Developing A HRD Program Plan For Cotton On

Program Objectives

In this report, a Human Resource Development (HRD) program plan will be developed for the selected organization, Cotton On. It is a leading fashion retail chain in Australia and popular for its fashionable cloths (Cottonon.com, 2017). Operating under the fashion retail industry, the organization has been found to be facing challenges with its customer service department (D’Cruz et al., 2014). Assessment 2 highlighted the need analysis of the organization from where it has been understood that employees of customer service department is tremendously facing issues with the latest technology. In this HRD program, the associates of customer service department will be trained to make them fluid with the integrated operations of new customer service software. From assessment 2, it has been found that 58% of the employees are working just for 12 months and therefore knowledge enhancement through training will be required. The knowledge of technical skills will be enhanced concerning software interface operation, call tracking system, handling advanced options, software data integration and migration with other department and handling real time client data. HRD program planner would be the role for this organization.

For the human resource development plan, the objectives will be following:

• To cultivate the performance level of customer service department associates

From assessment 2, it has been found that Cotton On is failing to retain experienced employees and 60% of the associates are not satisfied with new software, which indicates their poor performance.

• To enhance knowledge in technical skill through training and development program for customer service department associates

From assessment 2, it is evident that employees are not having adequate knowledge in handling client call, software interface and data recording, which indicates the requirement for technical skill development.

• To become successful in resolving and addressing client query and thereby increase customer satisfaction

Inability of employees to perform well leads to client dissatisfaction and weak client retention, which needs to be overcome through HRD.

Resource requirement can be depicted through the following table:

Activity	Resource Category	Actual Resource
Develop	Human Resource	· HR department · Supervisors · Team leaders · Trainers
Implement	Human Resource	· Customer service associates · HR Executive · Trainer · Supervisor
Budget allocation for workshop	· Non-productive cost bearing of associates · Material handling cost
Physical Resource	· Training room · Training materials · Projector · Chairs · Laptops · Internet · LAN wires
Operate	Human Resource	· Customer service associates · Supervisor · Team Leaders
Budget allocation	· Administrative expense · Trainer expense
Physical Resource	· Operating room · On call materials · Operational materials

Table 1: Resource Allocation for HRD

(Source: Created by Author)

According to Tang et al., (2014) the most common resources required for human resource development in an organization are finance, material, workshop area, trainer, supervisors and concerned employees.  The above table indicates the resources that will be required for Cotton On in developing their customer service department. The entire resources that might be required has been just presented as an assumption. The maximum budget will be required for arranging physical resources. Each of the associates will be initially communicated in a meeting about the training session and after that implementation session will be started.

Organizational Level Implementation
Stages	Parameters	Explanation
Plan	Steps	1. Identifying resources required for training session 2. Assessing and classifying associates against experience in customer service department 3. Decision regarding hiring trainers from outside or assigning trainers within organization 4. Estimating budget allocation and required timeframe for entire HRD
Timeframe	Within first 8 weeks planning will be done.
Challenges	Ø Lack of consensus among the decision makers Ø Complexity with resource management Ø Lack of interest among stakeholders, due to high budget estimation
Mitigation	ü Consensus: Adequate time needs to be provided to all decision makers in a team so that each one’s consent is justified and addressed ü Complexity: Requirement of minimal resources will be sorted out (material, space, time) ü Interest: Objective of HRD will be communicated and its necessity will be highlighted
Develop	Steps	1. Communication with HRD plan, objectives and schedule to customer service associates 2. Assigning schedule, time slots and trainers for each group 3. Informing supervisors to form teams and arrange space for sessions
Timeframe	Within 4 weeks after planning stage.
Challenges	Ø Objection from employees regarding shift time Ø Objection from employees, due to overburden who will carry out customer services while others in training session Ø Electronically interactive training process may not be appreciated by associates
Mitigation	ü Objection: Flexible shift time will be planned ü Overburden: Participants must cooperate once in a week with high pressure ü Training process: Participants will be assured that best quality procedure will be tailed
Implement	Steps	1. Training materials will be distributed including software manual, laptop, LAN 2. Trainer of each team will complete their scheduled courses within given time 3. Practical demonstration and workshop sessions will be done for last 1 hour
Timeframe	Within next 12 weeks after developing stage.
Challenges	Ø Associates may fail to adjust with the trainer Ø Required skill enhancement may not be delivered to each associate Ø Amount of 4 hours’ time may not be enough for tight sessions
Mitigation	ü Adjustment: Trainer needs to address the differences and cooperate with associates ü Skill: Trainer needs to concentrate more on workshop sessions so that practical knowledge is shared at the most ü Time: Specific sessions may require more time than the rest (prior approval will be required)
Operate	Steps	1. Trained associates will start operating in live 2. Performance will be guided and observed by trainer and observer 3. Specific hurdles of each employee will be listed and addressed again
Timeframe	Within 8 weeks after implement phase
Challenges	Ø Specific challenges with software handling while handing real time client query Ø Trainer may fail to relate organizational procedures with software handling
Mitigation	ü Specific challenge: Trainer needs to provide accurate ways to solve critical scenario ü Relating: Trainer needs to consult will supervisor regarding organizational procedures
Assess	Steps	1. Each associate who has been trained will be assessed with performance assessment form 2. Trainer, supervisor, team leader and operational manager will need to have meeting to discuss about whether the required skill has been enhanced
Timeframe	Within 8 weeks after operating phase
Challenges	Ø Due to time constraint assessment of each employee may not be perfectly done Ø Due to lack of assessor’s commitment certain assessment may not be justified
Mitigation	ü Time: Feedback from all higher-level stakeholders will be taken for each associate ü Commitment: Most trusted assessors has to be assigned
Evaluate	Steps	1. Assessment forms will be evaluated by operational manager and supervisors 2. Gap between the proposed objectives and outcome will be evaluated
Timeframe	Within 8 weeks after assessment phase
Challenges	Ø Cumulative outcome may have error of more than 0.3% Ø Final cost may exceed proposed budget
Mitigation	ü Outcome: Certain associates who still fail to operate will need to be terminated so that error percentage may not exceed the limit ü Cost: 10% extra cash has to be kept reserved for smooth evaluation

