Assessment of Development Needs of Ford Australia Staff - Assignment Example

Introduction Majority of engineers all over the world are known to have technical skills only. Their lack of leadership skills has resulted in a situation where they are derided by their colleagues in other departments. Organisations that employ engineers have gained interest in making a transition from engineers just having technical jobs to management positions. (Nankervis, 2008) In order to bridge the gap between the two job descriptions, engineers definitely have to undergo training and development. Through this training and development, they will be in a position to learn both business and interpersonal skills. Mr. Ian Vaughan and senior management team of Ford Australia and need to incorporate the following aspects in their venture of carrying out training and development of Ford Australia Company staff. (Nankervis, 2008) Assessment of development needs of Ford Australia staff Before Mr. Ian Vaughan and management in Ford Company invest in training and development of Ford staff, assessment of employees’ training needs to be carried out. This will enable the management in Ford Company to know the exact training needs of staff. (Kaufman, 2007) In analysing or assessing training needs of employees in Ford Company, it is important that the assessment be carried out first for the entire organisation. This is where corporate training and development needs are identified. This should be carried out through the senior managers having a meeting. They should then discuss human resource development needs within Ford Company as a whole. (Nankervis, 2008) Next, the organisation needs to assess training and development needs at the departmental levels. In this case, the heads of various departments should write reports on training needs of their specific department. Finally, individual employee’s human resource development needs should be assessed. There are various tools that management in Ford Company can use in assessment of Ford Australia staff. (Alliger, 2007) Questionnaires can be prepared and administered to employees in Ford Australia Company. Survey questionnaires should include questions on areas that employees within Ford Company feel that they should be trained. This is an effective way of collecting a lot of information from employees within a very short time span. Management in Ford Company can also have focused group discussions with employees within the organisation. This will enable them to ask for clarification on aspects of views that are not clearly understood. It will very easy to know the common training and development needs among employees from the responses that they give. Training and development needs of staff within Ford Australia Company can also be ascertained through a thorough analysis of appraisal sheets. Focus group discussions can also be carried out by management within the Company, heads of departments and employee representatives. (CIPD, 2006) Induction of new staff This is a very vital aspect in every organisation. It plays a very great role in overall employee output at the workplace. Induction of new staff enables newly recruited employees to become productive as soon as possible. It is usually a time where newly recruited employees get to understand how the organisation that they have joined works. It is very essential that Ford Company in Australia carries out comprehensive staff induction as soon as new employees are recruited. (Cherrington, 2007) The entire induction should incorporate information on corporate policies within the organisation. This will enable employees to adhere to Ford Company policies as they carry out their day to day activities. It is quite important for facilitators to educate new employees in Ford Company on anti discrimination practices etc. This should include the steps that they should take whenever they face any form of discrimination. Safety topic is also very important for newly recruited employees. (Nankervis, 2008) New staffs within Ford Company should also be trained on information systems within the organisation and how they can use them. During induction sessions, key people need to be introduced to newly recruited staff. Induction process should not be a one man show. Ford Company management team should ensure that inductions for new employees are interactive and allow participation of new staff. Group discussions and question answer sessions have to be incorporated. The environment where Ford Company inductions take place should be conducive for learning. (Easterby, 2007) Customer service It is quite evident that staffs in Ford Australia Company need to be trained on customer service aspects. This can be started off by getting to know what employees within Ford Company in Australia understand by customer service. At this training stage, Ford Company staffs should be allowed to share information concerning various groups of clients that they serve. This discussion should include customers’ expectations in terms of customer service. Employees should then analyse the services that they have been offering to clients. (Baldwin, 2008) They should then be educated on the basic concepts of customer service. In this case, Ford Company employees have to understand that customers have the right to get services from the organisation. This is because they are paying for the services and they have to get value for their money. Employees need to be trained on accountability aspects in relation to offering customer service. In this case they should be informed that they are accountable to their immediate supervisor on customer service issues. (Alliger, 2007) This clearly means that their supervisor has the right to inquire from them concerning the measures that they have put in place in order to give excellent customer services. Employees should be educated on the benefits or advantages of offering excellent services to customers. They also need to be informed on the repercussions of offering poor customer services. (Brooks, 2006) Staffs in Ford Australia Company should be informed during their training that customer service is an aspect that needs to be practiced on a daily basis not during some seasons. In order for Ford