Running head: SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: TRAINING PROGRAM PLAN 1

Signature Assignment: Training Program Plan

Glorimary Diaz Torres

AET/570

Jul 23, 2018

Gregory Dlabach
 SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: TRAINING PROGRAM PLAN 2

Signature Assignment: Training Program Plan

Introduction

Training can be costly for many organizations; especially for those that have many

employees and multiple divisions. However, in many ways training is a necessity and it must take

place. Part of the organization's strategic plan for many organizations includes training and

employee development. Organizations have incorporated different types of training into their

agenda and budget as part of their strategic plans. There are also times when additional training is

necessary to ensure the alignment of the organization and the achievement of goals. The need for

extra training can be due to the result of failures, losses, non-performances, gaps, to reach the

objectives and goals, etc. To be able to analyze the situation and find out what is causing the

problem, organizations perform a Needs or Gap Analysis that will lead them to the cause. Before

assuming that the company needs training, a training needs analysis should take place. The

collective data will identify the areas that need to be covered over the training period. “A successful

training needs analysis will identify those who need training and what kind of training is needed”

(HR-Guide, 2018). A large organization with multiple divisions sometimes needs more training in

certain areas or specific departments. Some red flags and different types of situations usually alert

executives that something is wrong and needs immediate attention. This training program plan will

cover the following parts: Needs or gap analysis, Training program description, Budget

Stakeholders and goals, Training promotional materials, and Program evaluation.

Part I – Needs or Gap Analysis

This assignment will demonstrate how a new training program plan is incorporated after a

training needs analysis was performed to improve the current situation for one of the stores of a

large corporation. The department store “X”, is a multidivisional international retail company that
 SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: TRAINING PROGRAM PLAN 3

also performs businesses online. Company X has locations throughout the U.S including Hawaii

and Puerto Rico. The mission of the company is to provide the best customer service, one customer

at a time. The company embraces diversity and hires the best employees to perform their own

judgment in most situations. The executives of the company encourage employees to have fun at

work and provide the best customer service. One of the locations in Florida, the store had been

losing a noticeable number of employees from their cosmetic department in a very short time. The

department usually has between 50 to 65 employees. In a period of 5 months, 27 people had quit

their jobs. Why? One of the main changes was their department manager 2 years ago. The human

resources department and store manager interviewed some of the employees that after many years

in the company had made the decision to leave. Most of the employees had brought the issues to

HR’s attention that they were not happy with their jobs and that their direct management was the

cause. To determine how the current employees were feeling and avoiding the loss of more

employees, the corporate training department had sent their experts to perform a needs analysis to

determine: the areas to cover in the training, who needs to be trained and why. The company's

turnover rate is very important for any organization; so, the situation needed to be corrected.

Current employees were asked to take an Employee Feedback Survey that included

questions about employee satisfaction, about management, employee retention, culture,

communication, and the feelings about their jobs (see Appendix A for employee’s survey

question). Some of the questions were generated from an article “20 Essential Employee

Engagement Survey Question” (Son, 2017). Other Articles use for the questions of the survey were

from the article “12 Question You Need to Ask in Employee Satisfaction Survey” (Reynolds,

2017). The data collected from the survey was analyzed and narrated in the results.
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Result of Survey

The survey was taken by five different employees. The interview and survey were

performed over the phone due to the circumstances of being in Atlanta and the participants in

Florida. Participants want to remain confidential, so no email communication was involved. For

the company to obtain positive results and avoid training, they need the total point score to be close

to 121. The average score of the participant was 54.4 which is equal to 44.96 % of the desired

score of 121. The individual results were: participant A scored 86, participant B scored 44,

participant C scored 48, participant D scored 46, participant E scored 48. The survey was taken

on June 23, 2018; by July 5, 2018, two of the five participants had also quit their jobs. For the total

results of the survey questions (see Appendix A for employee’s survey question results). The

results of the survey and over the phone interview results show that most of the participants were

happy with the company but very unhappy with their current direct managers. Most of them were

comfortable in communicating their feedback to management, but they felt that their direct boss

was not listening to them. The overall experience of working in their department score was very

low, meaning that the majority were very unhappy and frustrated with their management. Through

a communication aspect, employees showed that they are communicating but management is not

responding. They feel that they have been ignored and that their hard work is not being valued.

