Assessment of the Training Needs in Relation to Business Plan for Designing the Marketing Development Programme

In every industry the importance of management development has increased significantly in order to survive in the market. Only recruiting new employees & following the traditional methods by manager to operate the business is not sufficient, it is necessary to take the help of the training & developmental activities in order to improve the skill of managers & other employees engaged with the organisation. Since managers play an important role in the development of an organisation & to operate the business in an efficient manner. Beside this the role of the manager is to give proper guidance to other employees & improve their productivity. This on the other hand leads to the success of the company & to get competitiveness in the market. Only helping managers to acquire the practical management skill is not the only need of the organisation but managers should be efficient enough to overcome the challenging needs of the company (Seibert et al., 2014). One of the most successful organisations in organising the management & development programmes is Acorn. It has successfully provided training to different organisations in order to improve the quality of managers. It has experienced that providing necessary training to employees & especially manager is helpful for an organisation to face various difficult situations. Acorn has selected a large leisure resort to initiate a management & development programme to help the organisation strengthening its position in the market. In the present study the significance associated with the training needs to contribute in the designing the management development programme in case of the Hilton Hotel & Resorts has been discussed. Adherence to the good design practice in case of the management development programme has also been illustrated. Finally the recommendations have been provided for Acorn in order to institutionalise the learning strategy in a successful manner within the organisational culture.

In case of designing the management development programme it is essential to analyse various training needs in order to make the business plan successful. In case of an organisation to operate the business in a successful manner it is essential to prepare a business plan. Proper business plan consists of goal & different objectives of the organisation (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Preparing objectives is essential to set a target in front of managers of different departments of the organisation & this is essential to make employees of the organisation more productive & at the same time more diligent towards their work. Since the competition in the market is increasing, hence it is very difficult to sustain in the market without having the competitive edge. Only operating the market with the help of the traditional approach is not going to help any organisation in the near future. In every organisation few objectives are set & in order to achieve these objectives every organisation follow their own. In case of the Hilton Hotel & Resort in order to make the business operation smooth, it is necessary to set few objectives. These objectives are necessary to make the organisation competitive. Since there are large numbers of hotels in UK, so the environment is highly competitive in nature. To sustain in the market it is necessary to take into account various strategy (Cappelli, 2008). One of the most important strategies is the training & developmental programme. Training is imperative in the sense that it helps in enhancing the skill & efficiency of managers of the organisation. In case of the Hilton Hotel & Resort it has taken the decision to take the help of the training & development programme. Since, Acorn is one of the most successful organisation in designing the  management & development programme, so, Hilton Hotel & Resort has decided to take the help of the Acorn in providing the training & developmental support to its mangers. Before designing the management & development programme it is essential to analyse the training needs of the organisation. In order to achieve this, Acorn has decided to analyse the training needs of managers of the hotel. To identify the business needs of managers it was essential to arrange a meeting with managers of the hotel. In order to design the management & development programme Acorn has identified the key objectives of the organisation. Key objectives of the organisation are to achieve the corporate objectives through enhancing skills of the senior managers, identification of training needs of managers, management & development programme to institutionalise it with the culture of the organisation. Among all these objectives one of the key objectives is the identification of the training needs to make the implementation of the management & development programme successful. Hence it is imperative to recognise the importance of the training need of the organisation.

Training needs in case of an organisation consists of different factors & these are the business needs, competencies of the organisation, different training methods required to implement the programme, cost of the programme & finally to analyse the effectiveness of the programme. Out of all these factors the main factor is to identify those persons who need training & also the way to provide training (Christensen Hughes & Rog, 2008). Another important thing is to determine what kinds of training are required to be given to these individuals. Analysis of the training needs contain eight steps & these are as follows:

