Essay: Grampian police

Introduction:

Grampian Police was formed on 16 May 1975 when the former forces of Aberdeen City Police and the Scottish North Eastern Counties Constabulary (SNECC) amalgamated on the re-organization of local government. While the opportunity to progress will exist for all officers who show potential, a ‘fast track’ has been created for those individuals who show particular flair and promise. APSG provides a structured career path for the most promising and capable graduates entering the police. The scheme offers an accelerated route to senior management – not a bypass. A lot of money is invested on training these graduates. The training is very hard that around 30 percent of the graduate trainees tend to leave the force. This has costed a huge turnover to the company. Thus by designating a program of development and support for these candidates and costing it out to show that how beneficial it has been is explained below. my role:

The Training Manager of the local Police force.

Problem:

Chief Constable calls the Training Manager and gives data as –

1. Each one that leaves costs the force £10,000 in lost training, uniforms, and recruitment and selection costs.

2. There is 30% drop-out rate of accelerated promotion path graduate trainer officers.

Action taken by Training Manager:

1. Conducted some exit interviews with some of the graduate management trainees who have left the force.

Experiment results:

1. It was observed that the trainees have felt isolated by their senior officers and picked on by ordinary members of the force who resent their fast promotion path.

2. Also, some female officers speak of discrimination and a macho, canteen culture which belittles them in public and focuses on their mistakes.

Design:

1. Design a programme of development and support for these candidates
2. Cost it out to show that there is a cost-benefit to be achieved by
3. Connect support strategies for these important new recruiters.

Assumption:

Consider the employee strength as 100employees. Of which 30 employees are ‘Accelerated promotion path graduate trainees’

There is a 30% drop out rate of these graduate trainees is (0.3*30) = 9 employees.

Analysis:

9 Employees drop out of 100 employees due to the following two major causes:

1. It was observed that the trainees have felt isolated by their senior officers and picked on by ordinary members of the force who resent their fast promotion path.

2. Also, some female officers speak of discrimination and a macho, canteen culture which belittles them in public and focuses on their mistakes.

Given that expense to the company for each employee that leaves costs the force £10,000 in lost training, uniforms, and recruitment and selection costs.

Therefore it total cost to the force for every 100 employees (9 drop out) = £10,000*9 =£90,000.

Strategy to tackle this issue:

1. Training program modification (for development and support of these candidates).
2. Job enrichment
3. Job enlargement
4. Team design modification
5. Job description and designation modification
6. Appreciation, rewards and recognition

Solution:

1) Training:

(Source:http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&as_q=needs+assessment&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&num=30&lr=&as_filetype=ppt&ft=i&as_sitesearch=&as_qdr=all&as_rights=&as_occt=any&cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=images ,[ Accessed on 24/03/2010])

Training consists of an organization’s planned effort to help employees acquire job related knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviours, with the goal of applying these on the job. A training program may range from formal classes to one on one mentoring. It may take place on the job or at remote locations. Training can benefit the organization when it is linked to organizational needs and when it motivates employees.

Organization Analysis

1. A process for determining the appropriateness of training by evaluating the characteristics of the organization.
2. It looks at training needs in light of the organization’s strategy, resources available for training, and management’s support for training activities.

3. Anyone planning a training program must consider whether the organization has the budget, time, and expertise for training.

   Person Analysis

4. A process of determining individual’s needs and readiness for training.
5. It involves answering such questions
6. Do performance deficiencies result from a lack of knowledge, skill or ability?
7. Who needs training?
8. Are these employees ready for training?
9. Variables’ influencing performance – person’s ability and skills, attitudes and motivation, organization’s input performance feedback and positive consequences to motivate good performance.

Task Analysis

1) The process of identifying and analyzing tasks, knowledge, skills, and behaviours that training should emphasize.

2) The person or committee conducting the needs assessment must decide what levels of importance, frequency and difficulty signal a need for training.

Training methods

Team training:

1. It co-ordinates the performance of individuals who work together to achieve a common goal.
2. Success depends on individuals’ co-ordinating their activities to make decisions in dangerous situations.
3. Cross-training – Team training in which team members understand and practice each other’s skills so that they are prepared to step in and take another member’s place.
4. Coordination training – Team training that teaches the team how to share information and make decisions to obtain the best team performance.
5. Team leader training – Training in the skills necessary for effectively leading the organization’s teams.

Orientation of new employees:

Employees receive their first training during their first days on the job which is the organization’s orientation program. Training designed to prepare employees to perform their jobs effectively, learn about their organization, and establish work relationships. The objectives include making new employees familiar with the organization’s rules, policies, and procedures.

Content of Orientation program:

Company-level information

• Company overview (e.g., values, history, mission)
• Key policies and procedures
• Compensation
• Employee benefits and services
• Safety and accident prevention
• Employee and union relations
• Physical facilities
• Economic factors
• Customer relations

Department-level information

• Department functions and philosophy
• Job duties and responsibilities
• Policies, procedures, rules and regulations
• Performance expectations
• Tour of department
• Introduction to department employees

* Miscellaneous

1. Community.
2. Housing.
3. Family adjustment.

2) Job Enrichment

Need for development of employees

Expansion of knowledge and skills of the organization and employees, meet the ever increasing customer demands. Remain at par with competitors. Also giving opportunity of career advancement to the employees.

Development and Training

—- A Comparison—-

	TRAINING	DEVELOPMENT
FOCUS	Current	Future
USE OF WORK EXPERIENCE	Low	High
GOAL	Preparation for current job	Preparation for change
PARTICIPATION	Required	Voluntary

Approaches to Employee Development

Fig: 4 Approaches to Employee Development

(Source: Mc-Graw-Hill/Irwin, 2005)

3) Job enlargement:

a) Job Rotation:

It aims at moving the employees through a series of job assignments in a number of functional areas.

