Introduction
The blacksmith café is one of the best small businesses in America today located in westheimer road, Houston in Texas State. The business deals in the sale of fast foods and coffee with coffee being the main product sold by the café. Being a small business located in the busy city of Houston, the blacksmith is capable of growing and performing better, however, it has various problems. For instance, the coffee and fast food shops have recorded inconsistence in performance records. Most clients are new and there are fewer returning customers every week. Also, there have been various cases of inappropriate behaviors among Workers. Essentially, to solve these problems that amount to poor sales, there is needed to train the management and the workers in the café.
Analysis
The significant issues in this case are the improvement of the performance of the Blacksmith café. The annual revenue for the business has drastically fallen from $4million to $900000 within the last three years. The continued making of losses by the company indicates little or no efforts to improve performance. In essence, there is also need to consider that the café has a total of 156 employees who make up 80% of the total workers present at the business two years ago ( Jump, 2019 ). The reduction was done by the management to cut cost of running the coffee shop and maximize on production. This strategy having failed there is lined to reexamine the needs and design new strategies aimed at developing skills for better productivity.
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Analysis Phase
The 156 workers include a cashier, two chefs, 139 attendants and 4 sales marketing officers. The leadership includes 10 supervisors and one manager. Essentially, the entire group of employees will undergo training to ensure there is improvement in their leadership skills. It is important to ensure that all individuals think like leaders in their individual roles ( Jump, 2019 ). There is also need to improve communication skills and make sure there is increased communication and team work among the workers and between workers and the leaders. There is also a significant necessity to create a record keeping culture among the team members to ensure there is a tracked record of performance and make sure changes are detectable. The learners will require training on professionalism by encouraging ethical behavior.
The approach in this training will include the use of the transformative theory that will focus on adjusting the attitude and behavior of the team. The use of andragogy theory is also important as the workers are adults and will require a pragmatic approach that favors application and involvement in evaluation ( Ningthoujam, 2017 ). However, it is important to realize that the learning constraints include limited time and difference in skill levels and cognitive abilities among the trainees.
Design
The program will focus on objectives such as developing individual goals by the team members as well as the desires of the management concerning the behavior and performance of the company. There is need to ensure that all workers develop skills in public relations by developing better skills in marketing and communication while enhancing workplace relationship ( Ningthoujam, 2017 ). Essentially, there will be the use of peer to peer evaluation with the help of the management to assess the abilities of the workers and determine their level of skills. The program will also utilize questionnaires before and during the training to learn skills required by the workers and assess progress of training. It is also significant to note the use of tests after the sessions to assess the impact of single sessions.
The members will be involved in learning exercises such as role play to apply the skills learned. A special emphasis will be laid on team work skills and communication to improve service delivery which will attract more customers. There will be a total of five lessons in a crash program running for a period of one week. These lessons will be held in the evening for thirty minutes after close of work to avoid further straining the performance. The program will also rely on social media such as whatsApp group and business website to deliver additional materials for learning such as visuals to individual portals.
Development
Considering the prominent use of eLearning as a way to follow up after work, there will be creation of employee portals on the website as well as an online class hosted in the site where group discussions take place through individual portals. The questions and materials provided will be divided in categories according to skills therefore developing different materials for attendants, marketers and management.
Implementation
The team will design will be implemented in three phases which include theory classes, application and follow-up. The facilitators will provide writing materials and questionnaires at the beginning of the classes. The lessons will involve question and answer sessions to ensure that both learners and facilitators work together. In essence, leaders will participate in application sessions playing roles of attendants while attendants also play the role of supervision.
Evaluation
The four levels of Kirkpatrick’s model will be used to assess the training. These levels include assessing reaction of trainees to the training after each session through a question session ( Ningthoujam, 2017 ). The learning process will be assessed through asking questions of previous classes before starting the next. The evaluation of behavior will be done during application exercises such as role play. The results will be assessed and rated through collection of sales records and peer to peer evaluation after one month.
