Introduction
In appreciation of the dynamic nature of the work environment coupled with the relatively highly specialized nature of the workforce, the paper proposes the following training program for employees within this particular work environment. It should be appreciated that work shifts and changes are highly encouraged. In that strain, it is necessary that recruits are brought to measure up with the continuing workforce so that the disparity in terms of work organization and performance is not as high as to suggest a difference in ideology and or understanding of the work objectives. The paper shall be divided into specific sections dedicated to specialized areas and concerns considered necessary in the work training program.
Organizational Objectives, Missions and Aims and Values
The same are considered with great weight and given due attention. The same is informed by the fact that the organizational objectives inform the direction the organization intends to steer towards success. In that context, it is critical that the worker is fully aware and in agreement with the organizational objectives. Preferably, it should be communicated to the employee that he or she may have his/her personal objectives in the workforce. However, the latter objectives must be in consonance with the former objectives so that no potential conflicts are entertained.
Within the training context, it is equally necessary to get the employee to appreciate the values and organizational culture. It is the same that determines whether the employee would blend easily with the existing workforce or not. This is critical especially considered that every organization usually has unique and diverse values. However, in overall, the values and organizational culture ought to reflect the societal expectations. In that context, the same has to inhere in itself a sense of social cooperative responsibility.
It is the paper’s contention that the same must not be taken for granted, but passed onto the employee with the seriousness it deserves. The same would inform the modus operandi for the organization in as far as the new employees are concerned.
On the organizational missions and aims, it is equally essential that the employee recruits appreciate the organizational standing and achievements. The missions and aims should be within the veins and blood of the employees. The same is because organizational missions cannot be achieved in isolation. It is a top to bottom approach within the organizational activities that finally lead to the achievement of the objectives, missions and aims. For that reason, this paper recommends that the same form part and parcel of the training program so as to incorporate the recruits into the same train of thought as early as possible.
Conflict Management
The area of conflict management remains a grey area typically taken for granted. Employees and their managers often have the unrealistic and convenient assumption that conflicts would never occur in the organization. For that reason, most organizations hardly have comprehensive dispute solution mechanisms. Often, the assumed and pursued option entails making a report to the organizational superior and hoping that one’s grievances would be solved.
However, this paper wishes to depart from that tradition. One fact that ought to be appreciated is the fact that conflicts are inevitable in a world where individuals comprehend issues differently and have their internal biases. In that context, some conflict is deemed to occur at some point. Conflicts as such can also be constructive in nature. This is to say that in conflicts, people bring out the other options and or alternatives that if pursued effectively enrich the work processes and results. In that context, the paper proposes that employees are trained in thorough and constructive conflict management strategies. This is to say conflicts should and ought to be entertained only as far as they are in the overall interest of the organization.
In addition, it should not be lost on us that organizations would traditionally require different option for the management of conflicts. The management and resolution structure should be clear and definite so that employees are not found at a loss during subsequent conflicts that would arise. Lastly, the organizational structure should be as flat as possible in the context of conflict resolution so that the peer approach rather than the vertical approach to conflict resolution is assumed. This way the organization would have effectively brought matters of conflict under the constructive approach purview.
Time Management
This is yet another crucial element in the organization. Unfortunately, employees have the character of assuming the issue of time. Often, it is seen as being mundane and, therefore, not deserving any mention. Nothing can be further from the truth. From the moment the employee sets foot in the organization, it is the organization’s duty to cultivate into the employee the culture of proper and effective time management. As such, time inevitably comes up as an issue for training and correctly so. It is necessary to inform the employees of the stipulations as to time. Good managers would attach sanctions and rewards in line with time management. This is to say, the employees who flout the rules as to time should face the wrath of the management and suffer organizational sanctions which assume different characters. On the other hand, the good timekeepers must not go unrewarded. Such should inform the training program in the sense that the issue of time must be well ventilated in appreciation of the dynamics likely to follow the path the employee would assume.
Communication
The biggest factor of success where the set of employees is competent often is communication. Communication entails the passing of messages, feedback and information from one source to another. It is imperative to note that despite the relatively increasing appetite for flatter organizational structures, organizations, nonetheless, must have hierarchies. Often the tiers of management and work organization may be split into three main groups. These are the strategic management, the middle level management and the base of the organization comprising of employees. For proper dispensation of the duties undersigned, it is necessary that all the three levels speak the same language. In other words, the communication must be flawless and effective. This is not achieved accidentally. It is a product of deliberate planning, organization and training. In that perspective, the training program must incorporate the issue of communication. The lines, the channels and the mechanisms entertained for purposes of communication must be canvassed effectively with the recruits with the overall intention being to make the latter comfortable, knowledgeable and fully informed of the communication element in the organization. In the long run, it must not be lost on the recruits that communication is the only way to get grievances as well as legitimate concerns to be addressed. Any other approach assumed absent communication would not only be seen as uncivilized, but would equally occasion a degree of tension among the parties concerned.
