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Abertsen, K. CASE STUDY 3: Adult Workplace Education Ferguson, S T-500 McCarren, A. Dec 1, 2006 Niemitz, M. 1/3 Reengineering business processes is a time and budget intensive activity, but one that is necessary in order to stay competitive in the global business market. As the consultants for this business process reengineering project, we present here our recommendations for the most effective methods to complete this reengineering process. These recommendations reflect what we feel to be the most cost and time efficient ways to complete the necessary facets of the business process reengineering. Training Staff to Use New Types of Office Applications In order to make the best use of limited resources, it is our recommendation that the company organize a series of virtual workshops for the purpose of training staff to use new types of office applications. Trained instructors should meet with small groups of staff (10-15 people) via Internet-based video conferencing software, such as Epresence. At the outset the instructors should give online presentations explaining procedures and demonstrating functions of the new applications. In this type of environment, staff members may be issued coded log-ins by the instructors. Therefore, instructors would know who has completed the workshop, but participants would be anonymous to one another. This would free inhibitions and allow staff to ask more questions. The small size of the groups would keep the question and answer periods short, while allowing more people to have their concerns addressed. Keeping the groups to 15 people or less would also encourage staff to attend the workshops, inasmuch as the instructors would be better able to keep attendance. For any employees who require additional help, telementoring hours could be offered by trainers after the virtual workshops had been completed. Conducting these workshops and mentoring online would allow staff to participate from anywhere, whether they are in the office, working from home, or abroad on business. Workshops would be archived online automatically, so that staff hired later on or others who absolutely could not attend one of the initial workshops would be able to download a file off of the company website and watch the presentation from any computer with Internet access. Additional telementoring as well as optional periodic refresher workshops would also be available for such cases. Communicating to Mid-Level Managers a Detailed Understanding of the Rationale Underlying the Business Process Reengineering and a Comprehension of What This Means for Their Role The hierarchical structure of companies and the top-down approach to management of personnel hinges on the large group of mid-level managers "buying in" to business process reengineering. Therefore, the decision of which approach that the company must take to help these managers understand the changes and their role in the new business structure is crucial. It is our recommendation that the top managers use an initial face-to-face interaction with their mid-level managers followed by role-playing in a multi-user environment and a telementoring support network. The initial face-to-face interaction is necessary to allay the potential fears the mid-level managers may have about their roles in the newly engineering business and to ensure them that they are an important part of the success of the reengineering phase. The face-to-face interaction would also present an opportunity to communicate the rationale behind the reengineering. Following the face-to-face interaction, it would be necessary to train the mid-level managers on the new system as a way of helping them understand the rationale for the changes and their role in the new system. We recommend using a role-playing Multi User Virtual Environment (MUVE) that would simulate the new business process and allow for multiple roles to be played by different people. Mid-level managers could start by playing their own roles in the new system and then spend time playing the roles of their employees to enable them to understand the roles of those whom they manage. A telementoring system should also be Abertsen, K. CASE STUDY 3: Adult Workplace Education Ferguson, S T-500 McCarren, A. Dec 1, 2006 Niemitz, M. 2/3 set up whereby one senior manager would be assigned to several mid-level managers and would serve as an advisor via telephone conferences to help solve potential problems or misunderstanding in the new system. In addition, these groups will have the opportunity to use the MUVE to simulate any problems that may arise requiring guidance from senior management. Teaching All Employees about "Total Quality Management" and How to Create Small Groups Focused on Quality for Their Functional Area in the Corporation Because of the global importance of "total quality management" to any corporation, this module should be highly engaging. Therefore, if the company in question is small enough, it may want to consider a company- wide face to face instructional seminar to introduce broad notions of quality, what this means to the company, and how best to achieve it. Barring this, an environment such as a MUVE would be a very viable and (inter)active alternative. On a very physical level -- albeit virtually, via avatars -- employees would learn that they each play a distinct role in maintaining the quality of the product that the corporation produces. They would have the opportunity to engage in company-wide instruction, followed by activities and examples tailored to their functional areas. The instructor, meanwhile, would have the opportunity to traverse the MUVE, checking in on the progress of each group and offering tips and pointers. Following this company-wide training session, employees would return to their particular departments within the company and implement what they had learned in the face to face seminar or the MUVE. The two instructional methods we recommend for quality control