1 Table of Contents

1 Table of Contents..................................................................................................1

2 Executive Summary...............................................................................................2

3 Problem Statement...............................................................................................3

4 Alternatives...........................................................................................................4

5 Implementation...................................................................................................11

6 References...........................................................................................................12

Figure 1: Training Cycle................................................................................................4

Figure 2: Actual & Perceived Needs..............................................................................6

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2 Executive Summary

This case study is all about Care-Link pharmaceutical company and its training
process. Care- Link is a company that importing and distributing pharmaceutical and
health care products for the past decade. In tradition Care-Link been very lavish with
their training expenditure and was always known in the industry for a company that
spent lot on training & developing their employees.

After the arrival of new CEO, searched about the ROI from the training provided for
employees. Because training is high expenditure area during the past years. According
to this situation CEO requested some details about the past training programs and
training manager failed to provide those information to CEO. Then training manager
organized a meeting for the employees who attend training programs and those
employees also failed to explain what they got from the learning sessions, why they
nominated to train. So this is a huge issue, but however training manger developed
product training material.

In this case we identify what are the key issues that have affected to the training
manger’s failure and what the training manger missed in particular in his role then we
make suggestions as to how training manager could make training function more
meaningful to the organization and provide strategy how he could in future show the
results achieved through his training initiatives.

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3 Problem Statement
After reviewing the case study of Care-Link I figure out some key issues as follows:-

01. There is no proper training need analysis that’s why employees doesn’t know
why they are attend to the training program and that’s why the medical reps
and sales reps who attend for various soft skill trainings also could not even
recall what was covered in the training.
02. There is no proper understanding and identifying between the actual needs and
perceived needs that’s why employees who attend for the programs don’t
know why they attended to the training programs.
03. There is no proper evaluation for training programs that’s why Mr. Ravi
doesn’t know what the employees got from the training or are those training
programs beneficial to the employees.
04. We can assume that there is no proper performance management system and
that could be a one reason for Ravi’s failure to identify the training needs of
the employees.
05.

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4 Alternatives
Under the alternatives I suggest better solutions for the problems identified in the
problem statement. As I identified some key components of training cycle are not
done in a proper manner.

Identify Training &

Development Needs

Evaluation of training Design & Develop

Programs

Implementation of
training programs

Figure 1: Training Cycle

01. There is no proper training need analysis that’s why employees doesn’t
know why they are attend to the training program and that’s why the
medical reps and sales reps who attend for various soft skill trainings also
could not even recall what was covered in the training.

Why should we identify the training needs and importance of training need analysis?

Identifying training needs is most crucial part in the training cycle. Because if we
cannot identify the proper training need we cannot achieve objectives of the training
or get the outcome of the training. So it’s going to be a waste of time and money.

A training need analysis is the process of identifying performance requirements & the
gap between what performance required & the current performance level. Care-Link
training division was failed to identify what are the proper training need of its
employees. Basically as a result of that employees who attend the program don’t
know even why they participate this program and what they got from the training and
how the training is beneficial to them.

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All performance issues won’t be a training need sometimes performance issues can
happen due to working environment and obstacle to perform. Here we need to focus
on how to identify the actual needs of training and methodology to identify the
training needs of Care-Link employees.

How we identify the training needs of employees

Task analysis and performance analysis are two main ways to identify training needs.

Task analysis is especially suitable for determining the needs of employees who are
new to their jobs. This is also called job or operational analysis. This involves a
detailed analysis of various components of a job, its various operations, and the
conditions under which it has to be performed. Task analysis will indicate the skills
and training required to perform the job at the required standard. For almost all jobs
have an expected standard of performance.

Performance analysis appraise the performance of current employees to determine

whether training could reduce problems like excess scrap or low output. It is also a
process of verifying that there is a performance deficiency & determining if such
deficiency should be corrected through training.

Under the performance analysis clear identification of can’t do and won’t do problems
is a one of most important fact that need to identify before the training design. Can’t
do problems can occur as a result of competition issue, barrier or environment. Most
of can’t do problems can solve through training. But won’t do problems cannot solve.
That’s why identification of can’t do and won’t do problems are essential.

