Implementing a Training System - Essay Example

? Implementing a Training System Implementing a training system Employees are well thought as the human capital in any organizational setting. If this human capital is motivated and satisfied, they would diligently perform their respective duties (Morell, 2011:14). My project in work based learning was focused on the issues of training and development of the sales team within the company “Spar Ardboe”. Primarily I considered a survey to be my best option for identifying the level of employee knowledge on training and development issues. The Forbes Spar store had a 5 percent annual growth. The rapid increase in the number of employee recruitment led to many part time workers. So as to instil efficiency, there was need to develop training programs for the organization. We are currently living in an information age where organizations are routinely valued not only on their physical aspect but on their intellectual capital. Training is one of the main channels of maintaining and improving the intellectual capital, thereby the quality of the training affects the value of the organization. The untrained or poorly trained employees significantly cost more to support than the well-trained employees do.  Training and development is way of motivating the staff in any organization. This is because motivation is what makes people to have that drive to do something thus the driving force of human behaviour. As a result it initiates, guides and maintain the goal oriented behaviours hence motivation it is what drives one to take a cause of action. The forces work towards motivation can either be social, biological, emotional or cognitive in nature (Laubly, 2005:6). The process of making decisions include; Defining or identifying the problems faced by the management, having an analysis of the problem, development of alternative solutions, choosing the best solution out of the available alternatives, conversion of the decision into action, and lastly ensuring feedback for the follow-up. It is from this diagnosis that a training program is initiated (Bouyssou, Dubois, & Prade, 2010:25). Training has numerous importance and they include: Workers are helped to focus and also priority is placed on empowering them; the bottom line is positively affected by increasing production; the confidence of the employee is built, developing and keeping the key performers, enabling of team development, and also contributing to better morale of the organization; there is a significant better delivery of customer service by allowing employees to be kept current on the latest job related information; employees get updates on the new and enhanced skills with an aim of aligning them to the goals and objectives of the business; in case of downsizing in the organization, the remaining staff are braced with the management and technical skills to handle the increased workloads; there is financial gain as the processes increases efficiency; those companies with business related problems are given an unbiased or fresh professional opinion or critique or evaluation; employee turnover is reduced by increasing job satisfaction, morale, and employee motivation; innovation is also increased bringing in new strengths to existing strategies, products, and the capacity of the company to adopt new technologies and methods (Ekot, 2010). The survey was quantitative in design which consisted of 20 questions in total; these questions were handed out to 30 employees, the questions were closed with set response format and this was to enable a rapid completion of the questionnaire and encourage employee’s response. However lack of response and feedback forced me to ask employees to attend a group meeting. The group discussion found that the staff were not being given enough training or training was not being offered in the areas like technical faults, tobacco sales, food safety while putting items into correct bags, handling of fuel, full pay point training, taking the customer to the product, security issues, and the utilization of credit debit machine. With regard to management and the store supervisors, their issues with staff and training and development consisted of staff not giving customers back their cash, signatures on the debit or the credit receipts, full use of all the functions on the till, customer service, watching prices on the till. The training goals for customer assistant is to ensure that they welcome and greet customer in a professional manner, informing the their special offers and daily deals, giving all customers their till receipt, answering question about functions and services in the store, and finally competent use of credit card machine. The getting of information from groups was more appropriate on what is to be in training and no training. The method was more successful because the questions were answered more freely and comprehensively without the fear of victimization from other staff. Training and development programs in various organizations has proved to be a success, this is attributed to the fact that training impacts on the competitiveness of the organization, revenue and performance. Training has a direct link to employee performance and retention. Moreover, most employees would not realize their full potential unless they are adequately trained (Wilke, 2009:78-79). Recommendations for the sales team included an action plan that include: complete courses with the spar guild academy and be aware of store policies and procedures, welcoming and greeting customers in a professional manner, informing customers of special offers and daily deals, giving all customers their till receipt no matter how small the item, and competent use of the tills and its function. Work based learning refers to the learning that predominately takes place through work. Learning in the workplace maintains focus on the job. It is associated with on job trainings, skill development and experiential learning that is being provided to the students in the employment environment; hence reducing the gap of between educational learning and work based experiences and doing. Conversely, there is still a gap existing between the work-based learning demands and the opportunities facilitated by the workplace. Therefore, along with the development of the field towards success, the criticism has also been coming along. Organizations adopt various methods of training and development for their employees depending on their needs. They include job rotation, role playing, on the-job training, site training, vestibule training, conferences that enable the employees to rapidly develop their skills, technical seminars, instructor led online training, mentoring where bridging of skill gap is important, e-learning modules allows for independent employee learning as exercises are repeatedly done to reinforce the understanding of the content (Ekot, 2010). One very critical critic that is posed to the criteria for the work to be accounted as work based learning is that fact there remains majority of the learning in the work place yet is not acknowledged as the work based learning for the reason being it is conducted in the informal settings that does not include the formal component of theory. The other major criticisms that are posed to increased integration of work based learning in employment and educational settings are combined in the following suggestions (Woodward, 2006:56). Work based learning has moved in contradiction to set traditional formats, such as it does not undertake any assessment of the employees and hence equates the skill development of all participants at same level that is not the case in reality. Therefore, the purpose of training and management development programs is the improvement of employee and organization capabilities. If an organization invests in enhancing the knowledge and skills of it employees through training, the investment is actually returned in the form of effective and productive employees. These programs may be focused on individual or team performance (McCord, 2012). Most organizations are investing heavily in changing the methods by whereby it trains and develops its staff. They have gone ahead and set up processes which will enable them to react to changes that occur in the market-place and also make changes in their own right. This is done so as to sustain and improve their growth in the face of many different challenges in an increasingly competitive environment of doing business (Noe, 2009). Reference List Ekot, E. (2010, February 1). Retrieved April12, 2013, from Employee Training and Development: Reasons and benefits: http://www.legalsecretaryjournal.com/?q=employee_training_and_development Laubly, S. J. (2005). Motivating Employees. New York: American Society for Training and Development,. McCord, P. (2012, August 1). Sales and Sales Management. Retrieved April 13, 2013, from Sales Team Training and Development : http://salesandmanagementblog.com/2012/08/01/is-your-sales-team-training-and-development-being- Morell, F. (2011). Employee engagment and Staff Motivation. Lulu Enterprises Incorporated. Noe, R. (2009). Employee Training and Development. London: McGraw-Hill Education. Woodward, N. H. (2006). Make the most of team building. HR Magazine, 51 (9), 72-76. Read More