Business // Human Resource Training Class
Name
University
Class
Professor
Date
Human Resource Training Class for Customer Service
Companies and organizations face many challenges in ensuring that the business would stay afloat. One of these challenges includes having a training class for employees and future employees since these trained human resources would serve as the essential building blocks of a good foundation for the stellar performance of companies and organizations. This is especially true in any field, including the field of customer service. With this, the aim of this paper is to justify the use of a needs assessment of a company or organization’s proposed employee customer service training by emphasizing five ways in which the needs assessment would expose any existing performance deficiencies in the company or organization. In addition to this, a recommended customer service training implementation plan would be developed wherein selected methods of training that would be used would be enumerated and defined. This would also include ways on how to motivate an employee who may find himself or herself not interested in attending the training class that would be developed for customer service. Last but not the least, the mechanism for gathering feedback from the employees who have attended the training class that was developed was also elaborated in this paper.
Performing a Needs Assessment
Consider this vignette about a small retail company. The upper management wants the Human Resources department to create and design a new employee customer service training class for all of the new employees. How would the head and the whole of the Human Resources department tackle such request? There are questions raised, such as how is the state of the existing customer service training class or program, or is there any at all? What was the feedback of the previous participants if there was an existing program, or did the training benefit them at all or has positively impacted their performance in the company or organization? Is the content of the existing program still relevant to the needs of the company or organization? There are many questions, and it can be jarring to address all of these if the head of the Human Resources department would not know where to start because of such challenge.
Given this situation, it is imperative for every company or organization to thrive in whatever situation they may face such as the need to implement a training class or program for customer service. Should the company or organization face any challenge along the way, it should be addressed effectively and efficiently. Usually, training classes or programs are recommended since it will address the challenges faced especially if it involves customer service. However, the concern lies with knowing where to start or what should be addressed? Or maybe if the training class or program is the actual and only solution or such a problem? Is it enough for managers or supervisors to say that what they observed to be the problem is the reason why a training class or program for customer service is needed? Are they really sure that what they thought is the problem is the actual problem? In this case, performing a needs assessment is important for companies and organization because they would be able to target their challenges effectively and efficiently by identifying what the actual current gaps or needs are between the current circumstances and the target goals. Needs assessment is defined as the systematic approach that gathers data through established procedures and methods and sets criteria for solutions in order to improve programs, services, organizational structure, and operations, or a combination of all of these elements (Office of Migrant Education, 2001). Needs assessment is actually the initial step in designing a training class or program in order to teach the necessary skills or to improve the performance of the employees in the company or organization (Messner, 2009; Office of Migrant Education, 2001). If needs assessment is not performed by the company or organization who wants to implement a training class or program to its employees, then it is highly possible that valuable resources like time, money, and manpower might not be used efficiently and might be wasted since the training class or program might be targeting something that is not the root of the problem or something that is not deemed necessary or meaningful at the moment. By doing a needs assessment first, the company or organization would be able to determine whether implementing a training class or program is the right decision to address the challenges or problems, or if the management should look into different factors that might also affect the performance of the employees in customer service and should be targeted instead. Some of the existing performance inadequacies that can be covered or exposed a needs assessment include unclear performance expectations and poor performance feedback, lack of tools, resources, and materials to do the job, inadequate financial and other rewards or remuneration, a poor match between the skills of the employees and the requirements of the job, as well as the lack of assurance of job security (Gilbert, 1996, as cited in Silberman, 2006, p. 22). In the case of the new employees that will be trained based from the vignette, it is highly possible that letting them do their job even if they do not have a good background on the basics of the customer service might reflect as the poor match between the skills of the employees and the requirements of their job.
Performing a needs assessment requires following a process which can be simplified into three phases: identifying the problem, confirming the problem by gathering and analyzing data, and deciding on which solution to take (Silberman, 2006; Office of Migrant Education, 2001). There are steps to take in each of these three phases, which makes the whole process of needs assessment tedious yet comprehensive, which offers the companies or organizations the most efficient way on determining whether a training class or program is needed and how to implement it in case a training class or program really is needed. It is then important for the head of the Human Resources department and his or her team to ensure that these phases and steps are followed to ensure that the best solution is determined for the identified problem, which is in the case can be implementing a customer service training class or program for the new employees.
Continuing on the vignette earlier, the head of the Human Resources department of the small retail company has found out from the needs assessment that the feedback from the previous participants of the customer service training class or program indicate that the whole program was mostly presentations of theories, discussion of how to take calls, but was lacking in the modeling or exposure on how to actually show a good customer service through case studies, role plays, simulations, or on-the-job training. The previous participants had felt that their actual experience when they were already on the job was more helpful compared to the training itself. The information that is gathered from the needs assessment will then be taken into account when deciding on what solutions to take when the training implementation plan is being developed.
