Employee training at B&Q Plc - Essay Example

EMPLOYEE TRAINING AT B&Q PLC By Location Employee training at B&Q Plc B&Q Plc. is a UK based company which deals with garden center and home improvement retailing. The company offers employment opportunities to more than 30000 people in the UK. In the process of making sure that they offer value for their customers’ money the company has always made sure that they have employees of the highest possible quality. One of the ways through which B&Q Plc. manages to have high quality employees is training. They do engage their employees in training programs with the sole aim enhancing acquisition of skills and experience. The company uses both on job training methods and off job training method in order to enhance the productivity of their employees. The two of the most used training methods at B&Q Plc. are Mentoring and Vestibule Training. This paper aims at discussing Mentoring and Vestibule Training as two of the training methods that are used at B&Q Plc. There has been a various change in the employment policy at B&Q Plc. over the past decade. About a decade ago, many business analysts criticized B&Q Plc. For having a policy that encouraged to employ and retaining much older employees. At that time younger job seekers were less advantaged when they were seeking jobs at the company. The company has always considered quality of their products and services to be their first priority. Therefore, employing older employees was seen as a way through which the company could be able to get experience and skills in a single package (Saks, Haccoun& Belcourt 2010, p. 101. At that time this really worked for them especially because they were able to build a reputation that was rooted on quality. There is always some uncertainty regarding employing younger employees. Younger employees might be skilled by the obvious reason as to why employing them might not be a good idea is the fact that it might take a while before they attain the experience that the older employees have. However, the good thing is that this is a problem that can be properly solved by having a good training program. As for the case of B&Q Plc. mentoring was chosen as the most appropriate way of making sure that the company will be able to accommodate both the young and energetic employees and the old and experienced employees (Becker 1993, p. 123). This method can be said to have worked well for the company. B&Q Plc. has devoted much of their time and resources in the development and training of younger employees. There was a time that the company used to have the reputation of employing older employees. However, that is not the case at B&Q Plc. anymore. B&Q Plc. has changed its policy and is focused on being an all-age employer. It has been noticed that B&Q Plc. has been gaining interest in employing employees in the 18-24 years age group. In fact, more than 25% of the company’s staff at the moment are aged below 25 years. The human resource manager at B&Q Plc. asserts that by involving the younger employees they will be able to use the older employees to mentor them into the most valuable employees in the company. Through mentoring B&Q Plc. has been able to make sure that their junior employees can get guidance from the senior ones. Since the senior employees have the skills they can be able to pass on the same to the junior employees in the company. Given the fact that the senior employees are well conversant with the company’s organizational culture they can be able to make it easier for the junior employees to take a shorter period to get conversant with the culture of the company (Polachek& Tatsiramos2010, p. 201). This enables the company to have a smooth transition from a system that highly depended on senior employees to a system that can accommodate both senior and junior employees. One thing that is evident about the manner in which the company implemented their mentoring program is that the program was not as regular and structured as the coaching program that they were using before adapting the mentoring program. This has enabled the employees who are involved in the mentoring program to have a way of having direct contact with each other.in the case of B&Q Plc. it was observed that both the senior and junior employees benefited from the program. As for the senior employees the program was a way through which they could get to better their skills in the process of passing on the skills to the junior employees (Lafer 2002, p. 172). The junior employees benefit because they have a one-on-one interaction with people with the experience that they do not have. In the process the junior employees can gain experience in a shorter period as compared to when they have to gain the experience naturally (Zachary 2013, p. 212). The mentoring program used at B&Q Plc. focuses on attitude development. The company believes that if their employees are able to develop the attitude of working together regardless of the level of experience or age, then the employees can be able to maximize their productivity. The organization also believes that mentoring has enabled the junior employees to make use of the senior employees’ experience so that they can be able to maximize their output (Sisson 2001, p. 167). Due to the fact that mentoring encourages one-on-one interaction the program has been successful is enhancing teamwork in the company. In the process of mentorship the two employees that are engaged usually learn more about each other. Knowing more about each other makes it easier for the individuals involved to work better together. According to Liz Bell, the human resource director at B&Q Plc. mentoring enabled the parties involved to get to know the strong points and weaknesses of each other. Despite the fact that this program was developed to enhance employee training, Bell believes that the program has been successful in making sure that both the senior and junior members of the staff are able to bring their various abilities (Allen, Finkelstein& Poteet 2011, p. 212). This leads to formation of a team that has been able to get the company to higher productivity levels. Simulation refers to a training method whereby an artificial environment with the same characteristics as those in a real situation is created with the aim of helping employees get experience. At B&Q Plc. simulation is used so that the business organization can give their junior employees a chance of gaining experience without having to compromise the operations of the business organization. At B&Q Plc. the most used forms of simulation are role play and case study. Through role play employees can be able to learn how they can respond to certain situations without having to be in the situation. Case studies also help their employees in having examples that can give them insight into the context of a