Increasing the Current Level of Investment in TL&D for Helping Hands Company - Case Study Example

TRAINING, LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT – HELPING HANDS CASE STUDY TASK: Produce a report for the board of management at the Helping Hands Company to persuade them to increase the current level of investment in TL&D by advising them how it can be used more effectively to help them to achieve their mission to become ‘a consistently high-performing’ counselling service. Introduction: a strategic analysis of Helping Hand’s current corporate culture. Corporate culture is defined as “the combined beliefs, values, ethics, procedures and atmosphere of an organization” (BNET online business magazine, May 26, 2008). The first author to define the term ‘corporate culture’ was Edgar H. Schein who said that it consisted of “rules, procedures, and processes that governed how things were done, as well as the philosophy that guides the attitudes of senior management toward staff and customers” (Schein, 1999, p.29). Edgar Schein also emphasizes the significance of strategic initiative on the part of senior management to achieve corporate goals. It is against this background that I propose to delineate the strategic vision and mission of Helping Hand’s current corporate philosophy. It is not far fetched to suggest at this stage of my analysis that the management at Helping Hand, has almost foreclosed the significant opportunities that TL&D concept presents to business organizations at a critical phase of its growth process, by not revisiting its corporate strategy. There is an inevitable negative correlation between the gradual up-scaling of strategic corporate goals and a static TL&D policy. The outcome is not only predictably negative but also competitively disastrous. The principal stance of the Helping Hand’s senior management is that the operating capacity and efficiency of the middle management structure ought to be enhanced through a conventional and often credibility deficient technique of contracting out functional managerial tasks to outsiders who as consulting firms would rather put in place stop-gap measures. Stress management counselling services are performed by professionals who help client organizations to manage their staff well with a view to increasing worker productivity. Some of the latest techniques have been adopted, probably, by the Helping Hand’s rivals. For example, “Autogenic biofeedback in psychophysiological therapy and stress management”, has been received by stress management companies with open arms because it provides the counsellor with a more reliable tool (Lehrer and Sime, Editors, 2007, p.231). At Helping Hand, there is no such innovative strategic drive. Right now the level of staff motivation is at a low ebb. This is reflected in the high rate of labour attrition. Plans for diversification must be carried out with a total shake up in the existing organizational structure. Additional middle layers of management would necessarily add to the communication bottlenecks that underlie a tall chain of command. As a preemptive strategy the senior management may consider the removal of ‘external sources of managerial consultation’ to achieve a more viable span of control, so that the existing staff can be integrated under a senior manager as a functional structure. Inefficient staff is a direct result of poor motivation which, in turn, is determined by the absence of training and other incentives. Operant behaviours on the part of employees can be elicited through conditioning so that employees would learn to respond to critical situations, such as competition from rivals, with predictable results, e.g. high profit margins (Potter, 1993,p.6). The amount of collateral damage caused by confusing employee relations and change management problems can, only, be measured with reference to the delays and a resultant fall in productivity. Existing HRM practices at Helping Hand have to be reorganized to incorporate a set of work ethics – practices that provide employees with self-esteem and make them feel responsible – into its operating structure. Finally, I hope to focus attention on ‘the mother of all problems’ at the Helping Hand, viz. the absence of a proper Training, Learning & Development Programme (TL&D). TL&D is a strategic initiative that the senior management of any company will have to take in response to an ever dynamic corporate environment. A dynamic corporate environment is not without a sizeable challenge coming from competitors, both current and future. TL&D presents the company management with challenges and opportunities. How responsive the management will be to such a dynamic environment, depends on a number of internal and external factors. Change management consultants can use diagnosis to help clients decide what changes in organizational features are likely to promote desired outcomes, how ready members are for these changes and how managers can best implement changes and ensure their sustainability (Harrison, 1994, p.7). I will use Harrison’s diagnostic method as a stepping stone to apply TL&D concept to bring about desirable structural changes in management practices (if any), tactical shifts in HR practices and finally, the inevitability of changes in organizational decision making process at the Helping Hand. 2. Training, Learning & Development: the outline of a desirable change. 