Human Resource Development

As per the McLagan, HRD practitioners creates way to help management, team and individuals in order to fulfill the function of human resources in the enterprise. Further, it results in decentralization of human resource functions and providing more responsibilities to managers (Paauwe, 2004).

TASK 1 Learning theories and learning styles

1.1 Compare different learning styles

Learning styles differs from individual and individual as per their own skills and capabilities. It is essential for individuals to adopt different learning styles so that they can attain success in the organization. It helps them in differentiating from each other. As per Honey & Mumford (1986) it examined 4 types of learning style best for an individual (Coronas and Oliva, 2005). These are activist, theorist, pragmatist and reflector which are discussed underneath-

Activists- These are the learners that involve themselves in new occupations so that they can experience and learn unique things. Such workers in an organization are dynamic so that they undertake new experiences and encounter diverse activities. As per the changing circumstances and experiences it assists individual learners to enhance their skills and attain success (Armstrong, 2009).

Theorist- Here, the learners investigate rationales and hypotheses to know where the theory can be exactly fitted. The overall experienced ideas and concepts need to be examined before selecting them as a choice. These type of workers demand to diagnostic and soundness of any stretch out or goal that need to be accomplished. It also makes speculations before inclining towards making any specific choice (Beardwell and Claydon, 2007). Sometimes, it leads to wastage of time as there is not any particular structure or format of completion of task.

Pragmatist- These people are practical problem solver because they attempt to take any risk that comes. Through their effective learning and experience they have the ability to attain difficulties that might be faced at workplace and also resolve them effectively. They have relevance to the real world through applying their individual learning. Also, they have the ability to manage new range of things and empower the environment through attaining success (Foot and Hook, 2005).

Reflector- These are the individuals that don’t make their choices they observes, think and watch others in order to attain results. They wait for the right opportunity to gather information and investigate to think deliberatively and after that settle on a balance choice (Boxall and et. al., 2008).

The workers of M & S is required to adopt pragmatist learning style as it helps business in solving practical problems and face any type of risk. The difficulties arise at the workplace can be solved effectively through having effective experience and learning (Mankin, 2009). Learners have the power to manage the things in the business so that culture of organization can be enhanced.

1.2 The role of the learning curve and the importance of transferring learning to the workplace

The learning curve plays a vital role in the advancement of individual and assists them to adopt effective learning procedure so that results can be achieved. This form of graphical presentation demonstrates the rate of improvement in performing particular task in order to attain output. Learning curve is an essential requirement in businesses as it helps in measuring the requirements of resource planning and also employed in setting incentive rate scheme so that constant performance can be enhanced. M&S uses such method to draw the improvement of learning in individuals as per the past performance (Mankin, 2009). Through this involvement in doing something, expectation to learn and adopt profits, this helps the staff in developing their new abilities and also improves their qualities to attain set objectives. Organization should set such new secured systems in the workplace so that staff performance can be improved.

It also helps individuals in developing new learning styles and implementing it in business so that productivity can be improved. This form of transformation assists workers to conform to new opportunities in order to learn and adapt changes to improve the business quality. The importance of transferring learning to the workplace helps individual as well as business to achieve desired results. Through this organization can perceive their objectives by implementing the practical experience and knowledge of learners. Thus, here the learning curve describes its importance as it can discover new things and ways in order to improve the performance of staff as well as organization (Reid, Barrington and Brown, 2004).

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1.3 The contribution of learning styles and theories in order to design a learning event

Learning style is a method that is adopted by individual in order to gain experience and knowledge so that they can be differentiated from other individuals in the organization. Every individual has an exceptional identity therefore learning style also differ from each other. Employees are able to expand their learning abilities so that they can give their best in the workplace. David Kolb (1984), distributed his learning styles as he said that “learning is the procedure where knowledge is made through the change of experience”. He accepted that individual learning style is developed because of their hereditary qualities, backgrounds and surroundings (Storey, 2007). Kolb discovered different learning styles that are Converger, Diverger, Assimilator and Accommodator. Furthermore, learning styles were also created by Peter Honey and Alan Mumford (1982), based upon the work of Kolb and thus they recognized four different learning styles Pragmatist, Theorist, Activist and Reflector. These are the learning styles that are commonly adopted by employees in order to attain organizational as well as individual goals.

