Learning And Development Proposal

Learning and development proposal

1.0 Proposal objectives

1.1 Background 

   As a result of expansion and restructure of the technical and customer services division, the customers’ resolution department at XYZ telecom has experienced an unprecedented number of calls which leave the staff stressed and frustrated with their job, colleagues and the customers.  To address the issue, 6 more full time employees were employed but that did not help solve the issues.  After the restructure, the XYZ company has also received unprecedented complaints from customers about the frontline customers’ services and technical support. Customers have complaints that the technicians being unprofessional and unable to answer certain questions. This clearly demonstrate there is a skills and knowledge gaps among staffs in the customers’ resolution department that need to be addressed. 

 1.2 Key objectives

 The proposal objective is to seek support for the development, coordination and implementation of employees’ engagement initiative for all employees at the customers’ resolution department. The employees’ engagement initiative will merge training and development opportunities to support learning as shared experience among the customer resolution department work group, which will help improve their competencies and hence be in better position to help the company achieve it expansion and growth objectives. The learning will also help improve employees’ satisfaction, improved productivity and feeling of empowerment which is critical to help the company achieve its goals  

1.3 Need analysis conducted

  As noted by Gould et al., (2004), training needed analysis is the primary functions in training development. Otherwise, without knowing which skills and knowledge that is lacking among employees, it would be difficult to design and implement effective training and development intervention.  In order to have a better understanding of the competency gaps that exist among the customers’ resolution department, several need analysis methods were used. These include the observation, self-reporting survey and case study 

2.0 Workgroup profile 

The consumers’ resolution department workgroup is composed of both full-time employees, contracted and subcontracted staffs.  These workgroup has not supervisors but has team leader.  Most of the workgroup has been with the company before restructure and as they have been well familiars with it. However, other staff’s members were hired after the restructuring and such they are new to the organization, it processes, it products and services.  Some of the workgroup member are quite experience given than they have worked for the company for a while. For instance, Briony come through the ranks to the position of team leaders. However, he is inexperience in his new role as team leader. Some of the members of the workgroup are more experienced than other. For instance, Salem, who is one of the team leader was recruited from existing supervisors.  As such, he is not only well familiars with the organizations and it practices and process but also quite experience as a team leader.  However, some of the group members are inexperienced. For instance, the new hire and especially those form external source is not familiar with the operation of the company and also have little exposure to similar roles.

 

 3.0 Problem statement/ competency gap

 The current workforce in the XYZ company’s consumers’ resolution department has not been able to deal with the customers’ inquiries as required. As a result, there has been increased in complains made against the team. From the need analysis conducted, it has become that the consumers’ resolution department teams are lacking key competencies needed to helps the organization achieve it growth and expansion grow as well as help the company manage the change process associated with the expansion successfully.  Unfortunately, without implementing any learning and development initiatives, the competency gaps that exist within the customers’ resolution department will hinder the company from realizes it strategic goals of expanding its global reach. 

 

4. 0 Needed competencies

 In pursuit of it strategic goals, xyz companies is expanding to global reach. This mean that the company will needs a very efficient and effective customers’ resolution department that will be able to deal with the increased number of calls and customers inquires. Some of such customers’ issues will be non-standardized and as currently demonstrated, the customers’ resolution department team lack the necessary competencies needed to help the company achieve it strategic goals. From the need analysis, the key competencies needed by the team include ability to handle disgruntled and abusive clients, 

• ability to handle disgruntled and abusive clients

• interpersonal skills

• conflict management skills

• knowledge on bullying and sexual harassment

• knowledge on the organization support mechanism

• ability to work under pressure

• ability to work under close supervision

• ability to work effectively remotely 

 Team leaders

 Equally, the key competencies needed by team leaders are as follows

• ability to solve customers’ issues especially non-standard resolution 

•  skills and ability to handle conflicts in the workplace

• skills and ability to manage employees, health and wellbeing issues

• ability to manage duty roasters ineffectively

• ability to manage stress and anxiety as a result of their role

• confidence

• leadership skills 

• ability to lead and manage employees working remotely 

 

5.0 Overview of the proposed learning and development strategy 

The proposed learning and development strategy will be a combination of mentoring, action learning and off-job training.   It targets both the team leaders and team members. The proposed learning and development strategy is well aligned with the organization strategic objectives. It will equip the team members and leaders with competency needed to support XYZ growth and expansion effort. 

