Title: Competency Assessment: (CU2 M1) Training and Development
Course: SkillsCom BA 224 15.1 > Section: Credit Unit 2 Module 1

In this assessment, you will be given some situations from various companies and you will have to analyze the situation to come to some kind of conclusion about what you have just read. In each scenario or situation listed below, you will have to first identify whether the situation has prompted a training need or a development need. Once you establish the situation as a training or development need, you will then need to identify the best method to use in this situation. You should refer back to the course materials to identify the methods.

1. Percy Lugaen is the Vice President of Human Resources for Jackel Enterprises. He has just been informed that the company has decided to expand the business into new markets. Currently, the company does business in Illinois. The expansion will take the company into Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Iowa. Jackel Enterprises is a retail manufacturer of outerwear for men, women, and children. Traditionally, the company only manufactures the items and sells them to retail outlets. The company expansion will take it into these markets and create new retail outlets for Jackel Enterprises to sell its merchandise directly. Creating a retail branch of the company means it will need human capital to manage the stores and sell the merchandise. Using your knowledge of the course material in this unit, what will the Vice President of Human Resources need to do for Jackel Enterprises?

2. Heather Bellagan is a successful hair salon business owner who has been able to expand her business from one small 1,000 square foot facility to five 2,000-plus square foot facilities. In expanding her business, Heather has partnered with several community and career colleges who educate and license new cosmetologists. Heather has been in business for 10 years and has a number of employees who have been with her since she opened her first door to the public, including the managers of the locations where she is not regularly working. Business for Heather has been so great that she is looking for eight new cosmetologists. She went to the community college and posted an ad and got a huge response. She began the process of interviewing new cosmetologists. In the interviews, she asks the applicants to cut and style a wig to identify their own signature way of styling hair. One young lady took the wig and added additional hair extensions and implemented a technique called an invisible part. Heather asked this young lady about her technique and was told this is something new that has been created and is currently being taught in cosmetology school. Heather further learned this young lady has been doing hair for five years and is actually in school getting her license to become a salon manager. Heather decides to offer her a job and help her understand the intricacies of being a salon owner/manager. As part of the deal, Heather asked this young lady to bring this technique to all of her salons and demonstrate it to her current stylists. Heather not only hired this young lady, she made offers of employment to seven other students who were weeks away from getting their license. These seven individuals have not had previous experience with customers outside of the classroom, but Heather is not worried because of how many seasoned staff members she has in her business. She will pair the new stylists with one of her seasoned staff members for the first six months of their employment. Using your knowledge of the course material in this unit, what is going on in Heather's business?

3. Johnny Jackson is the warehouse manager for a small, family-owned produce company. Johnny has a couple of direct reports who supervise specific functions for him throughout the warehouse. Johnny manages the production supervisor, the shipping and receiving supervisor, the quality control/auditing supervisor, as well as the customer service supervisor. All of these positions are intricate to the organization’s success, especially since the company has been experiencing a boost in business activity. In a recent meeting with the owners of the company, Johnny discussed his areas of responsibility and what he wanted to do to support the business moving into its growth stage. One of the points he talked about dealt with the absence of his supervisors. He had a supervisor who recently took time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and was gone for four months. During this same period, he had another supervisor who was on vacation during two of the weeks the former supervisor was out on FMLA. Finally, another one of his supervisors had decided to give notice and leave the company, which meant there would be a void that Johnny needed to fill. In his discussion with the owners, Johnny talked about the fluctuations in business and created a chart illustrating how the changes in business aligned with the various events happening with his supervisors. His conclusion was that his supervisors were too focused on their direct responsibilities and did not understand how their departments’ work was connected with other aspects of the business. Johnny also knew that he had to come up with a solution that would not require a huge amount of company resources to implement. He wanted to change this thought process and ensure the business did not have any decline in productivity when there is something going on with his supervisors. Using your knowledge of the course material in this unit, what can Johnny do in response to this situation?

4. Tina Lathon is the Director of Human Resources for PamPei, a major department store chain in the United States. It is July and Mrs. Lathon and her team are already getting ready for the holiday season. Christmas is a big deal for most retailers, and PamPei is no exception, doing about 60% of their annual revenue during the six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. To support this temporary volume in business, Mrs. Lathon and her team have developed an HR strategy which includes the hiring of about 5,000 temporary employees companywide. Because of the high volume of employees and the amount of time, most of them will work for PamPei, Mrs. Lathon has to develop a strategy that is going to provide these individuals with the necessary information to make PamPei successful, while simultaneously considering the costs associated with bringing these individuals temporarily into the organization. Using your knowledge of the course material in this unit, what should Mrs. Lathon do in response to this situation?

5. Grendian is a lumber company with 14 offices across the United States. There are about 10 to 15 different managers at each of their offices who deal with various aspects of the company’s business. As a company, it is very concerned with creating consistency within the organization and ensuring that each of its managers are pushing the concept of teamwork, as well as ensuring that everyone in the company fully understands that what they do impacts not only their performance but the company’s performance and level of service provided to their customers as well. To ensure that the message of teamwork and consistency is understood correctly, Grendian brings all of its managers together annually to discuss, share ideas, and learn how to deal with each other directly and indirectly. Using your knowledge of the course material in this unit, what is going on at Grendian in this situation?

6. Larry Hoi is a Human Resource Consultant. As a consultant, Larry works with a number of companies—both small and large. Larry is currently working with a new company and has been contracted to look at various aspects of its current HR processes and assess how they can be improved. Larry has noticed a number of issues, but one that concerns him involves the process used to onboard cashiers and customer service representatives for this client. The company has the employees review a series of self-help videos and answer some worksheets. If the employees score high enough, they are then paired with a more seasoned employee to learn their new role while on the job. This process stands out because one of the company’s goals is to minimize employee turnover. Using your knowledge of the course material in this unit, what is going on in this situation? What should be happening to properly support this situation? HINT: You should be identifying two methods in this situation and explaining how each applies to this situation.

NOTE: Please keep in mind it is possible for more than one method to apply to a situation, but you should be focused on identifying the best option. When you make your choice, please be sure to provide an explanation based on your understanding of each method. Again—in every situation listed, you will need to list whether this situation is a training or development activity. Then you will need to discuss the best method to support the situation, making sure you explain your response.