Answer

MEMO

TO: Vice President

FROM: Human Resource General

DATE: 03/10/2017

RE: Critiquing Proposed Training

Dear Sir, considering the proposal submitted, it will be in order for the management to consider the following factors as it embarks on a training that is to be funded by your company.

Training objectives

Management should identify clearly the objectives of the training. The main aim of these objectives is to ensure that the training meets a certain goal. Without objectives, it is difficult for the training to meet its desired goal, and eventually amount to waste of time and resources. The objectives should clearly state what aspect of the company that the objectives set are designed to improve as well as the kind of improvement that the system will achieve through the training.

Technological developments

There have been technological advancements which have been made to almost all industries including the hospitality industry (Zaitseva, Larionova, Minervin, Yakimenko, & Balitskaya, 2015). These advancements are good and they are welcome and adopting some of these advancements into the organization may turn out to be of great benefit to the whole organization. They are bound to improve efficiency which is going to enable the whole organization to scale up to heights unimaginable, as well as improve accountability which has the potential to increase service delivery to the clients.

However, it is important to understand what aspect of technological advancement they are going to introduce through the training to be offered. Despite the fact that technology is good and it has the potential of being beneficial, chances that what is being introduced can be unnecessary to the whole organization, which eventually might end up being a waste of both time and resources for the organization. The technological advancement being introduced or trained about must be verified to be of benefit to the whole organization.

The best way to assess this will be to select a few individuals, preferably from the management team, who will have some time with the trainers to preempt on this matter so that the topics of discussion may be necessary.

Personal improvement

One of the main objectives that the training should focus on is the improvement that it will make to each individual. It is to be understood that all organizations become successful due to individual contribution of each employee, which add up to the aggregate performance of each employee. The participants can be implored to search deep inside themselves and make a personal commitment to cause an improvement to their work and career, which will in turn make the company to improve its performance.
There are various aspects that can be considered in personal improvement. Skills improvement as an aspect may imply a trainee can take the advantage of the training session to improve his skills so he can perform his duties better than before the training. Another aspect of improvement is the interpersonal skills where the trainee can learn how to better communicate with other colleagues in the work place. It is important for any employee to have good communication skills to better communicate with other colleagues in the organization.

Applicability of the training content

It will also be of importance to the management to make a consideration on what the trainers want to train about. There are high chances that the content of what they plan to discuss may not be relevant to the organization. This might as well lead to the organization losing time and resources to a course that is not beneficial to the whole organization. It is also still important for management to come up together with the trainers to discuss on the issues involved in the training of the operations department.

Team diversity

Another aspect that should be taken into consideration is the different types of people in the operations department. Despite the fact that all employees are working towards one common goal, which is to offer quality delivery of services, each and every individual is different in his/her own way (Komunda, & Osarenkhoe, 2012). These individuals come from different places, as well as different backgrounds and they also have different personalities that have to be taken into account. Failing to take this into account has the potential of creating divisions among the team especially for those who may feel offended by the nature of the training (Komunda, & Osarenkhoe, 2012).

The trainers should point out how they plan to take this into account to avoid polarization of offended individuals. They must prove that the method of recording this information is done professionally and to the satisfaction of the operations staff.

Interpersonal skills

The Vice president, as well as the management, should find out what aspect of interpersonal skills are to be considered at the training. Being in the hospitality industry, the company should ensure that interpersonal skills are part of the training to ensure that the staff is up to the required standards of the organization.

Recommendations for improving the training design

Several approaches can be considered to improve the training design.

One effective way will be to design questionnaires that will collect valuable information from the trainees. These questionnaires will be distributed to the trainees before the start of the training, to collect information on various aspects that can be considered to be part of the training such as the nature of the work done and the satisfaction one gains from the current employment. Based on the information provided from the questionnaire, a plan can be developed on how the training will be conducted (Pollock, Wick, & Jefferson,2015). Some of the sessions in the time table can include several sessions on talks while others will include group discussions to make the training more engaging.

The trainer can come up with tasks for the trainees, which are relevant to the objective of the training. This can be done by the selection of a topic to be discussed during the training, which they can go and make researches about either individually or as a group. They will then build on points based on the topics given for five minutes in each discussion.

Trainees can also be asked to participate in making the training sessions more inclusive and interactive. This can be done by requesting them to showcase their talents to the team. Many people are talented and each has a unique ability which each can do skillfully, even if it is not for entertainment. In addition, he can design tasks or assignments which he can give to the trainees days before the training day. These activities will ensure that the trainees have at least one presentation to make.  It is also important for the VP to ensure that the training sessions have small number of participants to make easily manageable and easy to keep every member participating. He should attempt to ensure that all trainees participate and in the end, encourage them to apply the same level of participation in their work duties.

You can as well decide to conduct the training out of the office environment. Funding a retreat can also keep the trainees motivated and more participative. Use of visual aids can also be used to assist the trainees in keeping focused. Using of presentation programs like PowerPoint has the potential of keeping the participants attentive if well designed.

The management can as well consider to measure the effectiveness of the training. This can be through questionnaires to be administered to the participants after the training (Sung & Choi,2014). Another way to measure the effectiveness of the training would be to monitor the change in performance of an organization from the day the training was done. This may take as short a time as three months to as long as one year (Sung & Choi,2014).

Following these ideas will ensure that the training will be custom made to suit the needs of your organization. The main aim of such a training is to come up with a better working environment, which will be created, not just by the management, but by the whole workforce as well. The training will therefore seek to reinvigorate the participants to have a common sense of purpose at the work place and have a unity that will enable the company achieve their goals much more effectively.

How Managers Can Assist in Training

Identifying competencies and skills gap: The managers are the ones closer to the staff in the daily operations of the business. Due to the close connections, managers are in the best position to understand the personalities of each staff, including their attitudes, preferences, strengths and weaknesses. Having that in mind, they can take into account the necessary information that can be applied to specific individuals in the organization. They can also understand the skills gap in their department and better explain to you for consideration during training.

However, this should be done carefully to ensure that the outcome is positively accepted by the staff. With this information they can help the VP to create programs tailor made for the trainees. Through the knowledge gained about the employees, the managers can sift out what is important for the training while keeping what is important. With the knowledge gained, they can take advantage of the training to assist their employees to apply what they have learned in regarding to their job performances.

Managers can motivate their staff to participate in such activities. Ford (2014) points out that due to their influence, they can assist the trainees to gear up for the training seminars by informing them on what is expected of them as well as what they are bound to gain after the whole session.

Goal setting: The training can as well act as an avenue for goal setting by the managers. Depending on the reaction as well as the knowledge gained by the participants/trainees, the increased motivation can act as an avenue for setting realistic goals. They should also be in a position to make the staff understand the rewards that come with successful accomplishment of the goals to keep the staff motivated. These goals should act as a benchmark for keeping the employees focused to their objectives. However, the managers should be wise enough to differentiate realistic goals from those which are unrealistic as managers can end up demotivated sooner than expected after realizing the goals set are unachievable. Managers will therefore seek to incorporate what has been learned in the training into day to day activities of the organization.