Developing a Training Program

Gold Star Shoes Ltd. is a medium-sized manufacturer of leather and vinyl shoes located in Wilmington, Ontario. It was started in 1973 and currently employs about 500 persons in its Ontario plant and some 200 more in offices and warehouses throughout Canada.

"How can we develop a training program that will have a significant impact on our manufacturing staff?"

Jane Reynolds, a special assistant in the personnel department, faced that challenge from a vice president of the largest division of Gold Star Shoes, manufacturing. Training had never been a high priority at Gold Star Shoes, having always been viewed as an expense item, not an investment. If skilled workers were needed, Gold Star Shoes preferred to raid other companies to save training costs. If raiding was not successful, quick on-the-job training was provided by more experienced employeeslimited to essential skills, since there was little incentive for the employees to be more involved.

However, when the vice president attended a convention of shoe manufacturers, he was surprised to learn how cost-efficient some other shoe producers were, especially in Italy and France. Although wages there were similar to the wages paid in Canada, the productivity of the Italian and French workers was significantly higher. The VP found that the Italian and French companies invested heavily in training, allowing them to use cross-trained, flexible staff.

The VP asked Reynolds to develop a training plan, suitable to improve the overall skill level of Gold Star Shoes' employees. Reynolds vaguely remembered something about training from her few courses in human resource management quite some time ago, but she felt that it was not sufficient to develop a training program on her own. Besides, she knew nothing about the skill requirements in the manufacturing division.

She decided to ask Russ Summers, manager of the cutting operation, to chair a committee of first-line supervisors to assist her in the program development.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. You are Russ. Describe the steps you would recommend that Reynolds go through before actually designing the content of the training.
2. What training methods would you suggest to be used to train production workers? (First, you might ask: What determines the methods?)
3. How would you evaluate the training program to determine how effective it was? (What criteria would you use?)
4. Do you think the first-line supervisors are the appropriate people to design the training program? Whom else would you add, if anyone, to this group?

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