SECTION I
Concern
Wealth Management group is a big firm with hundreds of employees who come from various ethnic backgrounds. If hired by the firm’s Director of Training and Development to carry out a training need assessment, I would start by first identifying the concern or the problem at hand. My procedure of discovering training needs would begin with isolating the concern that is easily noted by the firm’s manager. The Wealth Management Group had a major concern, which was mainly brought about by the diverse labour force. The firm consisted of employees from different ethnic backgrounds; thus, a majority of the foreign workers felt that the firm’s leaders were racists and did not like working with foreigners. Also, employees rarely socialized with one another. The relationship between workers was, therefore, poor. Another major concern was the poor firm security. Numerous office supplies were easily stolen by workers since there were probably no security cameras or checkups. That concern also indicated that the Wealth Management Group’s employees were not self-disciplined and also cared less about the firm. No one raised the alarm regarding the ongoing theft of office supplies in the firm, yet it was obvious that workers were carrying office stuff to their homes. Additionally, new workers were not adequately trained. The previous lecture-based training plans were also not highly effective since a majority of the employees did not comprehend a thing.
Importance
After discovering the main concerns in the firm, my next step would be to determine how important these concerns were to the firm’s operation or effectiveness. The firm’s vision is to lead in customer relationships, and its core value includes trust. For the firm to achieve its vision, teamwork is essential. The major concern in the firm is the existence of a poor relationship between workers. Workers are not united and only tolerate working with each other. The concern is therefore essential since it is likely to hinder employees from being fully productive, which in return, hinders the firm from achieving its goal. Racism is also not good as it could hinder the firm leaders from discovering the full potential of foreign employees. Lastly, stealing of office supplies increases the firm’s expenses since the firm has to keep on buying new office supplies regularly to replace the stolen ones. The concerns are, therefore, an essential matter since it highly affects the firm’s operations and even its overall goal.
Consulting Stakeholders
My third step would be to consult essential stakeholders in the firm. Getting support from the main firm’s players is essential. I must inform the top management regarding the existing problems. They should comprehend the justification for needs evaluation. Gaining approval and also resources to carry out the training is therefore crucial. Employees and also team representatives are also part of the firm’s stakeholders thus should be consulted and even involved in the requirements evaluation process. In this stage, I should ensure that every stakeholder contributes to the needs evaluation process to make sure that the information that I will assemble is precise and also that all stakeholders are highly interested in the prosperity of the plan. It is also crucial that I demonstrate to especially the top management, how tackling the existing issues will assist the firm in achieving its overall goal.
An excellent example is adequate training for a new employee or an employee that has been promoted. A worker who has excellent technical abilities and gets promoted to be a supervisor should comprehend the dynamics of motivation, performance management, and also leadership. Training can assist in establishing the individual in his or her new task, which is usually difficult when a group is going through a transition of one of the co-workers becoming the new boss.
Data Collection
My next step in the needs evaluation process would be far-reaching since it would include the concern’s documentation by assembling data from three stages of evaluation. The three stages are organizational, task, and also individual.
- Organizational Analysis
The organizational analysis would involve studying the entire firm, i.e. its strategy, its surrounding, context, and also resources. I would make sure that I understand all these components as they would help me to gain the necessary knowledge for identifying training needs. Understanding these components could also help me to identify the likelihood of the training program’s success. The essential thing in this stage is that I should ensure to find out if the training plan is aligned with the firm’s strategy. It is also essential that I find out if there exist any constraints that could derail the coaching plan, and also the degree of support for the training plan’s delivery and even success. To assemble the needed information, I would use records and even reports. Employee interview could also be a helpful method of collecting information. All the gathered information can assist me in determining if a training program is necessary to help the firm accomplish its goals as well as objectives and if the training program will be a success.
Nevertheless, even after discovering that training is necessary, I would still need to find out the kind of training that would be required and the people that would require that training. I would, therefore, need more information concerning the roles performed by employees and also how well employees accomplish them. That would, therefore, take me to the task analysis.
