Improving Quality Through Training and Education - Term Paper Example

? [Insert Case] Improving Quality Through Training and Education [Insert Texas A&M Commerce In partial fulfillment of the requirements for [Insert Subject] [Name of Professor] [Date of Submission] Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………...3 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………….4 Employee Empowerment………………………………………………………………………5 Why Invest on Training and Education………………………………………………………..5 ROI of Investing in Training and Education…………………………………………………...6 Establishing a Corporate University…………………………………………………………6 The Focus………………………………………………………………………………………7 Conducting the Training and Education……………………………………………………….8 The Delivery Method…………………………………………………………………………..9 Further Plans………………………………………………………………………………….10 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………11 References……………………………………………………………………………………12 Appendix A…………………………………………………………………………………..13 Appendix B…………………………………………………………………………………..14 Abstract The company must realize that another value adding practice is that of developing the human resource. By pursuing higher levels of training and education for its employees the company should put itself in the position of higher quality outputs. By being skilled and equipped to deal with the problems of the company, each employee will be able to share the burden of problem solving and identification that was once wrongly monopolized by the managerial positions. This will result to a swifter and more efficient workforce organization that will benefit the company in more ways than one. Also, by empowering the employees, the company allows them to share their vision and goals and hold them parallel to the mission and vision statements of the company. With everybody on board the plans and the shared vision for the future of the company, the whole organization will be much more unified and effective in matters of communicating and steering in the direction of business success and development. Establishing a corporate university is a way to do this. Although it will be costly on the initial stages, if the profit objectives are still met then such university, in essence, just also paid for itself and will continually have dividends in the longer run and in the future stability of the company. Improving Quality Through Training and Education Introduction Technology and advancements can dictate the pace and performance of a company, but it pales in comparison to the importance of a good manpower sector in an organization. Manpower is essential in all departments, businesses, and organizations for it functions as the brain and driving force of the whole system. Without well and proper-trained individuals to man the company, chances are strong that it will not be navigated in the right direction to achieve profit objectives, stability, and future sustainability. It is also important to empower employees for the betterment of the whole organization internally. What must be understood is that the whole company must function as one in order to optimize its capabilities. By empowering employees, the management allows them to share the company’s vision and goals and also make it as their own. With a unified sight for what needs to be done, the whole organization will have a better meshed system which is more equipped and capable of handling arising problems and obstacles, which is something that technology and advancements are limited of doing. Also, by educating employees and enriching their job will improve the whole system capacity. Training in areas such as the use of lean management systems and six sigma will further strengthen the competitive edge of the company to put it into a better position for outclassing its competition. Employee Empowerment In business, it is very important that there is clear communication between all the parties involved. When we talk about improving the quality of system performance, in the context of communication, we refer to the ties between the top management and its employees. Most managers tend to shoulder all the burden of the problems because there is a lacking communication line with its constituents (Cable, 2011) and in most cases, the employees themselves just also don’t know what to do with the problems or, even worse, cannot identify the problems themselves if they are present in the system. This lack of communication disables and cripples the whole company into blooming to its full potential. By empowering employees with the knowledge and skills to identify the problems and deal with difficulties that can arise, the burden of the problem is shared and thus it becomes lighter and the organization becomes more effective in remedying it. Why Invest on Training and Education What the company should understand is that aside from the basic resources such as money, equipment, and information, there is also another resource which needs as much attention and management as the others do, which is the people (York, 2010). While targeting for quality initiatives, the company must realize that it should likewise invest on the development of the training and education of its employees because it has been a proven fact that it when their performance enhances it shall also yield to the betterment of the performance of the whole company. By being more productive and effective on their jobs, employees will have a then direct contribution to the advancement of the quality of work that the company outputs. Also, by educating and empowering the employees, the company will also minimize turnover rate of its employees, which is something very counter-productive when in significantly high figures. It is much more desirable to work with the given already, to develop them and mold them into the employees which the company deems necessary for their position rather than waste considerable time firing and hiring people before arriving to a stable enough employee that is both qualified and willing to retain their position. ROI of Investing in Training and Education In order to further stress of the importance of training and education, the company should consider the statistics proving that significantly investing on human resources and employee training yields very high returns of investments. Appendix A will show the difference of the revenue per employee is for employees who were trained to equal or less than five days as to employees who were trained longer. It was also an established link that with good employee experience in the company, good customer experience also followed (Williams & Arnett, 2004). Experience, in this context, translates to the way the company is projected in terms of its quality. Lauri Bassi, Ph.D., who is one of the leading researchers linking employee training to higher profit claims that “a firm’s investment in employee training is the single most powerful predictor of stock price” (Williams & Arnett, 2004). Establishing a Corporate University If the company is to heartily invest on training and education, then it must do it right. This can be achieved by formalizing a Corporate University where it shall serve as the “centralized training or education function within a corporation focused in the integrated development of employees on a basis aligned with the corporation’s values and business requirements” (Mahmood & Minhas, 2011). These so called universities have increased in trend over the last decades because of the proven effectivity of investing in human resource and worldwide corporations have also been employing such. Corporate universities will be able to address the need for a very goal-oriented workforce. This will also provide the venue for the employees to better see the larger picture of their contribution to the corporation and appreciate their value in the organizational system. They will also be given a clear picture as to what skills will be needed of them if they desire to be further promoted and enriched in their jobs. With these clear lines of communication, the employees are given a clear and