TABLE OF CONTENTS

01. Executive Summary

02. Problem Statement

03. Suggestions

Executive Summary

Purpose –

Purpose of this case study is to identify and analyze key problems in Training & Development. And find out what are the solutions and recommendations can provide to overcome such problems.

Methodology –

Find out what are the key problems, issues, in the management, and Training & Development.

Findings –

• No Policy regarding Training & Development

• Training Expenditure was very high

• Not Effective in-house trainings

• Do not evaluate the trainer

• Training Need Analysis is not done

• Evaluation of Training is not done

• No proper Learning Objectives

• Lacking of documentation part.

Recommendations –

• Develop an organizational Training & Development policy.

• Make an allocation of fund to Training & Development in the annual budget.

• Conducting HR Audit annually or twice a year.

• Analyze the competitors what to they are doing in Training & Development.

• Get a survey or feedback from those who participated in the Training & Development programme.

• Include Personal Development Plan in Training & Development.

• Improve the documentation part.

• Get ideas to improve the Training & Development from their agencies of 05 leading global pharmaceutical manufacturers or HR Consultancy firm.

• Follow the Training Cycle properly.

Problem Statement

Question No. 01

What are the key issues identified in the case that could have caused this situation?

Question No. 02

What has Ravi missed in particular, in his role as Training Manager? Justify as to how that has led to the current problem.

01. No Policy regarding Training & Development

Companies have policies for most of the things including Training & Development. It may include how many trainings we are conducting for the whole year? , How much we are going to allocate for T&D for the year in the budget? , How we identify the training needs etc. But in this case the company do not have a policy regarding T&D.

02. Training Expenditure was very high

Managing the costs of training initiatives is very important as training costs are increasing day by day and this becomes very important in managing over all training budgets in relation to the training objectives that you need to achieve in a given period. But in this case the company has traditionally been very lavish with their training expenditure & was always known in the industry for a company that spent a lot on training & developing their employees.

03. Not Effective in-house trainings

The in-house training absorbed a minimal cost as Ravi himself was handling it, however this was only limited to product training. But when investigating further CEO Dylan Perera wanted to check the effectiveness of the in-house programs that were conducted by Ravi. Ravi has done an extensive amount of training on product knowledge for the medical reps & sales reps. To the dismay of Dylan the investigation revealed some further disturbing news. The product knowledge of both the medical reps & the sales reps was not up to expectations.

Product knowledge for medical reps & sales reps are very important because they are dealing with doctors so they expect more information about the product if we can’t provide proper information it should directly affect sales of the company, this is medicine so lack of product knowledge may can be reason for loss of lives. The main objective of a training is to bridge the gap of knowledge, skills, and attitudes so if we can’t bridge the gap of product knowledge the training was failure even though it is done at minimum cost.

04. Do not evaluate the trainer

Each & every time we should evaluate the trainer is he has the corporate experience, knowledge, Skills, using course materials, & how he deliver it. Each & every time if we going to do the training programme as an organization we should think about conduct it in-house or outside and we have to decide are we using internal resources or outsource it. In this case Ravi himself handles the product training for all the medical reps & the sales reps however all other training is outsourced to various external training companies it clearly shows that they don’t evaluate & analysis it in every moment.

05. Training Need Analysis is not done

If we going to do a training first of all we should do a proper Training Need Analysis individually then only we can identify the gap in the knowledge, skills, attitudes of each & every employee then only we can design & develop the training programme productively. But in this case it should not be done in a proper manner.

06. Evaluation of Training is not done

In this case they have invested lots of money in training programmes but they do not evaluate it so that’s why Mr. Ravi can’t proof the productiveness of the trainings.

07. No proper Learning Objectives

If we are conducting a training programme then we should have the objectives according to the training need analysis. Then only we can evaluate if the objectives are met or not & according to the objectives we can set the indicates in the performance appraisals. But in this case the do not have set objectives properly.

08. Lacking of documentation part.

We should do the documentation part for whatever we have done then only we can proof that we have done these these things to them if not we are in can’t help situation. But in this case documentation part is zero. When the CEO asked to proof Mr. Ravi do not have any documents to show him.

