Onboard Assignment

STRATEGIC TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT REPORT

This assignment is worth 20% of your final grade.  It gives you an opportunity to investigate, analyze, and report on the strategic role of training and development in an organization.  You must complete this assignment individually, without contacting other students, and you may not use a paper or any part of a paper from a previous class or from another person.  If you have questions about this assignment, please post them in the Ask the Professor discussion forum so that everyone can benefit from the answers.  The assignment addresses Course Objectives 1, 2, and 3.

 

The Training Top 125 for 2019

For the past 19 years, Training magazine has ranked organizations based on their employer-sponsored training and development programs (Freifeld, 2019).  The list below contains the top five organizations for 2019.

 

Company	2019 Rank	2018 Rank
Dollar General Corporation, LLC	1	5
Leading Real Estate Companies of the World	2	1
Best Buy	3	10
Nationwide	4	7
BNSF Railway Co.	5	4

 

Details about the selection process and about all 125 organizations ranked by Training can be found at the magazine’s website at
https://trainingmag.com/training-magazine-ranks-2019-training-top-125-organizations/

You can obtain a link to a PDF with profiles of all of the Top 125 companies here (scan down to the bottom of the article):

https://trainingmag.com/trgmag-article/training-top-125-2019/

You should also browse the trainingmag.com website for additional articles related to the 2019 Top 125 list.  The March/April 2019 issue, which you can find in Training’s digital archives, has feature articles on the top five companies for 2019.

 

YOUR ASSIGNMENT

Choose one of Training magazine’s top five organizations and investigate the organization’s strategic training and development initiatives.

In addition to researching articles on Training’s website, you should explore the organization’s web site for business information (hint: look for the organization’s annual report, which can be a source of information about financial expenditures, company priorities, and competition) and use the UMUC library to conduct a search for references to the organization.  Don’t forget to look for YouTube videos by or about the organization.

Prepare a 3-5 page report based on your research.

Using the criteria Training uses to rank organizations as well as information from your own research, prepare a 3-5 page report about strategic training and development in your chosen organization.  Your report should include, but is not limited to, the following elements:

1. A description of the organization and its major products and/or services (a brief description — no more than two or three paragraphs). Try to find information about the organization’s mission and/or goals and how its training function is organized.  The organization’s website and its annual report, particularly the letter to shareholders at the beginning of the annual report, are good sources of information.  Be sure to cite the specific web page where you found information used in your report.
2. An assessment of the characteristics of the organization that help it excel in training and development. Include factors such as (but not limited to) the total budget for or amount of money spent on training and development; the level of employee involvement in training and development activities; the type(s) of training and development opportunities offered; the organization’s investment in and/or use of technology for training; and the availability of benefits such as tuition assistance.
3. An assessment of how the TD function operates in the organization. How is the TD function organized?  For a description of three training organizational models, read Organizational Models in Training (Training Industry, 2013), available at http://www.trainingindustry.com/wiki/entries/organizational-models-in-training.aspx.  Does the organization use training needs analyses (TNAs) to identify performance gaps or the need for new skills to support business strategies and initiatives?  Does the organization employ the ADDIE, RID, or Agile approaches to design training?  Does the organization embrace any of the TD competencies described in the ATD competency model mentioned in the Week 1 lecture?

Support your opinions and statements with a minimum of four references from sources published within the last ten years.  You can cite scholarly and practitioner-oriented journals, course materials, newspaper articles, YouTube videos by or about the organization, the organization’s annual report, and the organization’s web site, but not Wikipedia, vendor websites, or other non-academic sources.  The UMUC library can help you identify appropriate sources.

Use APA format for citations, references, and quotations.  This means your list of references should start on a separate page, and should be double spaced, with a hanging indent and no spaces between entries.  For help with APA format, please consult the Writing Resources module in the Course Resources section of our classroom.  Your report should be three to five pages (not counting the cover or reference pages), double spaced with one inch margins and a font size of at least 11 points.

Submit your assignment.

Add the following statement to the cover of your paper:

This paper is my own work that I created specifically for this course and this section.  All research or material I used in preparing this paper has been properly acknowledged within the assignment in accordance with academic standards for complete and accurate citation of sources.

See the next page for the grading criteria for this assignment.

References

Freifeld, L. (2019, February 26). Training Magazine ranks 2019 Training Top 125 organizations. Retrieved from https://trainingmag.com/training-magazine-ranks-2019-training-top-125-organizations/

Training Industry. (2013, May 23). Organizational models in training. Retrieved from https://trainingindustry.com/wiki/strategy-alignment-and-planning/organizational-models-in-training/

Criteria for Grading the Strategic Training and Development Report.

Note: The strategic training and development report should be 3-5 pages long, excluding the reference and cover pages.  Most organizations value efficient communication.  Busy managers and executives do not have time (and most do not have the inclination) to read long reports.  However, you will not be penalized if you exceed the page limit slightly.

Criteria   A B C F Points Earned Knowledge and Application of Relevant Theories and Concepts (55 pts) Student demonstrated exceptional knowledge and application of relevant theories and concepts; all statements and opinions were supported by appropriate citations from the literature.   55 – 50 points Student demonstrated satisfactory knowledge and application of relevant theories and concepts; most statements and opinions were supported by appropriate citations from the literature.   49 – 44 points Student demonstrated less than satisfactory knowledge and application of relevant theories and concepts; some statements and opinions were not supported by appropriate citations from the literature.   43 – 39 points Student demonstrated unsatisfactory knowledge and application of relevant theories and concepts; many statements and opinions were not supported by appropriate citations from the literature.   38 – 0 points   Comments   Quality of Research (30 pts) Student did an exceptional job of researching the organization and integrating course readings with the additional research.  Student cited more than the required number of references; sources listed were all scholarly or practitioner journals, newspapers, annual reports, or academic books from the last ten years.     30 – 27 points Student did a satisfactory job of researching the organization and integrating course readings with the additional research.  Student cited the required number of references; sources listed were primarily scholarly or practitioner journals, newspapers, annual reports, or academic books from the last ten years.     26 – 24 points Student did a less than satisfactory job of researching the organization and integrating course readings with the additional research.  Student may not have cited the required number of references; some sources listed were not scholarly or practitioner journals, newspapers, annual reports, or academic books from the last ten years.   23 – 21 points Student did an inadequate job of researching the organization and integrating course readings with the additional research.  Student did not cite the required number of references; many of the sources listed were not scholarly or practitioner journals, newspapers, annual reports, or academic books from the last ten years.     20 – 0 points   Comments         Presentation of Ideas and Mechanics (10 pts) Student presented ideas in a well-organized, compelling manner with no distracting grammar or spelling problems; the page length requirement was met.     10 – 9 points Student presented ideas presented in an organized manner with few distracting grammar or spelling problems; the page length requirement was met.     8 points Student presented ideas in a somewhat organized manner with several distracting grammar or spelling problems; the page length requirement may not have been met.     7 points Student presented ideas in a poorly organized or incoherent manner with many distracting grammar or spelling problems; the page length requirement may not have been met.   6 – 0 points   Comments   APA formatting (5 pts) All citations, quotations, and references were properly formatted or contained one or two minor errors.   5 points Most citations, quotations, and references were properly formatted or contained a few minor errors.   4 points Some citations, quotations, and references were not properly formatted or contained major errors.   3.5 points Many citations, quotations, and references were not properly formatted or contained many errors.   3 – 0 points   Comments           Total Points Earned (100 points max)