Communication Skill Training For Dementia Care Of HRM

Organization

Discuss about the Communication skill training dementia care of HRM.

Woolworths’s supermarket is the Australia’s largest supermarket chain. The organization performs their operational functionalities in 995 stores across the nation and has 15,000 team members or employees performing the job roles of store keepers, support offices and support offices (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2018). Woolworths supermarkets have market share of leading food and beverages retailers in the nation Australia and have almost 31% of market share (Statista 2018).

Image: Leading food and beverage retailers in Australia

(Source: Statista 2018)

The organization also have total employee base of 111,000 and have specialization in selling groceries, sell health & beauty products, magazines, DVDs, pet and baby supplies, household products and stationery items (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2018).

Salas et al. (2012) depicted that in the workplace, the importance of training and development needs is to generate awareness regarding the organizational objectives, addressing the weakness and gaps among the working personnel, improving the employee performances, maintaining the consistency of the worker’s ability and provide an opportunity to the employees for aligning their competency with the company’s objectives. The training needs of improving communication, developing technological awareness and enhancing the accountability and responsibility was earlier identified in the employees of Woolworth’s Supermarket.

The importance of communication training allows the employee to listen to the customers query and serve them with better assistance (Kulkarni, 2013). Keep (2014) furthermore depicted that a greater sense of empathy can be developed, where one personnel can understand the requirement of others and able to share their concerns freely. Communication training also allows the employee to speak precisely about the problem to the managers and also suggest with suitable alternatives. 

Johnston and Marshall (2016) also stated that every organization now utilizes technology to make their business operations faster and the employee need to know the functionalities of those technologies to accomplish their desire job roles. Thus, technological training allows the customers to enhance their knowledge regarding automation of the business functions and handle more staffs with precise service.

Training for enhancing the responsibility and accountability allow the employee to develop an effective interpersonal relationship with others and develop the sense that they are the main elements of the organization whose effort and association is require for the betterment of the organization.

The participants of the training are the employees of the Woolworths Supermarket as they face some problem while accomplishing their destined job roles. The concerned organization have adopted some technological advancement like IoT, POS devices, RFID and automated robots. Older employees faced issue to utilize these technologies; while the younger employees do not have the knowledge about all these technology. Another problem is communication gap among the working personnel which resulted in poor sense of responsibility and accountability. The problem raised due to this gap is resulted in misaligned goals.

The Importance of Training and Development Needs

Woolworths Supermarket has implemented automation technology like POS devices, IoT, RFID for products distribution and inventory management. The older employees of the organization faces problem in understanding these technology to perform their job roles. Another problem that is identified is that younger employees also do not know about all the technology which leads to their versatility in workplace. All these aspects lower the rate of the productivity and handling more customer which results in less profitability.

Employees when are not able to share their concern, knowledge and achievements with others, the workplace environment become inflexible (Jehanzeb and Bashir, 2013). In Woolworths Supermarket also, employees do not communicate even they face problem for accomplishing the assigned work responsibilities which results in poor outcome of the business operations and dissatisfaction among the customers. 

The training for enhancing accountability and responsibility is required as employee of Woolworth Supermarket do not know their organizational goals and objectives. As a result the organization face challenges like poor decision making of the employee in case they are provided challenging roles on the job. The lack of knowledge among the personnel also leads to poor performances which not only results in allocation of more resources but affects the profit of the company.

The benefit of the technological training is that the employee can utilize the modern equipment introduced in the workplace more efficiently. Moreover, it also allows the employee to attend more customers and enhance their productivity. The employee of Woolworths Supermarkets will can also notice some gaps in the technology and operations accomplished by the technology if they acquired proper training.

The prime benefits of the communication training are to enhance interpersonal relationship among the employees. Woolworths Supermarkets employees are also able to develop an enhanced workplace environment if they started sharing difficulties and knowledge with the colleagues and team members. This will also develop a sense of trust among them and allow them to work collaboratively to accomplish the organizational goals.

The training for accountability and responsibility enhance the sense of being an important asset for the organization. The leading roles offered to them also allow the employee to earn opportunities to enhance their performance and achieve remarkable milestones for securing their position with greater benefits. In addition to that, the employee of the Woolworths Supermarket also learns to take effective decisions which can bring betterment to the company. 

