Employee Development Presentation

I have created a presentation to show why it is important to have an employee development program.  I have given specific examples of the types of development approaches that would be useful in my organization.  I hope that you all enjoy the presentation and look forward to your feedback.

High-Tech Training

There are lots of different technologies out there in the world that can be used to enhance learning.  However for this blog, I am only focusing on five.  The five technologies on which I plan to focus are learning portals, learning management systems, training software applications/authoring tools, mobile learning and simulations. 

Learning Portals

Learning portals are web sites or online learning centers that provide access to training courses, services, and online learning communities from many sources (Noe, 2010).  Learning portals allow users convenient access to many different resources they need for learning all in one place.  For example in our courses at Walden University we use the eCampus learning portal.  In this portal we are able to access our classrooms, student email accounts, student support, financial aid accounts and more.  By providing one central resource learning portals will assist learners and trainees with managing their time as they will not have to go to multiple place in order to accomplish their learning needs.  Some additional examples of learning portals are Skillsoft, Taleo and Mzinga.

Learning Management Systems

 

 A learning management system (LMS) is a technology platform that can be used to automate the administrations, development, and delivery of all of a company's training programs (Noe, 2010).  Learning management systems have had many positive implications on training.  LMSs have made training processes more efficient.  They allow for housing of courses in a central location.  This can prevent from having to individually email links or attachments. It also allows users and administrators to run reports on what trainings a user has completed and what their scores are.  This eliminates the need for manual record keeping.  It also allows the information and reports to be easier manipulated for evaluations of data and results.  LMSs can save so much time in many different training processes.

Some examples of LMSs are Moodle, Blackboard, and Healthstream.

 Mobile Learning

We live today in a mobile world.  People are on the move and on the go.  The ability to access information when you are out of the office or classroom can be pivotal.  Mobile technology allows learning to occur anywhere at anytime (Noe, 2010).  We use can use our smart phones, e-readers, mp3 players and many other devices to access learning on the go.  This can be in the form of recorded audio lectures.  Online classes such as the one we are in can also be accessed using any device that allow you to access the internet.  It allows you to engage in learning from almost anywhere if you have some sort of mobile device to support it.  

There are so many options of devices.  There are iphones and even e-readers such as kindle.  We can access emails from our trainers on the go.  The are unlimited options for the benefits of mobile learning for both the trainers and trainees.

Training Software Applications/Authoring Tools

Authoring tools are used to create presentations, surveys, quizzes, animation, and graphics and to provide sound, video and text for online learning (Noe, 2010).  I personally as a trainer have benefited immensely from the use of authoring tools.  I use Adobe Captivate on a daily basis.  Authoring tools allow trainers to create more engaging and interactive trainings that can go into a learning management system.  Another benefit is that they create SCORM complaint training.  This is a fancy way of saying they make trainings that will play nice with many different systems.  This means that these authoring tools not only assist in the creation of the the training but they assist the user in the delivery of the training.  This means that someone using a different LMS or a different way to access the internet should not have an issue accessing the course.  Authoring tools have gone beyond simple power point presentations.  They allow trainers to create truly interactive learning experiences.  For trainees, this can make all the distance in a self paced learning scenario.  

There are many other authoring tools out there.  Some other examples are Articulate and Trivantis Lectora.

Simulations

Simulations have been used as a proven training method in many different areas of learning.  My sister is completing her Bachelors of Nursing degree and they use simulation dolls such as the one in the picture.  She has tests where her profession is behind a two way mirror and is able to speak through the doll.  Simulations have also proven successful in helping school leaders practice people skills. According to a research study complete by Syracuse University researchers there are benefits to simulation in the education environment as well.  There is some importance to being able to get real practice doing something. Simulations go beyond role playing in that role playing assigns the learner a role to play.  Simulations provide a situation or a scenario and the learner needs to solve the problem by using what they have learned.  There are not told what to do and what role to take on they used what they have been trained to do.  It is a true application of the knowledge learned. 

References:

Sparks, S. D. (2011). Simulations Help School Leaders Hone People Skills: Simulations Help School Leaders Practice "Tough Conversations". Education Week, 31(1), 1,. 

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill. 

Planning for a Needs Assessment

About five minutes away from where I work there is a Whole Foods (www.wholefoods.com).  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Whole Foods it is a grocery store with natural and organic products.  According to their website the stores are run by Store Team Leaders.  The stores are managed by regional offices.  The store near me falls under the Mid-Atlantic region.  I would get a buy-in from the regional manager first and then I would I would work with the stakeholders at my local store in order to get their buy-in.  I would inform them of the purpose of the needs assessment.  According to Brown (2002), conducting a needs assessment can be useful in identifying organization goals, gaps in performance, problems that may not be solved by training and conditions under which the training will occur. 

