Training And Development Workshop For ALDI: Learning Styles, Learning Curve, And Learning Theories

The content of the reference manual should include (i) a comparison of different learning styles (ii) the learning curve and the importance of learning transfer in the workplace (iii) importance of learning styles and theories when planning and designing a learning event

Human resource management (HRM) is defined as a business function that focuses on managing and supervising the human capital in an organisation. The human resource department of an enterprise is responsible for managing the requirement of human capital in an organisation by performing various activities such as recruitment, selection, training, compensation, job designing, the setting of goals, motivating and many others. Human resource development has defined the framework established by a corporation which helps employees in developing their skills, knowledge, and ability that result in increasing their productive performance. The human resource department fills the gap between employees skills and job requirement by providing them appropriate training which assists in the achievement of corporation’s objectives. This report will plan a training and development workshop for “ALDI” which assist them in providing appropriate training to their employees.

ALDI was founded in 1946 after the takeover of Essen by Karl and Theo Albrecht. The firm operates in more than 18 countries and provides its services through more than ten thousand stores. The ALDI group is divided into two separate businesses which include ALDI Sud and ALDI Nord. The company is known for offering low prices products throughout its chain which attracts more than 760,000 customers each year. The corporation generated revenue of £7.705 billion in 2015 financial year, and it reported a growth of 12 percent in sales (Atherton, 2016). The enterprise has more than 160,000 employees working across its stores worldwide. The corporation is continuously growing which require them to improve the productivity of their employees. This report will focus on designing a training and development model for ALDI in order to increase the performance of its employees. Further, the report will analyse the failure or success of the training event.

ALDI is required to adopt a learning style based on their employees’ skills requirements. The company should analyse the requirement of its employees before implementing a suitable learning style model. Following are different learning styles which are provided by Honey & Mumford that can be adopted by ALDI.

Learning Styles	Concept
Activists	This style focuses on involving employees in new experiences by continuously changing activities. The employees are move from one experience to another within a short period. In rapidly changing situations, employees face new challenges and responsibilities each time which makes them competent for adverse market situations (Scott, 2010).
Pragmatists	These employees are practical in nature, and they focus on capturing new opportunities. They prefer challenging situations and make decisions based on their confidence and experiences. The employees are easily adopted as per changing market situations, challenging environments, and tasks (Wilkinson, Boohan, and Stevenson, 2014).
Theorists	The theorist employees follow a specific learning style by prioritising tasks and theories before making any decisions. These employees are strictly rational and analytical while performing any business tasks. Their decisions are based on rational findings rather than personal experiences (Wichadee, 2011).
Reflectors	These employees did not take actions or search for new opportunities, instead, they sit back and analyse the situation by collecting the data. Their employees did not engage in conversations rather they listen and evaluate the data and findings. There are effective decision makers, but they lack the ability of efficiency which increases the time taken for decisions (Hamade and Artail, 2010).

ALDI can adopt these learning styles to provide appropriate training to their employees based on their characteristics which assist in increasing their productive performance. Along with individual learning styles, the corporation should also implement policies for organisational learning style which support and enhance employees’ performance.

Learning curve provides information about a person’s rate of growth while attaining new knowledge or skill. The graph shows continuous improvement of employees that is acquired based on new experiences (Anzanello and Fogliatto, 2011). Employees learning new skill or task by experiences and learning curve assist them in increasing the focus on the specific task that increases the effectiveness of the training and improves employees’ productivity. Employees’ learning curve is affected by the speed of their learning ability and the experience that they collect from the process. The companies can use learning curve to achieve their organisational goals. The information collected by the corporation from the employees’ learning curve can be utilising in developing a learning program which focuses on fulfilling the employees’ skills requirements. In case of ALDI, there are various issues that are necessary to be addressed by the employees that are caused due to rapidly changing market conditions and business trends.

