Part 1The desire to provide highly responsive customer service is the impetus behind Customer service training at Southwest Airlines. The achievement of this goal depends on the company’s ability to identify a training technique that aligns with this strategy. In my view, the airline should internal personnel and resources for customer service training. The rationale for this option is that internal personnel have an in-depth understanding of the characteristics of the airline’s customers. Therefore, they can develop training material that will equip employees with skills to competently attend to the various customer characteristics. Additionally, since they know of the customer service strategy, they can alight training to this strategy (Kerzner, 2018). Second, the internal personnel training other co-workers has insights on the strengths and weaknesses of everyone hence they can tailor training to the unique need of the staff. Furthermore, this training technique is time and cost intensive.
Part 2
A strategic planning approach to training is crucial to ensure the successful development and implementation training. A strategic approach demands that training become part and parcel of the organization’s operations. As such, it becomes evident in all operations. The first hindrance to a strategic approach is resistance from employees. Training usually results in procedural, behavioral, and other forms of changes that employees must adhere to for the realization of training objectives. Once training is completed, and employees fail to adopt or employ what they learned training become ineffective (Griffin, 2014). Managers can overcome this by periodically evaluating the effectiveness of training to ensure effective evaluation. When the evaluation is periodic and random, employees are bound to actualize training hence it eventually becomes enshrined in the organization’s culture. Second, management lacks adequate resources, that is, time and finances to effectively integrate training and development as part of the business strategy. Training in many organizations is viewed as a subsidiary and optional activity hence resources are not set aside to meet training needs. Management can mitigate this by ensuring they set aside adequate resources to meet training needs. Management ought to aware that organizational performance is directly proportional to the skills and knowledge of their employee. Therefore, they must invest to develop their employee’s talent to enjoy increased productivity and performance.
- Griffin, R. (2014). Complete training evaluation: The comprehensive guide to measuring return on investment. Kogan Page Publishers.
- Kerzner, H. (2018). Project management best practices: Achieving global excellence (4th ed.). John Wiley Sons.
