A Proposal for Training and Mentoring for My Real Estate Company

Many organizations have seen ongoing changes in recent years as a result of their reactions to the frequently changing external, local, and global environment. The demand for efficiency has been enhanced further by technological developments. Therefore, there is a need for ongoing process evaluation and improvement, system augmentation, and strategic workplace improvement. Companies should consequently regularly monitor and review their operations to ascertain the need for change in order to maintain the necessary competitiveness. An organization must then fill any gaps found if it is to survive. The most appropriate change implementation program for underperforming employees would incorporate the implementation of regular training towards all the organizational workers for organizational improvement. Our real estate company known as Realty One Group has in recent years been realizing significant failures towards the efficiency of the employees and the generation of lower profits. Since its corporation, the company has been providing training exercises to employees. However, the training sessions have been taking a lot of time thus consuming time that would otherwise be used to engage in other profitable activities for the firm. Besides, the newly recruited agents have been causing numerous mistakes as they begin their career in the firm. It has been difficult for the agents to conduct business when they come to the company readily. Similarly, the seasoned agents have been known to generate common errors that have also been affecting the firm's operations negatively. The workers, both the new and seasoned agents, have inadequate knowledge regarding the real estate contracts while also misunderstanding the clients' conducts. It is, therefore, possible that the agents are suffering from carelessness, negligence, and laxity.
While aiming to reverse the situation, the company recently realized the need for training of its new employee as well as the seasoned workers. Therefore, the newly licensed and the seasoned agents require a comprehensive training for the company to be able to realize a robust client management strategy and faster implementation of the firm's activities. Realty One Group has planned to make four kinds of changes. In particular, in its training process, the company shall adopt four strategies of affecting the change. For instance, through tuning, incremental training shall be conducted to employees regarding new technologies within the real estate in anticipation of any future changes. Shin, Taylor, and Seo (2012) note the importance of inducing employees psychologically to accept change. Therefore, the adaptation changes will be made in response to the recent wave of common errors and inefficiencies while redirection will focus on creating strategic changes among the employees based on their skills. Furthermore, since the employees' inefficiencies and the numerous errors they have been making while handling clients have threatened the company's existence, employees shall be trained to handle any eventualities regarding the relevant laws and on how to approach the clients.
Diagnosis of The Organization's Need and Readiness for Change
Realty One Group had has been realizing favorable performances from the trained staff that have enabled the firm to register improvements and positive public image towards the clients. In fact, the company had been among the most reliable and dependable within the real estate sector. Unfortunately, the senior management team members are likely to resist the change proposed. The company recently surveyed its employees by presenting a questionnaire to assess the proportion that is ready to accept change. Unfortunately, the company only realized a score of 20, indicating the workers' disregard for any change. According to the lower level management and staff, the main reason given in their rejection of change was lack of resources. On the other hand, other employees pointed to inadequate time as well as heavy workload they have. Most of the employees find it a waste of time if they leave their duties to focus on the training process yet they have substantial objectives to realize. It is evident that the employees do not consider the common error and lack of adequate knowledge as a reason they should take part in the training program. According to Jehanzeb, Rasheed, and Rasheed (2013), training has a potential for solving numerous challenges that workers undergo.

The current failure rate of the company may be rated at 50% because the high level of inefficiencies and the numerous errors that workers are committing is significantly contributing to lower profits the company is realizing. Poor mastery of the customer engagement techniques has been forcing the possible business people to seek real estate services and products from somewhere else instead of approaching the company. Besides, fewer agents are being attracted into the firm hence lowering the rate of business, which eventually leads to lower revenues. Many mistakes being made by the newly licensed agents also facilitate poor quality services from the company hence undermining the firm's previously motivating progress. Initially, the Realty One Group had been considered a fast-growing brokerage model in the industry. However, every mistake committed by the new employees has a potential of causing not only economic loses but also lead to fewer clients coming to work with the firm. Consequently, the loss in revenues may be attributed to lack of adequate knowledge among the new agents and the common mistakes from the experienced agents. Therefore, the company has a target of zero percent of agents making common errors and a 100% increase inefficiency among all the agents.

