Human Resource Development - Finnish Book Store - Assignment Example

The Finnish Book Store Report xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Instructor xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date Executive Summary The aim of this short report is to examine the significant role that is played by human resource development(HRD) within Finnish Bookstore in their attempt to improve on the quality and the performance of their sales force’s customer service skills. The paper focuses significantly on the impact and the outcomes that HRD online program will have on the creation and the simulation of knowledge and skills amongst the employees of Finnish Bookstore. Normally, HRD helps an organization to collect and combine a variety of knowledge elements and skills that help it sustain a competitive advantage in the market and acquire skills such as strategic human resource planning, induction as well as performance appraisal. The online program will also help Finnish Bookstore to improve on the organization’s positive management of diversity. This means that the store will have a more competitive advantage in the market arena which is beneficial to the organization. Finally, the paper concludes by showing how the online program at the Finnish Bookstore Organization impacts heavily and positively on the performance of the employees in the respective areas of work. Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 The Simulation Online Training Program at Finnish Book Store 5 Ways of Assessing the Development Needs of their Staff 5 The Appropriate Learning Strategies/ Interventions 8 An Evaluation of the HRD Intervention Techniques Effectiveness 10 Conclusion 11 References 12 Introduction Human Resource Development has been defined to mean the process by which employees in an organization are helped to develop their personal and interpersonal skills as well as their organizational skills, the knowledge they require in this and equipping them with the necessary abilities(Susan 2010). It can include opportunities like employee training, programs dealing with the development of careers management programs and organizational development. It majorly focuses on all aspects of developing a very effective workforce at the workplace so that the organization can meet and accomplish their goals of good service to customers. It bears different approaches. It can be formal, like in a classroom setting, a course offered in the college or in an organization that has put in place strategies to improve the skills and the general organizational performance of its employees. It can also be informal in nature. This particularly takes the form of coaching of the employees by a manager. At the Finnish Book Store, it has taken the informal approach. The online program introduced is to be facilitated by a coach in all the individual stores in the Finnish Book Store chain. The role of the coach is to primarily assist the participants in simulating and evaluating their own personal experiences so that they can construct individual understandings before discussing them with their colleagues and later finalizing the program over the intranet. The program is based at imparting skills to the participants and engaging them in solving real world sales situations. According to Taggar and Thornhill (2002), human resource development involves a way in which the relationships between human resources and strategy were forged. The Simulation Online Training Program at Finnish Book Store Strategic human resource development programs play a major role in the running and success of an institution. Generally, it contributes to the attainment of organizational skills, the specific knowledge and skills required for it to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage (Saks, Taggar and Haccoun 2002). Thus when the Finnish Book Store enrolls such a program, it creates the opportunity to gain such knowledge and skills required for the best service of the customers. The program will help a great deal in the success of the organizational growth as well as its advancement in services to the customers. The organization is able to accomplish and achieve quality training for the employees if the program is able to produce successful results. The training will also add value and credibility to the performance of the employees and the delivery of services to the customers. It also contributes heavily in providing effective solutions to many business problems that arise at the workplace. Ways of Assessing the Development Needs of their Staff To investigate and identify the needs of the Finnish Book Store staff is an important and most crucial pre-stage in the human resource development training program. It is a strategy that is used for the analysis and the assessment of the specific skills of the employees so as to identify the performance of the respective employees, their skills knowledge and abilities needed for the workforce to meet the professional requirements. The assessment helps to direct resources in areas that require the greatest demand. This process involves the use of HRDNI and not only analysis and assessment, but also other techniques such as gathering data, description, verification, classifications and also interrelationships. HRDNI is a process that will help the manager at the Finnish Book Store to identify the gap between the current situation and what should be the expected situation. It is pro active, positive and future oriented and involves four major categories. (i) A performance deficiency - This basically analyses the gap that exists between the performance currently occurring in an organization and what the organization actually expects (Baldwin and Peters 2001). At this instance, the Finnish Book Store will have to critically analyze its current performance in the organization and compare the results with what actually could have been the expected results. (ii) A diagnostic auditing - this searches for ways that will lead to more effective and productive performance such as the introduction of technological advancements and these also helps to alleviate future performance problems. (iii) Democratic preference - by the managers and the staff of the programs which to them will help them primarily in meeting their unique needs and empowering the staff in a manner that boosts their own developmental needs. (iv) Pro-active analysis- which focuses on emphasizing the search and identification of problems likely to occur in future and also probable challenges before they actually happen. This is a preventive measure also known as the shadow system which helps in alleviating the problems before they arise. The HRDNI will identify and define the needs of the Finnish Book Store at three different levels which include: Organizational assessment- which evaluates the levels and the quality of the performance of the organization. At this stage, the manager of the Finnish Book Store training program will determine what skills, abilities and knowledge that the Book Store is in need of. The skills are what are required to deal with the weaknesses and the problems of the organization and then enhance its capabilities, its competencies and its strengths as well (Cascio 2005 ). Occupational assessment- of the groups which involves examining the different occupational groups and determining what their strengths and difficulties are. This will help to find areas in Finnish Book Store in which there are occupational discrepancies where gaps exist in terms of knowledge, skills and abilities. Individual assessment- involve analyzing the employees in their individual capacities , their capability in doing the job effectively while employing organizational and interpersonal