Most of the employees had stated that they will not be with the company in the years to come.

Participants were aware of the company’s culture, but their direct management had not been

practicing it. The participants love what they do, and their coworkers were very unhappy with the

circumstantial problems they were having with management. As a general result, they loved the

company and believed that the company had what they needed. However, their direct management

is making the environment hostile and toxic, so they preferred to leave the company. Many
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complain it has been due to their superior and the HR department, but nothing had been resolved.

There is no doubt that there is a need for training in the areas of management and communication.

Part II – Training Program Description

Employee retention is crucial for any organization plan. The organization “X” understands

that the current problem is causing the front line of employees to leave and it is due to the cosmetics

department direct management. In the organizational chart of the company, the first and most

important group is the customers. Right after the customers, is the front line of employees that deal

directly with the customers. If the employees leave, customers may go with them too. To avoid

losing more personnel and increase retention, the training department and executives of the

organization created a new learning training program for the management group. The new training

will strengthen and sharpen managers skills, leadership, knowledge, and communication. The new

training will be held at the same store in the training room. Training is from August 20 to 22, 2018

from 7:00 am to 12:00 pm Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. After the main general manager

staff training is completed, cosmetic’s department manager and assistant manager will have to

continue education online every first Friday of each month for 6 months. This online training will

be one hour during their work time from their office.

The scope of the Training- Is to train the manager's staff and their assistants with management

skills, personal skills, team-focused skills, corporate skills, and communication skills. These skills

are implemented so that the managers can become better leaders in the organization and retain,

coach, and develop employees. The new learning and management development training program

will give the managers the necessary tools to succeed and retain employees by avoiding the loss

of more employees.
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Intended Audience- The intended audiences are managers and assistant managers that manage

the front line of employees that deal directly with the customers. The new learning and

management development program is designed for the store manager, department managers and

assistant managers of the store. A Group of 49 managers including the assistants, one store

manager, and one store assistant manager. The HR department will be assisted as well as during

the training process which includes another 2 employees. The diverse group of 53 employees that

will be participating in the training range from the ages of 18 to high 60s. Most of the participants

are computer savvy because they are constantly getting trained on the computer plus it’s one of

their primary work tools.

Program goals:

 To train every manager in the store to become better leaders by improving their personal

skills, management skills, corporate skills, team-focused skills, and communication skills.

 Managers will be able to retain, develop, and grow more talented employees in every

department in the store.

Program objectives:

Objective 1:

 After the 3-day training program plan, the management team will have improved their:

o Personal skills: “This is the ability of an employee to evaluate themselves and

identify strengths and weaknesses” (Halvorson, 2015).

o Team-focused skills: This is the ability of an employee to manage, motivate, and

communicate with small groups (Halvorson, 2015).

o Corporate skills: “These are the skills and drive to make your business more

successful” (Halvorson, 2015).

 SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: TRAINING PROGRAM PLAN 7

o Communication skill: “both communication up and down the management chain,

is essential. It emphasizes the importance of listening to employees, taking their

feedback into account, and providing feedback on a regular basis” (Score, 2017).

o Management skill: Becoming a leader, HR policies, hiring process, management

system, time management, setting a goal, wisely delegating, personality and work

style, lasting solutions, conflict resolution style, mentoring, and training.

Objectives 2:

 After the 3-day training program plan, management will have the tactic on how to retain,

develop, and grow talent in the store by:

o Keep the employees from quitting by: showing respect, showing emotional

intelligence, being authentic, being consistent, giving employees creative freedom,

recognizing hard work, allowing them to contribute ideas, listening to them, keep

them connected and engaged, being flexible, open-minded, sharing the departments

vision, giving feedback, allowing feedback as well, embracing diversity, promoting

them, engender trust, provided them with the learning opportunity, and more

(Smith, 2016).

Part III – Budget

The budget for the management training program is projected at 2,898.49. The budget has

been approved by the cosmetic director, corporate budget department and the executives of the

“X” organization. The projected budget will be generated from the Florida store’s annual budget.

Each store location has training rooms and the necessary equipment for training. The management

staff that will be participating are under salary which does not require additional costs. The training

will be during working schedules which minimize costs.

