How to Develop an Organizational Training Plan Essay

Introduction To achieve its business objectives, an organisation needs people with the right skills and knowledge to be in place at the right time. The Training Plan describes how the organisation is going to achieve this. Creating an Organisational Training Plan: †¢ Is an opportunity for the management team to step back and identify the skills and knowledge gaps in the organisation †¢ Encourages the exploration of various options for training and development before deciding what to do †¢ Enables the budget and resources required for training to be planned and allocated during the business planning cycle †¢ Captures strategic training requirements in a single document as a point of reference for everyone. Definitions An Organisational Training Plan is a document created by the senior team that explains what strategic training the organisation needs to do and how it will do it. It does not address maintenance training, or personal development, both of which can be picked up at team level or through the appraisal system. Strategic training is any training and development of people that is required to enable the organisation to achieve its objectives. Maintenance training is the routine training that an organisation carries out to meet its legal requirements and operate smoothly. For example: first aid skills or basic IT. Personal development is developing individuals so that they fulfil their longer-term career potential in the organisation. Key steps in developing an Organisational Training Plan Consider the following questions as you develop your plan: 1. Have you developed a vision? 2. What are your organisational objectives? 3. Are the objectives SMART? 4. How do the various groups in the organisation help achieve these? 5. Have you involved people and representative groups in the development? 6. Does each group have the skills and knowledge it needs? 7. What training and development do you need to do? 8. How will you evaluate its effectiveness? 9. Do you know how the impact will be measured? 1. Organisational objectives An essential starting point is an understanding of the organisational objectives. This can be in the form of a Business Plan, or at its simplest, a set of SMART objectives. 2. How do the various groups in the organisation help achieve the organisation’s objectives? Start by identifying how each of the teams, departments or occupational areas in your organisation contributes to your organisational objectives. CBX is a medium sized software company that develops database management systems. It has 51 staff: Next year, CBX is planning two major business growth initiatives: †¢ It is planning to release a new on-line version of its flagship product ‘Lab Manager’. The market for the existing version of Lab Manager is approaching saturation, and CBX believes that the new version will kick start demand again. Development is currently behind schedule. Product Development will build the on-line version, the Sales and Marketing team are preparing sales and marketing plans that include global product launches. Operations are involved in creating the new packaging, and the Customer Services team needs to tool itself up to support the new product. †¢ It is extending its chain of sales agents to include the Middle East, Far East and Australia. The Sales and Marketing team are working with the newly appointed agents to create plans and sales literature. The Customer Services team will initially support the new agencies. 3. Does each group have the skills and knowledge that it needs? Now, think about the skills and knowledge that each group needs. What are their strengths and do they have any development needs? Here’s an analysis for some of the teams at CBX: Product Development (PD) Strengths in line with achieving the organisation’s goals †¢ Good understanding of the target market and its requirement †¢ Experience of building similar applications †¢ Well established team that works well together. Development needs to achieve the organisation’s goals †¢ More effective project management †¢ Advanced development in Internet technologies. Sales and Marketing (SM) Strengths in line with achieving the organisation’s goals †¢ Good understanding of UK/European market and their requirements †¢ Relationship building skills †¢ Good knowledge of existing products. Development needs to achieve the organisation’s goals †¢ Improved understanding of cultural diversity †¢ Briefing on new on-line product †¢ Project planning skills. Management Team (MT) Strengths in line with achieving the organisation’s goals †¢ Works well as a team †¢ Good understanding of market and its requirements †¢ Global vision. Development needs to achieve the organisation’s goals †¢ Briefing on new on-line product †¢ Improved understanding of cultural diversity. Tel: 08456 047 047 Web: www.traintogain.gov.uk Email: traintogain@businesslinksw.co.uk 4. What training and development do you need to do? Now, think about how what training activities you will put in place for each of the development areas in the matrix. Here are some options for you to consider: Team briefings Team training sessions run by the team leader. Useful for cascading information about new initiatives or for improving work standards in a group. Training sessions with an external training organisation to develop a new skill or knowledge. Can range from a one day workshop to a longer-term programme. 1:1 guidance and support for an individual who is developing a new skill or solving work problems. Individuals work though learning resources (e.g. interactive workbooks or on-line learning sessions) at their own pace. Useful for learning a new skill or gaining new knowledge. Run by people from within your organisation. Useful for delivering organisationspecific knowledge. The individual works with a more experienced staff member who shows them how to do the job or a particular task. The plan has to be achievable, and so you should allocate budget and resources to it at the planning stage. Many organisations believe that Investors in People assessors will be impressed with how much money the organisation spends on training and development. This isn’t true. The standard is about effective training and development in line with your organisation’s goals. 5. How will you evaluate its effectiveness? Think about how you will measure the success of the training activities in your plan. Try to develop success criteria that express the outputs or results that you expect in each development area. Your criteria should be measurable in terms of money, quality, productivity or time.

