Training program for Bradley Stonefield Limo Service in Austin

Training Program

Bradley Stonefield Limo Service Training Plan

Employees are essential the success of any organization. They have to carry out different activities, which assist the company to attain its business objectives. Various activities can be performed at diverse levels. Every level of activity might require a different set of skills and experience. Despite the fact that employees can be hired on a daily basis in agreement with job requirements, it is significant for any firm to train as well as develop its employees. This is necessary in helping them meet the changes in the business sector. Bearing in mind that the Stonefield Limo Services is a new company that is yet to be set up in Austin Texas, there is absolute need to ensure the employees are well trained and have the necessary experience and skills that will enable them to establish the company properly, albeit at an affordable cost bearing the expected annual revenue of $50,000.

Needs for the training program (Training Needs Analysis)

Being a new company, there will be much focus on the training needs of the new employees to be deployed in the Texas branch. Bearing that needs assessment is in three categories; organizational assessment, occupational assessment and individual assessment, it will be important to concentrate on the occupational assessment at this level. The organizational assessment is geared towards evaluating the level of organizational performance which can only be conducted after the company is established and running. The individual assessment is also geared towards evaluating how well an employee has been executing their responsibilities and if they are ready to be allocated more challenging duties or different tasks and this cannot apply in the case here since the company is at the inception. There is need hence to concentrate on the occupational assessment since it is the one that identifies which knowledge, skills, and abilities are needed in the execution of particular assignment hence is a prerequisite to operation of the new company (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2013).

11:00AM-12:30PM

Activities requiring team work like; Ropes attached to a bucket and water transfer competition. Color and days of the week. Testing trust by falling backwards into colleague's hands.

Explanation of each activity and how it ties into the team sale process.

Lunch break

12:30-1:30 PM

Lunch taken from the dining hall prepared by the organization.

Final recap

All facilitators

1:30-3:30PM

A recap of the previous trainings

Emphasis on main points

Types of training to be used

Being a new company being set up in Texas, there is need to adopt various methods of training that will be both effective, inclusive and cost cutting. There is need to have multilayered training methods that will enable emphasis of required skills and knowledge where the previous method did not cover. Being a new company, it is vital for the management to encourage participation of employees in different training sessions. This will assist employees to enhance their knowledge base as well as contribute effectively in achieving the goals of the organization once it is set and starts operations hence it is necessary to make sure that training is suitably planned. There are different types of job training that comprises of on-the-job training as well as computer-aided training (Bloom & Lafleur 1999). Simulation is known to be a popular method for employees to gain job training. Most times, companies make use of job-training centers to train new employees. All the available methods have various levels of efficiency and are applied in different situations. In this two days training, the following methods will be employed;

Lecture/discussion: This is kind of a combination of the lecture method and the discussion among the lecture methods. They are better combined in a sales training since this gives the trainer the room to frequently interact with the listeners and engage them more as it is necessary to note that sales is all about interaction.

The lecture/discussion method is ideal when the group is large like the situation of the training program in this case, it is also an appropriate method of training when there is an expert involved in imparting the knowledge like it this training where the facilitators are experts in the respective fields. According to Agriculture and Consumer Protection (2013), the method is also best used when a number of factual information has to be communicated to a number of people within a short time.

This method is also appropriate when members attending the training know each other well enough to afford making mistakes, this is the case here since they all work for the same company and at the same level. The method also works best when the materials to be used is such that it can be assimilated easily or an audience that had a previous knowledge of it hence can easily discuss in the process. The trainer must therefore ensure that the words are clear and spoken at a suitable pace with pauses at appropriate places and a delivery of variety of styles.

Demonstration; This is yet another method of training that is frequently used and will be used in this particular case. Demonstration involves visual display and hands on participation by the trainees on how to do something. The demonstration method can only be effective if it is accompanied by discussion and lecture (Training and Development, 2012).

