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SUPERVISOR: JACKLYN TULLY To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Sinéad Woods 1712341 Bachelor of Business in Retail Management 8/20/2014 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Table of Contents Declaration………………………………………………………………………….5 Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………….6 Abstract i) ii) iii) iv) v) Motivation for the work……………………………………………7 Literature Review……………………………….………………….7 Methodology………………………………………………………...7 Data Analysis………………………………………………………...8 Conclusions and Recommendations………………………………..9 i) ii) iii) iv) Problem definition…………………………………………………..10 Background to the problem………………………………………...10 Organisation of the project………………………………………….11 Scope and limitations of the research project……………………...12 Introduction Chapter One: Literature Review 1.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………15 1.2 Training and Development essential for organisational success………………………15 1.3 Training and development and employee engagement…………………………………15 1.4 Economic turnover and the effect on training and development ..................................16 1.5 Employee development and turnover……………………………………………………17 1.6 How learning types effects employee turnover………………………………………….17 1.7 Training and Development linked to career opportunities………..……………………18 1.8 Employee morale affected by training and development……………………………….19 1.9 Training and Development in relation to staff performance………………………….20 1.10 Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………..21 Chapter Two: Methodology 2.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….24 2.2 Research method…………………………………………………………………………..25 2.2.1 Research design strategy……………………………………………………….25 2.2.2 Exploratory research……………………………………………………………25 2.2.3 Descriptive research……………………………………………………………..27 2.2.4 Casual research………………………………………………………………….28 2.3 Primary and secondary research…………………………………………………………28 2.3.1 Secondary data………………………………………………………………….28 2.3.2 Primary data……………………………………………………………………..29 Sinéad Woods Page 1 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 2.4 Research tool selected……………………………………………………………………..29 2.4.1 In-depth interviews……………………………………………………………29 2.5 Survey method and measurement tool…………………………………………………30 2.6 Fieldwork…………………………………………………………………………………31 2.7 Profile of respondents……………………………………………………………………31 2.8 Sampling process…………………………………………………………………………32 2.9 Select the sample frame………………………………………………………………….32 2.9.1 Probability sampling method………………………………………………….32 2.9.2 Non-probability sampling method…………………………………………….34 2.9.3 Sampling type and size…………………………………………………………35 2.9.4 Execute the sample……………………………………………………………..35 2.10 Data preparation and analysis…………………………………………………………35 Chapter Three: Data Analysis 3.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………38 3.2 Research object 1 findings……………………………………………………………….38 3.3 Research object 2 findings………………………………………………………………..40 3.4 Research object 3 findings………………………………………………………………..43 3.5 Research object 4 findings………………………………………………………………..45 3.6 Research hypothesis……………………………………………………………………….47 Chapter Four: Conclusions and Recommendations 4.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………50 4.2 Conclusions on object 1…………………………………………………………………..50 4.3 Conclusions on object 2…………………………………………………………………..50 4.4 Conclusions on object 3…………………………………………………………………...51 4.5 Conclusions on object 4……………………………………………………………………51 4.6 Recommendations…………………………………………………………………………51 Sinéad Woods Page 2 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………..143 Appendix Appendix 1: Pre-test report………………………………………………………………54 Appendix 2: Data preparation for interviews……………………………………………55 Appendix 3: Coding of interviews…………………………………………………………56 Appendix 4: Tabulation of interviews…………………………………………………….63 Appendix 5: Editing of questionnaires ……………………………………………………66 Appendix 6: Coding of questionnaires…………………………………………………….67 Appendix 7: Tabulation of questionnaires………………………………………………..78 Appendix 8: Charts and graphs from questionnaire findings……………………………87 Appendix 9: Questionnaire template………………………………………………………93 Appendix 10: Interview guide………………………………………………………………98 Appendix 11: Transcript from Mark Lacey’s interview……………………………..….102 Appendix 12: Transcript from Cathy Behan’s interview………………………………...121 Appendix 13: Transcript from Jonathan Millar’s interview……………………………..128 Sinéad Woods Page 3 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail List of Tables and Figures Table 1: Reasons for rejecting focus groups and case analysis………………….26 Table 2: Reasons for selecting descriptive research………………………………27 Table 3: Types of casual research………………………………………………….28 Table 4: Advantages and disadvantages of secondary data……………………..29 Table 5: Advantages and disadvantages of primary data………………………..29 Table 6: When to use interviews……………………………………………………30 Table 7: Advantages and disadvantages of in-depth interviews…………………30 Table 8: Advantages and disadvantages of questionnaires………………………31 Table 9: Types of probability sampling……………………………………………34 Table 10: Types of non-probability sampling……………………………………..35 Table 11: Tabulation………………………………………………………………..36 Figure 1: Types of exploratory research…………………………………………25 Figure 2: Types of descriptive studies…………………………………………….27 Figure 3: Graph from question 7………………………………………………….39 Figure 4: Graph from question 9………………………………………………….39 Figure 5: Graph from question 8………………………………………………….40 Figure 6: Graph from question 12………………………………………………...41 Figure 7: Graph from question 14………………………………………………...42 Figure 8: Graph from question 15…………………………………………………43 Figure 9: Graph from question 17…………………………………………………44 Figure 10: Graph from question 19………………………………………………..44 Figure 11: Graph from question 16………………………………………………..45 Figure 12: Graph from question 23………………………………………………..46 Figure 13: Graph from question 25………………………………………………..46 Figure 14: Graph from question 24………………………………………………..47 Sinéad Woods Page 4 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Declaration I SINÉAD WOODS, declare that this research report is my own, unaided work, except as indicated in the acknowledgments, the text and the references. It is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Business in Retail Management at Dublin Business School, Dublin. It has not been submitted before, in whole, or in part for any degree or examination at any other institution. Sinéad Woods Signature: Date: 20/08/2014 Sinéad Woods Page 5 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Acknowledgments I would like to begin by thanking my family and friends for their continuous support throughout this challenging time. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my lecturer and supervisor Jacklyn Tully. She offered me constant support and guidance throughout the duration of this research project and for that I am extremely grateful. To my interviewees Mark Lacey, Jonathan Millar and Cathy Behan, I would like to thank them for taking time out to speak with me and provide me with excellent information and their experiences in the field, which added a great level of depth to my research. To the respondents of the questionnaires, I would like to thank them for providing me with information and sharing their opinions opening. Again, a better knowledge and a deeper understanding of the area were obtained and without their help, this research project would not have been possible. Sinéad Woods Page 6 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Abstract This research project will examine the benefits that effective training and development can have for both employees and a retailing organisation, looking specifically at areas concerning employee turnover, staff morale and performance and career opportunities. i. Motivation for the work A customer’s in-store shopping experience is more important now than ever before; therefore excellent customer service skills and enhanced product knowledge will help retailers in retaining existing customers as well as potentially attracting new customers to their store. Therefore, this research project will help keep employers up-to-date on the benefits of effective training and development for both the organisation and the employees. ii. Literature review Career opportunities are now extremely important to employees. Highlighting training and development as an energising perk (Applegate, 2008), employers are now offering a “total rewards” approach to help attract and retain employees (Paterson, 2011). Studies have shown that training can improve staff morale and happier staffs are less likely to leave the organisation (Fisher, 2012). According to The Competitive Advantage (2009), encouraging your employees to achieve and rewarding those who do achieve, the organisation is demonstrating its commitment to its people and in their continued success, therefore increasing staff morale. According to Marsh (2009), employees are now seeking out organisations who invest in training, enhancing staff retention, motivation and performance. Liz Bell, the Human Resource Director of B&Q, explains the efforts that retailers have gone to in order to maximise staff performance. This is demonstrated through the numerous training and development initiatives at B&Q (DIY Week, 2009). iii. Sinéad Woods Methodology Page 7 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail . There are three forms of research design strategy – exploratory, descriptive and causal. For this dissertation, a mixed methodology approach will be used. Interviews are an excellent way of uncovering information that people may not reveal in a group setting (Domegan & Fleming, 2007). In-depth interviews will be conducted with three members of Lidl Senior management, Mark Lacey, Jonathan Millar and Cathy Behan. Personal questionnaires will be distributed to 50 employees of retail. This form of questionnaire allows for the questions to be explained correctly to respondents, reducing the number of response errors (Domegan & Fleming, 2007). Data preparation will then take place, upon collection of all primary research. There are four stages in this process – editing, coding, tabulation and summarisation. iv. Data analysis Findings from the secondary research found that there is a fear that if an organisation invests in training and development, the employee will leave as they are now more attractive to other employers (Whitney, Edmonds & Summerfield, 2008). Interviewees support this theory but felt that it was a risk the company must take. It is not a reason to not provide training. 78% of questionnaire respondents felt that they would leave an organisation if they did not provide training. All interviewees are of the opinion that training programmes can have a positive impact on staff morale. The findings from the questionnaires concur this, as 90% state that effective training and development would make them more motivated in the workplace. The literature also agrees that providing staff with training can improve staff morale (The Competitive Advantage, 2009, Vozar, 2013). Information received from the interviewees found that all three believe that an employee would leave an organisation if there were no career opportunities available. Jonathan Millar states that the more exposure to training and development, the better opportunities available. Having staffs trained correctly in their area or role, will have a positive impact on their efficiency levels and therefore, increase their performance. This was confirmed by the Sinéad Woods Page 8 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail questionnaire findings, The literature highlights that effective training and development increases engagement levels with the organisation (Marsh, 2009). To conclude, the research hypothesis was proven to be correct – effective training and development can benefit both the organisation and the employees of retail. v. Conclusion and recommendations The purpose of this research project is to explore the benefits of effective training and development and the impact it can have for both the organisation and retail employees. By providing training and development, employees feel valued and are less likely to leave the organisation. This is confirmed by both the interviewees and the questionnaires, In relation to staff performance and morale, the secondary and primary research are in agreement that training and development can have a positive impact on both factors. This benefits the organisation as staffs are more efficient. Companies are now selling career opportunities as a benefit when attracting potential employees, according to findings from the interviews and the literature. 96% of respondents stated that they choose to work for an organisation that have good training structures in place, as they feel this will increase career opportunities for them. Three recommendations were made following the completion of the data analysis. Companies should highlight training and development and career opportunities as benefits to potential employees seeking employment. Training initiatives should be tailored to the organisation and made relevant to the employees, increasing engagement levels. Organisations should have a positive recognition programme in place, to increase performance levels, employee morale and customer service. Sinéad Woods Page 9 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Introduction Training in the early days was simply about providing employees with the required skills and knowledge to effectively do their job. However, this soon changed and training became more focused on improving employee job performance. This improved job performance then led to an improved organisational performance (Pangarkar & Kirkwood, 2013). i. Problem Definition Research Question:  To identify and explore the benefits of effective T&D for both employees and organisations in retailing. Research Hypothesis:  Successful and effective training and development is essential in order to increase staff morale and performance, while reducing staff turnover in discount retail outlets, highlighting the benefits for both the employees and organisation. Research Objectives: 1. To investigate the effectiveness of training and development for a retailing organisation in relation to reducing employee turnover. 2. To investigate the effectiveness of training and development for a retailing organisation in relation to increasing staff morale. 3. To investigate the effectiveness of training and development for a retailing organisation in relation to career opportunities. 4. To investigate the effectiveness of training and development for a retailing organisation in relation to staff performance. ii. Sinéad Woods Background to the Problem Page 10 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Training and development plays an important role in how effective and successful an organisation and its people can be. All organisations engaged in employing people need to train and develop their staff (Shepard, 2010). A change in the economy has been clearly visible over the past number of years. Research has shown that training and development was an area which was affected by the budget cuts (Krause, 2013). However, McCafferty (2012) argues that correct training can not only only lead to increased levels of productivity, as well as better customer service, but at least a 20% increase in profits for the organisation. This statement reaffirms that effective training and development can have significant implications on an organisations success or failure. Having the right people in the right job, performing consistently at a high level, is critical for organisational success. Training courses can help employees to become more proficient in their role (Stentenfeld, 2010). This increased proficiency will encourage employees to feel valued. A working environment with a high level of staff morale and happier staff will reduce employee turnover intentions (Fisher, 2012). iii. Organisation of the Project Chapter one, the literature review, first summaries training and development and then continues to look in greater detail at the effects that training and development can have on many different aspects of an organisation. For example, employee development and turnover, the link between training and development and career opportunities and the effect of training and development on employee morale and performance. A key element to be noted from the literature review is that training and development is a necessity for an organisation, who wishes to be successful, both financially and in relation to their employees in order to remain competitive (Latif, Jan & Shaheen, 2013). Chapter two is the methodology chapter and this chapter outlines the research design strategy selected. For the purpose of this dissertation, a mixed methodology approached is used, to include both exploratory and descriptive research. The research tools selected by the researcher are in-depth interviews and questionnaires. The reasons for choosing these methods are the versatility and ability to uncover more information in the interview process. In relation to the questionnaires, they allow for greater flexibility and a good control of the sample population (Domegan and Fleming, 2007). Secondary data was also Sinéad Woods Page 11 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail conducted in the form of a literature review, allowing the researcher to gain further knowledge into the area of training and development. Chapter three analyses the data from both the secondary and primary research conducted. Prior to analysing the data, the four stages of data preparation are conducted – editing, coding, tabulation and summarisation. This process ensures that all response errors and unsuitable questionnaires are removed, allowing the researcher to have the most relevant findings (Domegan and Fleming, 2007). The data is then critically analysed and similarities or differences between the findings are identified. The findings are presented individually under each of the four objectives. The primary research findings are explained, interview findings followed by questionnaire findings, followed by the secondary. Triangulation then takes place. Here the data is critically analysed to draw upon any similarities and differences that are found between the three forms of research. Finally, the research hypothesis is addressed and a statement is made in relation to proving or disproving the hypothesis, based on the findings from the secondary and primary research findings. Chapter 4, conclusions and recommendations, summaries the findings from both the secondary and primary research conducted. The findings are presented under each objective and supporting and rejecting results are highlighted. Finally, three recommendations are suggested at the end of the chapter, emphasising to employers the benefits that effective training and development can have for both the organisation and employees of retail. iv. Scope and Limitations of the Research Project For the purpose of this research project, research was conducted based around the researcher’s four objectives – employee turnover, staff morale, career opportunities and staff performance. However, areas that are not researched included a deeper insight into training needs analysis (TNA) in relation to the design and implementation of them in the workplace. This area was not explored further because the researcher was not conducting causal research. Causal research looks at the cause and effect of two or more variables (Lores, Sinéad Woods Page 12 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 2011). Casual research is usually conducted using one of three types of methods – experiments, laboratory experiments or field experiments. If the researcher was conducting casual research, a TNA would have been useful in a fieldwork experiment, for example, to demonstrate the effect of the training plan on the employee development. However due to time constraints, casual research was not appropriate. Therefore, TNA was not an area that was researched. Recruitment and selection was also an area that little research was carried out in. The reasoning behind this is because it did not cover the research objectives and therefore may have proved to be irrelevant to the dissertation. Another area which was not researched further was in relation to training and development and post-evaluation. Time constraint was felt to be an issue as this form of research would have to take place over the period of weeks, in relation to the primary research. The researcher could not use this area as a research objective and therefore was omitted from further research. One main limitation in relation to the project was with the personal questionnaires. Although the questionnaires were distributed weeks in advance, collecting them is where the issue lies. For example, 18 questionnaires were left in the Lidl Mullingar store, and upon collection day a week later, only 9 were returned. This delayed the data preparation process by another week. Another limitation was in relation to the sample population. The questionnaires were retail employee specific. The researcher does not have a large network of employees available in other retail stores, so therefore the majority of questionnaires were filled out by Lidl employees. For the researcher, this meant travel time to the stores firstly to distribute the questionnaires and again to collect them. This slowed down the data analysis process significantly. Sinéad Woods Page 13 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Chapter One: Literature Review Sinéad Woods Page 14 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 1.1 Introduction The world is rapidly changing due to the advancements made in recent years with technology and the developments in e-commerce, and as a direct result, businesses are now required to be more competitive (Latif, Jan & Shaheen, 2013: Chatzimouratidis, Theotokas &Lagoudis, 2012). In order to survive and thrive in these changing times, companies need to respond in a timely and flexible manner. The need for employees to be on top of their jobs has increased significantly. Jehanzeb and Bashir (2013) assert that companies should have employees who are capable of adapting to the continuously fluctuating business environment. The following literature review will discuss the importance of training and development and its effect on the organisation regarding reducing staff turnover. It will also highlight the benefits training and development can have for employees, in relation to increasing staff morale, staff performance and career opportunities. 1.2 Training and Development Essential for Organisational Success Organisations are striving to attract, retain and motivate their workforce. Training and development plays an essential role in how effective and successful an organisation and its people can be. Training has a knock-on effect on productivity, health and safety in the workplace. All organisations involved in employing people need to train and develop their staff (Shepherd, 2010). The success or failure of an organisation can depend on employee performance. Therefore, companies are investing large amounts of money in employee development (Hameed & Waheed, 2011). Devi and Shaik (2012) continue to highlight that in order to attract new customers, meet and exceed customer’s needs, wants and desires, as well as retaining existing customers, companies must be the best in their products, service quality and customer encounters. This can be achieved through effective training and development. According to Tschohl (2014), employees rank training and development high on a list of desirable benefits, and also state that the aim of training and development for any organisation should be to change employee’s attitudes and behaviours. Sinéad Woods Page 15 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 1.3 Training and Development and Employee Engagement A survey carried out by BlessingWhite (American Society for Training and Development, 2011) found that less than 31% of employees worldwide are engaged. Training plays an essential role in employee engagement, and employee engagement results in a successful organisation (Krause, 2013). More employees are now seeking employment elsewhere due to the multiple career opportunities that are available to them, compared to 2008. When questioned on methods to improve job satisfaction, factors including opportunities to apply their skills, career development and training were listed as key drivers of job satisfaction. McCafferty (2012) states that many employees are of the opinion that they don’t receive sufficient job training or opportunities for career development. Although a tough economic climate has forced companies to make reductions in their training budgets (Arneson, Rothwell & Naughton, 2013), McCafferty argues that correct training will not only lead to an increase in productivity and customer satisfaction, but companies will also see at least a 20% increase in profits, proving that the benefits of effective training is difficult to ignore. According to Blanchard and Thacker (2010), companies that invest in more training shows improved financial results in relation to their net sales, gross profits per employees and stock growth. A positive correlation can be seen between the amount of money and time spent on employee training and the profitability of a company (Fisher, 2012). Ensuring a company has a well-trained workforce, according to Ramirez (2013), is essential in order to maximising company profits, improve services and improve morale. Fisher (2012) also reveals that by making a 10% investment in higher-level training can yield an 8.6% increase in productivity, compared to a 3.4% increase from investing the same amount in new equipment. 1.4 Economic Downturn and the effect on Training and Development A negative consequence of cutting training budgets is employee turnover. By better understanding the impact that training has on employee engagement, retention and the company’s performance, organisations can make informed decisions in relation to budget cuts (Krause, 2013). According to the article, “Room for Improvement” (Smart Business Atlanta, 2011), businesses cannot afford to lose their best employees to a competitor who offers better career opportunities. Some employers are reluctant to invest in training and Sinéad Woods Page 16 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail development as they fear that employees may leave as a result of their improved skills (Kennett, 2013). Financial gain is no longer the primary motivator. Employees don’t stay in their respective job due to the high-paid salary or for the enjoyment of their job. Rather, they stay for a more basic interest – career development (Krause, 2013). On-going training provides employees with the necessary tools required to succeed in their job. The best employee will leave the organisation if they feel the organisation doesn’t invest in their future (Krause, 2013). 