HRM560 TRAINING PROGRAM FOR TELSTRA EMPLOYEES - ASSIGNMENT SOLUTION

Introduction

Employees are a key resource for any organization to achieve competitive advantage and therefore it is necessary that the employees have the necessary skills and attitude toward achieving the organization’s goals. The above can be ensured by providing necessary training as suggested by Ennis and Otton (2015), as presented in the below plan for the case organization, Telstra. 

About the Organization

As mentioned in the need assessment, the company being analyzed is Telstra which is the largest telecommunication company in Australia and is involved in building and operating telecommunication network and promoting mobile, internet, and other products (Telstra, 2019). Davis et al. (2016) argued that the telecommunication industry is highly competitive as the price is a strong driver of the competition. The intense competition in the industry has impacted the company’s performance as highlighted by Duke (2018), an example being an 8% decline in profitability in 2017. In order to remain competitive, the organization must utilize its workforce in an effective manner so that the skills and competencies of the employees are effectively utilized. 

Based on insights from Cekada (2011), a need assessment was conducted to identify any discrepancy in competency level of the workforce- It was found that the company has recently undergone corporate restructuring and has established a new business unit. The rationale behind the restructuring is to improve the customer approach of the organization (Telstra, 2019). However, the need assessment highlighted that there is a need to update the skills and knowledge of the employees in line with the changed approach for which training plans are prepared and presented below.

Participants

The management of the organization has identified the need for the organization to become more customer-focused in order to improve its competitive positioning and therefore a new business unit was established. The employees in the organization can be broadly divided into two categories- ‘technical' and ‘non-technical'. In comparison to the technical employees (who have a more technical role and less customer interaction), the non-technical employees have more interaction with customers, vendors, and other employees. Although the technical employees carry out main operational activities, the non-technical people ensure that the business is conducted smoothly- understanding the demands and needs of the customers, ensuring coordination between different employees and teams, and building a strong association with different vendors. 

Although the roles and responsibilities of both technical and non-technical employees are different, there is a need to increase the customer focus for both categories, so that the company can improve its competitive positioning. 

Program Plan

Despite the need for an increased customer focus across the organization, it needs to be understood that the roles and responsibilities of all the employees are not same, therefore different training programs are recommended for technical and non-technical employees- For the technical employees, the mentoring method is recommended and for non-technical employees, the coaching method is recommended, as presented below.

Mentoring Method

Plan: The rationale behind recommending the mentoring for technical employees is that the customer focus may not be a key area for these employees, however, it is necessary to develop the soft skills of the employees so that they can develop their expertise and also expand their professional network internally as well as externally  (Lakshminarayanan et al. 2016). Lapointe and Vandenberghe (2017) argued that mentorship improves the performance of the employees in the following manner- When an employee is mentored by a senior manager, then the employee feels that he is valued by the organization and the organization is giving importance to the development of the employee. This motivates the employee to perform and also become loyal to the organization.  

The mentoring program has been developed based on the insights from the US Department of Energy (2014).