A case study on WBA plc

Introduction

Learning and development in the organisation is important part to provide the scope for personal and professional development to all the employees, so that the individuals can enhance their abilities and skill set for better performance and productivity (Pospieszny, Czarnacka-Chrobot and Kobylinski, 2018). Through developing strong learning and development strategic planning, it is possible to manage the employees and retain the experienced staff for maximising the organisational objectives. The study aims at discussing different learning and development strategies which are essential to maximise efficacy of the employees. It is the responsibility of the organisations to develop training and developmental program for supporting the employees and improving their efficacy to perform better. Though this study, it is possible to arrange different training and development program to fulfil the organisational aim and objectives. The organisation WBA will be evaluated further and through this study it would be possible to recommend some suitable suggestions to the organisation to enhance their learning and developmental strategic planning to protect the employees and retain them for long run. It is hereby an effective study where exploring a range of strategic choices to create training and development program would be possible and it also provides a scope to suggest the best practice to WBA to support the staff in the workplace.

Organisational background

WBA plc. is international software housing which is famous in serving the business clients with best quality IT solutions. There are small and medium sized companies operating in the market and the company WBA is able to provide IT solutions and services to the organisations in various sectors including retail, media and communication and manufacturing. Hence, the organisation has strong client base and it is the responsibility of the firm to maximise the efficacy and quality of their IT services so that it would be possible to satisfy the business clients and retain more end users in long run. The company aims at increasing their capital investment by 62% for IT products and software as well as other IT services. Over the past 10 years, the organisation is able to strategies their business and increasing their market share by satisfying the business clients. It is also one of the best software developers in the UK which is efficient to meet the requirements and personal preferences of the clients. In the recent leading edge of organisational practice, the company WBA has hierarchical management structure and it has bureaucratic culture where there is little employees involvement the business leader and management team mainly take the decision for running the business efficiently in the market.

The IT industry is growing at a rapid rate and the organisations also face high competitive threats as there is intense competition and the numbers of competitive brands are also increasing over the period of time. There is anticipated increasing demand for the IT solutions and software services and the organisations in the IT industry hire a huge numbers of graduate students in the company for IT system and software design. Hence, without arranging effective training and development program, it is not possible for the IT firms to retain the staff and enhance their performance in long run (Amershi et al., 2019). Due to lack of IT knowledge and business experience, the staff members fail to perform efficiently and it further hamper the business growth. WBA in this regard must focus on creating good training and developmental program to support the staff members and retain them for long run. The induction process in the IT companies as well as the technical training program is the major learning activities to support the employees so that their performance can be maximised in long run (Sousa and Rocha, 2019). For new software development and enhancing the performance of the staff, it is hereby important for the IT software company WBA to arrange training programs for all the staff members, so that they can have the scope off personal and professional development and improve their skill set and IT knowledge to serve the best IT solutions to the clients.

PESTLE analysis

PESTLE analysis is important for analysing external environment in order to assess the market condition and identify the market opportunities and threats for future. The organisation WBA must focus on arranging training and developmental program and in this regard PESTLE analysis provides a scope to analyse market condition and identify the issues associated with the learning and developmental activities.

Political

Government stability is mandatory under political environment, where support from the government and collaboration with local authority will provide a scope to the business to run their activities efficiently in the market. In this regard, there is political stability in the UK and other countries across the globe and government collaboration and intra country relationship are beneficial for the multinational corporations in the IT industry to run their operations smoothly (Adeyi et al., 2018). The political environment is good and it provides a scope to the business to design strategic planning for running the operation in the market. However, there are government training program and non-governmental private institution, which provide training and development program. In the public institution, the government subsidy helps to fix lower cost of education and training which retain more candidates to attend the classes and training programs for enhancing their skills set. However, there are private organisations, which provide technical training in IT industry which is costly and it sometimes difficult for the individuals to afford the courses.

Economic

As per the economic factors, there is moderate economic growth across the globe, and the economy becomes strong in terms of Gross Domestic products. The purchasing owe rarity of the individuals is also growing over the period of time which heels the individuals to afford the training courses and enhance their capabilities to work in the IT industry. However, due to recent pandemic era, the economic condition of the international countries becomes deteriorated and it has negative impacts on the learning and developmental activities.

