Question

Design a communication training programme that includes the following: 1. Provide a purpose statement ( 5 marks), 2. Formulate five (5) learning outcomes ( 5 marks). 3 Who is the programme design for? what is learner profile> what are the prerequisite to enroll ( 5 marks)

Which approaches will be used in sequencing of the content? 5( Marks) Which key content topics will be covered? briefly discuss eah topic (5 marks). Who will carry out the training? What skills are required by the facilitator ( 5 marks)

Answer 1

The course provides communication skills training for individuals wishing to develop their interpersonal skills and build rapport with others in the workplace. The training covers effective communication strategies to enhance understanding and verbal communication with others.

Developing successful communication skills is key to both personal and business areas of anyone’s life. Acquiring these skills in personal life aids people on all levels, including relationships with family, friends and acquaintances. Using proficient communication skills in business alleviates disagreements between co-workers, supervisors and customers. Designing a strong communication skills training program proves profitable in the long run because it appeals to a large audience.

Employee engagement and satisfaction surveys consistently report poor communications as a leading cause of employee disenchantment. The lack of quality communication is also a major reason for project failure. If your training program is a key component of an organizational change or improvement initiative, getting the communications right will save you a lot of heartache further down the track.

A large program will involve multiple stakeholders over a considerable period of time. People who need to be involved may span departments, buildings, provinces or even countries. The duration of your program may be many weeks, months or even years. Planning for the what, where, who, when and why of your communications up front will achieve two key objectives. Communicating effectively will:

1. keep the relevant people informed at appropriate times of the key information that they will use to further the aims of the program, and

2. keep people onside during difficult periods by conveying the feeling that you are considering their interests

An all too common example of communications neglect occurs when human resources or training personnel invite employees to a training program without a prior discussion about why their attendance is required. In these cases, neither the employee's manager nor the trainer nor anyone else engages the employee in a dialogue about the upcoming program. The employee turns up to the session already frustrated and disenchanted. This is a sure-fire way to guarantee the program's failure.

Engaging Stakeholders

Our PRACTICE Approach™ to creating high impact training programs shines a spotlight on a number of communications that need to be disseminated throughout the life of your program. Information that will require distribution includes:

• changes in policies, processes and procedures and the location of the relevant documents
• new and modified employee' roles and responsibilities and the location of relevant documents
• training course objectives and schedule
• purpose, instructions for use and location of on-the-job aids
• availability and contact details of on-the-job coaches
• expected organizational outcomes and performance targets
• performance results
• formal and informal employee performance feedback
• availability and description of employee incentives

As the program coordinator, organize communications so that all program information is disseminated from a central point. If you are to avoid harmful communication gaps, your first step is to construct a communication plan. The plan that you construct during the early stages of your program design will help you structure your thinking, ensuring that you do not leave out any important communications. It will also serve to guide you in your communications throughout your project.

To construct your plan, think about the various stakeholders and their communication requirements. Stakeholders will typically include:

• instructional designers
• trainers and facilitators
• training participants
• participants' supervisors and managers
• administration staff
• external vendors and consultants
• program sponsors
• the executive

Ask each stakeholder or stakeholder representative what information they need during each phase of your program. Distinguish between "needs" and "wants". Satisfying all wants may make you a lot of friends; however, this could also stretch your budget to breaking point. Going over budget or failing to deliver on promises will, in the end, lose you valuable support for next time. Ask stakeholders how they would prefer to receive this information. The transmission modes available to you will depend on the facilities available in your organization. Your options may include:

• telephone
• email
• SMS (Short Message Service)
• MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service)
• Instant Messaging (IM)
• intranet
• teleconference
• web conference
• face-to-face meeting
• cloud-based meeting (such as Google Hangouts)
• newsletter
• bulletin board

The transmission mode you use will also depend upon what a particular stakeholder needs to do with the information. Is the information for interest only, or is it to be used as the basis for discussion or decision? If it is the latter, one-way modes of communication, such as email, SMS and intranet, are poorly suited. Methods that allow questioning and clarification are a better choice here. These methods include teleconference and face-to-face meetings.