Understanding Learning Curve and Significance of Learning Transfer in ALDI

There are various factors which influences an employee’s learning curve such skills required to perform a job, qualification, changing marketing requirements, experience, technology and many others. These factors negatively affect the learning curve of an employee, and they also negatively affect managerial, technical and business skills of a corporation (Plaza, Ngwenyama, and Rohlf, 2010). ALDI can provide continues assessment to address these issues and enhance their employees’ productivity. The knowledge provided to the employees is crucial in a business setting. In order to positively influencing the learning curve, sharing of required knowledge, skills and tactics are necessary. Learning transfer is a key part which assist employees in learning new skills and knowledge that has a positive impact on employees’ learning curve. Learning transfer assists employees in gaining the skills from trainers or other employees that assist them in improving their own performance. Effective learning transfer skills enable employees to learn in one context and implement such learning in another situation which improves their leadership skills. Therefore, ALDI should focus on sharing the necessary knowledge and skills rather than transferring them through communication channels.

Learning about rapidly changing marketing trends can assist ALDI in changing it strategies efficiently. The corporation can implement various learning theories that can assist in improving employees’ performance such as Honey & Mumford, Myer Briggs and Kolb’s theory (Gold et al., 2013). It is the responsibility of human resource department to decide which theory they will apply in the corporations, and they made this decision based on the fact that how quickly they want to upgrade employees’ skills based on changing market trends. Therefore, ALDI’s HR department should analyse the capabilities and expectations of their employees in order to decide which learning theory they want to adopt in the organisation. Before implementing a learning theory, the HR executives of ALDI should analyse and examine different theories. Effective learning event has a substantial impact on the achievement of organisational goals by improving the productive performance of employees (Akella, 2010). Therefore, HR department should clearly analyse the capability requirements before implementing an effective learning theory.

ALDI operates its functions from different departments, and all of them have separate training requirements. Following are primary departments in ALDI and their training requirements.

Administrative Division	Consumer Service Division	Operations Division
Managerial staff has learning requirement for skill, team building, decision making capability and team works. The managers have to improve their skills which assist them in increasing the efficiency of business operations. The employees are required both on-job and off-job training which assist them in encouraging employees to increase their productive performance (ALDI, 2018a).	Appropriate training is required for employees, so they are able to manage the customers’ queue effectively. Effective training will assist employees in minimising the waiting time span of customers. With effective training, employees will be able to provide expert solutions to consumers which improve their shopping experience (ALDI Careers, 2018a).	The operation level employees require training which assists them in effectively managing employees’ performance by reviewing their work. ALDI can provide training to its operations managers that assist them in reducing the cost of operations and increasing its efficiency which adds value to the products.

Merits and Drawbacks of Different Learning Styles

Training Methods	Advantages	Disadvantages
Coaching Method	Effective training enables employees to assess the gap between their skills and required knowledge which help them increase their performance (Kochanowski, Seifert and Yukl, 2010).	After assessing their gaps, employees may get discouraged by lack of competence (Passmore, 2010).
Performance Appraisal Method	In this process, trainers assess the performance of employees and provide the appropriate training in order to fill the gap in their competencies and increasing their performance. The training provided to employees is based on their competencies which assist them in increasing their productivity (Aggarwal and Thakur, 2013).	The report of trainer can be biased based on his/her preference which did not provide an accurate picture of the employees’ skills. The managers have to ensure that trainers are correctly assessing employees’ performance and their results are not based on favouritism (Obisi, 2011).
Workshops Training Method	Workshops can provide appropriate training to employees that assist them in increasing their productive performance (Basarab and Root, 2012).	Setting up a workshop can be considerably high based on learning material. The corporation might not receive the desired result after setting up the workshop which also increases their expenses (Dirani, 2012).

ALDI has implemented effective programs for managing the performance of their employees. The HR department maintains a positive relationship with employees and promotes their personal development. Following are the objectives of training and development program in ALDI:

• Assessing gaps in employees skills and knowledge
• Analysing different learning methods
• Formulating appropriate training method based on employees’ learning requirements
• Implementing the development program across the organisation
• Measuring the impact of the program on performance of employees
• Making appropriate changes to increase employees’ productivity

Importance of Learning Theories and Styles Regarding Development of Learning Event

Following is the design of training program which includes different sessions that will be conducted in the process.

Design of Training Programs	Criteria
Employee Option Program	This program focus on providing different training options to employees based on their requirements which assist in increasing their skills, knowledge and leadership competencies.
Expert Program	This program provides professional training to employees that result in increasing their skills. The program improves workers’ skills such as managerial, operational, and customer support management which increases their productivity.
Personal Development Program	ALDI can implement a personal development program for employees that include different levels of training in order to increase personal skills of workers in a period of one year.