Employees gain:

1. Job rotation is used to develop skills as well as give employees experience needed for managerial positions
2. Employees understand specific skills that will be developed by rotation
3. Job rotation is used for all levels and types of employees
4. All employees have equal opportunities for job rotation assignments
5. Job rotation is linked with the career management process so employees know the development needs addressed by each job assignment
6. Benefits of rotation are maximized and costs are minimized through managing time of rotations to reduce workload costs and help employees understand job rotation’s role in their development plans.

b) Transfers, Promotions and downward moves:

Transfer is assigning position in a different area. Relocation may not bring in more responsibilities.

Those who feel that relocation would bring a promising future accept it most willingly.

Promotion is moving to a position with greater responsibility, challenges and authority. It brings in a feeling of accomplishment in oneself.

Downward move is reducing responsibility and authority.

Interpersonal Relationships:

It is how an employee can develop skills and knowledge about the organization, its customers, its policies etc by interacting with a more experienced member in the organization.

Two types of relationships for employee development:

1) Mentoring

2) Coaching

Mentorship:

Mentor is a senior employee with whom the relation develops informally based on similar interests.

Employees get to know more about the organization and can freely speak up about their worries, troubles and obtain feedback from mentors about how to deal with them. Mentor and protégé, both benefit from this relationship.

Acting as a mentor gives the manager a chance to develop his interpersonal skills.

Some organizations group their fresh entrants under mentoring programs where they learn from each other and the assigned mentor.

Coaching:

“Coaching is an improved version of demonstration and has the advantage of interaction between the trainer and the trainee. It is typically a short term phenomenon that starts with learning goal and is concerned primarily with performance and the development of definable skills (Clutter buck, 2001) and is on the increase.”(McKenna & Beech, 2008)

Coach – a peer or manager who works with employees to

• Motivate them
• Help them develop skills
• Provide reinforcement and feedback
• Coaches need to be able to suggest effective improvement actions

Coaches play one or more of the three goals:

• Working one – on -one with an employee, as when giving feedback.
• Helping employees learn for themselves.
• Providing resources like mentors, courses or job experiences.

4) Team Design modification:

• Employee assistance program:
• Employee Empowerment
• Psychological help
• External referral
• Peer teams
• Grievances addressing system
• Team building exercises
• Family gatherings
• Arranging cultural functions and celebrating festivals

5) Job description and designation modification:

• Change in Job profile.
• Internal job change.
• Department change.
• Change in supervisor / Boss.
• Meaningful work.
• Clear and appropriate role.
• Flexible working hours.
• Performance tracking systems.
• Short term as well as long term goal setting.

6) Appraisals, Rewards and recognition:

• Pay structure is the key thing that helps employer keeps its employees intact.
• The pay structure reflects decisions about how much to pay (pay level) and the relative value of each job (job structure).
• The organizations goal is to set levels of pay that employees will consider equitable and motivating.

Pay Structure

Monetary links to appraisal:

Pro’s	Con’s
Motivates by providing a direct incentive	De-motivates rest of the staff and undermine morale
Rewards those who contribute “most” to the organization	Used to reward favourites
Provides a tangible means for recognizing achievement	Relies on subjective and arbitrary measures
Delivers a strong message about performance imperative of the organization	Contaminates the development aspects of appraisal
Improves goal setting	Makes employees set too ambitious or too easy targets
Helps retain valuable staff	Raises expectations of constant pay-out
Helps identify poor performance	Relies heavily on ill-equipped line managers.

Steps to retain employees:

1) Providing your employees with some extra added benefits:

• Rewards for good performance
• Foreign tours or company sponsored vacation
• Food coupons
• Occasional gifts

2) Honoring Performers

• Performance based incentives
• Equal opportunity to rise and grow in an organization for aspiring ones.

3) Building Relationship

Build a strong bonding with the employees. Instill pride in the employees. Shown them that the work done by them is important.

Tackling the second issue: Woman officers…

Glass Ceiling:

It refers to circumstances resembling an invisible barrier which prevents women and minorities from attaining the top jobs in the organization.

Managers may prefer to interact with those having the same status. Organizations must use development systems to break through the glass ceiling.

A formal process for regularly identifying the developmental needs can be developed to remove the influence of stereotypes on developmental activities.

Cost Benefit Analysis or Weighing Scale Approach to decision making

Example of Grampian Police Force:

A Police Force that wants to recruit new graduates via Accelerated Promotion Scheme for Graduates (APSG) might conduct a cost benefit analysis to decide and make up its mind.

Consider the employee strength as 100employees. Of which 30 employees are ‘Accelerated promotion path graduate trainees?’

There is a 30% drop out rate of these graduate trainees is (0.3*30) = 9 employees.

Each one that leaves costs the force £10,000 in lost training, uniforms, and recruitment and selection costs.

Total turnover = 9* 10000= £ 90000

Assume,

Total Cost= [ ] = £ 50,000

Let us assume there is a reduction of Turnover by 60%

Now 60 percent of 50,000

= (60/100)* 50,000

= £ 54,000

So total reduction in turn over after appropriate training methodologies= £ 54,000.

Profit= Turnover after Program modification – Initial Turnover

= 54,000-50,000

Profit gained

= £ 4,000

Conclusion:

Training and development plays a vital role in any organization. Accelerated path scheme for graduates has helped the force in identifying key people who can prove worthy to the force and be of great benefit to them. For such a noble institution which helps in developing a terrific force, employee turnover has to be handled very carefully.

Thus by doing the above modifications to training and development program we have reduced the turnover to quiet large extent.

Eventually for the success of any organization effective program development is a key aspect that helps in minimizing loss.