In-Depth Training Analysis of the USAA Insurance Company - Case Study Example

In-Depth Training Analysis of the USAA Insurance Company In-Depth Training Analysis of the USAA Insurance Company Introduction There are several strategies that are applied y companies in the effort to ensure that their employees are well catered for hence motivated. These approaches are focused on the needs of the employers hence making them to increase their level of performance out output within the organization. One of the fundamental aspects is training. This is because it ensures that the employees are kept up to date with the current activities, events and expectations of the organization. Training also ensures that the employees are well acquainted to perform their duties well. Besides this, offering training opportunities provide the employees with the assurance that the company minds about them. They therefore feel part of the organization and its varied activities because they are empowered in different forms. In this respect, there are a number of guidelines that should be followed in the course of training. In particular, training should be developed in such a way that it follows a certain model that makes it possible to attain the goals and objectives of the organization. In this respect the training model that is applied by the USAA insurance company will be analysed in this paper in terms of its design, development and implementation to evaluate its influence on the achievement of the organizational goals (William & Kazanas, 2004). Analysis Mission of the organization The United Services Automobile Association (USAA) is a group of companies that have varied financial services. They include a regulated department of insurance, reciprocal interchange of inter insurance and other subsidiaries that deal with investment, insurance and banking to members in the U.S military and their families. It is based in Texas with as indicated by Chordas (2002), the aim of having a focus on the provision of quality services to its niche market that is comprised of members of the U.S military and their direct families. The USAA Insurance Company uses a number of methods to enable the proper conduct of the training procedure. It offers the junior military officer training as a career development program to offer smooth transition of its junior officers into the organization by providing them with knowledge, awareness and skills. The training planning methodologies that are used by the organization include a part time orientation on the new employees. Thus the training process model that is used by the organization is the new employee orientation, basic training, pipeline training, licensing as well as other periods that includes the taking of the member calls (William, 2005). Employees engaged in homeowners, auto and life insurance as well as banking investment require special licences to conduct these tasks. The company uses these methods to empower their employees who are mainly the sales representatives and customer service providers in the company. Most of them are the new employees who need to be introduced to the activities of the company as well as to be taught on how to deal with the members to achieve satisfaction. It also focuses on the provision of information on customer service and the knowledge on the different products available. They in turn make improvements on their different efforts that are related to the creation of awareness on the products given by the company. They also let the customers know how to go about the [processes related to making of claims. It is because they are made aware of the life events, they are able to understand the members’ needs, and provide advice in order to deliver the right and appropriate solutions to the members. This ensures that the company is able to maintain a competitive edge against its competitors who include other insurance companies as well as the additional organization that offer financial assistance especially those that are related to the providence of insurance services. At USAA, the training design and development model is established to create a workforce that is highly engaged. This ensures that there is an improved rate of success. In order for the company to equip its employees to provide outstanding services to the members, it is vital to deliver the mission of the company in a critical way. This involves the fostering of the culture of learning and a great focus on the ongoing development (Patrick & Bruce, 2000). The needs of the company are determined and the positions advertised for in early summer. The roles are placed on varied parts of the operations as related to the business demands that change each year. Only 20 candidates can be trained in a year. In order to qualify, the application must be made during spring while the interviews and selections are done during summer. The program starts in September and takes the employees through a 90-day orientation that includes member experience among other courses. After the orientation, the junior military officers are allowed to occupy their full roles. The entire cost for the whole of this process is approximately $12.50-$14.00 every hour. This is similar to the claims. The supervisor or manager In order to go through the training processes and activities in the right way, there are varied expectations that are placed by the supervisors and the managers. At the USAA insurance company the following are the needs and expectations that are placed by the supervisors and the managers. The supervisors and the managers expect that the sales representatives will be able to meet their targets which are set within specified periods. They also expect that there are more customers that will be attracted with every sale. This also includes the ability to retain the customers even after the processing of different claims. In this case, the learners get the necessary tips on how the organization performs its activities and they are able to handle the members who purchase the services. They need that the sales representatives are knowledgeable about the products that are offered ad can give adequate information to enable the customer to secure a policy. They are the quick introduction and adaptation of the employees into the company to help them begin making contributions towards the accomplishments of the goals of the company. In this way, the training meets their learning needs in the sense that they are able to learn what is expected of them by their supervisors and their managers. In particular, the training meets the learning needs of both the supervisors, managers and the new employees in the way that it engages, inspires and enables the new employees to get assimilated into the company (Derek, Laura & Taylor, 2004). As a trainer, it is possible to help them meet their learning needs through giving them lessons on membership, military services, the products and services that are offered, the policies, procedures as well as the benefits that are given to the best in class employee of USAA (USAA, 2015 a). Needs assessment The learners in this context are the many employees that work at the USAA insurance company at different positions. Therefore, they seem to have varied needs that are influenced by their positions and the kind of activities in which they are involved. In particular, the job related needs of the learners include the need to learn the strategic priorities and the core values of the company. It is also essential for them to learn the military operations so as to enable them to have a feel of what members who are mostly military personnel go through. This is in relation