Workplace Learning Environment - Case Study Example

Name Tutor Workplace Learning Environment Course Institution Date Table of Contents Name 1 Table of Contents 2 Workplace Learning Environment 3 Introduction 3 Scope and context of the learning project 3 Target area details 4 Learning Needs Analysis 5 Program Development 6 Program Delivery 8 Conclusion 11 Bibliography 12 Workplace Learning Environment Introduction The significance of workplaces as avenues for meaningful and relevant skill development comes from the community and industry concerns, government imperatives and enterprise needs. Ongoing skills development at the place of work ensures continuity of productivity and maintaining of a competitive advantage other the rest of businesses. Emerging trends in the in the technological, social and economic fronts require development of learning environment to equip workers with the required skills in the workplace. Learning has to be continuous process within the organization to ensure that a competitive advantage is created (Renesch & Chawla, 2006, p.503). Workers have to be equipped with relevant skills that ensure they deliver their functions perfectly and according to the needs of the consumers. The project in this assignment explores the learning needs of manufacturing company and develops and learning program that meets the needs of the organization. The need for continuous learning and training is highlighted. Scope and context of the learning project This learning project explores learning opportunities at a manufacturing company dealing with electrical appliances. The company has been existence for over ten years, and it was a major producer of household goods. Years of toiling has led to exhaustion of the vital resources of the company and exit of some of the major forces of expertise that were heavily depended on. The competitive advantage of the company slumped. The profits dropped tremendously, and the ability of the company to attract high skilled labor fell drastically. The productivity of the company has been plummeting in the recent years and the company is struggling to keep its market share in the midst of fierce competition from revivals. The company produces household electrical appliances as well as industrial goods. The development of a learning program will assist the company attain its strategic goals and objectives. The learning consideration has to increase the skills of workers and enhance their effectiveness of delivery on their duties. The company looks forward to increasing productivity and expanding its market share after the development of the learning project. In order for the company to keep up with the competition in the market it has to come up with ways of developing skills through training and creating a workplace learning environment. A manufacturing company has to have a research and development center that caters for development of new technologies to support production of new products. The project looks at available avenue of learning that are available to the company and the importance of developing a workplace learning environment. The project analyzes the needs for learning available in the organization and how they can be met through creation of learning workplace environment. The project suggests programs and learning practices that need to be put in place within the organization. The outcome anticipated from this project is increased learning opportunities and development of employees’ skills and expertise. Through this new product development and innovation will be realized within the organization. Target area details The target areas of this project include marketing department, production department, and personnel department. Managers and supervisors in these departments are targeted because they will impart the same knowledge to the staff that they are in charge. The sales team has to work closely with the marketing team to ensure that the goods of the company are sold and the predetermined targets are met. The current strategies of the business target to expand the sales and production in all domains. A research and development center that is well equipped with modern facilities will enable employees to be exposed to the required skills and expertise. The marketing department has to be innovative and come up with ways of aggressively promoting the products of the company in the wider market. The sales team has to benefit from this process as they distribute the products to wholesalers and retailers or major distributors. The managers and supervisors have to be tested on their management and leadership roles. Internal interviews for supervisors and managers will reveal challenges experienced in dispensing their roles. Employee recruitment and selection will involve the human resource department. The managers have to be very experienced in the manner in which they conduct interviews for selection and placement of employee. Learning Needs Analysis Human resource development needs have to be identified within the organization to ensure they are fully addressed. Failure to successfully identify the needs may lead to misrepresentation of needs within the organization. Identification of needs will require the cooperation of supervisors and managers within the various departments that have been described in the previous stage. Questionnaire will be developed to be used to assess training needs in the targeted departments. Identification of barriers to high performance is exactly what will require more learning opportunities and training. A detailed and well deigned questionnaire will point out areas that do not meet the criteria for high performance (Collins, Mackinnies & Jensen, 2008, p.247). Analysis of the questionnaire findings will enable the learning development team to know the exact problems that hinder the organization from achieving its