risk, decrease the organisation's cost and expenses, improving the management of the organisation and establishing the organisation as national and international entities.
The preceding shows tremendous advantages derived from training and development both for the employees and the organisation where regular training and development programmes are undertaking. It also presupposes that organisations that do not provide regular training and development programmes may record poor job performance. Several studies have been carried out on the effect of training and development on employees' performance. Such studies include Kum et al (2014), Salah (2016), Fejoh & Faniran (2016, and Pradhan & Jena (2017) among others. In spite of the existence of several studies on this topic, none was conducted in Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development. Furthermore, it has been observed that employees' performance in the Nigerian Public Sector is not optimal. The Gombe State Public Sector appears to be recording an insufficient level of performance in recent times. The indices of poor employees' performance are readily visible in the State's low level of social and economic activities. The Ministry's inability to adequately cater to the welfare of women and children and create social engagements opportunities for a multitude of the citizenry are clear manifestations of the inadequacies. This study, therefore, seeks the answer to the questions: to what extent do staff differ in the perception that training and development does not enhance employees' performance in Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social development?

Objective of the Study
The study's main objective is to analyse the extent to which staff differ in the perception that training and development does not enhance employees' performance in the Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.

Hypothesis of the Study
The study is guided by the hypothesis that: Ho: There is no significant difference in the staff's opinion that training and development does not enhance employees' performance in the Ministry of Women Affairs and social development.

Methodology
This study adopts a descriptive survey approach in obtaining its data at the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development. The population is all the staff of the Ministry, and the staff strength was 271, comprising of both senior and junior staff. The study combined both stratified and random sampling and sampled 155 respondents. The study relied on primarily sourced data through the instrument of a questionnaire. Descriptive statistical tools were used in the presentation of data while chi-square was employed in the test of the research hypotheses.
6. Conceptual Clarification 6.1 Training and Development Training and development remains one of the well-researched subject matter in the sub-filed of human resources management. However, this paper would review a few of such existing perspectives in a bid to clarify the meaning of the subject matter. Ujo (2008) notes that training can be seen from both narrow and broad perspectives. In a narrow sense, training is concerned with teaching specific and immediately usable skills. In broad terms, training provides general information used to develop knowledge for future long-term application. According to Stone (1982), training is any organizationally planned effort to change the behaviour or attitudes of employees so that they can perform to acceptable standards on the job. Carrel and Kuzmits (1982) share this thought when they argue that "training is the systematic process by which employees learn skills, information, or attitudes to further organisational and personal goals".
On the other hand, development refers to a process of acquiring managerial and technical skills on the job by a manager. Such managerial skills are in areas of decision making, coordinating, leading, planning etc. Iyayi (2007;p. 163) opines that development in this context is broader and more embracing as an activity than training. The point here is that although the two terms more often are used together, they do not mean precisely the same thing. One significant distinction between the two terms concerns the categories or status of employees involved. "Whereas training has historically been used to designate the acquisition of technically oriented skills by nonmanagement personnel, development is typically associated with the methods and activities meant to enhance skills of managers or future managers. (Iyayi, 2007;p.165).
Scholars are, however, in consensus that a common objective to both training and development is the desire to improve the skills, competence, and performance of the employees. Perhaps, this is the rationale for the usual discussion of training and development in unison. Effective training and development is crucial to organisational attainment. The primary objective of training and development is to promote human learning, which results in a relatively permanent behaviour change. Training is to equip the employees with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to enable them to contribute to higher productivity, fewer mistakes, and greater job satisfaction.
Since training is seen as the most prevalent means for enhancing the individual's productivity and communicating organisational goals to employees, it must be systematic, well planned, and effective (Salah, 2016, p.40). For a training programme to be effective, the organisation must first determine the employees' training needs. A training need refers to an identifiable shortfall in employees' performance or potential performance that can be remedied by training (Maidoki, 2008, p.95). Thus, before embarking on training activity, an organisation must first spot the employee's need for a training programme. The spotting of a training need can be achieved only through a prearranged scheme designed to reveal employees' job deficiency. Maidoki's position also implies that it is not all employees' inadequacies can be remedied with training. Quite many employees' inadequacies require other measures such as improved pay, simplifying work procedure, and the introduction of new technologies.
Training and development programmes also come in different methods and forms. Maidoki (2008) listed Onthe-job, Vestibule, Apprenticeship, Role-playing, In-basket, Case study, Supervisory and Technical (operative) training as types of exercise. Kum et al. (2014) identified on-the-job method and off-the-job methods as the types of training. Training and development can be delivered with either or a combination of any or all of these methods.

