Tesco Case Study Persuasive

1.Explain the difference between training and development. How have changes in customer expectations affected Tesco and its need to train staff?

“Training is the acquisition of knowledge and skills in order for a person to carry out a specific task or job.” Training is coordinated in teaching new skills, making the person understand what his roles and responsibilities are and instructing him to execute the tasks that he needs to fulfill. Training makes the employees more profitable for the organization once they acquire particular knowledge and skills. Training focuses on the short-term goals of the organization wherein the main reason of giving trainings to the employees is for them to perform and execute things as they were asked. However, “Development is about helping the person grow and extend their abilities.” Development teaches the employees to be more profitable and efficient for the organization. It maximizes the knowledge and skills that the employees learned during training. Development refers to making the employees effective enough to handle captious situations in the future. While training emphasis in the short-term goals of the organization, development focuses in the long-term goals of the company.

The only permanent thing in this world is change. As the needs and expectations of the customer changes, the knowledge and skills of the employees of the company should ride along with these changes. This will help the company in attaining and accommodating the changing needs and expectations of the customers. 2.List the methods of training carried out by Tesco. Describe how training needs are identified.

The methods of training carried out by Tesco are the on-the-job training and off-the-job training.

On-the-job training lets the employees to feel how it likes is to work in the company, they got to explore and meet other employees that will soon be their colleagues and make them execute on what they know and what they have learned. Managers and mentors can also evaluate the employees on a daily basis and see if the employees are progressing. This training can also help the managers to envision some problems that will develop and help them to find a solution in the shortest time possible.

Off-the-job training, on the other hand, is just proper for trainings that includes new skills to learn, or for the development of the employee. It also requires employee to attend professional seminars and orientations rendered by professional organizations and training staff.

3.Analyze Tesco’s method of developing its employees. Consider the strengths and weaknesses of such a programme.

Tesco’s Option programme is Tesco’s method of developing its employees. This programme offers a long-term scheme for developing its employees for them to perform in the organization at their best. The strengths of this programme are the following: ”It offers, for example, workshops focusing on both leadership behaviours and operating skills.” This is strength of Tesco’s Option programme for the employees will benefit from it as the organization will benefit from the employees once the employees has developed these skills and behaviours.

“The employee’s Personal Development Plan includes Activity Plans, a Learning Log (to record what the key learning points of the training were and how they are going to be used) and a ‘Plan, Do, Review’ checklist to monitor when plans are completed.” Records will help the managers and the employees to study how the progress as they go through the programme. Through these records, they can also study their weak points that they will soon need to change. ”Recruiting new staff is more expensive than retaining existing staff, so for Tesco, retaining staff is extremely important.” This is another strength of the programme. Hiring new staff will cost the company a lot of money, time and efforts. That’s why retaining old but skilled employees are necessary for Tesco. And this will also lead the company to a better organization.

4.Evaluate the benefits for Tesco in providing a structured training programme. To what extent do you think the training has achieved a Return on Investment?