Essay
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Word count: 1500
Table of Contents
Essay 1
Topic: Identification of three training methods to train and develop the organisation’s employees and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these methods and how they could be improved for training and developing employees.
Introduction
Tesco Plc. is a multinational retail chain that offers and delivers general merchandise. The organisation performs their business in both online and multi-format stores, which are segregated by size and range of products and services. The current employee strength in Tesco is around 360,000 in the UK (Global Data, 2022). As an employee of Tesco, when I joined the company, they arranged a training program to enhance our skills and improve our quality of knowledge. The training and development program also made us updated with their technology and terms.
Discussion
Regarding Tesco's training program to make the workforce more productive, to sustain in such a competitive market and to retain their position. Therefore the company is always in the dire need of knowledgeable and skilled employees. For this reason, Tesco organises a training and development program for their mid-level and operative employees at a regular interval.
The current employee strength in Tesco is around 360,000 in the UK (Global Data, 2022). As an employee of Tesco, when I joined the company, they arranged a training program to enhance our skills and improve our quality of knowledge. The training and development program also made us updated with their technology and terms. In this regard, Tesco's training program to make the workforce more productive, to sustain in such a competitive market and to retain their position. Therefore the company is always in the dire need of knowledgeable and skilled employees. For this reason, Tesco organises a training and development program for their mid-level and operative employees at a regular interval.
As an employer in Tesco, I believe engaging employers in e-learning can boost interest and learning capabilities. The e-learning training method includes online courses, videos and tests, which will enable the employees to do their training from anywhere with the help of computers present in Tesco or with their smartphones. E-learning is one of the easiest and most convenient types of employee training, especially for employees who have high-turnover rates or is working remotely. This type of learning method also includes activities, interactive games, videos, which will keep the employee engaged throughout the training period. As per, Anton and Shikov (2018), the other advantage of e-learning for Tesco is this method is extremely cost-effective as there will be no cost for trainers or a training room and materials. On the contrary, e-learning has some demerits like without an effective instructional design strategy the e-learning interface, the visuals and graphics that make the training fun can also be gimmicky and quickly outdated. In addition to that, for complicated and collaborative situations, employees will be most benefitted from the training room sessions, which e-learning will not be able to provide. Thus, Tesco needs to invest in a good instructional designer to develop their e-learning portal to improve efficacy.
The second type of training method that Tesco can apply is On-the-job training (OJT) also known as hands-on, which mainly focuses on the individual needs of an employee. As per Sekerin et al. (2018), OJT is a practical orientation and can allow an employee to fit perfectly into their current or future role while honing their current abilities and skills. OJT is a time-taking procedure and can be best used when enough resources are accessible during the training program. One major disadvantage of OJT is sometimes this method is conducted hastily and the employee providing the training can be ineffective (BBC, 2022). Tesco often demands that most of their workers including the fresher take part and contribute to the daily workload and thus hastes through the training process. Possibility of errors is common in the hands-on training method because employees in complex situations are still in the learning process and have not picked up the required expertise to perform well in their job roles. Avoiding hastiness can improve the OJT method for employees so that their foundation is strong enough.
The third method that Tesco can apply is role-playing which is an active learning method, where one asks an employee to act through one aspect of their jobs in a given realistic situation (Indeed, 2021). The role-playing method can be highly effective like other group activities but can be unnecessary for straightforward topics. Role-playing also requires more time from employees and has the potential to take away time from an entire department or a team while going through the role-playing training method. For improving this strategy, role-playing must be performed when there is a lean time in the company.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that to hone the skills of existing employees in Tesco, seniors need to organise fun and interactive training methods to increase productivity among the employees. Moreover, boosting confidence and energy among the employees is extremely vital because, without confidence, employees will not feel energetic and motivated to perform their tasks efficiently.
Essay 2
Discuss the re4levance of Kolb's experimental learning theory and the importance of understanding and learning styles for employees, line managers and learning and development specialists.
Introduction
In 1984, David Kolb published the learning style model from which he established his inventory for learning styles. Kolb’s experimental learning theory operates on two levels- four separate learning styles and the cycle of four-stage learning (Chapman, 2022). The maximum portion of Kolb's learning theory is focused on the learner's inner cognitive processes. The learning theory includes four separate learning styles, which are developed on a cycle of the four-stage learning cycle, which is also known as the 'training cycle'. In this regard, Kolb's theory is specifically well-designed as it offers the understanding of an individual's learning styles and also provides an explanation of the cycle of experiential learning, which applies to all. This four-stage learning cycle consists of four-stage (Chapman, 2022).
