Needs AssessmentNeeds assessment is the process of conducting an investigation or assessment to determine the current state of affairs of a certain aspect such as resources, abilities, knowledge, or interests. Once it is established what the current issues are, it becomes easier to forge a way forward in terms of what can or should be done to achieve certain set standards or objectives. By carrying out a needs assessment, it becomes possible to decide on the right training program necessary to achieve certain objectives; including the content and curriculum of the training. A needs assessment is done using focus groups, interviews, meetings, surveys and questionnaires. Once complete, it helps give a clear direction in the needs already being met, the ones not being addressed and the resources available at hand (Soriano, 2013).
For SunTrust, some need assessment questions that can be used to steer the needs assessment process are: Are employees giving satisfactory customer service to their clients? How committed are the employees to their work? How profitable is the organization and is it making any financial strides? These three questions address three areas of concern for SunTrust. That is, client satisfaction, profitability and growth as well as employees’ commitment to their work. Using these questions as guidelines, it will be easy to conduct an effective needs assessment that is beneficial to the organization.
Promoting Ethics: Ethical Leadership
One way of training ethical behavior at SunTrust is through mentoring and leading by example. The importance of an ethical culture in any organization cannot be overestimated. At Sun Tree, ethical behavior will help the management in strengthening their brand image and enhancing customer loyalty. Ethical leadership and mentorship is a very effective way of promoting ethical behavior in the organization. Managers and others in supervisory and leadership positions have a crucial role to play in implementing this culture. Leaders, as in any organization, act as role models to the employees. The employees are eager to practice what is done by then. Leaders are the ones who set the pace on what is acceptable in an organization and what is not. Therefore, when the leaders set an ethical pace, the rest are likely to embrace it (Bellingham, 2003).
Unethical behavior should be strongly frowned upon and discouraged by the management so as to set a good example. Rewards and penalties may be given to ethical and unethical behavior respectively so as to demonstrate the management’s commitment to ethical behavior. Fair treatment should be given to everyone without fear or favor by all the leaders. When the employees realize that unethical behavior is unacceptable among the management, they will have no choice but to practice an ethical culture. Even if they do so unwillingly at first, with time it will become the norm of the organization and part of its values.
Training evaluation
Any training program consumes energy, time and resources. It is also carried out with the hope that there will be a positive outcome from it. It becomes necessary to, therefore, evaluate how successful the training was. This way, SunTrust will decide whether such trainings are worthwhile in the future, whether the content is applicable or should be changed and other such decisions.
The Kirkpatrick model is the most feasible method of measuring the effectiveness of training programs. It involves four levels with level having its own set of questions that need to be answered in order to determine the success of a training program: 1)Reaction-did the participants find the training useful and to what extent; was it challenging, organized and well structured? 2) Learning- did the training make the participants change their skills, attitude and knowledge? 3) Behavior-did the employees change their behavior at the workplace? 4) Results-what measurable organizational benefits can be attributed to the training such as sales revenue, or productivity.
Another method is by conducting a financial analysis to see whether the financial position of the organization has improved. If the training goes well, then the profitability and growth of SunTrust is expected to go up. Any other result illustrate that the training was somewhat unsuccessful.
- Bellingham, R. (2003). Ethical leadership: Rebuilding trust in corporations. Amherst, Mass: HRD Press.
- Soriano, F. I. (2013). Conducting needs assessments: A multidisciplinary approach. New York: Macbeth Publishers.
