Planning for a Needs Assessment.

A2:  Planning for a Needs Assessment.

Whole Foods Market

Organization Description:

Whole Foods Market started 1980 in Austin Texas. Then, a very small store with strong intentions of retailing healthy and organic food products in the community, promoting diversity, awareness and wellness. Currently, Whole Foods Market is the leading company in the sales of organic and natural food products within America. Their growth became a global event in 2006. Whole foods Market now have 310 market places in United States and United Kingdom. Whole foods Market consist of  62, 000 employees,  10 distribution centers, 7 regional bakery sites and 5 commissaries.

Whole Foods Market Mission:

 

The mission revolves around a common saying”Whole foods, Whole people and Whole Planet”. These terms are interconnected and overlap in the approach to the business of this organization.

Green Mission:

Highlights the value of 3R’s. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

 With a mindset of serving the community, maximizing diversity and wellness, they are able to select the best quality products, supported by a self –directed team culture creating a respectful workplace, and in participation in active agricultural practices in organic farming while sustaining our planet with wise environmental practices.

Whole Foods Core Values:

Selling the highest quality natural and organic products available.

Satisfying and delighting our customers.

Supporting team member’s happiness and excellence.

Creating wealth through profits and growth

Caring about our communities and our environment.

Creating ongoing win-win partnership with our suppliers. 

The focus is on healthy eating because it offers the greatest health benefits by purchasing.

Based on my observation on the information presented on Whole foods market web site, I prefer to visit one of the whole foods market in my area to get a firsthand information on what

goes on in this region. I recognized that a true assessment of Whole foods Market should include the entire organization. Knowing that there are over 310 stores across the world, I will consider getting a buy-in from the board of directors from various regions, VP’s of various Team member services, independent Stakeholders, employees, Mangers, customers, environmentalists, Agricultural partners, and food banks.  Noe (2010) states “It is important to consider the organizational business strategy, its resources available for training, and support by managers, peers for training activities. (p. 103). Conducting organizational analysis to determine the appropriateness of training.  Selected questions will be directed to organizational leaders and mid-level managers, and trainers.

•  How does training support the strategic need of Whole food Market?

• Are there resources allocated for training purposes?
•  Please explain how employees perceive training in this organization?
•  Considering the size of your organization, how would training improve the employee’s performance, relationship to customers and partners?

Person analysis helps to identify employees who need training. Noe (2010).

What are your strengths and weaknesses in getting your job done?

Do you feel that your performance now satisfy your job expectation? If yes, How? If no, why?

How can organizational training assist in your job performance?

The person analysis will focus on the employees, team leaders, and customers.

Tasks analysis results in a description of work activities, including tasks performed by the employee and the knowledge, skills and abilities required to complete the task. Noe (2010). In reality, a job must be selected before analysis questions could be developed. Noe (2010). Task analysis must represent documents available at the local site or database of the organizations. For each position, selected for analysis, having the critical tasks steps, how often employees need to complete the task and current level of difficulty when performing task will lead to in-depth information about the task in question.

During the assessment process, I will like comprehensive information that is generated through the organization’s operation. Some of these are performance appraisal forms, job descriptions, current training curriculum's and what gaps such trainings seek to close. Stated and unstated operational codes.

In conducting a need assessment for an organizational, person and task analysis, I will adopt a combination of techniques to get to the information needed.

I will conduct a conference meeting initially to get all my stakeholders informed and prepare for the process. Questionnaires will be developed online to meet the need of the diverse and global population. For the local work teams, direct observation on the job will be appropriate.  

In conclusion, performing a need assessment is crucial and usually the first step in the instructional design process. Noe (2010). Need assessment enables designers to create effective training program, geared to the strategic business purpose of the organization, and acceptable by all stakeholders through communication and collaboration for the improvement of employees and the organization as a whole.

  

References:

Noe (2010) Employee Training and Development (5th Ed.) New York, NY: McGraw Hill.  

Whole foods Market. Retrieved May 10, 2012 from http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/.

Whole Foods Core Values. Retrieved, May 10, 2012 from http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/values/corevalues.php.

 

Elevator Speech- The truth about training

My Elevator Speech.

Hello, my name is Folashade Fawehinmi. I am an Instructional designer in the making. I am not surprised about your take on training. Stolovitch, (n.d.) noted, “Training skills are necessary to perform, but not sufficient alone”.  If you give me a minute, I will clarify some of your concerns.  Let’s reflect on the economic issues in this country, training is considered unnecessary, and   some organizations are cutting back on training and development of their employees (Noe, 2010). The truth is training alignment with business strategy provides the roadmap for any organization to accomplish its goals. Training should be structured and focused on getting employees to consistently reproduce behavior without variation, but with increasing greater efficiency even if conditions change.  Stolovitch (n.d). If these words are not true after a training encounter, there is a training performance gap in your system.  

In reality, training should be designed to prepare employees for competency on the job. Training makes our job relevant and connects to the overall business strategy of the organization, while it makes employees proud and appreciated.

Employees need continuous learning to compete in this evolving world of knowledge and new technologies, and this is fundamental to organization’s sustenance and employee’s performance.

Thank you.

References.

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Stolovitch, H. (n.d) “The Truth about Training” Laureate Video.