Training and Development Commons^™

Increasing Operator Skills In A Manufacturing Environment, Bobbie Lee Hubbard

Instructional Design Capstones Collection

A plastic-injection molding facility is converting many machines into more automated systems. These complex systems require higher-level skill sets than current operators have been trained in. There is a need to increase the level of competency in most, if not all, of the operators at the Facility, and create a system of levels that engages employees and encourages learning new skills to increase their position and pay.

There is a need for a clear path of compensation based on skills and actions. The Facility is currently not optimizing or maximizing their current portfolio of machines and resources, leaving an unknown …

Exploring The Perceptions Of Leaders In Investor-Owned Utilities In California On Managing Organizational Change Initiatives, Maria Liza Legaspi

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study employing in-depth interviews was to identify the strategies and practices executive leaders and midlevel managers of investor-owned utilities (IOUs) perceive are effective in creating employee acceptance and support of organizational change and to identify the supports and barriers executive leaders and midlevel managers perceive as affecting employee acceptance or resistance to organizational change in IOUs.

Methodology: A qualitative research design enabled the capture of deeper thoughts and insights of executive leaders and midlevel managers of 4 IOUs in California. The study delved into the strategies and practices used by IOUs that are perceived …

Unretentive Incentives, Rebekah Paradis

Student Scholar Showcase

In the workplace, managers often offer monetary rewards or incentives as instantaneous motivators in hopes that it will alter employee behavior. Unfortunately, although these rewards have been proven to yield desired outcomes, their impacts are short lived as managers create an environment based on extrinsic motivation. When an employee works solely to receive a paycheck it is already challenging to keep them, as other companies can offer them comparable, if not better, salaries. It is even harder to retain an employee who is accustomed to receiving an incentive with a particular behavior when the reward is no longer an option, …

Utilized Training Delivery Methods As Reported By Illinois Astd Members, Kimberly Ervin, Roger Hogan

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

The purpose of this study was to identify training delivery methods currently being utilized by the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) Illinois members. Through analysis, the purpose of this study was accomplished and refined. The result of the research created an inventory of training delivery methods currently utilized and identified the single most utilized and perceived most effective training delivery method among Illinois ASTD members that participated in the study. These results allow training professionals to compare training delivery methods utilized by Illinois ASTD members surveyed with the training delivery methods utilized by their own organization. The comparison …

A Guide To Leadership Development At A Company, Bridget Nobiletti

Senior Honors Projects

Leadership development is essential for companies because it drives a company’s effectiveness in reaching its goal and promotes growth among employees, causing them to want to stay with the company. Knowing how to develop employee leadership is complex because it is largely dependent on the individual and their role within the organization. I interviewed leadership professionals and human resource professionals who have experience in leadership development to guide my research. I broke up management into three categories and found that the different segments of management need different skills in order to be effective at their jobs. The first step to …

Using Simulation To Model Reserve Officer Training Corps Cadet Flow, Marydell V. Westman

Theses and Dissertations

The Army Cadet Command oversees the Army Reserve Officer Training. It receives mission goals every year along with a budget. It is their responsibility to recruit enough cadets to fulfill mission goal and remain under budget, while ensuring the recruited cadets have the correct percentages of race, gender, and majors. This research provides a tool that can change the numbers and percentages of incoming cadets, what year of school they enter, as well as their gender, race, and STEM or non-STEM parameters, in order to explore the composition of graduated commissioned cadets. This study finds that changing the percentage of …

Oklahoma Selects And Designs A Selection Intervention, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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Oklahoma’s Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development Steering Committee has decided to refine the selection process for new child welfare workers as part of their ongoing commitment to hiring a dedicated, talented workforce and supporting that workforce in practice with children, youth, and families. The committee spent much of 2018 doing a thorough needs assessment and exploration of their child welfare recruitment and retention challenges. Through this process they recognized that interviewing strategies and hiring decisions are made inconsistently across the state. The team acknowledged that this could result in the selection of individuals who are not the best fit …

Louisiana Selects A Workforce Intervention: Job Redesign & Teaming, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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For several years prior to the current Administration, Louisiana suffered through an unstated policy of “Do More with Less”: Fewer employees, higher caseloads, less resources, and high employee turnover. In 2016, the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) leadership determined that supporting and stabilizing the child welfare workforce was a high priority. To strengthen its workforce, Louisiana will implement “Job Redesign and Teaming” as its QIC-WD intervention. The job redesign aspect of the intervention includes a comprehensive job analysis and process mapping to determine which tasks needed to be retained by the child welfare worker and which tasks …

Eastern Band Of Cherokee Indians Selects A Workforce Intervention: Onboarding, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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The Family Safety Program (FSP) serves the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) to provide high quality and innovative care, utilizing an integrated model to ensure client access to behavioral health services and targeted case management. To retain a competent and committed workforce and best serve children and families, FSP partnered with the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) to be one of eight national project sites to test child welfare workforce interventions. In 2018, FSP conducted a workforce needs assessment, which revealed that staff had inconsistent job expectations for their own role and lacked understanding of the roles …

Milwaukee Selects A Workforce Intervention: Organizational Culture & Climate, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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The Division of Milwaukee Child Protective Services (DMCPS) of the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) will be implementing and testing an organizational culture and climate intervention called ARC, which stands for Availability, Responsiveness, & Continuity. ARC is an organizational change process that has improved outcomes in mental health settings by: 1) introducing core principles to guide service improvement efforts, 2) embedding research-based organizational components for service improvement, and 3) fostering attitudes necessary for ongoing service improvement. DMCPS employs approximately 185 State employees. These employees conduct initial child protective service assessments, oversee ongoing case management services delivered by private …

