Training and Development Assignment Essay Example for Free

Training and Development Assignment Essay I have chosen the case #2, about the DEEP BAY INTERNATIONAL HOTEL, where there is a clear necessity to develop a certain strategy for training and development of the hotel’s personnel in order to gain more customer satisfaction and as a result more customers and consequently more profit and better position of the hotel in the market. Part 1: First of all we will conduct the training needs assessment TNS for the organization in order to identify the key concepts that need the most attention for creating a good training program for hotel’s personnel. It is true that the Tutors themselves play a key role in the recognition of students needs in this area as they are their first / main point of contact. Younger Tutors with less experience often need specific training to help them to be able to identify the signs which indicate that help may be required. In larger organizations such as universities there are normally professional councilors and mentors available for one to one sessions. In our case it is necessary to employ tutors from the outside in order to make an initial introduction to what the staff’s main goals and objectives should be like and than move on to implementing that knowledge at the workplace.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are often practical issues that need to be dealt with to ensure that students can achieve their learning goals i.e. crà ¨che facilities, transport issues, times of training and flexibility of training. Many training and further education establishments will address these issues to different degrees depending upon the size of the organization and the facilities and resources available. All of the areas discussed rely upon the correct management systems, administrative systems and infrastructure being in place. To enforce this it is the requirement that any training organization in the public sector involved with awarding bodies such as City and Guilds or O.C.R must have a comprehensive Equal Opportunities Policy in place. This policy outlines the philosophy of the organization in terms of offering equality of opportunity to all and specifically deals with issues such as race, gender, disability and age. The policy is available for public scrutiny and it (or parts of it) is quite often on display within the public areas of the organization. Once the policy has been established it is essential that it is reviewed regularly by a nominated department and kept up to date with current guidelines and legislation. All tutors, by the nature of the work that they do, must have excellent communication skills and be able to relate to individuals on a personal basis. This ability helps them to spot potential problems early and avoid unnecessary complications. It is also necessary to ensure that all students are aware that they can talk to their tutor in confidence about any problems that they may have. Development of communication skills for students is now becoming an essential part of the course content of many courses particularly NVQ’s and often includes other aspects of basic skills such as literacy and numeracy. Constructive feedback helps students assess their performance and gives the Tutor an opportunity to provide direction and praise or help them to be aware of their mistakes and what they need to do to ensure that they learn from them. However, perhaps some of the most important and challenging functions of HR professionals are directly related to the recruitment, selection, training, and appraisal of the organization’s employees (or potential employees as the case may be). It is up to HR manager or management team to create processes and methodologies in recruiting, training, and appraising its staff in such a way that it is congruent with the values, vision and culture of the organization. This can be an enormous challenge – especially in today’s business world where companies are constantly acquiring and merging together forming whole new identities at an exponential rate. In dealing with the ambiguity of the corporate world HR professionals realize that it is not singular performance of each and every HR function that will assure the best human resources for their organizations, it is the alignment and integration of all of the HR functions that create an environment that empowers and encourages employee growth, competency, and loyalty. In our case I would recommend the learner’s centered training approach because of the audience, which is the hotel staff that already has experience in working in the industry and only need to improve their skills and perception of the new wave of development. The health of any organization depends on the development of its people. If indeed the greatest asset is its human resources, then it is even more vital that the organization allow for its HR professionals to invest time and energy into this vital planning function. When planning how best to train new and existing employees, HR professionals should always be sure to address both immediate and long-range goals, behaviors and skills. However, more often than not, just like anyone else, HR people cannot always assume or pretend to know what would best work for everyone, so it is critical that before planning out the training process, they must conduct a thorough needs assessment. This can be done through many ways such as the administration of questionnaires and surveys to determine employee needs and expectations, observation of job functions and the organization as a whole, and other methods of qualitative information gathering. Once a training plan has been established, the entire process by which people learn what is expected of them in their new roles in the organization is socialization. This process, not unlike many other HR processes, has multiple stages such as: Entry/Anticipatory Socialization, Socialization/Accommodation, and Mutual Acceptance. It is important for HR professionals to recognize and encourage the full development of the new employee through all of these stages. Throughout the orientation and training of new (or old) employees, it is also important for an HR professional to conduct a training and development assessment. A thorough assessment would include an analysis of the training needs as well as the development needs over the next few years. Training needs should be based on immediate needs for changes in behavior, where as the long-range development goals should be based on the acquisition of knowledge and skills to be used now and in the future. Positioning employee training to focus on short and long term development helps HR professionals to look â€Å"down the road† and address how they can help their employees meet challenges, create change and ensure the overall health of the organization. In using this futuristic approach, an imperative strategic alignment is built to integrate employee training and development, with that of employee