2. a. The strategic analysis: There is a significant strategic deficiency in the current operational environment at the Helping Hand. For example, some of the existing management practices at the Helping Hand are not conducive for the kind of radical change management strategy that a company engaged in stress management counseling services ought to have adopted in anticipation of SWOT analysis. Helping Hand operates in an environment of nascent competition. Its existing strengths are limited to human and physical assets that were put in place at a time when the market was decidedly free of competition. However, now there is a dearth of human capital, e.g. the level of operational intelligence and it is caused by a ‘brain-drain’. Weaknesses are basically the present management’s inflexible approach to change and numerous operational bottlenecks, including the adoption of ‘an absence management practice’ in which the company fills vacancies in the management hierarchy by hiring contractual hands. I, personally, feel that there are still some good opportunities available for the company to achieve organizational goals such as profits and higher productivity. This aspect needs more in-depth treatment. For example, Bradford et al in their groundbreaking book “Simplified Strategic Planning” illustrates the environment of competition as the inescapable paradigm of result-orientated corporate strategy (Bradford, Duncan and Tarcy, 2000, p.107). They go onto make a series of assumptions about competition and many of those assumptions place emphasis on the available hidden opportunities. At the Helping Hand strategy has not been connected with the customer’s perspective of value. I wish to emphasize the significant contribution that TL&D makes to the policy decision efforts of the senior management. Human Resource Development (HRD) function of the company management is a corollary premised on this perspective of TL&D and its impact on the resource allocation process, is all the more important in understanding the implications of internal and external strategic correlates (Gubbins and Garavan, 2005, pp.189-218). From the viewpoint of the Helping Hand there are the following aspects to consider: Competitors’ action/reaction Labour markets Impact of TL&D on managers Internal influences such as pulls and pushes on new decisions HRM strategy External influences such as threats coming from competitors Above all the attitudes of employees to change within the organization 2. b. Diversification: Diversification at the Helping Hand will have a positive impact on its profits. Right now the company is faced with a greater threat from its rivals who have begun extending their product lines to include services. Existing HRD practices need to be shuffled to accommodate new changes that may require far reaching resource re-allocation decisions. Here HRD professionals need to impart the kind of training to achieve, what Gubbins and Garavan call “network benefits associated with social capital”(see above). Qualitative and quantitative changes can be targeted as desirable both in the short term and the long term. HRD strategy requires a continuous assessment of resource allocation. Some painful strategic decisions involve the provision for TL&D within the existing budgetary allocations. Capability driven HRD has been stressed in crisis situations such as competitors’ launching new products or providing added product lines to enhance customer perception of the product (Luoma, 2000, pp.145-153). The author refers to “clarity, integration, involvement and evaluation” as the essential characteristics of capability-driven HRD/HRM practices. The other two concepts of HRD are the traditional ‘needs’ driven version and the opportunity-driven version. Product diversification ought to be at the heart of Helping Hand’s survival strategy. The dichotomy between product diversification and focused strategy was extended by a new set of strategies (Miles, Snow, Meyer & Coleman, 2008, pp.195-217). They introduced four such strategies. They are: I. The Prospector Strategy: it emphasizes the need for diversification and Innovation. II. The Analyser Strategy: it also emphasizes innovation but new products are more Similar and built on common competencies. III. The Defender Strategy: it combines core competencies with low innovation. IV. The Reactor Strategy: it combines low innovation with high diversification. A systematic strategic shift at Helping Hand may also require a redefinition of its existing corporate strategy. Does it depend too much on market-driven marketing, looking for clients who are there to be grabbed? Or does it need to go for a more offensive strategy of making a qualitative approach to targeting clients who are not yet decided (so called fence-sitters)? Either way Helping Hand has not been able to ward off competition because its own diversification strategy is poorly tailored to meet contingency planning that is the whole mark of ‘knowledge-based industries’. 