to their lifestyles, their struggles and their stressors such as deployment and transitioning needs that driver them towards taking the products and services offered (USAA, 2015c). Currently, the learners already possess some adequate amount of information. They are aware of the products offered and the nature of the customers. It is apparent that the gap between what they already know and do not know is comparatively small. This can easily be filled by more details on the speciality of members who are military personnel (Morrison, 2010) Design Training design Owing to the diverse needs, the learning outcomes that are likely to meet the needs of the learners include the insights into the members’ perspectives to enable them new employees to serve them in the best way. This calls for the need to create training plan needs such as the ability to move the new employees from their state of orientation to individuals who are fully productive on the job. These require several resources such as the advisory and conversational skills that are integrated with the technical and product knowledge courses. However, some of these resources are not available. Those that are available are the formal learning solutions, on job training and on board learning with the leaders and the peers. There are several challenges that are bound to be faced in the course of this training. Some of these are lack of resources or unwilling learners (Rosemary, 2005) Development Training development The training process needs to be developed in such a way that it is able to deliver the expected outcomes and help in the achievement of the goals, missions and objectives of the company. The particular content that needs to be created in this context is the one that deals with exploring the potential of the employees and working towards their career goals. Within this, there will be a need to incorporate certain activities that include technical and leadership expertise. They will need the formative and summative instruments that will include extra learning in the department, outside coursework and the rotation in different areas (USAA, 2015 b). Implementation Training implementation Having gone through thorough preparation and training, the selected trainers are fully prepared and ready to deliver the training. They have put in place most of the resources that are needed for the training purposes. Most of the details regarding the training addressed have also been prepared and made ready for the activities. They include the integration and career development. Nonetheless, there are those few resources and details that still need to be polished up in order to make the training session as effective as it needs to be. These include detailed military skills. Evaluation The needs of the learners are the first priority during any training sessions. They ensure that the learners are provided with what they need most for the achievement of their varied tasks. In this case, in order to meet the objectives of the training session, the needs of the learners have been addressed in the design and the development of the training. For instance, the acquisition of the required knowledge on the products, services and processes is a requirement by the learners to help them in the development of the products and the techniques that are related to member service. In addition, the ability to help the newly recruited sales people to build relationships with their fellow colleagues helps them to feel confident and also provides them with the opportunity to interact and have discussions on the various challenges that they encounter in the effort to find solutions on their varied experiences. In evaluation, a significant step is provided by the ability to analyse what is working and what is not working. In this case, it will be necessary to improve on the licensing training which has been extremely effective. It will be important to provide tips to the learners on how well they can prepare in order to obtain the licenses. On the other hand, it is likely that the lifestyles will be eliminated as it is not very significant during this training session. Upon the completion of the training session, both the learners and the trainers had the opportunity to evaluate the training session. They concluded that most of what is included in the training is essential for the development of new employees in relation to their career advancement. One of the fundamental activities that is related to training is follow up to determine whether what has been learnt is being implemented or by learners in the course of their job related tasks. In this case, the ability by the learners to incorporate what they learnt in their job related tasks can be determined through the analysis of the successful businesses that the learner is able to close within a specified period. For instance, their ability to gather information and to close on the product sales is a demonstration of the intermediate skills and the knowledge about the USAA products as well as their benefits. It can also be evaluated by the ability of the learners to evaluate the events of the members and to provide the necessary solutions. It can also be evaluated through the reputation that the company carries with its skilled employees. Conclusion Training of employees in any organization is the first step towards ensuring that their needs are met and that the objectives of the company are met. It is one of the ways of ensuring that the activities of the companies run as expected. In any organization, there are the various functions and roles that are played by each of the employees. These tasks are what enable the coordination and cooperation towards ensuring the success of any business operations. In this case, the training provided must make certain that it meets the needs of all the learners. In this case, it is important to ensure that the expected trainers are made ready for their tasks. They must also be equipped with the necessary resources and details to achieve a successful training session. Evaluation is another important aspect of training that helps to determine whether the set objectives have been achieved. With this, it is easy to make the necessary changes that may include relevant adjustments or the need to come up with an entirely new training session. References Chordas, L. (2002). "The ultimate niche: USAAs commitment to serving only people connected to the military, and its unusual structure and sales strategy, set it apart from the rest of the insurance industry". Goliath Business News, November 1. Derek, T., Laura, H., & Taylor, S. (2004). Human Resource Management. New York: Pearson Education. Morrison, Gary, R. (2010). Designing Effective Instruction (6th Ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Patrick, J., M. & Bruce H. C. (2000). "Training and Development". Management. New York: Barrons Educational Series. Rosemary, H. (2005). Learning and Development. London: CIPD Publishing. William J. Rothwell & Kazanas, H. C. (2004). The Strategic Development of Talent. New York: Human Resource Development Press. William J. Rothwell (2005). Effective Succession Planning. New York: AMACOM Div American Mgmt. USAA. (2015). Learning at USAA. Retrieved 26 April 2015 from https://www.usaajobs.com/life-at-usaa/learning.html USAA. (2015). Plan to stay for life. Retrieved 26 April 2015 from https://www.usaa.com/inet/pages/ent_all_thankyouLP_landing_mkt?adid=icgsch492 7486-VQ16-c-VQ6-15193548972&akredirect=true USAA. (2015). Training and development jobs at USAA. Retrieved 26 April 2015 from https://search.usaajobs.com/en-us/HR/Training-Development/Xjcp-jf835-ct104370 Read More