Training Plan

Training Plan

Within the world of business, having a training plan is essential for a business to be successful.  Businesses tend fail when there is no leadership, direction, training, or a training plan.  For new employees, training is needed to teach new employees the skills or tools needed to be successful within the organization.  A training plan should be treated as a working or living document within the organization and will help guide new employees to become familiar with the company’s process. In this assignment, the needs of a training plan, the training methods used during training, and the training strategies used by trainers will be discussed.

To enhance the odds of an organization being successful, it must have an effectively structured training plan. The purpose of the training plan is to provide employees with the knowledge and best business practices to assist the organization in meeting its goals and objectives. Also, it reinforces expectations and procedures of the organization. The first building block in developing a training plan is performing an assessment of needs. The purpose of needs assessment is to determine if training is necessary (Cascio, 2013, p. 323).

A needs assessment is based on five sub-phase analysis:

•        Environmental Organizational

•        Demographical

•        Operational

•        Individual

The environmental assessment is to examine both internal and external forces that may affect the organization accomplishing its goals and objectives. These forces may include labor union requirements, recent judicial decisions, accidents, turnover rate, attendance, new or amended regulations, etc. This assessment can be utilized much like an S.W.O.T., identifying strengths weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Organizational assessment is utilized to identify the needs for training in support of the organization’s strategic plan, as well as available resources and to what level management supports the training phase. Training must tie-into the organization’s objectives. Unless you do this, you may waste time and money on training programs that do not advance the cause of the company (Cascio, 2013, p.324).

Demographical assessment is to identify the wants and needs of a particular group. In the case of Landslide Limousine, Austin, Texas is to be the service area. The demographics of the Austin area according to United States Census Bureau consist 885,400 residents. The makeup of those residents includes 35% Hispanic/Latino, 48.7% White and 8% Black. The median household income is $53, 946 and 45.6% of those 25 years of age or older hold a bachelor degree or higher (Bureau, 2015).

An operational assessment will identify the training needs and contents for the workforce and minimum requirements that shall be met.

Individual assessments are to be utilized to identify the gaps between the desired performances versus the actual performances. The training should be focused towards assisting the individuals in eliminating those gaps and making them a more productive member of the organization.

After examining the five subphases of the needs assessment process, the team recommends the following training areas:

•        Company Goals and Objectives

•        Safety Regulations and Laws

•        Company’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and requirements

•        County, City, State and Federal driving laws

•        Defensive Driving Techniques

•        Ethics

•        Vehicle upkeep

•        Vehicle maintenance (optional)

•        Insurance Laws

•        Labor Laws

•        Anti-Discrimination Laws

•        Employment Benefits

•        Customer service techniques

•        Better business practices

The employer must verify that the employee meets the basic requirements to operate a limousine in Austin, Texas.  According to Austin city code, it does not require a commercial driver’s license (CDL) unless traveling interstate or carrying 16 or more passengers. It does, however, require a chauffer’s permit from the city. The individual applying for the permit must be sponsored by a holder of current operating authority. Driver’s must have a clean driving record for the three years preceding the application or have completed a Driver Safety Course. (Code, 2012).  

There are a plethora of different areas of training that can be pursued to make employees highly productive and in turn make the company viable and sustainable. The demographics of Austin that will be the focus of the courtship are smart, well-compensated individuals with plenty of other limousine companies vying for their dollars. To be competitive, Landslide will need to to have well trained, knowledgeable, professional drivers. There are many different training methods and medias that can be utilized, both economical and extravagant. Those means will be discussed next.

To have a successful organization, it is always important that everyone is on the same page by know when and how to do their job.  Why it is important that all employees have all of the right training to make in to make the organization to be a successful organization. When it comes to the training methods, research has shown the training methods managers can be used to teach employee a new job and task within the organization. This training methods can include job rotation, job mentoring and on the job training. These training methods have their advantages and disadvantages.