Social

Social development is playing a crucial role in the IT industry for attending in training courses and improving employee performance. Social development is there and the individuals are becoming technology based, where they utilise latest technological devices to access new information and data about training and development program. This further boost the interest of the employees to learn more and improve their skill set, however, due to recent pandemic era, it becomes difficult for the individuals to access the appropriate training courses and the whole education and training program become online based which also raise problems for the participants to understand the course structure and attend classes for better understanding about IT solutions (Kodwani, 2017). In this regard, leadership and organisational practice have crucial impacts on learning and development where the employees in different social communities expect to get suitable atmosphere in the workplace. Without getting friendly atmosphere, cooperative environment, and good leadership style, the employees cannot collaborate and participate efficiently in the training and development program. This raises the issues off lack of suitable atmosphere for learning, poor managerial style and leadership practice at the workplace.

Technological

Technology is the major factor in IT industry where information technology is growing at a rapid rate and it is mandatory for the organisations to arrange training and development program for the employees to support them efficiently and retain the experienced staff successfully. In this regard, technological advancement, Good IT framework at the organisation and efficient training professional are the success factors to arrange good training course and learning session for supporting the staff members (Mdhlalose, 2020). The technological application is changing very fast and it creates an issue, where some of the staff members fail to adopt the new changes. Hence, there are existing issues such as resistance to change and misunderstanding among the employees, where the staff cannot understand the changed process and advanced IT fretwork for learning and development.

Legal

Legal perspective is mandatory for the organisations in IT industry to maintain ethical structure and run the business sustainably. Some of the organisations in the recent years face the issue of unethical practice related to lack of diversity management, existence of cultural differences, lack of communication, language gap, unequal opportunities for the employees and lack of personal and professional development scope. These are the major issues which have direct impacts on the learning and developmental activities. The employees are willing and interested to get induction process while hiring at the workplace as well as also try to get effective training program to enhance their skill set and abilities so that they can have good opportunity of personal and professional development. It is the responsibility of the organisation WBA to follow ethical rules and practice of managing training and accountability, providing equal chance of learning and development, managing internal conflicts and resistance to change as well as supporting the employees with continuous guidance so that they have the chance to learn more and contribute efficiently in achieving the organisational aim.

Environmental

Environmental factors also have crucial impacts on organisational activities and in this regard environmental protection is the responsibility of the firms under IT industry across the globe. It is important to maintain environmental rules and protect the natural resources of earth for future generation. It further raises the issues related to sustainable solution, where the firms must focus on sustainable activities to secure future growth and organisational development. The learning and developmental process have negative impacts on resources and the organisations need to face the issue of high cost. It is hereby mandatory for the firm to review the issues and develop suitable strategic planning to mitigate the issues and provide the scope of personal and professional development to the employees through arranging learning and training activities.

SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis is important to understand the ability of the organisation to protect employee rights and guide them through continuous support and training programs. Through the SWOT analysis, it is possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the company as well as acknowledge the market opportunities and threats in near future.

Strengths

Financial stability of WBA is the major strength which provides a scope to the company to manage their operations and create good training programs in long run. The company is able to increase their investment for IT products and software solutions so that it is possible to retain more business clients and expand the business efficiently in long run. The employee turnover rate is low and there is strong employee base in the company and it is considered to be another major strength of the organisation which provides a scope to expand their business activities across the globe. The creative IT solutions and strong support system are there at the workplace which is also strength of the organisation to run their business efficiently.

Weaknesses

The major weakness is lack of learning and developmental activities in the workplace. Moreover, lack of technical program is another weakness which may deteriorate the performance of the employees. On the other hand, bureaucratic leadership style is there at the workplace of WBA and it is also weakness where there is no such collaboration and communication in the organisation during decision making practice and the employee engagement is also low.

Opportunities

The major opportunities of the company in long are such as brand expansion, increasing skills et and expertise of the existing staff members, gaining high market share in the global IT industry, utilising e-commerce platform and increasing demand of the business clients for innovative IT solution (Rekalde et al., 2017).