6.0 Key learning and development intervention 

 As noted by EL Hajjar & Alkhanaizi, (2018) employee’s motivation to learn is one the critical factors to consider when choosing learning and development intervention program. Fortunately, the team members are interested in any professional development opportunity to improve their careers at the xyz company. This clearly shows that team members are highly motivated in participating in learning and development activities.  Based on the needed skills and competency, several learning and development intervention are deemed appropriate. These includes 

Training courses (off the job training)-    as the need analysis showed, the team leaders as well as the team members lack the ability to handle disgruntled and abusive clients and non-standardized issues. This is a critical competency that is lacking within the consumer resolution department and hence creating a huge gap in effectiveness in resolving customers’ issues.   They also lack other critical skills such as interpersonal, conflict management among others.  Fortunately, these are competency gaps that can be addressed through training courses.  The mains benefits with training courses is that they are tailored to address a specific skills or competency gaps (Grabiec, 2021). For instance, in the current case, training courses such as customers care and customers’ communication skills can helps improve team leaders and team members’ ability to handle disgruntled and abusive customers. Others such as conflict management course can helps improve steam members and leader ability to manage conflicts.  The expected outcome of training programs is acquisition of skills and abilities that is currently missing among the team member. As noted by Milhem (2014) training course are effective in new skills acquisitions. However, for them to be effective especially in adult learning, different delivery modes must be used (Abhishek & Senthilkumar, 2016). This is so because as they Honey & Mumford learning styles model shows, different adult has different learning styles and this needed to be taken into considered when designing the training course (Dantas & Cunha, 2020).  In total, three training programs will be delivered to address the skills gap at the consumers’ resolution department. These will be customer services and customers’ communication skills program, conflict management programs and remote working program.  (For cost and timeframe see table 1.1 below)

 Mentoring- this is a learning and development intervention that will be used to empower the team leaders. As the training needs analysis shows, team leader felt inadequately prepared for their role and lack important skills and ability such as leadership skills, ability to manage the health and wellbeing of works, ability to manage team working remotely etc.  mentoring would be the most appropriate in helping team leader develop these and other competency needed to lead their team effectively. As noted by (Jones, 2012). The main benefits with mentoring is that it helps individuals learned from experienced individuals. as a result, individual are able to develop wide range of skills they needed. Milhem, (2014) note that mentoring help to broaden employees’ perspectives, prepare them for leadership roles, and create well rounded leaders. So, the expected outcomes from the mentoring programs is improved leadership ability by the team leader, improve job satisfaction, develop confident in their ability to manage others and most importantly, improve productivity and performance.  Mentors will be sourced internally, which mean the cost will be minimized.  Each of the team leader will be mentored for a period of one year. 

  Action learning- action learning will be yet another intervention used. As defined by Heulwen James & Stacey-Emile, (2019) action learning is a concept that promote individuals and organization learning through small teams to real problem and learn from their attempts to change thing.  Since, action learning is centered around solving real problem, it will be quite useful in helping team members develop skill needed to deal with real problem they facing in the workplace such as handling disgruntled and abusive employees, dealing with non-standardize issues, managing conflict with colleague etc. the main benefits of action learning is that it facilitates skills and ability development through action. Miller, (2003) noted that among others   learning and development strategy, action learning is one of most effective transfers of skills and knowledge. This is because individuals take real action, reflect and learn from them. The expected outcome from action learning included sharing learning among the team members, improved skills and development, improved confidence in handling real problems faced in the worked place and most importantly, improved performance.  In addition, given, that action learning is design and delivered around small team, we expected further improvement interpersonal relation between team members.  The action planning exercise will take place continuously for a period of 12 months.  However, even after the lapse of the 12 months, team member will be encouraging from engaging in reflective practices at individual or at group level to ensure they continuous learn and improve their ability

 The table 1.1 Below shows the cost and timeframe for the three learning and development intervention above 

 Table 1.1: cost and timeframe of the proposed learning and development intervention

7.0 Learning and development proposal evaluation

 The effectiveness of this proposal will be evaluated based on two criteria. These are; 

 Knowledge transfers- the purpose of the learning and development proposal is to improve employees’ skills, knowledge and ability. However, do so would be useless if employees do not transfer them into their works.  As such, the transfer of knowledge to work is one of the criteria that will be used to in evaluating this proposal.

 Productivity- from the organization context, learning and development can only make sense if it leads to improvement of organization productivity. Therefore, one of the criteria that will be used in assessing the effectiveness of this proposal is the productivity of the entire consumers’ resolution department

 8.0 Conclusion 

  To address the competency gap that exist within the consumer resolution department at xyz, three learning and development intervention will be used. These are training courses (of the job training), mentoring and action learning. All these interventions will be implemented within a 12-month period and each seeks to improve certain competency. However, for the entire learning and development proposal to be effective, financial support as well as management support is required. 

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