Coaching and training

To complete this task, I will divide it in sections provided by assessment criteria guidelines. Explain how to identify the training needs for individuals in the workplace The most important considerations to determining training needs include: Knowing your present situation

Manager/trainer should be aware of strong and weak points of each employee and a team as a whole. In our particular store, best and greatest way of knowing present situation is using employee feedback and also feedback of the customers by maze and in person. Identifying the required knowledge

For each individual employee different knowledge may be lacking. While one employee could have great communication skills and sales techniques and may lack actual optical knowledge, other may have all technical knowledge but may lack to put in use in sales. Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each individual will be a kea to success of provided training. Involve other employees

Often other employees will have very valuable input by providing their perspective on themselves and others. There is often a situation where someone that would do great in the lab is placed in store and the opposite. Talking to employees and getting their perspective about their opinion where and why the would excel the most and also asking same question about others is the key to a good research. Discuss, survey all the data received

As many employees as many opinions, this step is very important to be rather objective than subjective in your assessment. By all employee and maze feedback data a store manager should be able to make conclusions on which type of training would benefit particular employee the most and set up a training pathway tailored to each employees needs. Example:

Employee A is more of an introvert and perfectionist, however, when put in a situation with communication required he/she does good. No one knows that at the end of the day having communicate too much for the personality type employee goes home exhausted and wishing for nothing else but solitude. Employee B is an extrovert does the task given good, however, doesn’t enjoy looking at the details too much and rather always looks at the “big picture”. Employee A works in the store and employee B is in the lab. They both do their jobs well and from outside no huge problems are visible. By surveying the employees themselves and others around manager gets to know this information and has a decision to make: 1) to leave employees in their current positions and train A in becoming more extraverted and B more detail orientated 2)try to re-train them in switched positions by moving A to lab and bubbly B in the store.

Manager decides to go with second option to re-train and give the best work environment conditions to both personalities. In this situation this is a win-win for both sides. The introvert A can have the solitude and exercise the perfection work style in Lab and come to work without a pressure to communicate. And B with bubbly personality and added sales techniques as a result of training can be in her most productive environment. Store as a whole wins – the lab work is perfection that saves on re-makes and adds to customer satisfaction and sales go up due to B being in the best spot. 2) Describe training techniques appropriate to the workplace Before considering specific training techniques, we need to consider: 1)What are our training goals?

That could be learning new skills or new techniques for old skills. The goal could be to increase the sales volume or pure technical skills improvement. who will we train?
That can be new or seasoned employees
The store works best when each employee knows their function and that’s why developed the logic system with color-based areas for each function. Green is the greater and assist in frame choices and yellow is the one that does dispense and assists with frame adjusting and other technical questions. is a store where all skills are of importance from technical to sales techniques and sales psychology; however, no store can exist without a good sales volume so I will be focusing on retail sales techniques and psychology. In my opinion hands-on training combined with role-playing works great. Role-playing lets employees to act out issues that could occur in the store. Often managers would see particular situations play out between client and employee or even between two employees that are not productive for either side. For each store this type of training is beneficial.

Example:
In many stores the lack of understanding that a proper greeting is the most important part of the sale is a big problem. And this type of training could not only teach a proper welcome but also let employees role-play different situations out. Every day we see people that come in the store wander around and leave without buying. Most of the time the reason is that there is no relationship established with this person. The proper greeting is the start of building a positive relationship with the customer and qualifying their needs, which later could help us with sales presentation, and closing the sale. The positive aspect is that as adult learners we retain only 20% of what we read, 40% of what we see but 50% of what we say and 60% of what we do. In terms of retaining information and learning this is the most effective approach. The negative aspect of this type of training is that not everyone would be comfortable performing in front of others and would not get the results that this training technique could provide. Another type of training provided by is web-based training.

Positives:
This way as an organization can provide training materials to every employee in organization whether they are new or seasoned employees. Employees can do these trainings at their own convenience from their home. Saves costs for store(don’t have to give a paid days for training) and organization costs, location, trainers etc. Negatives:

Not much interaction and no way of controlling how much one has really learned. Not many opportunities to ask questions the moment they arise. Explain how knowledge of different learning styles can assist when training individuals in the workplace Learning styles are the learning approaches that individuals naturally prefer. Knowing someone’s learning style lets us give the best training style advice and maximize their learning potential. The learning styles and best training techniques:

Activist
Activists learn by doing. Activists need to get their hands dirty, to dive in with both feet first. They have an open-minded approach to learning, involving themselves fully and without bias in new experiences. Best training methods: role-playing, group discussions, problem solving, competitions, brainstorming. Theorist

These learners like to first learn the theory behind any actions. They need concepts and facts in order to start the learning. They analyze everything to make a sort of theory of everything they learn. Best training methods: background information, statistics, models, stories. Pragmatist

Pragmatists need to be able to see how to apply what they are learning into practice in the real world. Just concepts are not much of use unless they can see a way to put the ideas into action in their lives. Best training methods: case studies, problem solving, group discussion Reflector

Reflectors learn by observing and thinking about what happened. They normally avoid leaping in and prefer to watch from the sidelines before attempting to do something themselves. They also like to stand back and view experiences from a number of different perspectives. Best training methods: observing activities, feedback from others. In each store there are probably mix of personnel with different learning styles, therefore, management should consider adjusting the training to each individual type to maximize the learning potential and bring best benefit to the store in the long run. I would definitely use this test to determine the best possible way to train new employees and also seasoned ones. 4) Describe a method of evaluating the effectiveness of training.

