Management Training

1. Training Needs Assessment

The first part of the training program is the needs assessment. Therfore the following ques-tions need to be considered: why, who, how, what and when? Further, each question will be discusssed.

Why?

Xenon Corporation anticipates that 25% of mid/upper-level managers will be retiring in the next five years. The lower level employees are not competently ready to fill the mid-level management positions, due to lack of knowledge and experience. Corollary, the mid-level managers and supervisor do not have the relevant skills, knowledge and abilities to fill the top management positions in the company. Therefore a training management development pro-gram is needed to ensure that an adequate number of managers are available to fill upper- and mid-level management positions.

Who?

Estimated 200 employees - including supervisors, lower and mid-level managers - to partici-pate in training program. Xenon Corporation has a strategic human resource policy of pro-moting from within the company, given the fact that the employees understand the mission of the organization, the corporate culture, and how day-to-day business is conducted. The ulti-mate goal of training these employees is to fill the mid- and upper-level management positions as they become vacant.

The next step in the process would be the selection of the trainees. With the anticipation of apporximately 125 mid- and upper-level manager retitring there must be an adequate number of managers available to fill these vacant positions. Therefore 200 lower- and mid-level man-agers will be chosen to particiapte in the management development program. The selection process will consist of observing and interviewing each empolyee to determine whether the employee has the basic cognitive abilties, such as verbal comprehension, quantitative and reasoning ability, neeeded to perform the job successfully.

How?

Several methods will be used to conduct needs assessment, including observing lower/mid-level managers performing the job, utilizing online technology to find relevant training in-formation as well as reading company policies, mission statements, procedures and annual reports. Further the following techniques are used: reading technical manuals and other doc-umentations, interviewing subject matter experts (SMEs), conducting focus group with SMEs, and asking them to complete questionnaires designed to identify tasks and knowledge, required for a job.

Current trainers will be asked through individual interviews, to provide information about the company's current training course listings, which helped in developing the training contents.

Surveys will be conducted to determine how lower-and mid-level managers will be able to accomplish their objectives, strategies and goals.

Observation will be used in assessing the nature of cognitive skill such as, dealing with un-certainty, stress reduction or suppression, employee motivation, giving objective feedback and other people skills required by managers to be successful. Observing the organizational environment will give valuable insights on what conditions the jobs are being performed in.

What?

The issue of what addresses the question of specific skills and knowledge of the employees. Do the employees have the knowledge skills and abilities to assume the responsibilities of the upper and mid-level management?

The current level of skills, knowledge and abilities of these employees are not adequate to as-sume the responsibilities of the upper and mid-level managers in the future. A skill indicates competency in performing a task (NOE 2010). In order to enhance the employees' skills knowledge and abilities, the following skill training are required:

* Communication Skills (both written and oral): Employees will be trained on how to im-prove and be competent in their communication skills, especially for front line managers who will be dealing with employees and other stakeholders face-to-face.

* Conflict Management: conflict management is essential for management at all levels be-cause these skills will be needed to deal with the situations and problems at all levels.

* Leadership and Motivation: These skills are important for the employees to develop the ability to deal with employees, especially in lower levels of the organization. Managers who possess these skills will be able to motivate and produce employees who are commit-ted to the organizational goals and objectives. As a consequence employee satisfaction and overall efficiency will increase.

* Team Development: team development skills are essential for the upper and mid-level managers who will be helping employees to work on projects. This kind of work requires a great deal of team-work and team-building skills. The managers will be trained on team building and team management skills by using adventure learning and other training meth-ods.

* Managing Diversity in workplace: In today's business environment, managing diversity can lead to positive outcomes. So it is very important that upper and mid-level managers possess these skills to genereate an asset to the company. Failure to manage diversity can lead to legal issues or other negative outcomes to the organization.

* Performance Management: performance management is necessary for the organization es-pecially in area such as accounting and employee performance evaluation. These skills are important because managers will learn and acquire skills that enable them to achieve the desired outputs with a given input.

* Problem Solving: problem solving skills and competencies are essential for mid- and -upper-level managers to posses because they will be in charge of both, clients and employ-ee. Consequently the human capital value will increase when the managers obtain these skills.

* Decision Making: managers will be embarking on making decisions that will affect the fu-ture of the company.

Apart from the above mentioned skills, managers need to know more about the company pol-icies on procurement, how business should be carried out, and other technical tasks like capi-tal budgeting, preparation and filing of financial statements. Further the managers are re-quired to know about information technology and how it will be used to further the compa-ny's objectives, marketing functions and risk management as well as investments, stockholder and media relations. Therefore, these tasks will be assigned according to each potential manager's area of expertise, skill levels and overall cognitive abilities.

Mid-level managers will be the most targeted group to