-The HRD project paper is a two-part paper: Part 1 will be to design an HRD program in the three HRD areas of Figure 1.1, McLagan’s human resource wheel, see attachment. - To frame the program, the pa

FDS Human Resources Development

Student

University

ORGL 413

Professor

August 13, 2020

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify, evaluate, and propose solutions in the Human Resources Development (HRD) arena for the FDS. A thorough analysis of the industry overview and business strategy provides the foundational aspects for a needs assessment. The needs assessment and its methodology identifies the relevant issues hindering the company’s performance. This paper will focus on the three bins that comprise HRD on the McLaughlin Resources Wheel: training and development, organizational development, and career development. These focus areas, coupled with the issues identified in the needs assessment, will drive the solutions and the evaluation criteria. To evaluate the HRD plan’s effectiveness, the Kirkpatrick Taxonomy will be applied to gauge the reactions and behaviors of the trained employees. The four levels of Kirkpatrick's Taxonomy consist of Reaction, Learning, Behavior, and Results. Ultimately, the goal is to not only improve the company but better the recipients of the training at all levels of the company to achieve growth personally and professionally during this journey.

Introduction

In 2014 the FDS store chain was acquired by DT Inc. for $9.5 Billion (Associated Press, 2015). Since the merger, the FDS chain has a long list of repeated complaints consisting of bad management and other personnel-related issues. This Human Resources Development (HRD) plan intends to delve out the personnel needs of the FDS chain and provide achievable solutions to these long-standing issues. The program will use various methods to identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) to form the foundation of the HRD plan. The issues, once classified in the needs assessment, will align into the areas concerning training and development, organizational development, and career development to create the consolidated HRD way forward. Finally, to round out the HRD plan will be the evaluation criteria and metrics. This plan will use the foundational steps of the Kirkpatrick taxonomy to evaluate the overall implementation of the HRD plan. Through a balanced assessment of needs, solutions, and continued evaluation, this HRD plan will help guide FDS to achieve its stated vision.

Part 1: Human Resources Development Plan

Industry Overview

In the US, the dollar and variety store sectors have experienced significant growth between 2015 and 2020. This industry captures a market size of $86 billion in 2019 and has a growth rate of 2.8% annually (Quantum, 2019). Typically advertising and selling low-cost products, dollar stores, or price-point retailers primarily sell all of their goods at a distinct amount. The dollar store industry has developed quickly throughout the United States (US) in recent years. These retail outlets are typically in smaller rural areas that are too small for a big box store or mass-market retailer. In 2018, there were approximately 31,620 dollar stores across the US (Quantum, 2019). Companies operating within this business approach, such as Dollar General and Dollar Tree, are ranked amongst top American retailers, proving the success of this business model.

The most significant two companies in the dollar store retail sector within the US are Dollar General and Dollar Tree. In 2018, Dollar Tree generated about $22.8 billion and grew 2.6% (O'Connell, 2020). The two businesses control upwards of 15,000 retail stores, respectively, throughout the US. However, the competitive distance between big box stores, Walmart type stores, and dollar stores is decreasing. A survey conducted in 2018 found approximately 60% to 65% of customers across different demographics have purchased a product at a discount retailer in the last three months (O'Connell, 2020). Even more alarming for Dollar General, almost half of individuals surveyed, between 30 and 49 years old, stated that they had visited a location in the past twelve months (O'Connell, 2020).

Company’s Business Strategy

FDS Inc. is one of the major competitors in the dollar and variety store retail sector. This retail chain operates as a national discount store whose primary customers are thrifty, economic consumers, who are looking for local convenience. The company offers merchandise that includes consumables, apparel, accessories, seasonal, electronics, and home products (Bloomberg, n.d.). FDS is the number two neighborhood discount store chain by the number of locations operating approximately 8,200 stores across the US. Its focus is selling consumables in small neighborhood stores in close proximity to its fixed, low, and middle-income consumers in rural and urban areas.

FDS’ geographical reach spans 45 US states, with Texas being its largest market with nearly 1,100 locations (FD, n.d.). Its company headquarters is in Virginia with its parent company, Dollar Tree. The average size store is approximately 7,000 square feet and offers nationally known brands as well as lower-priced private labels with most of its merchandise costing less than $10. This relatively small footprint and cost price point allows the company to rapidly open new stores in smaller rural areas and large urban neighborhoods with lower overhead costs.

