Development and Implementation of the Training Program - Essay Example

? Development and training paper Table of Contents Introduction 3 Training needs assessment 3 Designing the training material 4 Development of the training program 4 Implementation of the training program 5 Training Evaluation 6 Conclusion 7 Reference 9 Introduction The project seeks to develop a complete training program for TESCO, which is the global merchandise and grocery retailer located in the United Kingdom in Cheshunt. It accounts for one of the largest retailers in the world having store locations in 14 countries across the world. The present aim of the business to increase expansion in many more regions such as Central Europe, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary requires an overall development in the present skills and performance levels of employees. On overall increase in the performance standards of the company’s staff and to undertake greater and more demanding roles account for the main reason behind development of this training program. Training needs assessment The opening up of new stores in new locations necessarily means that the company must adapt to the wide diverse demands made by the consumers at different locations. For example, stores located in the densely populated and diverse areas might require selling high proportions of specialty goods in order to cater to the requirements of the customers in that area. This means a thorough analysis of the profile of customers in that area. Moreover, stores located at diverse places would require a wide diversity of technical competencies and skills; The organization also requires an employee base with wide skill ranging who would be able to work with high flexibility and would prove to be more productivity for the purpose of the business (The Times 100, 2012). Designing the training material The first step towards designing the training module would be set the overall goals in training. This could mean developing the requisite qualification for a particular job, overcoming a certain performance problem, etc. In this case, TESCO seeks to enhance the overall skill levels and performance of employees. This means that it would necessarily require broad technical training for the career development of employees. The next step would be set the learning objectives for the module. TESCO requires its employees to deliver high technical competence, problem solving abilities, decision making skills, and delegator skills, customer specific skills. The next step would be to decide the exact methods of attaining the learning objectives. This implies completing a course within a required time under basic supervision, addressing major problems and hurdles in the process, or delegating certain employees for undertaking the tasks. Documentation in the training process is an important step in the process, such as course grades could be allocated; written evaluations could be undertaken; decision making and problem solving approaches could be undertaken. Finally assessment and evaluation of the quality of evidence would highlight whether the required goals and objectives were achieved or not (McNamara, n.d.). Development of the training program Training would be primarily provided through internal sources. This would be provided highly sound and experienced technical professionals from within the company. This would primarily cater to developing the technical skill aspects of employees. The main aim would to identify the skill and knowledge gaps of employees. Employees along with their managers would identify these gaps and try to remove them by applying the training and development programs. Moreover, the training module would also try to enable employees develop such skills which help them advance in their careers. The idea would be not only to benefit the organization through the training programs but also provide career benefit to the employees at large (The Times 100, 2012). Online training could also be employed as a potential medium of training as it would be accessible for all at any point of time. Moreover, it would also act a manual for self help whenever employees would be in need for it. Employees could gather knowledge from a single portal based on their needs and requirements. The most prominent advantage of this medium is that employees would have easy access to the same and it would be based on their individual needs and requirements. Identifying their own skill shortages and gaps they would be able to cater to the shortages and remove them effectively. External medium could also be employed for such programs. For example, it would be beneficial to employ big industrialists from large corporate to elaborate on the specific aspects of the business that the company could venture into and benefit from. Their sound business intelligence could be used for the company’s advantage as a guidance and direction they could focus on and proceed. They would be employed as effective external sources for providing employees with the vision and prospect that the organization seeks to achieve and to direct their activities towards realizing the same (The Times 100, 2012). Implementation of the training program Implementing the training program would necessarily begin with conducting a training needs analysis and prioritizing the training needs as well. This would mean taking the participation and involvement of the people and employees in identifying and agreeing the relevant aligned training. This would be followed by identifying the aspects which required training and developing the people in those directions. Attaching standards, measures and parameters in each element would be an important step in this regard. The skills sets or the previously identified training needs would to organize the training assessments elements on a larger scale. This would be followed by delivering the training programs. This involves designating the trainers and deciding on the training techniques. There can be one-to-one training, on the job training, seminars, group training, and even workshops. In this context it must be mentioned that trainers would play an important and crucial role in the training process. They must be conscious and aware of many different elements, like the environment in which training is delivered, planning of the training process, use of the various training methods and employing the right communication skills. The final step would be evaluation of the training programs. This step is essential to reveal the extent of effectiveness of the training programs and how profitable it has been in the context of the employees and the organization at large. Training Evaluation First of all implementing a cost benefit analysis is essential in this context. This would mean outlining the expenses and returns and the resulting impacts of the training programs on profits and customer satisfaction. For example, the costs associated with the training, such as resources, infrastructures against the resulting increase or decrease in revenues and profits earned by employees would throw light on the effectiveness of the program. Customers could also act an evaluator of the program. Feedback taken from customers on the improved or enhanced performance of employees could act as a measure of effectiveness of the training modules. Training could be evaluated against the set standards of performance of employees. For example, actual performance of employees against the set performance would be a reflection of the effectiveness of the programs. This would also reflect on the changes in technical expertise of people in the organization. Employee feedback would be collected on the performance of trainers and the extent of success of the training modules. Their reviews would be taken with regards to the ways in which the training could be improved considering the present loopholes and drawbacks in the process (The Times 100-a, p.1-4). Conclusion It is seen that TESCO’s aim to widen its store locations in different would require an overall revision of work performance and productivity consequently requiring an overall improvement in the performance level of employees. Experienced and fine technical training and behavioral training is needed for the purpose. Both external as well as internal sources of training would be needed in this context. Experienced industry personnel from the industry and also internal professionals would act as experienced trainers for the organization. Methods of self-help would also be employed through a common network which all could access as any given point of time. Finally training would be evaluated against set performance standards and actually performance of employees. Also important is a cost benefit analysis to identify the differences in costs associated with the training against the revenues and profits increases in the process. Reference The Times 100. (2012). How training and development supports business growth. Retrieved on January 30, 2012 from http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/tesco/how-training-and-development-supports-business-growth/identifying-training-needs.html. McNamara. (No Date). Complete Guidelines to Design Your Training Plan. Retrieved on January 30, 2012 from http://managementhelp.org/training/systematic/guidelines-to-design-training.htm. The Times 100-a. (2012). How training and development supports business growth. Retrieved on January 30, 2012 from http://download.businesscasestudies.co.uk/retrieve_tesco_14_dGVzY28vY2FzZS1zdHVkaWVzLzE0L2Z1bGwucGRmfHw=. Read More