While carrying out the demonstration training, the trainer will describe how to do a task while doing it, aids the trainees to stay focused on the critical aspect that is being talked about, he also has to indicate clearly to the audience what he is aiming at doing hence the audience will easily understand what the trainer will be doing. The trainer will also explain why the procedure is carried out the way he is demonstrating.

The difference between the lecture method and the demonstration approach is that there is more involvement in the latter as compared to former, and the more the audience gets involved in the activity the more the learning takes place.

Role play; This is yet another viable training method that can be used in many situations and even in the sales training. Here, each participant is given a role that they are supposed to play. The information related to the roles is given to the trainees, the objectives, the roles, the challenge that each is to face and then they are to interact with each other to execute the role.

However, this does not mean that the training stops at the two day training, after this, there will be need to have continuous training by department heads. on-the-job training happens to be one of the most common method of training in many organizations. In this training, individuals learn as they work for the organization. Mostly, a fellow employee or the administration conducts this method of training. The theory behind this notion is that many individuals find it easy to learn by doing rather than listening to a theory. Many individuals learn better when they begin to perform the tasks they are required by the organization. Many different companies worldwide apply this type of training. Example of such training is an apprenticeship program. This means that the employees who will be deployed at the new branch, since they had worked in a similar company will use their previous experience to train the Stonefield employees who are totally new to the field and the same will go on for a long run among the employees who will newly be recruited later on.

The numerous techniques of learning accommodate each employee. According to Alam (2009), workplace learning increases competition within the organization, he points out that workplace is a key site where employees can develop a generic skills which involve communication, teamwork, problem-solving as well as customer service skills. The skills tend to be very critical today in different workplace, especially to those companies majorly concerned with employability. Availability of workplace learning and organizational performance makes employers to develop an innovative capacity in enterprise; however, the ability of developing that innovative capacity may only depend on the skills of the workforce as well as the internal environment of an enterprise that can promote higher performance in the organization.

Significance of the training to Stonefield

The training will be predominantly participatory and practical. This is intentionally done so to ensure the daily events encountered in the field out there are replayed and effectively handled.

The training will serve to bring together the diverse market knowledge across which Stonefield operates. This will make rich the understanding of the various sales executives and in that manner enabling them to be able to easily handle any situation or client who may be coming from the different parts of the world once they are back at work.

The training will also equip the employees with the latest knowledge on service sales trends and hence increase the sales once they begin operations. This will also ensure that the various modes of sales are professionally used and included in the sales process as opposed to the initial methods.

The training will act as a cross cultural interaction arena and a place of creating social contacts among the new employees as well as enable developing of a network of the sales personnel. The benefit of this is that a client can therefore be handled effectively and handed over from one continent or country to another in a seamless flow. It will also increase the personal touch that the client will have as there will be more personal introduction and reference that the clients will get. For instance, when coming from Texas, a sales executive can refer a client headed to Africa to go see a particular sales executive located nearest to the place the client is headed. This way the client will not feel abandoned to transverse the logistics alone but handed over from one end to another.

Training evaluation

There will be need to have a thorough assessment of the outcomes and effectiveness of the training with a view to change the necessary sections as well as take stock of the points of successes that have come with the training. There are several methods that will be used in the evaluation depending on the level of evaluation that is being handled.

Individual evaluation: at this level, there will be use of appraisal forms after every six months in order form the HR department to show clearly the progress that each and every individual employee has made since the training began. There will also be use of interviews where each employee will have the chance to not only be asked to be accountable to the responsibilities entrusted in their care after the training but also have the opportunity to contribute to the new improvements they would like to see within the new Stonefield in Texas.

Operational evaluation: this will be achieved through having focus groups in line with the departments and evaluating their collective successes and performance as well as the HR department conducting a survey in different departments to identify the acquired skills and knowledge and the knowledge gaps in line with each department. This will enable the company to adjust the future trainings to handle the peculiar needs of the clients in each department according to their needs.