EVALUATION OF NEW EMPLOYEES TRAINING PROCESS AT LINKGO COMMERCIAL AND INVESTMENT COMPANY LIMITED

FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF BUSINESS ENGLISH *** MID TERM REPORT Major: Business English EVALUATION OF NEW EMPLOYEES TRAINING PROCESS AT LINKGO COMMERCIAL AND INVESTMENT COMPANY LIMITED Student full name: Nguyen The Dung Student ID: 1817710033 Class: English - FBE Intake: 57 Supervisor: M.A Le Thi Bich thuy Hanoi, August 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS ii ABSTRACT iii INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF LINKGO COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT COMPANY LIMITED AND EVALUATION OF ITS NEW EMPLOYEES TRAINING PROCESS 1.1 Overview of Linkgo Inc 3 1.1.1 History and development 1.1.2 Mission, vision and core value 1.1.3 Organizational structure 1.1.4 Product lines and business performance 1.2 Internship activities 1.3 Theoretical background of Learning and Development 1.3.1 Definitions 1.3.2 L&D implementing model 1.3.3 Training evaluation model 11 1.3.4 New employee training (Employee orientation) 12 CHAPTER 2: EVALUATION OF NEW EMPLOYEES TRAINING PROCESS LINKGO COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT COMPANY LIMITED 2.1 The training process at Linkgo 14 2.2 Results of the training process 19 2.3 Strengths 20 2.4 Weaknesses and root causes 21 CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATION TO IMPROVE NEW EMPLOYEES TRAINING PROCESS LINKGO COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT COMPANY LIMITED 3.1 Department orientation training improvement 23 23 3.2 Engagement activities creation CONCLUSION REFERENCES 24 26 27 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my utmost gratitude to Mrs Le Thi Bich Thuy – my instructor and lecturer at the Faculty of Business English for her deliberate and thoughtful guidance throughout my mid-term report writing process Her instructions were incredibly helpful and have contributed a major part to the successful completion of my internship report Furthermore, I would also like to thank Mrs Le Hoang Dieu Linh – Human Resources Manager of Linkgo Inc for giving me an opportunity to work at a such professional and friendly environment Her support and practical advice on technical knowledge have helped me a lot in finishing the report Finally, my grateful thanks are extended to my family and friends who have supported me a lot during my internship ii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 1.1 The organization structure of Linkgo Table 1.2 Linkgo’s brands and business performance Figure 1.3 ADDIE model Figure 1.4 New World Kirk-patrick model Table 2.1 Organization restraints of Linkgo Table 2.2 Linkgo’s orientation training process agenda Figure 2.3 Linkgo new hires’ score on training topics Figure 2.4 Linkgo new hires’ probation assessment results iii ABSTRACT In this world full of challenges, changes and uncertainty, there is a growing trend of focusing on developing human resources through learning and development (L&D) in organizations regardless of their size and scope This research aims to examine the act of L&D at Linkgo Commercial and Investment Company Limited, specifically new employees training activities From the findings, the author then evaluated the insights to come up with recommendations on how to improve the training process The main methodology used in this research is qualitative The data was collected using different research methods, which are observation and second data analysis After conducting the research, two major weaknesses were detected, which are ineffective department orientation training and the lack of engagement activities for new employees The author then suggests two corresponding solutions to the problems, which are department on-boarding buddy and orientation ice-breaking games INTRODUCTION Globalization, for over two centuries, has been affecting the world on numerous aspects, from politics, culture to economic Although globalization has been praised for boosting economic growth, it also brings fierce competition to all organizations that took part in the global supply chain In order to survive and thrive, businesses, large or small, need high quality human resources to help drive their growth Therefore, excellent human resources management, from recruiting to retaining valuable human capital, is crucial for every organization to achieve their business goals In the overall process of managing labor force, learning and development (L&D) has proven itself to be more and more vital to businesses as a recent report by LinkedIn has shown that 64 percent of L&D professionals from throughout the world agree that L&D moved from a “nice to have” to a “need to have” in 2021 Many situations called for the appearance of L&D such as employees’ competency assessment, upskilling, reskilling, and especially new employees training process At its core, employee orientation aims to provide new employees with adequate background knowledge (such as working rules, desktop computer password, organization structure, etc.) and help them to integrate and socialize with company’s cultures and people as fast as possible Effective employee orientation program can bring huge benefits to organizations such as reducing turnover rate, saving recruitment expenses, at new employees to perform well in their jobs a lot faster, etc As a rising player in the field of cross-border e-commerce, specifically the print on demand (POD) segment, Linkgo is planning to expand their businesses rapidly in the next two years Business expanding means more and more employees are going to be recruited And like any other well-designed and visionary organizations, Linkgo realizes the urgency of having a sufficient new employee training program Being a learning and development intern in Linkgo, one of my missions is to ensure success of this training program Therefore, I want to write a report to examine the current situation of employee orientation program at Linkgo as well as having a deeper understanding of learning and development activities in real life businesses Base on all the reasons above, I had chosen the topic “Evaluation of new employees