Thursday, February 8, 2007

Chapter3 "Needs Assessment"

1. Which of the factors that influence performance and learning do you think is most important? Which is least important?

I think the most important factor is person characteristics and the least important is consequences.

2. If you were going to use online technology to identify training needs for customer service representatives for a web-based clothing company, what steps would you take to ensure that the technology was not threatening to employees?

I will make sure that they know how to use the new technology and be familiar with it. I will also help them feel comfortable and secure about their jobs by offering the help they need to get the job done properly, which could be done by training if necessary.

3. Needs assessment involves organization, person, and task analyses. Which one of these analyses do you believe is most important? Which is least important? Why?

I think that the Organizational analysis is the most important because it engages in determining the appropriateness of training, giving the company's business strategy, and allocating the resources available for training. In contrast, the least important needs assessment is Task analysis because it shares some of the person analysis such as skills and knowledge.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Chapter 2 "Strategic Training"

  1. What do you think is the most important organizational characteristic that influences training? Why?

It is hard to choose one. I think they are all important but I guess identifying the company's business strategy is the most important because that where everything is planed, the mission, the vision and the values as well.

  1. How could SWOT analysis be used to align training activities with business strategies and goals?

It gives the company the knowledge it needs to compete with others by knowing the weaknesses and strengths it has and what the opportunities or threats the company might run into. Basically, SWOT analysis gives the company a better view of how it should train the employees and what department might needs it the most by looking at the weaknesses and the other SWOT factors.

  1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a centralized training function?

Advantages:

  • The ownership of training goes to one organization.
  • Elimination of course and program variation and duplication in the training system.
  • Helps drive stronger alignment business strategy.
  • Allows development of a common set of metrics or scorecards to measure and report rates of quality and delivery.
  • Helps to streamline processes.
  • It gives the company a cost advantage in purchasing training from vendors and consultants because of the number of trainees who will be involved.
  • Helps companies better integrate programs for developing leaders and managing talent with training and learning during time of change.

Disadvantages:

  • Training and development programs, resources and professionals are primarily housed in one location.
  • Hard to apply if the company is on many different geographic locations.
  • Decision about training, investment, programs, and delivery methods are made from one department.