The most well-known and used model for measuring the effectiveness of training programs was developed by Donald Kirkpatrick. It has 4 parts. Reaction – what participants thought and felt about the training satisfaction, feedback survey, indeed, surveys trainees in every training they give. Learning – the resulting increase in knowledge and skills, and change in attitudes. This evaluation occurs during the training in the form of either a knowledge demonstration or test. Behavior – transfer of knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes from training to the job. This evaluation happens 3–6 months after the training while the trainee is performing the job. Evaluation usually happens through observation. Results – the final results that occurred because of attendance and participation in a training program. That can be sales growth, performance- based improvement, etc.

I would certainly follow this evaluation model, since opinion that the trainee has of the training program is directly related to the success of delivering the information and skills to the particular person. In the store, observation is the key of identifying lacking knowledge or zooming in on skills that needs to be improved. Describe how to maintain training records in the workplace

In the current store I am at there is no particular way of maintaining the training records. That is an area we should make changes in. At the store there are only 7 employees so the best way to maintain training records would be a separate file for each employee that would reflect trainings they have done, and the professional/personal growth gained from these trainings. Also it should contain feedback information the employee has given after the training to better arrange suitable types of trainings in the future for each particular person. Explain how to identify the coaching needs for individuals in the workplace Coaching is a great tool to employee development, based on a relationship between two people, the coach and the employee. The employee normally wants to improve his or her understanding of a situation, learn new skills, prepare for new situations and improve performance in certain areas. The coach can provide services to help the employee improve his or her performance. For example, the coach may help identify an underlying problem, (that could be personality trait that needs to be addressed).

Also the coach provides tools that help the individual understand the problem, suggest activities that will lead to performance improvement. Coach also shares insights about the environment in which the individual works, and provides feedback. Coaching is especially useful during times of significant change or challenge. Example: If would change their concept to a whole new concept people have never thought of, it would create a resistance and confusion amongst the employees without proper coaching. Coach would help greatly with giving strategies to people to adapt to the new concept. The goal of is also to raise the volume of sales without loosing the quality of service, with sales volume going up employees may start to slack off quality wise. A duty of a coach would be to help create personal strategies to not let the quality go down due to increased volume. To identify the coaching needs of an individual is very important to observe and get their own feedback about the skills or coping mechanisms they may be lacking of. How do you know that there is a coaching need and not a need for something different e.g. training?

Training is provided to give new knowledge, coaching will help with motivation, efficiency and skills. Role of a manager is to know the progress and current status of employee’s skills and motivation. Also manager should be aware if there are mental or any other blocks holding employee back from progress. Manager should be able to gather all this information in periodic meetings with the employees where this gets discussed and also by observing employees in daily tasks and activities. If employee has the right skill set, but doesn’t have enough motivation, coaching and in particular using the GROW model would help to determine what is necessary for improvement. The same goes for opposite situation – if employee is highly motivated but lacks in skills or time management/efficiency again coaching would be a great tool to help. For example, coach can provide the employee with techniques to become more productive, develop better analytical and problem-solving skills, and help with becoming more organized and being less stressed in a busy work environment. Explain how to plan the coaching for an individual in the workplace For this task as an example I will use increased volume due to new promotions and employees struggle to keep the quality of service intact. Step 1 – Establish a goal

The goal would be to not let quality of services, products to be affected by increased volume of sales. The questions coach should ask:
How will you know that you have achieved this goal? How will you know that the problem or issue is solved? Does this goal fit with employee’s career objectives? And does it fit with the team’s objectives? In this case employee is very stressed out while struggling to keep the standards of quality and this stress affects the rest of the team as well. If employee finds a technique to cope with the added pressure it will be beneficial for all. Employee also doesn’t communicate well with her team while feeling pressured. Step 2 – Examine the current reality

The questions coach should ask:
What is happening now (what, who, when, and how often)? What is the effect or result of this? Have you already taken any steps to maintain the situation?
In this example employee is overwhelmed and comes home exhausted and without sense of accomplishment. Employee has searched for help outside the store with her therapist and other activities to no avail. Step 3 – Explore the options

At this stage the brainstorming should start and different options should be considered to help the situation. The questions coach should ask:
What else could you do?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option?
What do you need to stop doing in order to achieve this goal? What obstacles stand in your way?
In this example employee acknowledges that the stress management is lacking and the communication with team is suffering. All possible options are revised from time management, to dividing responsibilities in different way and even relaxation techniques. Step 4 – Determining the way forward

By examining all obstacles and options the employee should have a plan/idea about how to move forward. The questions coach should ask:
How can you keep yourself motivated?
What will you do now and when?
How can you keep yourself motivated?
Employee has decided to improve the time management and collaborate with the team to be able to work more effectively, also there will be particular relaxation techniques used along with new thinking pattern. The coach and employee should set a date to review the progress, which could be every couple weeks or every month. Explain the importance of feedback in the
coaching

There are different types of feedbacks and each type of feedback is important to a successfully run business. Reinforcement feedback – you let the individual know that job is being done great, which in turn reinforces and motivates the employee to keep doing the great job. Corrective feedback – here you point out the areas where individual could improve in. Also very important is to ask questions to employee on what they think they can do to improve in particular area. The purpose of feedback is to inform and not to punish the employee. If feedback is given right, it can be the single most important tool to keep a productive environment in the business and help the individual to improve. Feedback also encourages self-assessment as a result employee will also get a chance to self-analyze and think of areas for improvement that hasn’t been brought up before. Describe a method of evaluating the effectiveness of coaching in the workplace In my opinion, the best method of evaluating whether the coaching has been effective is the use of different aspects: Business aspect

That could be a growth of net profits, productivity or other business related factors. Behavior change
If coaching has been done to help change certain behaviors, trough observation and face-to-face interviews the effectiveness of coaching can be evaluated.