Training Program For Mitigating Corporate Issues: A Case Study Of Woolworths Supermarket Essay.

Every organization faces some challenges while operating its functions and gaining success. The organizations for mitigating these challenges establish some training programs which further help in the growth of the organization. Woolworth supermarket is Australia’s biggest grocery chain and it also faces some strategic issues during the run of its business (Mahlangu, 2022). The following report analyses one of those issues faced by Woolworth and the need for training or development for reducing the risk of that issue. A training program will also be suggested for this followed by the learning theories supporting that program. Lastly, some methods will also be discussed to evaluate the success of the suggested program.

In the recent marketplace, Woolworths is the largest chain of supermarkets in Australia with running over 1076 stores across Australia. Woolworths has around 115,000 employees working in its distribution centers, supermarket stores, and support offices. The organization is majorly engaged in selling groceries including fruits, vegetables, meat, and packaged food. The fruits, veggies, and meat sold by Woolworths are mostly bought directly from the farmers and growers and thus source fresh products for its customers. But in addition to these, other essential household products such as cosmetics, magazines, books, pet and baby food, and stationaries also can be found in the Woolworths. The organization aims to provide all the essentials to its customers in the simplest way of shopping. Thus, Woolworth provides online and offline facilities with many innovative ways to provide ease of shopping for the consumers. However, like every organization in the competitive market, Woolworths also faces some issues in its strategic environment (Woolworths, 2022). The slow consumer cycle and the lethargic growth of the company are recent issues faced by the organization. The reasons behind this issue can be the dramatic increase of new start-ups in the industry and the growth of its major competitors such as Big Bazar and Walmart. Employees and teams of the organization can be trained to manage these issues and reduce the negative impact of those issues on the growth of the organization (Attaran, Attaran, & Kirkland, 2019).

Training and development need for an organization is a constant process of accelerating new technologies and information within the organization and team which is ultimately required for the growth of the organization. In the transforming technological environment, training is needed for skills improvement, concept clarification, and knowledge enhancement about the emerging know-how. Training and development accentuate the performance of the team and employees with the help of an organized system of procedure within the company which concentrates on the tactics, expertise, and content needed to attain the goals of the organization. Effective training provided to employees contributes to enhancing their skills and knowledge which ultimately results in productivity improvement of the company that leads to its inclusive growth. Training is something by which an organization can examine its ability to reach the point of success in the future as compared to the present time (Sal & Raja, 2016). People can learn emerging technologies and new information regarding the adaptation of strategies to survive in the competitive environment and it can also rejuvenate their existing talent. New learnings through the training help in make them gain new skills while sharpening the existing ones, perform better, work more effectively and productively as well as be better leaders. The main reason behind providing training is to impose an impact on the employees that remains constant beyond the end of the training and also to keep the employees updated with the new happenings. Training can be presented as talent improvement for the team and employees (Golhar & Alex, 2017).

Training Needs

Woolworth is facing issues related to the slow growth of the organization and slow consumer cycle due to the emergence of new startups and improving the performance of competitors. Thus, in order to mitigate the risk of these issues on the success of the organization the company needs to organize a training program for certain reasons (Halawi & Haydar, 2018). Although there are many reasons for which Woolworth should focus its attention on the training need, three of them are discussed below.

Productivity Improvement

The success and growth of a company depend upon the performance of the employees working in it. An increase in productivity and reduction in cost are significant factors to be focused on for becoming acquainted with the competition in the market. Effective training can help increase the productivity of employees by communicating needed information and knowledge which can further improve sales of the Woolworths and increase the growth of the company as a result (Klasson, Zhang, & Kjellström, 2019).

Quality Up-gradation

Requirements of the customers keep on changing with the trends going on in the market. Customers now have become quality conscious and focus on products of good quality. For the satisfaction of the consumers, the quality of services and products must be constantly improved with the help of training given to the workers (Kabuye, Kato, Akugizibwe, & Bugambiro, 2019).

Update With Technology

In every department of any organization, technological adaptation is taking place as an essential component. Also, technology is improving and changing day by day with a level of improvement. Thus, workers in every department need to be trained with the new emerging technologies on a continuous basis. When the employees in Woolworths will be updated with the new procedures and methods, it will directly impact the performance and growth of the organization (Kumar, Engle, & Tucker, 2018).

Woolworth is making its place among the hearts of Australians for a long time and due to its innovative service methods and quality services, it is being popular across Australia. The company faces many challenges as well as gains opportunities while experiencing exciting growth. Technology is a dynamic means of reaching, communicating, and serving the potential customer base. It is also an essential element to make sure the internal process is running smoothly. Making an innovative strategy for managing and upgrading the technology is just as important as any other part of the business plan in the organization (Sahoo & Mishra, 2018).