1.5 Employee Development and Turnover Turnover is defined by Long and Perumal (2014) as the “individual movement across the membership boundary of an organisation”. People are no longer solely concerned with having a work-life balance, but are also concerned with seeking better career opportunities. Therefore, the day of an individual remaining in one single company throughout their career is a rare occurrence (Long & Perumal, 2014). Thus companies must invest time and money in their employees in order to retain them. According to Koster et al (2011), there are two perspectives on investing in employee development that are widely acknowledged. The first suggests that investing in employee development can contribute to the market value of employees and provokes turnover. In this instance, the company will not pay for as much training. The second perspective states that by investing in the development of employees, their turnover intentions will decrease. Through this increase in investment comes a positive perception of the company in the employee’s mind, as it highlights the company’s willingness to support their development. As a direct result of these positive perceptions, higher levels of job satisfaction and a stronger readiness to work hard to contribute to the organisation’s higher performance. One way to keep employees from walking out the door is by offering them plenty of learning opportunities early in their careers. Not only does this training teach them the basic work tasks, it shows employees they are valued. Home Depot is an example of a retailer who has used training programmes to reduce their turnover rate of 75% to 55% (Whitney, Edmonds & Summerfield, 2008). 1.6 How Learning Types Effects Employee Turnover Sinéad Woods Page 17 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Becker, as cited by Koster et al (2011) differentiates between two types of training – specific and general. Specific training is defined as the “acquisition of competencies that can hardly be transferred to other firms”. This form of training only raises employee’s productivity within the company. The employer is able to recoup all the costs, as well as receive full benefits. However, the risk of the employee leaving the company remains. General training on the other hand generates competencies and qualifications that are of equal value in other organisations, not just in the organisation providing the training. A negative aspect associated with this form of training is the likelihood of employee turnover increasing as they can be easily poached by other organisations (Koster et al, 2011). 1.7 Training and Development Linked to Career Opportunities A lack of trust in an employer’s willingness to provide employees with long term job security leads to a focus on protecting one’s own career interests (Crawshaw et al, 2012). Taking an interest in employees also means investing in their futures. This is why training and development opportunities are an energising perk (Applegate, 2008). Employers need to provide employees with a range of career development opportunities that promote their employability security (Crawshaw et al, 2012). According to a survey carried out in 2013, less than one in five organisations highlight the value of their workplace benefits to their current employees, as an aid to retention (Toledo Business Journal, 2014). However, among the organisations that do emphasis their benefits, career development opportunities were high on the list of benefits, along with healthcare and retirement savings. As the promise of higher wages are a thing of the past due to the changing economy, organisations are now offering a “total rewards” approach to help attract and retain employees. According to Paterson (2011), a total rewards strategy compromises of much more than just salary, bonuses, pension and healthcare benefits. It includes a wider range of benefits, for example, training and development and work-life balance. As part of their total rewards strategy, KFC have introduced structured training programmes which gives staff the qualifications that allows them to progress in their career, but also motivates them to stay and develop their careers within KFC (Paterson, 2011). Sinéad Woods Page 18 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Career advancement and development can come in many forms. Cross training programmes, opportunities to work in cross functional teams and mentoring programmes are three examples of career development tools that employers can use to retain and motivate staff at a low and no cost option (Loftus, 2013). According to Terry Leahy, former CEO of Tesco, what Tesco staff does is determined by how they feel about the company they are working for, not rules and targets. He believes what motivates staff is an interesting job, being treated with respect, good training and career opportunities (Guardian Summit, 2014 & The Economist, YouTube). 1.8 Employee Morale affected by Training and Development Business leaders are aware of the benefits of mentoring, yet they fail to invest in training (Hall, 2009). A survey carried out by Clutterback Associates found the respondents believe that mentoring is essential for the development of staff. However, only 38% of respondents are currently providing mentoring training (Hall, 2009). David Clutterback, CEO of not-for-profit global mentoring business, states that it is easy to cut training costs during tough financial times in order to reduce operation costs. However, he continues to say that training programmes can significantly improve job satisfaction, employee morale and the overall success of the business (Hall, 2009). Peters (2012) reiterates this point by stating that an organisation can never invest too much time or money on training and retraining, with Heather Grace Smith of The Marketing Company, stating that highly successful organisations never stop learning. They continually invest in their staff and proactively up-skill their people (NZ Business, 2013). Studies show that training can improve employee morale and happier employees are less likely to leave the organisation (Fisher, 2012). By encouraging your employees to achieve and by providing a programme to reward those who do achieve, an organisation is showing its commitment to its people and an interest in their continued success, therefore increasing staff morale (The Competitive Advantage, 2009). This is a philosophy applied by ASE certified, a non-profit organisation who improves the quality of vehicle repair and service. As a result of this Sinéad Woods Page 19 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail applied philosophy, ASE certified employees are more productive, more accurate and have a tendency to remain with their employer for longer. Customers can tell whether or not an employee is happy in their job (Vozar, 2013). Companies can be at their greatest, with the best quality products. However, if employees are not happy, they will not remain within the company if morale is low. Vozar (2013) continues to outline a training initiative called “Get you’re A Game On”. This programme encouraged employees to help a co-worker in times of need, in exchange for a reward. This recognition programme fostered an atmosphere of team work, rather than competition. Morale remained high as there was no singling out of any employee due to underperformance. 1.9 Training and Development in Relation to Staff Performance Although it may appear that there is limited time available for training or to send employees on training courses, making time for this and investing money into this area can have a positive impact on the organisation down the line (Managing Credit, Receivables & Collections, 2009). Crush (2009) refers to Tim Martin, the founder of pub chain Wetherspoon. After the interview was conducted, Crush concluded that Martin places huge emphasis on training his staff, stating “one thing he will never compromise on is staff training”, demonstrated by the large amount of money being invested into training the staff on an annual basis. Martin feels this is essential in order to maintain standards and he takes his staffs performance seriously. A survey carried out by IOMA (2009) states that staff productivity or performance improved due to both internal and external training programmes. Employees felt they gained a better understanding and a deeper knowledge of the importance of their job, and the overall impact it had within the organisation. Wiley (2104) asserts that growing not only your own knowledge but your teams knowledge, is critical to helping the organisation as a whole. Effective training helps staff engage with their employer and its needs (Marsh, 2009). Having the right people in the right job, consistently performing at a high level are critical elements of organisational success (Stentenfeld, 2010). Through identifying the correct competencies for each job, training courses can be provided to help employees Sinéad Woods Page 20 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail become more proficient in each of the identified competency areas, benefitting both the individual and the organisation (Stentenfeld, 2010). According to the National Audit Office, skills gaps can cost a business of 50 staff up to £165,000 (Marsh, 2009). This financial burden could therefore be reduced through correctly identifying the competencies for each job and highlighting any gaps in training which needs to be addressed. An interview with Liz Bell, the Human Resource Director at B&Q, highlights the efforts the retailer has gone to, to maximise staff performance and employee retention. Bell highlights that there are a number of training and development initiatives in place within the company. The retailer has also introduced external qualifications and employee apprenticeships for their employees. Practical training has also improved, in particular areas such as product knowledge, which is made available to all staff and with is no limit to the amount they can do. Increased product knowledge has led to improved customer service and staff performance, benefitting both employees and organisation. Evidence can be seen that employees are happy in their work, as B&Q have topped the Global Great Workplace Awards for the past three years (DIY Week, 2009). According to Marsh (2009), potential employees will seek out organisations who invest in training. This should also enhance staff retention, motivation and performance. However, Marsh continues to discuss how it is essential for training to be tailored to the business objectives. Through having focused training delivered, staffs are better able to apply their knowledge practically within the workplace, enhancing not only the individual’s performance, but also of the organisation. 1.10 Conclusion Due to the rapid developments in the area of technology and the downturn in the economic climate, companies have now placed more emphasis on training and development. Training and development has many benefits for both the employee and the organisation. It provides employees with the necessary skills to complete their tasks in the most productive and cost effective manner. It also establishes a relationship between the employee and their employer, as they feel the company cares about their development and their future. This positive relationship encourages staff to remain within the company, which will reduce employee turnover and the organisation will see a return-onSinéad Woods Page 21 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail investment in relation to the time and money they have invested into training and development. The literature reviewed also highlighted the benefits of training and development in relation to staff performance. Through training, a better knowledge and a deeper understanding of an employee’s role within the company can be gained. When training effective provided, staff feel more engaged with their employer and their performance is consistent. Financial gain is no longer a primary motivator in the workplace. People now more than ever want a sense of security in their jobs and the opportunity to progress further within their careers. People want to work for companies that provide training to help them in achieving the desired career path. Career opportunities are now being offered as part of a total rewards approach, to help attract and retain employees. Studies have shown that training can improve staff morale and happier employees are less likely to leave the organisation. Organisations who encourage their employees to achieve and recognise those who do, increase morale leading to an atmosphere of team work rather than competition. To conclude, effective training and development can be beneficial to both the employees and the organisation, in relation to reducing turnover, increasing staff performance and morale and well as career opportunities. Although times are tough in the world of retailing, training budgets should not be cut in the area of training and development, as studies have shown the importance of highly trained staff and the impact they can have for the organisation. Sinéad Woods Page 22 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Chapter Two: Methodology Sinéad Woods Page 23 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 2.1 Introduction This chapter will outline how the primary research will be conducted in order to gain information in relation to the benefits of training and development for employees and the organisation. The researcher will discuss the research design strategy implemented and explain why the strategy was most appropriate for the research. Information will also be provided on the respondents of the in-depth interviews and questionnaires. The process of analysing the data will be detailed under the headings of editing, coding, tabulation and summarisation. Research Question:  To identify and explore the benefits of effective T&D for both employees and organisations in retailing. Research Hypothesis:  Successful and effective training and development is essential in order to increase staff morale and performance, while reducing staff turnover in retail outlets, highlighting the benefits for both the employees and organisation. Research Objectives: 1. To investigate the effectiveness of training and development for a retailing organisation in relation to reducing employee turnover. 2. To investigate the effectiveness of training and development for a retailing organisation in relation to increasing staff morale. 3. To investigate the effectiveness of training and development for a retailing organisation in relation to career opportunities. 4. To investigate the effectiveness of training and development for a retailing organisation in relation to staff performance. Sinéad Woods Page 24 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 2.2 Research Method 2.2.1 Research Design Strategy A research design, according to Lores (2011), is the framework or the plan for a study used as a guide in collecting and analysing data. Different problems lead to different research designs. There are three forms of research design strategies to select from – exploratory research, descriptive research and causal research. For the purpose of this dissertation, the author will use a mixed methodology approach. In-depth interviews will be conducted as they are an excellent way of uncover information that may not be revealed in a group setting (Domegan and Fleming, 2007). Personal questionnaires will also be distributed as the questions can be explained correctly to the respondents, which will result in a reduced number of response errors (Domegan and Fleming, 2007). 2.2.2 Exploratory Research Exploratory research is concerned with gaining a better understanding of the situation (Lores, 2011). This form of research is also known as qualitative research. One of the main objectives regarding this form of research is gaining preliminary insights into problems and opportunities (Hair, Bush & Ortinua, 2003). According to Domegan and Fleming (2007), exploratory research related to establishing trends, patterns and ranges of behaviour that is unknown. Exploratory or qualitative research generally tends to focus on collecting a small amount of detailed primary data from a small sample, through asking questions or observing behaviours (Hair, Bush & Ortinua, 2003). This style of research is useful in new product development, creative aspects of advertising and media selection (Domegan and Fleming, 2007). Common types of exploratory research: (Source: Lores, 2011) Figure 1 Sinéad Woods Page 25 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail For the purpose of this dissertation, the author will use both a literature review and indepth interviews. These methods were deemed most appropriate to the study as they could be used to increase the author’s knowledge and familiarity regarding the selecting topic, especially when little was known about the topic prior to commencing the research (Lores, 2011). There are many benefits and limitations associated with these types of research design. Firstly in relation to the literature review, the major benefit concerning this method is the ease of discovering information previously written on the chosen topic (Lores, 2011). A literature review can be conducted at minimal cost to the author, as most information is available in libraries and in online journals and databases. However, it may be different to locate information that is up to date and relevant to the topic. In-depth interviews give the interviewer the ability to uncover more complete answers to questions that may not be answered during survey research. Respondents may also be more likely to reveal their attitudes or motives during a one-to-one interview, rather than in a focus group (Domegan & Fleming, 2007). Although in-depth interviews can generate a lot of detailed insights and information, there runs a risk of potential biases, for example, interviewer-respondent artifacts, respondent bias or interviewer errors (Hair, Bush & Ortinua, 2003). Reason for not selecting focus groups:  Reason for not selecting case analysis: The author would not receive as deep  This method was not selected due to an insight into the area of training and time development if focus groups were research requires observation over a carried out, as it be would difficult to period of time to analyse what is get experts in the field of training and going on in a given situation. development to take part in constraints. This form a discussion group. Table 1: Reasons for rejecting focus groups and case analysis Sinéad Woods Page 26 of To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 2.2.3 Descriptive Research Domegan and Fleming (2007) define descriptive research as primarily concerned with the associations between two or more variables. Reasons for using descriptive research:   to describe the characteristics of certain groups,  to make specific predictions,  to determine the proportion of people who behave in a certain way, to determine relationships between variables (Lores, 2011). Table 2: Reasons for selecting descriptive research There are two types of descriptive studies, cross-sectional and longitudinal. Crosssectional study involves drawing a sample of elements from the population of interest. On the other hand, longitudinal studies involve a panel which is a fixed sample of elements (Lores, 2011). (Source: Lores, 2011) Figure 2: Types of Descriptive Studies For the purpose of this dissertation, the author will use questionnaires, to gain gather information from retail employees relating to the benefits of training and development for their career path, morale and performance. One major advantage of using questionnaires is, providing the sample size is large, it can be said that a fact has been proved and is true of the entire group questioned (Kolb, 2008). Although questionnaires are an excellent Sinéad Woods Page 27 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail method of gaining a deeper insight into the area in question, they can be time costly and time consuming in terms of collecting and analysing the data. 2.2.4 Casual Research This form of research is used to test the cause-and-effect of two or more variables (Lores, 2011). Casual research is usually conducted using one of three types of methods – experiments, laboratory experiments or field experiments. Experiments This is a scientific investigation in which one of more of the independent variables are manipulated and controlled. Observation takes place to see the effect this change has on the dependent variable. Laboratory Experiments This is an investigation in which the researcher creates a situation with exact conditions in order to control some variables and manipulate others. Field Experiments This form of research is conducted in a realistic situation. Like the other experiments, one or more of the variables are manipulated to see their effect on an outcome variable. (Lores, 2011). Table 3: Types of Casual Research This research method will not be used for this dissertation due to time limitations and the lack of control of variables (Lores, 2011). 2.3 Primary and Secondary Researches 2.3.1 Secondary Data Secondary data, according to Domegan and Fleming (2007), is “data collected by another person for reasons other than the problem in hand”. There are many advantages and disadvantages associated with this form of data: Sinéad Woods Page 28 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Advantages of secondary data Disadvantages of secondary data Relatively cheaper to gather than primary Recency of the information. Should a time data. lag be evident between the publication date and the project, the information may be obsolete. Secondary data is less time consuming. May present issues with copyright. Faster to gather. No real control of quality of data collected. Provide researcher with a broad avenue of Research may be collected for reasons that do answers. not match your need. (Domegan and Fleming, 2007), Hair et al (2003). Table 4: Advantages and disadvantages of secondary data Secondary data was used in this dissertation in the form of a literature review and case analysis. This was an excellent way of gathering information previously published on the topic of training and development. It allowed the author to gain a better insight and a deeper knowledge into this area and research questions, objectives and hypothesis could be addressed. Key authors included Stentenfeld 2010, Crawshaw et al 2012, Koster et al 2011 and Marsh 2009. 2.3.2 Primary Data Primary data on the other hand, is data collected first-hand by the investigator for a specific problem (Domegan and Fleming, 2007). Advantages of primary data Disadvantages of primary data Information will be up-to-date and relevant. Expensive to gather. Collected specifically in relation to the Highly time consuming. problem. Resalable as it answers your research Not readily available. questions directly. (Domegan and Fleming, 2007). Table 5: Advantages and disadvantages of primary data 2.4 Research Tool Selected In-depth interviews and questionnaires are the forms of primary data used in this dissertation. Primary data helped to prove the hypothesis. Sinéad Woods Page 29 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 2.4.1 In-depth interviews In-depth interviews are a way of obtaining qualitative data. They are unstructured and a direct way of obtaining information, and are primarily used for exploratory research. Unlike focus groups, in-depth interviews are conducted on a one-to-one basis. (Domegan and Fleming, 2007) In-depth interviews are most appropriate when: 1. Intensively probing need behaviours or attitudes, 2. Examining potentially embarrassing subject matters, 3. Interviewing competitors who are unlikely to reveal information in a group setting, 4. Interviewing professional people, 5. Understanding complicated decision-making patterns. (Source : Domegan and Fleming, 2007) Table 6: When to use interviews Advantages    Disadvantages  Versatile Ability to uncover more complete answers to questions Respondents reveal attitudes and motives that they may be reluctant to Require  preparation  groups careful planning Can be more expensive than focus Difficulty of editing, coding and analysing qualitative results discuss in a group setting. (Source : Domegan and Fleming, 2007) Table 7: Advantages and disadvantages of indepth interviews 2.5 Survey Method and Measurement Tool There are four methods for completing questionnaires – postal, personal, telephone and online. Type Postal Sinéad Woods Advantage   Easy to administer Relativity low cost and Disadvantage   Difficult to design Time consuming Page 30 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Personal Telephone     Great flexibility Good sample control  Speed of data collection  Good control over the interviews. Online    Speed and timeliness Convenience More time consuming Higher costs associated Questions must be short and  not complex  area.  Difficult to target geographical Perception as junk mail Unclear answering instructions (Economic and Demographic Research, 2003). Table 8: Advantages and disadvantages of questionnaires The author intends to use the personal approach. This approach is deemed most appropriate as there is a specific audience being targeted, retail employees. Online questionnaires would attract a wider range of respondents and this would add to the work load, as the author would have to filter the questionnaires using only those answered by the target market. Therefore, personal questionnaires were selected. 2.6 Fieldwork Interview with Mark Lacey took place on Monday 14th July in Castle House, room 4.7. The interview commenced at 11.15am and continued until 12pm. Interview with Cathy Behan took place on Wednesday 23rd July in Castle House 2.0. This interview lasted 15minutes in total. Interview with Jonathan Millar took place on Friday 25th July, in the Regional Distribution Centre in Mullingar. This interview started at 10.15am and finished at 11am. Questionnaires were distributed between the dates of the 22nd July and 31st July. Pre-testing took place on the 22nd July in Castle House at 12 noon. For pretect report, please see appendix 1. 