Posted: April 3rd, 2015

Soupstock Ltd ;HR2S07 Talent Development and Sustainability ASSESSMENT 2

Soupstock Ltd ;HR2S07 Talent Development and Sustainability ASSESSMENT 2

Soupstock Ltd is a canning factory that employs 150 people. Staff are employed in four departments: production, stock control, HR and administration, and maintenance. The majority of staff work in the production department on the factory floor.
A new Human Resource Development Manager, Jill Collins, has recently been appointed. The board has decided that its organisational objectives for the next five years are to improve quality and reduce wastage. Jill’s first function was to consider how the organisational objectives could be met through training and development of staff. She therefore set about establishing employees’ training needs.

The Human Resources Plan
Jill started by examining the human resource plan, which set out the human resource needs of the organisation for the next five years. She was able to see from this that particular areas, such as stock control, were expecting an increase in staffing levels in years two and three.
Jill approached the managers of each department to discuss their jobs and what, if any, succession plans they had in place for key staff, including themselves. She found that only one department had a plan in action for ensuring that if staff left or were promoted, then there would be other staff available to take over their duties; this was the HR and Administration department. Her next job, then, was to identify key positions and key staff in the organisation and consider the training needs of staff likely to take over critical positions in the organisation if the current incumbents left.

Incident on the Shop Floor
While she was collecting the above information from managers, she witnessed an incident which was very useful in her analysis of training needs. There was an accident in the production bay, where a hand-operated fork-lift landed on the operator’s foot. Luckily the operator was wearing steel-capped boots so no real injury other than some bruising was caused but the two members of staff concerned were very shaken by the incident.  Jill was able to determine that the incident was caused because the operator had insufficient experience in using the equipment, as she normally worked in another part of the factory. This had occurred as the process of ‘borrowing’ staff from one part of the organisation to another in busy times was common. Staff generally had no problem with this, indeed they enjoyed the change of work; however, staff were often not trained in the procedures of that particular area. As they were called upon only in busy times there was no time to train them properly during these periods.  She overheard one of the staff members saying,

“I’ve been warning about this sort of thing happening for a while, but nobody wants to listen.  I have told them time and time again that there needs to be a record kept of who has been trained for each machine…I’ve even suggested a way we could do this using an app on our smart phones…but I just feel that my suggestions are ignored…so what’s the point!”

New Ideas and Innovation
For Jill, this incident demonstrated a clear training need and also a worrying attitude to towards employee voice and new innovative ideas.  She felt that not only health and safety could be jeopardised if individuals had not received full training but also motivation levels and propensity of staff with tacit knowledge not to come forward with ideas or ways of sharing this tacit knowledge. This incident provided very useful information on the training needs of individuals that may not have come to light otherwise.

Departmental Targets for Production and Wastage
Next, Jill used the computerised information system to retrieve data on departmental targets and production levels as well as wastage levels. As she was not familiar with the particular system, an administrative assistant helped her to find the information required. From this information she was able to identify where targets were not being met and again, in talking to the managers and staff in those areas, establish what the problems might be and if training or development might help.

Appraisal
The organisation had a formal appraisal system that operated once a year. Managers and their staff met individually to set performance targets and discuss training needs. By examining the formal appraisal and development plans that were written by the manager, and signed by the employee, Jill was able to find out individual areas where staff needed training.

Regular Meetings
Once she had identified the training needs she was able to organise supervisors to meet with their staff on a one-to-one basis and agree personal objectives for training. Within these personal objectives, one had to be related to improving quality. Individuals’ training needs were then established and a training and development plan was written for the employee. From then on, meetings were regularly held between the manager and the employee every quarter to discuss progress.

Your task

You are to adopt the role of Jill.

You have been asked by the Managing Director (MD) of Soupstock Ltd.,  Mr Martin Alexander,  to compile a 2,500 word report (+/- 10%) outlining and justifying your plans for training and development for the organisation.  In particular the MD has asked for the following information:

1.    Identification of the training needs collated following your initial assessment.

2.    Recommended training and development interventions to meet the needs identified at Soupstock Ltd.

3.    An evaluation of the methods you have chosen to meet the training needs identified at Soupstock Ltd.

4.    Explanation as to how the recommended training and development interventions could be used to motivate and develop talent within the organisation.

•    Look carefully at the table below to see how marks will be allocated for this piece of work.
•    You are to submit this assessment via Turnitin using the Upload Point set up within your ASSESSMENT 2015 Folder.

Learning Outcome LO1
Demonstrate a critical understanding of the processes of learning and talent development strategies, policies and methods for achieving organisational current and future effectiveness combined with informed judgement on the impact of learning and talent development issues as they affect society and the organisations within a range of contexts.

Assessment Criteria    Learning Outcome(s)    % of Marks
Identification of training needs outlined in the case study
LO1    10
Recommendations for training and development interventions to meet the needs of the organisation in the case study.
LO1    25
An evaluation of the methods you have chosen to meet the training needs    LO1    25
Explanation of how the recommended training and development interventions could be used to motivate and develop talent within the organisation.
LO1    30
Referencing and citation        10

Overall Mark (50% of final mark for this module)

100%