INTRODUCTION An organization’s sustainable competitive advantage is derived largely from intangible assets: human, social, and intellectual capital. Human resource professionals enable current and fut

INTRODUCTION

An organization’s sustainable competitive advantage is derived largely from intangible assets: human, social, and intellectual capital. Human resource professionals enable current and future organizational competitiveness by ensuring that people with the skills, knowledge, and abilities needed to produce these resources are in adequate supply. This is accomplished through employee training and talent management. As a human resource professional, your ability to effectively plan and implement employee training and develop talent management programs will directly contribute to your organization’s success. In this task, you will develop a needs assessment plan to analyze the organization’s training needs and recommend a training strategy.

Refer to the Scenario and the attached “Floor Agent Job Description” to complete this performance assessment.

SCENARIO

A midsized custom furniture retail organization has been in business for 30 years. They started their organization in a small town and have seen their greatest growth over the last five years, moving from a small local business to a furniture store known nationwide. The organization has recently acquired 10 new stores and 300 new employees from a competitor, including 100 floor agents. This acquisition will increase the organization’s competitive advantage in suburban areas where it was not servicing and improve its overall outreach and coverage of both metropolitan and suburban areas. Thus, allowing the organization to provide a more extensive portfolio of customers and potential product offerings. 

The acquisition has been announced, and the new stores are scheduled for grand reopenings in 60 days. The custom furniture retail organization is looking to capitalize on the increased product knowledge, sales initiatives, and market knowledge gained from the acquisition by focusing on the training and development of the floor agents. Acquiring floor agents from new stores means that the sales tactics, knowledge, and processes differ from store to store, resulting in various objectives, sales drivers, and measures for success within the sales department. To remain competitive in the furniture store industry and to create synergy between the newly acquired and the current stores, training and development of all floor agents is needed. 

As the director of strategic training and development, you need to create a training plan to train and prepare the newly acquired floor agents to meet organization expectations regarding sales initiatives and sales training. As you begin strategizing the training and development plan, you realize that the furniture store does not currently have any established process for training floor agents; thus, you will need to develop the training plan from scratch. 

Since the competitor organization has retained a number of their current locations, management at your organization has concerns that the competitor may attempt to entice their best employees back to their organization. Management needs you to identify those promising individuals and design a plan to work specifically with them on their career development within the organization and, when possible, plan their integration into the organization's management.

REQUIREMENTS

Your submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of 30% of the submission and no more than a 10% match to any one individual source can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from sources, even if cited correctly. The similarity report that is provided when you submit your task can be used as a guide.

You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of the course.

Tasks may not be submitted as cloud links, such as links to Google Docs, Google Slides, OneDrive, etc., unless specified in the task requirements. All other submissions must be file types that are uploaded and submitted as attachments (e.g., .docx, .pdf, .ppt).

Training Needs Assessment

A.  Create a needs assessment plan to analyze the organization’s training needs and recommend a training strategy by doing the following:

1.  Explain how you would assess the organization’s training needs for the newly acquired floor agents.

2.  Conduct a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of the company’s training needs for the floor agents by doing the following:

a.  Identify one strength that is internal to the organization.

i.  Explain how the strength affects training needs and outcomes for the floor agents.

b.  Identify one weakness that is internal to the organization.

i.  Explain how the weakness affects training needs and outcomes for the floor agents.

c.  Identify one current opportunity that is external to the organization.

i.  Explain how the opportunity affects training needs and outcomes for the floor agents.

d.  Identify one current threat that is external to the organization.

i.  Explain how the threat affects training needs and outcomes for the floor agents.

3.  Describe how one learning theory would inform the development of the training program.

a.  Identify two strategies from the chosen learning theory for shaping the learning outcomes of the training program.

4. Describe one legal obligation the employer in the scenario has for the training program, according to one of the following laws:

•   Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990

•   Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964

•   Age Discrimination in Employment Act 1967

B.  Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.

C.  Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.

RUBRIC

A1: TRAINING NEEDS

COMPETENT

The submission logically explains how to assess the organization’s training needs for the newly acquired floor agents.

A2A: IDENTIFICATION OF STRENGTH

COMPETENT

The submission accurately identifies a strength that is internal to the organization.

A2AI: IMPACT OF STRENGTH ON TRAINING AND OUTCOMES

COMPETENT

The submission logically explains how the strength affects training needs and outcomes for the floor agents.

A2B: IDENTIFICATION OF WEAKNESS

COMPETENT

The submission accurately identifies a weakness that is internal to the organization.

A2BI: IMPACT OF WEAKNESS ON TRAINING AND OUTCOMES

COMPETENT

The submission logically explains how the weakness affects training needs and outcomes for the floor agents.

A2C: IDENTIFICATION OF OPPORTUNITY

COMPETENT

The submission accurately identifies a current opportunity that is external to the organization.

A2CI: IMPACT OF OPPORTUNITY ON TRAINING AND OUTCOMES

COMPETENT

The submission logically explains how the opportunity affects training needs and outcomes for the floor agents.

A2D: IDENTIFICATION OF THREAT

COMPETENT

The submission accurately identifies a current threat that is external to the organization.

A2DI: IMPACT OF THREAT ON TRAINING AND OUTCOMES

COMPETENT

The submission logically explains how the threat affects training needs and outcomes for the floor agents.

A3: LEARNING THEORY

COMPETENT

The submission logically describes how a learning theory would inform the development of the training program.

A3A: STRATEGIES FOR SHAPING LEARNING OUTCOMES

COMPETENT

The submission accurately identifies 2 strategies for shaping the learning outcomes of the training program that are relevant to the organization’s training needs.