The company’s vision is to be; “The best small-format value and convenience retailer serving the needs of customers in the neighborhoods we serve” (FD, n.d.). The company recognizes that the customers work hard to provide for their families and want them to get the best value money. FDS strives to be the convenient one-stop-shop for the communities that they support. To be socially responsible to the communities that they operate in the FDS supports non-profit groups that seek to advance the quality of life for their customer base and employees. Through a grassroots approach to giving, the FDS Hope Community Foundation aims to give back to organizations that help local families in need.

Needs Assessment

This company has been having repeated historical human resources (HR) issues since its merger in 2015 with DT. It provides a data-rich subject for this project. The method used to shape the needs assessment is the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis to develop a structured approach for an HRD change plan. This approach is typically used by businesses to analyze the macro environment before implementing a change to an organization.

Concurrently with the SWOT analysis, a search for publically available industry reports will be conducted for an initial company overview, which will help shape an online survey. When performing a search for FDS SWOTs, there are several analyses and papers on this topic. Additionally, several reputable business journals have analyzed and reported on the HR issues FDS is experiencing. The online survey will be a short quantitative and qualitative employee survey. It will be facilitated by Survey Monkey that will be targeted to three groups store workers, mid-level managers, and upper-level management. The brief study will be available on the company's employee web portal. The data, issues, and negative trends from this survey will shape the foundational HRD plan. If there is a further need for data, an in-person interview of the three groups across the company's locations by region can be conducted for an on the ground assessment to shape the needs assessment.

Initial research shows that the FDS chain is rated by moneyinc.com in 2019 as the tenth worst company to work for (Parker, 2020). Additionally, its CEO has a 41% approval rating, and the employees give it a 33% chance they would recommend the company to a friend for employment (Glassdoor, 2020). The majority of the qualitative survey data is that there is a significant disconnect between the store level workers, mid-level management, and upper-level management.

During the needs assessment, there were multiple issues and weaknesses concerning the FDS store chain. The top concern was the disconnect between upper and mid-level management and the store-level employees (Parker, 2020). This primary issue was the overall factor precipitating additional problems within the company. Other matters that stemmed from the management disconnect was general dissatisfaction of the workforce, high employee turnover, lack of workforce diversification, centralized decision making, lack of an effective performance appraisal system, and high workload per worker (Suneson & Stebbins, 2018).

Training and Development Plan

The training and development curriculum will have the primary purpose of bridging the gap between store-level employees and mid-level to upper-level management. The first step to improvement through an HRD training and development program is identifying the current issues of bad management and poor communication companywide. Management should then develop and communicate to all employees a vision of where the organization is going and the individual contributions employees will make to its success, involving employee representatives as appropriate (Wilson, 2005 p.410). Since this is a systemic issue that affects all levels of the company, an online mandatory training block of instruction that highlights the problems for all members of the company will be necessary. Once the entire company is aware of the fact that the issue exists and the company intends to fix it, there will be targeted follow on training. This training will be for the different levels of employees throughout the company (store level, mid-level-management, and senior- management). The primary training area of focus will be remedying the areas of substandard management and communications across the company.

The curriculum developed to address the management and communication issues should be focused on training employees companywide with the goal of tangible and measurable improvements to an acceptable level (Swart, 2005. p.96). To achieve this goal, it will take a more personal approach. The employees' position in the company will dictate the type and amount of training required. The majority of the training plan will encompass a knowledge-skills mix category of activities. Ultimately, the goal of the HRD program will be to enrich the three areas of knowledge management processes within the company, knowledge creation, knowledge storage and retrieval, and knowledge transfer (Alvi & Denford, 2012).

The midlevel managers will initially attend an in-house company seminar with lectures, hands-on activities, and role-playing. The conference will consist of presentations that inform them of what the company defines as good management, tangible leadership tools, and resources on how to self-study to be a better manager and communicator. Additionally, they will practice these skills in common challenging managerial scenarios through role-playing they may be faced with to exercise the lecture material. Once the managerial training is complete, the final portion of the training program will highlight the issues the store-level employees are experiencing. The final portion will have the mid-level managers and supervisory staff experience day-to-day work as a frontline employee in the store. Since the management will be spending time at the store level, they will also lead the teaching of the classes to the store level employees. This program will also benefit the mid-level managers allowing their employees to put a face to who their management is. Conversely, store-level employee's curriculum consists of what organizational changes are happening to increase communications and how to use those avenues of communication.