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Expenses Description Cost

Personnel
 Managers Staff are on salary N/A

External staff

 Speaker guest Speaker guest (successful N/A

manager and leader from the
corporate offices) for the last
day of training.
 Trainer Corporate Trainer N/A

Materials
 Binders 87.50
 Pens 7.99
 CD-R 37.00
 Copy Paper 55.00
 Name Tents 25.00

Technical support Store have support N/A

Travel
 Guest Guest 1 -Airline tickets: 975.00
475.00/ Hotel 350.00/ dinners
expenses/ 75.00

 Trainer Trainer - Arline tickets: 975.00

475.00/ Hotel 350.00/ dinner
expenses 75.00
Facilities N/A

 Beverage 15.00
 Coffee 11.00
 Water 35.00
 Soda 675.00
 Panera Lunch
TOTAL 2,898.49
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Part IV – Stakeholders and Goals

Who are the stakeholders? “The stakeholders of the company are a group of individuals that have

an interest in the organization and can affect or be affected by the organization's actions, objectives

and policies” (Dictionary.com, 2018). All the stakeholders are different such as their, rights,

interest, benefits and more. However, they all entitled to something in different ways. The next

table will demonstrate the stakeholders of the organization X, and the role of each stakeholder in

the training program.

Stakeholders Partnership Goal Ways to Producing Positive

Build Support Impact on Learning
President of Provides resources, Have an important By approving the
Operations planning, and role in approving the learning programs,
approval to ensure training program. managers will be able
organizational to increase
success. Supports the productivity and
organization retention of
operations and employees.
training programs.

Chief Financial The final approval for Takes over the The training program
Officer the business training plans and will reinforce and
operation finances needs of the business boost the manager's
come from the CFO. for financial performance and
approval. compliances to
become better
managers in the
organization.
Hunan Resources HR is the head of They will work in Have a significant
Manager and employee’s conjunction with the impact on the
Assistant resources, education, store manager, HR employees training
and employee’s assistant, training and development
development in the facilitator, and programs that prepare
organization. executives during the and engage
planning and training employees in their
process. jobs and the
organization.
The store manager is Retention, Facilitating the
Store Manager the captain of the development, and management team
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ship. The entire staff happiness of the with a management

reports to her. She’s employees is any performance training
responsible to look store manager and will boost their
after anything in the company’s priority to knowledge and skill
store and report to the continue the daily on how to become a
executive of the operations. better manager and
company. The store manager retain more
can make any employees.
training or meeting
mandatory as part of
her management
plan.
Department The department By attending the By retaining and
Managers and managers and training and bringing applying what they
Assistants assistant goals are to their best positive learn back at work
become better attitude they will they will create a
managers and retain deliver positive positive impact.
more employees. outcomes.
They are the front They participate in a The employees are
Cosmetic Employees line and face of the survey to analyze and the voice between the
company that deals determine the needs customers and the
directly with the of training and in the organization. They
customers and the training evaluation reflect the product of
managers that will be after the training their management
part of the training. concluded. capabilities when
leading a group.

Part V – Training Promotional Materials

A conference call will be held on the first of July 16, 2018, with the purpose of notifying the

management team about the employee’s satisfaction and survey results. During this conference

call, the entire management staff of the Florida store will be present. As the results of the

employee’s satisfaction survey, a need for training goals and objective will be discussed. On July

19, 2018, the training team will send a memorandum to all the stakeholders involved in the training

to officially announce the training and details. (See Appendix B for the MEMO). One week before

training, the participants will receive an email with a flyer to remind the employees of the

upcoming meeting and motivate the participants. See Appendix C for flyer details).
 SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: TRAINING PROGRAM PLAN 11

Logo: It is used in most of the materials, document, emails, and advertising that is generated

from the organization.

Slogan: Training improves knowledge, skills, and confidence; let’s do it!

The slogan is used to advertise the training in the organization and motivate the participant.