2. c. Performance: Performance at the Helping Hand has to be evaluated on the basis of its current market share and the return on capital invested. A continuous decline in profits and market share cannot be regarded as good signs for a company that depends on core competence as a driver of growth. TL&D needs of a small knowledge-based business organization like the Helping Hand have to be determined by its corporate strategy, competitive strategy and operational strategy. For example, its corporate strategy is essentially circumscribed by available resources and their distribution. TL&D will have to be planned in accordance with this reality. Its competitive strategy depends on product diversification as the most practical alternative to any other. Definitely, the introduction of TL&D at the Helping Hand will change its current performance outlook for better. The company has to focus more on its existing marketing strategy in order to enhance performance. Nonetheless, its current product portfolio does not allow the management to adopt a reactive marketing strategy. Its competitors have already diversified their operations and are on the verge of launching new product lines that would allow them to decide on the level of proactive marketing to be undertaken. Its operational strategy with specific reference to HRD has to be redesigned to rope in counselors of good caliber. Donald L. Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation and Performance shows how the performance levels can be assessed at the work place. TL&D process does not produce measurable results overnight. The process has a long term validation programme. Kirkpatrick has enunciated four levels for this evaluation process (Kirkpatrick, 2008, www.buinessballs.com). Reaction – reaction of the learner to training. Learning – the amount of acquisition of knowledge. Behaviour- the post-training behavioural response to the experience of training. Results- the ultimate results due to training, e.g. an increase in performance. At the Helping Hand the performance evaluation process has to be implemented in order to evaluate the TL&D success and this process may adopt any of the known approaches. 2. d. How would TL&D add value at Helping Hand? Value is generated through enhanced performance and such value again comes from newly acquired competencies of the employees. Enhanced performance refers to productivity and/or efficiency. This parametric achievement has to come from the managerial competence ( Winterton and Winterton, 2008, p.77). We also have to consider the type of TL&D method that the company should adopt in this respect. It all depends on the purpose to which the chosen TL&D method will be put into. Existing management structure needs to be reorganized to achieve a degree of flexibility to adopt changes that take place on the aftermath of redefining skills requirements. Adaptability or flexibility of structures helps organizations to innovate and experiment with new methods. The leadership style, though, may inhibit or accentuate such efforts at change. The Helping Hand’s leadership style is determined by its parallel departmental organization structure. Increased productivity will make the company to turn around thereby adding to its existing financial performance. Should TL&D measures be adopted there would be a great qualitative difference in achievements such as an increase in profits and a greater market share. This will be further reinforced by an addition to goodwill. 3. Government measures to achieve better TL&D at institutions. The government’s White Paper (1991) on training to meet business organizations’ needs for skills, is a landmark document that recognizes the need to invest in people to bring about desired changes at the organizational level. The next most important development in this respect occurred when the government in 1999 introduced A White Paper on Learning to Succeed. This change saw the advent of Learning and Skills Councils (LSCs) that replaced the existing TECs and LECs. Leitch Review (2006) is a revolutionary concept on TL&D and its aim is to establish Britain as the world leader in skills by 2020. Though the purported goal sounds rather far fetched, its overall content attaches more significance to the voluntary commitment of employers to train their staff to achieve NVQ level 2. Above all there is a provision in it for the responsibility to be shared by the government, the employer and the learner. How could the Helping Hand make use of these parallel developments to restructure its own organization to incorporate the basic elements of the above government sponsored programmes into its corporate strategy, competitive strategy and operational strategy? The answer or answers to this question depend on the skills needs of the company and its finances. ‘Soft skills’ have to be developed through a vigorous programme of training and learning. A conceptual profile of the learner has to be prepared in advance to enable the management to identify skills requirements. It is not an approach of “one size fits all” but a gradually phased out process of training and learning in which we have to be mindful of the fact that the individual learner has already acquired some skills. Once skills requirements and individual profiles are made, there is the need to identify training and learning methods (Clutterbuck and Megginson, 1999, p.112). The top manager’s role is to identify skills needs accurately and define them in the firm’s TL&D context. Training can be formal (e.g. courses of study pursued at colleges) or informal (e.g. casual instructions given by a supervisor to an employee). Also training can be provided on-the- job or off-the-job. Next, I hope to identify the nine stages of organizing learning events in the systematic training model:(Harrison, 2005, p.117). Establish needs. Agree on purpose and objectives