Table 2: Organizational Level Implementation Plan

(Source: Created by Author)

According to Price et al., (2014) implementing human resource development strategies is associated with challenges such as resource management, consensus, poor stakeholder commitment and improper budget arrangement. The same has been pointed out in the table 2. On the other hand, Jackson et al., (2014) pointed out that an organization faces stakeholder and budget oriented challenges at the planning stage. However, it can be identified that in the planning stage in table 2, mitigation points such as hearing consents has been given the maximum time, which will surely help stakeholders in arranging the best training session.

The practical training session will be delivered by trainer and each workshop session will consume minimum 1 hour. The customer service software will be installed in each of the machines and the real-time monitoring will be done by both trainer and supervisor. Both theoretical and workshop sessions will be arranged for each time slots. Manual and interface oriented functions will be discussed by the trainer at the theoretical sessions and challenges that might be faced will be solved. Challenges such as cooperation with trainer, time for sessions and reaching out to individual associate may impact the overall sessions.

Resources

Sung and Choi, (2014) pointed out that operational stage helps in showing the performance level and skill enhancement of employees, based on which further scheduling takes place. Likely, the operational phase has been given 2 months’ time, so that employee oriented challenges are identified minutely. It is expected that the most common challenges will be software handling while handing real time client query and relating organizational strategies with software handling. However, such challenges can be mitigated through one-to-one session for those associates who will be facing issues with interface handling, software coordination and handling client data.

According to the viewpoint of Nazeer et al., (2014), performance assessment form helps in showing the minute details of employee teamwork ability, communication efficiency, punctuality, productivity, proactivity, decision making ability, reliability, attitude and professionalism. Therefore, assessment phase will display the employee performance ability, which will be further evaluated through assessment forms. However, the challenges such as time constraint, assessor’s commitment and budget constraint will have to be managed by the authority through fund reserve and allocating special supervisors for employee evaluation. 

Considering the challenges, it must be ensured that training program is assessed and evaluated by the most competent and tenured supervisors (Chinomona, 2013). This is because operational objectives are understood well by the operation managers. For the customer service software training, employees will be graded and individual performance will be recorded, so that in future career succession and planning is carried out. On the other hand, customer service department will come to know the possible challenges that they might face while operating live and based on that suitable tricks and advanced function management operations will be learned.

Earlier it has been discussed about the organizational level schedule and now the participant level scheduling will be discussed. From the developing stage of the HRD program, participants will be involved.

