The most recent recession from 2008 has shown that the economy is unstable. Many people have lost their jobs for the sake of the survival of their employers. Political conflicts has caused a huge problem for the economy (and thus organisations), especially when these conflicts occur in the Middle-East where the majority of the oil exists. The most recent uprising on the Libyan government that is still unstable has proven that it has an effect on the oil prices in Europe. Today’s organisations all depend on transportation of services and goods. When oil prices rise, the whole production costs cycle need to be amended. Not just conflicts make a changing environment, also initiative for the support of the economy taken by the European Union have caused shift in Britain when at least eight East European countries entered the EU in 2004 (BBC, 2005). Social changes have occurred as a massive number of (less skilled) East Europeans have entered the country seeking for work that even has lower wages than the minimum wage set by the government. These changes have made employers more careful with choosing the right persons. However, it is neither easy nor cheap to select the right people and make sure that they stay. In order to do that, organisations are adopting ‘the learning organisation’ so they can adapt to the changes taking place. The learning organisation is described as “an organisation that facilitates the learning of all its members and consciously transforms itself and its context” (Pedler et al, 1996). This is a process that will need a structure to conduct some kind of learning intervention. This on-going learning process is a vision that is hard to achieve for most organisation (Hodgkinson, 1998). Another significant impact for business needs is technology and mechanised computing systems. This has not just changed the way organisations operate with less people; it also has speeded up the transactions and efficiency. Nowadays, there is always some sort of technology involved in whatever is been done and wherever it takes place (Frances & Roland Bee, 2003:8). Organisations have no control over these changes whatsoever, as they are unpredictable.
Another major impact on business needs is the ‘specific environmental factors’ where organisations have also no control over it. However, organisations can exert some influence in order to be ready or prepare for it. Specific environmental factors are dealing mainly with customers, suppliers, competitors, and pressure groups. Today’s organisations are very customer oriented as they have a great impact on the company. Strategic moves to satisfy customers’ needs are a necessity to ensure their loyalty. If customers’ needs are based on quality and good value for money, the organisation has to ensure that the supplier supplies the goods on time at the price agreed. However, when oil prices change, all the prices change as it was mentioned before. It is hard for organisations to take enough profit out when there is also big competition on the market. At the same time, environment friendly pressure groups are to be considered as they can have a great impact in the changing business needs (Gillam & Murray, 1996).
The final factor that can cause a change in business needs noted by Frances & Roland Bee (2003:8) are the ‘internal factors’; this involves only those who are directly and internally involved in the company which are the employees, contractors, trade unions, and shareholders. A crucial aspect to business needs. To be up to date expertise, motivated, and focused, on the business objectives, training needs to be provided. This is needed in all levels and categories of employees. Not considering a training programme in a company’s strategic plan is the way to failure (Parboosingh & Thivierge, 1993). The relationship between organisations and Trade Unions is an important part of the path for success. What happened in the 70’s had a great impact on organisations when trade unions emerged as a huge pressure activist. Strike after strike has caused trouble for a number of organisations after the ‘Ford strike’ in Dagenham started; which led to equal pay for women. The upcoming subtitle will be dealing with the types of job analyses. Why job analysis? What type of job analysis is the best? These questions will also be dealt with the next subtitle.
Types of analysis
This section will look at three most common types of analysis. Each type will be explained what it covers and then which to imply for the chosen job.
Comprehensive analysis – All aspects and facts of the entire job are examined with the aim of gathering detailed data of every task in the job, and skills, knowledge, and attitudes for each. Running this analysis for a job is needed if the majority of the tasks are unfamiliar to the trainee, too difficult and the cost of error unacceptable. This analysis is time consuming and it is meant to be for a job that is to stay unchanged. The correct way of doing the analysis is crucial as this analysis is very expensive (Reid & Barrington, 2007: 280-314)
Key Task Analysis – The key and core tasks are identified and investigated within the job. The job consists of a large number of different tasks. Not all tasks are equally effective to perform the job. The minor tasks do not need training or guidance. However, the job is changing in content that needs a continuous establishment of tasks, skills, knowledge, and standards of performance (Wellens, 1970 cited in Reid & Barrington, 2007).
