Elijah Ngule

 Training and Development in Small Business Student’s Name BUS 407 Training and Development Professor’s Name: Date of Submission: Training and Development in Small Business Introduction Training and management programs are presently accepted as means to improve the competitiveness of firms and the economy. Even though training and management have in the past considered as used for the larger businesses, awareness continues to grow on the requirements of small businesses. The government has taken a step by providing initiatives aimed at encouraging start-ups as well as boosting the growth of small businesses by emphasizing the importance of management development. Recognizing the need to improve management skills in small businesses continues to grow in most countries. Most of the small businesses are owner-managed and comprise an important source of new jobs for many jobs (Fuller-Love, 2006). In the United Kingdom, for example, small business accounted for ninety-nine percent of the country's businesses in 2002 as well as fifty-six percent of the employment and fifty-two percent of the United Kingdom's turnover. Most of the learning models entail a large number of people and how they interact with each other, something that may not be relevant to a small business. The 16 station beauty salon, seafood restaurant, and night club is a small owner-managed business that operates in a highly complex environment with a small number of employees. The business has employees who work closely together in a small team where communication is excellent. Training in such a scenario would take both the in-house and external training. The training program would further be divided into formal on-the-job training and formal off-the-job training. Since the employees are already aware of some of the basic, the induction training would not be necessary but instead the continuing training (Fuller-Love, 2006). The owner has to employ someone who is relevant to the skills to save cost. It is also essential to eliminate the preconception that training is only for new employees. The employees have to understand that training and development is a continuous process. Elements of Training and Development The critical element for considering during training programs for a restaurant and salon is making a lasting impression. The improvement of customer experience starts and relies on employee training and outreach. It is essential to understand that the human factor is what sets the brand of any given business and the employees play a crucial role in that part. In a restaurant, the cashiers and servers are the people who determine the experience of a customer that would play a crucial role and difference on whether a customer would revisit or not (Sloman, 2017). Elements of excellent customer service begin by hiring the right people and then training them. Creation of a learning and development strategy that everyone understands is an essential element to training and development. The strategy should be inclusive of a mission and goal for the training and development function as well as creating an alignment point for all the involved individuals. Management has to invest time to establish a charter that covers all areas of training and development that an individual has to learn. There is also the enabling of a culture of continuous learning and development. The culture of the business shapes the beliefs and the behavior of the employees. The management has to cultivate a mindset where employees have both the desire to learn and share knowledge with others. Most managers fail by ending learning and development at the conclusion of the initial and formal training (Sloman, 2017). The best managers use the end of the formal training to define what is next for the employees. It entails incorporating a hunger for learning into the hiring process while also rewarding the individuals who exhibit learned behaviors on their job. Some of the small businesses fail to motivate their employees with rewards for a job well done or the ones exhibiting the learned behaviors. Potential Challenges for Managers Management has its share of rewards and challenges. Managers are at a higher position in an organization where they can influence or lead change. Even though managers are at a more senior position where they can help an individual or a team reach its goal and perform at their best, they encounter challenges. Some of the difficulties faced include confronting an employee performance problem, team conflicts, responding to a crisis, and bringing out the best out of employees. Managers have to ensure that the business is running smoothly and in some situations, it might not be the case because of some of the employee performance (Drucker, 2012). The manager has to deal with the problem, and in most cases, it is a challenge for managers. Team conflict is something that arises in most organizations to add to the challenge to the organization's leadership. Managers want all their employees to collaborate and work as a team, but sometimes it might not be the case because of one reason or the other. When an employee reaches out to the manager to complain about another employee, it places the manager at an awkward position of arbitrating the dispute. Some of the disputes may necessitate firing another employee. The crisis may occur in business even when individual plans well. Planning is an essential part of management, but the manager's ability to change the plans to respond to the changing conditions is vital. A crisis is a management challenge that may be had to handle especially when the resources might not be enough to adopt a new plan. The crisis may become a source of stress for some managers who may not handle it thus adding to the decline of the business. Management entails monitoring employees and bringing out the best of them. It might be challenging to bring out the best of others when some of the situations might be out of the manager's control. It