Competitive Advantage and Disadvantage Between Minorities and Women in the Workforce

â€Å"It’s a small world. † How many times do we hear this in our everyday life? The internet, mass media, telecommunications, and mass transportation have all contributed to the shrinking of the international market. As companies become more and more diverse, it’s becoming more and more important for the employees to understand and manage it. For my research paper, I’ve decided to find out the competitive advantage and disadvantage between minorities and women in the workplace.Diversity in the workplace is a topic that many industries and organizations spend an abundant amount of time and training on in order to ensure its presence. Today’s workplace is more diverse than it has ever been in the history of America. 1 out of 4 Americans belong to a minority or is foreign-born. Women are making up less than half of the work force. Whether you are a business owner, executives, salesperson, or customers, your success will increasingly depend on your abi lity to function in a culturally diverse marketplace. Women, people of color, and immigrants will soon hold almost ? of all jobs in this country.In order to effectively manage diversity and recognize it as a source of strength instead of conflict, we will need to be educated and reprogrammed to accept and embrace diversity. In the world today, it is a face that a lot of people believe that racism is no longer exists. Little do they know, as of 2010, the National Organization of Women believes that the U. S. still needs an affirmative action plan. African American women earned 63 cents to a dollar for the jobs that men do, and Hispanic women earn 57 cents to the dollar and Blacks have twice the unemployment rates of whites.Minority and immigrant groups are often disadvantaged in gaining access to jobs for which they are educationally qualified and earn less than their white counterparts. Descriptive results showed greater overall underemployment among females than males. Blacks and H ispanics had higher unemployment and working poverty rates compared to non-Hispanic whites and Asians, with job mismatch highest among Asians. Immigrant underemployment was greater than that of the native-born Americans. Asians posted the largest disparity in immigrant versus native-born underemployment, and blacks had the smallest.The double disadvantage hypothesis of minority group and immigrant status is accepted only for Asian men and women with jobs mismatched to their skills and for Asian women, who are most likely to be unemployed or be among the working poor. Asian immigrants’ women have the characteristics to stay at home, cleaning house, shy, and less aggressive, which transform to have less attached to the workforce. Researchers have shown great interest in the study of gender and race effects on promotions outcomes.The evidence suggests that women are disadvantaged such that they are less likely to be promoted than their equal qualified male counterparts. Lacks of advancement opportunities is major contributors to voluntary quit decisions by employees that fitted the job well and contribute to the company they belong. Employment decisions should be based on skills and ability, allowing all employees to put their talents to good use and work together to get the best possible outcome. America is not the only place in the world that’s facing the challenge of workplace discrimination.Within the UK, construction has an unenviable status as being the industry with the lowest representation of women and ethnic minority employees. The construction workplace presents a challenging and hostile environment for non-traditional workers, and women and ethnic minority employees face both similar and different challenges and attitudinal barriers. Discriminatory behavior perform by the dominant white male workforce is unbearable, as are informal recruitment practices, exclusive networks and a competitive culture. As the turn of the new millennium, the proportion of minority members living n poverty, attending poorly funded schools, or experiencing other forms of disadvantage far exceed the proportion of whites under these conditions. It was found that the minority residents of communities with large minority populations were in worse socioeconomic conditions than the minority residents of predominately white communities. Furthermore it was found that as minority concentration increased, white residents tended to do better. In addition, the extent of racial inequality between minority and white residents was greater in communities with larger minority populations.The improvement of education and training to minority residents of racially concentrated communities will be very beneficial, not only to the people itself, also think of it as a better country as a whole. There is little question that the improvement of educational levels and employment skills of minority residents communities will pay dividends in the near future. The growing markets of Latin America, Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe are now playing an ever more important role in global buying, selling and manufacturing.Diversity within a company can help the firm better understand the culture, customs, and the way of doing business internationally. Customers also prefer to do business with a workforce that which they can identify, and that have a strong commitment to their community. There are many advantages to having a work environment that is diverse. A company that is prepared for changes in demographics is prepared for the market changes as well as the changes in the pool of applicants. Having a diverse workplace creates an increase in attracting and retaining the most qualified candidates.Diversity programs within corporations improve corporate culture, help in recruitment, and help to maintain better client relations. In conclusion diversity in workforce is growing in all countries, specially America, Canada, and Europe. With having m ore diverse work environment, organization can produce better performance. It is important for the companies to know diversity and how to handle the issues relating to it. Also the need of the diverse workforce is getting more not only because there are different people but also because they can produce better results with having different types of people working.Leaders in the organizations must learn diversity and how to manage it effectively. One of the reasons, aside that my family is back in Hong Kong, that I will end up going back to Hong Kong as soon as I graduate college is because as much as I don’t want to say it, I can feel discrimination everyday in my life. As little as just playing basketball on a nice day, someone around you will always have the stereotype about how you look and what to expect. We can arguably say that America is the â€Å"melting pot† of the world, but racism, in my book, will never escape in the use of our everyday life.