2.7 Profile of Respondents Sinéad Woods Page 31 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Jonathan Millar – Training and development Manager for the Mullingar Region. Jonathan was a Store Manager in Dunloe, County Donegal. Prior to commencing his employment with Lidl, Jonathan worked as part of the management team in Tesco. Mark Lacey - Senior Learning and Development Manager for Lidl Ireland and Northern Ireland. Prior to his role within Lidl, Mark worked as a HRD Consultant for Topaz Energy Ltd for almost four years. Here, key responsibilities included recruitment, training programmes and delivery and talent management. Cathy Behan - Training and Development Project Manager in Head Office, Newbridge. Before undertaking her current role, Cathy was part of the recruitment department with Lidl. She has been in the company 7 years in November. Employees were selected from Lidl stores in both Mullingar and Cork. Members of the management team in Dealz and HomeStore and More were also targeted. All respondents were employed by retail organisations and the role within their companies ranged from store assistants to store managers. Susan Dowling – current trainee Deputy Store Manager with Lidl. Her current role is in the Charleville region. It was through Susan that questionnaires were distributed to the Cork stores. 2.8 Sampling Process Define the Population In-depth interviews will be conducted with members of Lidl Senior Management who are experts in the field of training and development. Questionnaires will be distributed to employees of the retail sector, from companies including Lidl, Dealz and HomeStore and More. 2.9 Select the Sample Frame Sampling, according to Hair et al (2003), is a selection of a small number of elements from a larger defined target group. There are two forms of sampling – probability and non-probability. There is no access to a sample frame. 2.9.1 Probability Sampling Method Sinéad Woods Page 32 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail In probability sampling, each sampling unit in the defined target population has a known, nonzero probability of being selected for the sample (Hair et al, 2003). Probability sampling uses techniques that result in the ability to calculate the exact probability of a single person in the sampling frame to be selected to participate (Kolb, 2008). There are four forms of probability sampling that can be used - simple, stratified, and systemic and cluster. Type Simple Stratified  Characteristics  sampling, unbiased Each sampling unit has a population’s characteristics.  chance of being selected,  Also known Advantages/Disadvantages as random   estimates Difficulty of in obtaining  listing of the target population. The opportunity to study each defined target population into stratum different groups (strata), and comparisons between strata. then selecting samples from  each stratum,  randomness of the sample,  different groups, Used to the complete, current and accurate Avoids subjective bias arising. Requires separation of the Allows the researcher to gain  and make relative Information relevant to the required stratified factors may increase the not be readily available. Used to learn more about Used to compare results between specific groups within a population. Systemic    Sinéad Woods Requires the defined target  Relatively easy to draw up a population to be ordered in sample some way (customer list), randomness. Potential less costly,  while ensuring Hidden patterns may not be Can be completed relatively found by the researcher, quickly. meaning that the sample is not Page 33 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail truly Cluster  Sample units are divided into mutually exclusive collectively   and exhausted representative of  defined target population.  to implement. the Most cost effective and feasible High tendencies for clusters to subpopulations, called clusters, be the same, resulting in a less Useful where the population precise representation of the under target population. survey are widely dispersed, Often used when it is impossible to determine the exact number of people in the population. (Kolb, 2008 & Hair et al, 2003 & Chisnall, 2001). Table 9: Types of probability sampling 2.9.2 Non-probability Sampling Method In this form of sampling, individual units in the population do not have a chance of being selected. In this case, the selection of the sample is dependent on human judgement (Chisnall, 2001). There are three forms of non-probability sampling – convenience, judgement and quota sampling. Type Convenience Characteristics  Advantages/Disadvantages Sample is drawn at the convenience of  the researcher. Allows for a large number of respondents to be interviewed  in a short period of time. It is not possible to measure the representativeness of the sample, because sampling error estimates cannot be accurately Judgement Sinéad Woods  Participants are selected  determined. If the judgement is correct, based on an experienced sampling will be much better individual’s belief that than convenience sampling, in Page 34 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail they will requirements meet the relation of the regarding the study. study.  to information It is not possible to measure the representativeness Quota  Involves the selection of  The sample generated contains specific pre-specified quotas proportion demographic researcher. characteristics (age,  subgroups in the desired by the the study is by subjective Success of gender), specific attitudes determined (satisfied/dissatisfied) or decisions specific researcher. behaviour made by (regular/rare customer). (Hair et al, 2003) Table 10: Types of non-probability sampling 2.9.3 Sampling Type and Size The sampling process most appropriate for this research is non-probability sampling, as the sample members are consciously selected by the researcher (Domegan and Fleming, 2007). The researcher intends to speak with the Lidl Training and Development Manager for the Mullingar region, Jonathan Millar, Lidl Senior Learning and Development Manager, Mark Lacey and conduct questionnaires on 50 retail employees. 2.9.4 Execute the Sample Details outlined in the fieldwork. 2.10 Data Preparation and Analysis The steps involved in the data analysis process are editing, coding, tabulation and summarisation. Editing Sinéad Woods the sample. participants according to regarding of Page 35 the To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Editing is the process by which the raw data collected is checked for mistakes made by either the interviewer or the respondent (Hair et al, 2003). Editing ensures that all the information on the questionnaires is complete, accurate and consistent. Each question must be checked to see if the question has been answered or if it needs to be omitted and weeds out unusable questionnaires (Chisnall, 2001, Domegan and Fleming, 2007). Coding Hair et al (2003), describes the process of coding as the grouping and assigning of values to responses to the questions contained in the questionnaires. Numerical values are generally assigned to each response for each question. Coding is useful in establishing any repletion of ideas, opinions or facts (Kolb, 2008). Tabulation Tabulation is the simple process of counting the number of observations that are classified into certain categories (Hair et al, 2003). The objective of the tabulation process is to prepare the quantitative data so that it is readily understandable and its significance is evident (Chisnall, 2001). There are two common forms of tabulation, oneway tabulation and cross tabulation. One-Way Tabulation  Cross Tabulation Can be used to determine the number of non-responses to individual   Useful for studying the relationship between variables,  questions, Will produce an actual number of differ  responses which were omitted, subgroups of the total sample, Useful to locate simple errors made in the data entry.  Determine whether certain variables when compared to other Usually the most popular form of data analysis in research projects. Source: Chrisnall, 2001. Table 11: Tabulation Summarisation When the data has been collected and analysed, the results can be presented. The data can be presented in tabular or graphic form. Tables allow for numerical data to be presented. Sinéad Woods Page 36 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Graphics present data in terms of visually interpreted sizes. (Domegan and Fleming, 2007). For evidence of the data preparation, please see appendix 2-7. Sinéad Woods Page 37 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Chapter Three: Data Analysis Sinéad Woods Page 38 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 3.1 Introduction This chapter will outline the findings from the interviews, the questionnaires and the literature review conducted to see if there is correlation between the findings. The evidence is presented according to each research objective and triangulation occurs to identify similarities and difference found between the secondary and primary research. Finally, the research hypothesis will either be proven or disproven. 3.2 Research Objective 1 – T&D and its Effect on Employee Turnover Data collected from all interviewees demonstrated that if employees are going to leave, they are going to leave. This is an interesting point as there is no confliction between responses. Interviewees were all of the opinion that if an employee wants to leave there is no stopping them, no matter how much you have trained them or how much training you could give them. “Training isn’t a solution to keep them or not let them go because their mind is made up already” (Mark Lacey). However, it was a general consensus that employees are motivated when they are invested in and they want to do their best. This encourages employee retention and reduces their turnover intentions. Cathy Behan brought up an interesting point, “What happens if we don’t train them?” They are then not performing to the level the company require. She feels that if they are going to leave, let them go and the company can train more staff to the same standard. Jonathan Millar agreed with this and added that employees may leave once they have been trained, but it is a chance a company has to take. The information collected from the questionnaires highlighted that 100% of respondents felt that T&D was important and 92% stating the companies must invest time in training if they want their employees to stay with the company: Sinéad Woods Page 39 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Companies must invest time in training employees if they want them to stay with the company? Disagree 8% Agree 92% Figure 3: Question 7 When asked about money as a primary motivational factor for employees, a staggering 62% stated that they felt money still remains the primary motivator for employees in the workplace: Financial gain is no longer a primary motivator for employees. Do you agree with this statement? Yes 38% No 62% Figure 4: Question 9 Research has shown that employees are no longer solely concerned with a better worklife balance. They no longer remain loyal to one company for a long period of time if there are no career opportunities in place (Long & Perumal, 2014). Therefore, investing in T&D is essential. However, some organisations fear that an increased level of skills Sinéad Woods Page 40 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail will make their employees more attractive to other employers (Whitney, Edmonds & Summerfield, 2008). Findings from both the literature review and interviews agree that there is a fear that employees will leave an organisation once they are trained. However, the interviewees felt that this was not a sufficient reason to not provide training. This is supported by the questionnaire findings with 78% of respondents stating they would be more likely to leave an organisation if there was no training in place. Would you be more likely to leave a company if they did not provide training? No 22% Yes 78% Figure 5: Question 8 3.3 Research Objective 2 – T&D affecting Staff Morale All of the interviewees concur that training programmes can have a positive impact on staff morale. Further information was provided by Mark Lacey when he highlighted that T&D can have a positive impact on morale, but only if it was relevant, “people need to feel they are learning something”. When asked if a working environment with a high level of morale means happier staff, all interviewees were very direct in saying “yes, 100%”. To further this, interviewees were asked what implications happier staff could have for the organisation. Both Jonathan Millar and Mark Lacey were in agreement that employees may be less likely to leave because they are being invested in. If employees know what tasks they are meant to be doing, their performance levels will increase. “If Sinéad Woods Page 41 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail people have training in their area, then you are going to get the best results” (Jonathan Millar). Interviewees agreed that T&D is showing that the organisation is committed to their employees. Mark Lacey stated that it is like job security for them. The questionnaire findings confirm that employees feel that effective training would have a positive impact on them, with 96% of respondents stating that it would increase their motivation levels in the workplace. Would effective T&D make you more motivated in the workplace? No 10% Yes 90% Figure 6: Question 12 Additional information was provided in relation to the above question and the majority of responses felt that the training would provide a better skill set and an increased knowledge base. When asked about organisational commitment, 90% felt that training demonstrated the organisation’s commitment to their employees, adding to this further by the majority of respondents stating that the organisation is investing time and money in their employees; therefore showing commitment. Sinéad Woods Page 42 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail By providing T&D the organisation is showing its commitment to you as an employee. Do you agree with this statement? No 10% Yes 90% Figure 7: Question 14 A survey carried out by Clutterback Associates (2009) found that mentoring was essential for the development of staff. Due to recent changes in the economy, training can be one area that is compromised due to budget cuts (Hall, 2009). Peter (2012) echoes this opinion by stating that companies can never invest too much time or money in training. Providing staff with training can improve staff morale (The Competitive Advantage, 2009, Vozar, 2013). Jonathan Millar supports Peter’s (2012) literature when he states that “there can never be enough learning”. Interviewees were asked if they felt that training could be compromised due to budget cuts. Two interviewees had conflicting responses – Jonathan Millar said “yes, but only to the detriment of an organisation”. Cathy Behan contradicts this by stating “no, we have only recognised the greater need for L&D”. Findings from the questionnaires concur with Lacey’s and Millar’s statement relating to staff performance. When asked “what department do employees feel staff morale could improve in store”, 33% said staff performance. Sinéad Woods Page 43 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail None of the Abov e 1% Which of the following departments do you feel staff morale could improve in store? (Can select more than one) Staff Performance 33% Improved Store Figures and Targets 14% Customer Service 27% Staff Productivity 25% Figure 8: Question 15 Findings from both the interviews and questionnaires agree that by providing T&D, the organisation is showing its commitment to their employees. 3.4 Research Objective 3 – T&D and its Impact on Career Opportunities Information provided by the interviewees agrees that employees would leave an organisation if there were no career opportunities. People want to feel invested in (Cathy Behan). Jonathan Millar said that more exposure to T&D, the better opportunities that are available. All interviewees concur that companies are now selling T&D as a benefit, as financial gain is no longer a primary motivator. An interest point brought forward by Jonathan Millar was that a lot of people who engage in T&D tend to succeed and do better. Mark Lacey says that having the ability to do 60% of your job is enough, you can learn the rest. “People who have been trained and have absorbed the training, will definitely be in a better place than someone who didn’t” (Mark Lacey). The questionnaires revealed that career opportunities are extremely important to employees today. Respondents also felt that T&D has an impact on employee’s possible career progression, with 96% stating that more exposure to T&D would enhance career opportunities: Sinéad Woods Page 44 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail An increased level of T&D would enhance my career opportunities? No 4% Yes 96% Figure 9: Question 17 When asked about remaining in the company, 72% felt that if there were no T&D initiatives in place, they would leave in search of better opportunities: A lack of T&D would make me leave the compnay in search of better opportunities? Disagree 6% Agree 94% Figure 10: Question 19 T&D opportunities are an energising perk (Applegate, 2008). Employers need to provide their employees with a range of career opportunities that promote their employability stability. Cathy Behan agreed with this when she stated that “people want stability”. Sinéad Woods Page 45 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Employers are offering a total rewards approach, to include T&D (Paterson, 2011). All interviewees believe that companies are highlighting T&D as a selling point when attracting, as well as retaining, employees. Questionnaire findings support this as employees are actively seeking employment with companies who engage in T&D to aid their career progression: I choose to work for an organisation that has good training structures in place as I know I will progress in my career? No 4% Yes 96% Figure 11: Question 16 3.5 Research Objective 4 – T&D and the Link with Employee Performance Both Jonathan Millar and Cathy Behan agree that if someone is trained in their area, their performance levels will increase. “If people know what they are doing, then performance increases. People become more productive, more efficient and you get an all-round better performance” (Jonathan Millar). Mark Lacey concurs with this. All interviewees were in agreement that an increased level of engagement with an employer will have an impact on staff performance. The questionnaires results highlighted that T&D could improve productivity levels within an organisation. When asked to explain this further, the majority of responses said that training would make employees more aware of the task, therefore increasing productivity levels. Sinéad Woods Page 46 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail T&D could improve productivity levels within the organisation? No 4% Yes 96% Figure 12: Question 23 Knowing more about the company and their needs would also increase performance levels with 78% of responses agreeing that increased knowledge would lead to increased performance: Knowing more about the company would increase my performance? Disagree 6% Agree 94% Figure 13: Question 25 Studies carried out by IOMA (2009) found that staff performance improved when they engaged in both internal and external training programmes. They felt more engaged with the organisation as they had a deeper knowledge of their role within the organisation and Sinéad Woods Page 47 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail the impact it has. Effective training helps staff to engage with their employer and its needs (Marsh, 2009). Findings from both literature review and interviews agree that investing time and money in T&D is essential and can increase staff performance and productivity. The literature states that employees engage better with the needs of the organisation. This is backed up by the interviewees when they state that they feel valued. Questionnaire findings also concur with this theory. When asked about a positive recognition programme, 94% said that their performance levels would increase. Upon further questioning, the majority of respondents asserted that they would feel more valued by the organisation. I would perform better in my job if there was a positive recognition programme in place? Disagree 6% Agree 94% Figure 14: Question 24 In relation to training programmes, both internal and external were mentioned in the literature. However, the responses from the interviewees only highlighted training programme that were internal to the company. Questionnaire respondents felt that on-thejob training would be the most effective way to increase performance, rejecting the literature which highlighted that mentoring would be most effective. 3.6 Research Hypothesis Following the secondary and primary research conducted, findings suggest that the research hypothesis is proven to be correct. Effective T&D is essential for both organisation successes, with 100% of questionnaire respondents agreeing. All Sinéad Woods Page 48 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail interviewees and respondents were in agreement that T&D can have an impact on staff morale, career opportunities and staff performance. The findings also suggest that a lack of T&D may have a negative impact on employee’s turnover intentions. By providing training, employees are performing to the standard the organisation requires and therefore both the organisation and employees are more productive and efficient, highlighting the benefits of effective T&D for both the organisation and employees. Sinéad Woods Page 49 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Chapter Four: Conclusions and Recommendations Sinéad Woods Page 50 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 4.1 Introduction The purpose of this research project was to explore the benefits of effective training and development and the impact it can have on both the organisation and employees of retail. The author researched areas such as the impact of training and development on staff morale, performance and career opportunities. The effect of training and development on employee turnover was also examined. 4.2 Conclusions on Objective 1 According to the secondary research conducted, employees are less likely to remain loyal to one organisation throughout their career (Long & Perumal, 2014). Nowadays, employees are seeking better career opportunities and therefore companies must invest time and money in their employees in order to retain them. However, there is a fear that once employees are trained to a high standard, they become more attractive to other employers. Findings from the interviews found that although this fear may be present, it is a risk the company must take. It does not mean they do not provide training. The importance of this was highlighted when 78% of questionnaire respondents stated that they would be more likely to leave if the organisation did not provide training. In conclusion, by providing training, the organisation is more likely to retain their employees, benefitting employees as they feel they can have a career within the organisation and the employer will be more productive as staff are trained correctly within their role. 4.3 Conclusions on Objective 2 During the economic downturn, training budgets were among the first to be cut in order to reduce operation costs. Davis Clutterback continues to state that training programmes can have a significant impact on job satisfaction, employee morale and the overall success of the business (Hall, 2009). Peters (2012) confirms this outlook and continues to add that there can never be too much time and money invested in training. Jonathan Millar concurs with this by stating that there can never be enough learning. 90% of questionnaire respondents felt that effective training and development would make them more motivated in the workplace. These benefits the company as staffs are more Sinéad Woods Page 51 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail productive and efficient and employees feel that providing training, the organisation is showing its commitment to them. 4.4 Conclusions on Objective 3 Training and development opportunities are an energising perk, according to Applegate (2008), as it is seen that taking an interest in employees also means investing in their futures. According to the research, financial gain is no longer a primary motivator in the workplace. Therefore, employers need to provide their employees with a range of career development opportunities that promote their employability security (Crawshaw et al, 2012). When asked, all interviewees were in agreement that companies are now selling career opportunities as a benefit in order to attract new employees, as well as retain their existing ones. 96% of questionnaire respondents choose to work for an organisation that has good training structures in place, as they feel this will increase career opportunities for them. This can benefit the organisation as employees turnover intentions would decrease, with 94% of respondents stating that a lack of training would encourage them to leave in search of better opportunities. It would also benefit employees are they feel they are being invested in and would be more likely to build a career within the company. 