Analysis of Influencing Factors on The Training Effectiveness of Older Employees in Enterprises

: As the aging process deepens and deepens, it has had an impact on various aspects of China, including enterprises. Studying the influencing factors of training effectiveness for older employees in enterprises, providing suggestions and improvements for the training of older employees in enterprises, can help alleviate the negativing impact of aging trends on talent resources and provide new ideas for the training of older employees in enterprises in some extent. This article investigate and analyze the potential problems of enterprise training for older employees, the reasons for training problems, the purpose of participating in training, satisfaction with training and training effectiveness by literature research, questionnaire survey, CIPP training evaluation model, and statistical analysis methods ,for identifying some influencing factors of the training effectiveness of older employees in enterprises and proposing measures in enterprises improving the training of older employees.


Research Background
Since the 1990s, China's aging process has accelerated. It is expected that by 2040, the proportion of elderly people aged 65 and above will exceed 20% of the total population. At the same time, the aging trend of the elderly population is becoming increasingly evident: the elderly aged 80 and above are increasing at an annual rate of 5%, and will reach over 74 million by 2040. The report of the 15th National Congress also pointed out that China is a country with a large population and relatively insufficient resources, and sustainable development strategies must be implemented in modernization construction. China needs to improve its population quality and attach importance to the issue of population aging. On May 11, 2021, the results of the seventh national population census showed that the proportion of the population aged 60 and above in China exceeded 18%, further deepening the degree of population aging.
At the same time, the corporate economy plays an irreplaceable role in China's economic development, providing tax revenue, and providing employment opportunities, especially for private enterprises. Private enterprises and the private economy have become an indispensable force in promoting China's development, becoming the main field of entrepreneurship and employment.

Research significance
Faced with the arrival of an aging society, enterprises will also be affected accordingly. Enterprises may face an increase in labor costs due to an aging population. How to develop and utilize the human resources of elderly employees will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the cost savings of the enterprise and its own development in the future. Therefore, it is necessary to study the influencing factors of the training effectiveness of older employees in enterprises, and provide suggestions and improvements for the training of middleaged and elderly employees. This can to some extent help enterprises alleviate the negative impact of aging trends on talent resources and provide new ideas for the training of older employees in enterprises.

Questionnaire Survey and Analysis of The Current Situation
This study investigates factors that may affect older employees. A total of 210 questionnaires were ultimately distributed, with 138 valid questionnaires. The minimum time for filling out the questionnaire is 1 minute and 50 seconds, the maximum time is 16 minutes and 20 seconds, and the average time is 6 minutes and 17 seconds ( Fig.1 ).
This survey ( Fig.2 ) and study investigated the various views of older employees in different age groups on corporate training, including the problems that exist in their company's training, possible causes, the purpose of participating in the training, satisfaction with the training, and the promoting effect of the training .   According to the survey ( Fig.3 ) , the lack of significant training effectiveness is the most obvious problem faced by employees. Regarding the reasons that may lead to training problems in enterprises, insufficient investment of resources, incomplete training systems, and low employee participation are all likely reasons for training problems in enterprises. For the reason of participating in corporate training, learning professional skills is the most preferred choice among respondents  According to the survey ( Fig.4 ), different age groups have different opinions on the reasons for corporate training. The majority of respondents aged 35 to 39 believe that a poor training atmosphere has the greatest impact on employees' motivation for training. Employees aged 50 and above believe that being discriminated against by internal employees is the most influencing factor on their training motivation. In terms of the excessive amount of training, the difficulty of accepting new training content, and the excessive Psychological stress caused by training, older employees of different ages have similar views, with average scores within 1 and given scores between 3 and 4. From the perspective of comprehensive scores, poor training atmosphere, discrimination from internal employees, and other reasons leading to training problems in enterprises account for the highest proportion of scores.  By the survey ( Fig.5 , Fig.6 ), the majority of respondents gave scores of 4 or above in terms of their impression of the training mentor, the level of completeness of training facilities, whether the training methods are too single, and whether the training content is professional. This indicates that most employees are still acceptable and tend to be satisfied with these aspects of their enterprise training. In the 7-point rating, respondents tend to score 4 and 5 in these four aspects. It can be seen that older employees have a smaller impact on the satisfaction level of enterprise training, and they tend to be more acceptable. However, they are not inclined towards the satisfied or dissatisfied side, and there are fewer extreme people.

