Unit 21 Training and development
Introduction:
In this assignment I will be constructing an essay with aims of explaining reasons for why businesses train
their employees and assessing my explanations. I have chosen Tesco because they have a very flexible
training program and this shows how they motivate staff, opportunities that are available. Tesco has more
than 345,000 employees worldwide who undertake a range of both store-based and non-store jobs: In
stores, it needs checkout staff, stock handlers, supervisors as well as many specialists, such as
pharmacists and bakers. Tesco is a large U.K grocery firm and retailer whose main competitors are
Sainsbury's, ASDA, and Morrison's,
Training is the process of learning the skills and the knowledge for a particular job or activity. For example
before you start working in a food retail they have something called training. This usually takes 2 weeks
with someone who is experienced. They train you how to use the tills, how to make the food step by step,
main duties. Once you have acquired the skills and knowledge they will train you how to do it faster.
Whereas development is the process where an individual can grow, change and become more advanced
in their skills and ability. For example, trying to do your job but do it more efficiently and take on more
tasks and responsibilities and it can lead to promotion. For example, This can lead to you being in charge
of the store and becoming a professional supervisor.
Reasons why Tesco trains staff
Strategic
Increase profit and turnover:
Tesco is training its staff for a variety of reasons. Tesco's personal development programme
assists employees in improving their skills and talents. It helps its staff enhance their productivity and
performance inside the business by training them in various ways, making them more effective and
increasing client happiness, which can lead to increased sales and total profits for the company.
To become market leader
Training is expected to be followed by development, which will be part of a long-term plan. More training
to learn new skills and obtain new knowledge that will prepare them for additional responsibilities within
their current work or even a new role may be part of the individual's development.
Operational
Increase productivity:
Training employees improves a business’s operations for example by increasing productivity. Tesco’s
training process can increase productivity within the workforce, for example when employees understand
the workings of the company it usually improves self-esteem and increases job satisfaction. The abilities
students gain enable them to produce higher-quality work in a shorter amount of time.
Tesco prioritizes employee satisfaction because happy employees are more productive. Also training
improves people's well-being and reduces absenteeism, as well as lowering job mistakes and stress.
Those who know their goals and have the tools to achieve them are more likely to engage their
colleagues, resulting in higher productivity.
Flexible workforce
A flexible workforce describes a staff that is available when it is needed. This flexibility can mean multiple
things depending on the business. A flexible workforce could be a mix of full time, part time and
temporary employees for Tesco. Tesco could train their managers to help them develop their performance
management through manager training and train their employees to help their communication training.
They could do interpersonal skills development for the team.
, Unit 21 Training and development
Departmental
To meet sales targets:
Training is given to help employees to achieve their objectives for their department. Tesco's employees'
personal productivity and corporate revenue will both grow as a result of their effective training. Staff
training and development, both offline and online, can result in improved production quality, advanced
corporate communications, increased sales productivity, and better service. Employees within the
workforce must have thorough knowledge of products and services that the business is selling in order to
provide them with the confidence to communicate with their customers, which is more likely to lead them
to provide valuable advice and make additional sales, resulting in the business meeting their sales
targets.
Improving customer service:
By instructing staff on the front lines how to provide great customer service. Tesco works to maintain
customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. One of the reasons Tesco has such a good reputation with
customers is that the company invests in its people, making them happy at work and so producing
genuinely outstanding customer service.
Individual
Prepare for change in the business:
Training is beneficial for individual employees, this is so that they can gain new skills and knowledge in
their role. Training employees can impact change within a business, as preparation for change can assist
employees change more easily into new roles or look for other jobs within a different sector of the
business, if it becomes a necessity. For example Tesco, like many other companies, apply succession
planning, which involves training staff at all levels and preparing some for promotion, allowing individuals
to step into someone else's shoes if they leave.
Training needs analysis (TNA)
Also known as a training needs assessment. This is a process that a business goes through to identify
the knowledge, skills , and abilities of their employees that are currently lacking in relation to meet the
goals of the company. They can then use this information to design an effective development plan for
employees. One way to conduct a training needs analysis is to search for performance gaps between
current performance and where you would like them to be.
The training and development is there to provide exceptional customer service and doing all required jobs
professionally both inside and outside the store. Customers are the most essential part in every business
which is why client expectations may change a company’s business plan. Customers’ expectations such
as likes and dislikes, various requests, a secure and healthy environment, and better services, give them
confidence and make them happy. To meet the same consumer expectations, there is a clear requirement
to teach the workforce as well as meet the business objectives. The major goal of a training and
development programme is to not only please consumers but also help the company expand.
How does Tesco conduct a TNA?
Tesco uses something called tableau. By importing all performance and learning data into Tableau and
visualizing the two together, they can see individual employee performance across a wide range of
business areas. Then they can analyze this against which L&D courses they have attended recently,
which not only tells us if additional training may be required, but also which existing courses are the most
effective and which need further refinement. At Tesco, they are using Tableau to analyze written feedback
from training course attendees, uncovering key insights that were otherwise nearly impossible to spot.
