The Problem to be addressed at Realtek Industries while Choosing Appropriate Technologies

Choosing Appropriate Technologies 

Introduction

The next generation of corporate training practices and solutions will be highly driven by economic evolution, demographic changes, and the significant technology advancements. These factors have the potential of dramatically influencing the way people work, the way companies are organized as well as the way employee trainings are facilitated. Workplace and team diversity is progressively increasing as a result of globalization and significant demographic changes in the global business environment. A more diverse pool of talent provides new opportunities such as hiring workers who are underrepresented in the workforce of a particular country with the objective of gaining competitive advantage in the current globally competitive business environment. Moreover, technology advances have increased exponentially as employees adopt new gadgets and technology in their personal lives. As a result, employees will also expect similar tools and levels of empowerment in their professional lives. Therefore, they will judge their employers on the basis of their commitment to employee enablement and the company’s ability to quickly transition consumer technology to enterprise technology. Digitization has also facilitated integration of employee talent data. Techniques such as attribute matching as well as recommendation technologies can be applied in employee training to find and match employee profiles that meet business needs. Finally, increase in the market penetration of smartphones and tablet devices means that a significant proportion of the world’s population will have access to rich Web and application experiences from anywhere. A fictional scenario of Realtek Industries will be used to analyze its needs regarding learning technology solution suitable to its corporate training collaboration model.

The Problem to be addressed at Realtek Industries

The contemporary business world has become competitive with some organizations that are quick to mutate performing better than others. Successful organizations improve their performance by implementing effective training and development programs that are specific to their needs (Denton, 2000). As much as organizations train their employees, the cost of such training activities is considerably high. Therefore, there is need for organizations to effectively select the best learning technology solutions that will significantly empower their workforce. The learning technology selected should be cost effective with the highest possible expected returns. Effective training programs enable workers to improve their knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for delivering quality performance. Training programs should cover all areas such as technical, conceptual, and attitude with an objective of improving their competency at the workplace.

Realtek Industries has been relying on monthly face to face trainings, which have apparently not adequately met the needs of the organization. Face to face trainings take away employees from the workplace leading to losses. Trainings that take longer periods away from the workplace may not be the best for an organization that every minute at work counts. Moreover, content is not delivered in a customized manner as it is supply oriented hence cannot be customized in a way that is tailored to the specific needs of employees. Depending on the abilities and area of specialization of each employee, training should be made as specific as possible. There has been an increasing need for an effective learning technology solution that will ensure that the sales personnel are trained in a manner that facilitates collaboration among the individual employees. Collaboration among the employees and effective training technologies are considered important in improving the creative capacity of the workforce with a specific focus on increased access to electronic resources regarding products as well as finding answers to frequently asked questions. Therefore, the organization needs to enhance collaboration among the employees and augment their competency by enabling them access more resources regarding product designs and developments. Having a knowledgeable workforce gives the company an advantage over its competitors who might be more focused on more sales than information.

The organization can build a strategic capability in knowledge management by acquiring various components that include knowledge systems, networks, knowledge workers as well as effective training. Organizations can be successful if they encourage employees to be imaginative and look for new solutions through effective training programs that are technologically oriented (Denton, 2000). Such organizations need employees with specific skills in acquiring, reflecting and transferring knowledge to other parts of the organization. The skills necessary to acquire knowledge are dynamic and the employees require continuous training in order to maintain and enhance their existing set of skills.

Corporations are increasingly establishing strategic departments in the company. These departments will help develop the skills of employees and integrate them into strategic orientation of the corporation with a strong emphasis on leadership and improvement of work-related performance. Therefore, organizations have identified a number of strategic directions as drivers of effective strategic employee training programs. The strategic departments adopt an initiative driven approach where they focus on facilitating a corporate-wide initiative, business plan or even a project. The department is also charged with acting as a change management catalyst that helps to shape and complete a transitory process for the company such as embarking on new strategy or even company merger. It will also act as a leadership development agent to uphold new managers with new tools for leadership as well as strengthening corporate internal management in order to achieve optimal organizational performance. Being a business development instrument, the department will help the organization to explore and develop new business opportunities and induce employees with new synergy during the business development process. Existence of a strategic management department in the organization will ensure that there is effective maintenance of customer and supplier relationship management by focusing on integrating standards in the supply chain. Moreover, the strategic training department will be responsible for designing and implementing competency-based career development programs that will solely focus on the strategic objectives of the corporation and retaining employees through strategies that facilitate and advocate for life-long employee learning.