concise direction for moving forward. And if employees move forward, so does the company. Corporate Universities are also useful in the transition stages of the company in times of changes and adjustments since in these cases it can act as a buffer between the management and the employees as to how the change will take place and what will be the expected parts of the employees are in it. The Focus The training and education must be suited and tailored for the needs of each certain position giving them the knowledge that is required in their field to better the performance. It is also noteworthy that employees need different kinds of trainings in the different stages of their career (York, 2010). To maximize the effectiveness of the training and education efforts, the company must assess and identify the level of training and education that their personnel has already attained and work on the development of key areas where improvement is desired to be observed. Appendix B shows the dynamics of how the training event functions. It depicts that the training is a perpetual and continuous cycle. But at the start, as aforementioned, the company must identify the focus. It shall then create and share the knowledge by gathering pertinent educational tools from the company experiences and operations where the education can be applied. Then the training proper will take place wherein it is timely and relevant. The performance result should also directly translate into what the business needs. In the company’s case, where we are aiming for quality initiatives, it is best that we focus on educating employees regarding lean and six sigma practices. These practices will enhance the quality of the production of the business. The six sigma functions as a redesigning and continuously improving business process and the lean management provides an improvement review to minimize cost adding activities and maximize the value of the product (Meredith & Shafer, 2010). Conducting the Training and Education In order to be effective, it must be put into proper perspective that the employees are adult learners. Knowles (1990) sites that the adult education must consist of five key ideas in order to be effective. Firstly, adults need to know why they are learning something. They must be made to understand how the activity will benefit them in their workplace and be aware of its relevance to the success of the company. Secondly, adults need to be self-directed. The learning experience should be on their own initiative in order for a better grasp and reception of the matter. Thirdly, adults bring more work-related experiences into the learning situation. The employees will associate the things that they learn to its relevance with the things that they are doing in their workplace. Fourthly, adults enter into the learning experience with a problem-centered approach to learning. And lastly, adults are motivated by both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators. Either by better monetary compensation with their enriched jobs or a better sense of personal achievement in an improved work performance, the employees must be inspired and driven to acquire new knowledge that will benefit the whole organization. The Delivery Method The company can best implement training and education by taking advantage of the latest technologies. Although in some cases the traditional classroom set-up will still be the best and cost-effective method for teaching, other alternatives could also provide as viable options when considering about other constraints and effectiveness. Technology based communication practices such as video-conferencing and teleconferencing could also provide a more effective method especially for the satellite operations of the company so that they will also be encompassed and not disregarded with the training and educational goals of the company. This shall also better the unified position of the company so as to avoid loose ends in its operations. It will promote a more cohesive function within all departments since they are aware that they share a common factor in their training and thus they will also share that they should also have a unified set of objective when doing their specific duties in each of their departments. The manner of where the training will be held will also be a factor, especially on occasions where training and education is needed to be hands-on and practical. By considering all these options, the company will better optimize the yield of such exercise. Also, the Corporate University could opt for the participation of external sources for their training and education. The company cannot hope to know everything and be already sufficient enough to teach everything to their employees, but instead should be open to such innovative ideas. Perhaps a tie-up with a local university could yield a tailor-specific curriculum to address certain employee positions that need certain knowledge about only certain things. In this manner, not only will this benefit the company but also promote a better curriculum system for the university and also develop their educational system which will also then perpetually benefit the company. Further Plans It has already been discussed in the previous parts of the paper that establishing a Corporate University will be a costly investment. But if the business goals and the profit objectives of the company are met, then the Corporate University will have already paid for itself and even in the near future will also more than pay for itself and yield continuously growing profit for the company. The employee morale and well-being in the company will also be very high and thus creating a very positive atmosphere in the company. But the company could also opt for the Corporate University to generate its own direct income. This could be done by setting up training programs which will be marketed to internal clients who need to avail of such education. This shall serve as an internal business which will also benefit the external business. Conclusion Investing on training and education is a very good move in order to promote quality initiatives in the company. Although the task can be daunting at first glance and would seem to be not as important as, say, investing on machineries and equipment and nurturing other resources, it has been proven to yield a very stable and consistent positive development for companies who are aggressive enough and bold to invest a hearty amount for its fruition and implementation. Establishing a corporate university is the best way for going about the training and education since it gives a more centralized system that will be in a much better position to analyze and cater to the immediate and specific needs of the employees regarding which training programs are necessary and which knowledge are required in order for them to be further effective in their positions. At the end of the day, it is very important to take good care of the manpower because they are the driving force of the whole company. If handled and groomed well and properly they will serve as better investments than technology for they will carry the company through innovations and decisive thinking which will outclass the competition. References Cable, Josh. (2011). Why Your Employees Should Have “Skin in the Game”. Mahmood, Mahboob & Gurpreet Minhas. (2011). Corporate Universities and Learning Centers: A Primer. Knowledge Platform. Meredith, J. R. & Shafer, S. M. (2010). Operations Management for MBAs (4th ed). John Wiley & Sons Noe, Raymond A. (2005). Employee Training and Development. McGraw-Hill, Third Edition. Williams, Rachele & Lawson Arnett. (2004). The ROI of Employee Training and Development: Why a Hearty Investment in Employee Training and Development Is So Important. APQC, IBM and Workforce Management initiative. York, Kenneth M. (2010) Applied Human Resource Management: Strategic Issues and Experiential Exercises. SAGE Publications Inc. pp 185-216. Appendix A Source: (Williams & Arnett, 2004) Appendix B Source: (Noe, 2005) Read More