HRM56 TRAINING PROGRAM DESIGN - ASSIGNMENT SOLUTION

• Introduction

In the corporate world, employees’ training has become the center of attention. Organizations are investing heavily in the training and development of their workforce. This is because a well-trained, competent, and efficient workforce is considered as the ladder to success for any and every business. EC Property Services, a leading business in Australia, is no exception in this regard. Therefore, the following report focuses on the training program that has been designed for the workforce of EC Property Services. This training program has been designed after undertaking thorough need assessment research and hence, is likely to produce fruitful results.  

• Organization

EC Property Services is one of the leading businesses in Australia. Its immense success has enabled it to diversify its operations to include corporate services, education and commercial cleaning, floor polish, property painting, property electrical, carpet steam cleaning, car park sweeping, general repairs, gardening, and other general cleaning services. It started its operations in 1997 and since then it has grown by leaps and bounds. The business deals with small, medium as well as large apartment complexes. It is known for the efficiency of its workforce which has always delivered high quality service on time. The organizational structure of EC Property Services is demonstrated in Figure 1 below:

However, despite having a considerably good work force, there still exists the need for further improvement and development. “Training should make things happen and bring about changes that would enhance organization’s effectiveness. It is not proper for an organization to embark on any training program which is not relevant to it and its people” (Obisi, 2011, p.82). Hence, a need assessment task was undertaken in order to figure out the area in which the employees lack and need improvement. The need assessment research revealed that the employees of EC Property Services are mostly Australian. That is why they are well-acquainted with the norms and values of Australian society. Now that the business has the potential to expand its operations and provide services outside Australia too, the acquaintance of its workforce with Australian culture only is not enough to operate efficiently in the near future. The workforce lacks the ability to work efficiently in a cross-cultural context. Hence, there exists a need to train the employees of EC Property Services so that they can develop cross-cultural sensitivity which they currently lack. It is essential to instill cross-cultural sensitivity in the employees because until or unless they learn to respect and celebrate cultural differences they wouldn’t be able to give their best performance. In the long run, this will prove to be detrimental for the business interests.

• Participants

One of the limitations faced by organizations is that they cannot implement a training program across the board. The reason being that employee trainings require monetary as well as human resource. Organizations need to invest money and hire expert trainers who know how to deliver trainings effectively. Since the organizations have limited resources, they need to pick and choose a particular group of employees who will be part of the training program. Another rationale behind this is that when a training program is designed specifically for a particular cohort, it is likely to be more effective.

EC Property Services also needs to pick and choose one particular group of employees that will be receiving cross-cultural training. The best choice in this regard is that of work supervisors. Work Supervisors should receive this training because it will benefit the organization the most. Even though a huge chunk of the workforce comprises of care takers, investing in their training will not be profitable to the business. This is because most of these caretakers are students who eventually leave the job as soon as their studies are over. Hence, investing in them will go in vain. The company should instead train those employees who are the real asset of the organization. Hence, work supervisors are an ideal choice. They are the ones who deal with and supervise the care takers who come from diverse range of cultures. If they are instilled with cultural sensitivity and respect for cultural diversity then they will not only treat their subordinates with respect and try to foster harmony among them, but will also try to instill the same values in the caretakers. The benefit of investing in employee training is that “when employees recognize their organization interest in them through offering training programs, they in turn apply their best efforts to achieve organizational goals, and show high performance on job” (Elnaga & Imran, 2013, p.137). Resultantly, the organization benefits tremendously.