Both on-job and off-job training will be given to employees in order to increase their skills and knowledge. The training and development program is implemented based on the requirement of employees which result in increasing their productive performance. Following is the table for implementation of a training program which assists in systematically evaluating the entire process.

Steps in Implementation of Training Program	Method
Assessing the Problems (Period- 1 day)	The first part of the training program is determining gaps in employees’ skills and knowledge. The program will also include new employees and interns since it results in establishing a positive working environment.
Q&A Session (Period- 2 day)	Trainers can use this program to assess the opinion of employees about the training workshop and gain knowledge about their issues relating to the organisational environment. This session also allows employees to gain appropriate knowledge about company’s training program and resolving their quarries. Trainers can provide solutions to employees for their problems which establish a positive relationship between them.
Analysing the Program Finding and evaluation (Period- 2 days)	This program will analyse the information collected by trainers from previous two programs, and they focus on evaluating such data.
Providing Solution (Period- 2 weeks)	Trainers provide the appropriate solutions to employees in order to address their problems.
Examination of the Problems (Period- 5 days)	Trainers further examine the solution provided by them for the issues of employees.
Solution Offering by Establishing a Q&A Session (Period- 3 days)	The HR executives provide appropriate solutions to employees by conducting a Q&A session which assists employees in understanding the problems.

Following evaluation form will be filled by 60 employees who participated in company’s training program.

Training Evaluation Form
Trainer’s Name:
Topic or session:
Criteria	Strongly Agree 4	Agree 3	Disagree 2
Training material was helpful
Training was relevant as per my needs
Duration of training period was sufficient
Training content was well organised
Questions were encouraged
Trainer’s instructions were understandable and clear
Training fulfil my expectations
Trainer’s skills and presentation was effective

The HR department of ALDI is required to analyse the result of the training workshop to evaluate its impact on employees’ performance. The evaluation assists HR executive in determining whether the training workshop succeed or failed in improving employees’ performance. Evaluation is a key part of the training process which ascertains its impact on employees’ performance and company’s profitability. Effective evaluation assist HR department in formulating appropriate policies that focuses on increasing employees’ productivity. The data collected from the evaluation also assist in formulation of training and development policies in the future which reduces the risks and increase the efficiency of the process. The ALDI can implement a five-tiered approach for evaluating the training workshop. The steps taken by HR department include requirement analysis, accountability measure, progress determining, collection of feedback and evaluation of program’s impact (Gret-Regamey et al., 2015).

In case of ALDI, the five-tiered approach suitable since HR executive can use it to collect feedback from trainers and employees which provide them different perspectives on the overall process. The feedback assists HR executives in understanding the opinion of trainers regarding employees’ performance and vice versa. The HR department should evaluate the impact of training and development program on management and employees to analyse it progress and examine how it has increased company’s efficiency. The HR department should also consider the response of customers to understand how training program has improved their shopping experience.

During the evaluation process, both quantitative and qualitative processes were used in order to collect employees’ feedback. The trainers evaluate the training event by collecting the feedback from employees, managers, and customers. Different opinions assist trainers in assessing the effectiveness of the training program.

In the training process, the feedback and data were collected from more than 60 employees who participated in the process. The trainers analysed the feedback of employees which was mostly positive, and they were satisfied by the training program that resulted in improving their knowledge and skills. The process dissatisfied a small number of employees but the majority was satisfied since it improved their overall performance. Positive response showed that the training and development program was a success which results in increasing employees’ productive performance and improving overall company’s efficiency.

In order to evaluate the training program, trainers analysed the response of customers who visited stores after complication of the training session. Trainers also conducted a survey on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to collect the feedback from customers. The response of customers was positive, and they were satisfied by the performance of trained employees. Customers provided that overall service of the corporations has improved after the implementation of the training program. Satisfied customers increase the number of loyal consumers which result in increasing company’s profitability.

Analysing Staff’s Learning Requirements at Different Levels

Managers’ Response

Trainers also evaluated the response of management which was positive. The managers find it easier to supervise the employees after completion of the training program since it resulted in increasing their skills. The managers also reported an improvement in employee engagement in business decision-making process after completion of training. Trainers provided that managers are satisfied because employees are more familiar with company’s policies and environment.