• It is important to determine the goal attached to the training with the help of the designing the management& development programmes. In this case the main goal of arranging the training programmes is to enhance the essential skills of different senior managers of the Hilton Hotel & Resort to achieve the corporate objectives.
• The next task is to find a link between the consequence of the training programme & the behaviour of employee (Mumford et al.,2007). In this case the main responsibility of the trainer is to identify the lack in the skills of the managers & at the same time to find out the behaviour required to be inculcated within mangers in order to achieve the goal.
• The next stage is the identification of the competencies which are critical to achieve the goal. This consists of those abilities which are necessary for an employee to possess before joining the job & at the same time those abilities which one employee can acquire remaining in the job.  
• The next most essential step is to identify the gap present in the skills of the managers. There must be some gap in between the existing abilities & skills of managers & the required skills of managers to achieve the target. Determining the gap is imperative for the trainee (Buchanan, 2008). In assessing skills present in managers it is required to evaluate the performance of managers with the help of different methods like survey, interview or the self assessment technique.
• The next step is to find out those needs which the training organisation should provide most importance, i.e. those individuals who require the training immediately & at the same time to determine the role of the training programme to achieve the goal of the organisation.
• Another very crucial stage is the selection of the appropriate training method. There are different training programme available in the market & these are the on job training, class room training, e-based learning, conferences etc. Out of these training methods the trainer has to identify the suitable method in case of the organisation.
• Every training programme requires certain amount of cost. This is the responsibility of the organisation to do the cost benefit analysis. It is necessary to identify the cost associated to the training programme (Phillips, 2012). If the benefit of the organisation after completing the training is more in comparison to the cost of the training, then the organisation will adopt the training programme.
• Finally the main step is the evaluation of the training programme of the organisation.

In case of the Hilton Hotel & Resort it has taken the help of the Acorn which is a successful company in providing the training & development programme in designing the management & development programme. Acorn has assessed the training needs of the organisation properly. In case of the Hilton Hotel & Resort it has predetermined few objectives & this is not possible to achieve with the help of the existing system. Hence it is inevitable from the point of view of the organisation to enhance the skill of senior managers of the organisation. Therefore, Acorn has determined the goal of the Hilton Hotel & Resort (Brown & McCracken, 2010). The corporative objective of the organisation is to enhance the competitiveness of the organisation & for this business objective of the organisation is to improve the skill of the managers. In this regard Acorn has interviewed ten mangers. It has also taken the questionnaire method to identify the learning preferences of managers. Acorn has also been able to identify the business needs of the organisation those are part of the training needs of the organisation. Three business needs of the organisation are the management of the change, self management & at the same time management of the resources of the organisation. It is necessary to identify the changes needed by the organisation in order to achieve the corporative objectives. This is necessary for Acorn to manage these changes in a successful manner. It is imperative from the point of view of the organisation to institutionalise the necessary changes within the culture of the organisation. This helps in improving the working environment of the organisation. The next task performed by the Acorn is self management. Self management is an essential part of the organisation. Finally proper management of resources of the Hilton Hotel & Resort in the training programme is essential to make the whole programme successful.

Acorn has also identified the gap present within mangers of the Hilton Hotel & Resort. To achieve the corporate objective it is essential to improve the communication skill of managers & at the same time to develop the innovative capacity of the managers. Other skills which a manger should possess are the interpersonal skills, the motivational skills, the analytical skills etc. Acorn has identified some gap within the present skill & the required skills of mangers. It is also required by the trainers to prioritise the needed skills of managers (Kenworthy & Wong, 2014). It has been determined that it is necessary to give maximum importance on the interpersonal & communicational skills of the senior managers & the next priority is the motivational skills of managers. These skills are inevitable to be present in managers to give proper direction to other employees of the organisation. This also helps in improving the decision making skill of employees to handle any situation of crisis.

In the next stage the Acorn has to identify the way to provide the training with the help of designing the management & development programme. Acorn has taken the help of the flexible training approach to achieve the objectives of the training. According to Acorn the most suitable approach to provide training to employees are onsite training, the role play, practical assignment & at the same time the case study. Acorn has also to identify the cost attached to the training programme. This is important for the organisation, i.e. the Hilton Hotel & Resort to do the cost benefit analysis (Bush, 2010). After the cost benefit analysis Hilton Hotel & Resort has adopted the management & development programme. Acorn has also prepared the training schedule & twelve months are required to complete the training programme. After initiating the training programme it is essential to monitor the key performance indicators of mangers from time to time. It will help in analysing the success of the management & development programme. After proper evaluation of the training programme it has been noticed that the training has enhanced the skills of managers to motivate employees and to solve different critical situations.

In survey conducted by McLean & Company, management development programme (MDP) was rated the top priority compared to any other aspects related with human resource development (HRD). But the irony is the practitioners of HRD are not supported in terms of time frame, budget and/or buy in to execute a MDP that provides sustainability by delivering the requirement of the (Boyatzis, 2008). A survey conducted of managers undertaking a management development program it was found that only 50% accepted the success of MDP. In the major cases, the solution is focus on development rather than training. After two weeks it was observed that one –off training program lead to 2% information retention merely. On the other hand the development program lead to 62% of information retention even after many years since the MDP was conducted.