for the learning event. Identify profile of intended learning population. Agree on strategy and delivery of the learning event. Select learner cohort and produce detailed specification for the learning event. Finalise strategy and delivery of the learning event. Deliver the learning event. Monitor and evaluate the learning event. Working with partners to facilitate all stages of the cycle, thereby building external as well as internal consistency. However it must be noted here that modern literature on the subject seeks to fault the systematic training model as one analogous to “crop circles looking for a spaceship”. The argument is somewhat identical to “putting the cart before the horse”. There is a pressure cooker situation at the Helping Hand right now. The need, for a constructive assessment of its current levels of skills needs, is all the more important. Professional skills requirements at the company could be analysed with reference to existing market share or/and a futuristic business/marketing plan. Specific jobs need specific training/learning methods and such techniques entail constraints. Stolovitch inhis book “Telling Ain’t Training”, identifies three learning domains or attributes (Stolovitch, 2002, p.13) They are: Mental attribute (e.g. cognitive behaviours). Physical attribute (e.g. psychomotor functions) Emotional attribute (e.g. affective behaviours) According to him cognitive strategies are collections of methods and they are employed by managers to palatalize otherwise bitter TL&D experiences at the work place. 4. Recommendations: 4. a. Restructuring existing management structures: Next, let’s consider what kind of approach must be adopted at the Helping Hand to achieve its short term and long term objectives. We also have to consider the type of TL&D method that the company should adopt in this respect. It all depends on the purpose to which the chosen TL&D method will be put into. Existing management structure needs to be reorganized to achieve a degree of flexibility to adopt changes that take place on the aftermath of redefining skills requirements. Adaptability or flexibility of structures helps organizations to innovate and experiment with new methods. The leadership style, though, may inhibit or accentuate such efforts at change. The Helping Hand’s leadership style is determined by its parallel departmental organization structure. Next it is pertinent to study the implications arising from transfer of learning. This aspect of transferring acquired skills into a new organizational context has attracted the attention of experts for a long time. Contextual factors, change, and stress climate and transfer climate predict customer orientation. The subsequent results have implications for organizational development practitioners and managers who seek to improve transfer of training in the midst of organizational change and stress (Bennet, Lehman and Forst, 1999, pp188-216). A neat reorientation strategy is less likely to produce the expected results. After all there are no ready-made solutions to these problems. As these authors point out the transfer climate may disintegrate into chaos. 4. b. Consideration of overall costs: Will the Helping Hand be able to obviate undesirable implications generated by the process of transfer of learning and training? Apart from the pedagogical characteristics associated with the process, there is the exceptional circumstance of rigid cognitive behaviours that presuppose the need for a psychometric leap- a kind of quantum leap from what it is now to a new paradigm. Costs and benefits too must be assessed before the TL&D process is initiated. Costs include not only the direct costs but also indirect costs that have to be incurred in the development period. Direct costs are those which are mainly related to the TL&D process. For example training and learning costs such as consultants’ fees, university/college fees, material costs and so on, have to be incurred by the company. It is the private cost component of the project. In addition to this there may be some social costs such as government’s taxes on corporation profits and individuals’ incomes to finance training programmes at universities and colleges. Again benefits are divided into private and social; private benefits are those which the company might directly enjoy, e.g. higher levels of labour productivity and increased profits. Social benefits include the fall-out effect such as efficient employees sharing their experience with colleagues elsewhere. Ultimately, marginal social costs must be equal to the marginal private costs. Or, marginal social benefits must exceed marginal private benefits. The Helping Hand is more likely to reap good benefits in the long term. Therefore it is advantageous to adopt a TL&D strategy thus giving it a head-start in diversification. 4. c. Setting realistic goals in the long term: Finally, there is the need for the company to set a list of goals, including a better performance evaluation. TL&D performance evaluation requires a systematic assessment procedure that is not only employee centric but also quality focused. A well trained staff will be equally well motivated. Therefore it is only a matter of time before the performance starts improving. The management of the company has to adopt a number of measures to evaluate TL&D staff performance. How will the staff at Helping Hand respond to new changes? Let’s have a look at Vroom’s Expectancy Theory of Motivation. The theory outlines three expectations: There is a positive correlation between efforts and performance. The reward will satisfy an important need. The desire to satisfy the need is strong enough to make the effort worthwhile. Vroom concluded that “behaviour is the result of conscious choices among alternatives”. (Vroom, 2008, Retrieved 25 May, 2008 from http//:www.arrod.co.uk). 