Evaluating Seagate’s Team Building Approach: Strengths And Weaknesses

Strengths of Seagate’s Team Building Program

1. Evaluating team building effort of Seagate.

2. Discussing stratenghts and weaknesses of Seagate’s approach.

3. Choosing a different team training method for Seagate.

1. The team building effort of Seagate was implemented in order to enhance team bonding of the workforce. CEP Bill Watkins has developed the team-building plan in order to put the workforce in a different environment, where they need help of each other. The Eco Seagate program was developed with 1200 employees from different cultural background. Moreover, the groups were diverse in terms of regional background, athletically and operationally. It helps the company to improve communication among the culturally diverse people within the organization. When it comes to the costing of this team-building effort, it costs $9000 per person, which is a bit costly for the company (Max 2006). The overall cost of the company was equivalent to lots of hard drive. However, the process was effective to make the team members communicative. The plan was to lead an outdoor workshop in order to improve the team performance and culture of the company. Therefore, it is important to measure the effectiveness of the campaign in order to evaluate the impact of the activity (Elsey 2007). It was a six days outdoor workshop with different activities, which were not at all relevant with employees’ job roles. The aim was to put the workforce in an environment, where they need help of each other. The budget of the outdoor workshop was too high. As a result, following is the evaluation of the metrics through which cost of the activity could have been reduced.

Sunday was the first day of the outdoor workshop in which employees were asked to imitate sound of different birds. This activity was to check whether the employees are socialized or not. The company would have eliminated this activity in order to reduce cost of the workshop. A team-building program should be cost effective in order to maintain sustainable profitability (Mazany, Francis and Sumich 1997). However, the total cost of the workshop was equivalent to lots of hard drives, which means it was not cost effective at all. After that, employees were asked to be in physical content with the bird, at least one member of the team. Thereafter, the Friday event was for walk and swim in which every team has to perform and need to reach a destination, where they will get fresh cloths and foods. This event was for measuring the team bonding of the employees. Through this event, it was clear that employees have learned about themselves. The activity was the hardest activity of the entire event. Following is the evaluation of the training program using Kirkpatrick Model.

Weaknesses of Seagate’s Team Building Program

Kirkpatrick Model has four different levels through which the effectiveness of the training program can be evaluated. The first level of the model is known as Reaction. It examines whether the team members have found the training engaging, favorable and relevant to their job or not. The training module of Seagate was engaging and employees have found it favorable. However, it has no relevancy with their job role at all. The events were only focused on to the collaborative performance of the employees. The second level of this model is learning, which examines the degree in which team members have learn to improve skills, knowledge and way of improving attitude. In case of the training module of Seagate, the training module as developed to build collaborative work culture within the organization (Eppich et al. 2016). Hence, the training module does not have any kind of technical learning, which is relevant to their job role. However, the training module was efficient to demonstrate the importance of commitment while performing for an objective. The third level of this model is regarding behavioral change of the employees after attending the event (Agarwal, Pande and Ahuja 2014). Here, the training module of Seagate has successfully changed the behavior of the employees. It has been noted that the employees have learned the importance of collaborative work while performing for broader objective. The forth level of this model is result, which evaluates the outcome of the entire training module. Moreover, it evaluates whether the cost of the training module is feasible or not. In case of Seagate, the employees have understood the way in which they should work. However, the training module was not having any technical content. Therefore, the training budget ($9,000 per person) was not justified for the event. The company would have included a technical training session into the event.        

After going through the workshop implemented by Seagate, it can be said that the event was not cost effective. There were many activities, which would have been eliminated. The activity was not worth $9000 per person. The company should shorten the event in order to reduce the cost (Pattanayak 2003, p.408). The company would have conducted a treasure hunt at Disney World or museum. The Eco Seagate program was time consuming as well. It was difficult to measure effectiveness of the event. The workshop was aimed to improve team performance within the team. The company has a negative image of firing people. Therefore, the aim of the event was to change organizational culture. In order to improve performance of the workforce, it is important to change the organizational culture (Raelin 2006). However, the program was only developed for improving teamwork. The company should incorporate a process training in order to improve performance of the workforce. In order to improve overall performance, the company should train the employees regarding products and teamwork as well. Therefore, incorporating product training would improve quality of the outdoor workshop in an effective manner (Fidalgo-Blanco et al. 2015). The company would have incorporated a meeting session in order to convey the overall aim of this outdoor workshop. According to the evaluation of Kirkpatrick Model, not incorporating a training session for technical assistance has affected feasibility of the entire event negatively.  Communicating with the workforce regarding the importance of teamwork would help the company to get successful outcome from the event.