Designing a Management Development Program with Acorn

The end goal of a MDP is more than development of workforce in the context of the company but to improve the individual growth of staff as a workforce. Therefore good design practice in the design of the management development programmes should promote the concept of a win-win relationship for the leadership and the senior executive of the company (Boyatzis, 2008). In the context of Acorn, the MDP is generally considered as mean to achieve and not as much as an end in itself and it focus on

• An enhancement of the employability skill of the manager in terms of internal skill and external skill.
• An acclimatization of the organization to the changing socioeconomic trends faced by, with the objective of predicting and handling the organizational change.
• An improvement of the productivity and competitiveness of the organization that help in increasing the durability.

In an ideal company, the process of organizational development needs to be based on three robust interconnected model and they constitute the backbone of all the development strategy of the Acorn. They are management development program (MDP, Training program guidelines (TPG) and Management by objectives (Ardts, et al., 2010).

Tools needed to Implement MDP

With the objective of implementing the management development program (MDP) it is essential that Acorn needs to have the three kinds of resources. They financial resources (budget), human resources (manpower) and technological resources (infrastructure). All the three kinds of resources and their significance in the context of the MDP of Acorn are explained in detail (Ardts, et al., 2010).

A business plan is an integral part of management development concepts and based on the development policy of the company, the financial resources in terms of budget may or may not be considered essential component of the allocation of budget prescribed for training program (Penuel, et al., 2011). The financial resource in terms of budget of has direct influence on the management development policies with regard to quality and it can even act as the decision criteria in the execution of the training program. Based on the size of the company and industry it is found that the allocation of budget for training program accounts between 1.3 to 5% of the total payroll.

The human resource in terms of manpower can be chosen by Acorn on the basis of two kinds of human resources and they are internal resources and external resources. The two kinds of human resources and their significance are examined in the context of Acorn.

• Internal human resources – In this the managers and expert within the company are considered to take the responsibility of the management development program by coaching and mentoring (Penuel, et al.,2011).
• External human resources – In this the training experts of the consulting companies such as Acorn conducts the management development program so it is external to the organization. For example in this case study is providing MDP to the senior management professional of Hilton Hotels & Resorts.

The technology resources represent the infrastructure in terms of IT material and Audio/Video equipment and it can impact the implantation of MDP by influencing the budget of the training program. In addition the management development program also need assessment tool to evaluate the impact of the training program like professional articles and the survey form (Reiser, & Dempsey, 2011).

Recommendations for Institutionalizing the Learning Strategy in Organizational Culture

Good design practice in the design of the management development programme

Before Acorn design the management development program (MDP) for Hilton Hotels & Resorts it is essential that the company consider the underlying core values and it explain the values that is applied by the management of the company. This is generally determined in consultation with the Board of directors of the company. In the context of the mission statement of management development program it needs to define the abstract message communicated by the organizational value of the company (Reiser, & Dempsey, 2011). The good design practice in the design of the management development programme needs to consider the value and mission of the management development program. The designing of a management development programs focus on the two elements mentioned below.

• The gap assessment between the present competency profile of the job holder and the job requirement.
• The skills set assessment with respect to knowledge, behaviour and know how based on the outcome of the strategic orientation of the company.

Based on the comparison of the skills that needs to be developed by the job holders and the skill needed to fulfil the goals of the company. It will help Acorn to develop the priorities with the respect to the management development program that needs to be prepared for the senior manager of Hilton Hotels & Resorts. This assessment needs to be conducted at level of the company. In case this is difficult and it needs to be provided to the management as top priority or staff holding key positions in the company (Bush, 2008). In case of the Acorn, the company conducted the interview with ten senior managers of Hilton Hotels & Resorts to assess the need for MDP. Acorn conducted four meetings over a period of two months with the help of four development consultant of the company to design the right objective of the MDP. The four objective of the MDP are explained below.

• To imbibe essential skills on the part of senior manager to develop operational teams to fulfil the objective of the resort.
• To ensure effective use of management resources by developing the skills of middle management with the help of identification of on-going training needs.
• The MDP aims to promote the corporate culture of maintaining staff quality.
• The management development program will be customized to suit the work schedule of involved senior managers.