in small functional areas are videoconferencing and telementoring. Videoconferencing is useful for disseminating information to a smaller group, while at the same time encouraging group interaction, input, and questions and answers. Meanwhile, telementoring is especially useful for one-on-one issues of quality management; if a particular employee has a question or, worse, presents a problem, an employer can discretely intervene and offer coaching. Instructing Managers at All Levels on How to Handle the Interpersonal Dimensions of Downsizing and Layoffs This task is best accomplished in a face to face meeting, because we are dealing with highly sensitive issues. Managers at every level may not be able to convey through any type of technology the tone, expression and body language appropriate for the difficult task of informing staff about downsizing and layoffs. From a corporate perspective, we would also recommend all of these potentially litigious interactions and strategies be protected through one on one verbal communication. This would decrease legal exposure of the company and increase its ability to be candid with its employees. After the initial meeting is handled face-to-face, there would be a series of interactive teleconferences within each division to inform the employees of their severance packages, benefits, counseling and out- placement. A manager and a human resources employee would direct these information sessions and would be available to answer questions afterwards. Through a program like Epresence, employees would also have the opportunity to email questions anonymously. For 30 days after the downsizing notification, a qualified corporate psychologist should be available via one-on-one online interaction to assist with the non-financial needs of our staff. These sessions would be handled much like an online tutoring session. Web cameras would be optional. If the employee wishes to remain anonymous, synchronous or asynchronous discussion using a pseudonym would also available. The face to face downsizing notification meetings would require some travel and would therefore be somewhat costly, but the company could keep expenses down afterwards by doing all follow-ups through Abertsen, K. CASE STUDY 3: Adult Workplace Education Ferguson, S T-500 McCarren, A. Dec 1, 2006 Niemitz, M. 3/3 teleconferences and asynchronous and synchronous discussions. Teaching Product Design and Development Engineers How to Use Technologies for "Communication across Distance and Time" to Reduce Travel Costs and Increase Collaborative Interaction, Design, and Decision Making This form of instruction encourages considerable creativity and the use of multimedia on the part of its student-employees. Therefore, two elements of the instructional program are crucial to its success. The first is that students are given adequate time to develop, design, and learn to use these new technologies. The second is that students are encouraged to incorporate various types of media into the learning and production process. It is for these reasons that face-to-face, real-time, and one-dimensional interactions are not ideal forms of instruction. Furthermore, certain forms of videoconferencing and telementoring also seem inadequate for the demands of the course; again, they do not offer students enough time to think about and work with the design and collaborative nature of the material. While MUVEs incorporate a multimedia dimension, the real-time interaction decreases their effectiveness on the developmental level. Therefore, we recommend a combination of teleconferencing such as EPresence or WebEx, asynchronous instruction, and groupware assignments. EPresence or WebEx would allow for a sophisticated initial instructional lesson demonstrating various forms of media. In a follow-up asynchronous discussion, the instructor would pose questions that students may reflect on over a period of time, allowing them room for creativity, exploration of other design models and tools, website archives, etc. As the asynchronous discussion grows, students can play off one another's ideas in a collaborative, developmental environment. This collaboration would be expanded upon in a groupware forum. Groups would convene via Google docs (or another such program) and, using the program's multimedia functions, produce collaborative documents on Google Word, PowerPoint, etc. As a final project, groups could even attempt to create a blueprint for a more complex multimedia project (such as Flash animation, an entire website, etc) via such a program. Each member would then develop the project individually, and then reconvene to compare results. Accomplishing Other Key Linkages Once staff had been notified of the reorganization, it is our recommendation that the company provide an online job bank where potential employers could match the skills they are seeking with those of a qualified employee whose position is being eliminating. All state agencies should also be notified of the virtual employment center. We further recommend that employees who remain with the company have regular "virtual retreats" to learn about the latest implementation of new technologies, as well as face-to-face retreats where members of each division would participate in team-building augmented reality exercises on the corporate campus. These retreats would build trust among the employees and help engage them in the company’s new products and development. Conclusion The recommendations presented here will require an innovative use of new technologies, but we stress that the use of this technology is only effective if the user is committed to the purpose behind it. Technology use is not the end goal of these recommendations. It serves as a streamlined and efficient means to complete the change phase, however, its success or failure hinges on whether the company can use the technology with their end goals in mind. We are committed to helping you reach these goals and to utilize the unique tools we present here.
