Iqbal Ahmed 15174
Centre Number: 10500
Unit 21 – Training and Development (Assignment 1)
Explain why a selected business trains its employees
Assess the reasons for training in a selected business
Introduction of my selected business
Amazon is a trusted worldwide company that sells goods and services which first operated
in Seattle, Washington. It is a very large company, holding over 1 million employees and having a range of stores
from “526 retail stores, 19 Amazon Books stores and 4-Star stores dispensed by Amazon outlets.” 1 Amazon tends to
focus on electronic commerce, digital streaming but most importantly, the customers as their mission statement is
“Our vision is to be earth's most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and
discover anything they might want to buy online.”2 Jeff Bezos, owner and founder of Amazon, first started the
company in a small garage where he served as an online bookstore. His parents “invested $250,000 into the start-up
of the company.”3
Training and Development
Training, in a business sense, is a crucial process which allows you to learn and obtain new knowledge and skills,
enabling you to work in your department efficiently and safely. For example, in order to work in the drive through of
McDonalds, you will need basic training like communications skills, listening to customers as well as time
management.
Development, in a business sense, is a process in which an individual is able to exceed, alter and/or become further
developed in their abilities and skills. This is likely to follow-through after training to provide further knowledge and
abilities for your job which can result to more responsibilities and a potential promotion and/or a new job role. For
example, in an Apple retail store, if you are an employee and your business aim is to increase sales, you will need
advanced knowledge about your products in order to sell them to the customers. If you don’t have advanced
knowledge about the products, customers will not want to buy it as they won’t know what’s special and unique
about it compared to other branded phones like their biggest competitors like Samsung.
Reasons for Training
These training and development are done for different objectives within a business. These can be categorised as;
strategic, departmental, individual and operational objectives.
Strategic Objective
Strategic objective is a long-term goal that is important for the business, shown by a statement. An aim of this
objective is to increase profits. For example, there may be finance and budget training for Amazon warehouse
managers, which can help to bring in more sales for the business. Another aim for strategic objective is to increase
turnover (sales). For example, Amazon tends to mainly focus on their customer service skills and develop on it as
much as possible because their customers are their main priority. The reason why this training is important for
Amazon is to allow more friendly and interactive conversations to be made with their customers online when
customers may contact them for help. Also, it will allow the employees to identify their customers problems and be
able to solve it (addressing problems and problem solving are qualities of customer service skills). Amazon have a 24-
hour customer service, which will let their customers know they’re reliable. A benefit of this is Amazon receiving
good ratings/reviews from customers which will improve Amazon’s brand image, allowing the public to trust them
and be happy to buy goods/services. This can then lead to an increase in sales. However, if Amazon didn’t train their
employees with customer service skills, they will not be able to communicate properly with their customers. For
example, they will not be able to address the customers’ needs and will struggle to listen to their customers actively.
This will indicate to the customers that they aren’t professional, leading customers frustrated. This will impact the
business negatively as customers will give a bad review about Amazon on customer service, which could ruin
Amazon’s reputation and affect the figure of sales, profits and revenues.
1 https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail-financial/report-grocery-stores-upcoming-amazon
2 https://www.thebalanceeveryday.com/amazon-mission-statement-4068548
3 https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/02/how-jeff-bezos-got-his-parents-to-invest-in-amazon--turning-them-into.html
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, Iqbal Ahmed 15174
Centre Number: 10500
Unit 21 – Training and Development (Assignment 1)
Operational Objective
Operational objective “are short-term goals whose achievement brings an organisation closer to its long-term
goals.”4 One aim for operational objective is to improve health and safety. For example, Amazon trains their
warehouse employees with manual handling in order to be safe while working and not injure themselves. This is
important as the employees will be trained to not be injured while working. This will impact Amazon positively as
their employees will be happy to work for them and will stay really motivated. This will then lead to productivity
level increasing as well as a potential increase in sales, profits and revenue. Also, employees will not have to fear
being injured as they have been trained professionally and know they’re in a safe environment. However, if this
training was to not be done, Amazon employees will most likely injure themselves which will lead to further
consequences like being sued and/or fined, meaning Amazon will be losing a great amount of their money. As a
result, there will be bad ratings and a bad reputation towards Amazon leading to less customers trusting them.
Another way it will impact Amazon negatively is when the employee is injured, they will not be able to work meaning
the productivity level will decrease massively. This could potentially demotivate other employees as they may fear
that they will get injured too. This will then lead to a huge decrease in sales as well as profits.
Moreover, another aim for operational objective is to increase a more flexible workforce as large companies like
Amazon will need to train their employees to work in more than one department. For example, someone in the
manual handling department may be absent so you will need to find someone else in another department such as
pick area department, which is less busy or doesn’t need as much help, to cover that position. The reason why is to
reduce risk for Amazon. If Amazon employees have workforce flexibility, the manager can get someone from
another department to fill in that position. This is because Amazon don’t have to waste time finding new workers
which will waste time and cause stress when they can find someone else in a less busy department such as customer
service and fill in the position. This means they didn’t have to spend a lot of money hiring a new worker. As a result,
this will be very beneficial for the company as the productivity level will not decrease and at the same time there
may be an increase of sales as the business is running smoothly and efficiently. However, if Amazon employees
didn’t get trained with workforce flexibility, warehouse managers will be stressed. For instance, a crucial department
such as the order processer department may have an absent employee meaning the productivity level would have
decreased, meaning decrease in sales. Amazon warehouse manager will then have to hire someone who works in
the order processor department, which will cost them money. This can decrease their profits which can affect the
businesses overall performance statistically.