business issue. Case study also helps in illustration of the main points in the issues involved. According to Bell the employees who go through simulation programs usually come back innovated. Innovation helps the employees in being more involved in the activities within the organization. Having involved themselves in similar situations in the artificial environment they are able to apply the experience that they had during the simulation process while working at the organization. Having gone through such situation in the artificial environment, employees involved in the simulation program always seem to be more confident as compared to how they were before they went for the simulation program. When an employee goes through simulation they usually develop the ability to what they learn to real world scenarios. The simulation program at B&Q Plc. is designed in a manner that the involved employees are taken through theoretical learning while at the same time being accorded a chance to practice the learning in practical scenarios. Through the practical involvement they are usually able to attain experience without the company having fear of the possible consequences of their mistake to the operations of the business organization. Learning in most cases is usually very challenging for employees because learning and application come in different environments. Training methods such as lecture usually enable employees to learn first, then apply what they have learnt latter. However, things are always different with simulation. Simulation allows learners to learn and apply what they are learning in real time. Learning and applying the acquired skills in real time implies that employees will be able to know whether they have really grasped the concept that they are supposed to be learning during the training process. Bell also asserts that simulation also enable the company to enhance the leadership and teamwork abilities of their employees. The simulation program at B&Q Plc. is designed in a way that the involved employees usually work in teams with one of the team members being charged with leadership responsibilities. When they get from the programs they usually have better teamwork skills, making it easier for them to be part of the team that fights for the company’s success (Vincenzi 2009, p. 119). It is also notable that the organization needs employees with leadership qualities in various levels. Through the simulation programs the employees are able to develop their leadership skills. With all this improvement, the company has managed to have among the best staff in the industry. The good thing about working as a team during the simulation process is that the employees can learn from each other. This is something that continues even after the employees are through with the simulation program and are expected to show comprehension of what they have learnt in real life. According to Bell, who is the director of human resource at B&Q Plc. uses simulation as a way through which they can be able to assess the development of their employees. When the company takes their employees through training programs such as conferences and classroom lecture they are always not aware the extent to which their employees benefit from such programs. However, through simulation they are always able to know which of their employees benefited from the other training programs. Through simulation the company can be able to observe their employees so that they can know to what extent the other training programs are effective (Connor & Pokora 2012, p. 192). The company is also able to identify the employees whose skills and abilities have developed as a result of their involvement in the training programs. Simulation can also be said to be a way through which a business organization can carry out a safe practical training program. Practical involvement during training usually help the business organization in making sure that the errors that the employees make while learning do not affect the company’s operations. Given the fact that the environment being used in this case is virtual the business organization do not have to worry about the possible risks that are brought about by practical involvement of inexperienced employees. However, there have been some concerns raised by the company regarding the financial cost of involving employees in simulation (Johnson 2014, p. 177). Simulation programs can also be time consuming because they do not have direct instant impact to the productivity of the business organization. It is because of these shortcoming that the company does not use simulation as frequently as they use mentoring. It is clearly evident that the two training methods used by B&Q Plc. have been beneficial in improving the productivity of their employees. Since the company decided to adopt a mixed age policy in employing their staff mentoring has been effective in making sure that the junior employees can learn from the senior employees who are more experienced. This has saved the company the time that would have been spent in waiting for the junior employees to gain experience. Another thing is that B&Q Plc. this method also makes sure that both the junior and senior employees can be able to work together as a single unit. As for simulation the company has had an opportunity to give their employees experience without jeopardizing the business organization’s operations. For these reasons it can be said that the two training methods have been effective in improving the productivity of employees at B&Q Plc. Bibliography Allen, TD, Finkelstein, LM & Poteet, ML 2011,Designing Workplace Mentoring Programs an Evidence-Based Approach,John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken. Becker, GS 1993, Human capital a theoretical and empirical analysis, with special reference to education, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Connor, M & Pokora, J 2012,Coaching and mentoring at work: developing effective practice, McGraw-Hill/Open University Press, Maidenhead. Johnson, WB 2014,The Oxford handbook of education and training in professional psychology,Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford. Lafer, G 2002,The job training charade,Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y. Polachek, SW & Tatsiramos, K 2010, Jobs, training and worker well-being, IZA, Bingley, UK. Saks, AM, Haccoun, RR & Belcourt, M 2010,Managing performance through training and development,Nelson Education, Toronto. Sisson, GR 2001,Hands-on training a simple and effective method for on-the-job training,Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco. Vincenzi, DA 2009,Human factors in simulation and training,CRC Press, Boca Raton. Zachary, LJ 2013,Creating a mentoring culture the organizations guide, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, Calif. Read More