History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

History - Essay Example Secular Humanism however presents a way of living for the human beings and suggests that following religion does not specifies if a man is good or not, a man can lead a good life by doing good to the people and the environment around him and bringing peace and harmony to everyone in the society. This is the only way he can lead a happy and successful life. Secular Humanism stresses on the logical reasoning of things before accepting them and the concept of accepting things on the basis of religious beliefs is totally rejected. According to the ideology presented by Secular Humanism, humans should utilize their power to think and reason before accepting or rejecting any idea and their decisions should be based on logical reasoning and not on the illogical and inherited religious beliefs. Secular Humanism persuades human mind to indulge in learning and logical reasoning the ability of logical reasoning is developed by learning the arts. Secular Humanism is neither a religion nor follow s the dictionary meaning of the word secular because it upholds the concept of human dignity and stresses the followers to practice moral and ethical values in their lives. According to the secular humanism ideology, the aim of life of a human is to achieve high levels in moral and ethical conduct and serve the mankind. The humans are supposed to develop themselves and achieve new heights because the process of evolution is still in progress. According to secular humanism, the human life ends with death and there is no life after death and humans are not answerable to anyone. Therefore it is antagonistic to religious beliefs because the concept of God and life after death is absent however it can still be classified as a religion if religion is defined as a set of beliefs and a way of life. The world today has about 40-50 million followers of this ideology. (428 words) Printing Press and Religion With the invention of the printing press in the 15th century remarkable changers were o bserved in literature, learning and religion. The idea of printing press and moveable type was first perceived by Gutenberg and he put together paper, winepress and oil based ink, three different technological developments of that time. The arrangement he formulated could be used for printing books and in this way the first printing press was invented. The invention of printing press brought a revolution in reading and writing and this also included the religious reading because prior to this invention, the books and written literature was not accessible to everyone and was also very expensive. The objective of the development and invention of the printing press was to lower down the prices of the books and to produce them in large numbers so that more and more people could learn from books and the Bible. More and more books were made available to the common people and learning and the transfer of knowledge became very frequent. The printing press initiated the information revolutio n because printing allowed the quick transfer of a large amount of knowledge with ease. The effect of printing was very evident in the population because people started reading and learning new skills and techniques which helped them develop themselves into useful individuals of the society. Moreover with the invention of printing press more educational institutions and libraries were opened and revolutionary

If Gold Prices Are The Same Everywhere, Then Why Arn't House Prices Essay

If Gold Prices Are The Same Everywhere, Then Why Arn't House Prices - Essay Example Using the basic economic supply and demand curve, it is easier for us to examine how prices and available supply affects the existing market behavior. To enable us to understand the major factor that make the prices of gold remains the same over time but not the housing prices, the history of the global trading system will first be tackled. Using the theories of microeconomics, significant changes within the domestic markets that contributes to the changes in the market value of houses will be thoroughly discussed. Between the years 1879 to 1934, trading of goods between two countries occurred using of the gold standard which enabled traders to pay goods and services in exchange with the quantity of gold (McConnell & Brue, 2004: p. 478). Since the value of gold remains the same in each country, there was officially a fixed exchange rate all over the world. Eventually, the use of fixed exchange rate resulted to a negative international demand shock since the prices goods from one country to another remains the same (Eichengreen, 1996). The global economic depression that happened back in 1930s changes the concept of having fixed exchange rate. (McConnell & Brue, 2004: p. 479) In order to promote free competition within the domestic and global trading markets, some nations have considered making the cost of exportation cheaper by devaluating their currency against the real value of gold. As part of strengthening the adjustable-peg system which was introduced under the Bretton Woods System1, each country agreed to accept gold and the US dollar as the benchmark for international reserves since the US was able to accumulate the biggest supply of gold as compared with other countries (McConnell & Brue, 2004: p. 480). As a result, the agreed equivalent of gold in terms of the US dollar is US$35 per ounce (Bougrine & Seccareccia, 2004). Aiming to avoid economic bias

