learning and development(hrm)

Learning and Development

Introduction

This report identifies the key challenges in Fairprice workforce that is affecting the ability to provide the company to grow with the corporate strategy

Key issues at Fairprice

The key issues at Fairprice can be summarised as following

Lack of quality trainings , especially use of government initiatives

Poor supervisory skills especially dealing with absenteeism

High degree of absenteeism

Feeble customer care

Poor company appraisal schemes

As the company moves into more technology related business models such as internet , there are other challenges that can

affect the company

Lack of skills in IT and systems

Lack of structure and framework for imparting consistent knowledge to employees joining the company

Lack of mechanisms to measure and calculate benefits of trainings

Key factors in success of Fairprice

For a successful operation of Fairprice , customer satisfaction is the key . Human capital has become the most critical component of a company especially in industries like retail . As Fairprice moves to new ways of doing business and increasingly use IT and internet to do business , it requires transformation of the workforce to keep pace with the advancement of the company . Further , for an enhanced customer satisfaction , it is necessary that employee performance is maintained across the organisation , not only with the customer interfacing department . All the employees is required to be motivated and trained to handle all the processes in the organisation

For ensuring that the business and the process support the strategic direction of the company , all the key elements need to be focussed on by the company . With the current structure and the employee skill and competence it would be difficult for the organisation to continuously provide enhanced customer services , which is critical for the success of the company . The organisation requires changes in the supervisory skill level , effective management of its resources on a continuous basis

The success of the company in future initiatives depends on how prepared the organisation and employees at each level is , to handle the challenges . This also requires that employee turnover and other parameters are limited to a limit that can be handled by the organisation structure

Options for improving the poor level of supervisory skills

National Training Initiatives

The National Training Initiatives provides an excellent option to upgrade the skills of the employees . National / Scottish Vocational Qualification (N /SVQ ) initiatives are organised by bodies such as Retail Skills Network . It offers employees of independent shops in different areas to gain and NVQ in retail operations with minimum cost impact . It provides opportunity to develop the staff to develop the skills , improve customer services and enhance profitability . As the use of technology increases , especially in the areas of stock control , security and at the point-of- sale , it is necessary to upgrade the skills of the workforce Studies have indicated that large retail firms have effectively used N /SVQ for enhancing staff development and training (Sims et al , 1998

In addition to the courses , NVQ program also encourages the firms and staff to get involved...