Organizational analysis: Woolworths always adopt innovative ideas for the development of the organization as well as to attract customers. Recently the Q-Tracker tool has been launched by the company to prevent the customers’ waiting time spend in the ques while updating them about the nearest store and expected wait time due to social distancing. To enhance the growth of the organization and make the faster movement of the customers, the technology department should adopt new AI technologies such as robotic systems to guide a map inside the stores. This will help the customers to guide the things in the stores and contribute to saving their time. A training session will be organized for providing the knowledge to the employees regarding operating the new AI systems. Outdated hardware and software should be replaced with the new innovative technical options for performing various activities such as welcoming the customers as store, billing, contactless pick-up services, and many more (Mulang, 2015).

Productivity Improvement

Person analysis: The training for the learning programs regarding new technological innovations will be conducted by the skilled team of the technological department. New, as well as existing employees working under the technical department of Woolworths, will be involved in the training so that they can enhance their skills for the operation of new software and AI technologies. As the training is based on technological embracement, millennials and generation Z working in the organization would likely be more interested in learning the new technics. The operation department will play an active role as it is responsible for the quality control and management of production. The team of operation department can identify the need for having the right people having the right skills to perform any job. And since the department is accountable for managing and allocating finance in the organization it will be the key head for focusing on the quality and its relevance with employee training and development (Blume, Ford, Surface, & Olenick, 2019).

Task analysis: Some innovative training ideas such as extended reality (XR), augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) will be adapted for the training program as they can revolutionize eLearning. With the help of AR, training materials can be elevated while using graphics which benefit the new employees to have an immersive experience of learning. In contrast, VR will be useful in eliminating the gap between the actual application of technologies and their theoretical knowledge through outstanding features (Huerta, Unver, Arslan, Kus, & Allen, 2020).  

Source: (Author)

Adult learning theory and information processing theories have been used in the training program to make the employees learn about the use of innovative technological artificial intelligence in a form of a robotic map inside the stores. Adult learning theory emphasizes the fact that adults have their own unique way of learning new skills. While learning anything adults want to be involved in the planning and execution of the training program. As the training program is related to technology development and the target learners for this program are millennials and especially gen Z, they want to know what, when, and how they will be being taught. Their existing knowledge contributes to learning more effectively the new skills when they add the previously known factors to their learning. Distribution of information and memorizing some facts are not enough for the adequate learning of skills regards to adults. Thus, analytical reasoning and simulation have been used in the training program. Adults always want to implement what they have learned and thus augmented reality has been adopted to teach them while the training (Merriam, 2018). Information processing theory on the other hand is a perceptive theory that emphasizes the ways in which information is converted into the memory of the learner. The theory defines that the brain of the learner filters the information gained by the happenings of the present moment and stores them in the working or short-term memory to implement in the future by storing ultimately in long-term memory. Information processing theory is based on the principle that creating a long-term memory needs things to be done in stages. Firstly, something is perceived through the sensory memory by hearing, watching, or feeling to remember things for short periods, and then by practicing those again and again those things are stored in the brain permanently (Curum & Khedo, 2021). In the training program, methods of using the robotic map are described through the visual graphic presentation as well as through the oral representation. The Infographic appearance of the new technologies helps the learners to create iconic and realistic memories which help them to better memorize for a long time.

Quality Up-gradation

To ensure the successful evaluation of the training program a self-assessment questionnaire will be practiced. Evaluation will be beneficial to identify how effectively the employees were involved in the training and what improvement can be expected in their job performance. All the trainees will be asked to fill out the following survey questionnaire and the evaluation will be done according to the score obtained in the end (Doherty, Moorkens, Gaspari, & Castilho, 2018).

Conclusion 

In the end, it can be concluded that the slow consumer cycle and slow growth of Woolworth supermarket is a major issue recently faced by the organization. Adoption of new technologies can make the movement of customers more active and ultimately make the organization grow effectively. Using AI in the daily operations of the organization needs specific training as the new technologies demand a structured way of implementing the technologies. An effective training program can help boost the knowledge of employees in the organization about the use of new AI. As the millennials and gen Z are more attracted to technological development, adult learning theory and information processing theory have been adapted in making the outline of the training program. Further, the success and effectiveness of the program are suggested to be evaluated by the self-assessment survey questionnaire.

References

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Woolworths. (2022). Woolworths Supermarkets. Retrieved from WoolworthsGroup:

https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/our-brands/supermarkets/Woolworths