As already identified within the operation process of Woolworths the employees need to receive effective training on three major areas that include communication skills, technological skill and professional skill for understating organizational accountability and responsibility. In this very specific part, the study would make a proper training plan and schedule along with highlighting the learning theories. 

Participant

The learning theory which Woolworths would like to select for implementing the training plan successfully includes cognitive theory. This theory believes that learning of an individual occurs through internal processing of information. This theory has opposed the point of views of two other learning concepts like constructive and behaviorism. It has been observed that constructive theory believes in experience of learners. Bompa and Buzzichelli (2018) opined that an individual person can enhance learning skill based on the experience gathered from the professional field. However, cognitive theory has firmly opposed the point of view. By opposing previous opinion of scholar,

Hays and Singer (2012) have stated that organization should have proper internal process based on which employees can enhance their personal as well as professional skill as per current trend of market. Woolworths has planned that effective training and development session is the most effective internal process that the business experts follow for enhancing skills and competency level of the employees (Bezrukova, Jehn & Spell, 2012). While planning the training program the human resource managers have identified major areas that include proper program activities, time schedule of the program activities, methods that would be used for providing training to the employees and specific instructions that trainers would have to follow.

The program activities that would be selected for giving a training session to the employees are as follows:

• Seeking permission to the upper management by making them understand about the need of training session
• Hiring a professional trainer having minimum 10 years of experience in training field
• Arranging a training hall with all necessary accessibility of electric devices, internet facilities, technological as well as physical equipments
• Collecting necessary feedback from the employees in order to know the effectiveness of this program activity

Areas of training	Planned activities	Duration
Communication skill	Human resource manager would have to hire a professional trainer having minimum 10 years of experience in training field. Trainers need to collect necessary feedback from the employees in order to know the effectiveness of this program activity	5 months
Technological skill	Human resource manager would have to hire an IT expert having minimum 15 years of experience in training field. Trainers need to collect necessary feedback from the employees in order to know the effectiveness of this program activity	6 months
Responsibility and accountability	On job training would be provided and employees would be instructed to lead a small team. Trainers would guide them on how to communication with the team members as well as with the customers. If the customers are not very satisfied with services, trainers should instruct on how to change strategies instantly.	3 month

Table: Schedule and planned activities

(Source: As created by the author)

As direct method is a one way communication that enables that trainer to give a lecture about the issue, the professional trainer in the case of Woolworths would select interactive method of delivery.  In interactive method the trainer does not get the scope to make one way communication (Harrison, 2012). The employees while receiving training can interact with the trainer at the time of facing issues or in sharing any views. Woolworths have observed that in using direct method the trainer does not get overview about the way of progress of the employees. Employees do not interact with the trainers in this method. On the other hand, in interactive method trainers can collect necessary feedback from the employees for gaining idea whether they understand the method or not. Based on their feedback the trainer can change the way of training method (Sung & Choi, 2014). Thus, in quest of communicating with the employees properly the training program decides to use interactive method of delivery to involve both trainers and employees equally.

Benefits Attained by the Employees from the Training Program

As instructed by the human resource manager the trainer would like to collect individual feedback from every single employee in order to know their way of progress. In addition, the trainers are instructed to maintain proper professional as well as behavioral approach on the work floor so that employees do not get hesitated in interacting with the trainer at the time of training session (Sajeev, Singha & Venkatasubramanian, 2012).

Feedback will be collected from the employees in order to know whether they are getting benefits and facilities from training session or not. Feedback may come as both positive and negative. Based on the feedback collected from employees the human resource managers of Woolworths would decided on how they would proceed for the next (Shek & Sun, 2013).

            In this very specific part an in-depth outline is provided about the required resources. The resources required for this training are as follows:

• Human resource ( professional trainer and IT expert)
• Physical equipments (training hall, electricity, internet facilities, chairs and black boards and AC)
• Financial resource
• Technological resources (computers, projectors)

Employees would be provided sufficient organizational handout to recapitulate the organizational culture, ethics and beliefs (Landers & Callan, 2012). A hard copy of the training synopsis would be provided so that the employees after going back to their home can go through. Moreover, training synopsis would be provided through power point presentation as well in order to get audio-visual effect. 

