Professional training and development

In this task, I will describe the key implications of change for human resource development. I will use a fashion retail business in this task.

A business could face different types of change, and these are;

* Incremental change – tuning, adapting

* Transformational change – planned or forced

* Anticipated change – for example; introducing new technology into the company

* Unanticipated change – for example; sudden increase in demand for products, and the collapse of a supplier

Source: Unit 17 – Preparing for Development, Thursday 7th February Handout.

There could be many factors or events which bring about change, change can be a positive thing, or it could be a negative thing. Change could occur when;

* New technology is being introduced

* New legislation rules

* Increased competition affecting sales and market share

* Being merged with or acquired by another business

* New procedures

* New products being introduced

The type of training or retraining that could be / is required really depends on the employee, for example; the employee could already have excellent customer service skills, but could go on a training and development course to get skilled in other areas such as; effective selling, or even merchandising. It is important for all employees to go on a training and development course so that they can develop themselves further.

Employees may feel many things when faced with the change and the prospect of training and these feelings are; anxiety, confusion, de-motivation, motivation, anger, nervousness, stress can also be brought onto them.

It is very important that the manager makes sure that he informs the employees on the change which will be made within the business approximately 2 weeks earlier so that the employees can be ready for them, and also train and develop if they need to. The employees would also have to learn to accept the changes, and develop themselves to these changes, as it is very important for the business to succeed whether or not a change has been made.

The impact of this change can affect the human resources department in many ways, for example; if new technology was to be introduced into the company, the human resources department may have to train existing employees to use this technology, or may even recruit new employees into the business with the skills which are needed.

The human resources department also need to handle how the staff feel, because it is important that staff feel relaxed at work, even though changes are being made, because change can make a person feel anxious and stressed out, so the HR department will have to make sure that all employees are okay at work.

Costs is also a big factor to consider within the human resources department as they have to pay out for effective advertising, recruiting new people means a lot of money being spent, as they will need to be trained and developed to the highest of standards.

New technology (hardware or software) being introduced/imposed:

New technology could be introduced into the company, and this could have a huge impact on current employees because they would have to implement to change, they would have to learn how to use the new technology and this will take some time because it is important that everyone within the business / store knows how to use it effectively.

New types of technology could include; computers, walkie-talkies, and lifts. For example; if the retail store merged with another business, they would have to expand and make the store bigger, for example; the building can have 2 floors, and this is where the lift comes in, it can be used by members of staff if they need to go to the stockroom / offices.

New legislation:

Legislation factors can have a huge impact on the way a business develops itself. For example; if new legislation rules were introduced into a company, then the employees would have to change to implement these changes. It is likely that the employees are trained on implementing the new legislation change, as it is important that they go by this and not break the businesses rules.

New legislation rules can be; not to smoke near the building on break times, this is a good rule and would have to be put into practise by the employees, it would be hard for the employees that do smoke as they would probably be used to smoking near the building, but it is also important that they follow the change are comfortable and happy with it because if they are not then they could lack at work.

Another new legislation could be; health and safety regulations changing, and this could be a very big change, the business will have to change in many ways and employees will have to be trained to implement these new legislation rules.

Increased competition affecting your sales and your market share:

If you see competition rising, you have to do something about it. There are many things that the business could do, and these are;

* Train new employees – more work/recruit

* Retrain staff – skills to sell, customer complaints

* Introduce new targets – put targets up

* Introduce new products – train employees how to sell it

* Research and development

* Training on how to advertise better

The human resources department will have to make sure that all employees are sent away on training and development so they can be ready for their competition.

All retail fashion outlets have competition, and it is important that employees are ready for this, as competition can be hard. All of the above points are very important to consider when you have competition.

You are being merged with or acquired by another company:

When a business is being merged with or acquired by another company, change is going to take place. Again change can be a positive thing, or it can be a negative thing, the two companies could have been merged together to make one big business, or this change could have been forced upon them somehow, but this doesn’t matter, what matters is that all employees get on well with each-other, because if they do not their will be conflict within the business, and this isn’t good, because then products will not be sold effectively and efficiently.

New procedures:

New procedures are very common in a business, a new procedure could mean anything, for example; a new fire alarm system being fitted in, this is a big change and could affect employees in many ways, such as; getting used to it, and would have to implement to these changes.

New products:

If the business wasn’t doing very well, a new product would have to be introduced, to attract customers, and also make more money. Product development could take place, and what this means is getting a product from the store and developing it. For example, a Samsung YP-K3 is similar to the Apple iPod in many ways, except for the fact that the Samsung is touch-screen.