5060 W1A2 Project

Answer

5060 W1A2 Project

Ongoing training and skills development initiatives are indispensable if an organization has to remain at the competitive edge in terms of innovativeness and customer satisfaction. In today’s companies, learning takes place in various ways including formal training and development, informal learning, and knowledge management (Noe & Kodwani, 2018). Training, which is the focus of this paper, refers to the planned initiatives by a company to facilitate, through learning, the acquisition of job-based skills, knowledge, competences and behaviors by its employees. To this end, the ultimate goals of training, as Noe and Kodwani (2018) adds, is to provide employees with unique opportunities to master the evolving skills, competences and knowledge as emphasized in training, and accordingly apply them their day-to-day duties or activities at the company. Combined with skills development, training prepares employees to meet the changing needs of their jobs by equipping them with skills, knowledge and behaviors that are consistent with both the current and future job requirements. 

IBM’s Strategy

IBM seeks to implement a co-investment strategy by reducing salaries of some employees by 10% for six months to finance part of their new training program (Thibodeau, 2014). The company’s move to train the employees in the areas of cloud and mobile computing is strategic in the sense that it is set to equip employees with the expertise needed to address the evolving customer needs and technology requirements (Lohr, 2014). However, the strategic nature or effectiveness of this undertaking is compromised by the fact that the affected employees will be required to pay for the 23-day training program. This requirement to have employees finance part of the training program will inarguably demotivate them to participate in the training. For instance, some employees have already perceived the program and its associated pay cut as a ploy to reduce their salaries. For other observers, it’s a tactic to compel certain employees them to quit “instead of having to pay them their severance” (CNBC.Com, 2014). A training program is considered more strategic and effective if it has incentives that encourage employee participation. Instead of incentivizing the affected employees to take part in cloud and mobile computing training, the IBM’s undertaking is but discouraging the employees and possibly asking them to quit as very few will accept the pay cut.

Besides lack of incentive, another issue that renders the IBM’s undertaking less strategic is that the training is not tailored to meet the needs of different employees in different positions. Instead, the program is designed for all the affected workers regardless of their workgroups.   

Whether Employees’ Salaries should be Reduced

IBM believes that giving the affected employees 90% of their current base salary is warranted since they will be working one day less every week for six months. As the IBM spokesman aptly puts it; the company’s employees record billable hours, “and if they spend a day a week on training, that amounts to 20 percent fewer billable hours” (Lohr, 2014 para. 9 line 5). Despite the reduced number of billable hours or workdays, IBM should not reduce its employees’ salaries for the time they will be attending training. This is because the program does not qualify as a co-investment strategy given that it seeks to equip employees with skills that are specific to IBM. In specific, the training program emphasizes acquisition of new cloud and mobile computing skills – skills that the employees may hardily apply outside IBM. Training cost sharing between employees and the organization is only permissible if the resulting skills and knowledge will be useful to employees when outside the organization (Lohr, 2014).

Recommendations

Recommendations for ways to convince IBM’s affected employees to update and acquire new skills in cloud and mobile computing are centered on the idea that training is effective if employees are: 1) offered with incentives to take part in training; 2) not coerced to undertake the training; and supported throughout the training program. This argument resonates strongly with the training design process presented in Noe and Kodwani (2018). As the authors point out, designing an effective training program that encourages employee participation should be a seven-step process that involves needs assessment (to identify knowledge gaps); creating motivation for training and mastery of contents; and creating an environment that supports learning. The remaining four steps include ensuring transfer of training content, developing an evaluation plan, identifying the appropriate training method, and monitoring and evaluating the program. To ensure employee’s readiness and convince them to complete the training program, IBM should focus on bolstering their motivation through such incentives as employee perks and promotions for those who successfully complete the program.      

IBM’s Choices and their Effects

IBM’s 2015 employee appraisal revealed that some employees were complacent about their carrier achievement, and thus lagged their co-workers and industry practices with respect to current knowledge and changing customer needs in cloud and mobile computing. In response, the company offered the affected employees an opportunity to attend a 23-day training program that would take one day every, and share the cost of training by accepting to receive 90% of their base salaries (Lohr, 2014). According to IBM, the move was part of a co-investing strategy that would see both the company and the employees invest in training and development. The co-investment strategy, as Thibodeau (2014) states was also seen by the IBM’s management as a deliberate alternative to retrenchment and hiring new employees with the latest skills in cloud and mobile computing. The training program was highly contested by the employees who received the memo.  

Reactions of the affected employees toward the IBM’s co-investment approach to training may affect the organization negatively. First, some employees are more likely to disagree with the pay cut decision, and consequently quit, forcing the company to incur unnecessary recruitment and onboarding costs. Second, employees who choose to accept the terms of training might do so unwillingly, which means the training may not be as effective due to lack of motivation to participate in the program.       

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