Creating a Program Communication Plan Template

Some stakeholders may require different information at different times or in different phases of the program. Some stakeholders may require information at the beginning or at the end of a project phase. Others may require regular updates; weekly or monthly for example. To save time and effort, try to standardize on a format for a particular kind of communication.

For example, if you are sending out status reports or schedules, create a proforma document using your word processor or spreadsheet software or email client that you can reuse by simply putting in the new data. Once you have collected all of the information you require for your Program Communication Plan, organize the information in your plan into a table. Figure 1 below illustrates an example of how you could categorize the information.

Employee engagement and satisfaction surveys consistently report poor communications as a leading cause of employee disenchantment. The lack of quality communication is also a major reason for project failure. If your training program is a key component of an organizational change or improvement initiative, getting the communications right will save you a lot of heartache further down the track.

A large program will involve multiple stakeholders over a considerable period of time. People who need to be involved may span departments, buildings, provinces or even countries. The duration of your program may be many weeks, months or even years. Planning for the what, where, who, when and why of your communications up front will achieve two key objectives. Communicating effectively will:

1. keep the relevant people informed at appropriate times of the key information that they will use to further the aims of the program, and

2. keep people onside during difficult periods by conveying the feeling that you are considering their interests

An all too common example of communications neglect occurs when human resources or training personnel invite employees to a training program without a prior discussion about why their attendance is required. In these cases, neither the employee's manager nor the trainer nor anyone else engages the employee in a dialogue about the upcoming program. The employee turns up to the session already frustrated and disenchanted. This is a sure-fire way to guarantee the program's failure.

Engaging Stakeholders

Our PRACTICE Approach™ to creating high impact training programs shines a spotlight on a number of communications that need to be disseminated throughout the life of your program. Information that will require distribution includes:

• changes in policies, processes and procedures and the location of the relevant documents
• new and modified employee' roles and responsibilities and the location of relevant documents
• training course objectives and schedule
• purpose, instructions for use and location of on-the-job aids
• availability and contact details of on-the-job coaches
• expected organizational outcomes and performance targets
• performance results
• formal and informal employee performance feedback
• availability and description of employee incentives

As the program coordinator, organize communications so that all program information is disseminated from a central point. If you are to avoid harmful communication gaps, your first step is to construct a communication plan. The plan that you construct during the early stages of your program design will help you structure your thinking, ensuring that you do not leave out any important communications. It will also serve to guide you in your communications throughout your project.

To construct your plan, think about the various stakeholders and their communication requirements. Stakeholders will typically include:

• instructional designers
• trainers and facilitators
• training participants
• participants' supervisors and managers
• administration staff
• external vendors and consultants
• program sponsors
• the executive

Ask each stakeholder or stakeholder representative what information they need during each phase of your program. Distinguish between "needs" and "wants". Satisfying all wants may make you a lot of friends; however, this could also stretch your budget to breaking point. Going over budget or failing to deliver on promises will, in the end, lose you valuable support for next time. Ask stakeholders how they would prefer to receive this information. The transmission modes available to you will depend on the facilities available in your organization. Your options may include:

• telephone
• email
• SMS (Short Message Service)
• MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service)
• Instant Messaging (IM)
• intranet
• teleconference
• web conference
• face-to-face meeting
• cloud-based meeting (such as Google Hangouts)
• newsletter
• bulletin board

The transmission mode you use will also depend upon what a particular stakeholder needs to do with the information. Is the information for interest only, or is it to be used as the basis for discussion or decision? If it is the latter, one-way modes of communication, such as email, SMS and intranet, are poorly suited. Methods that allow questioning and clarification are a better choice here. These methods include teleconference and face-to-face meetings.

Creating a Program Communication Plan Template

Some stakeholders may require different information at different times or in different phases of the program. Some stakeholders may require information at the beginning or at the end of a project phase. Others may require regular updates; weekly or monthly for example. To save time and effort, try to standardize on a format for a particular kind of communication.

For example, if you are sending out status reports or schedules, create a proforma document using your word processor or spreadsheet software or email client that you can reuse by simply putting in the new data. Once you have collected all of the information you require for your Program Communication Plan, organize the information in your plan into a table. Figure 1 below illustrates an example of how you could categorize the information.

