Assignment 1 Training and Development in Small Businesses Se

Assignment 1: Training and Development in Small Businesses

Select a small daycare facility in which you are familiar. Imagine that you have been called into that business to provide a consultation on training. Create a comprehensive training proposal for the business.

Write a six to eight (6-8) page paper in which you:

1. Analyze key elements of training and development geared toward improving the performance of the specific small business for which you are consulting.

2. Predict three to five (3-5) potential challenges that the managers or owners of the business could face in addressing organizational performance.

3. Justify the effects of detecting organizational gaps in small business, providing examples to explain the rationale.

4. Propose a competitive training strategy that will improve the position of the business in the market. The strategy should include, at a minimum, an agenda of training activities, rationale for instructional strategies used, and the return on investment (ROI) that will be gained from the strategy you have developed.

5. Use at least three (3) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as academic resources

Citations and references must follow APA format.

Solution

1. The key elements of training and development towards improving the performance of small business are:

- identify the skills required from the employees- to make a training successful the initial step is that what actually is required from the employees is determined. As in a daycare facility the main aim of the business is the quality service provided to the customers. The customer as a parent would leave their child under our custody and care, hence any carelessness in the duties performed will not be accepted by them and will effect the business adversely.

- determining the skills each employee possess- as it is a small business, it wont be consisting of a large number of manpower. So listing down the employees and understanding what skill or talent they possess and then training them to enhance the same or develop the other skills required for the workplace can be worked on. Like for example, one staff of the daycare is very good at handling tantrums of a child but not skilled in helping them with their school homework. So she can be given extra enhancement in that field and given only that duty of the daycare or can be trained on the tasks that she needs to be skillful on.

- find time and cost effective ways of training- a training can be done through online courses, case studies, professional trainers classes. An effective and suitable method of training has to be choosen based on the infrastructure of the business and requirements of the employees. Individual training or group training also depends on the skills and requirements of the employees.

- developing a two way communication- the training may not be considered complete and fruitful if the process is done only through giving training lessons and not getting the feedback from the trainees on their experiences and doubts. The trainee will feel involved in the process by giving their views on certain scenarios kept before them on how they feel they should handle the problem if it arises. This involvement can bring more effective results from the training.

2. The challenges that the owners can face in the organizational performance can be:

- employee issues- individual employees can have problems working in the organisation with the other employees, their supervisor, personal issues that can effect their performance at the workplace. These are issues which the individual may have but will effect his performance as an employee in the business and thus effect the outcomes he should be delivering. Lack of interest, incapability, carelessness, ignorance towards the work are results an employee can show due to these issues.

- team issues- in small business usually a fixed job description is not given to a single employee but instead they work as a team trying to accomplish the task given to the business on the whole. For eg in a daycare facility it is the work of the business to look after the child in the best manner they can. Now what work of the child should be taken up by whom cannot be classified. Hence working as a team is the best way. If any employee in the team is ignorant or doesn\'t shows interest in the work It effects the results required from the business adversely and also demotivates the other employees in the team to work efficiently.

- organisational issues- the employee or team issues when not tackled on the initial level, they take a larger form of problem creating a difficult situation for the whole organisation. It will effect the results to be derived in day to day activities which will effect the business and hence the whole organisational structure.