Participant Program Schedule
Activities	Parameters	Explanation
Communication	Activities	1. Training objectives will be discussed 2. Timeframe and requirement of training will be informed
Timeframe	Start: 9.01.2017, Finish: 10.12.2017
Participants	Ø Customer service associates Ø Team Leaders Ø Supervisor Ø Operation Manager
Training	Activities	1. Providing training materials 2. Introduction of trainer 3. Initiating training sessions on each Saturday 4. Initiating workshops 5. Clarifying doubts from associates
Timeframe	Start: 10.15.2017, Finish: 2.15.2018
Participants	Ø Trainers Ø Customer service associates Ø Team Leaders
Assessment	Activities	1. Performance assessment 2. Meeting with stakeholders
	Timeframe	Start: 5.15.2018, Finish: 8.06.2018
	Participants	Ø Trainer Ø Supervisor Ø Customer service associates
Evaluation	Activities	1. Training evaluation and outcome analysis 2. Quantifying customer satisfaction 3. Finding out the gap between proposed objective and outcome
	Timeframe	Start: 6.25.2018, Finish: 9.17.2018
	Participants	Ø Supervisor Ø Operational Manager Ø Departmental Manager

Table 3: Participant Program Schedule

(Source: Created by Author)

While considering the communication phase, it can be said that this will be the initial session where associates will be informed about the objectives of Human resource development program. At the same time, entire timeframe, schedule, tasks, requirement, workshops and materials required will be informed. This session will be formed through meeting and formal mail will need to be acknowledged by the participants. Associates may raise query and those will be addressed by the organizers. On the other hand, the most suitable supervisors will be only entertained for training overview. Also, the trainers who will be appointed for the training schedule will be communicated and entire plan will be discussed.

Training stage starts just after the planning stage and it is the main stage where periodic training sessions will be arranged. There will be direct interaction between trainers, team leaders, supervisors and associates. Saturday of each week will be set for training and participants will be arranged according to shift timings. There will be 4 hours’ time, which will be divided into three parts.

In first 2 hours:

• Theoretical knowledge of how to use software
• Practical demonstration via projector

Next 1 hour:

• Workshop regarding handling software
• Knowledge regarding handling client call
• Knowledge regarding call tracking
• Skill enhancement for handling difficult options
• Knowledge for data interfacing and data migration

Last 1 hour:

• Clearing participant doubt

From the above scheduling, it can be said that the entire process has been segregated into suitable slots where manual knowledge, practical knowledge and query handling all will be addressed. Since the candidates does not have enough idea of software, hence theoretical session has been given more time.

Organizational Level Implementation Schedule and Challenges

Next is the assessment stage where the individual associates who participated in training session will be assessed through assessment forms. Assessment form is to be filled by each of the employees and based on that a final meeting will be set up involving trainers and supervisors. This will help in understanding and reviewing the performance of individual associates. Knowledge enhancement will be quantified and lagged associates will be identified. Once the associates who are lagging behind is identified, another one month will be given in enhancing their knowledge so that the best outcome is achieved. Here, the budget constraint may appear but for that funds must be kept reserved for smooth process.

Evaluation will be the final stage where the entire training outcome will be assessed. Knowledge enhancement of the customer service department will be evaluated. Also, the gap will be analyzed regarding the areas where customers are not satisfied. Future process of knowledge enhancement will be listed out regarding the shortcomings and issues. This outcome will help in keeping record for future so that individual candidate’s performance can be compared in future for career succession in the organization. On the other hand, the final outcome will need to be assessed and performance gap must be analyzed. At this stage, it must be identified whether the customer service software is profitable for the organization in meeting objectives.

Considering the whole program, the most utilized technology will be Email. This will be the only communication platform throughout all the associates. Through Intranet, workshop will be carried out, where demos will be given by trainer about how to use the software. Extranet will be utilized for communication within cross branches. Finally, the customer service software is itself a learning technology, which will be utilized at the time of interface handling sessions.

E-learning theory describes effective multimedia learning through utilizing electronic educational technologies. The selection of concurrent multimedia modalities can enhance the learning process (Kehoe & Wright, 2013). Cotton On can use projectors and interactive guiding software for the developing the technical knowledge of the customer service staffs. In such case, learning will be more effective when visual educational contents will be associated with audio narration rather than online text (Cullen et al., 2014). Moreover, the organization will use all relevant videos and graphics for reducing the cognitive loads of the employees and enhance effective technical learning for new customer service software. Moreover, technologies play significant role in supporting the human resource development program of Cotton On.

Cognitive theory is primarily based on acquisition of knowledge and growth of mental organization. As per this theory, Cotton on would identify the knowledge gaps among the employees towards successfully implementing the new customer service software. This learning theory involves acquiring new knowledge and skills for properly operating the new software (Zimmerman et al., 2013). Moreover, this theory also emphasizes on critical thinking process. Therefore, the organization can easily understand the technical know-how of the new system towards better customer service of the organization (Farndale et al., 2014). In this way, this theory can highly inform the human resource development process of the organization.

Australia is the second largest employing industry and it has employed almost 10% among the whole population of the country. The retail workforce of Australia is having relatively low formal qualification as compared to other industries. Therefore, this industry has identified major needs for developing their human resources for its overall growth. Among the retail workforce, almost 37% retail employees get vocational training program for enhancing their overall skills and knowledge as per the industry requirements (Education.gov.au, 2014). Moreover, the industry is also providing online workshop, on-the-job training for enhancing the specific skills of the employees in specific areas. The intension behind such human resource development program is to meet the future needs of the industry.

