HRM420 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT Week 3 Homework Guidelines Training Objectives and SMART Goals Paper Building on your assignment from last week, where you used a SWOT and gap analysis to conduct a needs assessment on a particular company, identify a specific training need from that assessment and identify a group of employees who need the training. Then create three specific training objectives for that training, and analyze those objectives by creating SMART training goals. Your paper should include the following sections. A. The paper should contain an introduction that explains the company background (brief), the training need established from last week's needs assessment, and the group of employees who need the training. This must come from the work you did for the Week 2 assignment. (If you did not do the Week 2 assignment, contact your professor for further instructions.) B. Based on your readings from this week, identify the specific learning styles that will apply to that particular group of employees. How will your training need to be tailored to those styles? Explain this in a paragraph or so. Refer to and use the learning theories discussed in the textbook (Knowles, p. 161 and Kolb, p. 168), or other learning theories from outside research you perform. (Cite your sources.) C. Create three specific training objectives for your training. Ensure those are broken down in the three parts identified in our course lecture this week, and in your textbook (outcome, criterion, and condition). Do not use the same objectives as are listed in the lecture. These need to be different. If you borrow from a website, be sure you cite your source and you tailor the objective to your training need. Do not copy and paste. Think through this and show your work. D. As is done in the lecture, analyze your training objectives using SMART training goals. Provide your analysis of your objectives, your brainstorming of the connections to future pieces of training (where applicable), and create your training goals. Again, show your work. Your paper should be about three-to-five pages, not including references or title page. Use APA formatting please. (See the \"Course Template APA Papers\" template in Doc Sharing for a model to use.) Note that the lecture is written as a conversation from a professor of HRM to you, the student. Write your paper as more of a third-person analysisdo not use \"you\" and avoid referring to your reader at all. This difference is one of formality. Consider this paper to be the precursor to a training proposal you will ultimately submit to your boss or higher level manager for approval, thus the increase in formality. If you include notes to yourself to remember while creating the training, put those in parentheticals, like this, (Note: be sure to include the connection between A and B when creating the training plan.) Grading Rubrics: Section A5 points Section B15 points Section C25 points Section D25 points APA formatting: (5 points: one point each for: title page, headers, reference page, double-spacing, internal citation form) Please review the \"Course Template APA Papers\" template in Doc Sharing. Use descriptive headings in your paper to organize your work. Note that the failure to include citations or quote utilized material will be considered an academic integrity issue, not an APA issue. Be sure to ask your professor for assistance with any questions regarding citation methods or academic integrity. Grammar and spelling issues will be dealt with in this part of the grade as wellmultiple errors may result in the loss of all five points. 1 HRM420 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT 2 Running Head: Gap Analysis of Wal-Mart HRM420: Training & Development GAP Analysis of Wal-Mart Inc. 1 Gap Analysis of Wal-Mart 2 Abstract Walmart's success is due to Sam Walton, who opened up the first Walmart back in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. Walton's goal for the company was to save people money so they can live better. Since 1962 Walmart has been able to use their everyday low prices to their advantage by attracting those who wish to buy more for less. The organization works its business through three reportable portions: Wal-Mart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam's Club. The Walmart U.S. portion incorporates the organization's mass vendor idea in the U.S. It's fantastic development did not happen without contention. Wal-Mart has scrutinized for adding to urban sprawl by compelling bankrupt nearby merchandisers, some who were not able to contend with the organization's economy of scale. Currently, the firm still leads in the retail business and has managed to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors through the leadership of Carl Douglas who is the current C.E.O of the firm. Last year the company's total sales were at 485.65B and the gross profit was 120.57B. SWOT: STRENGTH: Well recognized brand around the world. Offers a wide variety of products. Better chance of customers spending more due to the possibility of finding anything. Receives huge discounts from suppliers. Walmart operates globally. Gap Analysis of Wal-Mart Embraces Culture and Diversity. Compares prices to other retailers 3 WEAKNESSES: Walmart tends to hire more part time employees than they do full time. Hostility from communities. Walmart puts small stores out of business. Involved in high staff turnover compared to other retailers. Involvement in multiple lawsuits around the globe. Opportunities: Economic recession will cause customers with low income to keep demanding lower prices. Promote health and wellness trends Growth in the Walmart technological capabilities THREATS: Growing competition from internet based retailers as well as market place companies. Gap Analysis of Wal-Mart Competitors with a positive image. Competitors offering employees better pay and full time positions Competitors expanding their retail 4 Gap analysis The possible gaps seen in the company are: Wal-Mart needs to think of non-prejudicial work place. Need to concentrate on workers' pay rates. Need to create lawful enrollment framework. Improve mindfulness about nearby individuals' condition. Low cost does not mean