Using the Kirkpatrick Model to Evaluate Seagate’s Training Program

2. The team-building approach of Seagate was effective in terms of team bonding. The training method used in this event was role-playing, where employees need to act out such issues that could occur in workplace (Noe 2008). However, the cost of the overall program was very high. There are many strengths and weaknesses of the team building effort of Seagate. The aim of the company was to improve trust and bonding of within the employees. Following are the strengths and weaknesses of the team-building program have been discussed.

Strengths: The aim of the team-building program was to evaluate employees’ team performance capacity. The activities of the program were developed to evaluate whether the employees are able to perform as a team or not. In this program, the activities were planned to put the employee in such environment where they need help from each other. The team-building program was a set of activities, which employees need to perform as a team. In order to be successful, employees need to understand their role and perform those accordingly (O’Leary et al. 2015). Through this activity, the company was able to change the organizational culture. Previously, there were many story of bad organizational culture, as the company was following hire and fire process. Therefore, the company was planned to change the overall organizational culture, which would be effective to reduce employee turnover in an efficient manner. Apart from that, the focus of the company was to encourage team work in order to achieve organizational goal. However, this event helps to company to improve performance of the workforce instead firing randomly (Sculli et al. 2015). It helps the company to reduce employee turnover in an efficient manner. Apart from that, Seagate Technology was able to socialize their employees through the Eco Seagate program. The activities were far different from employees’ regular job roles. Therefore, it can be said that it was not just a training event, but it was also a long vacation for the employees, which works as a motivational tool. The employees were needed to follow a basic guideline in order to get successful outcome (Fernandez and Grand 2015). The company was able to measure the teamwork capacity of the culturally diverse people. Initially, the team bonding was not satisfactory. However, the team-bonding program helps the team to work collaboratively. The final event on Friday was developed for measuring how employees can work as a team in order to achieve something. The training method has been used in this session is known as adventure training (Noe 2008). It helps the company to encourage employees to participate in the event. Apart from that, this method helps to increase engagement of the employees in an efficient manner. Here, employees have shown a collaborative approach in order to achieve the overall goal. The activity was difficult and it was preferred to work as a team in order to gain positive outcome (Mahramus et al. 2016). The team-building program was an investment for the company. It helps the company to improve organizational culture. Apart from that, the event helps Seagate to evaluate whether the employees are familiar with team working culture or not. Moreover, it helps to improve employees’ ability to work as a team. The event would teach the employees about teamwork, because they need to perform as a team. On the other hand, it would help to build an efficient teamwork environment within the organization (Bozovic and Zivkovic 2016). The Eco Seagate program was efficient to increase communication within the team members and higher as well. Moreover, implementing such motivational tool would empower performance quality of the employees as well. Therefore, it can be said that the team building method (Adventure training method) used by Seagate was efficient and was successfully led by the company as well.

Improving Seagate’s Team Building Performance

Weaknesses: The budget of this team-building program was very high. It costs $9000 per employees, which was equivalent to the price of lots of hard drives. Investing this much amount for performance improvement is not effective for any organization. The company would have reduced the budget of the program in order to maintain profitability as well. Moreover, the risk factors for the employees were another weakness of this event. The final event was full of physical activities. The company should consider health safety of the employees in order to avoid uncertainty (Marsick and Watkins 2015). One of the employees, Engineer Kebiao Yuan was injured during the final event. It was difficult to provide adequate safety features to the employees. Here, the company might face legal constraints due to inadequate safety measures for the employees. Apart from that, employees may refuse to participate in a particular event, which could harm effectiveness of the event. The chance of conflict within the team members could occur during the team-building workshop. It would be difficult to convince employees to take part in every event planned by the organization. The overall aim of the event was to improve team performance of the organization. However, lack of performance measurement activity may reduce the overall performance of the employees (Eppich et al. 2016). Moreover, the workshop was time consuming and costly as well. It affects overall profitability of the organization negatively. 

