Unit 3 Human Resources Development Assignment

Program	Diploma in Business
Unit Number and Title	Unit 3 Human Resources Development
QFC Level	Level 4

Introduction

The human resource development is the most crucial section to be discussed regarding the overall development of the organization. It is the core responsibility of the human resource department not only to recruit the correct set of the employees but, it is also required to assist the staffs for the perfect enhancement of their skills with the proper usage of the training and the development sessions to retain the asset of the company for the further betterment. In this  human resources  Development current assignment, the Marks and Spencer havebeen chosen.

1.1 Compares different learning styles

The differentlearnings styles are required to be assessed so that, the importance and the difference between the different learning style can be evaluated in an effective manner.

Learning style	Characteristics
Honey Mumford learning style	There are four distinct learning preferences there. Such as Activist, Theorist, Pragmatist, and Reflector. The Activist use to learn things by dong their tasks The Theorist use to understand the theory behind the action and then perform the task The pragmatist uses to see the strategy to put the theoretical aspect into practical. The reflector uses to learn by observing on the consequence that what has happened(Mumford, 2013).
Kolb’s learning style	There are also the four different characteristics of the learning style as below: Concrete experience: The learners use to feel the concept before pursuing the task Reflective observation: the people use to watch the consequences and then pursue their tasks Abstract conceptualism: The people use to think a lot before pursuing the better outcome Active experimentation: People use to go things oftheir own with greatmotivation(Kolb & Kolb, 2012)
Myer brings learning style	With the help of the following characteristics, the learners use to learn the knowledge. Extroverts Introverts Using the intuition power With the help of their feeling power With the help of their thinking power With the helpof their judging power(Sternberg & Zhang, 2014)

1.2 Explain the role of the learning curve and the importance of transferring learning to the workplace

As per the view of Abdelrahman, et al. (2016), the learning curve is the line to reflect the relationship between the unit production time andthe cumulative numbers of unit produced. Steeper the learning curve is, the more active the employees with their experience and the knowledge base to compete with the market pressures. With the help of the concept of learning new tasks, the experience of the employees use to get developed. At the same time, it is required to have a focus on the development of the steeper learning curve so that with the help of the knowledge transfer the employees will become more skilled as per the requirement of the company like M &S(M & S, 2015).

It is important to use the proper knowledge transfer method by removing the transfer obstacles for the effective knowledge development of M & S  employee relationship . The obstacles of the knowledge transfer may come in the form of the lack of themotivation of the employees and thelack of the reinforcement of new knowledge and skills as per the organization culture. But main this aspect, it is importantfor the management of  M& S to offer the positive knowledge transfer by identifying the same need requirement and with the help of the active participation of the management so that the knowledgetransfer will be fruitful for the production development in a proper manner(Tortoriello, et al., 2012). At the same time, it is also required to be focused that the negative transfer should not take pace which is the perfect mis match of the cultural aspect and the need forth eemployees of M & S.

1.3 Assess the contribution of learning styles and theories when planning and designing a learning event

The perfect assessment of the learning styles and the theories are required to be done before the planning based on the cultural aspect and adaptability possibilities by the employees so the organization. The implementation of the learning theories is based on the adaptation quality of the employees in the organisation(Kolb, 2014). So before planning of the learning event, it is required by the management to assess the cultural aspects of the organisation like M& S and then have to decide the effective learning style above the mentioned one.

The learning style should be matched with the requirement of the organization so that the capacities and  employability skills  of the employees will get raised and it will help to meet the objectives set by M & S in an effective manner.

Task 2

2.1 Comparing the training needs for staff at different levels in the organization

M & S has the flatter organization structure with the huge responsibilities on the employees. Thus, it is required to keep the employees highly skilled so that they will be ableto respond to the change in the market need in aneffective manner (Phillips & Phillips, 2016). The requirement of the succession management is also strong in M &S. It has been observed that when one employee sue to get retired or use to get movefrom one job toanother, it becomes high time for the management to fill up eh gap. So, it is required by the management to have the close focus to training their employees so the internal placement will help them to fill up the gap in the employee’s position. In this aspect, M& S use to recruitthe employees in different positions as below:

• Trainee managers with A – levels to undertake the 24 months training
• Graduates, those use to join from the University is required to go for 12 months training
• The experienced managers those have the retail expertise isrequired to go for three months training as per the requirement of the organization(M & S, 2015).

Apart from that the technical skills, the management skills, the sales management, the teammanagement, and the  financial management  skills are required ti be implemented on the employees of the organization to meet up the demand of the market.