Company to have excellent customer services they should incorporate good listening and communication skills. They should handle dissatisfied customers with a lot of patience. In situations of difficulty, they will need recovery skills. (Kaufman, 2007) Interpersonal kills Interpersonal skills among employees, between employees and management are quite essential. They can determine the success or the failure of an organisation. It is very important that employees in Ford Company get training on interpersonal skills. They should be educated on the need to communicate effectively one to another. In this case they have to learn how to use good communication skills. (Nankervis, 2008) This includes using courteous words like thank you, welcome and even greeting each other. It is an aspect that many people assume yet it plays a very important role in their overall productivity. They have to be educated on the jeopardy of having poor interpersonal skills within the organisation. On the other hand they should be informed on possible advantages of having good interpersonal skills in Ford Company. (Cherrington, 2007) They should also be trained on issues of conflict management. In this training, Ford Company employees should be educated on different personality types. They include; sanguine and melancholic among others. This will enable them to know how to interact with their colleagues who have different personalities. (Nankervis, 2008) Development of team skills Management in Ford Company need to ensure that employees are also trained on team skills. This training should allow them to understand all the steps of implementing teams. This includes forming and norming stages among others. Employees in Ford Company should be educated on the importance of working in teams rather than working as individuals. This training has to include attributes that can lead to effective teamwork. This includes interdependency, accountability and commitment towards achievement of their teams’ goals. (CIPD, 2006) This means that each team member should give support to other members. They also need to be giving feedback concerning accomplishment of individual roles. They should be informed on the importance of effective communication in enhancement of teamwork within Ford Company. During the training, they can form mock teams and be given tasks to accomplish. The role played by each team member should then be evaluated. (Nankervis, 2008) Development of leadership skills Staffs in Ford Company need to be trained on leadership skills. This should include information on various leadership behaviours and the difference between management and leadership. Through this employees will be in a position to understand the qualities of a good leader. They need to know the importance of developing qualities of good leadership. They include empathy, integrity, and flexibility, humour, being articulate and having good communication skills. They need to incorporate these qualities in their day to day activities. (Nankervis, 2008) They need to develop the attitude of go getters and learn how to make sound decisions. In this training they have to be educated on how they can give direction and even influence other people accomplish Ford Company goals. This training should introduce employees on different leadership styles. They include authoritarian, democratic and free reign. Through training they should learn when to incorporate any of the above leadership styles in their day to day activities. This training will therefore enhance their leadership skills. (Nankervis, 2008) Evaluation of interventions to determine their level of effectiveness It is never enough to carry out training and development within an organisation. It is quite important that evaluation is carried out to ascertain the impact of training on staff and entire organisation. There are various ways through which management in Ford Australia Company should carry out evaluation of employee training. Mr Ian can therefore use the stakeholder approach. This approach is highly based on the stakeholder theory. This theory asserts that every organisation consists of employees, investors and customers. Kaufman, R. (2007) These can be referred to as multiple constituencies. Analysis of organisational success therefore should relate to how well it serves the above stakeholders compared to its competitors. Managers in Ford Company should therefore evaluate the effect that the training has on service that stakeholders get from the Company. This can be carried out through the use of questionnaires. (Baldwin, 2008) Managers in Ford Company can also use goal based strategy. Kirkpatrick’s model is most commonly used in this strategy. It involves four levels of evaluating the effectiveness of training. They consist of learning, reaction, behaviour and finally results level. Reaction level is the first level where employees’ reactions towards the training are evaluated. In this stage the degree of satisfaction of participants is evaluated whether it was poor, fair or excellent. It should be carried out immediately after the training. Evaluation should also be carried out in relation to achievement of objectives. This is to know whether the objectives were attained or not. (Alliger, 2008) The objectives in this case were to ensure behaviour modification in employees and to ensure that employees’ skills were improved. Behaviour level involves analysis of any changes in employees’ behaviour after training. Results level evaluates the cost incurred in training versus the benefits accrued by the organisation from the training. This will enable Ford Company managers to know whether the training was worthwhile or not. (Nankervis, 2008) Conclusion It is quite evident that management is Ford Australia Company needs to incorporate training and development. This is in areas of customer service, leadership skills, interpersonal skills and team skills. It is important for every business organisation to incorporate a training and development strategy. This helps in modifying employee’s behaviours. Organisational goals are easily achieved when training and development is well implemented. Evaluation will help in knowing whether the set objectives were achieved or not. Read More