Figure1. Age Distribution of Respondents
The higher the score, the higher the level of satisfaction in that area. The maximum score is 7, and the lowest is 1 The higher the score, the higher the productivity improvement after training.  The higher the score, the better the improvement effect of customer satisfaction According to the surveys (Table1 , Table2 , Table3 ), older employees tend to give scores ranging from 4 to 7 on the effectiveness of training, but there are also special situations in the proportion of scores given in different aspects by different age groups. In terms of employee turnover rate, employees aged 45 to 49 have the highest turnover rate given by 3 points. This may be because older employees are more likely to be dismissed than younger employees due to various reasons, resulting in less impact of corporate training on employee turnover. Referring to this aspect, if the average score does not exceed 5, it can be seen that the training effect has the smallest impact on employee turnover rate among these three aspects. From the average score of various aspects, the highest score is customer satisfaction. It can be seen that customer satisfaction in these three aspects is the most significant improvement effect after training.

Background Assessment
The background assessment includes: understanding the relevant environment; Diagnose special problems; Analyze training needs; Determine training needs; Identify training opportunities; Develop training objectives, etc. Identifying training needs and setting training goals are the main tasks.
In terms of training needs, based on our investigation of the factors that affect employees' enthusiasm for training, we can learn that other factors, poor training atmosphere, and discrimination from other employees are the three most important factors; According to a survey on the satisfaction level of enterprise training, the single training method and the low frequency of knowledge obtained through training are the two worst rated items. So it can be basically determined that there is a training demand for improving the training environment and atmosphere, reducing discrimination against other employees, enriching training methods, and increasing the frequency of training usage in enterprise employee training.
In training objectives, we learned from the survey that the main purpose of enterprise staff training is to learn professional skills, followed by learning management skills, learning career Career development, hoping to get subsidies, enterprise mandatory training, and finally killing time and other reasons. Therefore, it can be basically determined that improving employees' professional skills, management skills, and career Career development ability is the training goal of enterprise employees.

Input Evaluation
The items included in the input evaluation include: collecting training resource information; Evaluate training resources; Determine how to effectively utilize existing resources to achieve training objectives; Determine whether the overall strategy for project planning and design requires the assistance of external resources.
According to the survey respondents' ratings of the completeness of enterprise training equipment, which are concentrated in 4-5 points, it can be concluded that the training equipment and other resources for most enterprise employees during training can meet the training needs of the enterprise, and it can be basically determined that the enterprise has sufficient training resources. However, in the survey, only 39.86% of enterprises provided training for older employees, indicating that most of the training provided by enterprises had poor targeting in terms of the age of the trainees.
So, with sufficient training resources, it is necessary for enterprises to allocate a targeted and targeted portion of training resources to the training of older employees.

Process evaluation
The purpose of process evaluation is to provide information feedback to those responsible for implementing training projects, and to timely and continuously revise or improve the execution process of training projects.
Process evaluation is mainly achieved through the following methods: insight into the potential causes of failure during the training execution process, and proposing solutions to eliminate the potential causes of failure; Analyze the unfavorable factors that lead to failure during the training execution process, and propose methods to overcome these unfavorable factors; Analyze and explain the actual events and situations that occurred during training execution; Analyze and determine the distance between them and the target; Adhere to providing relevant established and new decisions during the training execution process.
According to the survey, most employees believe that insufficient investment and resources in employee training, inadequate and unprofessional training systems, and low enthusiasm for employee training may all lead to problems in enterprise training. Therefore, enterprises need to increase resource investment, improve training systems, and increase employees' enthusiasm for participating in training based on actual situations.
According to the survey, 69.57% of respondents believe that the performance evaluation mechanism of the enterprise will affect employee training, as it may lead to unfavorable factors in employee training; 55.07% of respondents believe that the working atmosphere of a company will affect employee training; 72.46% of respondents believe that the reward mechanism for corporate training will affect corporate training. So the quality of the enterprise training assessment mechanism, the atmosphere of enterprise training, and the reward mechanism of enterprise training may all be unfavorable factors in employee training. In order to address unfavorable customer factors, enterprises need to find ways to optimize the assessment mechanism for enterprise training, create a good training atmosphere, and optimize the reward mechanism for enterprise training based on the actual situation.

