Training and Development

    Order Description         In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, an organization’s sustainable competitive advantage is derived largely from intangible assets: human, social, and intellectual capital. Intangible assets are produced by skilled, capable workers. Human resource professionals enable current and future organizational competitiveness by ensuring that people with the skills, knowledge, and abilities needed to produce these resources are in adequate supply. This is accomplished through employee training, talent management, and performance management. As a human resource professional, your ability to effectively plan and implement employee training, develop talent management programs, and facilitate performance management will directly contribute to your organization’s success. Scenario: You are the newly appointed director of training and development for a mid-sized construction company operating in five states in the northeastern United States. Although you have been on the job for only a short time, a project requires your immediate attention. One service provided by your company is residential roofing installation, repair, and replacement. Each job is performed by a crew consisting of an on-site supervisor (see the document “Exhibit 1: Position Description for Roofing Supervisor” attached) and semi-skilled and unskilled laborers, many of whom are college students working summer jobs and seasonal workers with limited English speaking skills. Although construction work is inherently dangerous, your company has experienced three serious on-the-job accidents—one fatal—on roofing jobs in the past month. An accident report from an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspector identified numerous safety violations that could have contributed to the accidents (see the document “Exhibit 2: Injury and Illness Incident Report” attached). Senior management has directed you to plan and implement a mandatory training program on workplace safety for all roofing supervisors. While you control the training program’s design and implementation, management has stipulated that the training should be comprehensive and each supervisor receive 30 hours of training. Because roofing work is performed only in warm weather and supervisors receive an attractive monthly bonus based on the number of roofing jobs completed to a client’s satisfaction, you suspect that some supervisors may resist attending the training session. Requirements: Write a paper (suggested length of 8?12 pages) in which you do the following: A. Conduct a needs assessment for the roofing supervisor safety training program by doing the following: 1. Justify the use of a needs assessment in the safety training program, a. Include three advantages of conducting a needs assessment prior to designing the training program. 2. Discuss three reasons why companies may decide not to perform a needs assessment. 3. Identify three stakeholder groups that should be involved in the needs assessment. a. Explain why each stakeholder group should be involved in the needs assessment. b. Describe the method used to gather information from each stakeholder group. i. Identify one advantage of each method selected to gather information from the stakeholder groups. ii. Identify one disadvantage of each method selected to gather information from the stakeholder groups. 4. Analyze four safety skills gaps/training needs of roofing supervisors by comparing the document “Exhibit 2: Injury and Illness Incident Report” attached and the document “Exhibit 1: Position Description for Roofing Supervisor” attached. a. Identify four safety-related learning objectives to incorporate in the training program based on your needs assessment. i. Identify one safety-related learning or behavioral change that should result from each learning objective identified in part A4a.   b. Identify one non-safety-related skills gap for roofing supervisors. i. Explain how this non-safety-related skills gap may have contributed to the accidents. 5. Describe two strategies that may improve training transfer at each of the following stages of the training process: a. before training takes place b. during the training program c. after training takes place   B. Develop a comprehensive training plan for the roofing supervisor’s safety training program by doing the following: 1. Identify two effective delivery methods for the safety training program. a. Justify your choice of delivery methods. b. Identify sites or facilities where the training should take place, based on your chosen delivery methods. 2. Recommend using either internally designed or externally designed training programs for this project. a. Justify your recommendation of design type. 3. Determine who should facilitate the safety training to the roofing supervisors. a. Justify your choice of facilitator(s). 4. Describe a process for pilot-testing the safety training program before delivery to all roofing supervisors. 5. Recommend two effective strategies for motivating roofing supervisors to effectively participate in the safety training program.   C. Describe effective strategies for training program evaluation by doing the following: 1. Explain the importance of evaluating training programs using all four levels of evaluation (i.e., reaction, learning, behavior, results). 2. Describe one tool or method for evaluating post-training changes in supervisors’ learning or behavior for each learning objective identified in part A4a.