4.5 Conclusions on Objective 4 Training programmes are essential for improving staff productivity and performance (IOMA, 2009). Wiley (2014) highlights that it is essential to develop not only your own knowledge, but also your teams knowledge. This is confirmed by the questionnaire respondents as 94% said that knowing more about the company would increase their performance levels. Effective training helps staff to engage with their employers and their needs (Marsh, 2009). Interviewees Jonathan Millar and Cathy Behan agreed that if an employee is training in their area, their performance levels will increase. This is supported by the respondents of the questionnaire, with 96% stating that training and development could improve productivity levels. Marsh (2009) also states that potential employees will seek out organisations who invest in training. This will therefore benefit the company as this should enhance staff retention, motivation and performance. The employee will feel valued by the organisation and will want to perform better in their role. Sinéad Woods Page 52 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 4.6 Recommendations Following the completion of secondary and primary research into the area of training and development, the following three recommendations are suggested. Companies who are actively seeking new employees should highlight the benefits available to the potential employees, for example, training and development initiatives and the possibility of career progression. This will ensure that the correct applicants are applying for the job, rather than solely interested in the salary. Training programmes should be tailored specifically to the organisation. This will make employees more aware of changes within company policies and procedures and leave them with a feeling of being valued and an asset to the company. In return, the organisation will get the best possible results from their newly motivated workforce. Having a positive recognition programme in place will encourage staff members to be more productive and perform better in their roles. This will create a happier working environment and will have a knock-on effect on customer service and the in-store shopping experience, as staffs are more likely to provide a better experience because they know they will be rewarded for it. This ensures that the employer, employees and customers remain satisfied. Sinéad Woods Page 53 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Appendices Sinéad Woods Page 54 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Appendix 1: Pre-Test Feedback The questionnaire was pre-tested on 5 people who fitted into the target audience – employees in retail. The pre-testing took place on July 22nd at 12.30. the location was Castle House, room 3.5. Following the pre-test, the following feedback was received:  Question 23 stated “please select one of the following options”. However, one of the  respondents selected three options.  available to the respondents. Both questions 25 and 26 had “disagree” down twice. There was no “agree” option Not all respondents explained their answer further when asked. Researcher’s Actions In order to get the most information from the questionnaires, the researcher completed the following corrections:  To combat question 23, the researcher put “one” in bold text. This makes it clearer to the  respondents what is required from them.  of 5 respondents did not answer these questions due to confusion. In relation to question 25 and 26, “agree” was put in as an option. From the pre-test, 3 out Before handing out the questionnaire, the researcher will ask the respondents to give as much detail as possible. This will ensure that the researcher will gain a deeper knowledge into the thoughts and opinions of the respondents. Space will be used as an indicator for the amount of information expected from the respondents. Sinéad Woods Page 55 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Appendix 2: Data Preparation for Interviews Editing Throughout the editing process, certain parts of Jonathan Millar’s interview were removed. This was removed upon request from Jonathan, as he made reference to a Store Manager and for personal reasons it was not seen to be appropriate to include such information. Information regarding Jonathan’s personal life was also omitted. Sinéad Woods Page 56 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Appendix 3: Coding of Interviews Do you think T&D is important? Interviewee Yes No 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 Should all organisations invest time and money in T&D? Interviewee Yes No 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 Is T&D important for organisation success? Interviewee Yes No 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 Companies that invest more in T&D show improved financial results? Interviewee Yes No 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 Some companies are reluctant to invest in T&D as they fear employees may leave as a result of their improved skills? Sinéad Woods Page 57 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Interviewee Yes No 1 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 So as a general overview to T&D, could you define what T&D is and what it means to you? Interviewee Answer 1 Building Code on the capabilities we have within the 1 organisation, bring people to the best they can be. 2 Training is teaching, development is the growth and 2 implementation 3 Training is providing skills and behaviours for people and 3 giving them the ability to do their job. Development is developing peoples stretch potential. How important do you feel T&D is for any organisation? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Very important 1 2 Very important 1 3 Very important 1 Do you feel T&D was always important? Or has it become more important in recent years with the change in economy? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Always important 1 2 Depends on the organisation 2 3 Always important 1 Sinéad Woods Page 58 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Do you feel companies invest enough time and money in T&D programmes/initiatives? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Can’t answer for other companies. We as a business 1 continue to look at every single person and invest in them. 2 There can never be enough learning 2 3 Successful companies invest a lot in development. 3 Would effective T&D have an impact on the overall success or failure of a company? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Yes 1 2 Yes 1 3 Yes 1 Would you say the employees who are seeking employment look toward companies that invest in T&D? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Yes 1 2 Depends on the employee themselves 2 3 Yes 1 What do you feel T&D effects within an organisation? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Employee motivation, satisfaction, retention and morale 1 2 Employee motivation, satisfaction, retention and morale 1 3 KPIs 2 How to you think employees would view an employer who engages in T&D? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Positively 1 Sinéad Woods Page 59 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 2 Care about needs, skills and future 2 3 Positively 1 Would you say that it does affect employee turnover? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Yes 1 2 Yes 1 3 Yes 1 Do you feel organisations if they do invest in, they are more likely to leave because employees would be more attractive to employers because they have developed skills? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Yes 1 2 Person dependent 2 3 Yes 1 Would you agree with the outlook that by investing in development of employees that their turnover intentions will decrease that they would be less likely to leave? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Yes 1 2 Yes 1 3 Not always going to stay 2 T&D and how its impact on career opportunities. So would you say it has an impact on career opportunities? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Yes 1 Sinéad Woods Page 60 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 2 Yes 1 3 Yes 1 Do you feel employees would leave an organisation if there were no career opportunities for them? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Yes 1 2 Yes 1 3 Yes 1 A lot of studies have shown recently that financial gain wouldn’t be so much of a motivator in the workplace at the minute. Would you say career opportunities are a benefit that companies are selling as part of their hiring? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Yes 1 2 Yes 1 3 Yes 1 So T&D and employee performance. Studies have shown that T&D can improve staff productivity and performance. Would you agree with this? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Yes 1 2 Yes 1 3 Yes 1 According to the research, T&D can help employees engage with their employers and its needs. Would you agree with this statement? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Yes 1 Sinéad Woods Page 61 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 2 Yes 1 3 Yes 1 Having the right people in the right job is essential for organisational success. As (role) within the company, how would you ensure that the employee/job fit is correct? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Appraisals, informal discussions and implement strategies 1 2 Training Needs Analysis 2 3 International Org Structure and personnel planning 3 So then in relation to staff morale. Do you believe that training programmes can improve job satisfaction and employee morale? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Yes 1 2 Yes 1 3 Yes 1 A working environment with a high level of morale means happier staff. Would you agree with this statement? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Yes 1 2 Yes 1 3 Yes 1 And what implications do you feel that could have on the success or failure of a company. For example if they are happier are they less likely to leave, if there are happier staff do we have better customer service? Interviewee Answer Code 1 All of the above, store operations 1 Sinéad Woods Page 62 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 2 All of the above, store operations 1 3 All of the above, store operations 1 By providing T&D, the organisation is showing its commitment to its employees and an interest in their continued success. Do you agree with that? Interviewee Answer Code 1 Yes 1 2 Yes 1 3 Yes 1 Sinéad Woods Page 63 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Appendix 4: Tabulation of Interviews 1. Yes (1) – 3 No (2) – 0 2. Yes (1) – 3 No (2) – 0 3. Yes (1) – 3 No (2) – 0 4. Yes (1) – 3 No (2) – 0 5. Yes (1) – 3 No (2) - 0 6. Building on capabilities (1) – 1 Training is teaching, development is growth and implementation (2) – 1 Training is providing skills; development is stretch potential (3) – 1 7. Always important (1) – 2 Depends on organisation (2) – 1 8. Can’t answer for other organisations (1) – 1 Never enough learning (2) – 1 Successful companies invest a lot (3) – 1 9. Yes (1) – 3 Sinéad Woods Page 64 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail No (2) – 0 10. Yes (1) – 2 Depends on employee (2) – 1 11. Employee motivation, satisfaction, retention and morale (1) – 2 KPIs (2) – 1 12. Positively (1) – 2 Care about needs, skills and future (2) – 1 13. Yes (1) – 3 No (2) – 0 14. Yes (1) – 2 Person dependent (2) – 1 15. Yes (1) – 2 Not always going to stay (2) - 1 16. Yes (1) – 3 No (2) – 0 17. Yes (1) – 3 No (2) – 0 18. Yes (1) – 3 No (2) – 0 19. Yes (1) – 3 No (2) – 0 20. Yes (1) – 3 Sinéad Woods Page 65 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail No (2) – 0 21. Appraisals, informal discussions and implement strategies (1) – 1 Training needs analysis (2) – 1 International organisational structure and personnel planning (3) – 1 22. Yes (1) – 3 No (2) – 0 23. Yes (1) – 3 No (2) – 0 24. All the above, store operations (1) – 3 25. Yes (1) – 3 No (2) – 0 Sinéad Woods Page 66 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Appendix 5: Editing of Questionnaires Editing took place to remove any questions that were incorrectly answered. For example, question 22 stated please select one of the following. However, a number of people selected more than one and therefore, this question was removed from the questionnaire. Sinéad Woods Page 67 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Appendix 6: Coding of Questionnaires Gender: Code Male (1) Female (2) Age: Code 18-25 (1) 26-33 (2) 34-41 (3) 42+ (4) Nationality: Code Irish (1) Polish (2) Lithuanian (3) English (4) Hungarian (5) Estonian (6) Scottish (7) Employment: Code Full-time (1) Part-time (2) Flexi-time (3) Sinéad Woods Page 68 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Other (4) Education Levels: Code Leaving cert (1) 3rd Level (2) Masters (3) General Overview of T&D 1. Do you feel training and development Code (T&D) is important? Yes (1) No (2) 2. How important do you feel T&D Code is? (1 – Not very, 10 – extremely important) 1 not very (1) 2 (2) 3 (3) 4 (4) 5 neither important nor not important (5) 6 (6) 7 (7) 8 (8) 9 (9) 10 Extremely (10) 3. Do you feel T&D is essential for Code organisational success? Sinéad Woods Page 69 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Yes (1) No (2) 4. Would T&D make you more Code satisfied in your job? (1 – not very satisfied, 10 – extremely satisfied) 1 not very (1) 2 (2) 3 (3) 4 (4) 5 neither satisfied nor not important (5) 6 (6) 7 (7) 8 (8) 9 (9) 10 Extremely satisfied (10) 5. Would T&D make you more Code engaged with your employer? (1 – not very satisfied, 10 – extremely satisfied) Sinéad Woods 1 not very (1) 2 (2) 3 (3) 4 (4) 5 neither satisfied nor not important (5) 6 (6) 7 (7) 8 (8) Page 70 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 9 (9) 10 Extremely satisfied (10) 6. What does T&D say about the Code company? (Can select more than one) a) They care about my career (1) b) They are interested in my skills (2) development c) They care only about improving the (3) organisations performance d) They care about both employee and (4) organisation e) None of the above (Please explain) (5) Additional information: Answer Code The company will have their 7 financial interests at heart Training and Development and its effect on employee turnover 7. Companies must invest time in Code training employees if they want them to stay with the company? Agree (1) Disagree (2) Sinéad Woods Page 71 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 8. Would you be more likely to leave a Code company if they did not provide training? Yes (1) No (2) 9. Financial gain is no longer a primary Code motivator for employees. Do you agree with this statement? Yes (1) No (2) 10. Which of the following would be primary motivators for you when seeking employment? Please rank 1 – 5. (1 being most important, 5 being least important). Salary ________ Healthcare ______ Training and Development ______ Career Opportunities _____ Holiday and Sick Pay _____ Ranking 1 2 3 4 5 Salary 1 2 3 4 5 HC 6 7 8 9 10 T&D 12 12 13 14 15 CO 16 17 18 19 20 H & S PAY 21 22 23 24 25 Sinéad Woods Page 72 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 11. Could you see yourself remaining Code in the one company for a long period of time (5+ years)? Please select as many as you feel are relevant from the following options: a) Yes, if there were career (1) opportunities b) They are interested in my skills (2) development c) Yes, if there were effective (3) training programmes d) No, I want to experience (4) something new and different e) No, I am only here for the money (5) f) No, if there is no training (6) Training and Development and its effect on staff morale Yes (1) No (2) 12. Would effective T&D make you more motivated in the workplace? Code Please explain your answer. Yes (1) No (2) Additional Information provided: Code Career Opportunities 3 Improved skills and increased knowledge 4 Increased confidence, efficiency and motivation 5 Sinéad Woods Page 73 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Feel valued 6 Better workplace/ Working environment 7 No effect on employee motivation 8 Training gaps apparent with no training 9 13. Do you feel you would perform Code better in store/in your job if you did receive T&D? Yes (1) No (2) 14. By providing T&D, the Code organisation is showing its commitment to you as an employee. Do you agree with this statement? (Please explain). Yes (1) No (2) Additional Information Provided: Code Investing time and money in me 3 Commitment to organisation and employee success 4 Feel valued 5 Organisation cares only about the organisation 6 Enhances employee engagement 7 T&D is not everything 8 Sinéad Woods Page 74 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 15. Which of the following Code departments do you feel staff morale could improve in store? (Can select more than one). a) Customer service (1) b) Staff productivity (2) c) Improved store figures and targets (3) d) Staff performance (4) e) None of the above (5) f) None of the above (6) Training and Development and its effect on career opportunities 16. I choose to work for an Code organisation that has good training structures in place as I know I will progress in my career? Yes (1) No (2) 17. An increased level of T&D would Code enhance my career opportunities? Sinéad Woods Agree (1) Disagree (2) Page 75 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 18. T&D would encourage me to Code build a career within the company? Please explain. Agree (1) Disagree (2) Additional Information Provided: Code Improve within the company and build confidence 3 Career progressions 4 Feel valued 5 Feel invested in as an employee 6 Organisation cares only about the organisation 7 19. A lack of T&D would make me Code leave the company in search of better opportunities? Agree (1) Disagree (2) 20. Would you agree with the Code following statement: An interesting job, being treated with respect, good training and career opportunities helps motivates staff to perform? Sinéad Woods Yes (1) No (2) Page 76 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 21. Please explain your answer from the previous question? Answer Code All excellent motivation factors, increase motivation 3 Right thing for the company to do 4 Improve staff morale and a better working environment 5 Feel valued 6 Training and Development and its effect on staff performance 22. Which one of the following do you feel would increase your Code performance in the work place? Coaching (1) External training courses (2) Mentoring (3) On the job training (4) Safety training (5) Skills training (skills needed to do your job) (6) Team training (improve communication, make workplace more enjoyable) (7) 23. T&D could improve productivity Code levels within the organisation? (please explain). True (1) False (2) Additional Information Provided: Code Increased knowledge levels 3 Sinéad Woods Page 77 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Become more efficient therefore more productive 4 Better organisational results 5 Different opinion on T&D 6 24. I would perform better in my job Code if there was a positive recognition programme (being praised and recognised for doing a good job) in place? Agree (1) Disagree (2) Additional Information Provided: Code Saves time 3 Encourages better standards 4 More confident, feel valued 5 Different opinion on T&D 6 25. Knowing more about the Code company would increase my performance? Sinéad Woods Agree (1) Disagree (2) Page 78 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Appendix 7: Tabulation of Questionnaires Gender: Male (1) – 27 Female (2) – 20 Age: 18-25 (1) - 26 26-33 (2) - 16 34-41 (3) - 3 42+ (3) – 5 Nationality: Irish (1) – 39 Polish (2) – 6 Lithuanian (3) – 1 English (4) – 1 Hungarian (5) – 1 Estonian (6) – 1 Scottish (7) – 1 Employment: Full-time (1) – 38 Part-time (2) – 11 Flexi-time (3) – 1 Other (4) - 3 Education levels achieved to date: Leaving Cert (1) – 25 3rd Level Degree (2) – 21 Sinéad Woods Page 79 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Masters (3) – 1 A general overview of training and development 1. Do you feel training and development (T&D) is important? Yes (1) – 50 No (2) – 0 2. How important do you feel T&D is? (1 – Not very, 10 – extremely important) (1) –not at all satisfied (2) - 0 (3) - 0 (4) - 0 (5) - 1 (6) - 1 (7) - 4 (8) - 8 (9) - 2 (10) 25– extremely satisfied 3. Do you feel T&D is essential for organisational success? Yes (1) – 50 No (2) – 0 4. Would T&D make you more satisfied in your job? (1 – not very satisfied, 10 – extremely satisfied) (1) –not at all satisfied (2) - 0 (3) - 0 (4) - 0 (5) - 0 (6) - 3 (7) - 7 (8) - 12 (9) - 13 (10) 14– extremely satisfied Sinéad Woods Page 80 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 5. Would T&D makes you more engaged with your employer? (1 – not very satisfied, 10 – extremely satisfied) (1) – 1 not at all satisfied (2) - 0 (3) – 0 (4) - 0 (5) - 3 (6) - 2 (7) - 6 (8) - 13 (9) - 9 (10) 15– extremely satisfied 6. What does T&D say about the company? (Can select more than one) A (1) - 17 B (2) - 28 C (3) - 11 D (4) - 30 E (Please explain) (5) – 0 Answer Code Responses The company will have 7 1 their financial interests at heart Training and Development and its effect on employee turnover 7. Companies must invest time in training employees if they want them to stay with the company? Sinéad Woods Page 81 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Agree (1) – 46 Disagree (2) – 4 8. Would you be more likely to leave a company if they did not provide training? Yes (1) – 38 No (2) - 11 9. Financial gain is no longer a primary motivator for employees. Do you agree with this statement? Yes (1) – 19 No (2) -31 10. Which of the following would be primary motivators for you when seeking employment? 1 2 3 4 5 Salary 24 14 3 2 0 HC 0 6 2 14 20 T&D 3 7 19 10 4 CO 16 11 11 2 3 H & S PAY 0 3 10 11 18 11. Could you see yourself remaining in the one company for a long period of time (5+ years)? A (1) - 32 B (2) - 41 C (3) - 22 D (4) - 4 E (5) - 3 F (6) – 4 Sinéad Woods Page 82 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Training and Development and its effect on staff morale 12. Would effective T&D make you more motivated in the workplace? Please explain your answer. Yes (1) – 48 No (2) – 2 Answer Code Responses Career Opportunities 3 8 Improved skills and increased 4 13 5 13 Feel valued 6 3 Better workplace/ Working 7 2 No effect on employee motivation 8 2 Training gaps apparent with no 9 1 knowledge Increased confidence, efficiency and motivation environment training 13. Do you feel you would perform better in store/in your job if you did receive T&D? Yes (1) – 48 No (2) – 2 14. By providing T&D, the organisation is showing its commitment to you as an employee. Do you agree with this statement? (Please explain). Yes (1) – 45 No (2) – 5 Sinéad Woods Page 83 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Answer Code Responses Investing time and money in me 3 19 Commitment to organisation and 4 11 Feel valued 5 6 Organisation cares only about the 6 1 Enhances employee engagement 7 2 T&D is not everything 8 1 employee success organisation 15. Which of the following departments do you feel staff morale could improve in store? (Can select more than one). A (1) - 32 B (2) - 29 C (3) - 16 D (4) - 38 E (5) - 1 F (6) – 0 Training and Development and its effect on career opportunities 16. I choose to work for an organisation that has good training structures in place as I know I will progress in my career? Yes (1) - 48 No (2) – 2 17. An increased level of T&D would enhance my career opportunities? Agree (1) -48 Sinéad Woods Page 84 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Disagree (2) – 2 18. T&D would encourage me to build a career within the company? Please explain. Agree (1) – 45 Disagree (2) – 5 Answer Code Responses Improve within the company and build 3 10 Career progressions 4 13 Feel valued 5 6 Feel invested in as an employee 6 5 Organisation cares only about the 7 3 confidence organisation 19. A lack of T&D would make me leave the company in search of better opportunities? Agree (1) – 36 Disagree (2) – 14 20. Would you agree with the following statement: An interesting job, being treated with respect, good training and career opportunities helps motivates staff to perform? Yes (1) – 49 No (2) – 1 21. Answer Code Responses All excellent motivation factors, increase 3 14 4 5 motivation Right thing for the company to do Sinéad Woods Page 85 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Improve staff morale and a better working 5 10 6 11 environment Feel valued Training and Development and its effect on staff performance 22. Which one of the following do you feel would increase your performance in the work place? A (1) - 4 B (2) - 5 C (3) - 6 D (4) - 14 E (5) - 0 F (5) - 5 G (6) – 13 23. T&D could improve productivity levels within the organisation? (please explain). True (1) – 48 False (2) – 2 Answer Code Responses Increased knowledge levels 3 7 Become more efficient therefore more 4 14 Better organisational results 5 7 Different opinion on T&D 6 2 productive Sinéad Woods Page 86 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 24. I would perform better in my job if there was a positive recognition programme (being praised and recognised for doing a good job) in place? Agree (1) – 47 Disagree (2) – 3 Answer Code Responses Saves time 3 3 Encourages better 4 3 5 6 6 1 standards More confident, feel valued Different opinion on T&D 25. Knowing more about the company would increase my performance? Agree (1) – 38 Disagree (2) - 12 Sinéad Woods Page 87 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Appendix 8: Charts and Graphs from Questionnaire Findings Gender Female 43% Male 57% Age 34-41 6% 26-33 32% Sinéad Woods 42+ 10% 18-25 52% Page 88 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Nationality Irish Polish Lithuanian Hungarian 2% 2% 2% Estonian Scottish 2% 12% 80% Employment Full-time Part-time Flexi-time Other 2% 5% 21% 72% Education Levels Leaving Cert 3rd Level Degree Masters 2% 42% 56% Sinéad Woods Page 89 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Do you feel T&D is important? No 0% Yes 100% How important is T&D? 1 - not very, 10 extremely 1 2 3 4 5 2% 6 4% 18% 7 8 9 10 5% 7% 9% 16% 11% 15% 13% Do you feel T&D is essential for organisation success? No 0% Yes 100% Sinéad Woods Page 90 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Would T&D make you more satisfied in your job? 1 - not very satisfied, 10 - extremely satisfied 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2% 4% 8 9 10 5% 7% 18% 9% 16% 11% 15% 13% Would T&D make you more engaged with your employer? 1 - not very engaged, 10 - extremely engaged 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2% 4% 8 9 10 5% 7% 18% 9% 16% 11% 15% 13% What does T&D say about the compnay? (Can select more than one) E 0% D 35% C 13% Sinéad Woods A 20% B 32% Page 91 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Which of the following would be a primary motivator for you when seeking employment? 