Friday, September 14, 2012

Men's Wearhouse - "I guarentee it" - George Zimmer

After reviewing the Men's Wearhouse website I realized a few things and one in particular that I never noticed before. My ex-husband did not wear suits too often but when he needed a suit we always went to the Men's Wearhouse because the store was not located in a mall and it only dealt with men's fashions. What I had never noticed is that the word "Wearhouse" was not spelled as "Warehouse". I watched a video about how the store came to be and about the founder George Zimmer. One of the items that concerned some of the early employees and George himself was the image the company may obtain from the public because of the name having the word Wearhouse. People may read that a get an idea that the store only had low end cheap clothing, but what people do not realize is that the name is not "Warehouse" like one of these big chain stores however the name is "Wearhouse" as in you wear the clothes in this house – there are clever people in marketing at the Men's Wearhouse even before it was "The Men's Wearhouse". Poll people on the street and I will bet that only about a quarter of the people surveyed will realize the spelling difference.
When working on a needs assessment for the organization I would definitely include the founder and CEO George Zimmer. From the information I gained through their investor relations site George is hands on with the company. He is out in the stores and is part of the team of employees that make the business run. Since George is out and feeling the pulse of the organization he should be a great source of information and would be the best "cheerleader" for any changes that may need to be made. Other people to include would be any employee in any of his stores as well as Diana Wilson the CFO. Diana would have to sign off on any expenditure needed for any training or changes needed and any of the employees would give honest feedback. Again, from the information I reviewed, George has built a company where the employees are actually rewarded regularly and he has built a place to work that is open to suggestions.
Some of the questions I would ask of George would be:
·         What is the strategic direction of the company and do you feel the company is headed in the right direction?
·         Is training a key component in the company’s strategic direction?
·         Do you support the training of managers as well as employees regular day-to-day activities?
·         Do you yourself attend regular training for both personal and business needs?
·         Would you recommend personal training for the people of your company?
·         Is the strategic direction of the company documented for all employees so they are aware and would these documents be made available for review?
·         Would you be opposed to an instructional designer(s) administering a survey to determine the pulse of the company and seeing where development/training may be needed?
·         Is there an employee handbook which lays out the roles and responsibilities of the employees and management team?  If so, could this handbook be made available to the assessment team?
·         Would you be opposed to the creation of focus groups for information gathering?
Some of the questions I would ask of any employee in any one of the stores would be:
·         Do you feel the company is headed in the right direction?
·         Do you know the strategic vision for the company?
·         What have you observed to be an area of the business that is weak or lacking?
·         Are you offered training to extend your knowledge of your role at the company?
·         Is training encouraged within the company?
·         Does the company offer opportunities to expand your knowledge and potentially your role within the organization through training and/or schooling?
·         Is there adequate training at the firm?
·         Would you feel comfortable being part of a focus group for information gathering?
Some questions I would ask Diana would be:
·         Is the company in a position to put forth a comprehensive training plan for anyone that would like to expand their knowledge of the company?
·         Does the company encourage its employees to expand their knowledge by offering incentives such as tuition reimbursement?
·         Is there an in-house training team and if not is the company able to support such a team?
·         Do you feel that you are receiving the training necessary to keep you abreast of the changes in the company?
·         Do you have personal goals for which training is necessary?
·         Would you be able to produce documents showing the financial viability for developing a training curriculum and or division?
When conducting a needs assessment for the Men’s Wearhouse I would implore all the techniques mentioned in Table 3.2 of the Noe textbook if financially feasible.  The questions being asked of the CFO should determine if these techniques can all be used.  If it is not feasible and from the review of the company’s website I think the best course of action would be in this order of priority:
1.       Observation – the employees of the company seem to enjoy working at Men’s Wearhouse.  This company was voted in the top 100 companies to work for in the United States which tells me that they would probably not change their behavior since they already enjoy their jobs.
2.       Online Technology – again since the company was voted on of the top companies to work for the employees should not be worried about any ramifications from the answers to a survey.
3.       Questionnaires – I think the employees would be forthcoming with their answers.
4.       Interviews – although they are time consuming and expensive, interviews when done right gain much knowledge about the organization.
5.       Focus Groups – most employees at this company would volunteer the minute they hear focus groups are being assembled to gain information into the workings of the company.
6.       Documentation – while the information in the documentation is probably up to date for this company I do not like to rely on this information.  The company can “spin” information any way that optimizes their goals.  The real pulse of the company comes from talking to the employees
(Noe, 2010).
This should generate the information needed to determine if the company is in need of training.  At the very least the company will find out how it stands in many areas including morale.  Again from the website, it appears morale at the company is high.  The people seem to love to work for the company and they consider their CEO almost like a rock star, but what else would the website of a company say.  Talking with the employees is the true way to find the pulse of the company.
Helene
Reference
Noe, R.A. (2010). Employee training and development: Fifth Edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Truth about Training

The Truth about Training
Hello Mr. Davidson – glad I ran into you here in the elevator.  I have heard that you believe that training is not necessary for your organization and that you are thinking of cutting your training budget because the company is having economic issues.  What I would like to discuss with you when you have a minute is how training can actually be the best thing for your organization during these tough economic times.
Now is probably the best time to do training while business is slow.  Recently many advances were introduced at your firm, so many that the employees did not have a chance to really understand everything.  Now is the time to train the employees in the depth of the advances so they can utilize the information more effectively for their clients.
This is also the time to develop those in the organization that are showing extraordinary talents.  These talented employees will be looking for ways to improve themselves and by extension the organization so by taking time and setting up some talent development training we can help build these employees knowledge. 
Lastly, consider the fact that your organization is global – we can develop training to be utilized by the employees at their own pace thereby keeping costs down and still allowing everyone access to the same information instead of bringing everyone together in one place to learn what is needed.
How does next Thursday at 2:00 look for you to talk about training for your organization?

(it appears that blogger will not allow audio only video - the audio is posted to the blog links in the classroom - will fix this for future versions)