ALDI can implement different policies for examining the success of evaluation form and training program such as CITO model, ROI model, and KirkPatrick model. For ALDI, KirkPatrick model is more suitable than others. This model provides four levels of training evaluation that assist trainers in measuring the efficiency of their training program (Panchenko, 2013). The four models include different levels including result, reaction, learning, and behaviour. The model focuses on analysing the training practices conducted by the trainers during a training program. The reaction allows trainers to understand how well employees are able to understand the training program and how they are attaining the information (Grohmann and Kauffeld, 2013). The learning curve of employees focuses on measuring the improvement in their skills and knowledge after the completion of training program. The behaviour of employees during a training process is analysed by trainers to understand whether they are positively responding to the learning activities and how it has influenced their attitude after the training (AlYahya and Norsiah, 2013).

In case of ALDI, the reaction of employees was reported positive since they are satisfied by the trainer’s abilities and method of operating. The feedback from employees proves that they were able to understand the policies of the program clearly and it positively influenced their skills and knowledge. The learning curve of ALDI’s employees showed a positive growth since they were able to increase their performance after the training program. The behaviour of employees was positive during the training sessions which assisted in the smooth completion of the training process. Finally, as per the response collected by the customers and managers, the learning program showed a positive outcome. The customers were satisfied by the employees’ performance after the training session, and they submitted positive feedback. Managers also reported an increase in employees’ engagement and performance after the completion of training program. The employees were able to easily understand company’s policies and perform their task with higher efficiency. Therefore, it can be concluded that the training program in ALDI was a success which results in positively influencing employees, managers, and customers.

Merits and Drawbacks of Different Learning Styles

ALDI is a multinational corporation which operates in more than 18 countries. The company has significant operations in the United Kingdom since it is one of the most popular retaining chains in the country. In the United Kingdom, the government has introduced various programs and initiatives that provide appropriate training to employees in order to develop their skills and providing them lifelong learning support (Gov.UK, 2017). The programs mainly focus on improving digital skills of people that increases their employability. The government collaborates with companies that require digitally educated employees and provide them trained individuals (Aspin et al., 2012). The government also funds training and development programs for corporations such as ALDI, Tesco PLC, and ASDA. These corporations did not implement training and development programs for employees due to lack of capital. ALDI has shown substantial growth in UK’s retailing marketing, and it also provides employment to a large number of people. Therefore, the government of UK takes actions for improving the employees’ development of large corporations by providing them financial support (Ahlgren and Engel, 2011). The government also focuses on providing lifelong learning facilities to people that assist them in addressing the issues of rapidly changing market conditions by remaining employed.

The government of UK plays a significant role in proving lifelong learning facilities to ALDI’s employees since it assists in increasing nation’s economy. The government has to invest a large number of resource in improving the lifelong skills and knowledge of people by funding various training and development programs of organisations (Taylor and Cranton, 2012). In recent years, employees are considered as a crucial asset for corporations that assist in improving company’s performance and profitability. Effectively working employees can improve a company’s performance which has a positive impact on country’s economy (Titmus, 2014). Therefore, the government should monitor the training and development programs of corporations and also provide appropriate support to improve their employees’ skills and knowledge. Upgraded and efficient skills of employees are necessary for modern enterprise since it provides them a competitive advantage and allows them to transform their operations as per rapidly changing marketing requirements. The government’s investment in training and development program assists in increasing competition between companies which supports nation’s economy (Hoyrup et al., 2012). Therefore, the government plays a crucial role regarding development and funding of training and lifelong learning programs.

A person’s ability to effectively perform a specific task proves his/her competence. In the 1960s, competency movement was introduced by David McClelland which focused on improving employees’ qualities and skills, so they are able to produce quality products and transform as per changing market requirements (Chouhan and Srivastava, 2014). In public and private sector, companies focus on improving their employees’ knowledge and skills since it assists them providing high-quality products and easily transform their operations as per rapidly changing market requirements. Highly qualified and talented employees provide a competitive advantage to corporations because it is easier for them to transform their business structure and operations as per the changing market and customers’ requirements (Tripathi and Agrawal, 2014). Therefore, continued or lifelong learning programs are implemented by public and private corporations since it assists them improving the competency of the employees that result in proving them a competitive advantage.

