Career Development Plan Essay

The recent merger of InterClean and EnviroTech (ICET) has opened many opportunities for employee promotions. In an effort to stimulate our employees, focus on their strength and talents, and teach them new skills that will assist in our overall success, management has decided to revamp the way training’s been done in the past by implementing a new training performance format. Our new training module will focus on sanitation standards, communication, customer service and satisfaction and networking. The program will consist of 9 steps that will key in on industry knowledge. The training format will consist of new training evaluation and mentoring needs, focus on objectives of training and mentoring, reviewing performance standards, analyze delivery methods, examine contents for training and mentoring, address time frames and evaluation methods, feedback, and lastly explore alternative avenues for further development. Once this program is implemented, we believe our employees will develop an expertise in their respective areas that will have a positive impact in ICET’s organizational competitiveness, performance and productivity. The new training and mentoring needs The new training format will impact the way ICET does business. The focus of the new three week training will be to teach our sales associates about sanitation standards, communication, customer service and satisfaction and networking. Each step in the new training format will help us attain overall success that will benefit the employee and our company as well. However, training alone will not offer one on one simulation. Therefore, we are implementing a mentoring program that will give employees accessibility to learn and work with mentors that have specific knowledge about interested areas for a period of six month to ensure well rounded working knowledge from key experts. Objectives of the training and mentoring program The objective of training will be vital to attain future success. Therefore, the first objective will be to learn about the sanitation standards and regulations so that we will be well informed as we cross over into health care service solutions. The second objective we will focus on is communication. The key concentrations will be listening, and planning to attain effective decision making. The third objective will be customer service and satisfaction as related to personal attention and quality service and lastly the fourth objective will be on the importance of networking to build relationships with key industry contacts. With regards to the mentoring program our focus will be to combine all the aforementioned above that will blend with our new mentoring program. This will allow employees to focus on their specific career development goals they would like to accomplish within the organization by working aside once a week for six month period with a mentor that is an expert in the chosen area. Performance standards The performance standards will be rated based on job role expectations. The indicators for example in sales will be based on revenue generated. This will be measured by how many sales deals were closed and the type of products. Market integration or expansion also be measured. Here the ability to find new perspective customer or even cross over into other types of health care businesses such as nursing homes or medical rehabs will be taken into evaluated and lastly customer retention based on quality customer service and feedback will also be considered. We feel all expectations will be reasonable and attainable once training is completed. Delivery methods Delivery methods are vital when training is being implemented. The focus is to keep the trainee interested and integrated during training. Therefore, we will focus on three training methods; experimental, integrative and reinforcement. For sanitation standards we will train with fact sheets, videos and or pamphlet and booklets. This will fall under the reinforcement methods. For the communication objectives, we will use skits because it will teach the trainee real life simulations which can be critiqued to help improve and fine tweak any area that need improvement. This delivery method will fall under the experimental method. As for the customer service objective, we will use dialogue. This will allow the trainee to participate and improve their delivery when meeting a customer and or closing the deal. This style will fall under the integrative methods and lastly we will use networking via conventions and or conferences so the trainee can interact with other business professionals. As for the mentoring program we will offer face to face interaction once weekly with expert mentors by area. Content for training and mentoring To achieve the best outcomes for ICET, we believe the content of the training program should be closely correlated tot to our business strategy and organizational goals. Therefore we will evaluate the skill and ability of employees that best match the open positions. This will be done by evaluating experience, worker, and occupational requirements. For example, experience will evaluated based on former training, experience, certifications or licenses. Worker requirements will be based on basic skills, cross functional skills, knowledge and education and lastly occupational requirement will be measure by general work activities, work and organizational content (Cascio 2005). Time frame Setting realistic time frames for employees to be trained properly is an important part of a successful training and mentoring program. Forming new habits or learning new methodologies take times which is why we have decided that employees will receive three week training so they feel fully acclimated and comfortable when they are out on the field. As for the mentoring program, we have decided to make it a three month program because we feel in order to appreciate and truly learn hands on the employee should be exposed to the daily routines of the mentor. Once the employee gets a good grasp of each section during the allotted training time, we believe they will be motivated and continue to develop their skills via applied experience they attain while working. Evaluation methods A good evaluation will most often use multiple methods because a well rounded objective decision can be archived. Therefore, we have decided that we will evaluate employees by these three standards; group interviews so we may see how the candidate behaves and reacts to intimidating settings, person to person simulations to see how the employee performs when selling a product and lastly via personality questionnaire to see if the employee characteristic match up with the extroverted personality we are looking for. Feedback Constructive feedback can make all the difference if you want to keep employees motivated. Therefore, it is our commitment to make sure that all feedback is constructive and address all the good quality the employee posses as well as the areas of improvement that will develop them further. Hence, we will sit with employees and perform verbal feedback that is clear and precise so that there is no room for misunderstanding. We want the make sure the employee is encouraged and understands that we are committed and interested in their career development and well being. We would also like to get feedback regarding the training program and any areas of weakness that can be improved. We will build an anonymous questionnaire so that the employee can be candid and honest without feeling as if there are attached strings. Alternate avenues for those who need further development Lastly, we would like to provide alternate avenues for employees who would like press further. Therefore, we will provide access to continuing education course twice a year. We will also have updated listing of conferences and training that will go beyond on internal training so that employees will be aware of the latest trends, approaches, and opportunities in their specific field. We believe this will help the employee morale as they will have access to any continuing education as needed. In conclusion, we believe our new training module will teach and provide the employees with all the necessary tools to become and maintain success.. Our focus on sanitation standards, communication, customer service and satisfaction and networking will set our employees apart from the rest because they will be well rounded and well informed. Once this program is completed, the employees will develop an expertise in their respective areas that will have a positive impact in ICET’s organizational competitiveness, performance and productivity. Reference http://www.indiana.edu/~uhrs/training/performance_management/define.htm