Figure 1: Skill requirement

2.2 Assess the advantages and disadvantages of training methods (at least three) that will be used for the workshop

The different types of the training methods are appliedto the employees of the organization as per the training needs. The basic training need that the M & S has identified are for the A-level managers, the graduate, and the experienced managers with the duration of 24 months, 12 months and three months respectively. Thus, the proposed training methods along with their advantages and disadvantages have been mentioned as below;

Training method	Advantage	Disadvantage
Performance coaching	This method uses to identify the performance gap of the employees in an effective manner also use to help the employees to get the best quality training to fill up the gap. The performance uses to get raise with the effective knowledge transfer method as well.	If the assessment of the performance gap is nonaccurate, then the incorrect et of the information transfer may deteriorate the performancelevel of the employees. So, it is required by the training manager to assess the personal performance data to identify the correct gap to fill it up(Bernardin & Wiatrowski, 2013).
Workshop	In the workshop, the perfect demonstration of training method with the help of the giving out the hand-out materials regarding the company information, and the required market information is done to enhance the knowledge base(Bernardin & Wiatrowski, 2013).	The cost incursion is high in this method by identifying the fact that how the workshop has impacted the skill level and the performance level of the employees in the organization like M & S.
On job training with performance appraisal	On thejob training is important to get thepractical set of data information to implement in the practical field. It is relatedto the concept of the Kolb’s activist here learning by dunguseto take place in M & S.	If the performanceappraisalis not correct or even correct, the negative performance feedback may demotivate the employees. So, the managers are required to offer feedback with the on thejobtraining to the employees regarding the areas to highlight rather thandemonstrating in a negative manner.

 

2.3 Use a systematic approach to planning a training and development workshop for your team on the needs identified by your department

The department that has been chosen for the discussion is the Frontline executives those are associated with the customer service directly. The systematic approach is as below:

Steps	Method
Problem introduction for one day	The problem statement is going to be introduced to the target employees of M & S so that they will be able to know the topic of the discussion and also can think about it(Bernardin & Wiatrowski, 2013).
Question and Answer session for one week	The perception about the problem statement along with the possible solutions is required to be discussed to understand their thinking level.
Findings and analysis discussion for two weeks	The analysis based on the question and answer is about to take place to come to a conclusion with the advantages and the disadvantages associated with the discussion (Bernardin & Wiatrowski, 2013)
Solution to the problem for one week	The solutionis established.
Scrutiny of the problem for five days	The solutions are scrutinized further
Best solution offering through the Q A session for two days	Best solutionis offered after the second and the final round of Question-Answer session with the help of the effective knowledge transfer Invalid source specified.

Task 3

3.1 Prepare an evaluation using a suitable technique

As per the view of Nagavarma, et al. (2012), the evaluation of the outcome, as well as the process of the training methods, are required to be evaluated. The segregated analysis of the process evaluation and the outcome evaluation has been mentioned as below:

Process evaluation: The process evaluation is done with the help of the continuous motoring of the supervisor of the training session. It is also required to arrange the feedback from the employees in between the training session to understand their whether theyaregetting the required support from the trainer to get the in-depth view of the problem statement and also required information so that they will be able to be skilled with the excellent customer care skills to offer the excellent customer care service of M &S(Lozano, et al., 2016).

Outcome evaluation: The important key criteria those are required by the supervisor of the trainer to be noticed are: Reaction of the trainees, learning standard of the trainees, Transfer to the other job after the training process done as per the ability development of the trainees, resultsof the organisation as a whole after the training and development session done and also to check that whether the meeting of the organisation objectives in in flow or not.At the same time, it is also important to arrange a feedback session of the employees after the completion of the training session to know about the perception of the undergone training session that whether it was able to meet the need of the employees for the career and self-development or not. The feedback questionnaire has been attached in Appendix. The Outcome evaluation design has been mentioned as below:

      Figure 2: Outcome Evaluation Design

3.2 Carry out the evaluation of the workshop by using the document created and collate the response on a concise spreadsheet

To make the proper evaluation both the qualitative and the quantitative analysis of the perception of the employees, the supervisor of the training session, and the perception of the customer about their received customer care have been analyzed as below:

Employee responses: Total 25 employees participated in the training session. The responses have been attached in Appendix. From the general observations of the result, it can understand that employees were satisfied with the training session as the need of thetraining by the group of theemployees have been met effectively. But, stillfewemployees were not completelysatisfied with the overall outcome of thesession and had raised the voice for the further arrangement of the training session in future.

Customer responses: The observation of the annual report regarding the database of 2.01 million of customers by the end of the year 215 clearly describes the fact that the customers are happy with the service of the front line executives for both the online and offline shopping. Thereactions and the less waiting time in payment counter also demonstrate the fact that the employees were well trains through the training session that has been organized.

Supervisor response: The responses of the supervisorsis based on the concept of the collection of the Qualitative data. It has been reflected by the supervisors that the trainer imparting the training regarding the customer service etiquettes were quite supportive. At the same time, they were also able to establish the quality communication between the employees and him. Transparent communication helped the trainer to understand the perception of the actual problem that the employees were facing during the customer service tasks. The properengagement of the participants has been observed, and the good question-answer session wasest ablished towards the meeting of the objectives of session toget the desired information regardingthe customer service etiquettes to be used.