Fact sheet

Training Program Fact Sheet

The Mission: The mission is to train every
manager in the store and improving their
personal skills, management skills, corporate
skills, team-focused skills, and communication
skills
Facts: Mandatory Training
Training effective day: August 20-22, 2018.
Location: In-store training room.
Time: 7:00am-12:00pm M T W
Trainer: Jenifer Tomas
Guest Speaker from the corporate office:
Robert Spark
Participants: 53 employees that will be
participating in the training range from the
ages of 18 to high 60s.
The vision: Managers will be able to retain,
develop, and grow more talented employees
in every department of the store.
Last training in a preview store, demonstrated
that 95% of managers satisfied with the
training in general.
Training is being successful in the previous
stores showing an increase in management
performance in their scorecard by 79 % in
2017.
Employees satisfaction survey in the previous
store results in 6 months after the training
show that 89% of employees were happy.
The training has increased employee retention
rates in the previous stores in the organization
by 55%.
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Benefits of the training program

All Stakeholders will benefit from the training. Managers will develop new techniques, skills,

and knowledge. The organization X will be able to retain its happy employees. Customers will

continue working with those employees that have been servicing them. The organization's

current reputation for bad management; will diminish after employees start taking in positive and

constructive criticism.

Managers will be able to:

 Increase their interpersonal skills such as verbal and nonverbal communication, listening,

negotiation, problem-solving, and more.

 Increase their management skills, corporate skills, leadership skills, and team focused

skills.

Part VI – Program Evaluation

The program evaluation is to measure the effectiveness of the training and the impact on the

participant, organization, and employees. The evaluation will be performed by the training

department of the organization X. There will be separate segments in different periods of time that

will be necessary to complete the evaluation. The training program evaluation will use the

Kirkpatrick Model which includes the four levels: reaction, learning, behavior, and result. The data

collection will be composed of qualitative and quantitative information, generated by the

participants: trainees testing results, trainer’s observation, store manager reviews/scorecard, and

employees survey that will be performed six months after management training. The metrics for

the evaluation is based on the goals and objectives of the training program. The main objectives

and goals of the evaluation are to verify if the training results were positive and if the training

goals were achieved. Some of the major indicators of a positive (ROI) are increasing the
 SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: TRAINING PROGRAM PLAN 13

management skills and retaining more employee by allowing them to be happy and feel that they

want to remain in the organization.

Level 1-Reaction:

The reaction evaluation will be done in two parts. The participants will take a survey on the last

day of training. The survey will be composed of training satisfaction questions and the participants

will respond using the scale system such as; from (1 to 5) five being the best. They will also have

a comment box for their personal comments. The second part of the reaction evaluation will be

done by the corporate guest speaker that will also be evaluating the trainer and the participants.

Level 2- Learning:

To measure how much the participants have learned, the training program includes two tests (Pre-

and/or Post-Tests).

 Pre-training testing will be done on the first day of training after the introduction of the

program. The test takers will be selecting the best answer for each question relating to

management skills, communication skill, interpersonal skill, and team-focused skills.

 After training, testing will also include the same topics in different questions to measure

the knowledge that the participants acquired.

Level 3- Behavior:

The behavior of the managers back at work is crucial after the training. This is where the managers

and staff take what they have learned and apply it to their current jobs. The store manager will

continue observing and supervising the manager's performance, employee’s retention, feedback

from employees in the different departments, scorecards, and production. Using the results from

the scorecard 3 months after the training, the evaluation team can make notes and collect the

necessary data for evaluation.

 SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: TRAINING PROGRAM PLAN 14

Level 4- Results:

The results from the training are very important to determine the ROI. Employees will be

participating in an employee satisfaction survey that will include questions from the company,

management, and satisfaction. The survey will be using the scaling system such as: from (1 to 5)

one being unsatisfied, and five being very satisfied.

Concluding the evaluation: Incorporating all levels of evaluation into the training program will

show the results and if the return on investment was indeed accomplished.
 SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: TRAINING PROGRAM PLAN 15

Appendix A

Employee Feedback Survey Questions

This survey is confidential and will only be used to improve the experiences in the workplace.

Giving the opportunity for the employees to provide feedback is crucial to collect the necessary

data that will help us improve and provide wonderful work experiences.

Part 1- From the scale, 1 to 10 (one being worth and ten being the best) Please select your

best answers. Fill the bubble in the selected answer.

Questions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1- How happy are you in the company you work for? 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

2- How would you rate your work-life balance in 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

your current position?
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3- How comfortable do you feel giving feedback to
your managers?
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4- How would you rate the overall experience in your
department.

Part 2- Read the questions and select the best responses by filling in the bubbles.