For the majority of the store-level employees like the cashiers, store managerial staff, and delivery drivers, a targeted online block of training can be created that educates them on what encompasses proper management and communication while working at this company. Since management and communications are both a two-way street, this will help the lower level employees understand the challenges mid and upper-level managers face daily. Additionally, it will give a sense of ownership to lower-level employees as they are responsible for holding their managers accountable for their actions and communications. As stated by McGuire (2014), it will also encourage greater engagement with a more substantial affective commitment to the organization's culture and priorities (p.134).

Organizational Development Plan

Organizational Development (OD) is the area of HRD that focuses on an organization's effort to increase its effectiveness and health. Primarily OD concentrates on evolving organization competence and ability through the orientation of strategy, structure, management systems, employee development, rewards, and metrics. Since organizations today operate within a rapidly changing environment, it is paramount for organizations to have the ability to manage change. This HRD plan and solutions will enable the FDS company’s shift towards achieving solutions for their current issues but allow them more flexibility for future change.

The main issue of the inability to properly synch up between the stores and mid-level management has led to systemic structural company issues. The biggest problem from the main driving issue is the high workload per worker, which leads to high employee turnover. An example is that it is company policy that FDS store managers are required to work and log a minimum of 52 hours a week on their timecard. Through the needs assessment data collection, the average store managers are working 70 hours per week just to keep the store open and functioning (Glassdoor, 2020). This high weekly output is causing a burnout of store-level managers and employees, which results in their resignation from the company. These numbers are comparable to other industry competitors. By fixing the root issue of employee turnover will give FDS a competitive edge and cost savings by reducing the number of employees onboarding and offboarding companywide.

The solution to the high workload per store level worker is twofold. First, a corporate development plan to change the structure of how the stores and mid-level managers communicate is essential to address this problem. As Roger D’Aprix (2009) stated, the communication process in an organization is all about people and what they need to and want to know. Better and effective communication between these two entities within the company will open the pathways for the employee training and development approach to work.

Secondarily, a technological time card tracking solution, should be put in place to limit the overuse and burnout of store-level employees. The current time card system solely tracks hours and does not alert or provide metrics to mid-level managers. The proposed time card software will notify mid-level managers when there is a trend of individuals or stores that are about to exceed a threshold of maximum hours worked. This solution will allow the mid-level managers to quickly identify problem areas and provide appropriate solutions or relief to the pinpointed personnel or retail location. The ability for store-level managers and mid-level managers to have a common operating picture of the issues will allow both parties to intervene to prevent the current high employee turnover.

Career Development Plan

Career Development in today's business world is less defined by an attachment to a specific organization and focused more on the identity and values of the individual employees. Currently, organizations now view their career development as an essential aspect of identifying, developing, and retaining talent. Currently, FDS has no career development plan for its store-level employees. The lack of such a program with career development and advancement opportunities is a contributing factor to the high turnover of store-level employees at FDS. This factor is one of the top historical reasons for departures during exit interviews of employees. Both of these factors relate to a lack of employee career development programs or opportunities. Additionally, once DT had acquired FDS, there was an absence of formal training, mentorship, and coaching for FDS employees at all levels. This issue manifested through the difference between the two company's data regarding the problems identified in this HRD plan.

Within the scope of this proposed HRD plan, a formal career development program should be implemented with the overall goal to improve the knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences of the individuals within the company. Specifically, this career development plan recommends a series of incentive-based training programs that not only help improve knowledge and proficiency within an employee's scope of work but also serve as credentials towards promotions within the company. These credentials are related to the employee’s level of company-provided training within the company. An example of the training certifications would be if a cashier receives assistant managerial training, that cashier is eligible for promotion within the company for an assistant manager position. This education, certification, and promotion incentive-driven system will spark the ambition to perform at work, attend the mentorship training for individual growth within the company. This career development program will utilize the mid-level and upper-level managers as trainers and mentors to the store level employees. This mentorship experience will help increase the quality of store-level employees. However, it will also assist in training, pinpointing, and grooming the next generation of leadership at all levels within the company.