For much of 20^th century, the human resource development program in Australia occurred in much complicated centralized and bureaucratically rigid industrialized relation. Such programs were highly characterized by high level of influence from the unions. Therefore, the out of such HRD programs were quite inflexible and having managerial control consistent with economic protectionism. Recently, the successive federal government of Australia has identified the overall needs of HRD program and reforming the HRD policies for enhancing the overall economies of the country (Anzam.org, 2017). Moreover, the radical changes include national vocational education and training, encouraging the employers towards investing in the HRD programs and introducing competency based skills framework (McGraw, 2014).  In this way, the recent Federal Government of Australia is actually increasing the knowledge and skills levels of the employees across every industry.

While considering the competitor of Cotton On, the first name is Lorna Jane. The organization is highly popular for its high quality activewear for the women. However, the success behind the quality of the organizational product is efforts of the organization towards its human resource development. The organization is high associated with the overall development of the employees in the production system through different types of specific training programs (Jacandjack.com, 2017). While considering another competitor namely Country Road, it is highly passionate about creating progressive and learning working environment for the employees of the organization. The organization always provides strong dedication to the training and development programs of the employees (Countryroad.com, 2017). In this way, the core value and enhanced knowledge of the employees has turned this organization to be the Australian icon in fashion and retail industry.

The following industry based practice should be followed by Cotton on towards effective human resource development program:

In order to properly engage the customer service staffs in HRD program, Cotton On should clearly communicate the development needs with them. The organization should clearly define the organizational goals and importance of effective customer service program towards achieving those goals (Wright et al., 2014). Moreover, the organization should also define the importance of nee customer service software for better customer service of the organization. The customer service staffs will be highly interested to participate in HRD program of the organization, when the motive of HRD program will be presented having high level clarity (Beadles et al., 2015). Moreover, it will bring effectiveness in HRD program of the organization.

The invention of new customer service software leads to the need of new knowledge and skills to be possessed by the employees of Cotton On. The customer service staffs should keep learning and developing their skills towards functioning effectively in the changing business process (Andries & Czarnitzki, 2014). Moreover, it needs proper training and learning session to be developed for the skills development of customer service staffs. However, developing training session

In order to complete effective human resource plan development plan, it is highly important to assess the learning effectiveness of the participants. Therefore, Cotton On will perform a participant assessment for measuring their performance level during and after the development program. Moreover, after this assessment, most effective staffs will be assigned with important job role of customer service. In this assessment programs, the organization will provide assessment forms for each of the participants of the development plan. After that, the appraiser will rate each participant based on their job performance during and after the development program. Moreover, the appraiser will rate the participants on different criteria such as attendance & punctuality, teamwork, communication, productivity/resilience, proactive initiatives, dependability, attitude and professionalism. After measuring all the criteria, the appraiser will give overall rate (accumulated total) for each participant based on their performance on the development program of 12 months. The sample form for participant assessment has been demonstrated in Appendix 1.

Evaluation of training program is extremely important for assessing the effectiveness of the overall the program. It also determines the degree in which the HRD program has actually developed the skill levels of the employees (Barrick et al., 2015). Moreover, the HRD program evaluation also determines the extent to which employee have enjoyed this program. The HRD evaluation program set for the HRD plan of Cotton also assess the effectiveness of this program and identify the improvement areas of the session. The effectiveness of training program can best be evaluated through the actual development and comfort degree of the participants in the development session. Therefore, the HR managers of the organization will set HRD program evaluation forms. These forms will be distributed among the participants of the development program. In these evaluation forms the participants will be asked various quantitative and descriptive questions for rating the HRD program. Moreover, various suggestions will be asked from the participants for improving the development plan for the further days. In this way, the ratings and descriptive answers of the participants will evaluate the HRD program of Cotton On. 

Conclusions

While concluding the study, it can be said that Cotton on will develop an effective human resource development program for its customer service staffs. The organization has recently launched new customer service software, which is becoming highly difficult for the customer service staffs. The staffs do not have such kind of technical knowledge and skills. Therefore, the motto of the development program will be to enhance the technical skills of the customer service staffs. The organization needs various resources for this plan including trainers, training materials, internets, LAN wires, administrative expenses and operational materials. The organizational level implementation incorporates the steps towards implementing the plan and associated challenges. On the other hand, the participant level schedules demonstrate various steps adopted by them and their time schedule. The organization will also depict effective participant assessment and program evaluation form for measuring this development plan.

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