WAL-MART'S TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

Wal-Mart's Training and Development

Wal-Mart's Training and Development

In order for any training to be effective, it must be coordinated with the company's overall objectives and at the same time, it is important to design a training program that will allow employees to fulfil their personal goals. This paper will look at what is involved in developing a training program for the WAL-MART for a training need of "poor customer service." There are five steps that WAL-MART would take to create an effective systems approach to training that recognizes both of these needs: make needs assessment, design a training program, develop the program for a working environment, implement the developed training program, and finally, develop a system to evaluate the training. These steps make up the systems approach to training, which has recently become popular due to its effectiveness. This part of the paper is going to review the evaluation section of the training program.

Within any organization there comes a time for a needs assessment. This assessment can be done for many different reasons and in different departments. An organization completes a "needs assessments" to see how they can improve and to look for possible solutions for different problems. We are going to look at the Wal-Mart Group and do a need assessment for a poor customer service problem.

A needs assessment is a systematic exploration if the way things are and the way they should be. These "things" are usually associated with the organizational and /or individual performance (Stout, 1995). Why design and conduct a needs assessment? WAL-MART would need to consider the benefits of any intervention before they implement a program:

- What learning will be accomplished?

- What changes in behavior and performance are expected?

- Will we get them?

- What are the expected economic costs and benefits of any projected solutions?

Companies are often in too much of a hurry and tend to implement a solution and spend countless time and money before they carefully and cautiously assess the problem.

There are four steps to conducting a needs assessment:

Step 1. Perform a "Gap" Analysis.

Organizations need to check the actual performance of their organization and its people against existing standards, or to set new standards. In this case WAL-MART would need to check the performance of the customer service department against the industry standards. Call centers have a general performance standard that is recognized throughout the industry. WAL-MART need to look at their customer service department and rate it according to the standards set forth not only by the industry but also by WAL-MART themselves.

There are two parts on doing a "gap" analysis. First, what is the current situation? WAL-MART must determine the current state of skills, knowledge, and abilities of their current or future employees. This analysis should also examine their organizational goals, climate, and internal and external constraints. Secondly, WAL-MART must study the desired or necessary situation. WAL-MART must identify the desired or necessary conditions for organizational and personal success. This analysis focuses on the necessary job tasks/standards, as well as ...