Running head: BSBLED401A

BSBLED401A - Assessment 1
Name
Institution

Task 1: Systematic Identification of Learning and Training Needs

For one to identify the training and development needs of a team within the organization,
some steps should be followed so as to fully explore the needs. Some important elements need to
be assessed first before the whole process. To begin with, a clear and comprehensive assessment
of the performance or skill standard required need to be conducted. Secondly, a skills audit
should follow and should be carried out with an intention of determining the skills level of all the
staff members. This means that the skill level of each and every staff members needs to be
identified, that is what they can do and what they cannot do. After this, the next step should be to
measure and give a clear comparison between the findings and the skill requirements which have
been already identified (Klausmeier, Mishra & Maker, 2007). When all this is successfully done,
the training gap is identified. This is identified by conducting a critical training needs assessment
to determine and identify the skills that each staff member possesses and the ones that they need.
For instance, by analyzing the skill level and experience of the employees with the
following aspects, the training and development needs of the team within the organization can be
identified.
Organizational Mission and goals
Here, individuals skills of the employees should be assessed and their contribution to the
achievement of the organizational mission and goals should be measured. This will help know
the strength and weakness of every staff member and know where they need extra knowledge to
speed up and ease the strain in organizational mission and goal and attainment. Similarly,
individual employees can help by giving areas where according to them when improved, the
overall performance of the organization will improve. By this, the organization will ensure that
the training is designed in such a way that it is focused and it favors some specific areas, more so
areas where have been dragging down the performance of the organization.
Job Descriptions and Person Specifications
In any organization, every employee despite of their job description, the weight of their
work and the position which they hold, they all work towards a common goal of attaining the
organization goal. As such, by identifying the contribution of each individual in their job
positions to the organizational goal significantly would help identify their training and
development needs. This is because during the normal monthly or annual appraisal, the areas of
weakness as well as the areas of strength can be identified. After identifying these areas, the
training can be re-adjusted in such a manner that the areas which have not been performing so
well are given more priority.

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Performance appraisals and feedback

This is the most straightforward way of identifying the skills level of the employees.
Through evaluating them, their weaknesses and strengths are easily identified and as such the
areas where they need training are identified without straining. The performance appraisal gives
the normal trend of individual employees. Areas where the employees perform very highly is
given little focus while areas where the performance has not been impressive, are identified and
much focus is given to them. The performance is equally important since after the training it can
still be used to monitor whether the areas have improve or not.
Skill identification and skills audit
Just like in Performance appraisals and feedback, skill identification and audit is easily
conducted just by looking into the areas of qualifications of as well as the performance of the
employees (Klausmeier, Mishra & Maker, 2007). This help to know the areas where the
employees need improvements and these are the areas of training. Just by identifying the areas
where the performance is very high and very low, this can help to know the skill levels of the
employees and therefore design the training in such a way that that it focuses on the areas where
the employees are poor.
Consultation with employees and supervisors about skill gaps
This entails analyzing the performance of the employees by looking at their previous
records with an intention of identifying the skills that each staff member possesses and the ones
that they need. Other aspects such as skill audit and performance appraisal can be of importance
as they can be used alongside this.
Training Needs Analysis
This is important as it can be done by conducting a survey to identify the areas where the
employees themselves need training. This is a direct technique and very effective in identifying
the training and development needs. It can be done using a questionnaire which can be
constructed as either simple structured or complex manner. The managers and the supervisors
can be requested to fill the questionnaire and some employees can also be used. The results of
this will clearly indicate the areas where the training should focus on.

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Task 2: Training and Development Plan

Training and development plan
Team
Gemini
name:
Team

Whole selling.

function:
Name of training Time
or

development allocated

Method(s) of Name the specific Equipment

to training

or method.

and

resources required

area

this area

development.

1. Effectiveness

One day per On the job

In the place of Money to pay the

week

work

per

trainers.

month
Feedback

2.

Customer One day per Off the job

service

week

Practical

and Practical

and

assessment.

assessment time.

TAFE

Money to pay for

per

replacement

month

staff

and for the course

Time to release staff
Relationship

3.

Decision One day per On the job

making

week
month

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per

Coaching

Coach Time

In the place of Money

work

and

time

needed during the

assessment.

Feedback
4. Team working

Assessment.

Assessment time.

Two days per On the job

In the place of Money

week

work

needed to conduct

Practical

the practical
Practical time.

per

month
feedback

and

time

Once you have created your training and development plan you need to address the following:
a) Explain why you chose the training or development areas for this plan.