Employees' Performance
The subject of performance is at the forefront of all organisations activities. The attainment of predetermined goals and objectives will be in jeopardy without efforts geared towards them by creating a conducive atmosphere and providing appropriate working tools. Performance, therefore, can be seen as the effort of an individual or organisation in the discharge of assigned job schedules. Oyadiran (2008, p. 19) opine that performance refers to how well a worker, manufacturer, or organisation is doing in relation to intended purposes, objectives, and intended accomplishments. Salah (2016, p.44) contends that the term performance is a broader-based concept that includes effectiveness, efficiency, economy, quality, consistency behaviour, and normative measures.
Similarly, Pradhan & Jena (2017, p.2) defines employee performance as signifying an individual's work achievement after exerting required effort on the job, which is associated with getting a meaningful work, engaged profile, and compassionate colleagues/employers around. They argue that performance is a multi-component concept involving performance, i.e. behavioural engagement and expected outcome. The behaviour denotes the action people exhibit to accomplish a work, whereas the outcome aspect states the consequence of an individual's job behaviour (Campbell, 1990). Performance in task performance comprises explicit job behaviours, including fundamental job responsibilities assigned as part of the job description. "Task performance requires more cognitive ability and is primarily facilitated through task knowledge (requisite technical knowledge or principles to ensure job performance and to have an ability to handle multiple), task skill (application of technical expertise to accomplish a task without much supervision), and task habits (an innate ability to respond to assigned jobs that either facilitate or impede the performance (Conway, 1999). Anderson (2003) identify factors affecting employee performance as: (i) Hiring employees who do not have the proper background for the job. (ii) Personal problems of the employee can affect their performance. (iii) Lack of feedback from a manager regarding an employees' performance. (iv) Employers need to set goals that employees are required to achieve. Another crucial issue to any serious discussion on employee performance is the issue of how best employees performance can be measured. Performance measurement has been defined as the process of quantifying the efficiency and effectiveness of action. Neely et al. (1995, p.80) refer to effectiveness as the extent to which customer requirements are met and efficiency as a measure of how economically the firm's resources are utilised when providing a given level of customer satisfaction. Siljanen (2010, p.9) views performance measurement as a strategic tool and a process that consists of determining critical success factors, selecting strategy and vision originated measures and targets, implementing these measures, and updating them regularly.
In their contribution, Balaboniene and Vecerskiene (2015, p.314) observe that the measurement of organisations' performance in the public sector is quite a problematic and very relevant issue. Contrary to the norm in profit-making organisations, the objective of public sector organisations is to provide accessible and qualitative services to satisfy general needs and use the available resources effectively and efficiently. Gebczynska and Brajer-Marczak (2020) see performance as results, and results may be evaluated in terms of products, outcomes, impacts, effectiveness, and efficiency. "The aforementioned criteria can be assumed as the dimension of performance measurement with regard to the operation of public administration bodies "(Gebczynska and Brajer-Marczak, 2020; P.4).
The Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social development clearly falls within the categorisation of the public administration bodies where performance cannot be measured with how much profit has been attained Journal of Resources Development and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2422-8397 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.77, 2021 or how much losses were recorded within a given time frame. Nevertheless, employees' performance, and indeed organisational performance, are critical to the continued existence of such organisations and must therefore be carried out based on certain established principles.