potential. Meaningful actions can be taken on the findings in the questionnaire analysis. Quantitative and qualitative analysis can be obtained from the questionnaires using analysis tools that are known. Gaps in performance will indicate the learning needs required in various departments. Through the question asked, employees will point out areas that they need further training or training to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in productivity. Apart from that recorded interviews with workers and supervisors concerning the learning needs in their area of specialization. General surveys in various departments will reveal specific areas that require further learning. Analysis of product quality will give an insight into the need for company’s engineers to go further training. Brainstorming sessions among employees will give an deeper understanding of what should be done as far as learning needs are concerned. Focus groups are some of the avenues that few selected employees can express their shortcoming and suggest areas of further learning and training. The above methods will be used to analyze the needs that the organization requires to address in creating a workplace learning environment. Identification of training needs accurately will enable development of a learning program that is very effective. Program Development Development of an effective program of learning is the goal and objective of this project. After identification of learning needs within the organization it is imperative to come up a solution through development of a learning program. The essence of the project is to develop a workplace learning environment where continuous synthesis of skills and learning opportunities are encouraged. On-job and vocational training have to be put in place to ensure workers who are not competent enough are well equipped. The research and development center will develop training places within the organization to offer on-job training to employees. Employees can learn within the breaks of working or be trained as they work. Employees who are experienced in their areas will be encouraged to teach the inexperienced employees on how to deal with issues within their area. Vocational training can be offered outside the company by engaging the services of a training institution and paying for the learning fees. Experienced employees have to develop demonstration operations to inexperienced employees. The experienced employees have to provide guidance and answer questions that are posed by the learner. Coaching has to be supported by other methods to make it effective in the organization. The employees who learn new skills will be encouraged to share them with others within the organization. This kind of method is appropriate for the staff members within the production department that require skilled expertise to deliver their services perfectly. Engineers who have experience will be invited in the company to give training lessons to staff in the production department of the organization (Billet, 2003, p.107). Experienced employees need to offer coaching lessons to new employees and advice them on important areas where more attention has to be emphasized. Role playing and simulation programs will enable employees learn tasks that had been considered beyond their training. Learning activities have to be incorporated in all programs that take place within the organization. Action learning is important to the organization in encouraging members of the organization to be result oriented in their functions. The marketing staff needs to engage in workshops and trade fairs that will ensure that they gain enough experience from the activities within organization. Rotation within the organization will ensure that employees interact and gain experience through influence of others. Through job rotation, workers learn other skills that they did not have while just doing the same task over and over again within the organization. Trainees get instruction from different people and get different viewpoints of tackling issues within their workplace. A longer induction program is required to equip employees with the required skills that are needed in their area of specialization. The marketing and sales departments require experienced employees to act as mentors to new employees. Developing a mentoring program that is result oriented is important for the organization (Billett, 2004, p.313). A feedback system of making follow-up of how the mentoring is being carried out will be implanted. Exchange program through visiting a well established firm in the same industry is important in making the employees see where they ill-equipped or learn new things from a new environment. The organization can also engage the services of an institution of higher learning like a university in the development learning material for lessons to be carried on within the organization. On the other hand, the organization has to liaise with the university in regard to training the members of the organization during vacation. Managers and supervisor can take short management courses to allow them gain more knowledge on how to manage people within the organization. Program Delivery The program developed within the organization has to be result oriented. The outcome of the implementation of the various activities and practices will enable the management of the organization to tell the effect of the program. Learning programs are implemented in environment where the organization wants new ways of adapting to new ways of production. The resources for learning have to be identified through way before identification of learning needs. Training facilities and funds to outsource external expertise is needed to ensure quick delivery of the learning program. The program delivery procedure will monitor the different functions of the learning program to see how they