Needs Assessment Southwest Airlines

We were asked to select a company and to explore it online. The purpose was to try to get a sense of the organization’s products and/or services, consumers, management philosophy and strategic objectives.

                      

 Based on this, how might you approach the needs assessment? Specifically:

What stakeholders would you want to make sure to get buy-in from?

What questions would you ask (and to whom would you address them) during the organizational, person, and task analysis phases?

What documents or records might you ask to see?

What techniques would you employ (see Table 3.2 on page 108 of the Noe text), and why?

I selected to do my needs assessment on Southwest airlines. Southwest is a commercial airline. Southwest Airlines was founded by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher and began in 1971, servicing Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. “In the mid 1980's Southwest Airlines was the first to offer the frequent miles program. By 1998 Southwest Airlines was the 5th largest US air carrier, caring over 50 million passengers a year servicing the Northeast, Southwest and other key locations throughout the United States. In 1987, Southwest Airlines took over TranStar Airlines and in 1994, Southwest took over Morris Air. This gave Southwest a stronger edge in the market Southwest Airlines was originally incorporated to serve three cities in Texas as Air Southwest on March 15, 1967, by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher. According to frequently-cited story, King described the concept to Kelleher over dinner by drawing on a paper napkin a triangle symbolizing the routes (Dallas, Houston, San Antonio).

Southwest Airlines was originally incorporated to serve three cities in Texas as Air Southwest on March 15, 1967, by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher. According to frequently-cited story, King described the concept to Kelleher over dinner by drawing on a paper napkin a triangle symbolizing the routes (Dallas, Houston, San Antonio)”. (History) “The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit” (“The Mission”, 1988).

Stakeholders Who Must Buy-In to Needs Assessment

·                     Southwest upper Management ·                     Customers/Passengers	·                     Community
·                     Employees	·                     Airports
·                     Supplies	·                     Government

                                                 

Questions Asked During Organizational Analysis Phase

·         How can training help us achieve our mission of providing the highest quality customer service? (Management)

·         What organizational resources can be dedicated to training? (Management)

·         Will training help us achieve our strategic goals? (Management)

·         What elements in the work environment may be barriers to transfer of training? (Employees & Trainers)

·         Whose support do we need? (Trainers & Management)

·         How will we get management to support the training? (Trainers)  (Noe, 2010)

Questions Asked During Person Analysis Phase

·         Who needs training? (Management)

·         How can we convey to the trainees why they are being trained? (Management)

·         Do the trainees have the ability, attitude, beliefs, and motivation necessary to learn? (Trainers)

·         Can we offer a choice of training programs? (Management & Trainers) (Noe, 2010)

Questions Asked During Task Analysis Phase

·         What work activities are suffering from a performance gap? (Management)

·         Are these activities performed frequently? (Management)

·         How hard are the tasks to perform? (Management)

·         Do these tasks help us to achieve our strategic goals and objectives?(Management)

·         Do the trainees need training under special conditions, such as long delays or in-flight emergencies? (trainers & employees)

·         What tasks must be successfully performed to be certified in the job? (Management)

·         How can we develop competencies that will help us be a leader in the airline industry? (Management) (Noe, 2010)        

Documents/Records Required for Needs Assessment

·         Government Regulations	·           Performance Standards/Records
·         Flight records ·         Customer complaints	·         Customer Service Commitment Training manuals

Needs Assessment Techniques

• Observation of employees
• Evaluation of documentation and historical data
• Employee Survey
• Questionnaires to suppliers and charitable funds recipients
• Focus groups of passengers/ passenger survey (Noe, 2010)

References

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5^th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Our commitment. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.southwest.com/html/about-southwest/index.html?int=GFOOTER-ABOUT-ABOUT.

The mission of Southwest Airlines. (1988). Retrieved from http://www.southwest.com/html/about-southwest/index.html?int=GFOOTER-ABOUT-ABOUT.

The History of Southwest Airlines retrieved on 5/5/12 from http://avstop.com/history/historyofairlines/southwest.html

Elevator Speech - The Truth About Training

We were asked to give an "elevator speech" regarding the "truth" about training. This person does not believe that training is important, complicated, or even necessary. What might you say to this individual to convince him or her otherwise? What key insights could you impart that this person likely would not have known and would find surprising and/or interesting?

Transcript:

Good Morning Mr. Doubtful,

I understand that you do not believe that training is important, complicated, or even necessary. One effect of the current world economy is an increasingly competitive business market. This new competitive environment requires businesses to obtain and retain highly skilled and motivated workers. And the only way you get these kinds of workers is to train them.

 That said, training isn’t always the solution to performance issues, and even when training is a good solution, it is rarely sufficient by itself (Stolovitch & Keeps, 2004). Training needs to be supported by appropriate guidance, feedback, incentives and resources (Stolovitch).

A study of 500 publicly-traded companies showed that those who invested more in training had a higher shareholder return (Bassi, Ludwig, McMurrer & Van Buren, 2000). Ddespite the need for high-level skills in today’s job market, many job applicants lack those necessary skills, surveys of employers report that high school graduates are deficient in problem solving/critical thinking, and they lack in written and oral communication skills, and have a poor work ethics.  Because retaining good skilled workers is critical, it is also critical to have a strategic training program that helps support employee retention. In studies employees report that the degree, to which they are engaged at work, is directly impacted by the frequency, quality and number of workplace learning opportunities.  The study also showed increased loyalty and productivity among employees. (Vance, 2006).

So with this said why don’t we have a seat and look at the performance issues you feel need to be improved and see if we can design the most effective solution which will result in a return on your investment.

References

Stolovitch, H., & Keeps, E. (2004). Training Ain't Performance. Alexandria, VA: ASTD.

Bassi, L. & McMurrer, D. (2007). Maximizing your return on people. Harvard Business Review, 85(3), pg. 115-123. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Listen to speech here:

Week One Elevator speech

Welcome Training and Development Class!

Here we are again, communicating through Blogs as we have in several of our Walden classes. We are at the end of our degree plans and I look forward to a very rewarding classroom experience.