MANAGING PEOPLE AT WORK

Managing people at work: Training program for DIY super-market

Managing people at work: Training program for DIY super-market

DIY's product line has expanded to include toiletries, clothing, toys, electronics, furniture, house wares, pharmacy service, and in some locations even auto repair. DIY locations are in fact, so large that one can compare them to a small city. The store manager acts as the mayor, the supervisors are council members and women, and the employees are the townspeople. As such, each store has a well-developed culture and several rules and procedures that must be followed to ensure that each individual is fulfilling his or her role within the group. In order for the store to continue to run smoothly and the customers to be served, new employees must be thoroughly trained in not only the role that he or she is to fill, but also in the culture and norms of the organization as a whole. Because of the crucial role that effective training plays in the success of each store, corporate management decided that DIY begin to introduce an automated training and assessment system to improve both the effectiveness and efficiency of new employee training. (Wolfgang 2008:15-20)

The current training program while effective is not as efficient as is necessary to maintain cost controls and meet immediate staffing needs. Currently, new associates are teamed with a veteran associate during his or her first two weeks of employment. This mentoring system ensures that the new employee is competent in his or her job role, and that the new associate has regular access to a mentor wile acclimating to the cultural norms of the organization. However, employee turnover is very high in the retail industry and DIY is no different. Each location must hire and train an average of 50 new associates each quarter, which leads to about 32,000 training hours per location per year. Considering the high turnover of the DIY employee base, it becomes very difficult for the company to see any return on this initial investment of time and money into training. (Erven 2009:74-95)

In response to both the growing problem of the expense of training a constantly turning employee base and current advances in training technology, management has determined that the implementation of a computer based training and assessment system is crucial to the continued successful growth and operations of the organization. The new training system will work to reduce the dollar and time costs currently invested in training through the implementation of in store computer based training kiosks. Rather than spending two weeks learning his or her assigned role with a veteran mentor, new employees will train using interactive training modules on dedicated computer kiosks connected to the company intranet. As the company currently does not use computer technology in its training programs, the initial cost outlay for the necessary hardware and software is estimated at roughly $20,000 per store. Through a strategic partnership with Dell computers, five computer kiosks will be installed in the employee break area of ...