The purpose of communication skills training is to improve the ability to inform and persuade. ... Our range of communication training courses and workshops enhance verbal and written communication skills, improving the quality and effectiveness of business communication.

• Leadership Development
• High Potential People Programmes
• Graduate Development
• Management Development
• Personal Development

• There are several benefits executives and employees can get from enrolling in communication training programs such as:

  Increases Self Awareness
  One of the rewards of undergoing communication skills training is that it would make you become more aware of the areas that you can improve on, aside from the areas where you are already capable of. By taking part in this kind of training, you will be able to assess whether you are good at business writing, or if you need to brush up on your presentation skills.

  Most training programs have a part wherein participants are asked to do a self-assessment test. This is often done during the beginning of the training. It is one way for you to become more aware of your strengths and weaknesses as a communicator.

  Also, discussing the course objectives will result to more insight into how others perceive you. Moreover, you will get feedback from your fellow participants during training that would give you an idea on which areas of communication you are already good at, and which areas you should be improving on.

  Improves Skills
  Obviously, employees and executives alike are enrolled at communication training programs to improve their communication skills. When you improve your communication skills, you are also increasing your value as a professional. It can also enhance your technical skills, and make you a more important part of the institution especially when it comes to addressing employees or overseeing a crisis communication campaign.

  There are not the only skills you will improve on when you participate in a communication training workshop. You’ll also learn non-technical skills like how you express yourself and how listen to others when you take part in a communication training program.

  For one, you will be able to improve your listening skills. Listening not only pertains to hearing the messages of the people around you, but also remembering them and picking out the exact meaning. You will also be able to explain your ideas better, turning mental images in your head into language.

  Learn How to Deal With Difficult Behavior
  One of the challenges of being a manager or business communicator is handling difficult people and behavior. After all, not everyone in the office has the same mindset and receptive behavior. Most professionals may take a criticism well, but there are others who wouldn’t tolerate it at all.

  There are communication training programs that tackle difficult behavior management as a topic. Here, participants will learn the various causes of difficult behavior, and practical ways of managing people who have such attitude. Related skills like listening, motivating, and influencing will also be taught to those who participate in communication training programs.

  Improve Relationships
  Taking part in a communication training workshop should be beneficial to you as you will improve the relationships you have with the people around you in the office. This is possible if you apply the principles that you learned from the training.

  Being a participant of a communication training workshop, you will likely examine how various people communicate. Eventually you will notice that people have their own styles and preferences.

  For example, you may be indirect and subtle in how you communicate with your subordinate while an underling may be more straightforward and direct to the point. There will be misunderstandings due to the difference in personalities and communication styles.

  As you will learn from being part of a communication training class, exploring creative solutions may be needed so that there will be less misunderstandings.

  An effective training program is built by following a systematic, step-by step process. Training initiatives that stand alone (one-off events) often fail to meet organizational objectives and participant expectations. In today’s post we outline the five necessary steps to creating effective training programs that drive positive business impact.

• Assess training needs:

  The first step in developing a training program is to identify and assess needs. Employee training needs may already be established in the organization’s strategic, human resources or individual development plans. If you’re building the training program from scratch (without predetermined objectives) you’ll need to conduct training needs assessments.

• Set organizational training objectives:

  The training needs assessments (organizational, task & individual) will identify any gaps in your current training initiatives and employee skill sets. These gaps should be analyzed and prioritized and turned into the organization’s training objectives. The ultimate goal is to bridge the gap between current and desired performance through the development of a training program. At the employee level, the training should match the areas of improvement discovered through 360 degree evaluations.

• Create training action plan:

  The next step is to create a comprehensive action plan that includes learning theories, instructional design, content, materials and any other training elements. Resources and training delivery methods should also be detailed. While developing the program, the level of training and participants’ learning styles need to also be considered. Many companies pilot their initiatives and gather feedback to make adjustments before launching the program company-wide.

