Employee Training and Orientation - Assignment Example

Part A: The organization under consideration is Unilever. Unilever is a multinational company, witha presence in over 100 countries of the world. The products of Unilever include beverages, food substances, personal care products, and cleaning agents. For purposes of equipping its employees with skills necessary to fulfill the objective of the business, Unilever has initiated a series of employee training and development programs. The training and development programs of Unilever consist of three major components, namely (Jones, 2005); Development of General skills For purposes of developing the general skills of its employees, Unilever has developed a variety of courses and learning materials that will help in achieving this objective. The learning process of Unilever mostly occurs through the internet. They have developed an online program referred to as the learning management system. This program offers training to over 130,000 employees of Unilever. It is offered in more than 20 languages, and has more than 7,600 course/ modules of learning. Unilever also seeks to improve the general skills of its employees through class room studies (Jones, 2005). The Unilever learning academy has courses that are aimed at developing general skills amongst its employees. Development of Professional skill. The company also seeks to develop the professional skills of its employees. The learning management system is also designed to carter for the needs of developing the professional skills of its employees. This online learning program has modules that teach on management, human resource, supplies, marketing, etc. For example, all employees of the organization possess a learning passport, whereby they can access the portal of the learning management system. This helps them to manage and develop their own professional skills (Jones, 2005). Take for example in 2011, the company managed to develop the professional skills of over 95% of its managers. This is by taking a course on codes of the business principles. The Unilever learning academy also plays an important role in developing the professional skills of its employees (Robbins and Coulter, 2012). This is because it offers professional programs such as those in human resource management, supplies, R&D, marketing and human resource management. Mentoring and coaching. Unilever also offers some mentorship and coaching programs, whose main purposes is to motivate employees, and impart the necessary skills in them. Unilever always invites leading motivational speakers, to speak to its junior and senior employees (Jones, 2005). The main reason of inviting these motivational speakers is to encourage its employees to work hard, and develop their skills for purposes of achieving their objectives, and that of the company. By analyzing the training programs offered by Unilever, there is one major gap identified. The senior management of the organization are unable to interact effectively with their employees. The management system of Unilever Company is hierarchical, where policies emanate from the top, to the bottom. This makes it difficult for the company to understand the various needs of its employees, and hence develop a training program that can carter for those needs (Robbins and Coulter, 2012). To improve on these weaknesses, the organization needs to change the structure of its management, from Hierarchical, to a system where by policies are formulated through consensus. This is by taking into account the suggestions of junior and senior employees. An innovative program that I would recommend is the company to develop an online software package that has the capability of identifying the various needs of its employees (Robbins and Coulter, 2012). This will help the company to formulate policies that will satisfy those needs. Ways in which the management can assist in the career development of its employees: For the management of an organization to facilitate the career growth of its employees, it has to undertake the following steps. The management should clearly communicate the direction, and strategy of the organization under consideration (Rothwell, 2010). For purposes of ensuring that the goals and careers of its employees are aligned with the goals and objectives of the company, the management must communicate the strategies of the company, and its future aspirations. For example, if the company intends to pursue new opportunities, which as a result will make some skills obsolete, then the organization needs to inform its employees on this move, for purposes of developing new skills amongst them (Rothwell, 2010). This strategy is important because employees won’t be able to be in charge of their careers, and make good career decisions, if they are not aware of the objectives of the company, and the directions upon which the company is moving. Helping employees to learn on the new opportunities available within the company. Majority of employees find it easy to leave their current jobs, in order to acquire new experiences in other organizations and build their portfolios. This is as opposed to taking different functions within the organization. The management can change this behavior through facilitation of internal transfers, and promotions of talented employees just to retain them within the organization (Rothwell, 2010). The management should inform employees on the various opportunities available, and hence encourage them to apply for those positions, for purposes of building their portfolio, and developing their careers. Clear articulation of the management expectations at the various levels of the organization. The management should clearly communicate the various expectations it has with its employees. This will make the employees to work harder in advancing their skills for purposes of satisfying the goals and the expectation that the management has towards them. Helping the employees of the organization to customize their careers. Employees of an organization are human beings, and at times their have a growth into their careers, or a slump into their careers. The management should understand the various cycles that their employees pass through, and as a result, it should develop policies that will help its employees to advance their career when they are experiencing a slump (Rothwell, 2010). On this note, the management will manage to create loyalties amongst its employees, and as such, retain talented employees. Role of Mentorship in training and Development: At Unilever Company, mentorship plays the following roles; i. It helps to encourage the employees to develop their skills, and hence achieve growth in their careers. ii. It helps employees to set up their goals, for purposes of achieving success in their careers. iii. It encourages employees to be committed to their works. iv. It also encourages employees to work in areas where they are talented, and skillful. This will help employees to achieve success in their careers. Part B: The following is an orientation/socialization program for a new employee hired by the organization to take over my position at the company. This program is effective, and it is used by a variety of international and respected organizations such as Dyer and Blaire (Dessler and Munro, 2011). During the first day of his/her reporting, the employee will be presented with a presentation of the overview of the organization. This will involve explaining to the employee what the organization does, its work culture, its vision and objectives. The next step, which will occur immediately after a presentation of the over view of the organization will be to provide the employee with a checklist of the various duties that he or she will have to undertake. This checklist will cover the tasks that the employee under consideration will have to undertake for the next three months. It is during this period that the management observes an employee to make sure that he or she is productive on the various roles that they have to conduct. The management will have to provide a form to the new employee that contains the vision, structure and strategies of the organization. The main reason of providing this form to the employee is to align his or her various interests with that of the organization. The next step is to provide an employee with a feedback form that will enable him or her to give out the various feedbacks concerning anything that relates to his or her duties at the organization. The organization must initiate some policies that can carter for the various needs of employees, on this basis, if an employee provides some feedback to the organization concerning his or her problems, then chances are that the management will initiate policies that will carter for those needs. The new employee must be able to access to the organization internet portal, and on this basis, he must have a password that will enable him or her to access this portal. The organizations website contains a variety of information concerning the organization and its stakeholders. If a new employee manages to access this site, then he will have a variety of information that can help in fulfilling his or her various duties. Part C: Question one: The root cause of the problem in the case scenario is lack of a motivated work force. Employees of the organization are leaving because of too much work pressure, and lack of incentives that can make them stay on the job. This is also the reason as to why line managers were reluctant to attend the trainings offered by Ben Adams. They saw it as a waste of time, because of the strict targets that the management of the company placed upon them. Question two: The approach that Ben should use in correcting this situation is to encourage the management to develop policies that are meant to motivate its employees. This is because a motivated work force will most likely remain within an organization. Ben should encourage the management to remove strict deadlines and accomplishments for its work force. However, Ben should insist on meeting targets, but under a conducive atmosphere, and within a reasonable time frame. Question three: The training strategy that Ben should use is to use case study approaches in explaining the various points under consideration. Ben has to identify an organization that had a high turnover rate, and how they managed to motivate their employees leading to their retention. Ben should encourage the supervisors to adopt those motivational strategies (Noe, 2010). This is because they will most likely achieve similar results for the company. This will make the supervisors and line managers to have an interest on the motivational techniques employed by these companies, and hence they may try to adopt them into their various units. References: Dessler, G., & Munro, C. R. (2011). Management of human resources: in-class edition (3rd Canadian ed.). Toronto: Pearson Canada. Jones, G. (2005). Renewing Unilever: transformation and tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Robbins, S. P., & Coulter, M. K. (2012). Management (11th ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall. Rothwell, W. J. (2010). The managers guide to maximizing employee potential quick and easy strategies to develop talent every day. New York: American Management Association. Read More