Personal Reflection Essay on Training Event Proposal for Marks and Spencer

This report discusses the process of training plan for Marks and Spencer and the experience of group members during each stage of the event planning. It also includes the acquired skills, subject, course code, and college/university if mentioned.

Personal Reflection Essay

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Different stages of training event proposal..................................................................................3
Things which went well and the areas for improvement.............................................................4
Role as group member.................................................................................................................5
Group working together...............................................................................................................6
Acquired skills.............................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
Books and Journals......................................................................................................................9
Online...........................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Mark and Spencer is one of the major British fashion retailer brand which works
on the multinational levels. The company is headquartered in London, UK. It specialises
in the selling of clothing along with some home products and food products. The
company produces its own label and expanded to various different markets ( Chan, and
et.al., 2019). Many roles of the employees working within Marks and Spencer are
required to have knowledge in the specified areas. This leads to conducting training and
development activities to take out the best performance of the employees and
increasing the efficiency of business. This report deals with the process of training plan
for the company and the experience of group members during each stage of the event
planning.
MAIN BODY
Different stages of training event proposal
Marks and Spencer is looking forward to creating a high level program for its staff
members which will help them provide better support to the shoppers and attain more
customer satisfaction. The focus of the training is to help the employee understand their
roles and responsibilities in a much better way to support the customers as well as the
customers with disabilities. The training session will include the use of some practical
scenarios and some exercises which will help them attain a global mindset and bring
the positive change within the organisation. Main aim of training event is to increase the
awareness in employees about the behaviour of customers. It will help them develop
some practical skills and strategies to work more effectively (Little,and et.al., 2017). I
planned the training event starting with the creation of a team with all the best members.
Then we discussed and established the budget of the complete process. We eliminated
the factors which are not very important and are expensive for the company too.

We required some resources such as using the board room, some laptops and
the feedbacks of employee to have a good understand about what all they are willing to
learn and improve. We approached the most experienced employees of the company to
train the employees. Once the number of people addressing the employees were
confirmed, we then created specific date and time for each of the training session. We
made sure that training event will such that employees can manage their work as well
learning at the same time without staying extra. The last stage of pitching this idea was
very hard, as convincing it to all the senior post staff can be challenging. However, we
started with the basic need for training in the organisation and move on while explaining
the pros of the same. We mentioned that this whole will be done while using only the
main and important resources and will benefit the company as well as employees in the
end.
Things which went well and the areas for improvement
Planing an event of training the employees is not as easy as it sounds. There are
many minor details which have to taken care of such as availability of a white board or a
proper technically connected computer. The aim of the training was to make the staff
understand the needs and demands of the customer in order to address them
accordingly. Working in a group can lead to creating some problems and conflicts as not
all match the mindset of one another. Managing the team was a challenging part as the
difference in views and created problems like lack in coordination (Thomson, and et.al.,
2021). We contacted with few of the highly experienced employees of the company to
take some time out for training the employees and making them better. They can share
their real life experience from working in the company and making the company stay
afloat even during the tough times.
This will help the employees gain the insight from actual examples. Having the
approach of getting the best outcomes from the training process was very beneficial.
However, I believe that during the planning of any process, it is important to have a
backup options for each area involved in it. This training process was delayed due to
some technical problems but a backup system would have helped in avoiding the delay
altogether. There were many visuals used in the training of the employees which came

out to be the best part of the event. Employees got to learn more from the real life
practical scenarios and the visuals than the theory. This made the event a huge
success (Kovačič Lukman. and Virtič, 2018). Moreover, the exercises given to them
made the learning strong. The lack of communication in the team members resulted in
creating so many problems such as the hall was not booked for the time of the training,
the in training study matter was not printed in time. Overall, the team work done was not
up to the mark. It is important to have a team which will help the process become
effective and properly coordinated. This area surely requires many improvements.
Role as group member
For explaining the role of the group members this training event the reflective
model can be used.
Description :
In the I have been part of this training program at the ground level in which I
showed maximum participation in all these events. This training event in the
organization was useful for the employees working to make sure that they need to
provide the customers.
Feeling :
As the part of the group involved in the training event there were certain roles
and responsibilities of the which were needed to be followed by them in order to attain
success in their training and development.
Evaluation :
It was very important for us to follow the essential rules of the training according
to which a proper procedure was needed to be maintained. An important role for us to
coordinate with our colleagues but also to develop other and not just ourselves (Apriani,
2017).
Analysis :
Due to this those employees which were little slow in learning were helped by
each other. It was our responsibility to be sensitive towards the keep the training
premises clean and take care of all the equipments which was used.
Conclusion :

