Training and Development - Seavil Company - Case Study Example

Training and development Name Grade Course Tutor’s Name 01/ 12/ 2010 Report to Mr. Benson Manga, the Training Manager of Seavil Company The Job targeted as part of the report is Pensions Juniour Coordinator (Finance Department). Corporate and institutional banking The Seavil company is have a stronghold in large business, that is underpin by their capacity and their reputation to deliver banking solution that are customized to the particular need of the customers. They offer loan and overdraft dominated in various world currencies, and range syndicated, high value term-value term loan in partnership with other financial service providers. They also offer finance to their customers, local and international trading activities seamless through letter of credit, credit, guarantees, invoice and bill discounting products which are all structure to meet their client’s unique requirements. They indent to broaden e-business offerings and international trade finance facilities in line with increase sophistication of global business interactions. To ensure prudent liquidity management, they also focus on the acquisition, retention and management of key deposit liability client who may have borrowing needs but provide stable deposits. They are position to reinforce safeguard inroad made into this market segment and increase market segment synergy through cross selling and marketing. The company in the course to retain and grow it takes in fund for government programs through their worldwide branches network (Walton, 1999). Training Needs Analysis (TNA) Training – A planned process to modify attitude, knowledge or skill behaviour through learning experience to achieve effective performance in an activity or range of activities. Its purpose in the work situation is to develop the abilities of the individual and to satisfy the current and future needs of the organisation Training Needs Analysis involves the planning and management of people’s learning with the aim of making the learning process more effective, increasingly efficient, properly directed and therefore useful (Kandola, &Fullerton, 2002).It involves: 1) Traditional Job Training Analysis: This leads to the development of job description, job specification based on definition of the knowledge and abilities needed by the job holder. Training is then conducted on the basis of the shortfall between levels of competence of the individual and that required by the job holder. The necessary skills and knowledge that would be needed include diverse knowledge on investment vehicles available in order to meet the liabilities of the pension fund as and when they fall due with the liabilities matched to the benefits. Moreover the job requires diverse knowledge as pertains to the various types of occupational schemes. Skills such as computation of gross pension or lump sum pension will be needed. The assessment reveals that the individual, Agnes, has necessary skill in the computation avenue with knowledge on the use of appropriate pension factor, pension emoluments (annual salary plus responsibility allowance) and employee’s length of service. Further assessment of the employee in relation to job specification however revealed limited knowledge on diverse pension schemes and some knowledge on investment vehicles such as shares that are quite profitable in the stock market, however it is evident that he lacks diverse knowledge on other investment vehicles. 2) Key Results Analysis (KRA) Sometimes not all areas of the job contribute to organisational objectives. This process involves using only the key results from areas of the job which contributes. The process will involve input from job holder in order to identify which areas will be of importance. The job may be changing in emphasis or content – priority task, standards and performance and skills and knowledge may be required in order to re-establish the job in the changing circumstances. This is shown by lack of recent software to input employee’s information and their remuneration packages (Reid, Barrington& Brown, 2004). 3) Problem Centered Analysis PCA takes a different approach to those already described. It may involve direct observation, questionnaire, consultation with persons in key positions, review of relevant literature, interviews. In this case direct observation was taken up for one day, which revealed that the pension section of the Finance Department was definitely like a forgotten section of it, with even key personnel lacking knowledge as to what the core operation of the section itself (Kandola, &Fullerton, 2002). Training Programme The training program involved the following steps; 1) Training objectives or benchmarks This revolves around what is expected as a result of the training and that would be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Accurate, Realistic and Time specific) and revolve around the TNA. -To increase the knowledge of the current Pension Juniour Coordinator,Mrs Agnes in the area of investment vehicles -Ignite the need to carry out research on the avenue of pensions -Improve her skills in the manual sense of handling employees with a boost towards the information technology avenue All these objectives are to be achieved within a month with the aim of benefitting the whole entire organization . 2) Training responsibility This process will be coordinated by the Human Resource Department with the Training Manager delegating duties to the Training Officer who due to vast experience has a web of networking to enhance the training process will outsource the use of actuarial and training experts to give the Pension Juniour Coordinator insight into the need for proper record keeping and information on the fastest means to forecast the likely benefits received from various investment vehicles in the market while giving scenarios of different market rates at some point in time (Walton,1999). 3)Design Training Activities This includes training delivery methods such as: -Training conducted on the job, for example coaching skills and constructive feedback -Planned organisation experience, for example job rotation -Coaching and mentoring, which can be taken up by actuarial and training experts. -In-house training -Planned experience outside the organisation, for example visits to other organizations. -External Courses, for example short courses, academic courses, distance learning. -Self-managed learning- this is characterized by a learning culture in the organization and supported by line managers allied to the motivation of the individual through needs identification and personal action plans (Mayo, 2001). Constructing timetables would also be crucial in the planning program in order to ensure that all activities are within the time limit of one month. Training Evaluation This is “any attempt to obtain information on the effects of a training programme, and to assess the value of the training in the light of that information.” (Hamblin – 1999) This is shown as follows: Immediate reaction-> Learning outcomes-> Intermediate effects-> Long term effects. This chain suggests an evaluation framework can be set up across the organisation which will provide a consistent approach and link evaluation to organisational objectives. Levels of evaluation 1) Reaction level, that is the opinion and attitudes of the learners to the training. This would be shown for example by her the individual’s interest, attitude to trainers and the environment in which the training is held. 2)Learning Level – This would be evaluated as per the skills, knowledge, understanding and attitudes, which would have been acquired / changed Learning is the process whereby a new capability is attained – leading to a relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of practice or experience. Learning bases itself on various theories: One of which is reinforcement theory.Reinforcement