J.C. Penney is known to be an international retail chain which is specialized on selling multiple types of products, including clothing, jewelry, furniture, home appliances, and numerous other goods. The organization, while being included into the list of Fortune 500 retail companies and providing employment for around 100,000 associates all over the world, is focused on continuous developing and effective training its employees (“About us,” 2015). One of the primary ways of contributing to unceasing enhancement of the company’s employees is considered to be the use of professional development plans. In terms of this paper a professional development plan for J.C. Penney will be proposed. I particular, the needs analysis and organizational analysis will be performed, evaluation criteria, measures, and timeframe will be suggested, and expected results from the plan’s implementation will be described.
Needs Analysis
Organizational Analysis
Since each organization, independently of its size, has specific objectives and goals, J.C. Penney is not an exception either. The company is aimed on maintaining its competitive advantage particularly by counting on its employees’ retention. The organizational analysis helps the company to ensure that the training goals do not contradict its business objectives. J.C. Penney devotes substantial attention to training its employees in order to enhance the workers skillfulness and increase their potential as of the most important asset of the company.
Evaluation Criteria
In the process of constructing professional development plan, it is significant to determine the evaluation criteria in order to receive objective information regarding the sufficiency of the plan implementation. It is important to take into account such criteria as the trainees’ reactions, learning, behavior, and motivation as well as the results and return on investment for the company (Noe, 2013). Firstly, the level of trainees’ satisfaction has to be evaluated by assessing such parameters as the usefulness of program content and materials or convenience of training room. Secondly, the quality of learning by the employees should be assessed; for this purpose, the efficiency of acquiring the facts, principles, techniques or procedures by the employees has to be evaluated. Thirdly, the interpersonal skills and behaviors acquired by trainees need to be evaluated. Fourthly, the learner’s motivation and attitudes towards the professional development plan and the work itself should be evaluated. Finally, the payoffs for the company, such as the productivity, costs, quality, customer satisfaction, repeat customers, and other measures together with the return on investment have to be meticulously assessed to analyze the impact of the plan implementation on the company’s performance.
Delivery Method for the Training Program
For J.C. Penney it might be most reasonable to build the training program on the basis of combining a set of traditional training methods with technology-based training methods. On the one hand, the presentation methods, based on providing the learners with specific facts, problem-solving methods, and processes in terms of the lectures together with the hands-on and on-the-job training methods, grounded on active involvement of the trainees in learning tend to be undeniably significant sources of information for the employees. On the other hand, online learning can make the educational process more captivating and efficient for the employees.
Measures and Collection Points
There are variety ways of measuring the effectiveness of the professional development plan. First, the surveys and interviews with the trainees may be used for assessing the satisfaction of the employees with the implementation of the plan. Second, the tests and work samples may be applied for evaluating the quality of the employees’ learning. Third, the observations can be used as a method of analyzing the modifications within the employees’ behaviors. What is more, the performance data needs to be analyzed for evaluating the efficiency of the company.
Timeframe
It is worth saying that professional development plan should be implemented by J.C. Penney as well as by other organizations on a regular basis as continuous development of the employees automatically leads to constant advancement of the company. At the same time it might be reasonable for the organization to make evaluation of the plan’s implementation on a monthly basis in order to be capable to modify and improve the effectiveness of the plan.
Expected Results
The expected results of the professional development plan implementation are primarily associated with contributing to the advancement of the employees’ potential and as a result the company’s performance. More specifically, J.C. Penney might expect that the plan would result in increasing level of satisfaction of the trainees with the program, growing the employees’ competency and motivation to demonstrate high quality of work, improvement of behavioral patterns of the employees, and enhancement of financial performance of the company.
References
About us. (2015). Retrieved on December 17, 2016 from: http://ir.jcpenney.com/phoenix.zhtml?
c=70528&p=irol-homeprofile.
Noe, R. A. (2013). Employee Training and Development. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