A4: LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS

COMPETENT

The submission describes 1 legal obligation the employer in the scenario has for the training program according to one of the applicable laws.

B: SOURCES

COMPETENT

The submission includes in-text citations for sources that are properly quoted, paraphrased, or summarized and a reference list that accurately identifies the author, date, title, and source location as available.

C: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION

COMPETENT

Content reflects attention to detail, is organized, and focuses on the main ideas as prescribed in the task or chosen by the candidate. Terminology is pertinent, is used correctly, and effectively conveys the intended meaning. Mechanics, usage, and grammar promote accurate interpretation and understanding.

TASK 2

Training Development and Evaluation

A.  Identify four measurable learning objectives for the training program that would help develop the floor agents’ selling capabilities.

B.  Describe a training program you would develop and how it would appropriately address the learning objectives.

     1.  Justify how the training program is supported by adult learning theory and behavioral theory.

C.  Recommend one in-person and one technology-facilitated method for effectively delivering the training program.

      1.  Justify the rationale for each recommended delivery method from part C.

D.  Identify a desired result of the training program for each learning objective from part A.

E.  Explain how you will evaluate the desired results from part D by doing the following:

1.  Recommend one metric to evaluate the results of the training program.

2.  Explain how to calculate the recommended metric.

Note: You will not need to perform the calculations.

3.  Explain why the chosen metric is an effective option for evaluating the training program.

F.  Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.

G.  Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.

RUBRIC A: LEARNING OBJECTIVES

COMPETENT

The submission identifies 4 measurable learning objectives for the training program that would develop the floor agents’ selling capabilities.

B: TRAINING PROGRAM

COMPETENT

The submission logically describes the training program developed by the student and how it would appropriately address the learning objectives.

B1: JUSTIFICATION OF TRAINING PROGRAM

COMPETENT

The submission logically justifies how the training program is supported by adult learning theory and behavioral theory.

C: DELIVERY METHODS

COMPETENT

The submission recommends 1 logical in-person and 1 logical technology-facilitated method for effectively delivering the training program.

C1: DELIVERY METHOD RATIONALES

The submission justifies a logical rationale for each recommended delivery method from part C.

D: DESIRED RESULTS

COMPETENT

The submission identifies a desired result for each learning objective from part A, which are appropriate and consistent with the learning objectives and the description of the training program from part B.

E1: METRIC RECOMMENDATION

COMPETENT

The submission recommends 1 logical metric to evaluate the results of the training program.

E2: METRIC CALCULATION

COMPETENT

The submission accurately explains how to calculate the recommended metric.

E3: METRIC RATIONALE

COMPETENT

The submission logically explains why the metric was an effective option for evaluating the training program.

F: SOURCES

COMPETENT

The submission includes in-text citations for sources that are properly quoted, paraphrased, or summarized and a reference list that accurately identifies the author, date, title, and source location as available.

G: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION

COMPETENT

Content reflects attention to detail, is organized, and focuses on the main ideas as prescribed in the task or chosen by the candidate. Terminology is pertinent, is used correctly, and effectively conveys the intended meaning. Mechanics, usage, and grammar promote accurate interpretation and understanding.

TASK 3

Talent Management Plan

A.  Explain how training and development may engage employees at every stage of their career development by doing the following:

1.  Explain how the organization's floor agents can use training and development to advance their careers within the organization.

2.  Explain how the organization can use training and development to identify individual floor agents to move into succession planning for promotion into management positions (e.g., client sales manager, store manager, supply chain manager, or project manager).

3.  Explain how training and development can be used to help floor agents map a specific, desired career path (e.g., client sales manager, store manager, supply chain manager, or project manager).

B.  Discuss communication during the training process by doing the following:

1.  Discuss how trainer communication could affect performance feedback and mitigate conflict. Include nonverbal and improvisational communication strategies.

2.  Explain how trust and communication would benefit the training program.

C.  Explain how the training program will ensure inclusivity while meeting the needs of a diverse population of employees. Include the following topics:

•   accessibility (e.g., physical ability or mental ability)

•   identity (e.g., age, race, gender, or culture)

•   learning style (e.g., talents, skills, education, or prior experiences)

D.  Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.

E.  Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.

RUBRIC

A1:CAREER ADVANCEMENT

COMPETENT

The submission logically explains how the floor agents can use training and development to advance their careers.

A2: SUCCESSION PLANNING

COMPETENT

The submission logically explains how the employer can use training and development to identify individual floor agents to move into succession planning for promotion into management positions.

A3: CAREER PATH

COMPETENT

The submission logically explains how training and development can be used to help floor agents map a specific, desired career path.

B1: COMMUNICATION STYLE

COMPETENT

The submission logically discusses how trainer communication could affect performance feedback and mitigate conflict.

B2: TRUST AND COMMUNICATION

COMPETENT

The submission logically explains how trust and communication would benefit the training program.

C: DIVERSE TRAINING NEEDS

COMPETENT

The submission logically explains how the training program will ensure inclusivity while meeting the needs of a diverse population of employees. The explanation addresses each of the given points.

D: SOURCES

COMPETENT

The submission includes in-text citations for sources that are properly quoted, paraphrased, or summarized and a reference list that accurately identifies the author, date, title, and source location as available.

E: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION

COMPETENT

Content reflects attention to detail, is organized, and focuses on the main ideas as prescribed in the task or chosen by the candidate. Terminology is pertinent, is used correctly, and effectively conveys the intended meaning. Mechanics, usage, and grammar promote accurate interpretation and understanding.