Employee Appraisals and Reward Management
Performance appraisal is yet another grey and critical area. This is especially since the employees’ development, progress and needs are all pegged on the organizational performance and how the organization considers the same. Employees and employers alike would like a fair, adequate and comprehensive performance appraisal system. This is a case of giving unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar. It is, therefore, imperative to get it right from the beginning.
In that strain, it is equally noteworthy to appreciate the place of information in the context of performance appraisal. This is to say that, both players, the assessors and the assessed must be equipped with sufficient information and knowledge of the performance and reward system. For the assessed (read employees) it is during the training that such issues are ventilated. It is necessary for the organization to bring to the employees’ attention the performance appraisal system and its place in the organization. This often has the effect of catapulting the employees into action. In that same vein, it ensures that later assessments carried on are based from a point of information and no party is caught unawares. The necessity of such an approach cannot be gainsaid in the context of twenty first century workers. In the modern era, the employee demands to be informed to the detail. He demands fairness, transparency, accountability and open door policy approaches. In that context, the performance appraisal system common and knowledgeable to them would bring on board all employees, an element the paper considers with immense weight and consideration.
Safety and Security in the Workplace
Ordinarily, the setup in the organization and indeed in the workplace often pits the employees against the employers. However, there are unique and exceptional cases where the situation places the two parties on one side against another party. One such instance entails the servicing of clients whereby the client is on the other side of the edge with the organization on the other edge. Another such unnoticed instance concerns the safety and security of the workplace. It is not lost on us that both the employees and the employers are human. In that strain, any threats to lives would likely affect both of them. Take the example of a fire outbreak. All human beings dread fire and in that context would require evacuation and immediate lifesaving help.
However, employees in many cases do not have the same train of thought especially when it comes to security and safety. Cases have been reported where employees mismanage and misapply resources whose consequent misuse occasions damage with life-threatening results. In that strain, it is indeed necessary that employees are trained on the use of equipment. All the safety measures must be observed and it is cardinal law to follow all the required safety measures. In the same strain, employees must not approach management of equipment from a point of ignorance relying instead on speculation. An employee must be open enough to profess his or her ignorance on the use and management of equipment so that elaborate and deliberate training his undertaken to inform him or her of the proper way of use.
The second limb relates to security. This primarily incorporates the issues of property belonging to the employer and employees. The rule of the thumb often is that one should be the brother’s keeper. In that context, a reciprocal character should be cultivated in the new recruits in the sense that everyone has the personal responsibility over the property of the other. This way, the workplace becomes the securest place and employees interact without fear of loss of their accompanying property. In the same strain, it should be inculcated into the employees the concept whereby any malpractices in respect of property whether belonging to the organization or personally belonging to the employees is reported. This way a culture of impunity where some unscrupulous employees make do illegally with organizational property shall be resisted. In addition, it shall be clear to the organization and its employees the work values and professional relationships anticipated within the confines of work operations.
Employee Rights, Privileges, Duties and Related Policies
This is another area that may make or break the organization. To begin with, the organization does not operate in a vacuum. It operates in a social setup backed up by state sanctioned laws and policies. For instance, in the United States of America, the corpus of employment laws provide for the employee rights and duties. In addition, it is often the practice of employers to set additional rights and duties. The latter are legal and applicable in as long as they do not contradict the former which are state implemented and supervised. One such area that draws a lot of ire in the organizational context relates to harassment be it sexual, psychological, mental, and physical or any form it assumes. It is imperative to appreciate the firm position the law has taken in as far as harassment is concerned. This becomes even more critical in a multi-gendered and multiracial context that typically characterizes the American market. Every employee and employer alike is expected to be alive to the dictates of the law and the desires of the society and so conform to the same. It is not lost on us that the American society is in a fluid state of continuing reforms and state of empowerment. Employees must be accorded their rights and trained on how to exercise and enjoy the same.
However, the same must be taken with a pinch of salt given the give and take approach to employee rights. It should not be lost on the former that the rights come with duties and that the law shall only protect one who comes to court with clean hands. In other words, as long as the law is ready to protect the employee rights, the employees must keep their end of their bargain. Indeed, the same discussion must inform an elaborate training program.
Conclusion: Effectiveness of the Training Program
In conclusion, it is necessary that the training program is rolled out immediately the recruits arrive. In addition, feedback must be taken and assessed in seeking to obtain the effectiveness of the training program. Some of the feedbacks necessary for analysis of the effectiveness of the program include consideration of the turnover rates and the reasons offered by quitting employees, the number and nature of disputes resolved both internally (read internal mechanisms) and externally (judicial and extra judicial mechanisms such as arbitration). A questionnaire should also be carried out among the existing workforce to enable them ventilate their issues in regard to the training program.
