Question

Designing Effe RD Programs ctive OPENING CASE Rockwell Collins is a manufacturer of electroni contrals and commurications dervices n 2001, off from Rockwell International to become a putblithy traded compary, The compary was artered in Cedar Rapids, lowa, and employs over 20,000 employes wortdwide. Aporcan- ork in Cedar Rapids, with other large operations in Calforia, suboidares in Europe, Asia,South Amerca. ell Collins has a long-time commitment to employe training and developoment Urntl 198 mately 7,000 of these employees w Florida, Texas, and Mexico. Rockwell Collins also has and Africa, as well as service locations around the word though, all Rockwell Collins training was conducted via classrom instruction Twehe in-house rainers nrovided much of this training. One dificlty was that most of the empoyes who worked otide d Cedar Rapids had limited access to training In that same year,28 percert df hose ono siged t training within the company did not attend that training,citing work demands in a mairty d the cases as the reason for canceling. In an effort to provide more training to a greater number ct employes, he Learning and Development group at Rockvwell Colins considered making ieased se oie training vendors, as well as changing the types of methtos u todeliver tarning Questions: If you were m you start in your efforts to improve the availability and effectiveness of company-sponsored rain- ing efforts? What suggestions would you have concerning how trainingis designed and provide? Furthermore, what suggestions do you have conceming who shoud prvide the taining le, house trainers versus outside vendors)?7 Finaly, how would you seek t del" yurecommende- anager of leaming and development at Rockel oishe wod tions to top management? faces a mumberc

Consider the Rockwell Collins case study: complete the following: 1) a program objective, 2) Suggestions for program design, 3) Suggestions on delivery method for training, 4) Recommendations on who should deliver the training.

Answer 1

1) The Rockwell training program objectives would be continuous improvement of skills of its employees. The two major focus objectives of the program would be accessibility and availability of training i.e. all employees at multiple locations can participate in training (accessibility) and are able to attend these training (availability) balancing their work commitments.

2) We have following suggestions for program design:

• Identify training needs - It is important Rockwell recognizes the training requirements at each location and training programs are customized as per requirement at each location. For Ex - As HQ are at Cedar Rapids, employees working here may be well versed in organization policies. However, this may not be a case in say Mexico or California.
• Training method - Rockwell needs to add self-paced learning content to give employees the flexibility to attend and take training in their free time. Further, as an organization policy company can mandate 24 -48 hours of mandatory time in training.
• Establish Evaluation criteria - Though it is not discussed in the case, training evaluation is a very important step while designing an overall program. It is important to understand if training program delivered are effective and help in achieving organization's objectives.

3) Apart from the classroom led training, Rockwell should introduce self-paced training sessions through online content. This could be in the form of recorded classroom sessions or animated videos regarding specific training subject. This would help to resolve the problem of training not being available at all locations and massive cancellation (28%) by attendees. Further, for some specific sessions, Rockwell can fly in trainers to specific locations from Cedar Rapids.

4) The instructor for training depends on the type of training. If the training is on a general topic such as communication skills then Rockwell can consider having external trainers that are master in the subject or have online self-paced content that helps employees improve their communication skills. On the other hand, if training topic is something internal i.e. best practices at work etc. then it must be taken by senior employees at Rockwell. For other locations, recorded sessions can be played OR the instructor flies to other locations and delivers sessions.