Three major political approaches to fixing the problem with the Research Paper

Three major political approaches to fixing the problem with the national debt - Research Paper Example During a meeting in Cleveland, President Obama proposed a tax breaks and, directed corporate to eliminate one hundred percent of their ventures in industries and machineries. This move was further supported by Dave, a senior member of the Republican Party. In addition, a senior director of tax at Cato institute Edward Chris supported the three positions by arguing that the proposed approaches of fixing the problem with the national debt will help to revive the U.S economy. Mann Thomas a political scientist also advocated for the three proposed approaches by president Obama. Thomas asserted that the three approaches will help to promote economic growth tremendously. Additionally, the minority Leader Boehner John R-Ohio supported president Osama’s proposal to cut down budget and increase tax breaks (Raum, paras.1-5). The three positions have further been substantiated by the law whereby, the law provides corporate a chance to obtain fifty percent of the cost up front and the out standing balance to be settled within twenty years. Senior political official substantiated the move to implement tax breaks by proposing its benefits to the individual and to the entire economy at large. Some of the benefits include increase both individual and corporate investments which intern will lead to employments creation. The three proposals will further help to promote economic growth and expansion of small business (Raum, paras.3-7). ii) Give the pro’s and con’s of each approach. The pro’s of the first approach which involves cutting down government expenditures and give more tax breaks and incentives to small and big business include: it will help to eliminate government deficit and foreign debts because this approach helps at ensuring that the their readily available resources to be utilize productively. This approach further provides members of the public especially low income earners and middle class families with an opportunity to improve their s tandards of leaving. In addition, this approach will help to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor as well as promote growth of small medium enterprises (Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, p.158). On the contrary, the first approach tends to have some con’s. Among the con’s of this approach include: increase in negative externalities such as pollution because cutting down government expenditure limits the availability of funds to provide social services to the public. Reduction in government spending will causes a reduction in aggregate demand. This further leads to a reduction in economic activities as well as increase in unemployment problems. In addition, this approach discourages income distribution among members of the public. The approach will further affect those people who rely on social welfare benefits because they would not receive as much as they had expected to receive. This will further affect their budget and speeding (Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, p.158). The second approach for fixing the problems with the National budget involves putting more emphasize on our exports by lowering our dollar value or forcing our trade partners – China – to regulate more accurately its currency. This approach tends to have the following pro’

Human Rights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words - 2

Human Rights - Essay Example (Fenwick, H.; â€Å"Civil Liberties and Human Rights†; 2007). The answer lies in the fact that Section 3 of the Human Rights Act, as also many other sections, hedges its bets by saying that, â€Å"so far as it is possible to do so†, primary legislation and subordinate legislation must be read and given effect in a way which is compatible with the Convention’s rights. For instance, Section 12 of the Human Rights Act emphasises the role of courts in defending the right to freedom of expression, and states that this Section applies if a court is considering â€Å"whether to grant any relief which, if granted, might affect exercise of the Convention right to freedom of expression†. (Coppel, J; â€Å"Human Rights Act 1998: Enforcing the European Convention on Human Rights in Domestic Courts†; 1999) Moreover, it is considered unlawful for a court to act in a manner contrary to a Convention right â€Å"unless obliged to act in such a way by a provision of primary legislation†. (www.highbeam.com/doc/IP3-77629772.html). (www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts 1998/ukpga/19980042_en_1) Incidentally, discretionary increase in police powers has landed the UK Government at least once in the soup. Article 15 of the Convention states in Para 1 that â€Å"in times of war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation, any contracting party may take measures derogating from its obligations under the Convention to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, provided that such measures are not inconsistent with its other obligations under international law†. However, in the case of Brogan and others v United Kingdom (1988; II EHRR 117) four persons were arrested on the suspicion that they were provisional members of the IRA, and detained under Section 12 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1984.They were released after four-to-six days. They claimed that Britain had violated several parts of the Article 5 of the

Myers-Briggs assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Myers-Briggs assignment - Essay Example The first two letters are E and I. They are meant to measure if a person is more of an extravert (tend to focus on the outer world of people and things), or an introvert (tend to focus on the inner world or ideas and impressions). The next two letters are S and N. The letter S refers to sensing (people who tend to focus on the present and the concrete information gained from their senses), while the letter N refers to iNtuition (people who tend to focus on the future, with a particular view toward patterns and possibilities). Next are the letter T and F. T refers to Thinking (people who tend to base their decisions on logic and an objective analysis of cause and effect), while F refers to feeling (people who tend to base their decisions primarily on values and on a subjective evaluation of person-centered concerns). Finally, the report generates either a J or a P. J refers to Judgement (people who tend to like a planned and organized approach to life and prefer to have things settled . They are more likely to schedule their activities and they prefer the ‘destination’ as opposed to the ‘journey’). The letter P refers to Perception (people who tend to be flexible and spontaneous in their approach to life. They are not as likely to schedule their activities, as they prefer to keep their options open). The Myers-Briggs assessment was first utilized in 1943 and has become the instrument of choice for countless organizations around the world in helping their people better understand themselves. The assessment was actually developed by a mother daughter team of Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers. Their goal was to take their research on personality type theory and turn that it into a tool that could prove useful is helping describe the various temperaments that people have. Interestingly enough, Carl Jung was a heavy influence on the work of both ladies that were responsible for the