Questions Strongly Somewhat Neither Agree Somewhat Strongly

Disagree nor Disagree Agree Agree
5-Would you refer 0 0 0 0 0
someone you know to
work in your current
company?
6-Do you have a clear 0 0 0 0 0
understanding of your
promotion path, and the
different opportunities?
7-Hypothetically, if you 0 0 0 0 0
were to quit tomorrow, is
 SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: TRAINING PROGRAM PLAN 16

it because you were not

happy at work?
8-Your managers 0 0 0 0 0
recognize your hard work
often.
9-Do you believe you'll 0 0 0 0 0
be able to reach your full
potential in the company?
10-If you were given the 0 0 0 0 0
chance, would you
reapply for your current
job in the same company?
11-Do you foresee 0 0 0 0 0
yourself working with the
same company in the next
few years?
12-Do you believe the 0 0 0 0 0
direct management team
takes your feedback
seriously?
13-With eyes closed, can 0 0 0 0 0
you recite the
organization's values?
14-Do you feel like the 0 0 0 0 0
management team in your
department is transparent,
real, and reachable?
15-Do you believe that 0 0 0 0 0
your current job
organization lives
authentically by their
organizational values?
16-Does the executive 0 0 0 0 0
team contributes to a
positive work culture?
17-Do you have fun at 0 0 0 0 0
work?
18-Do you find your 0 0 0 0 0
work meaningful and
valuable?
19-Does the company 0 0 0 0 0
gives you the tools and
technologies you need to
do your job well?
20-Does your direct 0 0 0 0 0
management team
 SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: TRAINING PROGRAM PLAN 17

communicates company -
news effectively and in a
timely manner?
21-Do you feel as though 0 0 0 0 0
your job responsibilities
are clearly defined and
explained to you?

Individual total for each Question.

Part I

1- From a possible 10 average result was 3.8

2- From a possible 10 average result was 2.6
3- From a possible 10 average result was 2.8
4- From a possible 10 average result was 2.2

Part II
5- From a possible 5 average result was 3.2
6- From a possible 5 average result was 3.4
7- From a possible 1 average result was 4.4
8- From a possible 5 average result was 1.2
9- From a possible 5 average result was 1.4
10- From a possible 5 average result was 2.2
11- From a possible 5 average result was 1.4
12- From a possible 5 average result was 1.4
13- From a possible 5 average result was 4.2
14- From a possible 5 average result was 1.6
15- From a possible 5 average result was 2.2
16- From a possible 5 average result was 1.8
17- From a possible 5 average result was 3.4
18- From a possible 5 average result was 3.6
19- From a possible 5 average result was 2.6
20- From a possible 5 average result was 1.6
21- From a possible 5 average result was 2.4
 SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: TRAINING PROGRAM PLAN 18

Appendix B

MEMORANDUM
TO: Organization X Stakeholders
FROM: Training Management Team
DATE: July 19, 2018
SUBJECT: Manager Training Program Florida Store 576
CC: Operation Manager, Financial Officer, HR department, 576 Store Managers

X Organization Team,

The X organization training team wants to thank everyone for their hard work and support
involving the organizations training goals. The return on investment has created an opportunity to
continue growing. The organization's successful efforts to continue growing and developing a
successful management team has been made possible thanks to everyone’s participation. Thank
you all for your efforts and participation involving the upcoming management training.

The department of training and learning development continues working hard on bringing the best
training platforms and opportunities to the organization. Part of their hard efforts is to reinforce
any knowledge or skill that they may have a need for in training.

As for our conversation last Monday, July 16, the training team has officially announced the
upcoming Manager Training program that will take place on August 20-22, 2018. The training
start time is at 7:00 am to 12:00 pm Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday during normal working
hours. Snacks, beverages, and lunch will be provided.

The need for training is necessary when training all managers in the store in becoming better
leaders by improving their personal skills, management skills, corporate skills, team-focused skills,
and communication skills. Management will then be able to retain, develop, and grow more
talented employees in every roll of the department store. The main goal is to train the leaders of
the store in connecting and engaging with the front-line employees and then be able to create a
happy productive environment where they are assigned to work. Training will take place in the
training room and all material will be provided and facilitated by the HR department and the
training staff.

Thank you all for the support throughout the training process and keep in mind that you can always
bring up any ideas or solutions which are greatly welcomed.

Sincerely; Training Staff

SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: TRAINING PROGRAM PLAN 19

Appendix C
 SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: TRAINING PROGRAM PLAN 20

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