By using six major technologies the trainers would like to provide training and development session. Employees have choice which particular technology they would like to grab for continuing the training session. The required technologies are as follows:

• Mobile learning
• Video based training
• Virtual environment and avatars
• HTML responsive design
• Automation and adaptive learning
• Big data

However, after evaluating the psychological factors of employees of Woolworths it can be expected or assumed that the employees would like to select video based learning in order to break the monotony of training session (Khan, 2012). Visual effect can encourage and engage the employees towards training and learning session.

The training location is selected within the organization campus so that human resource manager can observe the entire process of training session (Herrington, 2014). Apart from trainees and trainers the staffs who will be involved within the entire method include one facility supervisor and internal training supervisor.

Areas of expense	Estimated budget AUD
Professional trainer	60,000
Utilities	50,000
Physical equipments	40,000
Technological resources	70,000
Internet accessibilities	20,000
Print copy of handbooks	10,000
Other facilities	30,000
Total	2,80,000

Table 2: Estimated budget for training and development program

(Source: As created by the author)

However, in order to make the entire training program successfully the human resource managers would have to face several barriers which may prevent the HR managers in conducting the entire program successfully. The barriers are as follows:

The HR managers may have to face challenges in convincing operation management department for conducting this session. In order to implement the plan the organization would have to invest large amount money. As a result, financial issue may be a barrier for management to make the training session done effectively (Eggenberger, Heimerl & Bennett, 2013). In addition, while hiring an outside training professional the management would have to take additional burden for giving their proper facilities. Moreover, after engaging large number of employees within training session the systematic and rhythmic flow of business would be affected to some extent. For these reasons, the operation management may create issue in giving permission to the HR department for proceeding further.  

Program Plan

Perception of the participants may become a major obstacle. Employees are from different cultural and psychological backgrounds and attitudes. In addition, Woolworths is constituted with large number of senior employees. As a result, it becomes a matter of prestige and self-efficacy if the senior employees have to receive training and development session for enhancing their skills and competency level (Liaw et al. 2014). Therefore, barrier may come in order to convince the senior employees about the effectiveness and value of receiving a training program. They may not show their interest in participating within the training and development session.

Economic constraint is the most significant barriers due to which training program cannot be implemented. It is undeniable that Woolworths is one of the most recognizable companies occupying a predominant place in the realm of supermarket industry. Still it is undeniable that in implementing the plan the organization would have to invest large amount money. If the organization tends to invest large amount of money for training session, the other departments may be hampered in rendering their improvement plans and policies (Schlegel et al., 2012). Therefore, the business experts may show their reluctant attitude in implementing training session at the workplace.

In this aspect, the risk of conflict also occurs that can be raised due to the perception difference of the human resource manager of the Woolworths Supermarket and the trainer hired for the training session (Certo, 2018). The human resource manager might think that the communication training needs to be prior than the training for enhancing accountability and responsibility so that the employee can better communicate their problem (Ntoumanis et al., 2017). However, the trainer might think to give accountability and responsibility training first for developing organization needs and then train them how to communicate their understanding with others. Thus, this rise in conflict makes delay in training programs and the employee might get confused which furthermore hampers their understandability.

Conclusion:

The study has provided detailed overview about the importance of an effective training session in order to enhance the communication skill, technological skill and responsibility as well as accountability. The training needs of improving communication, developing technological awareness and enhancing the accountability and responsibility was earlier identified in the employees of Woolworth’s Supermarket. However, the learning theory which Woolworths would like to select for implementing the training plan successfully includes cognitive theory. While planning the training program the human resource managers have identified major areas that include proper program activities, time schedule of the program activities, methods that would be used for providing training to the employees and specific instructions that trainers would have to follow.    

Detailed Plan Based on the Choice of Learning Theory

Thus, in quest of communicating with the employees properly the training program decides to use interactive method of delivery to involve both trainers and employees equally. In addition, trainers are instructed to maintain proper professional as well as behavioral approach on the work floor so that employees do not get hesitated in interacting with the trainer at the time of training session. Feedback will be collected from the employees in order to know whether they are getting benefits and facilities from training session or not. However, in order to make the entire training program successfully the human resource managers would have to face several barriers which may prevent the HR managers in conducting the entire program successfully.

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