Ernst & Young: Use of Virtual Brainstorming to Identify Training Needs

EY’s Use of Virtual Brainstorming to Identify Training Needs
Author’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Code and Name
Professor’s Name
Date
EY’s Use of Virtual Brainstorming to Identify Training Needs
In addition to the virtual brainstorming, what other methods could EY have used to conduct the needs assessment?
Ernst & Young (EY) had the primary objective of ensuring that its employees know how to apply their skills, behavior, and knowledge to offer excellent customer service and increase margins. In that light, virtual brainstorming was an effective method. However, there are other methods that EY would have used to perform its needs assessments. These strategies would have arose from conducting person and task analysis appropriately. In particular, personal analysis entails identifying if performance deficiencies emanate from the lack of skill, ability, knowledge, work-design, or motivational problem (Noe, 2019). In contrast, task analysis involves determining essential tasks, behaviors, knowledge, and skills that should be emphasized in employees’ training so that they can be the best in what they do. By considering these two analyses, EY would have used observation, technology, and surveys.
EY transformed from being an accounting and consulting company to an international professional service firm. Since the organization started operated in new geographical locations, it was good to first observe how their employees interacted with their customers. For the company to make sure that it got the best feedback, it would have used experts to evaluate how its workers’ behaviors, skills, or knowledge determined whether clients would return for more services or not. The best thing about observation is that EY would have recorded the favorable and unfavorable employees’ skills, knowledge, and behaviors. Notably, the way workers handle clients in a specific region might not work in another area due to varying cultural beliefs and values. Technology was another crucial need assessment method that EY would have used (Noe, 2019). Indeed, it can facilitate observation and also be used by clients to rate customer services they received from the company. Additionally, conducting surveys from employees based on the challenges they encounter and how they resolved them would have helped identify the most outstanding skills, behaviors, and knowledge to foster good customer service and increase margins.
Describe the method, why you would recommend it, and who would be involved.
Based on the three needs assessment methods discussed above that EY would have used, the most recommendable is observation, followed by surveys, and technology. EY should have considered using observations in its different locations instead of generalizing training for all its employee serving clients in distinctive regions. Some of the benefits of observation are generating relevant environment-specific data, minimizing work interruptions, and understanding how c...