Threats

The major threats in the IT industry are intense competition, high cost of operations, negative brand image, high that of substitute services and increasing numbers of IT companies across the globe. These are the major threats for the business, where the competitive brands in the IT industry across the globe are trying to support the employees and provide them high quality training and technical programs to improve their abilities and skill set (Armstrong, and Landers, 2018). Hence, in future, the competition will be increasing over the period of items and it is mandatory for WBA to focus on learning and development for increasing abilities of the employees.

Learning and talent development strategies

There are several types of learning and development processes in the organisations, where the leaders have the capability to arrange training programs of the employees so that it would be possible to maximise the knowledge and skill set of the staff members. The induction process is among them which are crucial for the organisation to support the employees, who are hired newly. During the induction process, the employees are getting learning and developmental activities and they can understand the organisational working process, internal workplace activities, ways to perform better and internal IT framework which are mandatory for the employees (Noe and Kodwani, 2018). On the other hand, there is technical training process in the IT companies, which are beneficial for the leader to provide technical training including the practice of software development, creating new software improving programming language and others so that the employees can develop IUT skill to serve the business clients in long run. This is one of the effective training and development program for the IT firms to enhance performance of the employees (RAJI, ALIYU and ABU, 2019). Through the technical training, the employees can gain experience of developing software and providing good IT solutions. Continuous training and interaction with the senior team further helps the employees to manage their skills set and adopt new IT solutions in long run for better performance and productivity.

On the other hand, there are other learning and development program which are on the site and off the site program. Both the learning programs are suitable for the employees. On the site training is related to providing training and improving skill of the employees at the workplace while they are working with others. It is considered as continuous learning and developmental program through which the staff members can gather experience as well as learn through working at the workplace (Bhargav and Sharma, 2019). On the other hand, off the site training program refers to providing training program outside of the workplace through online activities, employment courses and arranging seminars. These are also effective to train the employees and improve their knowledge in long run. Additionally, there is customer relationship training program through which thee employees try to understand the ways of satisfying the customers and it is also efficient for the IT employees, where they can acknowledge the customers actual needs and personal preferences and provide suitable IT solutions to each client. Product and services training in IT organisations is another type of training, where the employees are provided in depth training program about new IT products and software programs where they can provide efficient services to the clients (Biscotti, D’Amico and Monge, 2018). Quality training and safety training are also other types, which are beneficial to enhance learning and development of the staff members in the IT field.

Recommendations for WBA

• WBA must focus on restructuring different training and developmental programs in order to support the employees and retain experienced staff for long run., in this regard, it is mandatory for the business to arrange on the site training program, so that the IT staff can learn through gathering information during working at the company. It further provides a scope to the management team and senior executives to communicate with the employees and help them to enhance their knowledge. On the site training further helps the employees to identify the issues of developing IT solution as well as get continuous support and cooperation from the senior team to resolve the existing It issues and develop further critical and fruitful solution.
• Arranging five days induction process is necessary for WBA to support the newly hired person in the workplace, where the new employee can understand the workplace culture and acknowledge the working activities at the organisation. With induction process, the employees must get soft skill development program so that they can enhance their working practice and contribute efficiently in the organisation.
• WBA must arrange the product based IT training program in order to enhance learning and development of the employees. Products and services based training program is helpful or the employees, where they can identify the products and software services and acknowledge activates in the products so that they can serve the clients efficiently. The product and service training also provides another scope to the staff to increase technical skill to handle the software and IT products in long run.
• On the other hand, arranging general meeting and seminars at the workplace would be helpful for WBA to manage their workplace culture and retain the experienced staff for long run. The leader of WBA in this regard must adopt transformational leadership style irrespective of bureaucratic leadership at the workplace, so that the leader and senior members can arrange the seminar and provide important information and data to the employees to manage the IT operations. The seminars and general meeting also provides a scope to engage the employees and improve their understanding to perform better and serve innovatively to the clients with creative IT solutions.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, WBA has the opportunity to enhance learning and development as it helps the brand to improve their operational efficacy and expand the business across the global IT industry. The organisational leader must adopt transformational leadership style and engage the staff members in the organisational activities for enhancing learning and development. It further helps to improve soft skill of the staff where they can handle the business clients and communicate well with others. Through onsite training program, WBA is able to support the employees and the staff members also can learn through gathering experience. It would be helpful for WBA to secure future sustainable development by handling more business clients, where the employees become efficient to deliver high quality and creative IT solutions.

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Reference List

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