PS390 Unit 4 Employee Training Paper Example

Six Weeks in a Classroom, Then the First Angry Caller: A PS390 Unit 4 Training Paper

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

PS390: Introduction to Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Unit 4 Training Paper

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The writer, the call center, the trainees and every figure are composite and illustrative; the articles cited are real.

The Old Class

Every month, a new class of eight to twelve representatives begins six weeks of training at our Charlotte customer service center for a regional electric utility. Until this year, the class was mostly classroom instruction: a trainer presented slides on billing rules, outage procedures and the computer system, and trainees took quizzes on Fridays. Nearly everyone passed. Then they moved to the floor, and many struggled. Supervisors reported that new hires knew the rules but could not apply them while a caller was shouting about a disconnection notice. Of the representatives who left within ninety days last year, more than half left in their first two weeks on the phones.

What Makes Training Work

Arthur et al. (2003) combined the results of many workplace training studies. Across many studies, training produced meaningful effects on learning, on behavior on the job and on organizational results, but effects varied with how training was designed and delivered and with the kind of skill being taught. Training that matched its methods to the skills required tended to work better.

Salas et al. (2012) wrote a guide for practitioners that walks through the work needed ahead of a class, inside it and once it ends. Before training, organizations should analyze what the job requires and prepare trainees and supervisors. During training, trainees need information, demonstrations, practice and feedback, ideally under conditions resembling the job. Afterward, the workplace has to make room for the new skills, with a supportive boss, chances to use them and someone checking in.

Diagnosing the Old Class

Measured against that research, our class taught information but offered little demonstration, almost no practice with realistic calls and no structured support after trainees moved to the floor. Quizzes measured whether trainees remembered rules, not whether they could use them under pressure. The class succeeded at what it measured and failed at what the job required.

Our trainees could recite the disconnection policy and still could not say it to a crying caller.

The Redesigned Class

The redesigned class keeps six weeks but changes how they are used. Each topic follows the same pattern: a short explanation, a demonstration call by an experienced representative, practice calls with a trainer playing the customer, and immediate feedback using the same checklist supervisors use on the floor. Practice calls start easy and grow harder, ending with emotional callers, multiple problems and system errors.

Weeks five and six move into nesting: trainees take real calls on a quiet section of the floor with a coach sitting beside them, first listening, then handling calls with the coach ready to help, then handling calls alone with the coach reviewing afterward.

What Trainees Said

Before redesigning anything, I asked the last three classes which parts had helped them on the phones and which had been wasted time. The answers were consistent. Trainees remembered almost nothing from the long slide sessions on rate structures, but they remembered every minute of the two days they had listened in on live calls. Several said the hardest part of the first week on the floor was not knowing what to say when a caller cried or swore, and that no one had ever practiced that with them. One trainee wrote that the quizzes taught her "how to pass quizzes." Their comments matched the research closely and gave the redesign credibility with the trainers, who had built the old class themselves and were understandably protective of it.

Practicing the Hardest Calls

The hardest calls get the most practice. Using recordings of real calls, with customer details removed, the trainers built a library of twenty scenarios, from a simple balance question to a caller whose medical equipment depends on power and whose service is scheduled for disconnection. Trainees practice each scenario at least twice, once to learn it and once a week later, because spacing practice over time helps skills last. The emotional scenarios come only after trainees are fluent in the billing system, so that they can attend to the caller instead of the screen.

Transfer to the Job

Blume et al. (2010) conducted a meta-analysis of factors related to transfer of training, the use of trained skills on the job. Transfer was higher for capable, dependable and eager trainees, and higher still where bosses and coworkers backed the new skills. They also found that transfer tended to be stronger when measured soon after training than after longer delays, which points to the need for continued support.

Our redesign therefore extends past graduation. For the first month on the floor, each new representative meets weekly with a coach to review two recorded calls, and supervisors receive a short guide on how to praise and correct new hires in the moment. New hires sit near experienced representatives who have volunteered to answer questions, and each new hire has a named buddy for the first month, someone to ask about the small things a supervisor may not have time for.

Evaluating the Training

The redesign will be evaluated at four levels. Reactions: trainee surveys at the end of each week. Learning: scored practice calls, not only quizzes. Behavior: quality scores on recorded calls during the first month on the floor. Results: ninety-day retention and average handling time. The first redesigned class began in February; we will compare its outcomes with the previous three classes.

Costs and Tradeoffs

Practice calls and nesting require more trainer and coach time than slides. To offset this, we cut two days of classroom content that trainees rated as least useful and that supervisors said new hires never used, and we recruited experienced representatives as coaches with a small pay differential. Coaching has also become a step toward supervisor roles, which representatives told us they valued more than the extra pay. The center manager approved the added cost for six months, after which the evaluation results will decide whether it continues.

Conclusion

Six weeks of slides produced trainees who knew the rules and froze on the phones. Arthur and colleagues show that training pays off when its methods match the skill, Salas and colleagues map the work around a class, and Blume and colleagues tie transfer to backing on the floor. The redesigned class adds practice, feedback, nesting and coaching, with evaluation planned at four levels.

References

Arthur, W., Jr., Bennett, W., Jr., Edens, P. S., & Bell, S. T. (2003). Effectiveness of training in organizations: A meta-analysis of design and evaluation features. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(2), 234-245. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.2.234

Blume, B. D., Ford, J. K., Baldwin, T. T., & Huang, J. L. (2010). Transfer of training: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Management, 36(4), 1065-1105. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206309352880

Salas, E., Tannenbaum, S. I., Kraiger, K., & Smith-Jentsch, K. A. (2012). The science of training and development in organizations: What matters in practice. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 13(2), 74-101. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612436661