- Task Analysis
A task evaluation would involve work functions accomplished on a task as well as the circumstances under which all these activities or functions are performed. In this level, I would make use of interviews, questionnaires, and also observations. I would also use sources like performance appraisals, turnover, customer complaints, and also returns. I would interview all the supervisors and even managers who are in charge. I will also review all job descriptions, as well as occupational information. Next, I will develop a comprehension of the things that every employee needs to know to perform his or her job. Observing every employee as they perform their task will also be essential. I will make sure to document all the tasks that are being performed. I will then organize the singled out tasks and develop a tasks’ sequence or list all tasks by essentiality. That way, I would be able to know the existing differences between excellent and poor performing workers on particular work tasks. I will also be able to tell if there are any variances between novices and skilful workers. Task analysis will help me if providing adequate training on those jobs will help to improve employees’ job performance. Providing the task analysis feedback to managers would also be essential as it will motivate employees to work on their weaknesses and also make managers to highly support the training plan.
- Person Analysis
Task analysis identifies the tasks that a worker must manage to accomplish and also the knowledge, abilities, and even skills needed. Nevertheless, it does not show how excellently workers can accomplish the tasks or if they possess the essential knowledge, abilities, and also skills. Such information is acquired from the individual analysis. Person evaluation will help me to determine those individuals that need training and if they are prepared for training. I will first give a description of the desired achievement to enable me to compare every worker’s accomplishment stage against the regular guideline. That will help me to identify disparities and the training need. Secondly, I will make a comparison between the desired performance and the actual employee performance. I will make use of sources like performance appraisals and work samples. I will also use methods like observations, self-evaluation of proficiency, and even formal examinations. Lastly, I will identify the things that hinder effective performance. One major training needs that I identified is employee relationship since the relationship between employees is very poor, thus hindering productivity.
SECTION II
For me to conduct an excellent lecture-based training workshop, I need to pay attention to three essential phases, which are planning, preparing, and lastly implementing. It is also essential to do an employee follow-up to obtain crucial feedback concerning the training workshop. Employee feedback would enable me to discover the things that I need to improve on next time.
Planning a Lecture-Based Training Workshop
Planning involves figuring out the things that I will want to accomplish to guide employees through the experience and also the things that I hope they will learn from the training. Planning is done once one knows what his or her topic of the training will be. In my case, I already know the topic which is improving employee relations.
- Topic
One of the things that I need to consider in the planning phase is my topic. I need to have an excellent command of what I will be presenting thus should do my homework well so that I will confidently deal with a majority of queries and even problems that could emerge.
- Audience
I should also consider my audience. In my case, I have already gathered enough information. I, therefore, completely understand the employees and even their needs. That will assist me in deciding the things that I will do and also how I will do them.
- Workshop Size
The other thing that I should put into consideration is the size of the workshop. In my case, I will be lecturing a considerable number of employees. It will, therefore, be essential if I split the group up for numerous activities.
- Time
It is also essential that I consider the time that I will be given to take the group through the training. In my case, I will have all day; hence it will be essential that my workshop goals match the time given. Since my workshop will take all day, lecturing continuously for a long period will make the employees get bored or even overwhelmed.
- Varying Activities
It will be essential if I break up the training time, whereby I can involve the employees in several various types of activities. The tactic can be highly conducive to the employees’ learning compared to them sitting still and doing one thing all day. It is also crucial to intersperse activities and even ideas that are humorous or even fun, with those that are serious, to keep employees awake and also alert.
- Breaks
Planning breaks will also be essential since it will allow employees to visit the washroom, get coffee, and to generally breathe. However, breaks can more than the required time hence it is crucial that I add five to ten minutes in every break to compensate for the extra time that the employees might take to settle down after each break.