Achievement evaluation
The main task of achievement evaluation is to measure and explain the goals achieved by training activities, including the measurement and explanation of the predetermined goals achieved. It is particularly important to recognize that outcome evaluation is not limited to the end of the training, but can be conducted either after or during the training.
In order for enterprises to improve various aspects of employee training for senior employees, it is necessary to attach importance to enterprise training for older employees and provide targeted resource allocation based on actual situations. With the goal of improving employees' professional skills, management skills, and Career development abilities, the enterprise has improved the training effect of the enterprise and the enthusiasm of employees to participate in training by reducing the discrimination of internal employees, optimizing the training assessment mechanism, optimizing the incentive mechanism, and creating a good enterprise training atmosphere.

Factors influencing the training effectiveness of older employees in enterprises 3.2.1. Corporate Training Atmosphere
An active atmosphere can stimulate people's potential power, such as creativity and imagination; on the other hand, a dull atmosphere may gradually degrade people into animals. Therefore, creating a good atmosphere is one of the ways to promote reform and development. This atmosphere is conducive to creating a sense of belonging and a positive training atmosphere, and to some extent, it can stimulate employees' enthusiasm to participate in training. On the one hand, this atmosphere can enable new employees who receive training to quickly integrate into the training environment and keep up with the progress of the training. On the other hand, this can also enable employees who are being trained to maintain a continuous enthusiasm for participating in the training. In this environment, employees will also be more obedient to training arrangements, which also provides a certain degree of convenience for the trainers to conduct training.

Enterprise training and assessment mechanism
The main purpose of establishing a training and assessment mechanism for enterprises is to verify the results of employee training. The Equity theory points out that people's enthusiasm for work is not only related to the actual amount of personal remuneration, but also more closely related to whether people feel fair about the distribution of remuneration. People always consciously or unconsciously compare their labor costs and rewards with others, and make judgments on fairness. A sense of fairness directly affects employees' work motivation and behavior. A good training and assessment mechanism can distinguish employee training outcomes, allowing employees who invest more energy in training and have better training outcomes to receive positive feedback after training, making them feel that their more effort is different from other unpaid or relatively less paid out, thus serving as an incentive. This assessment mechanism is also conducive to timely identifying employees' problems during the training process, and having mentors or assessors remind and correct them. At the same time, this is also a way for enterprises to test their own employee training abilities. Through training inspections, they can identify the problems in their own enterprise training, which is beneficial for enterprises to improve these problems.

Enterprise reward mechanism
According to the incentive Expectancy theory, goal valence refers to how valuable it is for individuals to achieve goals. The greater the value, the stronger the motivation. The validity of a goal may vary depending on the individual's level of need for it. Only when the target efficacy is high and the estimated likelihood of achievement is also high, will the motivation power be strong.
Rich rewards for training can motivate employees to participate in training. Coupled with the company's assessment, rewarding employees with good training results to a certain extent not only serves as an incentive for this employee, but also serves as a role model within the company, mobilizing other employees to participate in the company's training, and also conducive to the formation of a good training atmosphere within the company.

Discrimination among employees within the enterprise
Discrimination among employees is a problem that enterprises find difficult to directly solve. Discrimination generally refers to the personal bias or dissatisfaction towards others, and the unequal treatment of others.
There are two types of discrimination within enterprises. One is at the personal level, which is the unequal treatment of others due to personal reasons or beliefs. The other is due to the internal culture of the enterprise, which leads to the unequal treatment of certain groups by all employees of the enterprise. Older employees often have stereotypes such as "stubbornness", "dullness", and "stupidity" at the personal level due to age; At the corporate level, older employees may also be dismissed due to reasons such as "inability to accept new things", "decreased work ability", and "high salary expectations". It may lead to discrimination against older employees. Enterprises and employees should change their own concepts, recognize the value of "older employees", and change the stereotypes of a few towards them. The change in mindset is difficult to enforce and often requires a lengthy process, which requires not only the efforts of enterprises and internal employees, but also the efforts of all parties in society to change the stereotypes of older employees, especially in the current era of increasing aging trends.

Enterprise training content
Different employees want different training contents, including professional knowledge, management skills, career Career development ability, etc. However, according to the survey, learning professional knowledge is the main reason for employees to participate in training. Therefore, the proportion of professional knowledge training can be increased in the content of enterprise training, while the proportion of management ability, career Career development ability and other training can be reduced to a certain extent. At the same time, if conditions are met, specialized training should also be conducted according to the different training needs of different employees. The more the training content meets the expectations and needs of employees, the more it can stimulate their enthusiasm for training.