1 - most important, 5 - least important 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Salary HC T&D 1 2 3 CO 4 H & S PAY 5 Could you see yourdelf remaining in the one compnay for a long period of time (5+ years)? Select as many as relevent D 4% F 4% E 3% A 30% C 21% B 38% Do you feel you would perform better in store/in your job if you did receive T&D? No 4% Yes 96% Sinéad Woods Page 92 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail T&D would encourage me to build a career within the company? Disagree 10% Agree 90% Would you agree with the following statement: an interesting job, being treated with respect, good training and career opportunities helps motivate staff to perform. No 2% Yes 98% Sinéad Woods Page 93 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Appendix 9: Questionnaire Template 1. Do you feel training and development (T&D) is important? Yes No 2. How important do you feel T&D is? (1 – Not very, 10 – extremely important) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 3. Do you feel T&D is essential for organisational success? Yes No 4. Would T&D make you more satisfied in your job? (1 – not very satisfied, 10 – extremely satisfied) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5. Would T&D makes you more engaged with your employer? (1 – not very satisfied, 10 – extremely satisfied) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6. What does T&D say about the company? (Can select more than one) a) They care about my career b) They are interested in my skills development c) They care only about improving the organisations performance d) They care about both employee and organisation e) None of the above (Please explain) _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ Sinéad Woods Page 94 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Training and Development and its effect on employee turnover 7. Companies must invest time in training employees if they want them to stay with the company? Agree Disagree 8. Would you be more likely to leave a company if they did not provide training? Yes No 9. Financial gain is no longer a primary motivator for employees. Do you agree with this statement? Yes No 10. Which of the following would be primary motivators for you when seeking employment? Please rank 1 – 5. (1 being most important, 5 being least important). Salary ________ Healthcare ______ Training and Development ______ Career Opportunities _____ Holiday and Sick Pay _____ 11. Could you see yourself remaining in the one company for a long period of time (5+ years)? Please select as many as you feel are relevant from the following options: a) Yes, if the money was good b) Yes, if there were career opportunities c) Yes, if there were effective training programmes d) No, I want to experience something new and different e) No, I am only here for the money f) No, if there is no training Sinéad Woods Page 95 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Training and Development and its effect on staff morale 12. Would effective T&D make you more motivated in the workplace? Please explain your answer. Yes No _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ 13. Do you feel you would perform better in store/in your job if you did receive T&D? Yes No 14. By providing T&D, the organisation is showing its commitment to you as an employee. Do you agree with this statement? (Please explain). Yes No _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 15. Which of the following departments do you feel staff morale could improve in store? (Can select more than one). a) Customer service b) Staff productivity c) Improved store figures and targets d) Staff performance e) None of the above f) Other (please explain) _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ Sinéad Woods Page 96 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Training and Development and its effect on career opportunities 16. I choose to work for an organisation that has good training structures in place as I know I will progress in my career? Yes No 17. An increased level of T&D would enhance my career opportunities? Agree Disagree 18. T&D would encourage me to build a career within the company? Please explain. Agree Disagree _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ 19. A lack of T&D would make me leave the company in search of better opportunities? Agree Disagree 20. Would you agree with the following statement: An interesting job, being treated with respect, good training and career opportunities helps motivates staff to perform? Yes No _ 21. Please explain your answer from the previous question? _______________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________ Sinéad Woods Page 97 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Training and Development and its effect on staff performance 22. Which one of the following do you feel would increase your performance in the work place? a) Coaching b) External training courses c) Mentoring d) On the job training e) Safety training f) Skills training (skills needed to do your job) g) Team training (improve communication, make workplace more enjoyable) 23. T&D could improve productivity levels within the organisation? (please explain). True False _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ 24. I would perform better in my job if there was a positive recognition programme (being praised and recognised for doing a good job) in place? Agree Disagree _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ 25. Knowing more about the company would increase my performance? Agree Sinéad Woods Disagree Page 98 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Appendix 10: Interview Guide A. Introduction Introduction Purpose of the research B. Fact-Based Questions   Do you think T&D is important? Y/N  In order to survive in a changing economy, is T&D necessary?  Should all organisations invest time and money in T&D?  Is T&D important for organisation success? Y/N  opportunities than in previous years?  Companies that invest more in T&D show improved financial results? Y/N  Y/N Y/N More employees are now seeking employment with companies who offer career Y/N Correct training can lead to increased productivity and customer satisfaction? Y/N Some companies are reluctant to invest in T&D as they fear employees may leave as a result of their improved skills? Y/N C. General Overview of T&D 1. Could you define T&D and what it means to you? 2. How important do you feel T&D is for any organisation? 3. Do you feel T&D was always important? a. What are the company policies and procedures on T&D? b. Has it become more important in recent years? c. Has changes in technology and the economy placed more emphasis on T&D? 4. Do you feel companies invest enough time and money in T&D programmes/initiatives? a. Do you feel T&D can be compromised? (budget cuts) Sinéad Woods Page 99 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 5. Does (effective) T&D have an impact on the overall success or failure of a company? 6. Would you say that employees seeking employment look more towards companies who engage in T&D? a. Do you feel people care about T&D? 7. What do you feel T&D effects in an organisation? a. Customer service b. Employee engagement c. Staff morale d. Employee performance e. Employee retention 8. How do you think employees view retailers who engage in T&D? a. Care about their needs? b. Develop their skills? c. Care about their future? d. Bottom line for the company? D. T&D and its Effect on Employee Turnover 9. Does T&D affect employee turnover?   Are employees less likely to leave if they are receiving training? Would a lack of T&D encourage people to leave and seek employment in a company that does provide T&D? 10. Would organisations fear that if they trained staff they would leave because they have more skills available to other employers/they are more attractive to other employers? 11. Would you agree with the outlook that by investing in the development of employees, their turnover intentions decrease? Sinéad Woods Page 100 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail E. Impact of T&D on Career Opportunities 12. Can T&D have an impact on career opportunities? 13. Do you fell employees would leave an organisation if they felt there were no career opportunities for them? 14. Financial gain is no longer a primary motivator in the workplace. Are career opportunities a benefit companies can highlight in order to attract new employees as well as retaining existing employees? F. Link between T&D and Employee Performance 15. Studies show that T&D can improve staff productivity and performance. Would you agree with this statement? 16. According to the research, T&D can help employees engage with their employers and its needs. Would you agree with this statement? a. Would this engagement increase staff performance? b. Would a lack of engagement decrease/reduce staff performance? 17. Having the right people in the right job is essential for organisational success. As (title), how would you ensure that the person/job fit is correct? a. Identify training gaps? b. Put correct training plan is place? (best for employee and organisation) G. T&D affecting Staff Morale 18. Do you believe training programmes can improve job satisfaction and employee morale? 19. A working environment with a high level of morale means happier staff. Would you agree with this statement? a. What implications do you feel this would have on the overall success or failure of the organisation? i. Happier – less likely to leave? ii. Happier – better customer service? Sinéad Woods Page 101 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail iii. Happier – more productive? iv. Happier – better performance? 20. By providing T&D, the organisation is showing its commitment to its employees and an interest in their continued success. Would this increase staff morale? H. Close Thank you/any concluding comments Agreement for use of the information gained from the discussion. Sinéad Woods Page 102 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Appendix 11: Transcript from Mark Lacey’s Interview The purpose of the research is for my dissertation and the title is the benefits of effective T&D for both the employee and the employer. So I’m going to ask you some yes/no questions to start off with. Do you think T&D is important? Yes Should all organisations invest time and money in T&D? Yes In order to survive in a changing economy, is T&D necessary? Yes Is T&D important of organisation success? Yes Companies that invest more in T&D show improved financial results? Yes Some companies are reluctant to invest in T&D as they fear that employees will leave the company? Yes 1. So as a general overview to T&D, could you define what T&D is and what it means to you? I suppose T&D looking at it in two separate things. I look at training first and foremost its providing skills and behaviours for people and giving them the ability to do their job. And it’s very here and now, and it can be present or in the past and I would see the difference between T&D being development is maybe developing Sinéad Woods Page 103 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail peoples stretch potential and behaviours or suitability for further opportunities or further scope within their roles they currently don’t possess. 2. How important do you feel T&D is for any organisation? I think it’s really important due to the fact that a skilled workforce and a motivated engaged workforce can provide the same financial benefits, if more, than cost saving. I think a lot of companies focus on cost savings and they don’t tap into the workforce they have. We can all turn off lights, we can all control out write offs, we can all control what we can control in relation to turnover without dragging customers in off the streets. But you may have people who haven’t got the right skills or behaviours to do their job to the full standard or their ability or they don’t have the willingness to do their job to the full standard or their ability and I think its companies to tap into that by either training them to ensure they are fully equipped to do their job and maybe motivating them or engaging them through development opportunities or recognition or through status or through whatever it may be that they are actually sitting there wanting to do their job. And I think that is one of the differentiator’s good employers and great employers. It’s when times get tough do they increase their budget in T&D or do they reduce their budget in T&D. 3. So from that then do you feel T&D was always important? (2.53) For me T&D was always important. For Lidl, I feel T&D has definitely got a kick up the ass over the last couple of years. I think people have got a focus as to the benefits of T&D. I think we were very compliant. Maybe 2/3 years ago, not saying before I came in, but I suppose they didn’t have a role like I have and I think now they are seeing the benefits of what it can do. Whether it be through the management development programme or through the positive recognition our staff are given back for training or in the external public eye in relation to monkey see monkey do. They might not know what we are doing but they think we are doing something and there are lots of positive knock-on effects from that. I’d say it was always important for Lidl in relation to ticking boxes and being compliant but now they can actually see the benefits that well trained staff who have the willingness and ability to do their jobs can actually put money in the tills. Sinéad Woods Page 104 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 4. Would you say that changes in technology and the economy have put more of an emphasis on T&D? I think, well I wouldn’t say we are the most technologically advanced company in relation to T&D. I think e-leaning is something that purposely I’m not looking at now but it is definitely in our 2-3 year plan. We have something in the pipeline but it’s not the right time to do it. I’d say you need to embed in culture people are doing training for the right reasons and I think that takes a little bit of time to do. And I think if you don’t have a soLidl foundation for that people get lost in the context of why you are doing it. What I mean by that is we didn’t really have the culture of doing training to better people, to put money in the bank, to make sure people stay longer with us for career development they want to build lives for themselves and their families through Lidl. We have training to be compliant in case anyone falls or slips or to make sure that if a regulatory body came on we have a box ticked. We would go and do something really cool like e-learning platforms in relation to learning but I chose to do the more old-school method with manuals and workbooks so people understand why we are doing it. Because if I went in with something like I Pad or learning online solutions, they get caught up in the technology and they get caught up in the smoke and mirrors and the flashiness of it but we never actually embed why we are doing it in the first place, learn to Lidl doesn’t look cool. Learn to Lidl is just a book, but if people actually realise why we are doing it and the benefits of training through doing it, when we do something cool and snazzy they will go “oh” and you are not going to blow them away with the physical, whether it’s a tablet or back office touch screen system, they are understanding they are doing it for the right reasons. 5. Would you feel that companies invest enough time and money in T&D programmes or initiatives? I think that success companies and success companies in the sense of not necessarily money making companies but companies who have high performing companies definitely invest a lot more time into development. I’d say a lot of companies do training because they do need people with the skills to be able to do their job. They will invest in training but I think what differentiates the good from Sinéad Woods Page 105 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail great is the development programmes. Companies that manage high performance definitely have OD development initiatives in house and that’s ones of the differentiators as well whether you do it in-house or you just buy something off the shelf. All of our development initiatives are not only tailored for Lidl but are bespoke to Lidl and we own those programmes as well. And I think that’s really important because anyone can go on a one day programme or a one day course and say that they have done it and out it on their CV and that’s where it will live. But if you want actions to come into the workplace, relevance needs to be there from the get-go and you won’t get that with an off the shelf model. I think companies who, everyone will training but it’s the development initiatives are the things that really stand in the way in relation to one of your first questions, I think it was Richard Brandon that said why do we train people, and it’s an argument between CEOs and CFOs and it’s about what if we train people and they leave and then what if we train people and they stay. I think the training, you need them to be trained to do the job, but with the development its more about what if we invest all this time in personal and professional development and they go and leave, well yes it’s not necessarily good but they go with positive memories and skills that people will see us as an employer of choice and people are investing in people and so on. 6. So would you say that these development programmes can be comprised? As in through you mentioned earlier with your budget cuts and trying to cut costs. They can. And it’s not that they can be compromised. There are things that could go wrong like; these development programmes are only as good out of the classroom as they are in the classroom. What I mean by that is that everyone will be what they want to be in the classroom with the facilitator and trainer but it’s when they go back to their living world and they have to do it themselves and they have to pluck up the courage to maybe do something different or they need to maybe ask questions that weren’t asked before and they get kind of throw back from line managers, that’s when they don’t really happen. If the appetite isn’t there anymore and the momentum is lost, it is harder to do. And it’s not that we would turn around and say oh I was only half way through, I’m not going to train the other 50 but it may be harder to get across the line for maybe a knock-on programme or maybe a second programme Sinéad Woods Page 106 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail around the line. We would definitely not cut something for budget cuts but if you didn’t do a very clever needs analysis at the start which pre-linked into your ROI or you didn’t say upfront what you are going to see or what you are going to achieve, it may be more difficult to get money the second time around but with us we don’t work with budget in Lidl, its more around value and there is an impact and it makes a difference, and that’s why your TNA and ROI is very important, you have more chance of getting it or getting something new or something else. 7. Would effective T&D have an impact on the overall success or failure of a company? I’d say it most certainly does like if you look at companies, I suppose training is always so hard to quantify because everyone does something right when they are being watched or when there is an auditor , when line management is are around, they will definitely do it. I think it’s really hard to measure when it’s just people on their own and you’re not there watching. What you need to do is put in very clear measures from the start on what impact it can have for the company and your best way of doing that is picking quick hits or big winners and impact that is going to happen as close to the finish date of the programme as possible and that will ensure that at least there is a good taste in peoples mouth about it and the hard think about these programmes is that if there is any sort of change or any sort of behavioural things, they don’t happen overnight so it could be 6, 9, 12 months afterwards because behaviours are built around habits so people have to do it, say oh I’m not too sure, do it again, something goes right they get positive feedback or recognition they do it again, something goes wrong they go back to phase one. So it quite hard and it takes time. 8. Would you say the employees who are seeking employment look toward companies that invest in T&D? 100%. If you look at the grad Ireland website and go to trends.com they give you the top 5 reasons why graduate choose employers. And historically, I’d say 5 years ago, it was all around extrinsic stuff like the salary. It has definitely flipped on its head now and last year, the trends report showed the number one reason why graduates are choosing companies is because of career prospects to training and development. And I’d say it’s really important for the graduate market, but it Sinéad Woods Page 107 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail would also be important for me. Not that I would, but if I was to ever go something else, you would look for someone who invests a lot of time in their people. Especially in my line of work, you would need to do that because it would be quite a hard challenge but I do think people want to know that there are structured training programmes. I think we know best practise companies, whether it’s through someone working there or even through perceptions that are good at training. So it would be really important to me, I don’t know whether I’m biased because I work in that industry. I want to know that if I start a new job they would show me what to do, maybe have a buddy system, they have set structure and depth in what they are doing so that I learn how to do the job. I would expect that as a basics but I think people selling T&D, as in almost like perk or benefit now for the job. 9. 11.48 What do you feel T&D effects within an organisation? I can affect two things, your KIPs or you’re KPIs. So you can see what people would class as the fluffy stuff in relation to appraisal, staff morale any of your indexes around trust or your great place to work survey, employee survey. All these motivation and these big words that people find it difficult to quantify, T&D will definitely do. But when you look at some of the harder stuff that you need to speak about in Lidl, you are talking about internal promotions, internal opportunities, the changes between 10, 20, 30 hour contracts, impact that certain training issues have on sales and turnover like bakery initiatives, whether it’s in relation to freshness training, they definitely impact on the tills and customer satisfaction and then ultimately the bottom line in the store. What you need to do is start out from the beginning and decide what you want to achieve with the training and work backwards. It’s not like I want to do the training, what will I achieve. You need to see what you want to achieve and then work backwards and always keep the end in mind and that will probably be a good thing to get the result you want. If not, back to the drawing board, why are you doing it in the first place. 10. How to you think employees would view an employer who engages in T&D? Would they feel that the employer cares about them, about their future? Sinéad Woods Page 108 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail I think they would, I see a lot of employers, and we particularly in Lidl are looking at two different types of training. We are looking at hard and soft skills training, so hard skills for the job and soft skills for you to be able to interact with people, customers, so now and so forth. We could even go a step further and say that soft skills are not only professional, but it is personal development as well. Because you are learning a lot of the employers are calling transferable skills, that sometimes you don’t necessarily learn and by that I mean, stuff like leadership, communications, conflict management, relation management, that sometimes you learn through yourself, sometimes you learn through family, your peers, people around you but ultimately if you are developing these people personally and professionally and tapping into that, you are making them better people. And I think that’s one of the big differences we have in Lidl that other places aren’t doing. I think that stands to people a lot and if you are to use some background on that, why we are doing it is because it’s better. People ultimately what to learn a life skill as well as learning something for work. You can put it on your CV, they can treat their family and friends differently, and they can resolve conflict at home at home as well as at work using these skills. But also it’s kind of proven that since 2009, even like CAO and academia has changed. People are coming out of college and going to interviews and they weren’t getting jobs because they employers were saying they have no skills, they have no experience. But we don’t expect people to have 10 years’ experience because they are in college and they are 22, what they meant is that they don’t have, they used to call it common sense but it’s not common sense, its transferable skills. And they were pushing back on academia. So you can see now academia since 2009 has kind of changed and I suppose you guys are in a different situation in DBS, but they are making historically what were level 7 a level 8, what was a 3 year course now a 4 year course because they are adding in placements. And they are allowing people to go out to businesses, but what they want them to do is not necessarily learn a skill but learn how to live in the working world and learn all them transferrable skills because ultimately they can’t really teach that in college so if that’s something that has happened in market place in over the last 5 years, it definitely is important and employers are pushing back on academia. They can’t really give it to them so it’s showing that there is a need and a want for that out there and hence Sinéad Woods Page 109 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail why we are having to so lots of development initiatives as well, especially when we are getting people straight out of school or college maybe without the skills. 11. In relation to T&D and employee turnover, do you think that T&D does affect employee turnover? I think it most certainly does more in relation to if it isn’t good. So I can only speak from experience, we are not saying we are perfect. We have had people who have been sold careers within Lidl, they have met us at recruitment fairs and they have seen how great we are. They have looked at our flashy website; they have read probably the good and bad stuff on boards and got carried away with the good stuff, like the cars, the money. Fantastic induction day in the RDC (regional distribution centre), met all the people, went to store and was it was absolutely terrible and ultimately that has necessarily changed their view on the company all because of the training or what investment was made on the ground with them. In saying that, I’m sure people have had really successful ones but it is more impactful if training doesn’t live up to what people expect. And when we are in the eye of the public, and we are in the limelight in relation to T&D we have harder to fall. So if you don’t live up to what is it, for example your first day in store, what do people do? They can actually have phenomenal day that will set them for phenomenal careers or terrible first days and they will kind of go ah that’s crap, like sitting on a till. You turn around and go you’re responsible for the till, you’re going to learn off such and such, here’s what we want you to do, it’s so important. Here what our guide is and ill check you in an hour. We are going to use learn to Lidl section C. Or you can just be given your float. Whatever way it is sold to you will determine your outlook on how your first day is going to be and I think that can stand for every single thing we do when we are up skilling people and training them on the job. One of the fears we have is that we are fast paced and we keep saying that all the time, we have 4 people in our stores, we have to learn on the job. Forgetting the studies that 70% of the world are either kinaesthetic or visual learners, and that learn with their eyes and hands. Forget that, we need to learn on the job and if we don’t always follow the principles we have, there could be a risk that people have the ladder or the poorer version of training and that could leave a bad taste in their mouths about us. Sinéad Woods Page 110 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 12. You kind of touched on it before, do you feel organisations if they do invest in, they are more likely to leave because employees would be more attractive to employers because they have developed skills? 