Suggestions

Question No. 03

Make suggestions as to how Ravi could make the training function more meaningful to the organization & also a strategy how he could in future show results achieved through his training initiatives.

1. Develop an organizational Training & Development policy.

2. Make an allocation of fund to Training & Development in the annual budget.

3. Conducting HR Audit annually or twice a year.

4. Analyze the competitors what to they are doing in Training & Development.

5. Get a survey or feedback from those who participated in the Training & Development programme.

6. Include Personal Development Plan in Training & Development.

7. Improve the documentation part.

8. Get ideas to improve the Training & Development from their agencies of 05 leading global pharmaceutical manufacturers or HR Consultancy firm.

9. Follow the Training Cycle properly.

i. Do the Training Need Analysis individually

ii. Set clear objectives for the T&D programmes

iii. Properly design & develop the T&D programme

iv. Evaluate it properly.

a. Annexure

Case study question – [Care – Link]
Care – Link is a leading pharmaceutical company which has been in the business of importing & distributing pharmaceutical & health care related products for the past 10 years. The head office of Care-Link is based in the heart of Colombo & the company has regional distribution centers in the other main cities such as Kandy,Anuradhapura,Kurunegala,Ratnapura,Badulla & Negombo. Care-Link holds the local distribution agencies for 05 leading global pharmaceutical manufacturers.

The company employs 55 medical representatives who goes & meets doctors in all parts of the island doing medical detailing & promoting their products to generate prescriptions. There are 22 sales representatives who physically distribute the products to the pharmacies island wide & also to doctors who stock their products. Management staff of Care-Link consists of 05 Area sales managers who over look the Medical Reps & the Sales reps, 02 Brand Managers, 01 Marketing Communications Manager, 01 Training manager & 01 Stores Manager. The total company employs over 200 workers & the rest being in non management capacity.

Mr. Ravi Fernando is the training manager of Care-Link & has over 10 years experience in pharmaceuticals. He himself has been a Medical Rep for 02 other reputed companies during his career. Ravi himself handles the product training for all the medicals Reps & sales reps however all other training is outsourced to various external training companies. The company has traditionally been very lavish with their training expenditure & was always known in the industry for a company that spent a lot on training & developing their employees. The major training expenditure on training included overseas training for managers and senior medical reps & other outsourced training programs that the company conducts for all other categories of staff. The in-house training absorbed a minimal cost as Ravi himself was handling it, however this was only limited to product training.

However, with the new CEO Mr. Dylan Perera joining the company with effect from 1/1/2009, he has challenged Ravi Fernando the training manager to justify the high training expenditure during the year 2008 & asked for a detail report on same. Ever since this request Ravi has struggled to clearly justify such expenditure & was trying to convince the CEO that most of the employees who received training has gained enormously & that their performance has improved. CEO Dylan Perera was not satisfied with just verbal remarks & pushed Ravi to show more accurate proof on what he says.

This was pressurizing Ravi to an extent that he was even thinking of leaving the company. CEO Dylan Perera not convinced of the progress that Ravi was making on the assessment, personally decided to have a chat with all the employees who have attended training during the past year & requested Ravi to organize a series of meetings & also requested Ravi to provide him with a schedule containing the names of people who attended training & the program details.

The revealing of the meetings was alarming. The members who attend the overseas programs could not explain what they really gained from the training & also failed to explain how they could use what they learn in their day to day job. They also failed to explain why they attended the program & their explanation was not that they were nominated by the Training Divisions. The Medial reps and the Sales reps who attended various soft skills trainings such as selling skills, communication, presentation, and customer service skills also could not even recall what was covered in the training.

Investigating further, CEO Dylan Perera wanted to check the effectiveness of the in-house programs that were conducted by Ravi; Ravi has done an extensive amount of training on product knowledge for the Medical Reps & Sales Reps. To the dismay of Dylan the investigation revealed further disturbing news. The product knowledge of both Medical and Sales Reps was not up to expectations.

However having gone via the product training material that Ravi had developed, Dylan commended Ravi. “You have done a great job” but how did it fail? Was the biggest question in Dylan’s mind? This prompted Dylan to request a total plan for training initiatives in 2009 before he approves any money for training during the year.