Effects of Training and Development on Employees' Performance
Training and development of employees have a tremendous effect on employees' performance. Carrel and Kuznits (1982) identify the objectives of training and development as: (i) To improve performance and achieve effectiveness. Training is usually designed for employees whose performance is unsatisfactory. Training rectifies employees' deficiency in knowledge and skills, thereby enhancing their performance. (ii) To update employees' skills and avoid managerial obsolescence. Organisations try to keep abreast with technology changes for effectiveness, enhanced productivity, quality of products, and avoidance of obsolescence in methods and process. (iii) To promote job competency. New and newly promoted employees in most cases lack the skills, knowledge and the right attitude to perform their jobs. The selection process is not so perfect to accurately determine employees' success or failure on the job. Training helps to bridge the gap between the expected and actual performance. (iv) To solve problems. Training and development are essential for solving organisational issues, scarcity of resources like finance, quality of personnel and equipment, the prevalence of industrial disputes, hostile inter-personal relationship, poor work ethics etc. (v) To prepare for promotion. Training and development provides the device for assisting and encouraging employees to actualise their career dream by acquiring skills and knowledge to perform at higher levels. Therefore, training and development ease the problem of the competence required upon transiting from a lower to a higher level upon promotion. (vi) To orient new employees. During their first new days on the job, new employees form their impressions of the organisation. These impressions may or may not be favourable, but they greatly influence employees' performance on the job. Managers, therefore, necessarily have to enunciate training programmes to induct employees into the system. (vii) To satisfy the personal growth needs of staff. A good number of employees, particularly among the managers, have career targets or goals. They require assistance through training and development to accomplish their targets and feel fulfilled to remain in the organisation. Katcher and Snyder (2003) note that employees' development can manifest itself in many forms of training, evaluation, educational programmes, and even feedback. If executed correctly, the effects of training on employees' performance can often encourage growth within the worker and the organisation. Kum et al. (2014) argue that effective employee training leads to increased quality goods and services due to potentially fewer mistakes. As a result, accuracy, effectiveness, good work, safety practices and good customer service can be expected. Training not only influences the bottom line but is also critical in cost-saving. As a consequence of employee training, the level of turnover is reduced (Rothwell and Kazanas, 2006 P.234 Table 4.1.2 presents the background characteristics of the respondents. The gender distribution of the respondents showed that most of the respondents (59.9%) are male while 59 respondents, representing (40.1%) are female. This is a fair representation of female respondents in attending to the issues of this research. Departmental distribution of the respondents indicates that; 39 respondents representing (26.5%) are from Admin. and finance, 30 respondents representing (20.4%) are from Women Affairs Department, eight respondents representing (5.4%) are from Child Affairs Department, 50 respondents representing (34.0%) are from Social Department. In contrast, three respondents representing (2.1%) are from Planning Department while 17 respondents representing (11.6%) are from Rehabilitation services Department. The distribution of the respondents in the table above that majority of the respondents are from Social Department. The distribution of the respondents based on their work Experience shows that; those whose work experience ranges from 1-5years are in the majority and accounted for (46.3%) of the respondents closely followed by those with two years accounted to (36.4%). Those with 6-10 years work experience (43.5%), while those with 11-15 years and 16 years work experience accounted for (3.4%) and (2.1%) respondents, respectively.
The distribution of the respondents in terms of their level of education shows that the majority (44. 1%) of the respondents are those with ND/NCE, followed by those with HND/1 st Degree (26.6%). (17.7%) of the respondents holds a 2 nd Degree while (15.6%) of the respondents' holders other certificates. HND/1 st Degree and ND/NCE, as most respondents, indicate that the research will generate adequate responses.

Test of Hypothesis Ho1
There is no significant difference in the opinion of Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development employees that training and development programmes does not support employee's performance in the Ministry.  Chi-square tabulated @ 5% degree of freedom (DF) Chi-square tabulated = X 2 = (Ct-1) (Rt-1) @ (0.05) X 2 = (5-1) (2-1) @ (0.05) X 2 = (4) (1) @ (0.05) X 2 = (4) (1) @ (0.05) X 2 =9.488 Therefore, since our chi-square calculated (2.00) is less than the chi-square tabulated (9.488), the study cannot reject the null hypothesis, which states that there is no significant difference in the opinion of employees of Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development that training and development programmes does not support employee's performance in the Ministry and reject alternative hypothesis which says there is a significant difference in the opinion of employees of Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development that training and development programmes support employee's performance in the Ministry. This finding means that both senior and junior staff believe that training and development programmes does not support employees' performance in the Ministry.

