On the Job Training & Ethics in the Workplace
- Karmin Walker
- Jun 26, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 16, 2022
Relevant information was obtained through the case study and having reviewed an employee’s perspective, a manager’s perspective, and an HR perspective it became noticeably clear that through the merger of the banks training has not been the top priority. The employee feels overwhelmed and is not being given enough hand-to-hand training, and the supervisor feels overwhelmed with having to train the new employees while also having to oversee customer complaints. As the employees continue to receive less and less training, the manager has increased customer complaints. From this learner’s perspective, and experience in Human Resources, we will be focusing our attention on the management team. We will discuss on-the-job training, as well as ethics in the workplace—in order to gain more information about the positions and the employees, we will conduct a 360 review.
Assessing the Situation
When changes in workplace management, or workflow occur, it can be extremely disruptive to the way in which so many employees have become accustomed. “Employees upset by the change are generally less productive,” (Bravo, 2019). Ensuring that communication is well communicated to all employees is essential so that they do not feel “ran over” or “less important” during a sale or a merger. An important piece to ensuring that employees are well trained is to ensure that management is well trained. Stan, in the case study, specifically mentioned that he felt when a new policy or procedure was rolled out that he barely understood it himself.
Additional information should be gained from the entire management team, including upper management. After reviewing the information from Judy, and from Kwan it is clear that upper management is unaware of the issues that are occurring, and lower-level employees (bank tellers) are getting burnt out, and not doing a good enough job due to the lack of training received. Conducting a 360 review with all management/supervisors, and upper management is necessary to gain a further in-depth review of issues the company is facing as a whole. Conducting a 360 review will also build the confidence of supervisors, and boost morale (O’Keefe, 2018).
Boosting morale is especially important during stressful and challenging times because it makes individuals aware that they are not in this alone. They have a team of individuals who are suffering from the same pains, and while they may be a hindrance to the production of their employees, the fact that the company is now taking steps to understand the issues and create ways to fix it—is a fantastic way to boost morale, and even build trust.
Understanding more frustrations from ground-level supervisors and management about their frustrations is vital information to evaluating the job positions, because as different supervisors specialize in different things, some supervisors may be able to assist in other areas if they experience significant downtime that another supervisor or manager does not experience. Understanding the roles, positions, and responsibilities of the leads, supervisors and managers is important to make suggestions on who should be doing the training of new employees—or if it would be better to hire outside agencies to implement regular training processes for all employees regularly.
Training Recommendations
Once it is understood where each of the employees is, and what their positions are—it would be best received to hire specialized training experts or a job coach to maintain constant training for employees of all levels. “Training specialists are also charged with creating various programs that are suitable and advantageous to employees,” (Universal Class, 2022). The training schedule looks like this:
Monday, Week 1: One-third of upper management receives a 2-hour training
Tuesday, Week 1: One-third of upper management receives a 2-hour training
Wednesday, Week 1: One-third of upper management receives a 2-hour training
It is important that upper management receives training first due to be able to understand and answer employee concerns as necessary when employees ask questions. Training upper management first also will teach the managers important leadership skills, and the ability to set business stands that will have a trickle-down effect on the entire workforce (Burton, 2021). The training is set for two hours to address any concerns, questions, or changes that are necessary to the training in order to be better received by the employees. Upper management receives the first copy of the training additionally to be able to work out any kinks that may not otherwise be applicable to lower-level employees that would lead to additional frustration for the teams.
“It is likely unsurprising to learn offering training to your employees can create a stronger company culture. When people feel appreciated and know there is an opportunity to gain valuable skills, and when the company itself is doing well, employees tend to be happier,” (Safety Skills, 2022).