 Characteristics aspects of a management development program

There are various stages in the management development programme and these have been discussed below:

1) Identification of the development needs – This is the first stage in the planning process wherein the strengths and weakness of the senior management level employees are assessed. This enables the organisation to understand what aspects are lacking in the senior management level employees (Bush, 2008). This will enable Acorn to develop a blueprint or roadmap through which they could effective address the training and development needs of the senior employees at Hilton Hotels and Resorts.

2) Pre-assessment of potentials and design of the succession planning – This is the second stage of the planning process where the organisation carries out a performance appraisal in order to find out the contribution and performance of the senior level employees. This enables Acorn to provide an effective replacement for their senior level employees in case the need arises (Keen, Brown, & Dyball, 2005). This will enable Acorn to create a succession planning that will enable them to replace the outgoing employees at Hilton Hotels and Resorts (who are retiring from the organisation) with suitable individuals from within the organisation.

3) Assessment of the candidates’ potentials – In this stage, the weaknesses and shortcomings of the senior level employees at Hilton Hotels and Resorts are determined by thorough analysis. This enables Acorn to find out whether there is any scope of improvement among the senior level employee and how they could further contribute towards the growth and success of Hilton Hotels and Resorts (Keen, Brown, & Dyball, 2005). Moreover, the desired candidates who have the necessary skills and aptitude to fit in the shoes of the outgoing senior employees are shortlisted and their performance and contribution towards the growth and success of Hilton Hotels and Resorts are thoroughly evaluated. This enables Acorn to measure the true potential of the desired candidates at the workplace.

4) Attribution of succession roles to the candidates – This is the fourth stage where the new candidates will be made aware of their new roles and responsibilities when they are going to be promoted to the senior management levels. They will be provided with a new roster of their new roles and responsibilities within Hilton Hotels and Resorts.

5) Action Plan – This is the most important phase, where the existing senior management employees at Hilton Hotels and Resorts will be imparted with the necessary training and guidance which will enable them to become more skilled and proficient in their respective job roles and responsibilities (Harrison, 2011). This helps in improving the performance of the senior level employees and they are able to realise their true potential at the workplace. Furthermore, the employees who have been newly inducted in the senior management positions are provided with a crash course in organisational leadership and management and this helps them to become more capable and efficient in their new jobs.

6) Follow-up of the action plan – In this stage, Acorn monitor the manner in which the action plan has been carried out. They evaluate the effectiveness of the training and guidance programmes which are being provided to both the senior level employees and the new employees who have been promoted to the senior levels at Hilton Hotels and Resorts (Harrison, 2011). This enables them to incorporate the necessary changes in their planning and implementation process which helps in satisfying the main purpose of the management development program.

7) Harmonization between positions and individuals – This is the final stage of the management development program wherein Acorn tries to incorporate a high level of cohesion within the existing workforce at Hilton Hotels and Resorts. In this stage, the organisation tries to create a permanency in their organisational structure by facilitating the necessary changes within their business hierarchy (Wilson, 2005).

Based on the above objective undertaken by Acorn with the respect to the management development program (MDP), good design practice in the design of the management development programmes should include the below mentioned critical insight take into account all the factors discussed above such as focus, tools like financial resources, human resources and technology resources. It should also make the senior manager of the report to make a difference by bringing (Wilson, 2005). There should be effective assessment process to evaluate the impact the management development program in terms of skills and knowledge of senior manager and achievement of the objective.

The term institutionalization refers to learning in workplace that indicates the process of embedding knowledge at organizational level by finding it sufficiently. The learning strategy chosen by organization helps in measuring, delivering and predicting mission for learning interventions by lining it to strategic business needs (Clardy, 2007). Before formulating a learning strategy knowledge advantage have to be assisted in documenting the process. A learning strategy defines the business objectives and goals for the learning process. The business is working on the philosophy of integrating value for ongoing learners by supporting development of competitive, motivated and productive workforce. The learning strategies adopted by organization refers to how people acquire, apply information, manage, change and select information generated through task performance.

In simple terms learning strategies is a way for manipulating, selecting, managing and storing information that can take place at any level in human behaviour. The learning strategy adopted is behavioural in nature that depends on written material, interpersonal relationship and practical application (Juul Andersen and Minbaeva, 2013). The behavioural procedures help in obtaining assistance from several people. It involves taking help from computer programs, documents and manuals with other sources that are non-social in nature. When it comes to practical application it explains how people can increase their knowledge dependent upon attempts taking practical approach. The learning strategy adopted by Acorn in large leisure resort is linked with incorporating daily exercise in form of social interaction and different activities.

