Which option do you think would better promote skill use and increase sales? Explain your choice.

Promoting Transfer
SUPERVISION SKILLS TRAINING

The Boyer Restaurant Group conducts supervision skills training for its new managers in its corporate training center. This training focuses on clarifying employee performance expectations, providing positive feedback, and effectively improving performance problems. The design of the formal classroom session, which spans two days, includes lectures, case studies, and role plays. The company is considering two options to promote the transfer of trained skills.

The first option is a self-coaching workbook that managers would complete once a week for ten weeks on the job after training. There are three components to complete each week. The first component is a behavioral checklist to assess the frequency of skill use. For example, managers reflect on how often they have established clear and specific goals for employees, praised performance improvements, and worked with employees to develop performance improvement strategies.

In the second component, managers write down answers to open ended questions (e.g., “Describe the most challenging employee situation you encountered this week. In what ways did you manage the situation well, and how would you handle a similar situation differently”). The final component is a goal-setting activity in which managers establish performance improvement goals.

The second option is a feedback intervention, where managers receive feedback from their employees in a formal report four weeks after training. To obtain the feedback for the report, the managers’ employees complete assessments on the managers’ performance, which are then forwarded to an outside consultant. The consultant then creates a formal feedback report for the managers.

The feedback report has three components. First, the managers are provided with data regarding the frequency in which they engaged in behaviors addressed during training (e.g., clarifying expectations, providing positive feedback, etc.). Second, they are provided with employees’ written comments regarding their performance. Third, and parallel to the self-coaching program, managers have a worksheet to complete to establish performance improvement goals.

Questions

What are the pros and cons of the self-coaching workbook?
What are the pros and cons of the feedback intervention?
Which option do you think would better promote skill use? Explain your choice.

Promoting Transfer
SALES TRAINING

The Stafford Hotel requires its restaurant servers to complete a computer-based training program on how to sell appetizers and desserts. The training focuses on describing menu items in an appealing way, suggestive selling, and devising sales strategies based on guests’ specific needs. The program spans 60 minutes, which the servers complete in one session. The hotel is considering two strategies to promote skill use after training.

The first option is a series of follow-up learning activities to be conducted during pre-shift meetings. These learning activities would focus on having the servers taste the menu items, develop personalized selling strategies, and role-playing their sales skills with fellow servers.

The second option is an incentive program. Specifically, the servers would receive monetary and non-monetary incentives for achieving specific sales goals, For example, the highest performing servers would receive gift cards or t-shirts.

Questions

1 Which option do you think would better promote skill use and increase sales? Explain your choice.

2. Describe one additional intervention that would probably be successful in promoting skill use and increasing sales.

Last Completed Projects