Part 2: Evaluation of HRD Program Using Kirkpatrick’s Taxonomy

The goal of the proposed HRD plan is to assist the entire FDS company in identifying their current HRD issues and how to implement solutions effectively. Through the company’s background, industry overview, business strategy, needs assessment findings, and the approaches and interventions, a thorough HRD assessment and plan has been established. However, without a strategy to implement and track the effect of the proposed organizational change, there will be no way to know it has improved the areas identified. The methodology to achieve organizational change will be Kotter’s eight-step change model. Additionally, the guidance and evaluation of the HRD plan will by the four steps of the Kirkpatrick Taxonomy. From its origins in evaluating training, Kirkpatrick’s Taxonomy has grown to be applied by practitioners to evaluate most types of performance improvement interventions- not just training (Pearlstein, 2009). Using this proven implementation and evaluation model, FDS leadership will be able to monitor progress and make any necessary adjustments. Below is a further breakdown of the application of the Kirkpatrick’s taxonomy to this HRD plan.

Reactions

The goal in this phase of evaluation is to elicit feedback that shows the training is valuable to the employees, or they are finding utility in the newly implemented business practices or systems. The input should determine how involved the workers were, how enthusiastically they participated, and how they responded to the planned program. These factors will allow the company to understand how well the training was received. Additionally, feedback should gather employee sentiments on the newly implemented timecard monitoring system. The execution of this portion of the evaluation process is through an in-person or online qualitative survey after the completion of the employee’s perspective training. The focus of the survey will consist of questions such as:

Were the training and exercises worthwhile?
What did you like or dislike about the training
What were the top three things you took away from this training
Do you plan to apply the training to your job?

Learning

The second portion of the program evaluation focuses on what the training recipients have or have not learned. An area to focus on in this portion is to measure what the employees think they will be able to do after receiving the training. Not only the element of ability but an evaluation of their confidence and how motivated the employees are to make the planned changes will be incorporated as well. The stated terminal learning objectives (TLO) for the HRD plan are the guiding aspects and evaluation metrics for the pre and post-training written evaluations. These TLOs will encompass the three areas of the desired improvement from the managerial, communications, or implementation of technological solutions. The potential data shift from the pre-test to the post-test will show if the training was practical for the target employees.

Behavior

The third area of evaluation is to monitor the employee’s behavior for intended improvements. This area will show if employees are applying their newly learned skills, knowledge, and conduct. This portion of evaluation can also identify other issues within the FDS organization that might need attention or action. Traditionally in this step during the corporate assessment, this is where the discovery of unknown organizational culture problems is shown to exist. It is in the realm of the possibility that employees have learned the desired training; however, another issue or obstruction is preventing the anticipated organizational change.

In this phase, it is common that the implementation of a process that rewards employees who develop and reinforce the intended behavior, who are employing the new training. Additionally, an assessment of the return on investment of the technological solutions and systems will provide oversight through the data it has produced. In the case of the time card solution, the use and the number of hours worked can be the metric, as discussed previously. This step is typically a longer-term process to evaluate that usually takes weeks to months following the first round of training. To assess this step, the mid-level managers will conduct visits to the stores they manage and to observe if the employees are applying the training they received. Additionally, during these manager store visits, interviews of the trained employees will be conducted to evaluate the longer-term effect of the store level training. These in-person store managerial visits will force managers to assess and mentor the store-level employees.

Results

The fourth step is the analysis of the effectiveness and weaknesses of the final results of the proposed training. Since the company issues were identified early on during the Needs Assessment, the remedy or improvement of these areas will be the focus for evaluation and gathering of metrics. Areas such as poor mid-level management and communications, high workload per worker, the lack of mentorship, and its effects will be the focus of this section. Additional supporting metrics such as employee retention, use of new timecard tracking software data, and post-training survey effectiveness statics will measure company changes in behavior.

Conclusion

As captured in this HRD plan, there are issues of poor management and communication that precipitate other companywide matters within the FDS company. Through the research conducted in the needs assessment, an HRD training plan was custom built to focus on the training and development, organizational development, and career development identified issues. These proposed training pathways and curriculums will help guide the FDS to remedying the problems that are currently hindering their performance and maximum potential.

References

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