Demographic Information

There are various demographic factors that are important in implementing effective training programs to employees in an organization. Race, level of education, years of work experience, and gender are some of the additional demographic characteristics that may influence the effectiveness of learning technology solutions adopted by firms (Clark & Mayer, 2012). The concept of racial discrimination on the basis of socioeconomic stratification could be potentially extended to the realm of learning technology solutions therefore affecting the outcome of the training programs. Therefore, the organizations should circumvent any digital divide across all races by ensuring access to technology to all employees regardless of race. The level of education has a great potential of influencing the outcome of learning technology solutions in any given organization. Learning technology solutions cater effectively for employees who have a relatively high degree of academic and professional education as opposed to those with low level of academic and professional qualifications (Clark & Mayer, 2012). Years of work experience also affect the success of training programs in organizations because of the prior competencies developed as opposed to new employees who lack the basic expertise regarding workplace operations. Employees with prior work experience are likely to exhibit high levels of success as far as organization trainings are concerned. Finally, gender plays a significant role in the effectiveness of on the job training as males have a upper hand with regards to application of the training skills offered (Faherty, 2003). Therefore, demographic characteristics of training participants have a significant influence on the overall success of learning technology solutions in an organization.

Factors Considered Before Making Recommendations

The success of technology based training programs depends on various factors in an organization. Therefore, organizations need to assess the factors that are likely to affect the design, development and delivery of collaborative and effective training programs that will increase efficiency in the organization. The following are some of the factors that need to be considered prior recommending a suitable learning technology solution at Realtek Industries;

The knowledge economy

The world’s information age has considerably moved the basis of economic valuation from goods to intellectual assets, information, and the talent that develops them in organizations. It is, therefore, widely considered that intangible assets which largely consist of knowhow, unique intellectual property, and patent rights influence a significant proportion of the valuations of publicly traded companies. Currently, the economies consider talent as the most strategic asset and the people are considered as the major contributors of value. The trend has the potential of continuing into the future as leading organizations have codified efforts to tap into the talent and intellectual capital of employees as well as the customers, partners and the public at large with an objective of creating an extended economic community. For instance, such organizations have developed customer support portals that can answer each other’s questions, which significantly reduces the costs by eliminating the expensive customer support calls and the contact center. Some of the organizations have also established external ideation platforms to tap ideas from customers regarding improvement and development of products hence facilitating greater customer loyalty and engagement in the organization. Moreover, organizations are implementing programs aimed at connecting internal needs to external talent. The blurring of the line between the employees within the organization and those outside the organization has been a trend among leading organizations. Therefore, executives in leading companies are beginning to increasingly focus on talent management issues by recognizing that regardless of where the talent comes from, it is their only sustainable competitive advantage. 

Globalization

Currently, the economies of the world have become significantly integrated in all aspects of doing business. Globalization has enabled businesses to expand their operations to new countries and markets thereby increasing the diversity of their customer base as well as the workforce. Moreover, companies from emerging markets are presently moving aggressively beyond their borders. Despite the fact that global talent leaders are currently looking for newly available pools of talent, those in developed and mature economies are striving to jealously protect talent in their own backyard from global talent poaching. This is because many organizations from emerging markets are effectively competing for the rich global talent. Globalization has been characterized by low risks and significantly high rewards for the developed world until recently when the continued growth of companies from emerging markets began to change the scenario dramatically. The organizations from mature economies are currently competing on their home turf not only with the local established multinationals, but also with emerging multinationals from developing economies. As a way to offset the threat from posed by the increasing pressure on local talent, organizations have begun to work with policy makers to facilitate more open and fluid talent markets at home. The positive movement exhibited by the organizations and countries underscore the importance of effective policy decisions in creating a competitive talent environment (Denton, 2000). Therefore, business leaders may benefit from increased interaction with policy makers in terms of talent related legislation. Steady supply of local talent can help offset losses in offshore markets as organizations compete with an ever-growing list of companies from emerging markets.

