¶ … Training and Development Plan / Employees' Training and Development Plan Justify the use of a needs assessment of your company's proposed employee customer service training, stressing five (5) ways in which such an assessment would expose any existing performance deficiencies

Develop a customer service training implementation plan and determine the method of training (i.e., presentation, discussion, case study, discovery, role play, simulation, modeling, or on-the-job training).

Justify why you selected the training method that you did

Propose two (2) ways to motivate an employee who has no interest in attending a training class

Develop a survey to collect feedback from the employees who attend the training

References

Justify the use of a needs assessment of your company's proposed employee customer service training, stressing five (5) ways in which such an assessment would expose any existing performance deficiencies

In many businesses, particularly in the retail industry, one of the ways one can significantly improve the service delivered is through assessing the needs of his or her employees. In the retail industry, it is crucial for one to only have employees who are fully competent to handle the jobs assigned, and promptly. Thus, an employee needs assessment would help to point out the workers that best suit a firm's needs. There are several ways through which a needs assessment exercise may expose performance deficiencies. First, the company can consider the individual needs of the employees or candidates. Through a needs assessment exercise, a corporation would determine the kind of training needed by particular workers; this kind of identification would help save the company both time and money by preventing the company from giving unwanted/non-individualized training (Royse et al., 2009). Secondly, needs assessment exercise can help identify performance deficiencies by conducting an occupational needs assessment. An occupational needs assessment is that which evaluates abilities, knowledge and skills needed for the affected occupational groups. This assessment also helps identify occupational gaps/discrepancies that exist and analyze the performance of an employee who has been assigned responsibilities. After assessing the on-job performance of an employee, this assessment can help find out if the individual can handle a different kind of task. Needs assessment can also help identify performance deficiencies through evaluation of personnel using a personality test. Different individuals have different work capabilities, and therefore, not everyone can work in the retail sector or could work with others as a team in that sector. As a result, such individuals cannot meet the job's needs. The fifth way through which needs assessment exercise can help identify performance deficiencies is by evaluating an employee's mental capacity to work well (Barbazette, 2006). The retail sector is as stressful a field as any other, and anyone not suited for the work can easily crack under pressure.

2. Develop a customer service training implementation plan and determine the method of training (i.e., presentation, discussion, case study, discovery, role play, simulation, modeling, or on-the-job training).

One of the most important components of doing business is customer service, owing to the fact that it relates directly to the firm and its ability to meet its customers' needs (Hooker, 2015). Incorporating customer service training in the workplace can only be done effectively if the management is able to make the employees fully understand the expectations and needs of the company's customers. Then, after enabling an understanding of the expectations, the company can help meet them through continuous positive feedback training. To successfully implement an employee service training program for customers, the firm must evaluate the needs of the customers, the skills of the employees, the training model structure and commence, and continuously re-evaluate the company's customer service delivery (Richason, 2015).

Customer Service Training Implementation Plan

Identify your customer's needs.

For successful customer service training, the firm is first required to be aware of what the clients expect from the employees, and their overall needs. This can be achieved through various ways, for instance, setting up a feedback webpage on a firm's website, giving each customer a suggestions card and asking them to drop it the next time they come around, or asking the clients directly about their experience when they are doing their shopping. Another more scientific way of identifying a customer's needs is by conducting a survey (Hooker, 2015).

Evaluate each employee's skills and skill level.

This can be done by observing how individual workers interact with other employees, and the kind of service they offer. Some workers have natural salesmanship, meaning that they have the skills to easily convince customers to buy stuff with...

Thus, observe and evaluate employees to identify which of them, have the best skills that suit a specific customer service need, for instance, establishing rapport or convincing a client to make a purchase. Meetings should also be called regularly to allow the employees to teach each other by helping the successful ones explain and demonstrate how they do what they do (Richason, 2015).
Design and implement a training method

Training is very crucial, particularly in the retail sector, as it is the starting point of every employee teaching on how they will be representing the firm. Training also gives new recruits an opportunity to familiarize with the history of the corporation and what would be different in working in this kind of environment. There are different ways through which an employee can be trained for work in retail customer service and they include: on-job-training, modeling, role play, case study and presentation (Richason, 2015).

Among the different training methods highlighted above, on job training would be the most suitable for the corporation. When a worker learns about the responsibilities or tasks that they will be assigned in real life environment, this is referred to as on job training. On job training helps a worker to understand how to effectively carry out duties or tasks in the corporation. There are different ways through which on job training can be done and they include: Apprenticeship, Internship, Committee Assignments, Job instruction, Coaching and Job rotation (Werner & DeSimone, 2011).

Internship: this is whereby persons entering industries are given thorough education in both practical and theoretical aspects of the job (Werner & DeSimone, 2011).

Apprenticeship: this is a formalized method of training that combines on-job training with close supervision from a chosen mentor.

Committee Assignments: This is whereby a team of trainees is a tasked with solving a real life problem in an organization (Werner & DeSimone, 2011).

Job Instructions: this is whereby an individual is taken through training under close supervision in a step-by-step manner. The trainer explains to the individual how to do the job and the skills that they need to handle their responsibilities (Werner & DeSimone, 2011).

Coaching: This is whereby a supervisor is assigned a trainee to help mentor him or her. The mentor provides the trainee with feedback on his or her performance and suggests different ways through which the trainee can improve (Werner & DeSimone, 2011).

Job Rotation: This type of on-job-training entails the trainee being moved through different jobs. This helps the trainee to understand different roles and responsibilities in the organization (Werner & DeSimone, 2011).

Consistent Reevaluation of Customer Service Relations

Staff evaluations should be done about four times per year for the best results. Consistent reevaluation allows the employer to ensure that the employees are complying with the organization's customer service protocol (Richason, 2015).

3. Justify why you selected the training method that you did

On job training is appropriate for an organization in the retail sector, owing to the following facts: it is cheaper; highly effective since learning is through experience; free from the inhibitions of simulation learning environments; and also because employees are quite motivated. For the organization, on job training is the best employees training method about customer service because it requires less expensive financing compared to hiring new employees. Training employees on job, unlike training them somewhere else, increases the likelihood that the information passed will be fully understood and used at the workplace. Moreover, many workers usually find on job training much more enjoyable compared to learning in an offsite centre (Werner & DeSimone, 2011).

4. Propose two (2) ways to motivate an employee who has no interest in attending a training class

Training classes are important to all new recruits. However, in any environment one will find a few people that do not have the motivation to attend the classes. In such a situation incentives such as monetary compensation, certifications, paid-time-off or early leave can be used to encourage people to come for training. Another way to encourage employees to attend is through making the learning activities fun. Starting a professional workplace development course where employees receive certificates after training and are able to advance through positions in the workplace can help motivate new recruits to attend training. When an employee has acquired credits for attending a certain number of classes, he or she can be classified as eligible for promotion. This is one of the positive ways of increasing a recruit's probability of training attendance. Another way to encourage a new recruit to attend a training class can be through paying for classes attended on a monthly basis. By doing so, the…