Training Delivery
For centuries now, the values of money in the lives of people’s lives have increased exponentially. People need money to avail the basic amenities of life, which are necessary for survival, such as food, clothing and lodging (Rodriguez & Walters, 2017). However, there are many people on Earth who are unable to pay for their survival in this modern world. The competitive nature of the contemporary world have led to the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few people while the common masses are left fighting amongst themselves for the remaining wealth of the world. This has presented a sad picture of humanity which calls for the interference of those few people with wealth to help out their fellow human beings. This report talks about the importance of credit unions, focusing on the People’s Credit Union. This report further discusses the various ways in which the service provided by the employees of the people’s Credit Union can be improved for the better. The main focus of this report is on the training module provided to the employees for the purposes of better service provision and the consequent evaluation of such training module based on the Kirkpatrick’s training evaluation.
The People’s Credit Union was first established in 1908, within the United States by a person named Edward Filene (“Peoples Credit Union“, 2018). He is popularly known as the Father of Credit Unions. The main vision of Filene was to provide monetary security to the workers of the United States so that they have the financial backing during times of crisis. The availing of credit will allow such average salaried people to have the mental peace that they will have the required monetary support during emergency and consequently, would not have to depend on their entire life savings to tide over. The various services provided by this organization is the providing loan service, providing credit card facility and also insurance coverage. With regards to the various electronic services provided to the customer, this organization provides mobile banking application, the facility of paying various bills, repaying the loan through the online platform and also, credit card repayment facility (“Peoples Credit Union”, 2018). The People’s Credit Union is a profit motivated organization like any other and the main objective of this organization is to generate higher revenues while helping the society at large.
The importance of the People’s Credit Union has necessitated the need for continual new innovations in the organization so as to ensure that the employees are working at their full potential in order to serve the customers (“Peoples Credit Union”, 2018). The chosen training objective is to provide the employees with several guidelines and lessons on how to improve their customer relationship and help the customers in the easy availing of the finances (Frost, 2016). The main objective of this organization is to relieve the monetary burden on the salaried people of the United States and give them the option to avail credit immediately when they are in urgent need of funds.
Chosen Training Objective
While developing a training module, it is essential to plan out a comprehensive and detailed lesson plan so that the trainer is aware about the chronology of the issues to be covered (Keep, 2014). The main purpose of providing training is help to improve a targeted situation within the organization. In order to do so, certain changes are needed to be brought about. In the case of People’s Union Credit, it is essential to improve the customer handling relation of the employees and for this purpose, the requisite training has been provided. The various components of the lesson plan are as follows.
The first component of a lesson plan is to make the concerned people aware about what is the expected outcome of the training (Larsen, 2017). The trainees need to know the basic issues which shall be covered during the course of the training. This purpose necessitates the need of clearly defined learning objectives (Larsen, 2017). In this scenario, the learning objective of the employees of the People’s Credit Union is their customer handling relation. The requirement of this skill is necessary because the better the customers are handled properly. The higher the chances of them availing the credit facility. Since this is a profit based organization, if the number of customer base increases, the organization will stand to make more profits and higher revenue generation (Larsen, 2017).
The HR should take the initiative to make the employees aware about the important topics which shall be learnt during the course of the training (Towler, Watson & Surface, 2014). This can be done with the help of a flowchart which depicts the importance of the various related issues and how they will help in the achievement in the ultimate objective of developing better customer relations.
The next important component of a lesson plan is to organize the relevant materials in a comprehensive and chronological manner (Sung & Choi, 2014). Since the main aim of the training session is improving the customer handling issue of the employees, the materials organized should all be based in accordance with the objective (Sung & Choi, 2014).
The way in which the training shall be imparted is mentioned in this component of lesson planning. The most desirable method of presentation technique in this scenario is combining the methods of lectures and demonstrations (Naranjo-Valencia et al., 2018). The employees need to be made aware about the areas where there is scope of improvement and the various ways in which their customer servicing technique can be improved. After giving them the requisite lecturers and points to be remembered, the training can then take the form of demonstrations. Demonstrations will help the employees to gain an insight into the preferred way in which the objective of satisfying customers can be achieved. A visual representation usually proves to be more beneficial than simply providing lectures and discussions.
Components of the Lesson Plan
The most important component of lesson plan is to evaluate the success of the training session. After imparting the requisite training, the employees will done be assessed based on their performance (Ganesh & Indradevi, 2015). On this basis, the evaluation is done. The most popular way by which a training evaluation can be done is Kirkpatrick’s Four Level Model of Training Evaluation. This will help to get a detailed insight into the effectiveness of the training provided to the employees of the people’s Credit Union.
The time taken to impart the training in an efficient and effective manner needs to be considered in the lesson plan (Alasadi & Al Sabbagh, 2015). There might be some topics and concepts which might be hard to comprehend by the employees that will help them to improve their customer handling relation. The extra time taken for such details need to be factored in the lesson plan.
The main aim of any training session is to solve a particular issue within the concerned organization (Memon, Salleh & Baharom, 2016). With respect to the People’s Credit Union, the concerning issue faced by the organization was the inability of the employees to interact properly with the customers. People’s Credit Union is like any other business with a profit maximizing objective. The decrease in customer base meant that the revenue earning capacity of the organization was taking an adverse hit with lower profit margins. This necessitated a training session which aimed at improving the customer handling relation of the employees. An important component of every training session is to make an evaluation of the effectiveness of the training session.