Training Methods

The private sector corporations provide different learning and development options to their employees that focus on improving their competencies. For example, PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) is a UK based private company which offer its services worldwide. The company operates in the professional service industry, and it provides different services to its clients relating to research and consultancy (PwC, 2018c). The company requires highly talented and qualified employees with specific cognitive and analytical skills. The firm focuses on proving appropriate training to its employees in order to ensure that their skills are updated as per changing market requirements which provides the company a competitive advantage. The company takes personal responsibility for developing employees who dedicatedly work for more than five years in the organisation (PwC, 2018a). PwC’s Professional Development Program (PDP) also focuses on improving employees skills by strategically aligning their development with company’s objectives (PwC, 2018b).

Public corporations also implement training and development programs for enhancing their employees’ competency and skills. For example, BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) offers different training programs to its employees in key areas such as journalism, technology, and production through “BBC Academy” which result in increasing their efficiency and skills. The managers at BBC provide professional assistance to workers which result in increasing their effectiveness (BBC, 2018a). Effective training assists BBC’s employees in providing high-quality services as per changing marketing conditions which provide corporation a competitive advantage (BBC, 2018b). Therefore, both private and public firms are focusing on implementing effective training and development programs for their employees to increase their competency which helps them maintain a competitive position in the industry.

Contemporary training initiatives implemented by the government of UK assist corporations in providing appropriate training to their employees which result in increasing nation’s economy since the company operates with higher profitability. The government has implemented “Adult education” programs that assist working adults in gaining education that assist in their personal development. The Workers’ Education Association (WEA) is funded by the government which provides its services to employees of different organisations including ALDI (Soulsby, 2018). Many initiatives of UK government assists ALDI in improving their employees’ competency which results in increasing company’s market share and increases their contribution to the country’ economy. The government initiatives assist in establishing lifelong training programs for ALDI’s employees. The government evaluates company’s organisational structure and working environment to assess its shortcomings and deficiencies that can be resolved by the implementation of an appropriate training program. The government develops small and effective training sessions for improving the competency of employees that address various organisational issues (Fitzgerald and Hardy, 2010).

ALDI provide in-store and educational training to its employees that include various programs such as store management, retail assistance, assistance store managers, graduate training, area manager training and others (ALDI Careers, 2018b). The ALDI Centre for Education (ACE) conduct formal performance review each year that encourage employees to increase their lifelong education and skills (ALDI, 2018d). Due to their effective training programs, ALDI has increased its customers based on satisfying their requirements. With the assistance of lifelong training initiatives by the government of UK, ALDI is able to increase its market share in the international retailing markets, and it is able to provide high-quality service to more than 760,000 customers each year. ALDI South Group is responsible for providing in-depth practical training to company’s future leaders and managers which assist in increasing company’s efficiency (ALDI, 2018c).

As per ALDI’s corporate responsibility model, the company established more than 700 external training courses for its employees in 2015 (ALDI, 2018b). The firm also focuses on hiring fresh graduates and young people to provide them better learning facility and experience. The lifelong training initiatives play a significant role in ALDI’s growth in both UK and international markets. Due to training programs of the government, the company is able to provide a positive working environment to its employees that encourage them to improve their performance. High productive employees assist ALDI in transforming their operational structure based on rapidly changing market requirements that provide corporation a competitive advantage and sustain their development.

Conclusion

In conclusion, HR department can use different learning styles to increase the productive performance of employees which provides a competitive advantage to the company. Organisations adopt a learning style based on their employees’ development requirements. The learning curve of employees assist HR department in assessing their employees skills requirements and developing an appropriate training method. In order to develop a learning program, ALDI is required to analyse the problems of different divisions and formulate a plan to address such issues. Evaluation of a learning program is a crucial step which assists HR department in determining the impact of training and development program. The evaluation can be conducted by collecting feedback from employees, management, and customers. In case of ALDI, the corporation’s training and development program was successful and employees provided a positive feedback which resulted in increasing their productivity. In the United Kingdom, the government has introduced different lifelong learning initiatives that focus on improving the competency of employees. Both public and private corporations implement training and development program for their employees to increase their competency. The efforts of the government are beneficial for ALDI since it increases their employees’ skills and knowledge which provide a competitive advantage and sustain their future growth.

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