is therefore essential for managers to treat every employee with respect, help employees in assigning their goals as well as the work goals (Drucker, 2012). Being close to the employees means the manager can know each's strengths and weaknesses and can, therefore, bring out the best of them. There is also the challenge of dealing with outstanding employees. Outstanding employees present managers with a set of challenges because they may need special treatment to make them keep doing an exceptional job. It requires the manager to keep the other employees motivated without showing some signs of favoring any other individual. Effects of Detecting Organizational Gaps Detecting organizational gaps is essential for the progress of the business. Organization gap analysis is a process that an organization identifies the ways it can improve its performance to reach its full potential. Organizational gap analysis in small businesses is done as a whole since it does not have different departments. The analysis provides the underperforming areas in the business as well as the reasons for its underperformance. Having the results would allow the owner to develop ways to eliminate the gap and ensure that the business progresses (Fuller-Love, 2006). The reason for conducting an organizational gap analysis in small businesses is for bridging the divide that exists between the current state of business and its vision. There is also the revealing of the gaps in employees skills. The organization has a benchmark it uses to gauge the performance of an employee and the overall output. Moreover, the process may result in the identification of the best practices to increase employee performance. Management would develop a strategy to close the gap by bringing the employee's skills level up higher than the expectations of the organization. An example can be to find that an employee has some set of skills that could be useful in another area of the business. In the presented case for example that has a beauty salon, restaurant, and a night club, an employee could best suit a restaurant because of his organizational and timekeeping skills that are essential for ensuring that customers get their food in a timely and organized fashion. It would, therefore, allow management the opportunity to restructure its staff and place each staff at an area that suits him or her well. Competitive Training Strategy The present training profession signifies the new confidence that exists in the present business world where training managers are operating have resulted in the creation of opportunities for a significant new organizational contribution. The competitive demands of the current economy bring training and development center stage where most training and development departments would not have to justify its existence. Training and development departments are now considered as critical players in the creation and maintenance of a competitive strategy in the business (Sloman, 2017). Effective training strategy helps in the development of the necessary skills for team members as well as help new employees master the new procedures and contribute to the reinforcement of the existing protocols. The effective training strategy for small business should be based on the needs assessment of the business. Since managers know what the employees do well and the ones they do not do well then the training would focus on the areas that need improvement. Employee feedback is essential in the development of the training strategy since they know the areas that need improvement and are would be comfortable in them. The incorporated activities for the training programs should be tailored to the specific needs of each employee as well as the goals of the organization. Before enlisting the activities, employers have to be aware of the essential skills they would like their employees to improve. The activities would range from time management, team building, customer service, conflict resolution, influencing, and negotiation activities (Sloman, 2017). Such activities would provide a basis for checking the preparedness of employees as well as ensuring that they build some skills. Instructional strategies are techniques that a trainer uses to help employees become independent and strategic learners. The set policies become learning strategies where one selects the appropriate one to use as well as accomplish the set task or meet the set goal. Instructional strategies are essential as they contribute to the motivation of employees and help them focus on attention. It also contributes to the organization of information to ease understanding and remembrance. The use of the strategy is a return on investment for the organization since it plays a crucial role in increasing the understanding of each employee's abilities and interests that would then ensure that the organization benefits from the employee's output. Besides, the activities encourage an individual to take responsibility for the training program and ensure that they comprehend what the trainer passes on. Conclusion Admittedly, training and management development programs are presently accepted as means to improve the competitiveness of business and the economy. Training and development have in the recent past included the small business even though it operates in a complex environment where employees work closely, and small team communication is excellent. Some of the elements to consider are making a lasting impression, creating a learning and development strategy that everyone understands, and enabling a culture of continuous learning and development. Small businesses need to choose the best approach that would ensure that it meets its full potential. References Drucker, P. (2012). Management challenges for the 21st century. Routledge. Fuller-Love, N. (2006). Management development in small firms. International Journal of Management Reviews, 8(3), 175-190. Sloman, M. (2017). A handbook for training strategy. Routledge.