As a group who was responsible for designing the training it was our
responsibility towards this training event and design are to in many ways to set
expectations with the training program design that it will generate results which the
organization is going to be looking for. With the help of knowing what is being expected
from the individuals an aim was able to be established.
Action plan :
In this training event it is also my responsibility that I will be able to make sure the
individuals which are involved are not taking a lot of stress regarding whether they are
able to learn or not. It is important for the employees to be comfortable in the training for
making sure that they are achieving all the success. The main aim of the training event
would be to make sure that the individuals are learning due which it was my
responsibilities that I made sure that every aspect of the training event was to train
people and make sure they develop some learning.
Group working together
Bruce Tuckman's theory model which is used as the theory for effective team
building. With the help of this the designing of this training event the group and how we
worked together very well is explained. In the forming stage of this theory, this group
was successful in establishing guidelines which allowed the members of the group to
get to know each other. This was necessary for the group (Mbirua and Thinguri, 2017).
This was the stage in which the group leader was appointed. In the storming stage this
group started developing understanding of this training event and what it was meant for.
However, in this stage the operations necessary for the designing and planning of the
event began. With that came competition among the individuals. I was also intimidated
by this performance of the individuals due to which the competition between the group
members increase which also gave rise to the conflicts. In the Norming stage of the
group every one seemed to know their job role and have developed a relationship
between the different employees of the group. In this stage the main development
between the members were regarding developing a team spirit which influenced co-
ordination. In the performing stage of which was the final stage of this theory the team
was successful in performing the training event very successfully (Jie, 2017). This was
also the stage in which the team was able to recognize their own development.

In our group there were four kinds of team members,
Contributor:
These were people which made sure that any task allotted to them is getting
completed in time. I considered myself as contributor to our group.
Collaborator:
Among our group there were people which were very important for setting the
right track for the project and also those who keeps the team together.
Communicator:
These are people which were making sure that the operation of the training event
went smoothly (Ngo, 2016).
Challenger:
A challenger was the person who always questioned themselves and other with
the bigger picture which they have in mind. They set a challenge for themselves to
accomplish.
Acquired skills
I have developed a lot after the planning, designing and management of the
training event of our organization. Some skills I developed on this journey were the
organizational skills which were the reflection of the activities which are the part of the
this training process. My organizational skills improved as I was around many people
who were a lot organized and demanded organization it all the activities which were the
part of the event. I was also able to develop network savvy skills which was useful for
some operation which were required in the training event. The problems and issues
which I faced in the training event increased my resilience and also made me more
adaptable to changes which can occur without planning (Mokkink and et.al.,2019).
Some basic things I developed were that I understood how an event is planned,
what takes for an event to be successful. I understood the structure which was involved
with an event, I also understood the importance of the roles played by the different
people which are involved in the event. Due to this training event I was able to develop
new creativity skills which I could utilize in future for decreasing the efforts and
maximizing the outcome. I understood the importance of the client services, from the
experiences which I developed during the planning designing and organization of this

event I was able to understand the importance of the proving proper services to the
client. This event was successful in also teaching me certain things which I was not
aware of regarding the training which was held. I very properly examined the training
due to which I was able to develop myself even more.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that a training within an organisation works with different
stages such as design, planning and pitching the ideas to the seniors of the company.
There are many things which needed some improvements while some were applauding.
Team working skills and quantities are very important in order to keep the plan go as
planned as each individual's contribution matters in such project. Each member of the
group has some specific role to play in as the project moves forward. From the starting
till the completion of this project, there were many skills gained in the process because
of working with so many people, coming out of comfort stage, taking responsibility and
so on. Moreover, the reflection is explained with the help of reflective theories and
concepts.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Apriani, M.S., 2017. Characteristics analysis of learning model using the context of
reflective pedagogy paradigm. In International Conference on Research in
Education, proceeding (pp. 85-98).
Chan, and et.al., 2019. A systematic review of the effects of advance care planning
facilitators training programs. BMC Health Services Research. 19(1). pp.1-14.
Jie, Z.H.E.N., 2017. Application of Tuckman’s Model in the Community Folk Team
Management in Community Education.
Kovačič Lukman, R. and Virtič, P., 2018. Developing Energy Concept Maps–An
Innovative Educational Tool for Energy Planning. Journal of Sustainable
Development of Energy. Water and Environment Systems. 6(4). pp.742-754.
Little,and et.al., 2017. Using Rapid Improvement Event Methodology for Disaster
Planning Improvement During Information Technology Failures. Prehospital and
Disaster Medicine. 32(S1). pp.S64-S65.
Mbirua, M.W. and Thinguri, R.W., 2017. A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE
EFFECTIVENESS OF TEAMWORK MANAGEMENT ON A WORKING
RELATIONSHIP IN KENYAN PRIMARY SCHOOLS. European Journal of
Education Studies.
Mokkink, L.B., and et.al.,2019. COSMIN Study Design checklist for Patient-reported
outcome measurement instruments. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Thomson, and et.al., 2021. Virtual reality for better event planning and management. In
Impact of ICTs on event management and marketing (pp. 177-198). IGI Global.
Online
Ngo, S., 2016. the 4 types of team players.[Online]. Available through:
<https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/the-4-types-of-team-players-
which-are-you.html/>