18.16 I think yea, like I can speak for Lidl and outside of Lidl. There are companies you would say if you got an employee from an ex company they would be a really good employee. And I use companies like McDonalds and you might go I would never want to work in McDonalds but it’s really structured. They have multi skilled staff. You can work on the till, the lobby, on the fries, the grill; you can work on them all. They work for minimum wage and they work long hours, they work shift hours. And they have standards and procedures that they follow. Now you would know when you go to McDonalds whether it’s good or bad, they will say hello, offer you a large coke, they will offer you a dessert and they will say goodbye. But in saying that, with that comes discipline with an adherence to company procedures, with a loyalty and willingness to do what the company want. And that’s drilled into them. And it’s drilled into people from 15, 16 years of age and they promote from within, which they are really good for. They give responsibility young. So in saying that whether you know the person, you could say I would like to take someone from McDonalds. On the other side as well is that there is a fear that if you train people so much that they will go somewhere else, but I don’t think the training really plays the part. If someone wants to leave a company no matter how much you have trained them, or how much training you could give them, training isn’t a solution to keep them or not to let them go because their mind is made up. And an example of that would be I hear every year to put in a clause to keep RMDP afterwards. And before I joined 3 years ago, they were saying just out it in. But the question is that what if someone completes it and just does not want to be here? Like you may know classmates in your class that have no want or desire to ever work in Lidl. Why would you want them to stay here? Why would you offer them further training? And why would you stop them going somewhere else and promoting Lidl maybe in a negative way? It’s risky, I would never not train someone on the chance that they can go somewhere else because they could go somewhere else and go well Lidl could become what was historically the McDonalds story I gave or they could come with positive Sinéad Woods Page 111 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail memories and go well this person is quite good, they have hit the ground running and they came from Lidl and that could be a positive thing as well. 13. Would you agree with the outlook that by investing in development of employees that their turnover intentions will decrease? 20.55 That their turnover would decrease by investing in them? I don’t see how turnover would decrease by investing in development? As in employees leaving the company. Oh ok! Well you know a period of change, whether it’s the turnover of staff or up skilling of staff that impacts on customers will have an effect on the bottom line. Ultimately I think that’s the business we work in. like we have 4000 staff in Ireland, they are not all going to stay forever. And that needs to happen. I don’t think it has as big an effect on the bottom line in stores as businesses that run and manage their own P&Ls. And what I mean by that, all the training costs in Lidl are absorbed by us in the training department. So for example, people going to induction, their uniforms, their travel time, their expenses, the trains, they all get charged to us. If you were a sole trader and you ran a Centra and you were mister Centra and you had 10 staff and people kept leaving and you needed to bring someone in to train the people all the time and pay for new uniforms, new inductions, yes that would definitely effect the bottom line. And if that was a continuous thing or a trend you would need to monitor and out in measures for that. I think it’s not a big a deal in Lidl because it’s absorbed by us and if we actually looked at the costs associated with staff turnover; they would be a lot big than we expected. There is such out there, you can Google it, I don’t know whether we have done it for Lidl, the costs of a bad hire, the costs of a good hire, you’re paying X amount in peoples salary or then hiring someone bad and then having to performance manage them out and the time and time and effort it takes that. As well as all the direct costs around their salary, trainer’s salary, the induction, the training materials, their uniforms, and all this type of stuff. 14. With the impact of T&D on career opportunities, can T&D impact career opportunities? 22.48 Sinéad Woods Page 112 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 100%. I suppose we like to say we hire people for attitude but people with a positive attitude, a can do attitude with no ability to do anything like never be hired. There is only so much, the attitude will be the cherry on top. There needs to be some grounding there, or even a willingness to do the job itself. I would hope and I endeavour that the right person is always chosen for promotion opportunities and that’s based not only on their, definitely not stuff like length of service, but their attitude, their ability to do their job, even the scope to learn more to be able to do the job. They say if you can do 60% of a job that’s enough and they you can actually learn the rest. There is another quote, if someone gives you the opportunity just say yes and learn how to do it afterwards. Because remember if you have no doubt in your mind in relation to your ability to do your job, you can learn everything else. And if you are in a company like Lidl, who have set structures and procedures and we stand by them, why couldn’t you hire someone and train the afterwards? But I do think people, no one is ever going to be the finished product or the ready article, but I think people who have a good grounding, who have been trained and absorbed the training, have taken all development opportunities and learned and grown from them, will definitely be in a better place than someone who didn’t and I would definitely say there is a link between T&D and future possibilities or promotions. 15. Do you feel employees would leave an organisation if there were no opportunities for them to progress in their career? 24.26 I think that is definitely true and I think something that we sometimes see within Lidl. Like I would see there is actually huge opportunities within the sales area, and I would see good people possibly making decisions outside of Lidl because they have reached plateaus. We are an international company; yes there are opportunities within Ireland and outside of Lidl. We also work to an org structure as well and we can’t decide to have 6 heads of training, there is only 1. We can’t have 5 HR managers, there is only 1. It isn’t to say there aren’t opportunities in Lidl but they may not be in your current area or role. You do see people leaving because there aren’t opportunities, but I think it would be a bigger fact now than it was for good people. Especially when the economy is started to turn around, that they will decide there is are better opportunities out there and the green does always look greener but I think one of the fears is that we are known as a place of Sinéad Woods Page 113 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail great opportunities but people will go well there is no opportunities, but you can’t have opportunities everywhere. But I think it would be a reason why people would leave if there wasn’t. And you would hope that it’s a reason to want to better themselves and maybe take more responsibility or a better role and again there could be positive effect on Lidl because they are coming from us and going somewhere else. 16. I think it’s fair to say as well with the changes in economy, financial gain wouldn’t be so much of a motivator in the workplace at the minute. Would you say career opportunities are a benefit that companies are selling as part of their hiring? 26.09 100%. If you look at the perks or the benefits of any job advertisement, yes they talk about, a lot of times they don’t talk about salary. They talk about holidays, they talk about healthcare, they talk about insurance, they talk about career prospects, and they talk about T&D. It’s definitely a selling point for companies and the reason why it’s a selling point, it’s not free to do but its free to say. You’re not signing up to anything, you’re not saying what people are going to get, people are saying that you are going to invest time in them, you are going to spend time up skilling them. If you look at traditional paths into jobs, even if you went to something like apprenticeship or you may want to be a hairdresser or a mechanic, that is what sold you the job is T&D. it wasn’t €3 an hour, or wasn’t €200 a week. It was training and development. Historically it has always been a selling point for people to learn. You go into the guards, it’s a lower salary, any of these more vocational or hands-on jobs, it was always the apprenticeship which was the learning the trade that sold the jobs. When you look at it, its training. So I’d say it’s definitely a big seller for jobs. 17. The link between T&D and employee performance. Studies show that T&D can improve staff productivity and performance. Would you agree with this statement? 27.36 I would definitely agree with it but not alone. And what I mean by that is the T&D will give them the skills and the ability and maybe the right behaviours to do it but you need to need to tap into the willingness to do it as well. And by that I mean, you don’t need to stand over somebody but there need to be follow up, accountability or measures in place so that when you leave the classroom or you leave the training session, that it just doesn’t end there. And if it does end there, well I can’t see T&D alone making long term sustainably changes. I’d say it will Sinéad Woods Page 114 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail have an impact straight away but you do need follow up and you do need observation or line manager involvement to last over a longer period of time. Everyone will walk out of the classroom or walk out of the lecture, or walk out of a training session motivated and look forward to going to work tomorrow. You probably lose that the day after. The week after, if no one ever mentions the training or checks that you are actually doing it, you won’t do it. But it’s that that will lead to longer term productivity and longer term sales increase or changes in key figures. 18. According to the research, T&D can help employees engage with their employers and its needs. Would you agree with this statement? 28.46 Definitely. Training or a development session, they have to be all linked to the company’s strategy or objectives. There are things you needs to do, you can’t turn around and saying Microsoft excel training links to company strategy, but if you really thought about it you could probably think of ways it could. But any sort of soft skills or hard skills in relation to things we do to up skill you in your job, they all have a knock on effect that will affect the company performance. Any opportunity for that links you to the company and what we are doing and where we are going forward. The facilitator or the trainer has a role to play as well in relation to the objectives set for the courses and it does definitely give a link for people to speak to colleagues or peers that they haven’t spoken to, information exchange, sharing ideas, maybe coming in contact with people in the company that you haven’t spoken to within different hierarchies or structures, and I’d say training definitely does open up doors between maybe different people within the company that maybe wouldn’t come in contact usually or following training, if there is high performance linked to many knock on things with senior management. Would you say then that interaction or engagement with Senior Management and different people within the organisation, would that increase staff performance? 100%. I would say from experience whether we like it or not, hierarchy does speak. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that the board has to give T&D but in saying that, if there is board backing or I have noticed from experience if you run a programme and then maybe a board member would open it up there is definitely Sinéad Woods Page 115 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail more engagement levels. And I think it’s because you don’t see them as often and there is the hierarchy as well and there are maybe the people who are seen as the decision makers in the company and I think that they’re backing and even if even just not a training session but a store visit or a warehouse visit and they are asking questions about you were doing X last week, how did you get on. And people are saying oh Jesus they know all about that, I better you know. And it does actually increase their performance post training so I would say that senior management definitely have a role to play and I do think that line management, who are senior to whoever the trainee or participant is has a crucial role to play because if you go to training and your line manager never mentions it again, how are you going to do it? But if the line manager says what you learn, what am I going to see, let’s put that in your PDP (personal development plan) and constantly follows up on a two week basis, you are going to keep doing it so it’s going to help your performance. So I would say senior management have a crucial role to play. 19. Having the right people in the right job is essential for organisational success. As your role within the company, how would you ensure that the employee/job fit is correct? 31.35 I suppose well we are quite lucky in Lidl because we have the international org structure and personnel planning so we know whether its warehouse in relation to the number of products going in or out, we know with store based turnover and customer numbers, we know what our ideal numbers and figures are. The same applies to personnel planning; we are in head office so we can ensure we have the people through that. How we ensure we constantly have the people through that is through T&D, but more through the development side, our talent management, our succession planning. We are constantly developing people within roles that may possibly come up in the future but the idea is to make people better tomorrow than they are today. It’s not about just to create successors and if you have a strong talent management or talent pipeline that focuses on continuous improvement is definitely a way in which we would combat any issues we would have about not having the right people at the right time. So succession planning I’d say is the absolute key. Sinéad Woods Page 116 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail 20. So T&D and staff morale. Do you believe training programmes can improve job satisfaction and employee morale? 32.39 I think if people get something out of their programmes 100%. If you go to a training programme and you don’t know where your there and you don’t learn anything from it, probably not and it will have a negative effect. And there could be tips and tricks that trainers can do, what do you want achieve, why are you here today, so on and so forth, and just ticking boxes. People feel that they are learned something or they have a positive impact or impression on the day, well then they will go back and see that training is positive. If they feel it’s a waste of time, if they feel they are just doing it or they are being trained following an incident, what I mean by that is that training isn’t always at the start of people’s careers. Sometimes it’s at the end of people’s career as well. And what I mean by that is if people are going through or being managed in relation to their performance, sometimes training needs come out. And what I mean by that is, someone who is held to task on not doing something and they come around and say that oh they weren’t trained on it. And maybe there is a disagreement and an outcome is that they are going to be trained on that again. I’m not sure how positive that training is going to be. If the employee doesn’t feel that the training is for the right reasons, like they are only being trained so they can be held to task on something. So I do think you have to look at training on both sides, and sometimes it is the number one reason employees give for a poor performance, fact. If you go to any employee relations hearings, there will always be an “I wasn’t trained”, where is my training documentation, I didn’t sign that and sometimes it’s always a remedy to give but if training is the remedy rather than the solutions sometimes it’s not as positive and you have to look at the two different types of training in isolation. Ifs its reactive training to solve a problem, I don’t know how positive that can impact. If it’s something to make you better and its relevant to the people, yea I would definitely say that would make an impact. 21. A working environment with a high level of morale means happier staff. Would you agree with this statement? 34.39 100%. Sinéad Woods Page 117 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail And what impact can that have on the store would you say? I would say it would directly impact everything within the store. I do believe that it starts with the manager and they need to be the one who sets the tone for their stores. And I do believe they can have a knock on effect throughout – staff to staff interaction, staff to customer interaction, customer to customer interactions within the store and then their ability to process a payment through the store. What I mean by that is we all want to sell more, we want money in our tills, bad staff to staff interactions is going to make its done with maybe a negative tone or slower than usual or not in a productive manner. Bad staff to customer interactions will mean that customers will not enjoy their experience and might spend less. And customer to customer interactions will mean a bad word of mouth and they won’t come again. So I think it has a really important role to play. 22. What implications do you feel this would have on the overall success or failure of the organisation? If they were happier staff would they be less likely to leave, would it improve customer service, we have talked about that? 35.38 I think it would but you have to look at, I definitely think happier staff or companies with better morale perform better. But I think if you were to dig down you would need to fit out the rationale or reasoning behind the morale. There are companies out there that we would see as having huge employee morale. But I would never want to work for those companies. If you look at companies like Google and Facebook. Google are in Barrow Street, all of their employees live around there in apartment blocks, they go for drinks on Thursdays and Fridays after work. That’s phenomenal. But why are is the morale so high and what are they doing, like what effect does that have on the people who come in contact with them Googlers or Facebookers? There are kind of little bit like a cult, and that would be and would not be for some people. But I don’t know how much of that would impact the customer. Yes people would get on, but if you have drinks Thursdays and Fridays after work, how much time in work are people talking about that stuff of stuff? And how is that negatively impacting productivity? And if you are going for drink at 5pm with all your workmates, what is your last call or your last interaction like at five to five? There I always pros and cons for everything. If you were to look at it from a Lidll point of view, we are seen as Sinéad Woods Page 118 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail being, in the eyes of the customer, very German, people don’t talk, we don’t smile, we don’t say hello, I don’t think that’s always the case. But I think people, high morale or people getting on would way more benefits to us because people wouldn’t expect it. But secondly it would make huge differences because we only work in teams of 3, 4, 5 or 6 in our stores=. That would totally transform that store for those 8 hour or 10 hour period. But I don’t think that impact would be had on a big company like Google or Facebook. So I think it all depends on the company, it all depends why they are happy. When you look at our employees, I think it’s different, I think it’s a lot to do with the morale, I don’t think it’s all to do with training, and I don’t think it’s all to do with salary. Like we are paid quite well in Lidll, we do train and develop our staff. I think there are bigger things that maybe the great place to work have shown us, that we need to fix and then we will have it. So I wouldn’t say we are the best at morale and I wouldn’t say we are the worst, but definitely T&D may not be one of the reason, and we know it not one of the reason why people have low morale so I think it links to it but I don’t think it’s our problem. 23. By providing T&D, the organisation is showing its commitment to its employees and an interest in their continued success. Would this increase staff morale? 38.30 I think so. Like training you are upskilling your staff and development you are looking at future potential. If you are developing somebody on a programme, whether it’s a 6 month programme, a 6 module programme, if you are paying for some sort of education outside of work, you are committing to them and it’s kind of like job security as well. If you are saying we are willing to invest in you, we are going to give you time and effort, resources in relation to upskilling you in your current role with future possibilities, people know that they are safe, they are looked after, and they are investing in them as an employee. And they have a safety net for the 6, 12 or 18 months, once their performance keeps to a high standard. And for us as well, we have a safety net knowing that somebody is going to stay with us for that amount of time. If they dint or something strange well so be it but at least we know there is some sort of security. I do think it’s Sinéad Woods Page 119 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail important for employers, I do think it’s important for employees, on a case by case situation there are reasons why it would have wouldn’t work but overall yea. So the area areas there are 4 objectives I have for my dissertation. So just a general overview of it then, what would be the T&D policies and procedures within Lidl? There is many! We have a concept and a strategy for each of the areas of the business. So we have one for head office, sales and warehouse. And in that we have a concept which is quite simple, we break it down into different, not roles, but different levels of responsibilities within work. So like in store, we look at level 1, 2 and level 3. It goes from store assistant, store responsible people and SOMs. Warehouse, we look at operatives, we look at supervisors and section managers. And in the warehouse we look at cat 6, 5, 4 and 3. And we have concepts. We need to look at role specific ones and then things that everyone needs to know. And how we do that is through our database. We have mapped training requirements for nearly every position within the role or within the business. It’s a lot easier within places like sales, because we can say within sales there is store assistant, anchors, deputies and store managers. And you can put in place measure to make ensure you capture all the tasks, duties, roles and responsibilities for those jobs. Hence why something like learn to Lidll is quite good and works in the warehouse as well. We can’t do that in HO because we don’t have that structure. We may have junior project managers in HR, IT and purchasing and each of them, although they are junior project managers, each of them have very different jobs. So in that case, we need to look at standard operating procedures so we can ensure people know how to do their job. The add ons are the same for everybody, because what we are doing is not necessarily job specific tasks. We are looking at things to report to the company, like how we manage people, how we communication, how we set objectives. So it is easier in that sense to do the behavioural stuff, you know it takes longer, costs more and there is no guarantee of return that you are going to get. We have concepts, a strategy, we have policies for one business one message, we have policies around learning and support, we have policies in relation to the work flow of training, where the line managers do a TNA, it gets sent to the HR department with the training request, we either say yes or no. if it something that is money or has a Sinéad Woods Page 120 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail value to it, we actually have to put in a performance contract where we say we will let you on X course but what are the 3 things you want to achieve before they go, and afterwards we evaluate, we make sure we get it, transfer to the PDP (personal development plan). There is lots of stuff that a lot of people wouldn’t see. We generally follow a process in relation; we link our training to recruitment, needs analysis, design, delivery, evaluation an ROI. It’s the same for everything we do but done in different ways for different types of the business or different roles. 