is connected with conditioning or shaping behaviour – Skinner (1965) that is rewarding appropriate behaviour – conditioning or positive reinforcement (the reward). The reinforcement must take place in such a way that the link between the behaviour and the reward is apparent e.g. in the use of the new information technology, there should be a means to show that the input of the Pension Juniour Coordinator is sufficient in giving the output required and as per say, the reward of putting in such effort. Another theory is the cybernetic and information theory, where information is received and monitored in the same way feedback is used to control human performance e.g. in the same way a thermostat controls a heating system. Monitoring and regulation is therefore a constant in all activities. The way learning is monitored is through feedback e.g. .through an instructor giving cues to monitor the performance of the Pension Juniour Coordinator so as to trigger the correct action from her (Mayo, 2001). Cognitive theory and problem solving is also another theory of learning. This theory draws attention to behaviour patterns described as ‘insight’, which is a reflection of the way we learn to recognise and define problems or experiment to find solutions. It also involves trial and error and deductive reasoning or all three. It involves seeing situation as a whole and then organising it, conceptualising or internalising the solution and method used. This action leads to adaptations for solutions in future situations. Here there can be a scenario where the funds of the pension contributions are embezzled or mismanaged, this hence needs a backup plan if such a scenario happens and hence the need for diverse investment sites of the contributions with constant overview of the trustees duties and responsibilities (Hardingham, 2002). Experimental learning is another one of the theories sought out in learning. This involves a four stage process – The experience; observation and reflection; theorising and conceptualisation; and testing and experimentation. For this to be effective the learner will need four different but complementary kinds of abilities. These abilities are what we call learning styles – Activist; Reflector, Theorist and Pragmatist (Honey and Mumford-1992) which corresponds with the four stages in the cycle – Concrete experience, observations and reflections; formulation of abstract concepts and generalisations and testing implications of concepts in new situations Arguably organisations develop learning styles within – often this may lead to structural and cultural barriers for employees – Furthermore learning styles may influence group activity and can lead individuals to identify strength and weaknesses with regards to your own learning processes (Walton, 1999). This view moves the learning responsibility to: learning is something one does for oneself and that the most effective ways of learning involves conscious mental activities such as checking, self-testing and questioning. It is therefore the learner who is in control. This process is triggered by ones attitude (positive or negative) to attaining competence. It is therefore about a desire of the learner to learn – within the context of the organisation it will impact on performance (improved) and the management of the learning process i.e. self development. There are barriers to learning for example, fear of failure, inability or unwillingness to expend time and effort. In a changing organisational environment, standard knowledge and skills are no longer sufficient, learning must be constant for the individual and the organisation if continuous development is to be achieved, hence the concept of the Learning Organisation. Here the learner takes the lead in managing the changing environment and is developing him/herself in the process (Harrison, 2008). 3) Job Performance Level (Intermediate effects) This refers to the effects the training has had on the job performance of the learner. This will be reflected through the increased need to know more about the pension sector, investment avenues communicated to the Head of Pension Provision, which would help the employees see and feel valued since their future is being overseen and taken care of regularly. More over increased skills and knowledge in her area of expertise would boost her job performance (Reid, Barrington& Brown, 2004). 4) Organizational Level (Departmental) [Longer term effects] – This refers to the effects the training would have on the department or organization. This would highlight efficiency in the operation in the work of the department, which would gain popularity and the importance that it deserves since a pension is u future saving plan for all in the organization. Evaluation techniques 1) Pre and post training questionnaires This is an effective way of gauging before and after results of the training taken up. This would effectively be useful by being issued to all Departments in the organization but to selected individuals. This would give an evaluation aside from the learner and the training officer and hence avoid bias. 2) Learning agreements This would be evaluated in terms of the items outlined for learning and hence to gain more experience and skills. For example there would a timetable set up for daily activities to be done within the time limit of one month given. These activities may include computer classes, investment and financial planning course and some team work training. As such, an agreement would be arrived to pursue all those activities, lack of which would mean a failure to the training program (Kandola, &Fullerton, 2002). 3) Tests Tests during and after the training is essential in order to evaluate the level of knowledge and skills gained throughout the training process (Bee, 1994). 4)Self assessment Room is given to the Pension Juniour Coordinator to give her view on her input and output as per the training given in line with the Training Needs Analysis. It there is a especially no positive feedback as pertains to lack of some success of the training techniques then the training programme would have definitely failed in its core aim. However this should be backed up by other external parties, because the reason for the failure would have been lack of being cooperative and rude behaviour towards the trainers, also the element of fear of learning would make it hard for the individual to loosen up and ask questions and hence encourage participation during training (Mayo, 2001). 5) Observation Observation would be taken up by the training officer to evaluate differences in the way would be performed. This would be evaluated in line with Training Needs Analysis. 6) Role play This is an activity taken up in which people act a situation. In this case a situation where an employee inquires about his record at the pension office would be acted out with hopefully appropriate answers given showing a success in the training programme, where order would be exercised with a level of confidence put in while giving such information (Harrison, 2008). 7) Measures of output This would be evaluated in terms improved quality as per the service given and in terms of quantity which would be evaluated by number of employees who would be attracted and also reduced turnover due to an improved pension benefits which would work in line with new legislation (Reid, Barrington& Brown, 2004). References Bee, F. and R.,. (1994), Training Needs Analysis and Evaluation, CIPD. Hardingham, A (2000). Psychology for Trainers, CIPD. Harrison, R. (2008) Learning and Development, CIPD Mayo, A. (2001), Creating a Training and Development Strategy, CIPD, Kandola, R. and Fullerton, J. (2002) Diversity in Action, CIPD. Reid, M. A.; Barrington, H. and Brown, M. (2004) Human Resource Development – Beyond Training Interventions. 7ed. London. CIPD Walton, J. (1999) Strategic Human Resource Development, Pearson Read More