HRM233: You are a Learning & Development Manager of E-Spark Pte Ltd E-Spark is a local Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Based in Singapore: Training and Development Assignment, SUSS, Singapore

Case Vignette
You are a Learning & Development Manager of E-Spark Pte Ltd. E-Spark is a local Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) based in Singapore that engages in sales, installation and repair of electronic equipment onboard vessels. E-Spark has a workforce of 142 employees. The company is managed by a team of managers as below:

3 Operations Managers,
1 Health and Safety Manager
1 Quality Assurance Manager
2 Sales and Marketing Managers
2 Logistics Managers
1 HR Manager
1 Finance Manager
1 Office and Admin Manager

The majority of E-Spark’s workforce comprises Operations and Sales employees. They typically operate outside of the company’s office. They treat their office as a base camp where they are deployed from the office and will return to the office after their engagement on the vessel. Their line managers get to see them occasionally in the office to conduct their 1-1 meetings. All the other employees in the company perform their duties at the office.

E-Spark, like other companies, was not spared by COVID-19. E-Spark was impacted by the circuit breaker and the safe distancing measures. However, the company managed to implement processes and systems to meet government requirements and ensured that service levels were not disrupted significantly.

Recently, you had a meeting with your Managing Director (MD) and he said these words in italics:
I’m glad that the vaccine for COVID-19 has been found. Soon, we will move into Phase Three. We all know that Phase Three does not mean a return to pre-COVID times. In fact, it appears that we will never get back to pre-COVID times and need to accept the “new normal”.

COVID-19 has highlighted some key shortcomings in our company’s operations and increased our pace of adopting digital solutions to manage our business. We have been discussing flexible work arrangements for a while, and now we are more comfortable with working from home and other flexible work arrangements like staggered hours and so on.

Our managers have also stood up to the challenge to manage their workforce remotely and to use the new tools we have introduced to manage meetings and engagement with clients.

I have also heard through the grapevine that more employees are looking forward to more flexible work arrangements and working from home. Personally, I believe if we digitalize our current systems and processes even further, we could manage performance remotely.

While our managers have stood up to the challenge, I believe we need to have a format training program to equip them to be better “Remote Leaders”. I would like you to think about designing and implementing a training program for all our managers for this purpose.

The training should focus on the following:

1. Ensure that the managers are familiar in handling the tools we have introduced such as Zoom, MS Teams, etc. (For purpose of the TMA, the student may opt to select any one online tool)
2. Know how to manage the emotional state of their employees and manage it effectively.
3. Manage employee performance by setting clear objectives and increase the employee engagement that is required in this remote working environment.
I will leave the design to you but would prefer instructor-led training, either face-to-face or virtual. The workshop should be not more than 4 hours. We cannot afford to take them out of their already busy schedule to attend a full-day workshop. The learning experience you design should provide them with flexibility and be tailored to their needs.

I would like you to present your proposal with a clear rationale and on how you would ensure the effectiveness of the training.” Based on the above case vignette, please answer the questions below. You should reference
relevant course concepts and frameworks, peer-reviewed academic literature, and the case vignette to support your answers.

Formulate THREE (3) learning objectives for the workshop that you will design and develop. Please refer to Table 4.8 in the Noe textbook.

Question 2
Learning and transfer of learning must occur for training to be effective. Based on the learning objectives that you have developed above, discuss relevant course concepts that you need to consider when designing the workshop and recommend practical approaches you will implement to ensure transfer of learning.

Question 3
Construct a detailed Lesson Plan for the instructor-led workshop that you are designing. Please reference Table 5.6 in the Noe textbook for an example of a lesson plan. You are not required to develop the contents of the workshop.

Question 4
a) Critique Kirkpatrick’s Level 1 evaluation and its importance in evaluating your
workshop.

b) Design a 15 – 20 minute assessment to determine the degree to which trainees are familiar with the principles, facts, techniques, procedures, and processes emphasized in the workshop. You may limit the assessment to just one Learning Objective.