Question

New on the job

Joe and Michael's just started her job as human resource manager at in the doghouse, a retail chain specializing in dog apparel and accessories. She is a good friend of yours if you met in college.

The organization has 35 stores with 250 employees in Washington, Idaho, and Oregon. As the chain has grown, the training programs have been conducted somewhat piece meal. Upon visiting some of the stores in a three week tour, Joanne has realized that all the stores seem to have different ways of training their in-store employees.

when she digs further, she realizes even the corporate offices which employee 75 people have no formal training program. In the past they have done in formal and optional brown bag lunch training to keep employees up-to-date. As a result, Joe and develops a survey using survey monkey and send it to all 75 corporate employees. She created a rating system, with one meaning strongly disagree and five meaning strongly agree. Employees were not required to answer allQuestions, hence the variation in the number of responses column. After this task, Joanne creates a slightly different survey and send it to all the store managers, asking them to encourage their retail employees to take the survey. The result are shown here

question:

1. I am paid fairly. Number of responses 73 average rating 3.9

2. I feel my group works well as a team number of responses 69 average rating 2.3

3. I appreciate the amount of soft skills training offered at in the doghouse. Number of responses 74 average rating 2.1

4.I can see myself growing professionally here number of responses 69 average rating 1.95

5.I feel I am paid fairly number of responses 74 average rating 3.8

6.I have all the tools and equipment I need to do my job number of responses 67 average rating 4.2

7.I feel confident if there were an emergency at the office I would know what to do and could help others number of responses 73 average rating 2.67

8.I think my direct supervisor is an excellent manager number of responses 55 average rating 2.41

9.the orientation training I received was helpful in understanding the expectations of the job number of responses 75 average rating 3.1

10.I would take training related to my job knowing there would be a reward offered for doing sonumber of responses 71 average raining 4.24

in the doghouse retail employee survey results

1. I am content with the benefits I am receiving number of responses 143 average rating 1.2

2. I feel my store works well as a team number of responses 190 average rating of 4.1

3. I appreciate the amount of product training and information offered at in the doghouse. Number of responses 182 average rating 2.34

4.I can see myself growing professionally here number of responses 158 average rating 1.99

5. I feel I am paid fairly number of responses 182 average rating 3.2

6. My supervisor works with my schedule, so I work at times that are convenient for me. Number of responses 172 average rating 3.67

7. I feel confident if I had to evacuate the store, I would know what to do and could help others. Number of responses 179 average rating 2.88

8. I think my store manager is a great manager. Number of responses 139 average rating 3.34

9. The orientation training I received was helpful in understanding the expectations of the job number of responses 183 average rating 4.3

10. I am interested in developing my career at in the doghouse. Number of responses 174 average rating 1.69

Based on the information Joanne received from her survey, she decided some changes need to be made. Joanne asks you to meet for coffee and take a look at the results. After you review them, Joanne ask you the following questions. How would you respond to each?

1. “Obviously, I need to start working on some training programs. Which topics do you think I should start with?”
2. “How do I go about developing a training program that will be really useful and make people excited? What are the steps I need to take? Which strategies do you recommend?”

Answer 1

Human resource is the added value to the company. If the human resource is efficient and skilled it can make the company's vision achieved in less time and with optimum resource. The effectivity of the company is also judged by the skills the man power shows in the production or other department.

Therefore to recruit the best team with diversified working experience and knowledge in must for the human resource department.

After looking at the survey and the business practice followed by the company I will suggest

• In house training method : In this training program the employee may use 2 hours from the 9 hours shift to understand the customer needs and to nourish their own skills.
• The surveys conducted should be done on quarterly basis and mandatory for all the employees and to answer all the question in the survey. This will help the company to understand the mind of the employees.
• Motivation : The employee works for benefits either monetary or non monetary therefore the managers should focus on understanding the personal goal of the employees so that the employees focus on the goals of the company. For e.g. Mr. A is working with you and he is the only earning person in the family . One day his wife met with an accident and he took the leaves beyond his contract. As per the policy you deducted his salary of those extra days. Now Mr. A being the sole earner has to fight with two situation i.e. the money loss and the medical expenses of his wife , this make him under pressure and he may not be able to give his best to the organization. Therefore the HR should understand the need of an hour to retain their employees. If the salary will not be deducted this may create impression in Mr. A's mind and he may give an extra hour to work for the company. Therefore essence of motivation is must to make the employee feel safe .
• Turnover: To keep the employee updated about latest technology and artificial intelligence in must. Therefore skill training needs to be conducted so that the employee IQ is increased moreover they are able to adapt the new changes to be occurred in the external environment.
• Higher productivity: The training should be for all the employee whether in office or in Dog house. The aim is to treat every employee equally. If the employees feel equal there competition in house is eliminated automatically. The lesser the competition the higher the productivity.
• Mentor training : This training should be promoted . In this the experts leads the team of four or five at a time and guide them to understand the organization. The cases they deliver and the reaction of employees helps them to know that how possible they react in practical situation. Therefore giving theoretical knowledge of practical situation by the mentor will develop the mind and efficiency of employees.
• Conference and Seminars: The company being situate in headquarter with various branches should be able to manage all at a time. The use of conference meeting and seminar in a month will make employees feel that the company is paying proper attention to their stores. This will help as a surveillance on the activities by the employees. Moreover the employees will be able to communicate to them will clear the gap between management and the work force.
• Focus on soft skills of the employees : the employees improvement using training will not only benefit the employees but will benefit the company as well.Focusing on the core area and making them expert in their field will enable the chain of promotion and instead of appointing the personnel for the higher authority with higher remuneration you need to appoint of lower authority as thee chain of promotion will takes its place.
• Training to keep the employees updated towards compliance and law: To know about the various laws and compliance at are attracted by your company is must. Specific training about law and compliance to ge given to all the employees. As this will teach them to work in ethical manner by following the rules and regulation and with code of ethics as well.

Steps and strategies to develop the training program is as follows:

• Identify needs and gaps : The  first form is identification i.e. why there is need to develop this training program. Thereafter identifying the bugs and gaps in the organization.
• Budget : Every program whether formal or informal will cost. Therefore formation of budget with accounts department is must. Try to include all the 35 stores and 250 employees expenses in the budget.
• Employee selection : The mentor training will help you to pay attention on every store therefore the time of visit will be reduced. Moreover elimination of different ways of training and introduction of uniformity in training to all the employees at all the stores and dog house. The proper schedule should be prepared by you and one store you can lead and rest 34 should be lead as pr mentor training method.
• Content and Structure : The training program should have contents like
  • Motivation and importance of employees.
  • priorities of employees
  • the rewards and best performance
  • For training procedure to be conduced from now onwards
• The program should be able to bind the employees for this motivational slides , videos and images should be used
• Referring and hinting of next session : The training program should end at giving hinds about the next training program and the topic as this will keep binding the employees in the program.
• Interviewing the demo room : The random employees will be selected and random practical situation will be given to solve them after the end of session. This will help you to understand what they all have learned.
• Giving them the opportunity to ask doubts and question.
• The last topic will be Career Development : The program should be the ladder of development to the employees .The importance of training should takes place in this section. The employee should be taught what types of training will make him or her the professional and expert. This will act as a binding force as after this the employees willfully will complete these training and program segment.

Hence the training and development has become essential part of the organization. To boost the employees and o keep them efficient the different types of training shall be done. Moreover the path to career development is also decided by the training conducted by the employees.