The learning in Acorn for its clients is based on people who are attending the management development programme. The learning style of managers is understood through questionnaire formed on the basis of personal styles. Organizational culture refers to shared beliefs, values and assumptions that govern people behaviour in workplace (Rigg, Stewart and Trehan, 2008). Each workplace is having its own unique identity by setting boundaries and guidelines governing the behaviour of members in workplace. The learning culture pertains to providing benefits in workplace with the aim of increasing profit, productivity and efficiency. The client organization Hilton hotel and resorts is fostering learning culture in organization that initiates with leaders. The training initiatives should be reinforcing by supportive the learning environment in workplace.

The learning strategy is behavioural in nature so creating a successful culture is important in workplace. A learning culture has to formalize training and development plans a mandatory approach for making formalized plans that is not covering any risk (Blanchard, Thacker and Pichai, 2013). The manager’s portfolio needs to be skilled by coping for the change process for handling conflicts, motivation and delegating work for effective outcome. The learning of managers in Hilton hotel and resorts is used for achieving objectives and goals by solving the problem in effective manner. Each organization is having its own focus that is developed on the basis of business strategy. The priority adhering to workplace needs to be assessed by building trust and learning the right skill and attitude.

A company’s culture help in providing customer experience each time that should be unique in nature (Werner and DeSimone, 2012). The culture of Hilton is abiding by the principle that is consistent, providing innovative services, fostering teamwork, protecting environment, serving community and delighting customers with its services. The manager’s in Hilton hotel and resorts is based on growth by providing bright future to workforce and maintaining sustainability. The need for learning has to be identified by creating title or program and taking the required action. A culture can be string from two aspects- having high working agreement, working on high intensity at high level and valuing employees. The company Acorn ensures that innovation is the main segment that provides creative ideas, developing strong bond and making the way towards change.

The right people has to be selected and recruited in organization for adopting to person job fit by working on the change process (Githens, 2012). The promotion of practices is an intricate form of making the people more skilled and knowledgeable by establishing norms. A culture in workplace brings happiness to both customers and employees by inducting people as per fit culture. The autonomy of people has to place in personalised form by helping them the right means of competitors. Acorn ensures that Hilton hotel and resorts provides great customer experience by working on customer loyalty for making repeat purchase. The culture of workplace has to be adhered to processes and system governing the workplace philosophy and values. The importance of creating culture person through strategic activity is time taken for generating business results (Ji Hoon Song and Chermack, 2008).

The customer experience is acting as a new strategy in business by directing sales for generating profit. The coaching and mentoring culture helps a business in achieving business objectives and goals. The emerging market provides adaptability and flexibility by supporting with right strategy for bringing change. The coaching culture is having the right fit in organization by valuing the practices embodied in organization and establishing a climate that works on generating higher performance. The model map pertaining to strategy with culture by integrating the support system for achieving organizational performance. The organizational culture helps in performing at individual level by satisfying people needs (Alagaraja, 2013). The recommendation provided to Hilton by Acorn is as follows:

The employees have to participate in different activities prevalent in organization for social interaction by deploying sense of purpose. The activities performed in workplace is relating to team collaboration and building by having a positive workforce. The employee participation should be encouraged by sponsoring from corporate office.

The workplace culture should generate talent by working on several aspects as an obligation for attracting new people. It helps in building brand image by providing the employees to learn and have their own free space (Daryoush et al., 2013). The managers at Hilton should ensure that organization mission is utilizing the services in effective manner.

The fast company relies upon leaders by uniting together with company mission for serving the customers. The mission of Hilton is being the most hospitable by providing heartfelt experiences. The opportunity adhering to is impacting positively on communities, high value from owners perspective and team members too. The senior management must be connected to achieving goals and mission by mentoring and coaching the next tier.

Conclusion 

Based on the above discussion it can be concluded that the assignment focussed on training and development aspect related with the human resources development. The report is based on the case study of Acorn, a leading recruitment and training organization with 30 training and development professionals and providing training to over 3000 individuals annually. The company developed the management development program (MDP) for Hilton Hotels and Resorts with respect to the senior manager of the company. It was designed on the four objectives identified for the resort in consultation with the senior management people for a period of four months by the four training expert of the company (Wilson, 2005).  The report examined the significance of assessing training needs in relation to the business plan. It also used the relevant theory, concepts or models to evaluate the extent to which Acorn adhered to good design practice in the design of the management development. Finally it provided detailed recommendation for Acorn to ensure the successful institutionalisation of their learning strategy into the organization.

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