- Workshop’s purpose
I will also consider the workshop’s purpose. Since the main purpose is to improve employee relations and discourage racism in the firm, I can introduce the employees to a variant way of viewing the world in relation to their working relations. Such type of workshop will give room for tremendously different activities like direct teaching, hypothetical situations’ discussion, attempting to resolve moral values, etc. Generally, the more various ways employees get to experience the idea or topic, the more likely it is for them to comprehend it.
- Presentation
It is crucial that I also consider my presentation. My presentation style, which includes my style as well as presentation methods that I will employ, will highly determine the productiveness of my training workshop. One of the presentation methods that I will consider to use is interactive methods which will involve small group discussions, reviews of case studies, etc. The method helps to keep the employees’ energy on top and also allows them to learn from one another. Employees can well understand the consequences of poor employee relationship to a firm through examples, experiences, etc. The video training will also be a helpful method as it is highly engaging, it is accessible, and I can modify it to fit the firm’s exact needs. For example, I can use animation to explain the effects of poor employee relations. I can also use live-action to show role-play scenarios like how employees should interact with one another and with clients. The inclusion of short skits will also be beneficial. Interactive skits are one of the innovative ways that I will use to present my material directly. Lastly, I will involve practice or exercise of a specific method that I will present to allow employees to see or feel what it is like.
- Reflection time
Reflection is crucial after learning, and I can accomplish that by giving employees adequate time to think about all the activities that they have done and even discuss them amongst each other in groups.
- Closure
The closure will be my final stage of the training whereby I finalize and also give employees an opportunity to respond to the things that they have gone through all day. In this stage, I will ask a few queries and listen to their responses. Asking for employees’ feedback will also be essential.
Preparation
After I am done with planning, I will be required to prepare for the training. Planning involves the delivery of the actual training, while preparation involves logistics. To be fully prepared, I need to ensure that I have the actual things and even time for the training to be a success. That means that I should put together every material that I will need to use and also gather essential information that will enable me to do an excellent job.
- Space Set-Up
The first thing is finding out regarding the space that I will use so that I can set the place up for my needs before the training day.
- Materials
I should also make sure that I have everything that I will need during the training. For example, I plan on distributing hand-outs; thus, I will be required to print enough hand-outs for everyone. I will also need to carry easels, newsprint, as well as markers to record ideas, queries, comments, or even to document every group activity. An overhead projector would also be essential.
SECTION III
DETAILED EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP LESSON PLAN
OBJECTIVE
-Employees will have better and healthier relationships with one another and embrace each other’s ethnic backgrounds.
Trainees: A group of singled out employees in the Wealth Management Group firm
Time: 8 a.m-5 p.m.
COURSE OUTLINE
8.00-9.00- Introduction that involves going through the training’s main agenda with the employees. The main agenda is the issue of poor employee relationship that, in return, affects the firm’s productivity.
9.00-10.30- Showing an animated video that illustrates how diversity and poor employee relation affects employee performance after which a discussion regarding the animated video is conducted.
10.30-10.50- Short break
10.50-12.00- Giving a lecture on the importance of excellent employee relationship to the firm and wrapping up the lecture with an interactive skit to better illustrate the lecture.
12.00-1.00- Lunch break
1.00-2.00- Showing a live-action video that will show role-play scenarios. The video will show interactions between different employees from different ethnic backgrounds, and after that a discussion will follow.
2.00-2.15- Short break
2.15-3.30- Role-play exercises will be conducted in groups whereby every member of the group will get to be a foreign employee who is trying to fit in a new working environment. A discussion will then follow whereby employees will discuss how it feels like to be the odd one out and ways of encouraging better relationships between all employees in the firm.
3.30 -4.00- Employees to reflect and discuss every activity that has been accomplished throughout the day. Employees think and even discuss their experiences or even any new knowledge to comprehend them.
4.00-5.00- Closing time. Agenda is summed up and reviewed. Initial expectations are revisited, and employees get an opportunity to also sum up. Feedback is also given by employees. Evaluation forms are also distributed and collected.
References