• Implement training initiatives:

  The implementation phase is where the training program comes to life. Organizations need to decide whether training will be delivered in-house or externally coordinated. Program implementation includes the scheduling of training activities and organization of any related resources (facilities, equipment, etc.). The training program is then officially launched, promoted and conducted. During training, participant progress should be monitored to ensure that the program is effective.

• Evaluate & revise training:

  As mentioned in the last segment, the training program should be continually monitored. At the end, the entire program should be evaluated to determine if it was successful and met training objectives. Feedback should be obtained from all stakeholders to determine program and instructor effectiveness and also knowledge or skill acquisition. Analyzing this feedback will allow the organization to identify any weaknesses in the program. At this point, the training program or action plan can be revised if objectives or expectations are not being met.

The considerations for developing a training program are as follows:

1. Needs assessment and learning objectives. This part of the framework development asks you to consider what kind of training is needed in your organization. Once you have determined the training needed, you can set learning objectives to measure at the end of the training.
2. Consideration of learning styles. Making sure to teach to a variety of learning styles is important to development of training programs.
3. Delivery mode. What is the best way to get your message across? Is web-based training more appropriate, or should mentoring be used? Can vestibule training be used for a portion of the training while job shadowing be used for some of the training, too? Most training programs will include a variety of delivery methods.
4. Budget. How much money do you have to spend on this training?
5. Delivery style. Will the training be self-paced or instructor led? What kinds of discussions and interactivity can be developed in conjunction with this training?
6. Audience. Who will be part of this training? Do you have a mix of roles, such as accounting people and marketing people? What are the job responsibilities of these individuals, and how can you make the training relevant to their individual jobs?
7. Content. What needs to be taught? How will you sequence the information?
8. Timelines. How long will it take to develop the training? Is there a deadline for training to be completed?
9. Communication. How will employees know the training is available to them?
10. Measuring effectiveness of training. How will you know if your training worked? What ways will you use to measure this?

Human Resource Recall

Can you think of a time where you received training, but the facilitator did not connect with the audience? Does that ever happen in any of your classes (of course not this one, though)?

Needs Assessment

The first step in developing a training program is to determine what the organization needs in terms of training. There are three levels of training needs assessment: organizational assessment, occupational (task) assessment, and individual assessment:

1. Organizational assessment. In this type of needs assessment, we can determine the skills, knowledge, and abilities a company needs to meet its strategic objectives. This type of assessment considers things such as changing demographics and technological trends. Overall, this type of assessment looks at how the organization as a whole can handle its weaknesses while promoting strengths.
2. Occupational (task) assessment. This type of assessment looks at the specific tasks, skills knowledge, and abilities required to do jobs within the organization.
3. Individual assessment. An individual assessment looks at the performance of an individual employee and determines what training should be accomplished for that individual.

We can apply each of these to our training plan. First, to perform an organizational assessment, we can look at future trends and our overall company’s strategic plan to determine training needs. We can also see how jobs and industries are changing, and knowing this, we can better determine the occupational and individual assessments.

Researching training needs can be done through a variety of ways. One option is to use an online tool such as SurveyMonkey to poll employees on what types of training they would like to see offered.

As you review performance evaluations turned in by your managers, you may see a pattern developing showing that employees are not meeting expectations. As a result, this may provide data as to where your training is lacking.

There are also types of training that will likely be required for a job, such as technical training, safety training, quality training, and professional training. Each of these should be viewed as separate training programs, requiring an individual framework for each type of training. For example, an employee orientation framework will look entirely different from an in-house technical training framework.

Training must be tied to job expectations. Any and all training developed should transfer directly to the skills of that particular employee. Reviewing the HR strategic plan and various job analyses may help you see what kind of training should be developed for specific job titles in your organization.

Learning Objectives

After you have determined what type of training should occur, learning objectives for the training should be set. A learning objective is what you want the learner to be able to do, explain, or demonstrate at the end of the training period. Good learning objectives are performance based and clear, and the end result of the learning objective can be observable or measured in some way. Examples of learning objectives might include the following:

1. Be able to explain the company policy on sexual harassment and give examples of sexual harassment.
2. Be able to show the proper way to take a customer’s order.
3. Perform a variety of customer needs analyses using company software.
4. Understand and utilize the new expense-tracking software.
5. Explain the safety procedure in handling chemicals.
6. Be able to explain the types of communication styles and strategies to effectively deal with each style.
7. Demonstrate ethics when handling customer complaints.
8. Be able to effectively delegate to employees.