Customer Service Training Implementation Plan
From the results of the needs assessment, the management of companies and organizations can now decide on how to implement the training class or program. However, this stage is not simply choosing which topics to include in the training class or program, but what the management wants the participants to truly value, understand, and do with the information that they will get from the training class or program. Because of this, the implementation stage involves meticulous and careful planning since each activity or method that will be indicated in the training plan should be justified and appropriate to the skill or knowledge that it aims to impart to the participants of the training class or program. To start, there should be clear training objectives that should be identified before planning or drafting the whole training implementation plan. Training goals and objectives can be broken down into types of learning goals such as the affective learning, behavioral learning, and cognitive learning. Affective learning involves the fostering of attitudes, feelings, and preferences, while the behavioral learning involves developing competence in the actual performance of methods, techniques, procedures, and operations (Silberman, 2006). In addition to this, cognitive learning involves obtaining information and concepts related to course content (Silberman, 2006). A good mix of these three learning goals would be ideal since it is best that the participants of the training program are not only understanding the subject matter but are also actually demonstrating that they learned it through their actions and are more aware of the value that they create when they understand and demonstrate these.
Going back to the vignette, the results of the needs assessment are actually good starting points on deciding on which objectives should be placed in the training implementation plan. Since it was apparent that the previous training implementation plan of the small retail company was more theoretical rather than practical in nature or focused more on cognitive learning than behavioral learning, the new training class or program that will be developed will then ensure to add more of the methods that will aid the new employees in practicing the customer service skills that they have learned. The presentation and discussion as training methods will still be retained since it is important that the new employees acquire the necessary information and concepts about customer service, while ensuring that affective learning is present by making the emphasis that exhibiting a good customer service creates value not only to the customers but to the entire company as well. To apply the concepts learned during the presentation and discussion, actual case studies in the retail company will be presented first so that the new employees have an idea on what it was like, then let them watch an actual simulation or modeling through experienced employees. After that, the new employees can be asked to role-play what they would do in certain situations while having feedback from their trainer and co-trainees. Likewise, the training program will not end even if the actual training day is already done. The participants should be mentored and gradually released from the training program by enlisting the assistance of more experienced employees to guide the new ones as they are fielded on-the-job until they can eventually perform or the job on their own. In case the new employees are not interested in attending the training class, performance-based incentives that can be linked to monetary incentives can be offered since these new employees should be informed about the necessity of being trained to execute good customer service in a retail company. Performing it well by undergoing the training would mean recognition from the company as well. Another way to motivate them is to actually partner them with mentors that excel on customer service that can probably serve as inspirations on why good customer service is important and that is something that they can learn from the training class or program that will be implemented.
Evaluating the Training Program
The success of the training program can be determined only if it has been evaluated properly. This is an important step that can serve as the final one or the catalyst to restart the whole training program. Without evaluation, the company or management would not be aware that the training program is effective or not, which is something that can be costly if the results of the evaluation were not considered moving forward. The evaluation of the training program can start as early as during ongoing activities. Do the participants seem unmotivated because they were looking at their mobile phones compared to the trainer? Are they involved with the content being discussed? The trainer can use these observations to change how the whole program should be facilitated by each group of participants is unique. In addition to this, perhaps the most common form of evaluation of a training program is through a survey that collects the feedback from the participants who attended the training. It is important that the survey should be well-designed in order to capture a comprehensive feedback from the participants that can be used as a guide to improving the next training program. To make it more comprehensive, the evaluation can include the reaction of the participants to the training, the knowledge and skills that they have learned from the training, how the training can be applied to their job, as well as the actual impacts of the training when applied on the job (Silberman, 2006). Below is an example of a survey that is adapted from Silberman (2006, p. 319) and can be given after the training class or program.
1. Circle the number that best represents your reaction to the program.
a. I feel that I will be able to use what I learned.
(never) 1 2 3 4 5 (often)
b. The program was presented in an interesting manner.
(never) 1 2 3 4 5 (often)
c. The training facilities met my needs.
(never) 1 2 3 4 5 (often)
d. The program covered the promised objectives.
(never) 1 2 3 4 5 (often)
e. The trainer encouraged participation and questions.
(never) 1 2 3 4 5 (often)
2. What did you find most useful in the program?
__________________________________________
3. What did you find least useful in the program?
__________________________________________
4. Is there anything in this program that could be improved?
__________________________________________
References
Messner, A. M. (2009). Needs Assessment and Analysis Methods. Retrieved from http://www2.uwstout.edu/content/lib/thesis/2009/2009messnera.pdf
Office of Migrant Education. (2001). Comprehensive Needs Assessment. Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/compneedsassessment.pdf
Silberman, M. (2006). Active training: A handbook of techniques, designs, case examples, and tips. San Francisco: Pfeiffer/John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
2018/1219