As per the Honey and Mumford’s learning style model, the selected employees should adopt the characteristics of Activists. These are the people who adopt new ways of accomplishing tasks so that they can experience new and unique innovations in business. They are dynamic workers of organization who discover new opportunities so that difficulties can be solved effectively. They have open minded approach towards learning and involve themselves so that they can exercise new opportunities. Individuals include the learning preferences of activists that include role play, problem solving and group discussions (Greene and Kirton, 2009). All these learning methods help the employees in bringing new ways to discover opportunities so that problem can be solved in business. M & S should adopt such learning styles and methods for its employees so that they can enhance their knowledge and skills to improve the performance of employees in workplace. All such practices help employees in solving the issues and improve the situation in business (Eriksson, 2012).

TASK 2 Able to plan and design training and development

2.1 The training needs for staff at varied levels

It is essential for employees to have effective training and development program as per their requirements. Training need for staff is required at different levels in organization so that employees can attain results. Further, management of organization is required to analyze the training budget so that proper training can be provided to individuals at different levels i.e. Director, Administrator and Head of Departments. It also ensures that different training programs are required as per the levels so that positive return can be provided. Training helps individual to enhance the skills and capabilities so that desired results can be attained. M & S requires effective training programs to be designed as per the level so that task can be achieved effectively (Gloet and Terziovski, 2004). Also, business tries to develop family work culture for the employees so that they can meet diverse goals. Training is an investment in business that helps in providing high productivity, increase morale of employees, build positive business image etc.

The training need for the Director level is that providing them proper practical learning so that they can develop their communication skills in order to make effective decision and also build leadership skills to lead the business. Different training methods can be adopted like off the job training like workshop etc. Moreover, for the level of Administrator, training is required because at various point of time in business they feel undervalued so that it is essential for business to provide proper coaching and mentoring method so that it can help them in enhancing their skills and capabilities to improve the performance (Longenecker and Fink, 2013). The need of training is important as they can bring efficiency in business in order to review the performance and take measures to motivate others. Furthermore, training requirement at Head of Department level is there because they lack in team spirit. Thus, for achieving good team spirit in business it requires motivating others sp that different methods like role play need to be adopted. It helps head of departments in improving the performance of teams so that work can be easily accomplished. Thus, it is essential for Marks and Spencer to analyze the need of training at different departments so that performance of staff can be improved. Through providing effective training programs, company builds friendly atmosphere at workplace so that goals can be achieved (Panagiotakopoulos, 2013).

2.2 Use systematic approach to plan training and development for a training event

It is essential to plan training and development program so that it helps in enhancing the capability of individuals and assist them in taking effective decision making. It also provides opportunity for individuals to participate in the training event and enhance their skills. Individuals from different sectors participate in the event and solve the problems of employees (Sánchez and Soriano, 2011). Therefore, it is essential for business to assess the training needs of individuals in different departments and prepare a budget so that proper training and development event can be organized (Huang, 2001). Thus, proper assessment of training methods it will help employees in gaining experience and knowledge so that they can gain expertise and varied responsibility. For different levels in business varied training programs are planned so that through attaining such events it helps them in learning new opportunities. Here, managers of Marks and Spencer will also be benefitted to design the course plan so that training session can be planned. They provide appraisal in order to encourage more participation and engagement of employees (Thompson and Kleiner, 2005).

Management is required to assess the training needs of individuals from different sectors. The training event will be organized outside the workplace. Training will initiate with the introduction of management and experts from different fields in the program. Here, management will evaluate the problems of different sectors in order to analyze effective solutions. Experts from different fields will provide proper solutions to the participants so that they can effectively solve their problems (Miller and Pielack, 2008). It is essential for experts to carefully notice the extent of more accountability of each member so that proper suggestion can be given in order to improve the performance. Through planning such event in organization it enables employees to develop opportunities so that knowledge and experience can be enhanced.

TASK 3 Be able to evaluate a training event

3.1 Develop an evaluation using suitable methods

In order to evaluate the training event it is essential for organization to adopt different methodology in order to enhance the skills and abilities of employee so that they deliver better services to customers. Also, to find out the efficiency and effectiveness of the event and also assess the success of the training program it needs to evaluate varied aspects i.e. cost and benefit ratio in order to decide the lifelong learning and continuous development of program. Through adopting different training and development program it helped different organizations to achieve success (Hoobler and Johnson, 2004). The event organized by Marks and Spencer helps in encouraging the employees so that they can attain their individual aims and objectives. The training session has the ultimate aim of enhancing the efficiency level and also delivers proper service to the clients. Organizing training session help in augmenting the skills and capabilities of employees and also help in retaining potential customers in business.