Discussion
The first stage is concrete experience, where the learner might have a new situation or experience, or a reinterpretation of an existing experience with the knowledge of new concepts. This way the learner gains a concrete experience. In the context of employees' training, this stage is designed to allow trainees and employees to involve actively in a range of training activities like role plays, case studies, skill practice, lectures, simulations, games, slide shows and many more. This range of training techniques ranges from artificial and passive like the lecture to more active and real like skill practising. Subekti (2020) states that this stage phases into the reflective observation. After this phase, the trainer directs the trainees to the reflection part of the cycle.
In the stage of reflective observation of the new experience, the learner with their existing knowledge reflects on their new experience. This reflection is done to understand if there are any gaps or conflicts between the experience and the learning (Subekti, 2020). In this phase, the trainer should be ready to help the employees to analyse critically their experience so far and to help them present their feelings and viewpoints verbally. In addition, the learning and development specialist need to focus on any recurrent patterns or themes that appear in the reaction to the experience of the trainee. Further, the trainer is responsible for helping the trainees to conceptualise their reflections regarding the experience and can eventually move forward to the next stage.
The third stage is abstract conceptualisation where the learner’s reflection gives rise to a new concept or an idea of an existing intellectual concept that the individual has gathered from their experience (Practera, 2022). During this phase, employees are asked by the development specialist to take a step back from their immediate experience and to evaluate critically to reach conclusions so that they can be typically or theoretically applied to "real life". Moreover, the trainer builds this experiential learning model to enable employees to work alone and then they can share conclusions. This enables the trainees to exchange their thoughts that work as a catalyst to one another.
Lastly, the fourth stage is active experimentation where the newly developed concepts lead to experimentation, where the ideas are applied to the real-life situation by the learner to observe the outcomes (Practera, 2022). At the end of the training event, employees must immediately apply what they have learned to their professional and personal life and the trainer helps the employees to develop their action plan.
The four learning styles that are developed by Kolb are diverging, where people tend to see things from many perspectives (Cherry, 2020). These people prefer observing overdoing and applying their imaginations to be inventive in their learning styles. This style is important for line managers, learning specialists and employees to be more resourceful in their job. The assimilating style enables people who are more interested in concepts and tasks than people's relationships (Cherry, 2020). This particular style can be important for an employee who has recently started working and is understanding and analysing the new concepts People who follow the converging style are good problem solvers and are found to be practical in their ideas. This particular style is vital for line managers as they are responsible for solving workplace conflicts and other issues (Cherry, 2020). Lastly, people who follow the accommodating style, their outlook of learning are more practical and prefer to see issues from an intuitive viewpoint. These people like trainers or learning specialists rely on their gut feeling, like new challenges and can be characterised by concrete experience and active experimentation (Cherry, 2020).
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be stated that the four learning styles are developed in the four learning stages and are vital for any institution and organisation. Kolb further states that learning includes the acquirement of abstract concepts, which can be applied in a different range of situations. As per Kolb's theory, new experiences motivate developing new concepts and said that “learning is the new process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience”.
Reference List
Essay 1
Anton, C. and Shikov, A., 2018. The method of personalized corporate e-learning based on personal traits of employees. Procedia computer science, 136, pp.511-521.
BBC, 2022. Training [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zrm3382/revision/4 [Assessed 10 March 2022]
Global Data, 2022. Tesco Plc: Overview [online] Available at: https://www.globaldata.com/company-profile/tesco-plc/ [Assessed 10 March 2022]
Indeed, 2022. How To Conduct Role-Play Training in 5 Steps [online] Available at: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/role-play-training#:~:text=What%20is%20role%2Dplay%20training,an%20employee%20and%20a%20customer. [Assessed 10 March 2022]
Sekerin, V.D., Gaisina, L.M., Shutov, N.V., Abdrakhmanov, N.K. and Valitova, N.E., 2018. Improving the quality of competence-oriented training of personnel at industrial enterprises. Calitatea, 19(165), pp.68-72.
Essay 2
Chapman, A., 2022. Kolb's Learning Styles [online] Available at: https://www.businessballs.com/self-awareness/kolbs-learning-styles/ [Accessed 11 March 2022]
Cherry, K. 2020. Kolb's Theory of Learning Styles [online] Available at: https://www.verywellmind.com/kolbs-learning-styles-2795155#:~:text=Kolb's%20learning%20styles%20are%20one,demands%20of%20our%20current%20environment. [Accessed 11 March 2022]
Practera, 2022. What Is the Experiential Learning Theory of David Kolb? [online] Available at: https://practera.com/what-is-the-experiential-learning-theory-of-david-kolb/ [Accessed 11 March 2022]
Subekti, A.S., 2020. Undergraduate Novice Researchers’ Experiences in Conducting Mini-Research in Education: Kolb Learning Cycle. | IRJE| Indonesian Research Journal in Education|, pp.448-465.