An additional aim for operational objective is to introduce new technology. Businesses nowadays are starting to use
analytics applications in order to gain an advantage against their competitors. For example, Amazon web analysts
will need to be trained to use new advanced analytical software’s (Google Analytics etc) flawlessly and Amazon web
designers will need to know ways to develop their websites for the best customer service experience. Advanced
Analytics training is crucial as Amazon web analysts can gain a huge advantage over their competitors like Alibaba,
possibly bringing in more consumers and recognition. For example, Amazon can find out the performance of their
business with analytics. This then leads to Amazon reviewing their weaknesses and working on it. As time goes on,
their performance will increase extensively. As a result, there will be better analysis of Amazon such as increase
figures of sales, profits, revenue etc. However, if Amazon web analysts was to not be trained with advanced
analytics, their competitors like Alibaba will have an advantage over them and potentially take over them in being
the market leader. This will then lead to a loss of customers and sales as the public will decide to go to the new
market leader. This is because they’re seen as more reliable more efficient as well as trustworthy as others are
purchasing from them. As a result, Amazon will start to lose their popularity and will have a downfall, making it
harder for them to be at the top again.
Also, if web designers were to be trained to develop their websites, there won’t as many bugs/glitches because they
can easily fix it alongside better services such as customer service. This will impact Amazon positively as customers
can get help from them at any time, allowing Amazon to be seen as reliable. Also, if there was to somehow be any
bugs, customers can report it and web designers will be able to quickly fix it as they have been adroitly trained. As
the employees are listening to their customers concerns and resolving it, it will show a positive image towards
Amazon. This is because it shows Amazon have good customer service and care about satisfying their customers. As
4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operational_objective
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, Iqbal Ahmed 15174
Centre Number: 10500
Unit 21 – Training and Development (Assignment 1)
a result, Amazon will have a good reputation which can lead to more recognition, sales and consumers. On the other
hand, if Amazon web designers are not trained and developed to be able to update their websites regularly, there
may be bugs and glitches. For instance, if a customer were to try register for “Amazon Prime Student” but couldn’t
because of a bug, Amazon would’ve lost out on a valuable customer. This will then allow customers to see Amazon
as unreliable and not efficient, potentially writing a bad review, which will display a bad image on Amazon. As a
result, consumers will go to an alternative company like Alibaba, leading to reduction in sales and profit as well as
potential loyal customers.
Departmental Objective
Departmental objective is when a department
has a training plan initiated collectively to gain a
mutual need. An aim of this objective is a “sales https://www.amazon.co.uk/ask/questions/asin/B01DFKBL68
department” trying to increase the figures of sales. For example, Amazon may have to train their sales employees to
have advanced knowledge about the products they sell, in order to reach customers satisfaction. The reason why
this training is crucial is because a customer may call Amazon to ask a question about a product they have
purchased. For example, with the “Amazon Echo Dot”, a customer has asked if you could change the name of the
assistant and an employee of Amazon has replied stating you can change it alongside how to prevent false calls. This
is beneficial as it shows that Amazon has good customer service as well showing they have good knowledge about
the goods they’re selling. Consequently, the customer could have written a good review about Amazon on how good
their customer service was and how helpful the staff member was. This will lead to Amazon’s rating increasing,
allowing other customers to trust them and see them as reliable. As a result, there will be an increase in sales,
revenue and profits. However, if Amazon had little to no knowledge about their goods, it will leave the customer
disappointed and frustrated because they couldn’t meet the customers satisfaction. This will lead to the customer
writing a bad review complaining about how Amazon couldn’t help them with their problems, portraying Amazon as
unreliable. This will impact Amazon negatively as there will be a loss in customers as well as the figures of sales
decreasing.
Another aim for departmental is to improve health and safety in the facility. For example, there has been a change in
Amazon warehouses where the Coronavirus Act, an external factor meaning no businesses have control of, has been
applied. This is important because if employees were trained to comes to term with this act, Amazon warehouses
will be a lot safer for everyone. For example, employees will understand the “two-metre-rule” meaning there will be
a very low chance of catching the virus. Also, if Amazon delivery drivers follow the rule, it will show the customers
that they are being professional, and that they care about their customers health. Customers may leave positive
comments about Amazon talking about how the employees were being professional. This can improve Amazon’s
reputation and brand image resulting to potential increase in sales as well as number of customers. However, if
employees cannot follow these rules properly, it will impact Amazon heavily. For instance, if an employee(s) catches
the virus, Amazon can be sued as well as fined for more than £10,000, as they have broken a consequential law and
not followed their terms and conditions, which is a legal recognition. Amazon would be losing a lot of money as well
as ruining their reputation. As a result, there will be bad ratings on the “health and safety” section for Amazon,
meaning the public will not trust Amazon. Therefore, they will lose a lot of sales as well as customers. Consequently,
the public will decide to go the Amazon’s main competitor Alibaba as they will be seen as more trustworthy and
professional.
Individual Objective
Individual objective is when different individuals are being trained in a certain way in order to hit their own
objectives to benefit the company. An aim for individual objective is when businesses introduce new procedures. For
example, Amazon are most likely to introduce new procedures in their large warehouses for a variety of reasons,
main reason being health and safety. This is important for Amazon warehouse managers as they tend to train their
employees with manual handling as it is possible to hurt/injure their back when picking up heavy goods. If Amazon
managers do train the workforce with manual handling, it will allow the workforce to work more efficiently and
smoothly as they will be working safely and swiftly. Also, productivity level would rise because they have been
trained well enough to know how to properly do their job quickly, meaning a potential increase in sales. Another
benefit from this is Amazon managers may get a pay rise as and a promotion as they taught their workforce well
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