Organizational Analysis is another analysis method of organization in terms of its

objectives, resources, resource allocation and utilization, culture, environment, and so
on. Such an analysis would help identify deficiencies and mechanisms that would be
needed to make adjustments in those identified deficiencies.

Methodology for identify training needs.

01. Review your business objectives and identify critical activities.

02. Set measurable performance standards.
03. Monitor performance to identify problem areas.
04. Consider whether poor performance reflects bad management.

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 05. Get feedback from customers, suppliers and other key business partners.
06. Consider how employees' roles may change with new production innovations
and environment changes.
07. Ask employees to raise concerns and make suggestions; include discussion of
training needs in employee performance management.
08. Prioritize problem areas or areas of weakness.
09. Clear identification of can’t do and won’t do problems.

02. There is no proper understanding and identifying between the actual

needs and perceived needs that’s why employees who attend for the
programs don’t know why they attended to the training programs.

Why we should clearly identify the actual needs

The actual training need that really has an impact on performance may be quite
different to the perceived training needs. It is very important to clearly identify the
actual training needs in order to make training effective & also to make and
investment.

Everything starts with the perceived needs, therefore understanding the actual need is
sometimes harder. If we did not understand the actual need before the training
implementation it will be a waste of time and money.

Perceived needs

Actual Needs

Figure 2: Actual & Perceived Needs

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How we understand the actual need from the perceived needs.

The first step should have produced a large list of needs for training and development,
career development, organization development or other interventions. Now we must
examine these in view of their importance to our organizational goals, realities, and
constraints. We must determine if the identified needs are real, if they are worth
addressing, and specify their importance and urgency in view of our organizational
needs and requirements.

Also I suggest to identify the actual training needs, Care-Link training and
development team should individually questioning or interviewing them about their
jobs and their needs. Ex: Working environment, Team collaboration, Materials using,
Wages, Working hours, etc. Because most effective communication method is face to
face. Interviewer need to ask questions to test their knowledge. These can be multiple
choice quizzes, a true/false quiz, a presentation of cases with questions or any
variation thereof. An Audience Response System can be used in large group settings.

Identifying actual training needs can be time consuming. But identification of actual
training needs is beneficial to the whole organization and it’s an investment. Because
we can get the effective output from the training program after identifying those
needs.

03. There is no proper evaluation for training programs that’s why Mr. Ravi
doesn’t know what the employees got from the training or are those
training programs beneficial to the employees.

Why should we evaluate

Evaluation of training programs is another critical factor of training cycle. Otherwise

we cannot identify whether we achieved the objectives of training or is training
beneficial to organization or return on investment. Also through evaluation we can
identify whether how effectively program was delivered to the trainee.

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Many training programs fail to deliver the expected organizational benefits. Having a
well-structured measuring system in place can help you determine where the problem
lies. On a positive note, being able to demonstrate a real and significant benefit to
your organization from the training you provide can help you gain more resources
from important decision-makers.

01. Improvement of future training program.

02. It will help you prove that the training is adding value.
03. Training evaluation enables you to determine that you’re training is aligned
with business objectives.
04. The assessment of the value of training to the participants and the
organization.
05. Making the training & development effort; felt by the top management of the
company
06. To justify the existence and budget of the training department by showing how
it contributes to the organization’s objectives and goals
07. To decide whether to continue or discontinue training programs

How we can evaluate the training programs of Care-Link

Evaluation of the In-house and overseas programs evaluation is necessary. Through

that Ravi can evaluate himself and other overseas trainers and Ravi can decide what
areas that he need to improve as a trainer or he can identify who are the talented
overseas lecturers that suitable to provide future training opportunities to Care-Link
employees. Because training program effectiveness also dependent on the lecturer
skills.

In this case I suggest Ravi to provide some common evaluation form to the trainees
when participate in house or overseas programs, that includes all areas of training
programs that should be evaluated.

