The Changing Role of Technology in Training and Development - Essay Example

Senior Officials of Tesco HR Consultants August 7, The Changing Role of Technology in Training and Development The evolution of technology has enhanced a broader shift of communication in training and development process. To Borner, Moormann & Wang (2012, p200), technology has been used to amplify voices; foster positive changes, and facilitate meaningful participation in training process. As technology continues to advance at a high rate, Tesco Company must adopt potential strategies to take full advantage of modern technology to enhance their training and development process. In this context, this report brings into light that training and development is a motivational tool, which all organizations must embrace. Training is the most applicable tool that Tesco can use to educate its employees. The company must invest heavily on training and development process for motivational reasons. It is important to understand what make, satisfies or dissatisfies employees. Additionally, the company should carefully analyze and plan its training needs to have a tremendous influence and impact on the employee’s performance (McDowall & Mark 2010, p610). Tesco must establish the group that needs training, areas that need improvement, and the resources required for the training process to be effective. Indeed, companies that pay a great attention and invest a lot in their training and development process, often have the best results such as an increase in work performance, productivity, morale, and satisfaction just to name a few. Solutions to having the best training and development process depends more on the communication strategies used. In other words, communication must be the main drive to organizational development and encourages employees to generate and learn from one another. Some of the potential applications and strategies that Tesco may adopt to take full advantage of modern technology and enhance their training and development process might include the following. The most important strategy is the capacity or ability to broadcast messages from different offices across the world. The innovation of technology reduces the cost of international travel, thus allowing executives to be in meetings virtually and interact effectively (Cherniss, Grimm & Liautaud 2010, p415). With this, technology can be used to enhance communication in training and development by breaking distance barriers that may hinder effective interaction. Technology boosts communication process in the sense that, trainers do not have to travel in miles training trainees. The trainer only needs to record the message and send it to the company or the organization in need. Tesco should embrace this strategy to boost its communication in training and development. For instance, the holographic technology is a potential technological tool that would benefit Tesco. Employers could use this technology to increase company meetings, internal communication and learning, and development. According to Kissack & Callahan (2010, p366), the systems of holographic technology is supplied by a projector or an LED screen that enhances reflected images on the onstage. The company should embrace this technology to enhance a great impact in communication process. Most companies experience challenges in getting their message across and understanding the people that need to learn. Thus, it is important to connect to people emotionally by making them understand what is expected of them in the workplace. The company must embrace the investment of technology such as holographic against the savings on international accommodations and flights. By utilizing the modern technology, Tesco’s employees would be more connected to learning process. Still, employers would be in a better position to enlist technologies that help them stay connected to experts across the globe. Instead of hiring experts to come and train the organization, Tesco would only need to broadcast messages by different experts and stay connected, enriched, and motivated by the knowledge put across (Weschke & Canipe 2010, p45). For Tesco, technology can be used as a tool to increase the flow of communication within the organization. Electronic communication methods such as email, online newsletters, video conferences, intranet, and instant messages can be a great way for Tesco to obtain feedback from employees (Markovitz & Jones 2012, p42). In order to compete and survive in the ever changing and competitive environment, it is important for Tesco to satisfy the needs of the employees. Only trained, motivated, and satisfied employees can provide quality services and produce quality products. One of the core requirements of training and development process is that, it must be valuable and effective for employees to carry out their assigned duties effectively. Training development is an important process that prepares and mentors employees for future job responsibilities. While training focuses on employees learning the necessary skills and abilities to boost organization performance, development focuses more on the preparation required for future jobs. Training and development process is paramount for the growth and survival of a company. It is paramount to note that, training is not about developing people, but helping them to be confident, content, motivated, and satisfied in their assigned tasks and responsibilities. To understand the significance and value of training and development process, it is important to collect employees’ feedbacks. This is prominent in giving the business a chance to evaluate whether the training is effective or not. It also ensures that employees’ needs in the organization are met accordingly. Thus, Tesco would use electronic communication to obtain feedbacks from employees about training and development process (Larbi-Apau & Moseley 2008, p40). Tesco should adopt the importance of education to enhance training and development process. The company must take full advantage of modern technology to improve cultural education and giving employees the opportunity to learn from different cultures. By interact with employees from other cultures through emails, instant messages, and social media networks, employees can learn from one another. Computer-mediated communication creates a great opportunity for employees to access information while in the workplace without the need of travelling in miles (Dobbs 2006, p500). Fostering the exchange of information and knowledge from different culture would stimulate employees’ motivation and awareness of how people from different cultures behave. In turn, this would create a strong platform for employees to make sober and informed decisions on the crucial matters affecting the organization. Interacting with people from different cultures can promote changes in social behaviour and attitudes, which in turn would help the organization identify sustainable development solutions and opportunities of solving conflicts and find a common ground for actions and policies taken after the training and development