I would meet with the Store Team Leaders and ask them several questions.  My questions would be focused on uncovering the current state of performance and the desired state of performance.  During the organizational phase, I would ask what the business goal is that they are trying to meet.  I would also ask what the budgeted amount to complete the training will be.  I would also ask what facilities will be available to conduct training if it needs to be done off the floor.  During the person analysis, I would ask who needs to be trained.  I would also ask during what hours are the best to train employee since the store is open outside of normal business hours.  During the task phase, I would ask what skills are to be trained.  Which roles can be affected most by training and if training on particular skills will vary by role.  For example, I think we may find that cashiers would need more training on people skills than the stock room workers.  

I would employ techniques of interviews, focus groups and documentation.  I would ask to some of the records from human resources that include employee performance evaluations and also information gained during exit interviews.  Interviews will allow me to get information from the perspective of the employees.  The focus groups will give me to opportunities to get the employees into a social environment and share with them information I received during the interviews to see how they feel we can change them.  Documentation will provide me with the objective aspect that I may not receive in working with the employees.

References:

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.  

Brown, J. (2002). Training Needs Assessment: A Must for Developing an Effective Training Program. 

Training Elevator Speech

Below is a copy of my elevator speech explaining why training is important, complicated and necessary.  You may also listen to the audio version of my Elevator Speech.

Training is important, necessary and complicated.  The purpose of training is to promote a change in learners that can be consistently reproduced without variation.  Think about the first time you learned to type or navigate the internet.  No one is born knowing how to do these things.  We have to be trained to do them.  And these were no easy tasks to accomplish you didn’t one day wake up with the ability to type 100 words per minute.  Most training does not happen overnight it is a complicated process that relies on the human brain and all five human senses.  However, success training can help a company achieve its business strategy both directly and indirectly.  It develops employee skills, promotes a positive work environment and helps to attract and retain employees. Training makes each of our lives easier by allowing us to instinctively perform many tasks without thought so we can focus on those that need our attention.  This way, your employees can answer the telephone while reading information on a computer screen and type a follow up email to the customer without having to think twice.  Training is necessary to teach employees the skills your campy needs in order to be a success. 

References:

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Stolovitch, H. D., & Keeps, E. J. (2002). Telling ain’t training. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.

Welcome EIDT 6501

Hello Classmates,

Welcome to my blog.  I look forward to sharing with you all throughout this course.

Tyrese

When Scope Creep Attacks

A few years ago I worked for an outsourced Human Resources company.  December and January were very busy times of the year for us.  No one was allowed to take off work unless for an absolute emergency.  It was all about preparing for year end and tax time.  Our main focus was to check in with our client base and to make sure they understood everything that needed to be completed in time to process and receive W-2s and tax returns on time.  This process should work seamlessly without any problems as it was something that we did every year.  However, things went wrong.  First of all, the company sent out reminders to clients.  These reminders were put inside their payroll packages on different color paper.  But most of the clients did not see the letter with all the important dates on them.  So needless to say many deadlines were missed and then W-2s were late.  This had a trickledown effect and employees were calling our clients and they were calling us.  And of course with answering all the calls and trying to address everyone’s issues that didn’t leave a lot of time to actually fix the problems.

If I had been in charge of the project I would have handled this much differently.  I think that there can never be too much notice.   It is better to be definitely sure that someone knows something rather than to assume that they do.  I would have sent multiple reminders.  For the ones that went out in advance they could go inside the payroll packages.  However as time got closer, I would have made it a point to send notification via email as well as in a complete separate package all of its own.  Finally I would have had everyone contact their clients directly to speak with them and ask if they had any questions.  It is always better to prepare so that you don’t have to repair.  Communication is key in important situations such as these to make sure that all parties involved have the correct information and understand exactly what they need to do.

Estimating Costs and Allocating Resources

I was able to find two great resources which will both have their benefits to estimating cost and allocating resources.  The first is a list of average/approximate costs that could be used in order to create an estimate.  The second is a spreadsheet that can be used to enter all of the different things that you will need to keep track of in your budget.

Resource 1:     http://tlef.ubc.ca/application-process/cost-estimates/

This site provides a listing of the average costs for several different things that you will need during your instructional design process.  These obviously will not be the exact costs that you will have but they can give you a starting point on which to gage your possible costs.  It is always good to have some sort of baseline comparison when creating your budget.  If you have nothing to compare costs to then you will not know if you are getting  good deal or a bad one.

Resource 2:     http://preweb.clt.odu.edu/price/

This site will allow you to either create an account with them and have your budget calculated for you or download their spreadsheet in order to help calculate the budget yourself.  You could use the spreadsheet they provide in order to organize your costs for your budget.  You could even possibly use some of the cost estimates from resource 1 in order to fill in some of the costs.