training process at Linkgo Commercial Investment Company Limited” for my report The main methodology used in this report is qualitative Besides, to accomplish the study, I used a combination of the research methods including observation and second data analysis When working as an intern, I had the chance to observe all the training-related activities conducted by Human Resources Department in the company I also collected various secondary data from the company’s websites and internal reports Using all the information and data I have collected, I will assess the new employees training process of the company and give some recommendations to improve it I hope that my report will benefit not only my organizations but to any other companies working in the same industry Besides table of contents, acknowledgements, list of tables and figures, introduction, conclusion and reference, the report contains two chapters: Chapter 1: An overview of Linkgo Commercial Investment Company Limited and the evaluation of its new employees training process Chapter 2: Evaluation of new employees training process at Linkgo Commercial Investment Company Limited Chapter 3: Recommendations to improve new employees training process at Linkgo Commercial Investment Company Limited CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF LINKGO COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT COMPANY LIMITED AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF NEW EMPLOYEES TRAINING PROCESS 1.1 Overview of Linkgo Inc 1.1.1 History and development In recent years, Vietnam, on its way to integrate with the world, witnessed the substantial growth in the field of cross-border e-commerce with the sales through Amazon platform alone at the end of 2020 tripled that of 2019 Crossborder e-commerce, specifically Print-on-demand (POD) has opened new doors for Vietnamese businesses in the predicament causes by Covid-19 due to its special business model POD removes the barriers of travel, production and delivery from the supply chain by allowing Vietnamese businesses to outsource these stages to suppliers in the target countries and focus only on marketing and product development Among emerging players in the field in Vietnam, Linkgo Commercial Investment Company Limited is a young and dynamic organization with ambitious vision in developing POD market Linkgo has its root from the e-commerce department of Life Media Company Limited (Life Media., LTD) After a year of development, the company separated to operate independently on 6th June, 2019 was initially named EcomLink The company then changed its name to Linkgo on 10th October, 2020 to better fit with the core values with “Link” refers to team collaboration and “Linkgo” means collaborate to develop together Until now, Linkgo has over 40 employees working effectively together in departments with a dream to be the global case study for every POD company 1.1.2 Mission, vision, and core values The company’s vision, mission and core values are the result of mutual contributions between the board of directors and every employee and were officially issued in a document by the CEO, Mr Nguyen Tien Dat in November, 2020 a Mission Working in a field where customer service and products’ design are everything, Linkgo aims to create a “wow” shopping experience through their creative products and exceptional service to customer b Vision Linkgo aspires to achieve two things in the future The first goal is becoming a global case study of POD’s business model and organization building The second one is to grow into a holding company with many smaller companies working in different fields in Make Money Online (MMO) industry c Core values Linkgo values main traits and qualities, specifically as follows: Customer-oriented: Linkgo wishes to deliver a “Wow” service to every customer who takes part in the shopping experience designed by the company Team collaboration and family spirit: Linkgo believes that, in order to advance further in the future, all employees should have excellent teamwork skill and strong bond with each other Contribute for a greater goal: Every employee, despite their positions and departments, should have a clear vision toward the ultimate goal of Linkgo and take it into careful consideration in all their actions and decisions Pay it forward: In line with “Team collaboration and family spirit”, every employee must be willing to share their knowledge and offer guidance and help to anyone who ask for without hoping for anything in return Bold and creative: To a start-up working in POD, be creative and ready to take risk are of great importance Only by doing so, Linkgo can achieve the scale and business plan they aspire 1.1.3 Organizational structure 13 • Improved job performance: A better understanding of job requirements and the willingness to ask for assistance result in fewer errors and the ability to get up to top production levels sooner; all of which translates to improved performance Orientation training usually takes several hours depends on what you cover The content of the training also varies from organization to organization, but they all have to make sure to include the followings: • Background information: Administrative information (Computer password, working rules, policies, relevant documents, office layout, working tools account, etc.) • Company overview: History, mission, vision, organizational structure, cultures, etc • Work overview: Basic information about the job like scope of work, responsibilities and authorities, etc However, the training alone cannot ensure to fulfill all the purpose of employee orientation In order to help new employees to have a deeper understanding of their works as well as fit in as fast as possible to company culture, we also need a wide array of activities that come along with orientation training The whole process can take as little as day to as many as years depends on the positions and what the organization wants to achieve 14 CHAPTER 2: EVALUATION OF NEW EMPLOYEES TRAINING PROCESS AT LINKGO COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT COMPANY LIMITED 2.1 The training process at Linkgo The orientation training at Linkgo