This is usually done with the help of Kirkpatrick’s Four Model of Training Evaluation. The Kirkpatrick’s Model was developed by a Professor, named Donald Kirkpatrick, employed in the University of Wisconsin (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). He was also the President of the American Society for Training and Development. He formulated the Four Level Training Evaluation Model published it in 1959 in the US Training and Development Journal (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). Thereafter, the Model was revised twice and now it is known as the “Evaluating Training Programs”. The four levels included are as follows.
The first level which needs to be analyzed in the training session is the reaction of the concerned trainees (Moldovan, 2016). The training program arranged for the employees of the People’s Credit Union needs to be assessed based on how comprehensively the employees understood the training session. The reaction of the employees to the new concepts and idea is very important to the organization. If the reaction is good, it means that the employees have liked the idea and will be willing to incorporate their lessons in real life scenario. However, if they give a negative reaction to the training session, it indicates that the proposed idea will be hard to implement.
Evaluation of Training
A pertinent question that can be asked at this level in order to analyze the learning level is – how are you affected by the training session? (Open ended question)
The second level in the Kirkpatrick’s Four Model Training Evaluation is the level of learning. In this level, the main aim of the trainer is to understand how much the trainees have learnt in the training session (Govil & Usha, 2014). The success of the training session depends upon the knowledge gained by the trainees which they can implement in their daily business. With regards to the People’s Credit Union, the main objective is to develop customer handling relation. The knowledge garnered by the concerned employees can be used in achieving this objective. The assessment of the learning level will help to determine how efficiently the employees can implement the proposed idea in their business.
A pertinent question that can be asked at this level in order to analyze the learning level is – what is the main objective of the training session and how do you think you can contribute to its achievement? (Short answer question)
This level of assessment looks at the application of the knowledge gained in the training session in the daily operations of business. The behavior of the employees is very important in the sector of customer service. Customers tend to be more easily satisfied by employees who have a pleasant personality and has the requisite behavior to behave in accordance with the prevailing situation (Ferreira, 2016). The changes in behavior of an employee depends upon many factors such as conducive work environment, the permission of the employer to make the recommended changes and the willingness of the employees themselves to change their behavior.
An important question that can be asked at this level in order to analyze the learning level is – what are the behavioral changes noticed in the concerned employees? (open ended question)
The final level of the Kirkpatrick’s Four Model Training Evaluation is the level of the Result. In this level, the assessment of the training session is done based on how efficiently and effectively the lessons of the training are implemented in the daily operations; what are the benefits accrued to the organization, to the employer and to the employees after the successful completion of the training session (Kirwan, 2016). The result of the training session depends upon this benefit; if the benefit is high, then it is deemed that the training session had a positive outcome. However, if the benefits to the organization is low, then it can be said that the training session did not have the desired result.
A pertinent question that can be asked at this level in order to analyze the learning level is – is the result different from the previous year? (Yes/no)
Certain barriers might exist while evaluating the training session. For instance, there can be problem in trying to evaluate the initial success. It takes time to deal with a customer and short term changes may not be observed immediately. Moreover, the changes in behavior depends upon a lot of factors. If one factor does not change, the behavior as a whole might not change. The main objective of employing the Kirkpatrick’s Four Model Training Evaluation is to analyze the training session so that further improvements can be made in the future training sessions. The evaluation process can help to foresee any barrier and prevent their occurrence in the future.
References:
Alasadi, R., & Al Sabbagh, H. (2015). The role of training in small business performance. International Journal of Information, Business and Management, 7(1), 293.
Ferreira, A. P. V. G. (2016). Training and Development in Organizations: Start at the Beginning. In MBA (pp. 105-121). Springer, Cham.
Frost, S. (2016). The importance of training & development in the workplace. Small Business, https://smallbusiness. chron. com/importance-trainingdevelopment-workplace-10321. html.
Ganesh, M., & Indradevi, R. (2015). Importance and effectiveness of training and development. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6(1), 334.
Govil, S. K., & Usha, K. (2014). The importance of training in an organization. Advances in Management, 7(1), 44.
Keep, E. (2014). Corporate training strategies: the vital component. New Perspectives, 109-125.
Kirkpatrick, J. D., & Kirkpatrick, W. K. (2016). Kirkpatrick’s four levels of training evaluation. Association for Talent Development.
Kirwan, C. (2016). Improving learning transfer: A guide to getting more out of what you put into your training. Routledge.
Larsen, H. H. (2017). Key issues in training and development. In Policy and practice in European human resource management (pp. 107-121). Routledge.
Memon, M. A., Salleh, R., & Baharom, M. N. R. (2016). The link between training satisfaction, work engagement and turnover intention. European Journal of Training and Development, 40(6), 407-429.
Moldovan, L. (2016). Training outcome evaluation model. Procedia Technology, 22, 1184-1190.
Naranjo-Valencia, J. C., Naranjo-Herrera, C. G., Serna-Gómez, H. M., & Calderón-Hernández, G. (2018). The Relationship Between Training And Innovation In Companies. International Journal of Innovation Management, 22(02), 1850012.
Peoples Credit Union. (2018). Peoples-credit-union.com.
Rodriguez, J., & Walters, K. (2017). The importance of training and development in employee performance and evaluation.
Sung, S. Y., & Choi, J. N. (2014). Do organizations spend wisely on employees? Effects of training and development investments on learning and innovation in organizations. Journal of organizational behavior, 35(3), 393-412.
Towler, A., Watson, A., & A. Surface, E. (2014). Signaling the importance of training. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 29(7), 829-849.