Once we have set our learning objectives, we can utilize information on learning styles to then determine the best delivery mode for our training.

Learning Styles

Understanding learning styles is an important component to any training program. For our purposes, we will utilize a widely accepted learning style model. Recent research has shown that classifying people into learning styles may not be the best way to determine a style, and most people have a different style depending on the information being taught. In a study by Pashler et al.,Harold Pashler, Mark McDaniel, Doug Rohrer, and Robert Bjork, “Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence,” Psychological Science in the Public Interest 9, no. 3 (2008): 109–19, accessed February 26, 2011, http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/pspi/PSPI_9_3.pdf. the authors look at aptitude and personality as key traits when learning, as opposed to classifying people into categories of learning styles. Bearing this in mind, we will address a common approach to learning styles next.

An effective trainer tries to develop training to meet the three different learning styles:“What’s YOUR Learning Style?” adapted from Instructor Magazine, University of South Dakota, August 1989, accessed July 28, 2010, http://people.usd.edu/~bwjames/tut/learning-style/.

1. Visual learner. A visual learner usually has a clear “picture” of an experience. A visual learner often says things such as “I can see what you are saying” or “This looks good.” A visual learner is best reached using graphics, pictures, and figures.
2. Auditory learner. An auditory learner learns by sound. An auditory learner might say, “If I hear you right” or “What do you hear about this situation?” The auditory learner will learn by listening to a lecture or to someone explaining how to do something.
3. Kinesthetic learner. A kinesthetic learner learns by developing feelings toward an experience. These types of learners tend to learn by doing rather than listening or seeing someone else do it. This type of learner will often say things such as “This feels right.”

Most individuals use more than one type of learning style, depending on what kinds of information they are processing. For example, in class you might be a visual learner, but when learning how to change a tire, you might be a kinesthetic learner.

Delivery Mode

Depending on the type of training that needs to be delivered, you will likely choose a different mode to deliver the training. An orientation might lend itself best to vestibule training, while sexual harassment training may be better for web-based training. When choosing a delivery mode, it is important to consider the audience and budget constrictions.

Budget

How much money do you think the training will cost? The type of training performed will depend greatly on the budget. If you decide that web-based training is the right delivery mode, but you don’t have the budget to pay the user fee for the platform, this wouldn’t be the best option. Besides the actual cost of training, another cost consideration is people’s time. If employees are in training for two hours, what is the cost to the organization while they are not able to perform their job? A spreadsheet should be developed that lists the actual cost for materials, snacks, and other direct costs, but also the indirect costs, such as people’s time.

Delivery Style

Taking into consideration the delivery method, what is the best style to deliver this training? It’s also important to keep in mind that most people don’t learn through “death by PowerPoint”; they learn in a variety of ways, such as auditory, kinesthetic, or visual. Considering this, what kinds of ice breakers, breakout discussions, and activities can you incorporate to make the training as interactive as possible? Role plays and other games can make the training fun for employees. Many trainers implement online videos, podcasts, and other interactive media in their training sessions. This ensures different learning styles are met and also makes the training more interesting.

Audience

Considering your audience is an important aspect to training. How long have they been with the organization, or are they new employees? What departments do they work in? Knowing the answers to these questions can help you develop a relevant delivery style that makes for better training. For example, if you know that all the people attending the training are from the accounting department, examples you provide in the training can be focused on this type of job. If you have a mixed group, examples and discussions can touch on a variety of disciplines.

Content Development

The content you want to deliver is perhaps one of the most important parts in training and one of the most time-consuming to develop. Development of learning objectives or those things you want your learners to know after the training makes for a more focused training. Think of learning objectives as goals—what should someone know after completing this training? Here are some sample learning objectives:

1. Be able to define and explain the handling of hazardous materials in the workplace.
2. Be able to utilize the team decision process model.
3. Understand the definition of sexual harassment and be able to recognize sexual harassment in the workplace.
4. Understand and be able to explain the company policies and structure.