3. The approach of Seagate was efficient to train the workforce about teamwork. However, the process was not cost efficient. Apart from that, the process was time consuming, which indirectly harms productivity of the workforce. Seagate should implement a training method, which will be cost efficient. When it comes to outdoor workshop, the company should plan for a short event. Here, the company could arrange a treasure hunt at Disney World or museum. The aim of the company is to change organizational culture and improving teamwork. Considering a trip to the museum, the company should to separate the employees into different team (each team three person). The teams will be responsible to gather valuable and authentic information and document those using hard copy documents. The company should ask each team to submit one document after a specific time. Thereafter, the company will evaluate and judge the most relevant and informative document among all the documents. In this manner, teamwork ability and its importance can be emphasized. Moreover, the company should consider another day to conduct a process training session, where employees will be able to relate the importance of team work with the previous outdoor campaign.   This process would be less costly and therefore, it would be possible to maintain organizational profitability while motivating the workforce (Loon 2016). Following are the training method that could be implemented by Seagate in order to train the employees about teamwork. Following is the three days team training method that Seagate would implement in order to get positive outcome.

Day 1: In first day, the company should conduct a professional meeting with the employees in order to convey the aim of the overall event. Sharing the purpose of the event would help the company to encourage the workforce in an efficient manner. Apart from that, the responsible person should create teams with culturally diversified people. The activities of the teams should be clearly conveyed during the meeting session. The company should provide all the necessary stuffs to the employees at the very beginning of the event. The company should not allocate any responsibility to the employees at first day. After conveying the agenda with the workforce, the company should observed employees’ activity while working as a team. It would help the company to understand the extent in which employees can work collaboratively (Marsick and Watkins 2015). Therefore, in this meeting session, the company should educate the employees about how teamwork can help to achieve overall objectives. The purpose would be improving team-working performance through different game events. In this manner, the employees will be able to understand the implementation of teamwork in organizational context.

Day 2: After the first day, the company needs to conduct the events in order to improve team working ability of the employees. The activities should be relevant with teamwork. For example, employees need to perform as a team in order to achieve the objective. Here, the company needs to implement effective measurement process. It would help the company to measure whether the employees are performing as a team or not. For example, a trip to the museum would be the most effective event, where employees will be responsible for documenting valuable and authentic information from the museum. The activities should focus on improving workforce’s understanding about teamwork (Eppich et al. 2016). Therefore, the responsible authority should evaluate the submitted documents and its authenticity in order to provide judgment. The time will be limited and within the given time, the employees need to gather as much as information from the museum. This can be done while sharing result of the event. In order to reduce budget, the company should conduct this events within one day.

Day 3: Day three will mark the completion of all the activities and the employees can relax on this day. The purpose of stretching the event is to motivate the employees. There will be no such activities to perform. Here, the company will provide luxury accommodation to the employees in order to increase motivation towards the work. The previous training method was full of activities and the process was elongated with different tasks. Therefore, it is important to reduce activities and complete the overall program within three days. In this manner, it will be possible to reduce budget for the training program. As the aim of the company was to increase awareness about teamwork, the company should implement efficient motivational tools (Mazany, Francis and Sumich 1997). Therefore, providing an incentive trip would be the most effective motivational tool in this case. In this manner, it would be possible to enhance knowledge of the workforce regarding teamwork in an efficient manner. The event will end up with a process training in order to discuss the importance of teamwork while performing for organizational objectives.

Reference list

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Elsey, B 2007, ‘Changing the behavior of traditional bakers in a Chinese multi-family owned food company through workplace action learning in Hong Kong’, Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 19, no. 8, pp. 511-525. (eReadings next week) 

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