Generational Geographies

It is observed that the established economies are skewing significantly older whereas the populations in developing economies remain relatively young. This creates a huge challenge for companies operating in developed countries. The multinationals therefore need to make arrangements to transfer talents from where they are abundance as well as making arrangements to relocate to where talent is available in the long term. Organizations therefore need to consider how to leverage talent in the developing world through technology, virtual presence, and the thoughtful reassessment of knowledge work processes.

Workplace Diversity

Different generations have different, work ethic, different levels of comfort with technology. Furthermore, various generations have unique preferences in how they create, consume and share workplace information. Therefore, each generation is likely to have been acculturated quite differently in terms of learning style and adaptation to change in the work environment (Unnithan, Chan, & Swatman, 2002). Women and multicultural workers have increasingly represented a greater percentage of the working population currently. This has provided many opportunities particularly in countries and the cultures where some groups have been in the past underrepresented in the working population. It is important to point out that greater diversity in innovation and process decision has a great potential to better outcomes in the long run. However, greater diversity can pose considerable challenges regarding team cohesion, short term performance, communications and organizational culture. With regard to the challenge of delayed senior retirements, organizations need to initiate effective strategies in terms of human resource and employee development practices on macro and micro levels to address such issues.

Technology Factors

The rate of technological development and adoption is growing on an exponential rate. Although the human resource professionals have an array of powerful tools and technologies to discover and manage talent, the employees will always have greater expectations about the tools they use to perform their jobs, create and maintain professional connections as well as rapidly finding the necessary information or expertise they require to do their jobs.

The internet has not only allowed employees to communicate, connect, and create communities but it has also changed the corporate business plans as well as the competitive landscape. To be precise, the internet has facilitated the creation of a new business model whereby it has led to the digitization of content and commerce leading to wholesale disintermediation of entire industries on a global scale (Faherty, 2003). Therefore, digitization has considerably transformed the consumption of media and the practices of commerce as well as transforming talent management practices in organizations. The apparent digitization of talent profiles and required talent attributes of employees are the fundamental elements of the transformation brought about by the internet (Clark, 2001). Telecommunication technology has also undergone exponential transformation in terms of hardware, storage and processing technologies. As such, employees can easily share information in the workplace hence leading to collaboration in the workforce. With the advances in cellular technology and the adoption of more recent standards in the developing economies, mobile has played a fundamental role in connecting many areas in the world through the internet. At current growth rates, it is estimated that mobile internet access has surpassed desk top internet access in organizations.

Learning Technology Solution Selected

E-learning Technology 

In order to meet the learning needs of Realtek Industries through technology solutions, E-learning is recommended as the best learning technology solution. This is because E-learning covers a wide set of applications and processes including computer based learning, web based learning, virtual classrooms and digital collaboration (Hall & LeCavalier, 2000). The technology solution recommended is effective because the employees at Realtek Industries are young and can swiftly adapt to new technology easily. E-learning content can be delivered to the trainee through various formats such as web based training courses, online documents, supplementary printed documents, multimedia presentations, and video, audio, virtual hands on labs, product simulations and animation and internet-enabled tutor led organization trainings. The training providers should satisfy the training needs with appropriate by clearly identifying the course tasks, objectives and the technology requirements of both the tutor and the trainees (Barron, 2002). The content of E-learning technology is timely hence appropriate because the current lifespan of information has been significantly shortened by the rapid progression in information and communication technology. Therefore, E-learning facilitates timeliness of the communication disseminated to the organization employees.

E-learning is efficient as relevant learning contents are available from the wide range of electronic resources regarding products. Therefore, the learners’ objectives can be met through supply of relevant information that best match the expectations and the specific needs of the particular learners. Therefore, E-learning technology leads to creation of new knowledge in the organization by integrating new information into the existing knowledge base. E-learning solution will enable the organization to continually improve the skills and competencies of the employees through interactive sessions that will facilitate collaboration among the employees in the course of training. 

Methods and Tools of E-learning Technology

E-learning uses a wide series of delivery methods that are essential in addressing the various specific training needs of an organization particularly Realtek Industries. In addition, E-learning uses various hardware and software tools to manage and deliver learning content as well as tracking learner progress, learner-to-learner communication and learner-to-instructor communication (Hall & LeCavalier, 2000). There are several delivery methods used in E-learning which include tutorials, web conferences, online forums, electronic mailing lists, virtual collaboration workspaces, blogs, simulations, goal-based scenarios, gaming, learning management systems and integrated learning systems.

