Training Concerns at Apple Inc - Essay Example

Despite the progress that the company has been making, training employees remains its main activity in a bid to remain competitive and keep pace with rivals.

Training concerns at Apple Inc.

When this company was under the leadership of Steve Jobs, it adopted a distribution channel system that encompassed intermediaries who were authorized dealers. The strategy worked with excellence in most parts of the world, lately, the strategy seems not to be working as expected since competitors have changed tact and adopted strategies that give them competitive advantages above Apple Inc. The company has been on a mission to recruit and train cashiers, public relation personnel in their different stores (Wentland, 2007), managers, and other employees so that they can help tackle the prevailing marketing and management challenges. At the same time, the company is recruiting and training ambitious young people so that they can add creativity and innovativeness that was left a void when its creative genius and founder, Steve Jobs passed on.

The ADDIE training model is one of the approaches that was used in the development and implementation and successful training programs at Apple Inc.

Training plan

Analysis

The author of the paper argues in a well-organized manner that Apple Inc. offers electronics and related products, with its main area of interest being the development of computer hardware and software. The company has been doing this by the use of creative young people who understand the current needs of the market as well as their ability to read the strategies of competitors and counter them. However, in the recent past, the company has not been able to effectively tackle issues of technology development as well as marketing because the systems that have been adopted by clients have outdone its strategies in a great way. This is the main constraint that the company has been facing, something that has prompted a serious concern for training new and dynamic workers who can turn round the fortunes of the company. 

Design and Development

The training program that has been developed is aimed at training managers on better ways of improving their management skills as well as cashiers and public relations officers so that they can effectively understand and deal with various issues raised by clients. Previously, authorized dealers have not been able to understand the technical aspects of Apple Inc.’s products, making them unable to answer technical questions from clients.

For effective training, the company designed an organizational chart that outlined training objectives and outcomes in each of the groups that were trained. The chart is shown in the appendix.

Evaluation

After the training that was successfully held, the post-training evaluation identified different kinds of performance gaps that were thought to be the root causes of all other problems. For instance, there was a need to train cashiers and public relations on the company’s products so that they could handle technical questions from clients. In addition, employees rose complaints about the existing gap between them and the senior management, something that they said has to be reviewed to improve communication channels in the company.

It was also identified that there was a need for more cashiers and public relations officers so that the company became more efficient in handling customer issues. These issues gave the company a hint into effective ways of improving its overall effectiveness and efficiency in the competitive market (Noe, 2013).

Implementation

it is expected that full implementation of the training program will go a long way in enabling the company to revolutionalize its operations and management plans so they reflect the prevailing needs in the competitive world. Effective human resource practice will require that the company put a lot of emphasis on motivating its staff so they can discharge their duties with full commitment.

 It is important to note that the company still has the potential to match other rival companies just as it has in the future. Nevertheless, this can only be possible if it follows its stipulated plan of motivating and improving work practices in the firm. There is still a huge demand for computers and their related technologies worldwide. The growth and developments in the information and technology world mean that social, economic, and other systems that affect human life require these facilities to improve their quality. The company should therefore consider that there is still a brighter future that can only be met by having effective systems.