HRM Sample Assignment

Question

Assignment 4: HR Training Class
Due Week 8 and worth 200 points

Imagine that you are a member of the HR department of a small retail company and upper management has asked you to create a new employee customer service training class for all new employees. 

Write a six to seven (6-7) pages paper in which you:

Justify the use of a needs assessment of your company’s proposed employee customer service training, stressing five (5) ways in which such an assessment would expose any existing performance deficiencies.

Develop a customer service training implementation plan and determine the method of training (i.e., presentation, discussion, case study, discovery, role play, simulation, modeling, or on-the-job training). 

Justify why you selected the training method that you did. 

Propose two (2) ways to motivate an employee who has no interest in attending a training class.

Develop a survey to collect feedback from the employees who attend the training.

Use at least three (3) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources. 
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length. 

Answer

Title: Needs Assessment of Company’s Proposed Employee Customer Training

Assignment 4: HR training classes

HRM 530-Strategic Human Resource Management

Abstract

            Customer service is a vital component overall performance of a company. However, several companies find it a daunting task to establish and maintain effective customer service, thereby falling below their expected performance. Employee training and development can enhance customer services thus increase profitability of a company. The purpose of this work is to establish factors affecting customer service then doing need evaluation of customer service employees so as to come up with an effective training plan that will transform performance of the company in terms of profitability.

ORDER A SIMILAR PAPER NOW

            The key findings are that skills, behavior, knowledge, and ability influence the performance of an organization. Deficiencies in either one or more of these factors may translate into business underperformance. A recommendation was made that before training of customer service employees, need evaluation should be done so that specific deficiencies in each individual customer service employee are catered for in the training plan. Afterwards, training evaluation would be conducted among the trainees to review the impact of the process. Training and evaluation should be a continuous process and the content of each subsequent training plan should focus on specific needs of employees. The management should also formulate its human resource policies based on the result of training evaluation. This will ensure that specific systems and procedures are effected thus improving company performance. The policies will also act as a guide when recruitment of new employees into customer service department is being carried out. For these processes to succeed, there must be proper coordination between human resource development department and the top management.

  1. Justify the use of a needs assessment of your company’s proposed employee customer training, stressing five ways in which such an assessment would expose any existing performance deficiency.

            Needs assessment of employee customer training is an ongoing process of collecting information on the staff’s existing training needs, which can be transformed to improve overall performance of the company. The process helps to prevent undertraining and overtraining of the staff or omission of key aspects of the staff’s training needs.

            Through needs assessment, the human resource management department would be in a position to establish specific deficiencies and their causes among the customer trainees, then develop a training program that will cushion out such deficiencies, hence improve on the general staff and company performance. However, top management would only provide adequate support to specific training needs, if there are clearly defined objectives of the training. Therefore, it would be prudent for the human resource department to do thorough analysis on the needs of the customer trainees and the cost of training them based on the specific needs, then provide comprehensive report to the top management to help it make informed decisions during budget allocation for the process

            Each and every company has its objectives which it strives to achieve. Training and capacity building forms integral part of the process of achieving the goals (Evernson, 2005). Therefore, needs assessment would be a necessary undertaking to help establish how the customer training will help achieve the company’s objectives. It would also establish the condition under which the training would occur so that necessary training resources are availed in time.

            The management would understand the reason for its company’s poor performance by means of needs assessment of customer trainees.  The process would entail analysis of the individual staff performance on the basis of job description, job requirements, skills and knowledge of procedures and systems. It will highlight causes of performance deficiency and areas to train on to reverse the situation. Similarly, knowledge deficiency would be exposed by   needs assessment if the customer trainees show complete lack of knowledge of the company’s products, systems, or procedures.

ORDER A PAPER LIKE THIS NOW

            Skill deficiency may arise from lack of knowledge and experience in handling specific systems and procedures. Assessment of the staff’s specific skills would entail assigning the staff specific tasks, which require specific skills and measuring the outcome. Failure to complete the task satisfactorily would indicate the presence of the deficiency.  

            Another form of deficiency which would be exposed by the assessment is behavior deficiency. It may be caused by lack of commitment and motivation to perform certain tasks related to customer service. The customer trainees would be exposed to procedures and tasks during the assessment and observation on their behavior is done, recorded, and analyzed to expose specific behavior deficiency.

            Finally, needs assessment would expose ability deficiency. The trainees would be given specific tasks and their ability to complete them satisfactorily evaluated. Content of customer training would be based on the level of ability to complete specific customer tasks.

