Introduction
Sidra Medicine is a world-class health facility in Qatar providing medical and research services focused on women and children. The facility introduced a career development plan to increase employee proficiency and productivity as part of a probe by the Qatari nation at large to increase and competency of workers. Career developed plan is a project concerned with the training of employees to enhance their skills and knowledge on their careers to advance their careers.
Over the past few decades, there has been a significant increase in companies and organizations opting for employee training across the globe. This new trend has seen many human resource sectors establish programs whose sole purpose is to increase productivity via competency-based employee training. The surge in demand for training services has led to the need to study these training programs to determine their efficiency. These studies also play a significant role in providing information on the aspects of these programs that require moderation or review. This case study evaluates the various parts of the plan as well as the outcome of the program.
Overview of the organization & Organization Chart
Methodology
The research methodology used in this case study was qualitative research. Further, face-to-face interviews were conducted on a selected sample of 3 employees who works at Sidra Medicine. A set of open and closed questions were used together with scale questions during the interviews (Appendix1)
The Story
The number of Qatari employees in Sidra Medicine is not more than 350 employees, representing 10%. In line with the national vision of Qatar, “Increase the number of competent Qatari workers” in a different sector, Sidra’s plans are focused on increasing the number of Qatari employees by investing in their Education and Development. However, the satisfaction and engagement of the Qatari employees were decreasing, and the Qatari turnover ratio was increased in the last five years.
Sidra launched the Career Development Plan Program last year to help maintain and retain Qatari talents in Sidra. The pilot program was exclusive for Qatari interested and voluntarily wanted to be enrolled in the program. The engagement and motivation of Qataris are still low, and a lot of them choose to leave Sidra.
Career Development Plan (CDP)
According to Learnerbly, CDP is “a personal roadmap of someone’s career goals, with steps of how to achieve them” (Malec, 2021). The CDP is essential for organizations as well as employees for several reasons:
For Organizations, it helps up-skill employees, enhancing performance and reducing the cost of hiring externally. Also, it improves career development, helps retain talented employees, and reduces turnover rates. For Employees, it helps them make progress in their careers, leading to workplace satisfaction and ultimately enhancing their performance. It also makes them feel Valued and gives meaning to their Job, which increases employees’ engagement.
CDP Program in Sidra Medicine
Sidra has introduced the CDP program for Nationals, which offers a voluntary enrolment for nations and runs for one year. The Talent Management team supervises the process, and the manager conducts an assessment to rate the employee competencies. The program sets the development goals based on the competencies rates, and quarterly review meetings are held to measure the progress. The last or final review meeting defines if competencies are achieved and ready for the position or require another development plan.
Fishbone and SWOT analysis
Theoretically, the career development plan is an efficient program that promises its providers good results. However, data obtained from the questionnaires distributed among employees show intriguing details concerning the efficiency and practicability of the project. The SWOT analysis below highlights various aspects of the program.
Strengths
The program exhibits superior results in terms of improving the competency standards of employees. This program enhanced the employees’ skills and talent in its course. Employees report a better understanding of their work and a better flow of work between subsequent departments in the organization.
Corporate training has also been known to establish the strengths and weaknesses of individual employees as well as the issues and challenges they face in their line of duty. This gives employers a platform to address and fix these grievances appropriately. Working in an environment where one’s wellbeing is considered brings great satisfaction and motivation towards one’s work and responsibilities, thus achieving the company’s goals and objectives effectively.
Weaknesses
The program proves that it is necessary to do shortcomings in assessing the effect and progress of the employees’ development more frequently. These assessments will help avoid the risk of the irrelevance of the program and advice the providers accordingly on the much-needed moderation of the program. The program does not address problems specific to the organization or individual employees. The program also failed to establish the relationship and integration between the employees and employers.
Opportunities
The program is capable of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of employees. This factor could be a fundamental tool in advising the management on the possible adjustments in their task force regarding duty allocation, promotions, and motivation modalities. The program could also improve the productivity of the organization extension since it improves employees’ skills and talent in their work and duties.
Threats
The mode of operation of Sidra medicine is very volatile owing to external and internal factors. Competition and government policy are also a course of the frequent change in trends involved. The career development plan is not designed to address these issues, posing a threat to the expected outcome of the program.
The career development program also exhibits a problem with employee attitude towards the training. Employees who show a negative attitude towards the program show equally low interest in their various duties within the organization. This poses a threat to the management as the poor attitude of the employees towards the program will have adverse effects on their motivation and productivity.
Alternatives & Recommendation
Poor results yielded by the program prompt obligation to the human resource and the program providers to change the execution and implementation. The data obtained from the survey and recommendations sought from the literature review should base these changes. The CDP personnel should review the program to enhance communication skills among workers and between the management and employees. This enhancement will improve the integration between employers and their employees.
The program should also ensure the incorporation of employee participation in the training. Employees’ involvement in problem-solving and decision-making brings about employee satisfaction and improves performance.
Finally, the program providers should change their training approach to adapt to the constantly changing business, government policy, and corporate environment. These recommendations will ensure that the program runs well and remains relevant despite the changes subjected.
One of the main purposes of employee training is to enhance the skills and knowledge levels of workers. Practitioners have stated the need for these programs to have a targeted approach to the system and modalities of operation of the specified company, hence yielding better results in terms of employee performance and productivity. As a result, both the employer and the employees are clearly satisfied with their work.
Conclusion
Human capital is a crucial investment venture in ensuring the productivity of an organization. There is an apparent need for Sidra medicine to devise and implement significant changes to improve the outcome of the career development plan. The recommendations outlined in this study pose a great potential in improving and managing satisfaction in the program and their duties and responsibilities within the organization. Workplace training is considered by experts as one of the pillars of enhancement of the productivity of a company’s task force. Training molds and focuses employees towards the vision and mission of the company. It consequently brings about a feeling of satisfaction for both the employers and the employees in their work (Gould, J., 2017). There is, however, a need for researchers to carry out studies in areas concerning workplace training as there is evidently still a lot to uncover to ensure that workers welfare and productivity is ensured.
References
Gould, J. (2017). Career development: An action plan. Nature, 548(7668), 489-490.
Kitana, A. F., & Karam, A. A. (2019). Career Development among Entry-Level Employees: A Case Study on Employees in the United Arab Emirates. Modern Applied Science, 13(5).
Lee, Y., & Lee, J. Y. (2018). A multilevel analysis of individual and organizational factors that influence the relationship between career development and job performance improvement. European Journal of Training and Development.
Nawaz, W., & Koç, M. (2020). Case Study: Qatar. In Industry, University and Government Partnerships for the Sustainable Development of Knowledge-Based Society (pp. 71-106). Springer, Cham.
Questionnaire
- Explain the CDP program in Sidra (open question)
- Do you think the CDP has reached its target (yes/no)
- What are the challenges/potential risks (genuine question)
- Was the management commitment evident (yes/no)
- What are the strategies put in place to overcome the challenges? (Open question)
- How successfully do you think the CDP program is (from 0 – 5)
- How satisfied the line managers/mentors are (from 0 -5)
- How happy are the enrolled employees in the program (0 -5)
- Do you think the CDP contributes to improving the work environment in Sidra (0-5)
- Do you think the performance of enrolled employees has been improved (0-5) (Do you think the objective of the CPD program met?)