The need for change is an urgent objective. The company needs to continue its operations without stopping given the high workload for the employees. It is, therefore, necessary that the training of employees is carried out as soon as possible so that the company can start realizing high profits while also taking a shorter training session. Thus, even though the resources would be inadequate, the company will need to make plans on how the workers could be trained within the next one week. There is an urgent need for the company to create a new training plan, a comprehensive and practical system that shall speed up the training processes. Unfortunately, most of the employees are likely to resist the changes mainly because they believe they should be concentrating on work rather than training. For instance, the company's broker who leads all the training activities may not realize that training employees will lead to the company's efficiency and effectiveness. Correspondingly, other internal stakeholders like the new hires, the experienced workers, and other low-level leaders may believe they have adequate experience, therefore, resist the training process.
Failure to implement the change process might adversely affect the company's operations (Diamantidis & Chatzoglou, 2014). In particular, the new employees have not acquainted themselves with the standards and regulations expected in handling customers. On the other hand, the experienced agents will continue committing numerous common mistakes that will lead to the reduction of the company's competitiveness within the real estate industry. The low pace of training equally consumes much time that will make the company spend more resources like time and money thereby making the company cause massive losses. Therefore, if no change is implemented, Realty One Group will be unable to efficiently compete due to the technological application, which requires a more competent and experienced workforce.

Change Strategy and Action Plan
In a bid to induce the change for the company, the management shall focus on the most efficient and practical ways of ensuring that the employees accept the training programs. The leaders shall organize employee training activities after every five months to all the company's personnel. Since many employees are likely to resist the change, Kotter's eight-step process shall be adopted to ensure that the idea is embraced by all the employees. Firstly, the company shall establish a sense of urgency to inspire and motivate the workers. The management shall identify potential threats that may happen in case the training is not conducted. Relevant scenarios will, therefore, need to be created after which the administration shall examine available opportunities to be exploited and then start an honest discussion with the employees. In the process, the management may request support from all the stakeholders. For success, at least 75% of all the stakeholders need to be convinced to accept the idea (Rajan & Ganesan, 2017).
The second stage involves the formation of a powerful coalition. The key people in the company shall be expected to mobilize the change leaders to operate within teams. Therefore, the groups will work together in the development of strategies that facilitate the achievement of training of all the employees. The team leaders will also create a vision for change based on some ideas generated by employees and external stakeholders like clients, escrow or title companies. Several concepts developed shall, therefore, be linked to the vision which people can understand efficiently. The leaders, hence, need to communicate the vision to all the people in the company. The idea implementers shall, therefore, ensure they communicate frequently and powerfully. During the communication process, people's concerns and anxieties shall be responded to openly and honestly. Hornstein (2015) notes the importance of proper crisis management during a change process in an organization.
Any factors hindering the change process shall then be considered by the team through the establishment of the relevant structures that prevent possible implementation barriers. The implementers may reward people who are facilitating the change process. The sixth stage entails the creation of short-term wins which highlight emerging success. The leaders should then plan visible performance improvements that would help in the encouragement of the workers, especially those whose performances are exemplary. Improvement consolidation should then be done in the seventh stage whereby all the failures and successful operations are analyzed. The team equally needs to set goals that shall help in building the necessary momentum towards the achievement of the primary objective. Kotter has noted that many change projects have always failed because the implementers typically take part in early celebration thus losing focus on the fundamental goal (Rajan & Ganesan, 2017). The stage also includes the hiring of competent employees who would ensure effective implementation of the vision for employees training. The last change management process, therefore, requires anchoring the alterations within the organizational culture, so that the training shall be carried out after every five months. Employees should be reminded of the progress at every chance and the success stories be publicized. The last stage shall end when the first training has been conducted whereby people can understand the reason for training hence appreciates its benefits. The company's management shall always provide the necessary training resources like the training venues, facilitators as well as the training materials like stationery.
Unfortunately, there may be barriers that hinder the change implementation process. The lower level management may decide to use the organizational resources for purposes other than the training of employees. Similarly, lack of time among the employees may also deter the changes because most employees indicate that they have heavy workloads that they need to accomplish. Lack of motivation among the employees may equally obstruct the company from implementing a robust change process. Leaders may also be unable to influence other workers to accept adjustments thereby making it impossible to achieve the planned changes. There may also be fear of the unknown in which some employees may believe that the changes may be a risk towards their job security. Poor communication may equally make it complicated to implement any positive change in an organization while complexities may also inhibit a viable change process.
As noted by Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols (2016), an organizational management may overcome the barriers by creating an effective communication strategy with proper organization capabilities. Training sessions should also be based on flexible work schedules whereby the workers are allowed to attend the training sessions during their free time. Change implementers may even motivate the workers by giving presents to those who perform well. Fear of the uncertainty may be eliminated by ensuring that all the people within the organization are adequately counseled and encouraged to accept changes. Proper communication should be facilitated so that any doubts and worries are responded to by assuring all the parties regarding their job securities. Opposing forces should also be promised financial rewards as well as other lucrative incentives after the implementation of the changes. The organization should also engage proactive leaders who are change-oriented so that the intended changes are efficiently implemented.