Problem-centred analysis – There are no attempts made to produce a description or specification on the whole job or any tasks. This is usually used by small firms where analysis is based on a difficulty at a job that needs to be trained on.
The Job
The Job chosen is for one of the best international photographic brands in the world; Canon Ltd. The job title is ‘Retail Support Representative’ (RSR). The full job-description is attached at the end of this report. This section will touch on the key responsibilities of the job. It will be done by using the same type of analysis that is described above. The purpose of the job as described by the job description is “to represent Canon and support retail accounts in the promotion and sales of Canon products through the implementation of Canon/retail initiatives. Feedback market intelligence as required to assist Canon Consumer Imaging”. This sentence is basically a brief of the key responsibilities. By looking closely at the key responsibilities will determine what the best type of analysis is to be used. The key responsibilities are:
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Demonstrate and sell Canon products
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Proactively engage customers and in store colleagues with Canon products and Technologies.
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Utilise and promote Canon marketing offers to close sales and add value.
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Merchandise the store, utilize POS and share Presenters with store staff and/or management.
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Conduct product sales training with in store colleagues with passion.
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Provide feedback on market information / competitor activity / store issues.
- Represent Canon at ad hoc events depending on RSR availability
- Receive weekly update.
- Respond to Newsletter requests.
- Submit comprehensive and completed files promptly.
- Attend regional training as required.
The highlighted key words in the above responsibilities list are the once that need some sort of training or learning intervention in order for the trainee to be able to achieve them. Starting from the top, demonstrating and selling Canon products needs some guidance. In order to demonstrate anything, the person has to know what the product is capable of and what the main features it has. In this event, the main products that are to be sold and demonstrated are all types of cameras and all types of printers and ink. The person may already know all the features of the products; however, demonstrating the product is a total different thing. Engaging customers and store colleagues with Canon products and technologies is the next key responsibility; engaging customers has certain techniques and strategies. Putting the focus on enhancing employees’ knowledge and skills of the products a company is offering, in order to turn them into better customer service representatives is not the best technique. Employee engagement is the intangible element that makes successful customer interaction (La Voy & Charles, 1998). When that is done and dealt with, the final bit of the sales process comes to hand; close the sale and add value. Again, the person might know how to sell, closing a sale and adding value is another technique that the trainee can be trained on.
When going through the list, there are some responsibilities listed that do not need training or learning interventions, but perhaps a little bit of direction. Looking at number eight which is receiving weekly updates; this can be done by phone or email and very unlikely by post. In today’s environment, it can be said that every single person has a phone or an email address. The same thing goes to responding to newsletter requests; it is nothing more than reading the newsletter and a conformation might be asked. These minor tasks add value to the job. However, they do not need training or learning sessions. So what type of analysis, from the earlier stated types, is to be implemented or used for this job? The comprehensive analysis is looking at examining of the entire job with all its tasks because an error is unacceptable as the costs can be high. If an RSR made an error and lost a sale that would not be a significant problem. Based on these simple reasons, the comprehensive analysis is not needed for this job.
The next analysis is the key-task analysis, which concentrates on the key-tasks of the job. This job contains a large number of tasks and responsibilities (see appendix 1) and with a large number of varieties. As stated above, this job does not need training for all the tasks. This analysis is the closest to the job as there is training needed for key areas such as (new) product training or an improved sales training. It is not as time consuming and costly as the comprehensive analysis. The final analysis is the problem-centred analysis, which is quit covered by the key-task analysis. This can be implemented when an error occurs that needs to be taken care of.