performance management. Through the needs analysis that was conducted with the current manager, we found that even the best employees can always use a little more training. Even though the new employee may come with experience under their belt, they still need to be trained to do their job within the Deep Bay International Hotel organization. Since most new employees in this position come from a corporate background, they need to be acclimated to the Deep Bay International Hotel and its unique culture and position as a teaching hotel. The employee also has the need to be trained in just what their duties on the job are, beyond what the job description tells them. This type of training needs to be done within the first weeks that the employee is on the job, so that they can perform their job function as effectively as possible. Management skills in particular are not usually fully developed until someone has been working as a manager for years, and even then, there is often room for improvement. Since the new employee in this situation may only have two years experience, and in what may have been a limited managerial role; management training is necessary. By participating in a training program, managers can make more informed decisions in their management capacity. One area that the needs analysis found training to be necessary is in the human resources side of this management position. Thus, one of the key areas a new manager will be trained in his how to hire, fire, and retain good employees. Leadership and teamwork skills are an integral part of working at the Deep Bay International Hotel. Thus, the training programs allow the new employee the ability to grow their leadership skills and learn how to function well in a team and develop teams among those that they supervise. Part 2: Training Objectives Familiarize the new employee to the Deep Bay International Hotel culture and operations. The employee should be able to state how their job functions within the whole Deep Bay International Hotel organization. The new employee will learn what are the responsibilities of their job at the Deep Bay International Hotel and the correct way to perform their key duties. Within two weeks the employee should be able to manage the functions of the banquet and conference services department with only limited help from other managers. Management development, enhance upon the employee’s current management skills so that they may become more effective managers. Evaluate and improve skills relating to human resources. The employee should understand and be able to discuss and the proper techniques for hiring, employee retention, and firing. Improve management leadership skills, so that the manager can more effectively manage their employees. Manager should be able to interact with and work in a team environment on a regular basis. Manager should be able to divide his subordinates into functional team groups to maximize their effectiveness. Part 3: Evaluation Process The evaluation process is multi-part because the employee is going to be trained in such a breadth of topics. The first two objectives, understanding the employee’s place in the Deep Bay International Hotel and its culture, and being able to perform their job function with only limited assistance can be evaluated together. After the employee has been on the job for three weeks, the Banquet Dept. head should sit down and meet with the new manager. The department head should discuss with the manager their level of understanding about their job. Additionally, the department head should speak with the employee’s coworkers informally to see if they have any constructive criticism for the job that the new manager is doing. The Banquet Dept. head should prepare a performance appraisal for the employee that should state the employee’s current level of acclamation to their job. This appraisal should then be presented to the employee and discussed with the department head so that the employee can work on the areas in which they are weak. The appraisal should be presented as something that is purely to help the employee, not as something that will affect things like raises, etc. The employee’s human resource skills, the third objective, will be evaluated in two ways. The first way that the skills will be evaluated is in an interactive test that will be given both before and after training with the Retention and Motivation CD-ROM from the AHMA. This test will evaluate the employee’s skill improvement after they have completed all of the training parts of the CD-ROM. The employee’s skills will also be evaluated in an objective fashion by the employee’s supervisor, the banquet dept. head. The skills will be given an initial ranking after the head’s meeting with the employee in the beginning of training. The dept. head will do a performance appraisal approximately two months after the employee has started. As part of this appraisal, the head will distribute anonymous evaluations to the supervisor’s subordinates that ask about his/her motivational skills. This appraisal will evaluate the employee’s current human resource skills as well as his/her level of improvement from starting at the Deep Bay International Hotel. The team building skills of the employee will also be evaluated in multiple steps. The evaluation will come after step one of the training process, the Increasing Teamwork: Productivity video. Simple tests that quiz about the basics of teamwork will be given to the employee before and after and their performance accordingly evaluated. From the dept. head’s meeting with the employee initially, a framework of teamwork skills to work on will be developed. The team retreat will help the employee to further develop his/her skills in this area as well. About two months after the employee has been hired, the dept. head should determine the change in the employee’s level of teamwork skills. This evaluation should cover both the manager’s ability to work within teams as well as to form then amongst his subordinates.       Bibliography: Adler, Nancy J. International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior. South-Western College Publishing, Cincinnati, 1997. Fishman, Shirley R. Developing a Global Workforce. Canadian Business Review, 1996. Fowler, Sandra M., Mumford, Monica G. and Hoopes, David S. Intercultural Sourcebook, Vol. I: Cross-Cultural Training Methods. Intercultural Press, Inc., Yarmouth, 1995. Harris, Philip R. and Moran, Robert T. Managing Cultural Differences: Leadership Strategies for a New World of Business. Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, 1996. Hofstede, G. Cultures and Organizations; Software of the Mind. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1991. Knowles, Malcolm, Swanson, Richard and Holton, Elwood. Adult Learner: Definitive Classic on Adult Education and Training. McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Ltd., Whitby, 1999. Wheeler, Mardy and Marshall, Jeanie. â€Å"Developing Human Resources†, 1986.