also follows the ADDIE models in general As the purpose of orientation training is already clear, we start the process from the “Design” step First, we need to identify the organizational constraints Constraints are placed on training by the organization, the environment, and the trainee population They include factors such as how much time will be available to deliver the training, what mode of delivery is best suited to the trainees, the level of technology in the organization, and the facilities available As for the case of Linkgo, despite the fact that the company’s top management has deemed orientation training to be of great importance, there are still a lot of obstacles coming from the organization as Linkgo is still a relatively young start-up The constraints and the solutions for them are stated in the table below Constraints Reasons Low training budget The company is currently Solutions • All the training in a difficult period due activities are to Covid-19 Therefore, conducted by the operation expenses internal human are kept as low as resources possible • Make use of any facilities available in the company Limited day to conduct That’s the time all Devise the recruitment orientation training: company resources have plan and orientation Trainings must avoid to focus on pushing sales schedule to fit with last weeks of a month and marketing campaign company schedule 15 for the products as well as making monthly report Limited human resources The company scale is still Group the new for orientation training small with only people employees and schedule in Human Resources them to take orientation Department ready for training togther orientation training Inadequate training Due to limited budget Develop quality training facilities: and small office content to make up for • Only meeting the lack of facilities room with 3-4 people capacity • No other equipment besides a TV and a whiteboard Table 2.1 Organization restraints of Linkgo After identifying organizational constraints, we move on to determine specific training objectives There are four categories of training objectives: reaction, learning, transfer, and organizational outcomes We will focus primarily on the learning objectives as the other objectives are either not important or vary differently from department to department The learning objectives are presented as follows: Learning objectives: • On completion of the orientation, all trainees, on request and with no assistance, will be able to state the vision statement, mission statement and core values, with no errors 16 • On completion of the orientation, all trainees, on request and with no assistance, will be able to present Linkgo’s and department’s major goals and objectives in the next years • On completion of the orientation, all trainees, on request and with no assistance, will be able to explain explicitly Linkgo’s employee core competencies Behavior objectives: • In the evaluation milestones (2 weeks, months and months after orientation training), the employee will be evaluated as qualified for all or at least 86% of all probation competencies and KPIs Organizational outcome objectives: • The average turnover for a three-month period will be 30% less than the current average of 23.4% Base on the training objectives and organizational constraints, the complete orientation program of Linkgo is as follows: Training methods: Blended learning (Learning method that combines various training types like online, offline, etc.) • Face-to-face orientation training will take place on the new hire’s first day of work This offline training is mostly used to deliver strategic and motivational information such as organization values, business goals, employee core competencies, etc • Other background information that is easy to understand and administrative such as working rules, company policies, organization structure, etc are delivered through emails and online documents • After the orientation training, each of the new hires will have a coaching program that lasts at least until the end of their probation periods The coaches will be their line managers and leaders Training content and timeline: 17 The whole orientation process consists of main milestones: Pre-orientation, orientation day and post-orientation The specifics are depicted in the table below Phase Time Task Pre- week prior Notify new hire to prepare orientation to orientation their administrative day days prior to orientation day Orientation 8h30 – 9h30 day P.I.C C&B Specialist documents and procedures Deliver the orientation C&B Specialist training materials, timeline and instructions • Orientation day agenda L&D Intern overview and instruction • Introduce the new hire to company • Office tour 9h30 – 11h Orientation training: • Company overview • C&B Specialist (Vision, mission, etc.) • L&D • Company policies and Intern procedures • Other related • High-level Manager information 11h -12h Complete administrative procedures and documents 12h – 13h30 Lunch with new hire’s department C&B Specialist 18 14h – 15h Department orientation Department training: Manager • Manager introduces new hire to the department and hosts ice-breaking activities • Manager discuss the role, scope of work and company’s expectations for the new hire 15h – 17h New employee: • Get used to working tools, procedures and tasks • Complete the orientation training feedback form 17h – 17h30 1:1 orientation feedback and • HR Manager review session with HR Specialist • L&D Intern Post- Line manager continues to orientation provide guidance and Line Manager supervise closely new hire’s performance until the end of probation period Table 2.2 Linkgo’s orientation training process agenda 19 2.2 Results of the training process The outcomes of the training process will be presented based on the training objectives from the beginning The data used in the evaluation was collected through surveys and internal documents over a 5-month period Learning objectives: New hires' score on training topics Score percentage 50 45 38 40 35 40 35 35 32 30 30 25 20 17 14 13 15 10 45 43 10 11 10 7 Company overview Policies and procedures Competencies and assessment criteria Scope of