skills. It gives general information on the kind of training that every employee requires and helps to determine which employees need urgent training. The result of this assessment is primarily aimed at allowing the training manager responsible to set the training objectives and identify accurately the needs of the employees. A thoroughly carried out HRDNI is very necessary for the application of any HRD intervention. The interventions are discussed in detail herein. The Appropriate Learning Strategies/ Interventions It is important that the training manager be aware that any HRD intervention must be designed to achieve goals that meet certain learning outcomes. He/she must get a clear understanding of what the objective is before conducting any kind of intervention. As a HRD manager, the instructor is supposed to understand that before designing any type of human resource development intervention, that it is critical and imperative to give adequate consideration to three most crucial variables. These include the learning strategies, the learning characteristics and the learning outcomes. (i) The learning outcomes -has five major categories that the instructor at the Finnish Book Store must focus upon. These are the programmed knowledge, the task, relationship and critical categories and the Meta-abilities category. These outcomes are supposed to explain the effect that the training program shall have had on the employees of the Finnish Book Store. It is the HRDNI that leads to the learning outcomes. On the other hand, the outcomes are what predict the most appropriate and the most effective learning strategy. In the programmed knowledge, which is the most simplest, the employees at the Finnish Book Store are supposed to basic facts and skills, professional and technical information as well as procedural skills as well. Here, the strategies that the online coach is to employ include the theory session, the actual lecture and then the skill session. The skill session basically involves actual test as to whether the employers can apply the skills learnt. The sessions here help when dealing with the induction of new staff and in the development of customer service and interpersonal skills. The task category of the learning outcomes includes three subgroups which are the analytical, the logistical and the implementation stages. Here, the employees at the Finnish Book Store are to acquire basic skills in linear analysis, complex analysis, diagnostic analysis and analysis under uncertainty. This category is particularly relevant for good management and organizational purposes and also helps in the development of leadership skills. They are best developed by experiential learning and mentoring. The relationship category will majorly focus on the interpersonal skills require at the Finnish Book Store which include interaction levels of the employees both at the objective and the emotional levels and also the capability of the employees to use their social power. These involves imparting skills such as self-confidence, accurate self-awareness, self-discipline, inner strength and emotional resilience just to mention but a few. Some of the techniques used here will be experiential learning, mentoring and also problem based learning(Black & Lynch 2001). The Meta-abilities category is concerned with the deep tacit knowledge of the individual. (ii) The Learning Strategies- these are influenced by the learning outcomes on a very heavy scale. Here, the coach at the Finnish Book Store must make a tentative selection of the process of the learning strategies. He must for instance consider the current knowledge of the employees of the Book Store. This has two limbs, the structured and the unstructured. The structured is the low knowledge base while the unstructured include the self directed advanced knowledge. (iii) Learner characteristics must be employed such as motivation, expectancy and learning orientation. The learners will be highly comfortable with highly structured learning strategies which are gained through theory sessions or lectures other than being charged with the responsibility of unstructured learning. For instance, the employees at the Finnish Book Store have already undergone generic sales skills in a two-day immersive sales training program and there is also existing time to time classroom training for all the sales personnel. Thus, they are not new to the training programs. Such employees fall under the category of the analytical, free thinking and the creative employees. These generally boosts their interpersonal, organizational and leadership skills as well. An Evaluation of the HRD Intervention Techniques Effectiveness The effectiveness of the above techniques at the Finnish Book Store will majorly depend on the evaluation of the same in the online training program. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (2000) there is a four step process that is used to evaluate the training mechanisms. It involves looking at the reaction, the learning, the behavior and the result of the whole HRD training. This will be achieved at the Finnish Book Store if the organizational decision making, which include making decisions about HRD activities it handled rationally. Recently, a two tier strategy has been adopted which includes evaluation factors such as the processes, the employees, the interventions adopted, the management and the customers at large and also an evaluation of the effective factors such as the intended outcomes and the specific units of evaluation. Conclusion In a nutshell, human resource development is considered an important factor in the performance of any given organization. Finnish Book Store is no exception. They will have an upper hand in the market competition if the appropriate online training program takes place and the appropriate strategies and interventions of HRD are put in place. To this regard, the Finnish Book Store must ensure that the necessary skills and practical as well as theoretical knowledge is imparted fully to its employees. This will help it to achieve good outcomes in the organization, service delivery to the customers and also in the interpersonal relationships between the employees and the customers. I rest my case. References Black, S.E., and L.M. Lynch (2001),’How to Compete: The Impact of Workplace Practices and Information Technology on Productivity,’ Review of Economics and Statistics 83, no. 3: 434-445 Baldwin, J. and V. Peters (2001), “Training as a Human Resource Strategy: The Response to Staff Shortages and Technological Change”, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, No. 154-11F0019MPE No. 154,38 p. Cascio, W. ( 2005 ). “From Business Partner to Driving Business Success: The Next Step in the Evolution of HR Management,” Human Resource Management 4, pp. 159–63 . Susan M. (2010), What is Human Resource Development, (HRD). Available from http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossaryh/f/hr_development.htm. (23 April 2012) Gibb, S. (2010), Human Resource Development: Who Succeeds and Why? 3rd Edition Available from http://us.macmillan.com/QuickSearchResultsV2.aspx?search=Gibb+STEP EN&ctl00%24uc. (23 April 2012) Saks, A., S. Taggar and R. Haccoun (2002), “Is Training Related to Firm Performance?” Human Resources Management Research Quarterly, International Alliance for Human Resources Research, Vol. 6, No. 3, Fall 2002, 5 p. Society for Human Resource Management ( 2000 ). Workplace Visions 5 pp. 3–4 . Taggar, S. and S. Thornhill (2002), “The Impact of Performance-Based Pay, Firm Strategy, and Firm Size on Firm Performance”, Human Resources Management Research Quarterly, International Alliance for Human Resources Research, Vol. 6, No. 4, Winter 2002, 5 p. Read More