The Effect Of Two Types Of Workload Assignment On Productivity, Performance, And Stress, Christopher Winchester

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The importance of employees within a firm has led to an increased need in maximizing performance and productivity, while also minimizing the stress levels of employees. This study provides insight into two types of workload assignment of (1) receiving a task all at once, or (2) receiving a task broken up. It investigates how matching subjects’ workload assignment preference (WAP) can impact performance, productivity, and stress levels. The results showed that there was an even split in workload assignment preference across the population, and that employees who received a task based on their preferred type of workload assignment improved in …

A Global View Of What Fixes Information Technology Skills Shortage: Panel Data Analyses Of Countries’ Human And Technology Resources, Benyawarath Nithithanatchinnapat, K. D. Joshi

Journal of Global Business Insights

This paper aims to provide evidence of what fixes the information technology skills shortage. The focus is on countries' workforce development factors, i.e., human and technology. The research model was tested using secondary data from multiple sources. An ordinary least square with panel corrected standard errors was used to analyze the data. The results indicate that organizations' staff training and gender parity among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduates relate negatively to IT talent shortage; this is consistent in both models the authors tested. This study contributes to the IT workforce literature by being the first study that empirically examines …

Technology-Aided Meditation At Work: Evaluating The Impact Of Biofeedback On A Mindfulness Program In The Workplace, Charles Morris

Mindfulness Studies Theses

The rise of secular mindfulness has been buoyed in large part by scientific research into its benefits. The availability of consumer-grade biofeedback devices promises to bring the objectivity of results seen in a research lab to personal experience. This mixed methods study examined the experience of 12 participants in a workplace mindfulness program, comparing the experience of an experimental group whose meditation practice was supported with the use of a HeartMath™ Inner Balance device to a control group who learned to meditate without it. The effects on stress, focus and motivation were captured via questionnaire, along with biofeedback data and …

The Empathetic Leader, Sarah Romney

Marriott Student Review

Research shows that “empathy” is an important quality in a leader and improves one’s ability to resolve group needs, obtain followers, perform prosocial behaviors, and get positive results. However, many business students do not recognize the value of empathy. Business schools can help improve this by teaching the importance of empathy and giving students the opportunity to develop it.

Washington Selects A Workforce Intervention: Telework, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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The Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) will be implementing and testing the effectiveness of telework for child welfare field operations staff and their supervisors. DYCF is a stateadministered system with a total of 3,075 employees. There are approximately 1,600 field operation staff and 260 field operation supervisors that make up the majority of the child welfare workforce in the agency. A comprehensive workforce needs assessment showed a strong desire among employees to be able to work from home or an alternate work site. A telework policy existed but was inconsistently implemented, and the majority of employees …

Nebraska Selects A Workforce Intervention: Addressing Secondary Traumatic Stress, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) workforce intervention will address secondary traumatic stress (STS) among frontline staff and supervisors. Nebraska is a state-run child welfare system with about 400 Child and Family Service Specialists (CFSS) organized into five service areas across the state. Currently, the annual CFSS turnover rate in Nebraska is about 30%, but DCFS is committed to retaining and supporting high quality CFSS. Over the last year, DCFS has worked with the QIC-WD to review human resources (HR) data, feedback from the field (e.g., CFSS, supervisors, and administrators), and …

The Way Of The Servant Citizen: Building, Mindfulness And Reverence For Work (Bmw): A Thematic Synthesis Of Servant Attributes From Servant Leadership, Organizational Citizenship Behavior And The Servanthood Of Jesus, Ramon Ma. Nicolas V. Molano

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

The servant-first is central in writings on servant leadership and the biblical Jesus on becoming servants. A servant-first on its own volition seeks to serve, and to serve first the welfare of others before their own, and it does not necessarily hold a formal leadership position. The study introduces the term servant citizen to refer to one who is servant-first and an ordinary member of community. The study aimed to provide leaders, educators and trainers with teachable content that aids in the formation of servant citizens ─ more than nominal service-providers ─ from organization members. The study’s starting reference was …

Supportive Supervision And Resiliency Ohio - Coaching In Child Welfare 2019 Participant Guide, Atlantic Coast Child Welfare Implementation Center

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Purpose: This training is designed to introduce supervisors to coaching concepts, provide them an opportunity to practice these skills in a safe environment, and receive timely feedback. Learning Objectives Upon completion of this day, the participant will:  Describe the purpose and structure of the training  Explore their preconceptions, feelings, beliefs and thoughts concerning coaching  Explore their assumptions about coaching  Develop a working definition of coaching for their state  Identify questions they would like answered by the end of the day  Recognize the 6 elements of the coaching mindset  State the importance of using …

Supportive Supervision And Resiliency Ohio - Coach Ohio Flyer 2019, Ohio Department Of Job And Family Services, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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What is Resilience? Resilience is a person’s ability to “bounce back” from hardship or a difficult situation. What is Resilience Alliance? Resilience Alliance is a series of weekly group sessions to create an improved, healthier work environment and help staff develop skills and behaviors that promote their physical and psychological well-being. The goals are to: • Decrease stress by enhancing resilience skills, increasing social support and changing the organizational culture • Help participants regulate their emotions and not engage in avoidance behaviors in response to traumatic situations • Reduce symptoms of secondary traumatic stress • Increase self-efficacy, collaboration and job …

Evaluating Coaching Programs, Elza Mylona, Richard Van Eck

Teaching, Leadership & Professional Practice Faculty Publications

Take home points

1. Program evaluation depends on the goals; the clearer they are, the more effective the program will be.
2. Evaluation models are powerful tools, but expertise in using them is critical.
3. Evaluation begins before, and continues after, the intervention itself.
4. Success criteria should be defined and stakeholders’ participation ensured before choosing evaluation measures.