After you have developed the objectives and goals, you can begin to develop the content of the training. Consideration of the learning methods you will use, such as discussion and role playing, will be outlined in your content area.

Development of content usually requires a development of learning objectives and then a brief outline of the major topics you wish to cover. With that outline, you can “fill in” the major topics with information. Based on this information, you can develop modules or PowerPoint slides, activities, discussion questions, and other learning techniques.

Timelines

For some types of training, time lines may be required to ensure the training has been done. This is often the case for safety training; usually the training should be done before the employee starts. In other words, in what time frame should an employee complete the training?

Another consideration regarding time lines is how much time you think you need to give the training. Perhaps one hour will be enough, but sometimes, training may take a day or even a week. After you have developed your training content, you will likely have a good idea as to how long it will take to deliver it. Consider the fact that most people do not have a lot of time for training and keep the training time realistic and concise.

From a long-term approach, it may not be cost effective to offer an orientation each time someone new is hired. One consideration might be to offer orientation training once per month so that all employees hired within that month are trained at the same time.

Development of a dependable schedule for training might be ideal, as in the following example:

1. Orientation is offered on the first Thursday of every month.
2. The second and third Tuesday will consist of vestibule training on management skills and communication.
3. Twice yearly, in August and March, safety and sexual harassment training will be given to meet the legal company requirements.

Developing a dependable training schedule allows for better communication to your staff, results in fewer communication issues surrounding training, and allows all employees to plan ahead to attend training.

Communication

Once you have developed your training, your next consideration is how you will communicate the available training to employees. In a situation such as an orientation, you will need to communicate to managers, staff, and anyone involved in the training the timing and confirm that it fits within their schedule. If it is an informal training, such as a brown bag lunch on 401(k) plans, this might involve determining the days and times that most people are in the office and might be able to participate. Because employees use Mondays and Fridays, respectively, to catch up and finish up work for the week, these days tend to be the worst for training.

Measuring Effectiveness

After we have completed the training, we want to make sure our training objectives were met. One model to measure effectiveness of training is the Kirkpatrick model,Donald Kirkpatrick, Evaluating Training Programs, 3rd ed. (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2006). developed in the 1950s. His model has four levels:

1. Reaction: How did the participants react to the training program?
2. Learning: To what extent did participants improve knowledge and skills?
3. Behavior: Did behavior change as a result of the training?
4. Results: What benefits to the organization resulted from the training?

5. Types of employee training programs

   Before you pick a training program, consider your options. Different training programs address varying needs, budgets and desirable outcomes. Here’s an overview of training program types to help you choose the most suitable one.

   Internal vs. Outsourced

   Decide whether you want to design internal training programs, or hire a professional company to help train your employees. There are benefits and drawbacks to both in-house and outsourced training program types:

6. Classroom-style vs. Workshop-style

   Classroom-style training works best for storytelling sessions and presentations. Host workshop-style programs for brainstorming, simulation and role-playing games. Here’s a breakdown of both classroom-style and workshop programs:

7. In-house seminars vs. Industry conferences

   Train more employees at the same time by hosting an in-house seminar. Paying for industry conferences allows you to offer custom learning opportunities to your employees. Here’s an overview of the qualities of both training types:

8. Individual vs. Group training

   Group training will go a long way for departments that benefit from cross-team training, (e.g. communication skills training may benefit both sales and marketing teams.) Build individualized learning programs into your training plans to give employees more freedom to shape their own learning.

What is a prerequisite?

A prerequisite is a specific course or subject that you must complete before you can take another course at the next grade level. To be accepted into some courses, you will have to prove that you have completed a similar course in the same or a related subject, at a lower grade level. Prerequisites are usually in the same or a related subject, at a lower grade level.

Prerequisites are a way of making sure that students, like you, enter into a course or subject with some prior knowledge. This, not only helps the professor to teach at a certain academic level, but it also helps you to feel more comfortable and confident with the subject matter.