INDCO: CHALLENGES OF DSIGNING AND IMPLEMENTING CUSTOMIZED TRAINING

1. What factors do training managers need to consider when assessing the training needs of an
internal customer?

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM – The primary step that any company should adopt before
providing any form of training is to identify the training needs. Measuring each employee’s
contribution to organizational performance and assessing aggregate contribution of human capital
to the objectives is complex and timely (Dowling et al, 2017 p 162). Following the notion of
increased costs and general time consumption, training needs should only be necessitated with the
gaps between current and required competencies (Pathak & Srivastava, 2018; SHRM.org, n.d.). It
is crucial for the company to perform an efficient and a well conducted needs analysis to attain
the required training program. IndCo case presents a scenario where the general manager of MRD
department has already identified the required competencies entailing the need for strategic
thinking among team members (Pathak & Srivastava, 2018). The customized design presents a
number of challenges to the training managers, such as limited costs or timeframe, as well as the
need to coordinate interdepartmental policies, expectations and standards.
ANALYSIS OF CAUSE – The main problem in this case stems from the time and cost variables.
These factors are important in analysing a training program. Based on the case, the issue of time
arose because of the training manager had a busy schedule training other employees/department
plus the internal customer had a limited timeframe to salvage a concerning situation. Mehta the
training manager and Pathak the outsourced experts are limited by busy schedules against the
interests of the internal customer. The internal customer is on the other hand limited by the need
to ensure proper coordination of his workforce for the overreaching departmental goals that are
currently at stake. Additionally, other resources include training materials and
accommodation. Costs become problematic especially when outsourcing experts presents
demands that exceed the normative budget as seen in the case (Pathak & Srivastava, 2018). In
the IndCo case, the outsourced professor (Pathak) quoted fees that were almost twice the
normal budget paid by IMDC to hire experts.