Following are some of key factors of evaluation that we need to consider

01. To what extent does the subject content meet the needs of those attending?
02. Is the leader the one best qualified to teach?

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 03. Does the leader use the most effective methods for maintaining interest and
teaching the desired attitudes, knowledge, and skills?
04. Are the facilities satisfactory?
05. Is the schedule appropriate for the participants?
06. Are the aids effective in improving communication and maintaining interest?
07. Was the coordination of the program satisfactory?

A careful analysis of the answers to these questions can identify ways and means of
improving future offerings of the program.

There are five different levels or methods that can be used to evaluation of training
program.

01. Evaluation at the training and development level

This refers to conducting on going evaluations during the development of training.

Rather than treating evaluation as a discrete step at the end of the training cycle.

02. Evaluation at the participants reaction level

This level of evaluation involves the collection & assessment of participant’s reaction
to the training program. Did participants like the program?

03. Evaluation at the participants learning level

A feedback form can be distribute & complete by the participants at the end of the
program. This feedback form consist of questions or statements with some kind of
numerical or descriptive rating.

04. Evaluation at the job behavior level

This involves the evaluation of knowledge, skills & attitudes participants have gained
during the program.

05. Evaluation at the organizational level

This is all about whether the participants can apply the knowledge and skills that they
have learned.

I think most important thing here is evaluating how training beneficial to the
organization. To that kind of assessment we can do the skill assessment of employees.

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Skill Assessment

Creating a visual assessment of an employee’s skill set and performance before and
after a training moment. These snapshots, or skylines, of a learner’s abilities can give
a clear picture of performance and skill improvements you can directly tie to training.
A simple example would be, testing a sales person’s current sales skills prior to
training, then retesting the individual after the event to see the benefit.

04. We can assume that there is no proper performance management system

and that could be a one reason for Ravi’s failure to identify the training
needs of the employees.

If Care-Link does not have proper performance management system then it’s a major
barrier to identify the training needs of its employees. Because performance
management has direct impact on employee development. Performance management
process should help your employees develop and improve, so they can be successful,
continually improve their performance, and increase their knowledge, skills,
experience and capabilities.

Therefore to measure the performance we need to set clear, achievable performance

standards or targets to the employees. Then we can measure the performance against
the standards. Then we can identify, what are the performance issues and also how
that issues or performance gaps affect to the organizational objectives and
effectiveness.

Performance management is the systematic process of

 planning work and setting expectations

 continually monitoring performance
 developing the capacity to perform
 periodically rating performance in a summary fashion
 rewarding good performance and identification of performance issues

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After the identification we can analyze the training needs of employees.

5 Implementation

According to this situation implementation process as follows.

 According to my assumption if there any issue with performance management

system Ravi need to set clearly defined performance management system to
the organization otherwise it’s going to be a huge barrier to identify the
training needs of employees.
 Care-Link need to more proper identification of the training needs of
employees clearly or we need to identify the target group for the training the
training and development through the methodology of training need analysis
that given in the alternatives.
 Then Care-Link T&D division need clear identification of perceived needs and
actual needs. Then we can filter and identify the actual training needs of
employees that affect to the organizational goals, objectives and effectiveness
through given alternatives.
 Evaluation is necessary that’s why most of problems occurred to Care-Link.
So Ravi needs to implement proper evaluation process for the in house and
overseas training programs with the use of given suggestions.
01.

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6 References

01. Hr-survey.com, (2015). [online] Available at: http://www.hr-survey.com

[Accessed 10 Dec. 2015].
02. Marketing Donut, (2015). People management. [online] Available at:
http://www.startupdonut.co.uk/startup/employees/people-management
[Accessed 10 Dec. 2015].
03. Bkconnection.com, (2015). Home - Berrett-Koehler Publishers. [online]
Available at: http://www.bkconnection.com [Accessed 10 Dec. 2015].
04. PQHRM Module 05 study pack created by Mr. Darshana Amarasiynghe.

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