The planned session will last for 20 days and it is essential for all the employees to attend the program. Trainer used a agenda to assess the plan in five different steps that provide analysis on the program. Further, the program is judged at five different criteria in order to find out whether the plan attained the requirement or not (Thompson and Kleiner, 2005). Following are the steps-

Need evaluation- It evaluates the need of training and also answers the query that what is the exact problem. Further, it provides answers on the necessity of the training (Yeo and Li, 2011).

Monitoring and participation- Here, the question is answered about that who are the targeted participants and what facility we are providing to them. Proper monitoring should be done so that all the participants attain results (Lamond and Zheng, 2010).

Agenda interpretation- It is the assessment of the program at different level and different ways are evaluated in order to make the program more effective (Kraus, 2012).

Improvement- It identifies and measures the development and growth of participant through attending event (Kraus, 2012).

Effect of program- This is the last step, it helps in calculating the effect of training event in the long term (Reid, Barrington and Brown, 2004).

3.2 Carry out an evaluation of a training event

It is essential to evaluate the training event so that information can be analyzed effectively and efficiently. I have been a part of a training event organized at Marks and Spencer and I have observed lot of things in that particular training session that really helped me to boost my morale for attending such sessions in future course of time. This particular event was based on adequate communication and management skills especially for those workforces that help in directly communication with customers (Greene and Kirton, 2009). Thus, it is crucial for evaluating the raining event that helps in managing all the customers effectively. I also found that employees were very keen to attain the sessions and it also helped them to enhance their performance. Management of the business is required to conduct proper training sessions so that employees achieve desired success. As I interacted with many people during the training sessions so that it helps me to understand the reaction of employees and also analyze that they were satisfied through attending such training event (Foot and Hook, 2005).

Through such training programs it helps in interacting with different people it includes professionals that help employees in developing their lifelong learning. It also helped in changing the behavior of workers because it helps in enhancing the performance of employees. Also, at different point of time, employees are asked about their satisfaction through attending such training programs (Beardwell and Claydon, 2007). Some employees found it very interesting as these training programs help employees to achieve desired results. While, some employees found it difficult to attend such training event as it requires lot of time and their day to day schedule has been affected. Thus, it can be concluded from the evaluation that it is clear that the training took as a part of organizational processes but the results are somewhat confusing when the results are taken from feedback forms. But at the same point of time, being a part of the whole training event I learned a lot of skills and knowledge and it also helped me in attaining success (Coronas and Oliva, 2005).

3.3 Review the success of the evaluation methods used

It is essential to review the success of the evaluation methods used in business. The results of the training event held at the Marks and Spencer can be evaluated through providing feedback forms to the employees who attended the training event. It helps them in evaluating the positive responses so that success can be achieved (Beardwell and Claydon, 2007). Through attending the training programs, behavior of employees can be improved from previous time. Also, there are various methods that help organization in analyzing the efficiency of employees as collecting feedback from customers that helps in improving the performance so that customers can feel satisfied. Employees of M & S attend the training programs so that they can enhance their skills and knowledge and help the customers (Gloet and Terziovski, 2004).

Furthermore, management of organization is not required to rely only on the customer responses because sometimes fake responses are also provided by users. Thus, it is required to evaluate proper credibility of results so that effective conclusion can be drawn (May and Askham, 2005). Organization also uses Kirkpatrick model as it helps in evaluating the methods used so that behavior of employees can be measured after attending the training event. It is essential for workers to learn through such programs because it consumes lot of cost in organizing such event. Here, the level of learning curve will also increase because it helps individual in enhancing their performance as compared to the previous one. Thus, overall positive responses have been acquired from employees after conducting the above mentioned training event (Hoobler and Johnson, 2004).

TASK 4 Understand government-led skills development initiatives

4.1 The role of government in training, development and lifelong learning

The level of employee engagement in UK is low from past many years hence government has introduced many sessions in enhancing the efficiency and performance of work pools. Generally employers of Marks and Spencer are directed to organize training and coaching sessions for workforces; however this usually get impacted by influence of government which further defines government role in training (Spellman, 2010). Most of the employees of M&S are rewarded to training from other states and organizations; however at that time, government charges tax rates to enable grater investment in skills, thus it affects cost concerned aspects of M&S. The new alliance of Government has now spring into action for the purpose of addressing the key issues which business leaders are experiencing, if the UK is to continue to conduct business on the path to post recession recovery (Thompson and Kleiner, 2005).