Creating a Good Enterprise Training Atmosphere
A good corporate atmosphere can motivate employees to participate in training, make them more focused, invest more energy in the training process, and even stimulate their potential abilities. A good corporate training atmosphere not only affects individual employees, but also enables mutual influence and infection among different employees. A good atmosphere can motivate employees to better participate in training; A negative atmosphere may dampen the enthusiasm of previously motivated employees, which may hinder the implementation of training and ultimately affect the training outcomes of the enterprise.
Enterprises can publicly publicize and promote various aspects of training before training, such as the mentors, venues, and knowledge of the training. This allows employees to understand relevant matters in advance, which helps them increase their expectations and better accept training arrangements and transfers psychologically. Before older employees participate in training, it is beneficial for them to understand the situation and prepare in advance, which is beneficial for their participation during the training.
Enterprises can also prepare specialized items and preparations for training to enhance the sense of ceremony and atmosphere of the training. For example, banners can be hung in the training venue, badges and medals can be given to employees, and the placement of items in the training venue can be changed. This is beneficial for older employees to bring in emotions, participate more in training, and do a good job in their psychological development.
Before the training starts, some people can be invited to liven up the atmosphere beforehand. For example, inviting a few people to give speeches or performances to liven up the atmosphere is beneficial for older employees to quickly integrate into the training environment.

Improve the assessment mechanism for enterprise training
The assessment mechanism of enterprise training is also an important part of the enterprise training mechanism. It not only detects the results of participating in employee training, but also serves as a way to test the return on investment in enterprise training.
The assessment mechanism established by enterprises should take into account various practical factors such as the training results of older employees, the amount of energy invested by employees, and the attitude of employees towards training. The inspection of employee training achievements is one of the most direct manifestations of the level of employee training knowledge mastery and the return on enterprise training investment. Compared to the former, employees tend to make subjective judgments about how much energy they invest and their attitude towards training. Age is the most significant factor that distinguishes older employees from other employees. Older employees may have limited energy and may not have a high willingness to participate in collective activities and training due to age. The purpose of these two aspects of assessment is, on the one hand, to supervise the progress and effectiveness of enterprise training for older employees, and on the other hand, to provide positive feedback and affirmation to employees who have made efforts to participate in the training. It is beneficial to encourage employees who have made progress and enthusiasm in the training, and to maintain their enthusiasm for participating in the training. These employees also serve as role models, guiding and encouraging other employees to participate more actively in the training.
When establishing an assessment mechanism for enterprise training, consideration should be given to the reward mechanism for enterprise training. Combining the reward mechanism with the assessment mechanism can more directly give the well trained older employees material rewards and spiritual affirmation, and can more directly and effectively stimulate the enthusiasm of older employees for training.

Optimizing the Training Process
In the process of enterprise training, the method and progress of training will have an impact on the training of older employees. In the face of older employees, enterprise training often needs to be tailored to their needs, while also taking into account the learning ability of older employees, and making decisions based on actual situations.
The training method should be gradual and in-depth. Considering the age of older employees and their learning abilities. The explanation method needs to be able to be accepted by older employees, which is conducive to their understanding. In addition, it is also necessary to consider practical factors such as the cultural level and physical and mental health of older employees, and develop training methods that are suitable for them to receive The training progress should not be too fast. Older employees take longer to accept new things and knowledge than young people. So it is necessary to give older employees some time to master and consolidate the training content.

Conclusion and Outlook
This article investigates and studies the influencing factors of training effectiveness for older employees in enterprises, and draws the following conclusions: The effectiveness of training for older employees is influenced by many factors, among which the training atmosphere, training assessment mechanism, reward mechanism, internal employee discrimination, and training content of the enterprise all have a significant impact on the training of older employees.
At present, most enterprises do not attach enough importance to the training of older employees.
In terms of enterprise training content, older employees most want to train professional knowledge, followed by other aspects, such as management ability, career Career development planning, etc.
For the effectiveness of enterprise training for older employees, among the three aspects of "improving productivity", "reducing employee turnover rate", and "improving customer satisfaction", "improving customer satisfaction" is the most significant effect.