Draft an essay considering and analysing the case study “Tele-com Ltd"

Task(s)

This Assignment was developed to assess the following Learning Outcomes:

• Apply key learning theories and identify the impact on the design and delivery of learning and development interventions in organisations.
• Evaluate the role that learning and talent development plays in an organisational context from a strategic perspective.
• Discuss the role that learning and development professionals play in an organisation.

The brief for this assessment is as follows:

The assignment consists of identifying training needs and producing a training plan with clear recommendations for the business. In answering the question it is important that a wide variety of sources are used to support the analysis and it is expected that current surveys and academic sources are referenced accordingly. The main aim of this essay is for students to consider not only the theory behind learning and development but to show how this is used in a practical manner in the workplace in the UK. The word count for the essay is 2,000 words and there is a 10% leeway either side without penalty.

Coursework 1 – Essay (50% of the total weighting) Submission deadline Monday 27th March 2023, 16.00 hours GMT.

The assignment will be based on considering and analysing the case study “Tele-com Ltd: The need for a common and more systematic approach to training and development in a SME.”

BACKGROUND

Tele-com Ltd is a small company dealing in the supply of two way radio equipment, airtime and maintenance to such industries as construction, haulage, security, local government, banks and vehicle control. It was started nearly 30 years ago and has been run by its chairman and founder for most of that period. The chairman is still active in the firm, however, the three other directors are understood to carry out strategic planning of the company: the Managing, Technical and Finance Directors. The Managing Director and Finance Director joined the company roughly 18 months ago and had previously worked together for many years on the manufacturing side of the same industry.

The company has thirty-five employees but until recently no dedicated sales staff (up to 80% of its business is either repeat business or referrals) and the Managing and Technical Directors and the technical support staff carry out this function. The company has seven repair technicians, either with qualifications and experience to City & Guilds level 2 and fourteen mobile installation technicians who have attended evening classes during a three-month course in installation and radio theory. This was organised about 4 years ago with a local FE college and specifically tailored and run for the company. (All technicians have been with the company between 4 and 11 years).

The Finance Director is backed by three accounts assistants, one of whom has been with the company for over six years, the others for less. The longest serving assistant attempted AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians) three years ago, financially assisted by the company, on a part-time evening basis but eventually dropped out, as she did not feel that much of the training was relevant to her job.

The company promotes itself on the quality of its technical knowledge and back up and was recently registered for its Quality Management against “the kite mark” and, while the technical and administrative aspects of working at the company are therefore documented and adhered to, the focus of the company is on “knowing the customers” and on flexibility within the workforce. Given the size of the organisation, there is little likelihood of promotion and the flexibility demanded of the workforce is supposed to motivate and “enrich” employees’ workload and contribution.

Quality Management demands that a training plan is drawn up and, in part as a result, a performance appraisal system has recently been installed and carried out. The main focus of the first year has been the identification of training needs.

INTERVIEW WITH THE MANAGING DIRECTOR

The Managing Director states that training is allocated by need, rather than by budget, although “a certain amount” is set aside for training, if necessary. “Training must be for the sake of the business, not for all those people in training who are busy creating jobs for themselves.”

The expansion at this stage is in the recruitment of dedicated salespeople, who need to be recruited from within the industry, as the technical basis of communication product is an issue. The Managing Director nevertheless states: “Anyway, it’s dangerous for salespeople to have too much technical knowledge.” What might stand them in good stead at recruitment is a degree, not necessarily in business. They would also have to be “self-motivated”, in which case he might not insist on a degree: “actually, sometimes it could go against them.”

Accounting, marketing and administrative staff do not need industry specific knowledge, except what can be taught in-house. Nevertheless, they do need training, particularly in customer service/interpersonal skills, which may be taught in-house of externally (for example “telephone skills for our credit control”).

As to there being a match of knowledge and skills development between what is needed in the industry and what is provided, the answer is emphatically no. This particularly affects the training of technicians, who should have access to a nationally recognised qualification (at level 1 or 2) in radio repair, which should have courses supporting it. People (e.g. amateur radio enthusiasts, from whom many technicians in the industry are drawn) could just take the exam if they were proficient enough and, provided they had passed, would be likely to be recruited. This is no different from the Managing Director’s expectations of employing an accountant, who applies already having qualified.

He believes that this must be an external course, rather than Apprenticeships, which involve too much administration in a small company, much of which is spent proving externally what you know they are capable of. It is through supervision that you know whether someone is able to do the job properly, and this would be a part of taking on someone who was not qualified – a sort of probationer who would be coached at work and complete such a course at nights and weekends. Admittedly, the supervisory aspect might not be much: they have work to do too.

Installers, who have often been motor mechanics, need only a limited knowledge of radio principles, he says, but again an external, college-taught course and examination over say three months needs to be set up. This would cover the principles of radio, installation practice according to government guidelines and customer care.

INTERVIEW WITH THE TECHNICAL SERVICES MANAGER

When training is mentioned, the Technical Services Manager (TSM) becomes quite animated: “Training: we’re always talking about it and never doing anything about it.” He has been sent on a one-day training course during the five years he has been with the company, which was concerned with field customer service. “Useless: it’s what all the field technicians should go on but, honestly, I keep being told that I have to manage them better and that yes, I’ll get training. That was last year and still nothing. I suspect that paying out £2000 for a course for me is too much but then, paying out anything for a course is too much here.”

He is especially concerned that, as a result of rapid technical innovation within the industry, the company is willing to market new product with no lead time and that there is never any plan to train the technicians before new equipment is sold. This leads to problems in delivering on time as technicians have to learn new programming and testing routines on the go.

The whole is supposed to fit into an appraisal system, which, frankly, does not work: there is a regular, yearly pep talk for those who carry out the appraisals and they follow what is suggested every time. As it is focused on development, with training needs as a separate section in the appraisal, these are agreed. Nothing then seems to happen after that, which makes the TSM look either incompetent or sly.

People are paid reasonably well for their work and perhaps that is why they have stayed so long with the company. However, they always have to be pushed rather than taking initiative themselves and, in many cases, are seeing what they can get away with. They turn up late to work or to customers; they can be surly with some customers and aggressive to their colleagues; they will sometimes bodge a job in order to get home quickly.

COMMERCIAL PROBLEMS

The company continues to rely on repeat business from existing customers and on referrals from customers. However, some customers are beginning to leave the company for other suppliers, based on commercial decisions such as price, quality of work and a reported lack of trust in individuals within the company. For example, a recent attempt to recruit salespeople gained one employee who stayed with the company for a month, introduced himself to the company’s clients and left trying to take them with him to his next employer. Another, who was previously employed by the company and reengaged as a salesman, stayed for another year and was then dismissed on capability grounds: he was not actually generating sales. Many long-standing customers complain that they do not know who they should talk to and when they do speak to someone, that salesperson does not know their company or tries to sell them something they do not want. A third salesperson has been with the company for two months and is based at home in a different region of the country. He has not yet produced a sale.

The market is changing. Cellular and other communications systems are challenging the market base traditionally associated with two-way radio. This in turn means that those direct competitors in two-way radio are adopting a more aggressively competitive stance within their own field of operation. As a result, Tele-com Ltd is projecting a lower turnover than last year, despite increasing its sales potential through recruiting dedicated sales staff. Redundancies are being considered in the near future.

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