work Training topic Figure 2.3 Linkgo new hires’ score on training topics As we can clearly see from the chart, the new hires scored badly on two topics related directly to their work, which are “Scope of work” and “Competencies and assessment criteria” This shows that they are poorly informed on their tasks, their position’s correlation with the company and what the company expects them to achieve in their work On the other hand, topics that related to general information about the company witnesses a considerably high score with 43 to 45 percent of the new hires score grade 20 Behavior objectives: New hires' probation assessment results 5% 37% 58% Unqualified Qualified Need further assessment Figure 2.4 Linkgo new hires’ probation assessment results After a 2-month probation period, most of the new hires are qualified for the job However, the number is still relatively low (58%) compared to an 86% of the initial objective The missing percentage might lie in the 37% of new employees that need further supervision in the next months Organizational outcome objectives: The average turnover for a three-month period is 25.6%, which is an increase from the initial number There can be many factors that affect this indicator like the nature of certain seasonal positions, Covid-19, recruitment error, etc However, other evaluation results show that most of the reasons come from the deficiencies in orientation training 2.3 Strengths Overall, the orientation training process of Linkgo is methodical and based on concrete theoretical background: 21 • Orientation training was planned according to ADDIE model • All steps and activities had had prior research and reference from credible sources The orientation training did a wonderful job in providing background information about the company to the new hires All operation process prior to, in and after the orientation training were executed smoothly with little or no mistakes Furthermore, the orientation training had been successfully devised in adaption to organizational constraints and other obstacles 2.4 Weaknesses and root causes Besides the visible strengths above, orientation training process of Linkgo has its own shortcomings I will point out those weaknesses and their root causes base on the theoretical background and practical insights from the evaluations The first major deficiency we can notice is the low score of the new hires on topics related directly to their work This shows that the orientation training in the department was ineffective The root cause comes from the fact that line managers are too busy to conduct proper training sessions with all the new hires As Linkgo is on its way to expand and scale up, a lot of work and pressure is on the line managers They have to utilize their time to meet the KPIs and work expectation Most of their time are used for product innovation and campaign and department management Therefore, the department orientation is often carried out hastily and crudely with poorly made documents As time went on, line managers obviously did not have the time to supervise the new hires closely and provide guidance where necessary All of these issues not only resulted in poor performance of the new hires in the test but also in the turnover Many of the new hires chose to leave Linkgo because they did not receive enough attention and instruction from the managers, which led to demotivation and modest work performance In Figure 2.4 , there are 42% of new employees that are either unqualified or need further assessment after the probation period A part of the reasons come from the lack of guidance from line managers but there is another major cause for this 22 issue Although most of the new hires passed the tests related to general information about the company with flying colors, they had a hard time fit in the culture of the company This is because of the lack of interactive activities that help the new hires to actually socialize and integrate with Linkgo’s cultures The closest definition to interactive activity is the introduction and office tour at the beginning of the orientation day After orientation day, the new hires went straight to work with little emotional connections with other employees and Linkgo 23 CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE NEW EMPLOYEES TRAINING PROCESS AT LINKGO COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT COMPANY LIMITED In this chapter, I will make recommendations to orientation training process of Linkgo based on both the theoretical background as well as the assessments in the previous chapter 3.1 Department orientation training improvement As I have mentioned before, Linkgo’s department orientation training has a significant downside This is one of the most crucial part in the whole orientation training process as it affects the new hire’s motivation and capability directly Therefore, in the long run, it is necessary to improve and build a more professional department orientation training process using innovative ideas and a more logical approach The process of onboarding a new employee is both thrilling and stressful While line managers play a vital role in shaping a new employee's first weeks and months, a larger team effort can ensure a happy and productive experience A buddy program can be extremely useful in the case of Linkgo as it provides precious additional help to the line managers Initiating buddy program means assigning a buddy in the same department to every new employee at least during their probation time Buddies help to provide additional information on the company and the department as well as offering closer guidance for new employees in every aspect of the job More specifically, there are three major benefits of a buddy program: • A buddy provides organization context to new employees For tenured employees, the context surrounding most of their work has been so thoroughly established, it can be found in the folds of every email written, every meeting attended, and every PowerPoint presented Context is a valuable commodity for new hires Without it, a new recruit is unlikely to completely comprehend their function or how to contribute to the success of