Abstract:

Personnel development and training are very important factors for any work organization. Personnel training is also a key function in woodworking companies, as employees must be currently being introduced in a situation of increasing globalization. However, new challenges in personnel training and development have been revealed by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has created serious difficulties to implement training by limiting the latter, as well as mobility opportunities around the world. Therefore, now it is being emphasized that the management of the organization depends on the ability to adapt to new working conditions and technologies. This ability is facilitated by one of the most successful learning processes – e-learning, which provides several advantages starting from the opportunity to learn anywhere and at any time to significant savings in material and time resources invested into employees’ development. The researched woodworking company is the largest in the Baltic States. Along with continuous development the production process of the company and its services provided to customers are being modernized. The company invests resources in training its staff to move towards one of the set principles – motivated, loyal, knowledgeable employees. The company's operations are affected by both internal and external regulations, changes in the economic situation of the country, production procedures and technological development, so personnel training is very important to ensure full service and quality product for each customer. The goal of this study is to investigate the opportunities for personnel training development and the main shortcomings of the existing training system in the woodworking company during the Covid-19 pandemic. A subject of the research – training of administration and production staff in a woodworking company. The research questions are the following: what is the existing personnel training in a woodworking company? What are the main shortcomings of the existing personnel training? What are the personnel development opportunities during the Covid-19 pandemic? A survey created by the authors was used for data collection within the study. It included several scales: learning needs, learning culture, learning effectiveness, learning organization and regularity, learning motivation, learning assessment, learning methods. Data analysis was carried out applying mathematical statistical methods, viewing responses according to age, seniority and employment at the administration and production departments. The main conclusions of the study are the following: the existing personnel training for the staff is properly organized; the most significant professionally trained thus being enabled to meet new challenges and innovate in the organization that is shortcomings are the partially paid personnel training; personnel development opportunities include the development of an individual curriculum, the use of coaching and mentoring.

Keywords:

employee education, COVID-19, training and development.