The training for supervisors and employees will go as follows:
Thursday, Week 1: One-half of supervisors receive a 1.5-hour training
Friday, Week 1: One-half of supervisors receive a 1.5-hour training
Monday, Week 2: One-fourth of employees receive a 1-hour training
Tuesday, Week 2: One-fourth of employees receive a 1-hour training
Wednesday, Week 2: One-fourth of employees receive a 1-hour training
Thursday, Week 2: One-fourth of employees receive a 1-hour training
Friday: Training experts/job coaches will review the questionnaires from all
training sessions to implement feedback into next week’s training
The training sessions would continue in a schedule such as this, repeating every 2 weeks until every individual feels included, up to date, and confident in managing their job. Management and supervisors receive slightly longer training, because of the fact that they are also given training on how to create a positive employee culture, as well as how to manage deficient performance on the job even after effective training has been implemented.
Effectiveness of Training
In order to assess if training has benefited employee performance, the training experts or job coaches can utilize self-assessment questionnaires after a training session or leave the questionnaires in the breakroom for the employees to fill out throughout the workday (Verma, 2022). Additional ways to measure success are to ask for informal feedback from employees, supervisors, and managers throughout the day, or by creating focus groups that will bring in feedback from various employees and will help add suggestions or concerns to the training being rolled out, or by doing on-the-job observations or employee performance, and also to review customer surveys, comments, or complaints to see an increase or decrease in complaints, and also to possibly review for positive changes (Verma, 2022).
The training will be assessed on a continuous basis and will be constantly seeking further clarification after each training session concludes. While the training sessions last anywhere from 1 to 2 hours, the training will be ongoing, and the employees will also be able to stay past the scheduled time in order to ask clarifying questions and so forth. Each Friday after the two of weeks of training is set to time to make any final changes to the training before the following week. As 1 week is training for managers and supervisors, the training for those employees will be edited and revised throughout the course of a whole week. It will then be that Friday as well as the feedback received by managers and supervisors in the following week that will go into the next week’s training for employees. It is designed to be a constant, ever-moving wheel that is constantly rolling out innovative ideas and implementing new suggestions during times when there is no training being conducted—thus the shorter training spurts, and increased visibility.
Ethical Implications
Implementing ethics in the training program, and addressing specific issues related to managers and supervisors specifically, can help alleviate any perceived biases about managers “should just know what is right and wrong,” (Landrum, 2018). “Companies must include ethics in training from the start, and they cannot assume employees know the ins and outs of what’s right and wrong in any given situation based on their personal standards of conduct,” (Landrum, 2018). Training employees, supervisors, and management on training from the beginning is essential because what seems like common sense to one individual, may not even be a forethought for someone else. Addressing concerns such as Human Resources related duties for managers, Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, and more is necessary in order to create a well-rounded workforce that is comfortable with the policies and procedures set forth.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is not only necessary to train the employees on their jobs to ensure customer satisfaction, but it is also important to address training lapses or lacks in the supervisors and managers to ensure that each individual is well equipped to address questions, concerns, or issues that may arise out of a new policy or procedure. This will come at no easy feat, but hiring a team of job coaches, or training experts, this learner would say no less than four to five individuals, this task would become less of an overload for the job coaches and training experts hired into these roles.
References
Bravo. 2019. Helping Employees Deal with Change in the Workplace. Bravo Well – Workforce
Health & Benefits. https://www.bravowell.com/resources/helping-employees-deal-with-change-in-the-workplace
Burton, C. 2021. The Importance of Training Your Employees: 25 Reasons. Thinkific.
Landrum, S. 2018. Addressing Ethics in Training. Training Industry.
O’Keefe, P. 2018. 10 Benefits of 360 Degree Feedback. Edge Training Systems.
Safety Skills. 2022. Employee Morale: How it Affects Your Company and How Training Can
Help. Safety Skills, Work Smarter. https://safetyskills.com/employee-morale/#:~:text=It%20is%20likely%20unsurprising%20to,employees%20tend%20to%20be%20happier.
Universal Class. 2022. The Role of Training and Development in I/O Psychology. Universal
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