are working. The infrastructure of the training program has to be developed to meet the requirements or needs within the organization. Program delivery will be monitored through the performance of the staff evaluation (O’Neil, J. & Marsick, 2007, p.89). The product quality has to increase and more creativity has to be witnessed in the prototype of goods produced. Internal audit of the practices and procedures will reveal how well they work in the organization. Workshops for the marketing and sales teams have to show their improvement through increased sales or growing market share of the company’s product. Delivery of the program will be witnessed through the cohesion and integration of functions of the organization. Program Evaluation Program evaluation has to demonstrate the means through which the results of the program will be determined. Analysis of the efficiency and effectiveness of the learning workplace environment will give the feedback that is anticipated. Upgrade tests done with the intention of raising the job group of the worker or promoting him will reveal the effectiveness of the learning program. A well developed learning program will result into staff members increasing their interpersonal and communication skills. The evaluation program will involve assessment of the working environment of the workers to see how effective they are. Increase in expertise and skills will be witnessed through product quality that will be realized after the learning sessions. The effectiveness of the program to the marketing and sales department will be witnessed through increased sales and growth of the market share of the company. The evaluation of the program can best be done through internal assessment of the learning program. The members of the company has to examined on the gained skilled through internal departmental examination that should also double up as promotional determination tools. The efficiency and effectiveness of product delivery will demonstrate how well workers are prepared. High quality products that meet the expectations of the customer are a sure way of telling the effectiveness of the learning program in the production department. Managers have to give reports on individual work performance to tell whether they are doing well and if the learning program was effective to their performance (Flynn, 2005, p.369). A survey to determine the perception of customers on company’s product is very important. Customers will give the feedback of whether the learning program has improved the performance of the company or not. Performance appraisal is very important for the company within all departments. Workers have to be evaluated on their level of delivery functions and roles that they are assigned in the organization. Feedback programs have to be instituted in all places within the organization to assess the success of the program. Estimating the cost of developing and delivering the training TARGET AREA BUDGET ALOCATION ($) Research and development center 300, 000 Needs analysis 70, 000 Training facilities installation 250, 000 Vocational training 100, 000 Further high education and managers’ training 200,000 Control system development 90,000 Feedback system installation and program delivery 150,000 Total budget estimation 1,160,000 Conclusion The learning program will ensure that workers focus of the organization goals and objective. The mission of the organization has to focus on profits maximization and market share increase while meeting the needs of the customers. The program achieves the results that are desired through improvement of skills and expertise in the workplace. Development of learning environment has to be monitored throughout the implementation. The manufacturing company will realize improvement in goods production and development of new product. A learning environment has to give equal chance to all employees to develop their skills. The learning environment has to be sustained to meet the needs of the organization. The program can be cost effective if the programs are implemented in phases. Manufacturing industry has fierce competition that requires new product development and innovation to be enhanced through continuous research and development. A learning environment would create more avenues of integration within the organization. The whole process has demonstrated that learning environment development within the workplace is not an easy task. It requires cooperation from all employees of the organization. Managers and supervisors have to work closely to ensure that the learning program becomes a success. Time and money has to be invested in the learning program. Effective allocation of resources will be realized after understanding the interaction between different functions of the organization. Job rotation gives a chance to workers to learn new ways or techniques of carrying out their duties. The culture of the organization will be enhanced through this the learning program. Quality of production will definitely go up. Bibliography Collins, K.S, Mackinnies, R. & Jensen, S., 2008, Employee satisfaction and employee retention: Catalyst to patient satisfaction, Health care manager, 27:245-251. Billett, S., 2004, Workplace Participatory practices: conceptualizing workplaces as learning environments. Journal of Workplace Learning, 16, 6, 312-324. Billet, S., 2003, Workplace mentors: damns and benefits, Journal of workplace learning, 15, 3; 105-113. Flynn, L., 2005, The importance of Work Environment: Evidence-Based Strategies for Enhancing Nurse Retention, Home Healthcare Nurse, 23, 6; 366-371. Renesch, L. & Chawla, S., 2006, Learning Organizations: Developing Cultures for Tomorrow's Workplace, Productivity Press: Melbourne. 572 O'Neil, J. & V.J. Marsick, 2007, Understanding action learning, AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn: New York. Read More