The Idea:

In this course we have learned many ideas about what good supervision practice looks like. Every chapter that we have studied, identifies some good tip or practice that a supervisor should follow. $($Review our course outline to see the chapters that we have covered.$)$

Imagine that you are a consultant for a company that advises clients on how to train its supervisors. That will be your role. Your potential client is Altamira Metals and your Report will try to influence them to hire you to train their supervisors.

Your Report package must be submitted in the Dropbox by Tuesday April $16$th at midnight. This Report is a solo assignment. Turnitin will be used as this is an exam scenario. To ensure a lower Turnitin score do not include this assignment document in your final submission.

The Client:

A new CEO has taken over at Altamira Metals. That CEO has approached you to set up a four$-$hour training program for all their supervisors to attend next month. They run a non$-$union machine shop that uses older technology as well as newer computerized technology. They have $150$ employees in three locations. A third of all the employees are under $30$ and have been with Altamira Metals for less than three years. A third of the employees are older workers over the age of $48$ and have been with the Company for at least $20$ years. The balance is in the middle. Even though the machine shop has been a male$-$dominated workplace, Altamira Metals has had more female engineers and technicians join them in the last three years. This is a change that the organization is getting used to$.$

They have about fifteen supervisors in the organization. Most have grown up from within the organization and were promoted because of their technical skills. Altamira Metals has never previously offered supervisory training before, but the CEO feels that it$$s time to do so now.

Here are some facts that you found out about Altamira Metals when you met with the new CEO in creating your needs analysis:

$$ Since the Covid pandemic, Altamira has a retention issue as relatively new hires are leaving. At exit interviews these employees have cited part of their reason for leaving as inflexibility and micro$-$management by supervisors. Some supervisors appear more $$old school$$ and reluctant to be flexible with the newer knowledge workers being hired. Although some of the work was successfully done remotely during pandemic, it now seems that Supervisors are resisting any notion of remote work. What practices might Altamira introduce to stem this turnover?

$$ Performance reviews for all staff are done as of October $31$st each year. They are often submitted late, poorly done and are superficial, lacking in detail. The new CEO wants to make performance feedback a higher priority.

$$ The new CEO was concerned that recent expensive robotic machinery was not being used to the extent planned. When he asked some supervisors about this, they said that although some workers had gone to the training, $$they did not seem to get it$.$ When the CEO followed up with two of these workers, they reported that the training was excellent but that given the high pace of their regular work, they were kept too busy using the old technology to build their skill in the new technology.

$$ The Health and Safety culture has been strong but he has noticed that workers sometimes are not wearing appropriate safety equipment. It seems that the newer supervisors are often reluctant to enforce all safety rules for fear of having their workers angry at them for doing so$.$ He wonders if these new supervisors fully understand their obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

$$ Supervisors manage the hiring process as the HR function is small and very limited$.$ Supervisors usually interview candidates themselves. Turnover in some departments is high as many new hires are dismissed after probation due to lack of the required skills for the jobs for which they have been hired. The CEO wonders if supervisors have the necessary skills to hire the right candidates. How could the hiring process be made stronger?

$$ The new CEO has been doing some reading and wants to create an environment where employees will be more engaged in their work and with the organization. Any suggestions?

Can you help them?

Required:

You will be responsible for creating a Business Report identifying what you would recommend as a supervisory training program for Altamira Metals. Basically, this means your recommendation as to how you would fill a four$-$hour training day for Supervisors.

Use the attached template for each topic in your presentation. Maximum $4$ one$-$hour topic sessions. Minimum $3$ topic sessions $2$ one$-$hour sessions

Length of Session:

Topic:

Key Content Points $($What will you cover?

What Assumptions or evidence lead you to this recommendation?

Why do you think this would be important? $($How will this improve the functioning of Altamira Metals?$)$