Government also aids employers to get higher investment in business by outsourcing candidates from abroad. Ruling bodies also recognize the need to develop management skills in youngsters especially by introducing National Youth Academy for Management. Changes are being prevailing in market places and labor market is particularly fluid and mobile (Lamond and Zheng, 2010). If M&S cuts back on training and development for its staff members or it of withdraws development resource completely then skillful managers will surely move to organizations that can train them and develop their efficiency promptly. Training is actually a part of lifelong learning and development and the government of UK also considers this (Kraus, 2012). Hence ruling bodies plays crucial role in organizing training settings from overall learning point of view. If possible then government can also give financial assistance to the business entities so that they can consistently organize such developed sessions for efficiency enhancement.

4.2 How the development of the competency movement has impacted on the public and private sectors

With the help of competency movement, firms can compare their performance and hence on that basis deviations and gaps can be identified. It has been observed that organizations that lie under private sectors emphasizes on greater investment in these competency movement for the purpose of creating competitive edge over rivalries (Sánchez and Soriano, 2011). The firms which are not concerned about competency movement usually get hampered from quality and other issues; hence this enhances efficacy of employees as well of organizations. Marks and Spencer has been investing resources in such aspect for the sole purpose of training the candidates. Through with this, learning curve of workforces can be improved and they also get ideas about different ways for performance development. Moreover employees of M&S get continuous learning with such process and this also results in enhanced confidence level (Marks & Spencers' and Their Human Resource Management, 2014). Thus competency movement has impacted public as well as private sector in such a way that employees are able to learn numerous things about service management. This is the aspect in which private firms are getting more success and prosperity and similarly with this, public sector enterprises also trying hard to achieve the same performance via competency movement. It has been seen that the aim of competency movement has led the public companies of UK to put consistent efforts in performance and services which also leads them to maintain standard in amenities (DEVELOPING HR CAPABILITY: CIPD AND MARKS & SPENCER, n.d). This has been giving huge level of encouragement to the employees; hence it assists them to maintain responsibilities in adequate manner. Association of competencies and skills are crucial sections of learning which improves performance of employees. All the firms in private and public sector has realized the significance of competency movement, thus many of them have already introduced it in daily work patterns (Longenecker and Fink, 2013).

4.3 Assess how contemporary training initiatives introduced by the UK government

In order to bring stability and improvement, UK government has introduced different contemporary learning methods in order to develop human resource of public and private firms. This initiative is a practical training event that provides a quicker learning curve for employee. The training provided is of vocational level and aimed at quick learning on different areas of business (Paauwe, 2004). UK government designed different qualitative training programs for organization that helps them to attain success. Thus, such contemporary training program helped the business in quicker progress of development. As the government specifies the areas of improvement therefore, it becomes easy for company to take effective steps in order to influence the employees to attain such levels. On the other hand, if the production of the company decreases it affects the economy as a whole (Erik and Bozena, 2014). Therefore, government identifies different learning options for individuals that help them to enhance skills and capabilities and attain success.

For M & S such contemporary learning is very essential in order to develop further and attain competitive advantage. Company follows government steps so that it attain successful core values and also quickly adopt training and development programs in the changing environment. Contemporary training aids employees to achieve expectation of customers, competitive position and future prospect etc (Marks & Spencers' and Their Human Resource Management. 2014). Thus, UK government helps organization in contributing to human resource development for M & S so that employees can enhance their performance and achieve desired outcomes. Moreover, contemporary imitative is essential for business to adopt so that it develops the capabilities of human resources of business and analyze the specific training needs of employees. This helps human resource department of organization to adopt such training methods and improve the performance of employees (Spellman, 2010).

CONCLUSION

From the above study, it can be articulated that M & S is a leading retailer firm that requires it employees to adopt effective learning styles so that they can improve their performance in business. It is essential for business to create friendly work environment so that customer satisfaction can be achieved. In order to learn different requirements and development necessities, it is essential for firm to adopt effective theories and practices. Furthermore, business is required to identify different training method for employees so that they can enhance their skills and knowledge. Also, organization evaluates different techniques so that training and development can be achieved in business. The study also outlines a training event organized by M & S so that employees can be evaluated based on their performance and achieves the results. At the end, the role of government has been described in order to provide training and development and lifelong learning so that skills of employees can be enhanced.

REFERENCES

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