3.3 Review the success of the evaluation methods used or whether another method would have been more appropriate based on the response

From the responses above, it is clear that theprocess-basedevaluation and the outcome based evaluation both are justified. The overall objectives of the trainingsession for the spread of the information regarding the customer care etiquette also have been accepted by the employees. This also has been reflectedin the responses of thecustomers and from the database of the customers in M & S. The process based evaluation has been justified with theresponses of the supervisor during the progress of the training process.

Task 4

4.1 Explaining the role of government with regards to training, development and lifelong learning

As M & S is the branded organization in the UK market with the large customer base, thus, it is the responsibility of the UK government to play a significant role in offering e required training and development along with the lifelong learning process to their staffs. This isrequired so that the staffs of the firm will be able to reach the minimum standard of theperformance as per the norms set by the UK government. M & S is the giant retailer in UK market,therefore, for the economic development, the UK government is required to be focused on the internal development with the development of the skills of the employees to match up with the change in the trend of the market demand and requirement (Asongu & Nwachukwu, 2016). In this aspect, it is the responsibility of the UK government to invest in the training and the development process to make the learning curve steeper. At the same time, they also are responsible for outsourcing the experts from the market to offer the employees with the market-based knowledge so that they will be accustomed and skilled with the market knowledge to cope up with the strategies of the competitors. The lifelong learning concept also is required to be offered by the UK government as well. Thus, the intervention of the UK government in the training and development of the firms can be recognize dregarding the stronger investment in the training sessions, and also to pursue the knowledge from the work environment. In turn of the intervention, the economic condition of the firm is enhancing, and it is also impacting in apositive manner on the overall economic development of the nations in a wider manner. So, theintervention of the UK government in the training and the development programs of the different forms as well as for M & S is justified.

4.2 Explaining how the development of the competency movement has impacted on the public and private sector organizations (give an example for at least one public organization and one private organization)

As per the view of Asongu & Nwachukwu (2016), the competency movement can be recognized as the filing up the performance gap for the betterment of the firms in a positive manner. The employee competency is justified for both the private and the public organization so that they will be able to make their performance level high with the effective knowledge gain compete with the obstacles and threats in the market. The knowledge transfer through the internal means as well as by the external means also is required to be maintained in both the types of the organizations in the market. The competency movement can be made better with the steeper learning curve for the enhancement of the skills of the employees.

The private firms use to struggle more to compete with the pressures of the market. Thus, they use to invest more in the competency movement program with the help of the effective training and development along with the knowledge transfer concept(Asongu & Nwachukwu, 2016). Tesco is the private organization who use to invest more in the training and the development program to make their learning curve steeper to cope up with the change of the market with the skilled performance. The continuous training and development along with the lifelonglearning conceptarestrongly followed here with the perfect intervention of the UK government. On the other hand,the East Coast railway,the public firms also are concentrating on the continuous training and development program so that they will be able to enhance their skills for the better performance tomeet the demand of the customers with the higherrate of the customer service. Thus, it can be stated that both the private and the public firms use to implement the continuous training and development program to facilitate the competency movement for the better productivity of the firms and to meet the demand of the market.

4.3 Assessing how contemporary training initiatives introduced by the UK government contributes to human resources development for M &S.

For the effective economic condition to be maintained, it is important to take the perfect initiative of the UK government for the effective training and development process. For the positive Human resource growth, it is important to enhance the skills and knowledge of the employees in the organization with the help of the contemporary training sessions. Based on thefact, the UK government for M & S as well as for the other companies in the UK has taken the great initiative to offerthe investment for the training and development sessions to be conducted by the organization. At the same time, the UK government also has taken the step of thelifelong learning to be offered to the employeesof M & S(M & S, 2015).

With the help of this intervention of the UK government, it has been observed that M & S is quite able to meet the demand of the market regarding the product inovation and the excellent service offering to the customers of the organization. Thus, in the year of 2015, they are quite capable of managing the customer base of 20.1 million which is the rise in the customer base of 0.1 million than the year 2014. At the same time, they are also able to add 1700 new lines range(M & S, 2015). With the help of the training contents that they use to get in the training and the development session, the employees of the M & S are quite capable of moving towards the mission of the company as focusing on the execution and strengthening the position by offering the needs of the customers in s strategic manner.

Conclusion

Thus, from the entire discussion, it can be mentioned that the effective learning styles and the training and development sessions are required to be maintained in the organisation for the better productivity, with the help of the effective training and development session for the front line managers regarding the customer care service was the most successful based on the process based and theoutcome-based evaluation forthe betterment of the career growth ofthe employees and also for the betterment of the organisation as a whole.

References

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