develop a training program for EBC Corporation
Memo Writing Assignment: EBC Corporation
You work for EBC Corporation. The executive team of the company has identified a deficiency in the communication competence of a number of employees at the firm. Your supervisor, Dr. Dwyer, is on the executive team and has asked you to develop an idea that she could present to the executive team at the next meeting to address the issue. The budget is very limited, and the exec team feels they need to prioritize the areas to be addressed, be creative, preserve the culture of the firm, and improve skill sets. They can do this through a variety of different approaches and have asked for proposals. Please select yourself into one of the departments below and write the memo from that perspective.
HR Department
Your supervisor believes the answer to enhancing communication competencies of EBC employees is to improve the quality of future hires. Your supervisor wishes to convince the team that targeting communication competencies (e.g., presentations, interpersonal, business writing) during recruitment and selection across all business functions is the best course. Your goal is to convince the team to change the recruitment and selection process to include a focus on communication competence in new hires.
Marketing Department
Your supervisor and you know, as marketers, that your background in communication skills comes from the training that you received at UT. You believe that the best way to enhance communication competencies is to provide all employees a training seminar in marketing communications. This would include both internal and external marketing, and both one on one, as well as mass marketing communication skills. Your goal is to propose that your department develop a training program for EBC.
Sales Department
Your sales manager and you put your heads together. You believe that since the sales function is responsible for the revenue generation aspect of the firm, it is critical that the sales function be targeted first on any new initiatives to develop communication competency. You also feel sales skills should be taught to all employees since the customer is everyone’s responsibility. You have some ideas to use role-play assessment and one-on-one coaching to enhance sales communication competencies. Your goal is to sell the exec team on this training and to pilot it with the sales force.
Finance and Accounting Function
Your supervisor reviewed the budget carefully, and feels the best place for funding communication competency development is from the Continuous Learning Fund (CLF). This fund has been a core of EBC’s culture, supporting on-going university education. The executive team made a commitment not to reduce CLF budget, regardless of EBC’s financial situation, and there has been some accumulation of funds over time. There is sufficient funding for 25-30% of the employees to take one class one semester, over the next 2 years. You identified a course, BUAD 2030, at UT that would address this competency and you propose using CLF to support it. Your goal is to make the case for this approach.