Tutorials refer to self-paced training programs delivered online or from a CD-ROM. Tutorials may contain audio and video hence allowing learners to control the major aspects of the learning experience. They are capable of tracking progress through quizzes and competency assessments. Fundamentally, tutorials are modular in nature and can be accessed in sequence or out of sequence according to the specific needs of the learner. Web conferences are synchronous meetings in a virtual environment. They are usually centered around a website where visual and text information as well as video and audio is displayed to the participants. It allows interactions among the participants. Online forums allow learners to interact with each other and the instructor through threaded discussions by posting messages on specific subject areas. Electronic mailing lists allow members to send messages to other members of the same mailing list (Hall & LeCavalier, 2000). Virtual collaborative workspaces allow training participants of a group to share a virtual space on the web where they can store reference documents, add and edit documents, as well as tracking progress on a collaborative work effort. Blogs refer to journals on large personal or corporate websites that can assist learners to get access to the necessary information. 

Simulations are sessions where the learners are allowed to role-play in a scenario as a way to practice or test learning. Goal-based scenarios involve simulations where learners assume a major role in the pursuit of a well-defined mission or goal (Denton, 2000). The learners need to acquire particular skills and knowledge in order to achieve the goals. Gaming involves more complex simulations with formal rule which players engage in artificial conflict with both variable and quantifiable outcomes along with narratives that provide cues, context and relevance to the activities. Learning management systems are used in E-learning to typically register, track and deliver appropriate content to learners, reporting learner progress, assessing results and skill gaps and manage access by administrators. On the other hand, integrated learning systems are integrated with respect to a particular learning content and are not designed to handle learning objects from disparate sources. It typically includes hardware and curricular as well as lessons organized by level of competency.

Delivery Modes

E-learning is grouped into synchronous and asynchronous delivery modes. Synchronous learning occurs when the instructors and learners meet at a specific time in a virtual classroom through internet, satellite or phone link-ups. In the E-learning setting, synchronous learning occurs in broadcasted lectures, teleconferences, video conferences as well as webinars. The costs of such web conferences have reduced and the tools used have become user-friendly hence making the delivery mode one of the fastest growing segments of the E-learning market. On the other hand, asynchronous learning does not need to either occur at a specified time or linked to a specified learning event. They include self-paced applications that facilitate web-based and computer-based courses that learners use in sequence or out of sequence according to their specific needs. Moreover, facilitated asynchronous applications span from simple email dialogue to a comprehensive virtual learning environment where the instructor posts reading, video and audio content and assignments as well as monitoring student progress over time.

Conclusion

Corporations are tasked with the imperative to continuously retrain their staff as a way of improving their competitive advantage. Therefore, Realtek Industries should consider adopting learning technology solutions that will enhance the skills and competencies of its employees and eventually increase productivity. Continuous learning across the organization can be effectively facilitated by E-learning (Denton, 2000). Collaboration among the employees will also be made possible by using the wide array of methods and tools provided by E-learning technology.

References 

Barron, T., (2002). Evolving business models in E-learning . Retrieved from http://www.ebusinessforum.gr/old/content/downloads/EvolvBizModelsSum.pdf  

Clark, R. & Mayer, R. (2012). Scenario-based e-Learning: Evidence-Based guidelines for online workforce learning. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 

Clarke, T. (2001). Corporate developments and strategic alliances in E-learning . Retrieved from http://www.qou.edu/arabic/researchProgram/eLearningResearchs/corporateDevelopments.pdf

Denton, J. (2000). Organisational learning and effectiveness. Organization Studies-Berlin-European Group for Organizational Studies, 21 (3), 650-651.

Faherty, R. (2003). Corporate E-learning. Dublin Institute of Technology, School of Computing Research Paper (ITSM), DIT, Dublin, 8. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.139.356&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Hall, B., & LeCavalier, J. (2000). E-learning across the enterprise. E-learning, 1, 27-34.

Kindley, R. W. (2002). Scenario-based e-learning: A step beyond traditional e-learning. ASTD Magazine . Retrieved from http://www.astd.org

Unnithan, C.R., Chan, E. S. K. and Swatman, P.M.C. (2002). Applying external solutions to organisational development: eLearning as a platform for internal growth. Proceedings of the IFIP 13E , Lisbon, Portugal, 7-9 October.