2. Develop a Customer service training implementation plan and determine the training method

TopicObjectiveTimeMethodologyMaterialsExpected outcomeEvaluation
Customer serviceUnderstand customer service1 hourDiscussionLaptop Projector Notebooks Pens-Improved   company performance -Improved  customer servicesurveys
Customer loyaltyUnderstand the importance of customer loyalty to business1 hourDiscussionLaptop Projector Notebooks Pens-Improved   company performance -Improved innovationSurveys
Customer wants and needsUnderstand methods of establishing customer wants and needs2 hoursDiscussionLaptop Projector Notebooks Pens-Improved   company performance -Improved innovationSurveys
Customer personalitiesUnderstand how to analyze customer personalities and use to improve business2 hoursDiscussionLaptop Projector Notebooks Pens-Improved   company performance -Improved  customer relationsSurveys
In- person customer service issuesUnderstand problems in customer service2 hoursDiscussionLaptop Projector Notebooks Pens  -Improved   company performance -Improved innovationSurveys
Letters and email use  in customer serviceUnderstand how to use emails and business letters effectively in customer service2 hoursDiscussionLaptop Projector Notebooks Internet-Improved   company performance -Improved  customer communicationSurveys
Phones in customer careUnderstand phone etiquette in customer service2 hoursDiscussionLaptop Projector Notebooks Pens phones-Improved   company performance -Improved innovationSurveys
Customer loyaltyUnderstand how to develop customer loyalty and its benefits to business2 hoursDiscussionLaptop Projector Notebooks Pens Internet-Improved   company performance -Improved  customer loyaltySurveys
Customer complaintsUnderstand how to handle customer complaints effectively2 hoursDiscussionLaptop Projector Notebooks Pens Internet-Improved   company performance -Improved innovationSurveys
Customer problem solvingLearn how to solve customer’s problems without bias2hoursDiscussionLaptop Projector Notebooks Pens Internet-Improved   company performance -Improved innovationSurveys

 3. Justify why you selected training method you did

            The selected training method was discussion. It will allow the trainer to explain fundamental customer service processes and their significance to successful customer service. On the other hand it will allow the trainer and the trainees to discuss, understand, and practice all the key stages of customer service. Finally, trainees can ask questions and get answers from the trainer immediately after each training session/topic.

4. Propose two ways to motivate an employee who has no interest attending training class

            One way of motivating employees who have no interest in training is by promoting free informal interaction on the benefits that will accrue for both the employees and the employer.

 This will help boost the employee’s interest in training. However, if there is need for the trainees to interact freely with trainer without fear of intimidation, the top human resource management team should keep off the training. The objective of this undertaking is to provide situational and individual influences on the progress of the training. Following this kind of motivation, employees are highly likely to embrace behavior change and learning acquisition. At the same time, the trainer can take advantage of the informality of the situation to enlighten the trainees regarding the method of training to be used and expectations (Martin, W. 1993). 

ORDER A SIMILAR PAPER NOW

            The other way of motivating trainees to attend training is by contracting a renowned trainer full of humor, energy, and information on customer service. For internal trainers, management should ensure that they have access to all the resources that they need to main the liveliness, vibrancy, and ultimate success of all training sessions. The trainers should program the event in such a way that there are energizers and icebreakers during the process, who will keep the event lively and interesting. Finally, the trainers should maintain mutual respect existing between them and the trainees, and also avoid embarrassing them by words or action. Essentially, focus should be on the practicalities of the training and how the skills acquired will be transferred into actual workplace situations (Goodman, 2000). Most employees get a strong sense of motivation when they are informed about how the training will enrich their workplace experience and overall career growth.

5. Develop a survey to collect feedback from employees who attend training

Dear Participant,

            Kindly take a survey, which contains questions based on your experience during customer service training. This survey aims at evaluating the quality and relevance of the training. The information you give will be confidential and you will not be victimized for the opinion you give about the quality and relevance of the training.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Yours Sincerely,

Training Coordinator, Human Resource Development

  1. Training objectives

Objectives of the training were met

O strongly agree O Agree O Disagree O strongly disagree                                                              

  • Training program

The program was in-depth and full of new ideas

O strongly agree O Agree O Disagree O strongly disagree

Involvement and Participation was recommendable

O strongly agree O Agree O Disagree O strongly disagree

The program was properly structured and allocated enough time for each topic

The training was relevant for customer service

O strongly agree O Agree O Disagree O strongly disagree

The program was interesting

O strongly agree O Agree O Disagree O strongly disagree

  • Training Facilities and Materials

Relevant training materials were provided

O strongly agree O Agree O Disagree O strongly disagree

Training venue was excellent and program properly executed

O strongly agree O Agree O Disagree O strongly disagree

  • Relevancy to Job

The program will help me improve my job performance and make me more innovative

O strongly agree O Agree O Disagree O strongly disagree

  • Career Growth and Development

The program was useful for my career growth and development

O strongly agree O Agree O Disagree O strongly disagree

The program updated my knowledge on current customer care issues

O strongly agree O Agree O Disagree O strongly disagree

  • Overall Training Rating

Time allocation for the program was sufficient

O strongly agree O Agree O Disagree O strongly disagree

Training pace was appropriate

O strongly agree O Agree O Disagree O strongly disagree

Training content was in line with the objectives

O strongly agree O Agree O Disagree O strongly disagree

References

Evernson, R. (2005). Customer service training 101: Quick and easy technique that target great results. New York, NY: AMACOM.

Goodman, G.S. (2000). Monitoring, measuring and managing customer service. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Martin, W. B. (1993). Quality customer services. Menlo Park, CA: Crisp Publishers.

Here are other HRM papers you might be interested in reviewing:

Still stressed from student homework?
Get quality assistance from academic writers!