Potential Challenges
In addressing the problems facing Blacksmith in Houston, the organization is likely to face various challenges. For instance, the attitude of the employees may differ where the employees view the training as a waste of time. While the organization is aiming at the increase in profits, the employees could be focusing on the individual benefits such as increment in salaries which indicates difference in goals. The current revenue is $900,000 while the expected performance is $ 6m yearly. Therefore, what stands between these two figures is poor turnout of customers and absence of customer satisfaction. Failure to address these gaps will cause a downward projector in profits and decrease in sales.
Effects of Detecting Organizational Gaps
Gap detection is crucial in enhancing the ability of a company to realize solution to creation of better production. In essence, gaps include the inadequacies that hinder performance. Additionally, gaps detection increases the accuracy in the development of strategies of organizations. These strategies are important in pointing out of plans that are efficient enough to create the desired change. The identification of gaps is the starting point in any implementation of a change plan a company. It therefore provides a tangible path to follow to correct the problems ( Ningthoujam, 2017 ). Also, the identification will create a clear understanding of the causes of failures in the past and hence help to avoid repetition of the failures thus ensuring that the poor performance does not require.
These facts are evidenced by the performance posted by the MaidPro Company that has continuously grown as opposed to the Blacksmith coffee shop. The Maidpro is a cleaning company that provides cleaning services for clients. The company has over the years bridged gaps in communication and customer service by creation of tools such as website that help to reach out to clients and respond to calls from any location. The focus is on the needs of the clients which have helped to gain more customers and retain old ones. These strategies can be linked to the company’s rise to yearly revenue of $175million with a total of 170 workers ( Gitman et al., 2018 ).
Competitive Training Strategy
The strategy for training will include incorporation of normal work routine as part of training activities. This move will ensure the addition of time for the workers to practice the skills learnt while still being productive. The instructional strategies used by the facilitators will include the use of technology in class. There will be the utilization of inquiry-based strategies and the management of behavior. Additionally, the inclusion of differentiation strategy in the program will be helpful ( Jeske et al., 2017 ). Also, there will be the incorporation of the visualization strategy by the facilitators in all sessions.
Agenda Activities
There will be a myriad of activities that will work together to achieve enhancement of learning process. The activities will be meant to achieve the goals of the program within one month which is a short time. One of the activities will be introduction to the session by the facilitators which will include the explanation of objectives. There will be the conducting of icebreaker activities between talks to reduce tension. Also, the program will have lectures conducted in the various conference rooms in the facility. The members will engage in practical lessons through role play and engage in questions and answer session before participating in discussion to review the points learnt in the session as part of the debriefing.
Rationale for Instructional Strategies
The technology instructional strategy will be achieved through creation of staff portals to engage employees in further learning. There will be the use of customer service software to monitor the number of customer served by the employees. Posing thought provoking questions will play an important role in inquiry based strategy. The learners will be divided into groups according to talents and skills to ensure allocating of tasks for differentiation. Behavior will be managed through setting of norms to guide contribution.
Return on Investment
Return on investment will include the inspiration of commitment among the employees as well as job satisfaction. These gains will ensure a higher sales rate and hence increase in revenue and profits. There will be development of professionalism which will lead to customer satisfaction.
Summary
The strategy of this program will involve the incorporation of learning into the daily work routine as well as the use of two theories in training. These approaches include the andragogy and transformative theories. The aim is to guarantee the improvement of service delivery and profit making.
References
Gitman, L. J., McDaniel, C., Shah, A., Reece, M., Koffel, L., Talsma, B., & Hyatt, J. C. (2018). Franchising: A Popular Trend. Introduction to Business .
Jeske, D., Stamov Roβnagel, C., & Strack, J. (2017). Training older workers: resource‐oriented strategies. International Journal of Training and Development , 21 (2), 167-176.
Jump, R. (2019). Understanding Local Produce Sourcing By Restaurateurs in Houston, Texas.
Ningthoujam, S. (2017). Training and Development: Theories and Applications. South Asian Journal of Management , 24 (4), 173-177.