their team Onboarding buddy can provide the context that isn't available in 24 the employee handbook For example, knowledgeable onboarding buddies can assist new recruits in identifying key stakeholders, navigating the matrix of diverse organizations, and problem solving strategically Buddies can also shed light on cultural norms and any unspoken rules that exist, allowing for a more seamless transition into the organization • Buddy program boosts the new hires’ productivity Both the company and the new hire are frequently concerned about productivity The corporation met a requirement for a specific skill set by filling the position, and now it wants to see a quick return on its investment Meanwhile, the new hire is likely to be torn between wanting to get up to speed quickly and needing to take his or her time learning the job Research conducted in Microsoft shows that 56% of new hires who met with their onboarding buddy at least once in their first 90 days indicated that their buddy helped them to quickly become productive in their role This number also increased when the number of meetings between the new hires and their buddies increased That extra layer of assistance is obviously crucial to a new hire's success • Onboarding buddies improve new employee satisfaction Linkgo’s scale is still small with modest number of new hires each month Therefore, despite the deficiency, department orientation training experience is still acceptable for the new hires However, in the near future when the company has earned enough money to scale up, the number of employees will drastically increase Hence, line managers can’t possibly take care of every new hire anymore Buddies, in this case, are particularly helpful By providing useful information and closer guidance, the buddy program can increase general new employee satisfaction toward the orientation training, the company and the department 3.2 Engagement activities creation Helping a new employee to socialize and fit in with the organization is as important as providing his or her with adequate working skills and knowledge 25 Especially at Linkgo where we believe “teamwork makes dream work”, the connections between employees are of even higher priorities Besides from the buddy program which also helps new hires to familiarize with company’s environment quicker, there is another solution that being widely used, which is “Ice-breaking game” As normal and informal as it sounds, ice-breaking game can have significant impacts in helping new employees to establish their first connections within the company The ways of hosting ice-breaking game depend on different organizations and their creativity, but there are some certain criteria that must be met Every icebreaking game should include the following contents and activities: • Ice-breaking game should create chances for the new hires to interact with old employees and build their first connections with them by asking questions, solving quizzes, etc • Ice-breaking game should be informal and focus on the social sides as it is easier to connect with each other this way • Ice-breaking game should also be the event where old employees can get to know new employees in many aspects of their lives Most of the ice-breaking game starts with the new employees have to go around, ask questions to find out the department and employees with certain interesting characteristics After that, Human Resources Department will host a game for every employee to interact and know more about the new hires Some company with large scale even host a mini engagement event where the new hires must perform and demonstrate their talent in front of the company 26 CONCLUSION All in all, orientation training plays a vital role in every organization despite their scale and budget Retaining and developing human resources starts with the baby steps from orientation training A well-developed orientation program can bring huge benefits to an organization in different aspects By collecting, synthesizing and analyzing the data collected during the internship, as well as establishing theoretical background on L&D and orientation training, strengths and weaknesses of orientation training process at Linkgo are determined Based on these insights, the report also recommends appropriate solutions to solve the issues and further develop Linkgo’s orientation training program Hopefully, this report will be of great help to anyone working in Human resources in general and L&D segment in particular in improving and innovating their orientation program for the organizations Finally, in the process of carrying out the report, due to limited time and knowledge, there are some unavoidable mistakes in this report I’m looking forward to receive constructive feedbacks from teachers and instructor to improve the report 27 REFERENCES Blanchard, P N and Thacker, J W (2006) Effective training - systems, strategies and practices, Training Design Dessler, G (2017) ‘Human Resources Management 15th Ed’, Fortune, p 290 Van Nuys, A (2021) ‘Workplace Learning Report 2021’, LinkedIn Learning Annual Survey Owens, P L and Owens, S (1989) Human Resource management, Progress in Human Geography doi: 10.1177/030913258901300105 United Nations General Assembly (2017) ‘Fulfilling the promise of globalization: advancing sustainable development in an interconnected world: Report of the Secretary-General’, a/72/301, 13609(August), pp 1–17 Available at: https://undocs.org/A/72/301 ... Company Limited and the evaluation of its new employees training process Chapter 2: Evaluation of new employees training process at Linkgo Commercial Investment Company Limited Chapter 3: Recommendations... improve new employees training process at Linkgo Commercial Investment Company Limited 3 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF LINKGO COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT COMPANY LIMITED AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF NEW EMPLOYEES. .. 14 CHAPTER 2: EVALUATION OF NEW EMPLOYEES TRAINING PROCESS AT LINKGO COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT COMPANY LIMITED 2.1 The training process at Linkgo The orientation training at Linkgo also follows