24. How does the training and development department in Lidl work? 42.44 HR is broken down into 3 areas – recruitment, learning and development and employee relations. So recruitment has 2, employee relations has 2 but L&D has 6. So I would be the head of T&D, and it’s my ultimate responsible training the whole company, north and south. And in that we have 3 project managers, an assistant and a junior project manager. So they all work in L&D. anything to do with training, we are involved in for the company. Even in the weirdest things. You may turn around and say we can’t be experts in everything so we use train the parents, train the children approach. We use external factors as well, we can’t know everything but if you follow principles like knowing how to do needs analysis, how to link your evaluation results to your ROI so it doesn’t matter what the training is. We could be doing something like people send a request for forklift training. I wouldn’t have an idea but I would know where to go and who to speak to, to do a proper needs analysis to put it out to tender to see who does it. So I know training but I don’t necessarily need to know the ins and outs of it, and l=anything to do with training, literally stores, warehouse, any head office department, any development opportunities, all the appraisals, succession planning, talent pipeline all comes through us as well. Any sort of development days, internal opportunities, they all come from L&D. we call it learning and devlopemnt. The regional T&D managers’ report to us for technical issues so I would be their technical line manager, so it’s my job that they have the ability to do their job and their work usual comes from me. So an example, if they are doing a development day to recruit new people, then OBOM and take the lead the next day. All them come from us, so they are kind of doing our work but then the functional line managers, the RAE. Yea, anything to do with training comes Sinéad Woods Page 121 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail through us. We are just 6 people so there are a lot of us! And then the programmes like this, the grad programme, international exchange programmes, work placements, internships, they come through us as well. We work really closely with recruitment. Recruitment used to be under my spec as well but then again, L&D just got a little bit too big. We have a huge project this year as well in relation to store managers; it will take 18 months to do so Tara is now head of recruitment. But we liaise weekly because ultimately they have such a role to play with us. If we bring people into the business with some skills/behaviours, it doesn’t take us that long to train them. If they come with none, it takes less. And if she recruit for certain skills/behaviours, they need to be the skills/behaviours that we are trying to train or develop or look for down the line in appraisals or talent management or succession planning so we work really closely with recruitment. So that brings me to the end of my interview, thank you very much your time. Is it ok if I use this information for my dissertation? Of course you can. Sinéad Woods Page 122 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Appendix 10: Transcript from Cathy Behan’s Interview Just to begin, to introduce it, this is an interview for my final year dissertation and the idea behind this is that I am trying to explore the benefits of effective T&D for both the employees and the organisation. So the questions are based around those areas. So the first couple of questions are just a yes/no answer. Do you think T&D is important? Yes Should all organisations invest time and money in T&D? Yes In order to survive in a changing economy, is T&D necessary? Yes Is T&D important of organisation success? Yes Companies that invest more in T&D show improved financial results? 100% yes. Some companies are reluctant to invest in T&D as they fear that employees will leave the company? Yes So could then describe what T&D is and what it means to you? Ok for me, it’s quite simple. T&D is building on the capabilities we already have within our organisations to bring people up to the best they can possibly be in their role. That’s it in a nutshell, nothing else to really add. How important do you feel T&D is for any organisation? Sinéad Woods Page 123 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Hugely because if someone is carrying out to their full potential and we are providing them with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to do that, then they will ultimately work to their full capacity and therefore increase efficiency, increase effectiveness and that will ultimately impact on the bottom line. So from that then do you feel T&D was always important? Or has it become more important in recent years with the change in economy? I think it was always important but I think because of the change in economy I think that we have looked at who we have in our organisation. I’m speaking generally here, we kind of have to say well these are the people we have, they have been with us for a long time, let look at how we can develop them to the best they possibly can be. And it’s just working with what we have and I think there has always been a focus on it. I suppose its call for a time where we probably had a tighter workforce if you look at generally across the organisation. So we have had to say how we can get the best possible out of the workforce we have and let’s train and develop these. That’s not to say that pre-recession I think there was a case that we just trained everyone for training sake. Now it has become more specific. Would you feel that companies invest enough time and money in T&D? I can’t answer for other companies, I can only answer for ourselves and I think that we as a business continue to strive to look at every single person in our business, regardless of the position that they hold and invest in them. I think there is definitely a trend in the market where L&D are looking at boosting the profile. So I think that in line with what the government are trying to do and push that agenda forward in terms of training people in the country. And yes I think a lot of companies are taking hold of it and seeing the benefits of it. Would you say that maybe the money invested in it has maybe been cut or compromised due to budget cuts over the recent years? It’s funny you say that because I had a lot of conversations over the last couple of years with colleagues in other L&D functions and they said no we haven’t, we have only recognised the greater need for L&D. and if you look at the IIT Sinéad Woods Page 124 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail website, they would clarify that for you even further in terms of articles. So yea the companies that were over spending on training etc. definitely had to rein things in. Would effective T&D have an impact on the overall success or failure of a company? Yes the overall L&D. not necessarily day to day but overall implementation and success and landing of training, the buy in of training from line managers, from employees definitely has yes. Would you say the employees who are seeking employment look toward companies that invest in T&D? 4.33 Yes because that’s what they are looking for. People who are looking for new positions are obviously those people who feel, or maybe a percentage of those feel that they are not being developed to their full potential in their current role. They are looking for a new challenge and in line with that new challenge comes new T&D opportunities. What do you feel T&D effects within an organisation? For example, customer service, employee engagement? It effects whatever objective it sets out but it also effects in turn employee motivation, satisfaction, morale. And those are the key things I feel it can affect. You can set out your objectives and if you achieve above and beyond your objective you are achieving what we want to do in working towards becoming a great place to work. How to you think employees would view an employer who engages in T&D? I can only see it as being positive because you know we are not the best we are ever going to be. Like we are only as good as the employees on the shop floor, and on the warehouse floor. And without those people we won’t have jobs in head office. We won’t be successful as a company and so we need those people. We need to train and develop them to the best they possibly are. Sinéad Woods Page 125 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Would you say those employees view the retailer as caring about their needs and their skills or are they just caring about the bottom line, or maybe a mixture of both? It’s a mixture of both. I would like to see it that, in an ideal world, it’s caring about the employee. But at the end of the day we are a business and we need to make money. So a few questions then T&D and how it affect employee turnover. Would you say that it does affect employee turnover? Yes. And would you say an employee would be less likely to leave if they did receive effective training? Yes, there are probably trends to show that. Yea I definitely think there is a close link there completely. People want to work in a company they see investment; whether that’s through T&D, increase in their salary. Employees are motivated when they are invested in and when they thought highly off and when we look at them to achieve the best they can in their role. Do you feel organisations if they do invest in, they are more likely to leave because employees would be more attractive to employers because they have developed skills? 7.11 Yes there is always that fear from employers but the employers where they embrace that and say you know what, what happens if we don’t train them? There was an article on LinkedIn recently what happens when we don’t train them. They are going to be not the person performing to the level we want to. So if they leave and we train them, fine let them off, we will train the next person in to the exact same standard. Would you agree with the outlook that by investing in development of employees that their turnover intentions will decrease that they would be less likely to leave? 7.43 Yes. I would. Sinéad Woods Page 126 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail T&D and how its impact on career opportunities. So would you say it has an impact on career opportunities? Yes absolutely. I can only say that from my own personal experience. Absolutely, you can only start with your self-development and pushing your own development and then comes your own passion, your own drive. With that you are learn more, you are becoming more like a sponge. You want to learn more, you want to do more, you to have more challenges. So yes definitely pushing forward your own personal drive. Do you feel employees would leave an organisation if there were no career opportunities for them? Yes. There needs to be career paths present completely. A lot of studies have shown recently that financial gain wouldn’t be so much of a motivator in the workplace at the minute. Would you say career opportunities are a benefit that companies are selling as part of their hiring? Yes. People want stability, people want to be invested in. They want to know they are treasured. And if they feel that they will stay, absolutely. So T&D and employee performance. Studies have shown that T&D can improve staff productivity and performance. Would you agree with this? Yes. If you are training somebody on how to do something better, then it is going to lead to increased efficiencies. If you are providing someone with a manual and say this is how you do your job, unless we need to keep repeating the training, there are going to get it eventually so they will get to know how to do the task. According to the research, T&D can help employees engage with their employers and its needs. Would you agree with this statement? Yes absolutely because if you are satisfied in what you do, you will want to further contribute to the company. So you would say that an engagement would increase staff performance? Sinéad Woods Page 127 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Yes. Having the right people in the right job is essential for organisational success. As a project manager within the company, how would you ensure that the employee/job fit is correct? Or does this come into your role in the job? Yea it does, it’s more that the concept that attitude come from us. That like, we need to ensure that everybody in the employee life cycle, that we bring the people in, that they are the correct for with the business, they have the skills or the base skills there that we can develop. There is a potential to develop. Then we need to put in place things like appraisals, informal discussions on how your performance is, and then put in strategies against ok we have a skills gap in the business, how are we going to address that? This is how we are going to meet that, we are going to deliver internal training and external training, we are going to deliver hard skills and soft skills etc. So then in relation to staff morale. Do you believe that training programmes can improve job satisfaction and employee morale? Yes. A working environment with a high level of morale means happier staff. Would you agree with this statement? Yes. And what implications do you feel that could have on the success or failure of a company. For example if they are happier are they less likely to leave, if there are happier staff do we have better customer service? Yes all of them things, yes absolutely. By providing T&D, the organisation is showing its commitment to its employees and an interest in their continued success. Do you agree with that? Yes. So this brings me to the end of my interview. Just a quick question Cathy in relation to your role within the company. What is your role? Sinéad Woods Page 128 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail So I’m an L&D project manager. I look after concept and strategy for all L&D concepts for the business, which is whether we decided its business needs, in line with best practice in the industry or whether it’s an international German project. And how long have you been in the company? 7 years in November. Where you in a previous role in the company before in the T&D department? Yes. I was in recruitment, head officer recruitment. Thank you very much for your time. Look Sinéad anytime you have any questions or any time you have any project, give me a shout. I know I can be difficult to get hold off. Let me know if there is anything that comes of interest to you in the department, just give me a shout. Sinéad Woods Page 129 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Appendix 11: Transcript from Jonathan Millar’s Interview Just to begin, to introduce it, this is an interview for my final year dissertation and the idea behind this is that I am trying to explore the benefits of effective T&D for both the employees and the organisation. So the questions are based around those areas. So the first couple of questions are just a yes/no answer. Do you think T&D is important? Absolutely. It has a huge impact of any organisation. I have a slide here to show what it can do. It can change knowledge, skills and attitudes of staff. So knowledge is what people know. People will only know or have the knowledge if we share it with them. So for us that’s learn to Lidl level 1, level 2 in store for store assistants and then for deputy store managers level 2. The skill then is your ability to do the job. So we provide you with the skill and the best routine and format of how to approach this and what to do. And then your attitude, that determined on the individual themselves. They believe what way they are going be behave today. But factors can influence that, so someone might be below the line and turn around and say I never had the training, which is a valid point if we can’t prove or can’t show they have had the training I haven’t been trained on the tills, on the bakery. How do you expect me to do this if I dint know. So it’s back again to the knowledge. So definitely in answering your question, do you think T&D is important – absolutely. It a legal compliant as well, to ensure that we legally comply. It helps us in achieving our company goals, so whatever the goals of the company are, you have to bring people with you on that journey and you have to have small steps in order to get there. You just don’t want to jump from A to Z overnight. It gradually is done through a process, through time. It motivates our employees as well because if you are investing in someone then they feel more loyal and that’s one thing there as well – breech loyalty and retention, as in retain your talent because if you are investing in someone, people think this is great for me as well because I’m developing as a person. An example would be Take the Lead, and how that has helped even me personally. Being the Difference as well as in soft skills in dealing with other people. Being more aware, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, aware then of our colours as well -blue, green red and yellow and have that understanding. Enhances performance of our employees, if people know what Sinéad Woods Page 130 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail they are doing then they is going to perform better. And success breeds confidence whereas fail should breed learning, and we can only learn through T&D., through information that is provided by the company. And the other there as well, overall is employees feel valued. If you are investing in someone, employees feel valued, they feel they have an opinion and that can even be down to employee surveys for us, is that you are asking someone their opinion, your opinion matter, we want to know how you feel, what can we do to make this better. But the big thing is follow up, as in what are you doing to resolve it whenever people have identified those issues. So T&S is important from beginning to end, so the process of delivering it, then delivering it, then implementing it and then following up on it and seeing what value have we got here in return. But certainly overall if you, an example for us in the Mullingar region and throughout the island is induction days. Inductions never used to be done at the RDC. They were done by different SOMs, for some of them it would be a stretch as well in training someone at an induction. Some of them just want to get through it as quickly as possible, sign that box, tick this, etc. etc. whereas now it is a whole performance, it is a whole show. This is who we are, this is what we are about, look at our culture, look at how successful we are and the quality of training in there as well. And you make it fun – health and safety, so everyone is legally trained on H&S and manual handling. Everyone is trained on the cashier training DVD, everyone is trained on the alcohol policy procedures, everyone is trained on over the counter, so everyone then feels that you have invested in them and that is being reflected in our store. If we look as well at the island of Ireland, certainly in the last year and a half, growth of 15% or more. So there is a lot of things that are impacting that, so if you are delivering the customer service training on day 1, people know right when they go into store this is what our expectations in relation to customer service, in dealing with our customers, hello thank you, goodbye, you have created that awareness. Now it’s up to them if they do it but if you never told them to begin with, I don’t know what to do, this this what you do, you say hello. Now, I’m taking that to a silly level but that’s what I’m saying, you can’t expect someone to know if you never told them. Said does not mean heard, heard does not mean you understood, understood does not mean carried out and carried out does not mean maintained. Sinéad Woods Page 131 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail In order to survive in a changing economy, is T&D necessary? Definitely. Staffs needs to be taught new ways and practices. If you want to bring all our people with you on your journey, so it’s alright directors and the boards and executives receiving all this brilliant training but that need to filter down as well to the rest of us otherwise we are on a different playing field. Do you get me? Yes. Because then you are creating a different levels of hierarchy as in don’t be talking a different language or lingo that we don’t understand. Is T&D important of organisational success? Yes. Certainly as you can see from what I was saying there, if your employees feel valued that is going to lead to loyalty. People are going to give their heart and soul for you. A lot of them, not everyone. It doesn’t work with everyone and that is a big thing. You can change people’s mind-sets, you can change their ways. Through changing someone’s mind-set, you then change their behaviours as well. There is another sheet here which you can take away. Our thoughts and feelings will determine our attitude. Our attitude will determine our behaviours. Our behaviours determine our results. Our results then ultimately equal how successful you are. Thoughts and feelings Sinéad are internal, how I think and feel is entirely up to me, from within. Now that can be fed on as you can see here, my beliefs system, what I believe, what I practice, my values, what I hold dear to me. You and I may have different values, different views in life and things that are happening in the world. But it’s all down to our belief systems, our values, what I hold dear to me, my doctrine, whatever that might be. That’s my thought and feelings, that can determine what I watch on the TV, what I read, what company I keep. Also, an area in which I’m living in, what I’m exposed to. All these things determine our thoughts and feelings of our outlook and our views in life. That then can determine my attitudes because my attitude is internal, it’s what I hear and see that influences everything in my perspective of things. Then it becomes external. So now you have your behaviours, putting my thoughts, feelings and attitudes all into practice, actually doing it. This will ultimately determine my results, positive or negative they will determine my success. Behaviours and results are all external, they are what others see. Someone can’t see this Sinéad Woods Page 132 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail as in your thoughts or feelings. People might say you have a bad attitude but it’s not actually your attitudes, it’s your behaviours, how you are behaving. People can’t see your attitude. Attitudes are internal, what I hear and what I see will influence these. Whereas it’s the opposite here, hear and see is what is actually done. It’s all down to internal choice. So in answering your questions, for organisational success, absolutely because it changes the mind-set of people and how they grow and how they approach things. People need to understand what they are doing. Answer the “why” question. Remember wee kids, why daddy, why mammy, why are you doing that? We also have an inner feeling of what’s in it for me? Why am I doing this? We need to answer that question, so people need to know why they are doing it and if we answer that question it will make the organisation totally overall successful. Inductions are certainly a big example I can give you there, and you can see the improved success of the company. We are passing more audits, whether that is alcohol as there is a greater awareness, so that’s challenge 25 and the alcohol training being provided in the induction. Companies that invest more in T&D show improved financial results? Definitely. It replicates through that and we are a prime example of that. Not only is it recessionary climate and people think oh my goodness, Lidl offer values, they offer choice, they offer quality and freshness. But also our people have improved from even where we were when you came on the programme 3 years ago to the training that is offered now. You are thinking now, wow, and total turn around. Because what we invest in our people. People move an organisation forward . There are 4 quarters you can look at – people, financial, customers and operations. But you people service all those other 3 because if your people are delivering in your store, your customers are going to have a bad experience. Your operations are going to suffer and financial as an organisation you are going to suffer as well. So for me, and it only has been for over 14 years within management, is that people are the most important factor in any organisation. If you look after people, everything else will fall into place and certainly does have an impact on the financial side because it’s an eco-system. One area supports another but the biggest part of the chain that can be missing if it’s not supported is our people. People need to know what they are doing and how to do it. And financial absolutely and you can see that replicated here. We have invested more in our people, we have won awards in the last year and a half, an ITD award, graduate awards and different programmes we have been Sinéad Woods Page 133 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail accepted for and it’s all through manta different things. It’s not just T&D but everything coming together as one unit. Some companies are reluctant to invest in T&D as they fear that employees will leave the company as a result of their improved skills? Depends on the organisation. You have raised a very interesting topic here. People can leave at any time ok. That’s their choice. It’s not like a footballer were we are going to be paying, like in Louis Suarez’ case, £75 million for him to do, because he was in a contact that he just signed last year. We don’t have that type of contract so people can leave at any time. There was a CEO recently in the UK that said, I don’t know which organisation, “I would rather train my staff and lose them than not train them and keep them”. Do you see the difference there? Because if I train people it will ultimately lead to long term success. And the problem is that some companies cut back on training because it’s the easiest thing to cut back on but they don’t realise if you cut back on train that it can affect some many other things, regards employees feeling valued, employee enhancement as in their performance, motivation, value. So people can leave at any time, that’s a chance you are going to take. I spend Monday there preparing the induction and we had 12 people there. We had planned for 15 so there was maybe a wee bit of time wasted as 3 people didn’t turn up. But we invested in 11/12 new starts but they could leave at the end of this week. So it’s a chance we take. But it doesn’t mean you don’t do it. And there are so many things in life that we enter into and there is maybe a bit of fear or maybe a bit of anxiety and your thinking should I, should I not. And there are other people are like just do it, who cares. So for T&D for me, it is better to in invest in our people in the long term because it will give results for us all, which will benefit everyone but it doesn’t mean you just don’t train people. You must invest in their training. And certainly in this role now, I have seen the importance of it and how it can change people’s behaviours and peoples understanding of things. You are increasing their knowledge and you see people develop. Training is short term, development is the long term. So training is providing that information, the development is then actually putting it into practice and growing and it’s great to see people grow. And that’s a rewarding factor of the job. 13.19 So you kind of answered the next question there, what is T&D and what does it mean to you? So training is the short term. Sinéad Woods Page 134 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Training is the training, that’s teaching and the development is the growth and the implementation for me. Training can be defined as a planned systematic activity aimed at the modification or the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes. It will enable individuals to perform effectively in the current, so it’s about the now, current work role. It may to be carried formally i.e. the train the trainer or informally as in “sit by nelly”, so you sit beside me and I show you what I’m doing. It usually has a short-term focus. Training commonly takes place in an on-the-job environment although it may be performed in an off-the-job situation. Regards development, may be defined as a general enhancement or growth of an individual’s skills and abilities. It may be focused on effective performance and specific future roles or it may be considered as a general activity. In either case, it has a longer term focus than training. It is where are we going to be Sinéad in 6 months from now, where are we going to be 12 months from now, what are our aims and aspirations? How many people do we need to train in manual handling, how many people do we need to train as first aiders, how much is that going to cost? So you are looking at training needs analysis and cost analysis. It’s about the long term and we know our organisation is totally legally compliant. The expected outcomes of development are generally defined in broad terms – individuals should improve a range of abilities e.g. improve problem solving, time management, personal skills, relationship management. A wide range of methods are associated with development e.g. role play, case studies, outdoor development, presentation or discussion of the job, action learning through counselling and coaching. So there is a lot in development. It affects a lot of people. So T&D, what does it mean to me? It’s very important and I see that more within the job and its very rewarding when you see you spent time with someone and you have gave them a different outlook and a whole different prospection of things, “I never seen it that way”, a cup half full or a cup half empty? So is it positive or is it negative? People have to come with you though, you can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. Some buy into it and some don’t. Like if I go out there now and seed in the soil, some of it will grow, some the birds will get to, some the wind will blow away and will never grow. And it’s the same with trainings as well, some take it on board, like a dog hungry there with a bone and others are like “no not for me”. It doesn’t mean you don’t offer it, it’s extremely important. 