low quality. Need to concentrate on quality control. Need to focus on employees' salaries. Development of training program. The major issues are: Gap Analysis of Wal-Mart 5 Women working in Walmart stores confronted to have faced discrimination: There are a larger number of women than men working in all Walmart stores. However, they have asserted to not get advancement disregarding their diligent work. They whined against the association of such demonstrations of segregation. Representatives whined that Wal-Mart pays them with low wages and makes them work over time: Walmart may require working overtime on a few events, not generally. Since Walmart gives items the most reduced value conceivable, they don't pay their workers with high wages. This may have made a turmoil amongst the working representatives and they were slanted to gripe. Problems: Viable training and development plan can help workers to beat their deterrents. Since powerful preparing and advancement arrangements can help representatives, workers can settle on better choice. Walmart is a very reputed worldwide retailing business. They have old presumed contenders. To get upper hands than their rivals, the organization needs gifted workforces to maintain their business easily. Some proposed preparing and advancement gets ready for Walmart are given beneath: Making Employees More Aggressive. Encouraging Women Workforce. Encourage to Follow Supply Chain Management System. Encouraging Employees to be great Managers. Gap Analysis of Wal-Mart 6 Developing the Negotiation Skills of the Employees.[Taj13] Needs Assessment A needs assessment can be described as the determination and addressing of gaps between the current wants and needs and the future desired ones of a company. It's a planning process aimed at bringing improvements in organizations, individuals and also training (Weigel, 2016). It is important to undertake a needs assessment as it enables companies to address the challenges and problems they face, and through this, they can enhance and improve their operations. It also aids in identifying the workers who require training. This process involves gathering information to determine and assess whether a training need exists, and if so, what kind of training is required. In undertaking training needs assessment for Wal-Mart Company. I would apply two effective methods. Firstly, I would use the human resource records, which include the evaluations of performance and other company records such as sales and production. Since WalMart is faced with unpaid wages for the employees, I would assess whether this has any adverse impact on the employees' performance. Motivation is essential for employees working well (Aisha, 2013). Secondly, since the company has had various arguments with the community activists and members, I would also assess whether this has affected their sales and production to the community. I would determine this by analyzing the sales and production records of Wal-Mart and determining whether they are making more profits or whether they are performing poorly. Gap Analysis of Wal-Mart 7 Another method to apply in the needs assessment is developing interviews and sending them to the managers and administrators of the company. Some of the interview questions to ask the managers would include how they motivate their workers to work diligently. Secondly, I would also ask them what mechanisms are in place to tackle the issue of high employee turnover. This is because it affects their operations. Thirdly I would also enquire if there are any performance discrepancies in capturing the global market. It has faced major problems entering the foreign countries, and I would evaluate if this were attributed to performance or not. It is also important to interview them about if there are any policies in place to deal with the various harassments of employees. These harassments can negatively affect the performance of employees in the workplace. Finally, I would ask the managers about the competitive measures set up by the company to compete with their rivals. With all these problems facing the company, its competitive edge in the market is of great concern. Conclusion Based on my analysis, I would recommend that the company develops retention policies for each and every employee in the company. For any company to perform to the highest level, it needs to have employees who are working with self-determination and are being motivated to work (van Scheppingen et al., 2015). With these retention policies, they would ensure that employees are maintained well and that their operations are enhanced. High employee turnover could have many problems for the company, and these employee retention policies could ensure that employees are retained in the business and that their operations are not affected negatively. Gap Analysis of Wal-Mart 8 Gap Analysis of Wal-Mart 9 References: Ahmed, T. (2013). Wal-Mart Stores Inc: Dominating Global Retailing. Aisha, A. (2013). Effects of Working Ability, Working Condition, Motivation and Incentive on Employees Multi-Dimensional Performance. International Journal of Innovation, Management, and Technology, 4(6). Gereffi Gary, M. C. (2009). The Impacts of Wal-Mart: The Rise and Consequences of the World's Dominant Retailer". Annual Review of Sociology, 573-591. Heller, L. (2014, july 25). Changes come to Walmart. Retrieved from www.forbes.com: .http://www.forbes.com/sites/lauraheller/2014/07/25/change-comes-to-walmart/#1b711d922db7 van Scheppingen, A., de Vroome, E., ten Have, K., Zwetsloot, G., Wiezer, N. and van Mechelen, W. (2015). Vitality at work and its associations with lifestyle, self-determination, organizational culture, and with employees' performance and sustainable employability. Work, 52(1), pp.45-55. Smithson, N. (2015, August 13). Walmart Swot Analysis and Recommendations. Retrieved from panmore.com: http://panmore.com/walmart-swot-analysis-recommendations-case-study Weigel, R. (2016). The MTT-S Strategic Planning Committee-Addressing Future Needs [MTT World]. IEEE Microwave Magazine, 17(9), pp.79-79. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (2016, september 16). Retrieved from www.marketwatch.com: http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/wm