4. Training, Learning & Development: the theoretical postulates My theoretical analysis of TL&D process will clarify the overall modeling parameters of management functions and TL&D process. Management functions are five in number: planning directing controlling staffing organizing The top manager’s task in performing the above five functions is basically subservient to the achievement of company objectives. This is not to deny the relative significance of the senior manager’s role in building up goodwill of the company. My analysis here will reinforce the idea that under TL&D the management needs to be precise as to what talent it will seek to enhance in order to achieve corporate objectives or the company’s mission. Talent management is essential to achieve organizational excellence and it, in turn, depends on talent planning and development (Berger and Berger, 2003, p.185). Talent management also creates benchmarking opportunities to the management though such opportunities might not be available as a freely accessible source of energy. It is to be desired and developed at a cost, i.e. opportunity cost. Human capital creation requires a corresponding sacrifice in related gains. Organizational design, methodology and approach have been cited by some recent authors as the fait accompli for putting in place a workable talent management process. Then TL&D is obviously determined by this process. Organizations have a tendency to prioritize objectives while ignoring strategic advantages associated with talent management as flawed (Cunningham, 2007, pp.4-6). Source: Identifying and Managing Your Assets: Talent Management. Rhea Duttagupta, PricewaterhouseCoopers, London. Conclusion In conclusion I hope to re-stress the necessity for change at the Helping Hand by reversing the current failure prone corporate strategy of not considering the importance and relevance of TL&D concept to bring about a qualitative and quantitative leap forward in making the company profitably viable. Effective management strategies require equally effective policy u-turns when such u-turns are in the best interest of the long term survival of the firm. After all good HRD practices are necessitated by a desire to leverage benchmarking so that while standards improve, profit margins grow to obviate competitors’ designs. References 1. Bennet, J.B, Lehman, W.E.K and Forst, J.K(1999), Change Transfer Climate and Customer Orientation, Group & Organization Management Journal, Vol. Vol. 24(2), pp.188-216, Sage Publications. 2. Berger, L.A, and Berger D. R, (2003), The Talent Management Handbook: Creating Organizational Excellence by Identifying, Developing and Promoting Your Best People, ,McGraw-Hill Publishing. New York. 3. BNET, online business magazine, (2008), Definition of Corporate Culture, (Retrieved from http//: www. BNET.com.business.library on May 27, 2008). 4. Bradford, R.B, Duncan, J.P and Tarcy B (2000), Simplified Strategic Planning: A No-nonsense Guide for Busy People Who Want Results Fast, Chandler House Press, Massachusetts,. 5. Clutterbuck, D and Megginson, D, (1999), Mentoring Executives and Directors, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford. 6. Cunningham, I (2007), Talent Management: Making It Real, Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal, Vol. 21(2), pp.4-6. 7. Gubbins, M.C and Garavan, T.N (2005), Studying HRD Practitioners: A Social Capital Model, Human Resource Development Review, Vol. 4(2), pp.189-218. 8. Harrison, R (2005), Learning and Development, Chartered Institute of Personnel And Development Publication, 4 Edition. 9. Harrison, M. I (1994), Diagnosing Organizations: Methods, Models and Processes, Sage Publications, New York. 10. Lehrer, P.M, Woolfolk, R.L and Sime, W (2007), Principles and Practice of Stress Management(2nd Ed), Guildford Press, New York. 11. Luoma, M (2000), Developing People for Business Success: Capability-Driven HRD in Practice, Management Decision Journal, Vol. 38(3), pp.145-153). 12.. Potter, B. A, (1993), Turning Around: Keys to Motivation and Productivity (2 Rev. Ed.), Robin Publishing, Berkeley, California. 13. Schein, E. H, (1999), The Corporate Culture Survival Guide, Jossey-Bass, San FGrancisco, California. 14. Stolovitch, H, (2002), Telling Ain’t Training, ASTD, Alexandria, Virginia. 15. Vroom, V (2008), Expectancy Theory and Vroom, Retrieved from http//:www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_vroom_expectancy _theory. 16. Duttagupta, R, (2008), Identifying and Managing Your Assets: Talent Management, PricewaterhouseCoopers, London, (Retrieved from; http//:www.pricewaterhousecoopers.com 17. Miles, R.E, Snow, C.C, Meyer, A. D and Coleman H.J (2008), Product Diversification in Artificial Strategy Environment, Adaptive Information Systems and Modelling in Economics and Management Science, Springer Publishing, Vienna. 18.. Winterton, J and Winterton R (2008), Developing Managerial Competence, (Retrieved 27 May 2008, from: http:// www.ebookmall.com Read More