process (Gilpin-Jackson & Bushe 2007, p990). Media and communication technologies can help employees learn from each others. These are powerful tools for advising employee about new practices, ideas, and training process. Communication is a crucial key of raising awareness, supporting debate on biodiversity, and sharing knowledge, all of which are important for improving training and development process (Heidecke & Back 2009, p35). The best return on the training investment is determined by identifying the company’s training needs, deciding a systematic approach to finding suitable training, and enrolling employees on the best courses for the job. Tesco should identify the training needs in the company and prioritise them. In some cases, some training needs can be hard to spot such as whether the business or team is underperforming. In this case, technology can be used to evaluate and monitor activities that take place in the organization. For instance, the Company may use surveillance and CCTV camera to evaluate, which training may increase productivity or work performance (Bates & Davis 2010, p770). Through these technologies, the company may be in a better position to evaluate whether the business is experiencing some problems or held back in some ways. In so doing, this would help the company evaluate the root source of the problem and assess whether fixing appropriate training could be part of the solution. Still, technology would help the company to access customer complaints attributed by lack of skills or knowledge. The company may also be in a better position to evaluate whether the company has a shortage of a particular set of abilities or skills. With this, it is evident that utilizing surveillance and CCTV cameras would help Tesco identify the training needs, which in turn would help the company reap the easiest and fastest rewards in the training and development process. To keep training focused and relevant, the company should set Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, and Time-Limited Objectives (SMART). For instance, Tesco should set a strategy to inform its employees on how to achieve the set and intended goals. In this case, mobile technology would help in informing employees about what should be done and at what time. According to Gandolfi (2009, p5), once the organization has identified its training needs, it is important to involve employees in the entire training decision making process. This is because they may have good ideas that may help the company to shift from one level of maturity and growth to the other. Mobile technology, social network sites, and email may help the company to gather information from employees on what training they think would boost productivity and benefit the business. In so doing, this creates a strong ground for employees to air their thoughts and suggestions, and in turn this promotes a sense of belonging. Formulating a personal development plan could be a great idea of Tesco Company. In this case, it is vital to take into account learning preference. At this point, the management team of this company should realize that some employees may learn best by listening, watching, researching, and others by experiences. In the 21st century, technology has created a strong path where one can gather information at ease without the need of going to libraries (Ismail, Noor & Awang 2011, p150). Embracing the modern technology could help the company prioritise training its needs and agree on the best ways to address them. In training and development process, mentoring involves the transmission of knowledge supported by communication channels such as face-to-face meetings, telephone, email, and social networks among other. The company should consider finding a mentor or an expert whose performance has a tremendous impact in the business industry. The company may also encourage employees to search and conduct researches of various things that successful companies have embraced in their day-to-day activities. In so doing, this could equip employees with adequate information they need to be effective and productive at the work place. Technology could be used as a vital tool to increase business productivity. Tesco could utilize technology to maximize business productivity and creates a strong path to discover the success of training process. By utilizing technology tools such as emails, telephones, and mobile technology, the company ensures that it has adequate tools to overcome the challenges that emerge in today’s economic times (Lu & Betts 2011, p120). By creating a communicative and open environment, managers can easily communicate their training strategies and create measurable goals for their staff members and employees that support company objectives. By creating an online framework, the company could create a strong platform for employees to see the whole picture and understand how their individual goals fit into the company’s goals and objectives. As a result, this creates motivated, engaged, and energized employees, thereby increasing the company’s productivity. Typically, it is important for the company to connect its employees virtually. This can be done by creating team sites and employee portals, which help employees to work productively in the organization no matter the differences in culture, social status, or education background. In this case, employees can utilize technology to reach to other employee working on similar duties or projects (Garavan et al 2008, p615). Still, employee may find experts that answer questions that affect the organization. As a result, this would improve the entire process of training and development. Based on the information gathered on training needs, managers may motivate their employee using technology. The reward may be based on the information gathered in an online performance evaluation. After a deep evaluation, the company may evaluate areas that need training. Thus far, it is evident that Tesco cannot proper without investing in training and development process. The company must invest heavily on the modern technology that is crucial in boosting communication. Employees can effectively communicate with each other regardless of the geographical barriers. Through modern technology such as email, video conferences, and instant messages, employers can facilitate training to their employees. With this, this report concludes that the company must embrace the mentioned strategies to succeed in training and development process. Bibliography Bates, D.L. & Davis, T.J. 2010, "The Application Bridge: A Model for Improving Trainee Engagement in the Training Process",International Journal of Management, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 770-776,778. Borner, R., Moormann, J. & Wang, M. 2012, "Staff training for business process improvement", Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 200-225. Cherniss, C., Grimm, L.G. & Liautaud, J.P. 2010, "Process-designed training", The Journal of Management Development, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 413-431. 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