When the needs are established, an agreement on the purpose and objectives for the learning event needs to take place. The next step is to establish a learning intervention. Before doing so, the objectives of the intervention need to be clear (Harrison, 2005). Therefore, the main objectives are to learn:
- how to conduct training for staff;
- how to utilise and promote Canon effectively;
- how to sell, close a sale, and add value to a sale;
- how to engage and interact with customers
- and how the products work
The Learning interventions
The first two important steps in the learning intervention cycle are now known, which are establishing the needs and agreeing on purpose and objectives of the event. All steps are established from Harrison’s (2005: 117) eight step process. Before moving on to what the strategy and delivery of the event is, there is a third step which is identifying the profile of intended numbers. Or simply said; how many people are there going to come to the event. This is important as high number of people in a single room with a whole day of training can result totally different from a smaller group. The main reason is that a smaller group tends to have much more personal interaction. Other reasons are that people live in different areas. It is easier to find a place that is central to ten people than to a hundred people. Once that is handled, the movement towards the strategy and delivery of the event is next and fourth step. This involves the way of achieving a goal or objective. It could be a work-based training or off-the-job training, for example. Direction and the management of the event are also important. Who is going to be the trainer and how many are needed are things to consider. Determining who the trainer is going to be is important for the preparation of the trainer. Choosing the right trainer is crucial as the involvement of the participant can reduce or destroy the planned learning outcomes. Therefore, if there is no suitable candidate internally, external experienced candidate are to be considered that are experienced in the field. However, the chance for error is great as the trainer might not match or fit within the organisational culture. This was step six of the process. The final two steps are delivering the event and evaluating the event. If the steps are to be followed step by step as pointed out, the delivery should not pose intractable problems. However, flexibility is essential in order to be ready for the unexpected. Evaluating the whole process is probably one of the most important steps. There are four key questions that arise when conducting an evaluation: Why? Who? When? and How?
Why evaluate? - In order to identify the effects on learning or impact on job performance or any relevant outcome the organisation wishes to achieve. This allows the organisation to see whether the plan was successful or not, and if not, what went wrong and how to resolve it.
Who should evaluate? – This is dependent on the job and what the purpose for the job was. In the case of the job RSR, this needs to be evaluated by the line manager or and the trainer. The line manager needs to see whether the learning event had any effect on the performance and sales. The trainer has to make sure that the training given by him to the RSR to train in store staff has been helpful and effective. If not, considering a new training technique might be a next step.
When to evaluate? – Again, this is depending on the job and the goals and targets set by the organisation. If for example targets were set to increase sales with a certain percentage within three months, then the evaluation should be closely after the three months in order to take actions if target was not reached.
How to evaluate? – There are many ways to evaluate a process. The “Kirkpatrick multi-level model” is one of the well-known models of evaluations. It was designed by Kirkpatrick (1967) and Warr, Bird and Rackham (1970) (cited in Frances and Roland Bee, (2003: 140). The model sets out four levels of evaluation. These are: (1) the reaction level - this about measuring what the learners think and feel about the learning event; (2) learning level – this measures what the learner actually learned; (3) job behaviour level – this is based on the job performance of the learner; and (4) result level – which concentrates about the impact the event had on the organisations performance in sales, productivity, and also the costs of the event. For this job the most effective evaluation would be the last two models. The purpose of this job is to increase the sales by selling and by raising brand awareness among in store staff. In order to measure the sales and the performance of the staff, there is an evaluation method needed. This can be done by comparing the sales figures of the store before the training and after the training. This can be done quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. Annually is seen as the most reliable timing as the season of the year will be the same. However, training interventions must be conducted more than once, perhaps three or four times a year, in order to keep up with the knowledge. Another way for measuring is making a questionnaire with for the trainees that reflect their knowledge.
Conclusion
Learning interventions are based on the business needs that an organisation is going through. Those business needs can arise from different factors such as external factors that is driven by the economy, technology, social, and politics. These changing environments have a huge impact on organisations, which they do not control. Internal factors are as significant as other factors. Social and organisational culture change can lead to business needs for change in order to survive among the competitors. Therefore, a training/learning needs analysis is needed in order to identify the business needs. There are various types of analysis that an employer needs to carefully select from to ensure the right job analysis is been carried out. This job needs a key-task analysis before planning and conducting a learning intervention. Finally, an evaluation method has to be present in order to measure the effectiveness of the learning event. This is crucial for the future to see what has been done right or wrong and what can be done to improve it.
References
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Pedler, M. et al (1996). The Learning Company: A Strategy for Sustainable Development. McGraw-Hill Professional
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Wellens, J. (1970). An approach to management training. Industrial and commercial training. Vol. 8, No. 7, July.
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Student ID: 09046534 Module Code: HR3006N Tutor name: Kiran Kalsi
Training and Development