16.40 So would you that feel T&D is for any organisation? Sinéad Woods Page 135 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Yes, extremely. It changes the knowledge, skills and attitudes. It assists in achieving our company goals, we have a legal compliance, we motivate our employees, employees feel valued as a result because they know what they are doing, people are taking an interest in it, they feel they have an opinion and that it is listened to. It also enhances performance of our employees. It breeds their loyalty and retains talent as well. You were saying earlier that some organisations fear that employees will leave. There has been a huge invest even in TDMs here in Ireland. Courses we have been on, this book I have shown you, certificates and another there due to come. But it doesn’t mean if Jonathan Millar walks away tomorrow that the organisation stops doing it. So that’s a smaller example you can see that it is important and we invest in our people and don’t have that fear that they will leave because anyone could leave. We could be dead tomorrow, using a more negative term. You got to invest in them. It is important for any organisation whether or not they see that though is their choice because it’s all down to where the organisation is steered from. There will be a captain of a ship, there will be an MD, a CEO who is steering an organisation in its path way and it all depends as well on how much profits they have. What its best putting that money into. But certainly Lidl as an organisation are advancing forward rapidly with its T&D initiatives and we can see the results of that. 18.16 So from that then do you feel T&D was always important or has it changed in recent years with the change in economy or development in technology? Would you say that organisations now place more emphasis on the importance of it? Depends on the organisation, I can’t answer for them. Certainly for ourselves within Lidl, where we were 4 years ago to where we are now in my experience, it certainly has greater prominence and has a greater importance with it. You can see the soft skills advancements as well there in recent years; take the lead and being the difference for sale alone. What this has done for us and how it has changed peoples outlook and perceptions. So this is your training pyramid here, development roots so you have hard skills on the left, soft skills on the right and soft skills we never had before. And if you were to pay for that on Civilian Street, you would be talking thousands to go into those types of courses. And was Lidl offering it free of charge to their employees. So it’s certainly greater importance here, 2 years ago we kicked off with SM 2012, 3 years ago SOM 2011 so for us anyway there has been greater importance on T&D within the organisation. Has changes in technology and the economy placed more emphasis on T&D? I don’t know, I Sinéad Woods Page 136 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail couldn’t answer that. I don’t know if technology really affects us here. The economy, with the current climate a lot of organisations will cut back on T&D, whereas for us we have actually increased our T&D. 20.00 Would you feel that companies invest enough time and money in T&D programmes or initiatives? Whenever you do an assignment for college or you do an exam, I’m sure you walk away sometimes and say to yourself I could have given that more. I could have revised more, I could have swotted more. And it’s the exact same for us here. There is never enough training. But it needs to be balanced as well because you can overload someone. There only are 5 working days in a week, if we were to have training 5 days a week, what about someone else’s job? What about what they actually do? They need time to do that as well. So we have to realise the impact we can have there. So you can never invest enough because there can never be enough learning but it needs to be relevant and it needs to be applicable. You just don’t do training for the sake of it. “Let’s come along to training today, get a day out of store”. And that’s not the way it is. There has to be a reason for it, as in there needs to be a need and that’s why we have a training needs analysis. For us one area would be level 1, level 2, what people need to do, what they need to cover. So there is a gap there, how are we going to improve that? So we create then a training plan for moving forward. So you can never have enough training, never have enough learning and development so as I said it needs to be relevance and applicable. Can T&D be compromised in relation to budget cuts? Yes but only to the detriment of an organisation. If you foolishly want to go down that route, it will have its impacts. Organisations that keep it going and keep it alive go on and prosper through situations much stronger. 21.58 Would effective T&D have an impact on the overall success or failure of a company? Yes certainly in the long term. You can see how and why it has long term success. People know what they are doing, they are going to do their job and they are going to do it well and better than what they would if they didn’t have training. Because if I go into a place and I don’t know what to do, then no matter what skills and attitudes I have, I could be the best in the world, but if I didn’t know what I’m doing you are not going to turn up to work every day with a smile on your face. So certainly in the long term, and even the Sinéad Woods Page 137 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail short term, will result in success in a company. If they want to remove themselves from a T&D initiative, it’s only to their detriment I would believe. 22.50 Would you say the employees who are seeking employment look toward companies that invest in T&D? That depends on the employee themselves. Depends on the person and depends on who they are. Someone people love training Sinéad, some people don’t. I discovered in recent years, training was a struggle because I was putting them in an environment that they weren’t comfortable in. It’s not the same as store where they are running around managing their staff and in conversation. So it depends on the person. Some people training is a stretch and we have that saying get comfortable being uncomfortable. And for some people they are really out of their comfortable zone, they are in panic zone, where fear and trembling, what are they going to ask me in here, the fear of the unknown. Would you say the employees who are seeking employment look toward companies that invest in T&D? Depends on the individual. Some people love training and they come there eager and hunger, on time and punctual and then you have other people, “this is the sixth time I’ve been invited to training, I haven’t went in the past because I haven’t enjoyed it”. 25.37 What do you feel T&D effects within an organisation? You have 5 points there. In relation to the person, the training is for the person. The training is for employee, the trainee. So those last three (staff morale, employee performance and employee retention), certainly these three improve the latter two (customer service and employee engagement). So it affect staff morale, employee performance and employee retention as well because you are investing in them. So you give someone that feel good factor, that confidence, that strength, that energy, it encourages them to deliver great customer service because you are looking after them. And also employee engagement, whether that be with their peers, whether that be with their superiors, whether that be with their customers or whether that be with their family and friends, it will encourage engagement with everyone because they are happy, they are positive, they are looking at things with a positive perspective and they have energy and that desire to their best for Lidl or whoever it may be. Because you have invested in them. So I believe strongly that it can certainly impact on the organisation. 26.49 Sinéad Woods Page 138 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail How to you think employees would view an employer who engages in T&D? You have here care about their needs, absolutely. If I’m an employee and someone is investing in my T&D, where I am prospering and developing, absolutely. Develop their skills? Definitely. Care about their future? Yes. Bottom line for the company, could you just elaborate on that? Do you think employees think that the company is investing in T&D basically to improve their bottom line, to improve their financial side of things? So do they care just about the company or the employees as well? Well we certainly don’t say or go out there preaching or say it’s to increase our bottom line but I’m sure there is an element of that. Because every organisation is here to succeed and to make money and if it doesn’t make a profit then where is it going to be? Mainly it about looking after the people but overall it is going to create a better working environment and a better shopping experience for our customers who come into our stores, which ultimately in return then is going to lead to affecting our bottom line, as in more profits. I don’t go into every training session thinking of A jumping to profits as in Z, I look at the people and how it’s going to help them work more productively in their store, work more efficiently, get the best out of their people, see the bigger picture. But I’m sure there is an element of bottom line because an organisation is there to make money as well, and if the people aren’t moving in the right direction to make that money, then we are going to have problems and difficulties. But it’s all about the people and the latter 3 (needs, skills and future) all definitely a yes. 28.39 So one my first objective are T&D and how it affects employee turnover. So would you say it would affect employee turnover? Is this employee retention? Yes For people yes it is important and if you were to come into your job and sit at a computer Monday to Friday for several years and never once did anyone take you on a training initiative, team building exercise, never once did anyone talk you through a manual, you just learned by sitting by nelly as in your colleagues, how would you feel? I certainly do Sinéad Woods Page 139 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail believe that if you don’t invest in your people, because you said later on regards financial return, people aren’t in it just for money anymore, they are actually in it for what’s in it for me, as in the whole package. It does certainly affect employee development. I had numerous people say to me I was considering leaving because there was no training. So I can’t deny that. So would you say that employees are less likely to leave if they do have training? Yes. It encourages retention. It’s one of the principles I set out there at the beginning of our interview. It does retain talent, if you are investing in people because you are looking after them. You are doing delivering something for them. You are helping them. You are benefitting them, not only in work but in life in general. Certainly our soft skills programme, our take the lead and being the difference, people were able to go home and relate to their families differently, related to their loved ones and friends. If you are providing people with that support and those skills, in not only a work environment, of course they are going to stay with you. Because they realise out in Civilian Street that they will have to pay thousands to get these type of training courses, so it retains people absolutely. So we kind of touched on this earlier, would organisations fear that if they trained staff they would leave because their skills have improved and they are more attractive to other employers? That’s person dependents again. People leave for various reasons and it could be another job offer, it could be to travel the world and see Australia. It all depends on the person. That’s too open, there are some people are lifers and there are some people who jump around like a frog from one to the other. Would you agree with the outlook that by investing in development of employees that their turnover intentions will decrease, that they would be less likely to leave? I would say it’s an organisations fear, it’s a chance you take. Because there have been a few individuals, I won’t name them, that have been here in the organisations, high flyers, loads of potential, going to Germany and the company invest thousands in them, we are talking about €50,000 to house them out in Germany for half a year, send them to German school, come back here fluent in German and leave a couple of months later. Person dependant. It’s a chance the organisation takes but it doesn’t mean you just hold Sinéad Woods Page 140 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail back. Would you agree with the outlook that by investing in development of employees that their turnover intentions will decrease? It certainly increases loyalty and people mainly leave a role because of their boss. Not because of T&D, it’s very much down to the working relationship I have with my direct line manager. People don’t leave jobs, they leave bosses. If your boss is an absolute eejit, very hard and difficult to work with, and challenging you every day and wearing you down, getting under your skin, do you really want to be there? Probably not. Instead of people going and having an open discussion with their line manager, so their bosses line manager, and saying here I’ve been getting a hard time, I’m in a very dark place at the moment. They see that as weakness and failure and don’t go that route; they just say I’m going to leave. That’s part of the problem. They don’t leave because of T&D; they leave because of their boss. 33.56 So the next objective I have is in relation to career opportunities. So do you think that T&D can have an impact on career opportunities? Yes. Staffs require that knowledge, skills and attitude to develop. And in order for me to grow, to understand and to put my best foot forward, the more exposure I get to T&D, that’s going to give me getter opportunities. And you can see that, a lot of people who do engage in T&D actually tend to succeed and do better because they are more open minded, they have a greater understanding of various different things. Do you feel employees would leave an organisation if there were no career opportunities for them? Yes, for some who wish to progress and develop further. Everyone might not be as ambitious as you and I and we need to understand that. So it depends on them as a person. It also depends on the awareness as an SM (store manager) for example. Every SM, some may want to be SM, some may want to be SOMs, and some may not want to be an SOM for all the tea in China. And you need to be aware as well that if you join an organisation what opportunities are available for you? In Lidl, there is no glass ceiling, the sky is your limit no matter who you are, where you are from, what you qualifications you have, if you have a degree, if you don’t have a degree, whatever it might be. There are plenty of people in various roles who aren’t qualified in ways we think they would be. Because they have come in here and worked hard and progressed. They don’t have a Sinéad Woods Page 141 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail degree, they don’t have many qualifications, but they are sitting as an executive today for example, or a director. And if we think of our competitor Aidl, if you join them as a SM that’s as far as you go. Because they don’t believe in promoting SMs. So depends on the set up of the organisation and if you join them as an SOM, you will never be a SM. You will either perform in the role or you will leave. So depends what your awareness is of the company’s processes and procedures and methods and ways, whenever you join as well. What is available to me? A lot of studies have shown recently that financial gain wouldn’t be so much of a motivator in the workplace at the minute. Would you say career opportunities are a benefit that companies are selling to people seeking jobs these days? Yes. So T&D and employee performance. Studies have shown that T&D can improve staff productivity and performance. Would you agree with this? Yes totally. If people know what they are supposed to be doing, and then through their own ability they do it, then performance increases. People become more productive, more efficient and you get the best all round performance. But if people don’t know what they are doing, where do we end up? So digging a big hole and keep digging. According to the research, T&D can help employees engage with their employers and its needs. Would you agree with this statement? Yes. Your first one there would this engagement increase staff performance? Totally. And then would a lack of engagement decrease staff performance? Absolutely. A lot of that we have touched on already. I interviewed Mark Lacey last week and something he brought up there was engagement with senior management. Would you feel that this would increase staff performance? Yes because overall that’s the people you are seeking to impress. You really like to impress your boss. So you want to know from them, you want to have your fingers on the pulse together. So whatever they want done, you are getting done, and you are achieving for them. And that you are on the same wave length and the same message. Because there is nothing worse if we are preaching different messages. So being in touch with your Sinéad Woods Page 142 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail direct line manager, so for myself and Triona we would be in contact every day. I would be in her office whenever I’m here. I wouldn’t be on the phone every day when I’m out and about. But we would ring each other should we need to. But every Monday we would have a Dura fix for a least half an hour, an hour. Sometimes it could be longer depends on what we have to cover. But it’s important. Communication is key. Having the right people in the right job is essential for organisational success. As a T&D Manager within the company, how would you ensure that the employee/job fit is correct? Training needs analysis (TNA) is one method we use. So if you were to think of a store there, you have the employee name, and tick off what someone is qualified in and what they are not. So for us it’s a tick and when we put it into the PC, it comes up then green and red. Green good for go and red stop outstanding, still isn’t covered. So that’s how we identify it, through a TNA. Then we out a training plan in place as to what we are going to do and how it’s going to be done. Obviously for me, when I came here there was 700 staff. Today there are over 1,200. I can’t manage and monitor every training plan. It’s just not practically possible, I would never be off the phone. And that’s not what it’s about. It’s about people in the stores keeping them training plans alive because they are the only people that can make it happen. We provide the document and it’s up to them whether or not they do it. Some take it on board, sadly a lot don’t. For example, when you start you aren’t supposed to be on the till until week 3 or 4. But you go into store and tills are the first thing you are put on. Managers have this fixed mind set of tills, tills, tills. And when someone leaves and you say why are you leaving? They say because I was only ever on tills. And would that be a reason they are not meant to be on tills until week 3/4? Absolutely. So they have correct bedding in process. Because people sadly put people on tills and all the training they have had is up here with me watching a DVD. And they don’t have someone watching over their shoulder. You are going to embarrass someone whenever a banana comes along, they are like what do I do with the banana? What about these tins of beer, are they scanning individually or as a 4 pack? Because there is no one there handy to provide advice. And if you are asking a question every second product you put through, how are you going to feel at the end of every transaction? Sinéad Woods Page 143 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail So the last objective there is in relation to staff morale. Do you believe that training programmes can improve job satisfaction and employee morale? Yes if adhered to. It’s not Frank Sinatra here, I did it my way. There is a procedure we work in conjunction with and we do it according to the book, not this is what we do here. That doesn’t work. Same with the training plan, if the training plan is adhered to fantastic and ifs it not, then where do we end up? A working environment with a high level of morale means happier staff. Would you agree with this statement? Yes. And what implications do you feel that could have on the success or failure of a company. For example if they are happier are they less likely to leave, if there are happier staff do we have better customer service are we more productive are we better performing? All of these. And we have very much touched on them in great depth because training related to all of those. If someone is investing in you, you are less likely to leave. If you provide training here as we do on the first day, and whenever they go into store, they are going to provide better customer service. And certainly something myself I have learned in recent years, Barack Obama is great at it, telling stories. So in here in induction, you are relating storied whenever you are sharing your experience with them and customer service is obviously a big area of that. We have the customer service DVD, we talk through the questionnaire linked with the DVD, we have another cashier training DVD we show. So 2 DVDs and a talk around it so the first couple of hours are really about customer service and what good looks like. And that’s obviously going to increase customer service within our stores. And it gives our staff performance as well certainly in that field. More productive? Yes if people know what they are doing, where they should be, what they should be doing and when they should be doing it, some for example working in the bakery. What programme to choose, how long are they on the programme for, how to I put these things in, what’s the most productive way, what the crack with the freezer here, how do I close the door? If people have their training and they know all these areas, and beyond, then you are going to get the best results. Sinéad Woods Page 144 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail By providing T&D, the organisation is showing its commitment to its employees and an interest in their continued success. Would this increase staff morale? Yes. So this brings me to the end of my interview. Thank you very much for your time. Do I have your permission to use the information provided? Yes absolutely. Sinéad Woods Page 145 To Identify and Explore the Benefits of Effective Training and Development for Both Organisation and Employees of Retail Bibliography 1. 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