This is because, since this is a pharmaceutical business which deals with whole selling of
pharmaceutical products, for the business to thrive well, high impact employee training and
development is vital. The most important areas which need to be improved include:
effectiveness, customer service, decision making and team working (Riding & SadlerSmith,
2008). These areas are crucial since the business deals a lot with clients. The employee deals
with the customers both face to face and through other means such as emails, phone calls and
other means.
Similarly, good training and development on these areas help keep the right staff and even boosts
profit. This is because during this program, the battle for the big talents amongst employees
become even more competitive and the internal competition becomes positive and healthy. The
employees become motivated to achieve even more and become goal oriented. For instance,
when employees improve their effectiveness, customer service, decision making and team
working, the business is likely to improve its competency, profit growth and competitive
(Klausmeier, Mishra & Maker, 2007).

b) Identify at least 3 problems you could encounter when trying to implement this training

and development plan.

During the implementation of this training and development plan, some of the challenges
which can come up include?
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Embracing the Training

Not all the employees will receive the training positively. This is very normal as it is
psychologically proved that some do not welcome change. As such, some employees will tend to
see the training as a waste of time and therefore not appreciating it (Burke & Hutchins, 2007).
This behavior is normally seen in the employees who have worked in the organization for long
period of time.
Capital
The training program may require large amount of capital to be successful. Some materials may
be required and the money to be the instructors since they are professional people may be
expensive. This may significantly affect the budget of the business as the capital which could
have been allocated to other areas end up being utilized in training.
Time Factor
Since the training will take place during the normal working days, it can be a bit challenging,
planning the working hours to properly fit with the training. Some areas of training such as
effectiveness call for long hours and therefore this means that some activities will have to be
removed from the normal working schedule (Riding & SadlerSmith, 2008).
c) Present strategies on how you will overcome each of these problems.

To fully take care of the major problems which are likely to be encountered when trying to
implement the training and development plan, some strategies need to be adopted. The most
effective strategies include:
Creating awareness on the importance of the training before the training itself.
This is very important since during the awareness program, the staff will be made to
understand of the benefit of the training and the advantages that it will bring both to the
employees and to the overall performance of the business.
Budget
A critical analysis of the financial statement of the business should be carried out so as to
identify the areas which need more priorities as far as the resource allocation is concerned
(Riding & SadlerSmith, 2008). Opportunity cost should be used since it helps to enumerate the
various areas which need capital according to their importance.
Adjustment of the Normal Work Schedule.

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The normal working hours can be adjusted by increasing the working time either in the
mornings, evenings and weekends (Burke & Hutchins, 2007). This will help create time for
training. Alternatively, some activities such as normal meetings can be reduced in a week.
Task 3: Maintaining training and development records
It is very important for organizations to keep detailed and accurate records of all learning and
development that is undertaken in the firm.
a) Identify at least 5 specific records that need to be kept when managing the learning and
development of teams and individuals.
The major records that need to be kept when managing the learning and development of
teams and individuals include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

The capital invested during training

The benefit of the program.
Implementation program
Strategies used to monitor and backup implementation.
The goal of the training.

b) Explain why it is important for organizations to keep records.

Keeping records is very important because of the various benefits that it brings to the
organization. Some of the importance of record keeping include: it helps in maximizing the
expenses which were claimed, help give a clear evidence of how the resources were used during
the program, gives the information, needed to run the business as well make it grow, helps
identify both the strengths and weaknesses of the business and it helps formulate a clear plan of
how to meet the various financial commitments of the business (Burke & Hutchins, 2007).
c) How should these learning and development records be stored?
There are various methods which the learning and development records can be stored. The
most effective ones in this case include:

Through Graphs

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After the program, line graphs, bar graphs and pie charts can be drawn according to the
trend of the performance of the organization before and after the program. This will help store
the information for a long time.
Annual Report.
The information got from the program can be put down in the annual report and be filed
together with other important organization documents.

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References
Klausmeier, K., Mishra, S. P., & Maker, C. J. (2007). Identification of gifted learners: A national
survey of assessment practices and training needs of school psychologists. Gifted Child
Quarterly, 31(3), 135-137.
Riding, R. J., & SadlerSmith, E. (2008). Cognitive style and learning strategies: Some
implications for training design. International Journal of Training and Development,
1(3), 199-208.
Burke, L. A., & Hutchins, H. M. (2007). Training transfer: An integrative literature review.
Human resource development review, 6(3), 263-296.

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