Benefits of a Successful Implementation
The successful implementation of the change process would lead to increased profitability to the firm. Besides, those who are opposing the changes will receive shares of the profits realized while they also gain from other beneficial enticements. The training will also enable the workers to achieve growth opportunities, job securities together with financial benefits when the firm makes profits. Furthermore, the workers may be promoted based on excellent performance in their duties. The errors will also be minimized by the trained workers whereas agents will be able to approach clients professionally thus attracting more clients and higher revenues for Realty One Group. For instance, it is also possible for the company to receive higher revenues from its operations hence increasing its profitability as a result of the change that results from proper management techniques (Cawsey, Deszca, & Ingols, 2016). After training, the employees are likely to follow all the necessary laws and regulations hence enabling the company to realize favorable public image, offer quality services thus become more competitive.
Realty One Group would introduce three measures for evaluating the implementation of the change. Firstly, the company would provide data and statistics for the gaps that need rectifications. After the execution, such data would be used to gauge any progress made after the implementation. Secondly, the implementation of the change would be evaluated by considering the profitability of the firm. If the training leads to increased efficiency, agents may perform their duties efficiently thus leading to an increase in profitability. Thirdly, the number of errors may be monitored and used to gauge the success of changes implemented.

Conclusion
Since the Realty One Group employees have been underperforming in their duties, the company should implement a comprehensive change program. Mainly, there should be a regular training which should be conducted after every five months to improve efficiency. The organizational management should adopt Kotter's change management plan to introduce the training program to the company. Indeed, such changes would revive the company hence improving its performance and stability. A new training plan and an efficient system shall also facilitate the firm's success in quicker training sessions and the realization of more competent employees. Specifically, Realty One Group should start by the creation of urgency among the employees to help workers realize the need for training.















References
Cawsey, T. T., Deszca, G., & Ingols, C. A. (2016). Organizational change: An action-oriented toolkit (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Diamantidis, A. D., & Chatzoglou, P. D. (2014). Employee post-training behaviour and performance: evaluating the results of the training process. International Journal of Training and Development, 18(3), 149-170. doi:10.1111/ijtd.12034
Hornstein, H. A. (2015). The integration of project management and organizational change management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), 291-298. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.08.005
Jehanzeb, K., Rasheed, A., & Rasheed, M. F. (2013). Organizational commitment and turnover intentions: impact of employee's training in private sector of Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Business and Management, 8(8), 79. doi:10.5539/ijbm.v8n8p79
Rajan, R., & Ganesan, R. (2017). A critical analysis of John P. Kotter's change management framework. Asian Journal of Research in Business Economics and Management, 7(7), 181. doi:10.5958/2249-7307.2017.00106.2
Shin, J., Taylor, M. S., & Seo, M. (2012). Resources for change: The relationships of organizational inducements and psychological resilience to employees' attitudes and behaviors toward organizational change. Academy of Management Journal, 55(3), 727-748. doi:10.5465/amj.2010.0325