Men’s
Wearhouse specializes in men’s dress clothes and is committed to customer
satisfaction. The company was founded by
George Zimmer and the first store opened in 1973 in Houston, Texas. Today, there are over 1,200 stores in the
U.S. with a purpose of helping “people love how they look by providing a
personal, convenient, one-of-a-kind shopping experience with compelling
products and world class service” (Men’s Wearhouse, n.d.).
The company
credits its success to their commitment in promoting employee growth through
ongoing training programs that focus on personal and career development. If this organization were seeking to improve
performance, a needs analysis would need to be conducted. The needs analysis is the first step in the
instructional design process and is used to determine if training is the appropriate
solution (Noe, 2013).
In order to
determine if a training need exists, who it exists for, and for what tasks training
is needed, key stakeholders like managers, trainers, employees, and subject
matter experts (SMEs) should be involved in the needs analysis process (Noe,
2013). Management would include upper
management and middle managers while SMEs would consist of tailors and sales
associates. When stakeholders are
included, it gives them a sense that their opinions are valued and
increases the odds that they will agree to the recommended training needs and
solutions.
Some questions to ask when analyzing the organization, personnel, and tasks would be:
What is the current
state of performance?
What is the desired
state or performance?
What is the
organization’s rationale for spending on training?
What do employees need
to do to accomplish the business goals? (Noe, 2013)
Who should be trained?
What jobs can training
make the biggest difference in product quality or customer service? (Noe, 2013)
What tasks should be trained?
Historical data and company standard
operating procedures (SOP) documents can be useful during the needs analysis. Historical data from customer service can
give indicators where service is not reaching the desired mark. Also, training records and documents can help
show who and what is being trained.
The needs analysis is a critical first
step in determining the training need.
Instructional designers often use observations, surveys, questionnaires,
and interviews to gather data from management and employees. Many times, simply asking the target audience
what they want and listening to what they tell you can bring light to
performance problems and the solutions to improve performance (Jaenke,
2013). The employees have first-hand
knowledge of what is working and what is not.
Using their input will pay off during the implementation of the training
because they will see it as useful and worthwhile.
References
Jaenke, R.
(2012). Just Ask Them: Increasing Learner Engagement. T&D, 66(7), 30-31.
Men’s Wearhouse. (n.d.).
Retrieved from http://www.menswearhouse.com/careers
Noe, R. A.
(2013). Employee training and development
(6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post Robert. You stated "when stakeholders are included, it gives them a sense of valued opinion and training recommendations are more readily excepted." According to Noe (2013), getting stakeholder buy-in depends on whether or not their perceptions are taken into consideration during the needs assessment phase. Without understanding stakeholders' agendas, it's difficult to negotiate better training resolutions. Organizational standards, goals, and objectives have to be clearly defined, as well as, employee and client needs; as individual performance philosophy varies (Noe, 2013). Those considerations must be collaborated upon and included in the needs assessment. Additionally, the daily work related tasks must be itemized and evaluated to determine performance issues and create new training practices necessary to improve performance.
Bettyann
Reference
Noe, R. A. (2013). Employee training and development (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill
i agree with you, employees have first had knowledge of what is working and what is not. A lot of training is designed using a top down model and, thus, do not fully consider the input from all employees equally. Do you think a bottom up analysis would be beneficial approach to designing the analysis? Or keep it top down? Thoughts?
ReplyDelete