Discussion of Findings
As displayed from the test of the hypothesis of the study, the main finding of this study is that there is no significant difference among the staff in the perception that training and development does not support employees' performance in Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development. This discovery implies that across employees' cadres, there is unanimity that training and development has not improved employees' performance in the Ministry. Upon further scrutiny, it was discovered that on-the-job training and development programmes are not available for staff, particularly in the Ministry. This finding was further bolstered with the revelation that the civil service training policy, which provides for timely and regular employee training, has been jettisoned in Gombe State Civil Service. Hence, staff have no opportunity to learn new techniques, knowledge and up to date information about their job requirements.
Furthermore, employees' training needs which organisations are expected to conduct regularly to establish employees' skills deficiency, have also been lacking in Gombe State Civil Service. This lacuna shows that the Gombe State Civil Service as an institution does not reckon with the training of its personnel as a critical tool for enhancing employees' performance. The Ministry's leadership in particular and of the State Civil Service has done little to see to the incorporation of regular staff training and developemt in the Service. This finding corroborates Obisi (2011, p.82)'s position. He argues that "some organisations see training as expensive venture and may put embargo on training and utilize the money for other projects in the organization". The only form of training and development obtainable among employees in the Ministry is formal training and development where employees who secure admission for a higher qualification in higher institutions of learning such as Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education are allowed to proceed for studies. It was also discovered that in situation where employees secures admission into higher institution, approval from the Government for in-service training is not automatic. The affected official would have to lobby and obtains the favour of his/her immediate superior in order to be released for the period of the study.
All of these point at the existence of no room for staff to advance their knowledge of the job through on-thejob training and low performance remains the only outcome in such situations. The main problems confronting training and development programmes in the Ministry include lack of appreciation of the critical roles of continuous training of employees by the Management of the Ministry, lack of mechanisms for tracking employees training needs in the Civil Service, lack of budgetary provision for training and development of staff in the Ministry; and inadequate funding of the Ministries in terms of overhead costs and other essential services.

Conclusion and Recommendations
Training and development of employees is one of the potent tools of enhancing employees' performance in both the private and public sectors. Without a systematic and timely training and development programme, employees would lose touch with realities of job competencies due to several factors. Among the several factors that could account for poor job performance as a consequence of lack of training include advancement in technology associated with employees' job schedules, lack of opportunities for refresher courses for employees, and nontracking of employees' job challenges/training needs. The Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social development has not placed a serious attention to the issues of employees training and development. Employees' skills and job performance are, therefore, at an abysmal level. Furthermore, it must be stressed that the negative scenario found regarding the relegation of employees training in the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development is not peculiar to the Ministry. Rather, it is the general trend among Government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDA's) in Gombe State. Hence, the office of the Head of the Civil Service as well as the State Civil Service Commission have critical roles to play in stemming the negative attitude towards employees' training in the State Services. The Ministry and the State Civil Service must devise means of reawakening the consciousness of the employees to their job, thereby attaining efficient and effective job performance.
The Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social develoment in particular, and the Gombe State Civil Service are offered the following recommendations in order to improve staff performance.
(1) The Gombe State Ministry of Women affairs and Social development leadership must come to terms with the fact that regular training of staff is of tremendous advantages to the organisation and the realisation of goals and objectives of the Ministry. It must therefore be given serious attention in the Ministry.
(2) Mechanisms should be put in place to determine the competency level of employees in the Ministry and their individual training needs. This will enable the Ministry to know the skills requirements for each group of employees and where successful training and development programmes should focus. (3) The budgetary allocation should be made to organise relevant training for staff both in the Ministry and generally among the state workers. Securing a budget line is attainable with initiative from the Office of the Head of Civil Service and active support of the political leadership. (4) Increased funding for the Ministry in particular and the Civil Service, in general, has become imperatives.
Such increase funding would create opportunities for Ministries and Agencies to organise training workshops as the need arises for staffs.