Reference no: EM133026262

Reviewing an Employee Development Plan

Company Background

For this assignment, assume that you have been brought in to consult with Green-Plus Industries, a growing organization that is preparing to open a new regional office. Currently, Green-Plus Industries has eight facilities in other regions; in fact, this new facility will be the first of three new regional offices slated to open in the next three years.

This new facility will be a multipurpose regional office with over a thousand employees in a variety of disciplines. Green-Plus Industries is planning to hire for a range of positions, including:

• Regional vice president and senior staff functions.
• A customer service team.
• A distribution/warehouse team of about 400 employees.

As the organization continues to grow, it is finding increasing difficulty in recruiting qualified employees to fill key management positions and positions at all levels of the organization.

Current Employee Development

The training department has these programs that are used to conduct employee development:

• The 5-day management development program was created in 1995 by the former training director. It is conducted several times a year and "up and comers" are sent to this program when it is offered. This program focuses on planning, controlling, organizing, delegating, and employee discipline.
• The job shadowing program is for the same employees. It involves a two-week planned shadow of selected employees with the goal of exposing trainees to key jobs and the duties involved.
• Individual departments also set up and run their own department-level training programs.

Your Role

You have been brought in by the senior manager of learning and development to help create a variety of development plans and programs to develop the needed knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) for employees at various levels of the organization. 

Based on your role as an external consultant, your first goal is to evaluate the current development programs, and then make recommendations for an evidence-based employee development program.

Assignment Description

• Analyze the current research used for employee development programs.
  • What does the current research suggest is the most effective way to develop employees?
• Evaluate the current development programs.
  • Which parts would likely not be successful in developing today's employees?
  • What are the specific limitations you see in these plans?
    Which parts would likely continue to be successful? Why would these plans be worthwhile to keep?
• Make recommendations for an evidence-based employee development program.
  • What is your rationale for the changes you plan to make? Why do you recommend these changes? What is the research that supports your recommendations?
  • Would a mentoring or coaching plan be more successful than the current program? If so, why, and how would you recommend developing this plan?
• Analyze the elements that would be needed to create a successful development plan.
  • Identify and discuss at least three key factors that are essential to creating an effective development program. Base your answers on a review of at least two applied and research oriented journals.
  • Discuss how to ensure that the plan supports targeted minority groups and is culturally inclusive. What other methods would be successful in developing these targeted employees, based on your research? Support your answer with rationale and evidence from scholarly articles from at least two research journals.

Deliverable Format

Your report tells your client the effectiveness of its current training and development program. Your report should provide information on the following:

• Evaluation of the current employee development programs.
• Recommendations for creating an evidence-based employee development program.