Project Management Msc Assignment 1: Organisation of National Training Plan

Project Management MSc Assignment 1: “Organisation of national training plan”

You are responsible for creating a detailed and unique plan for the project described in the Project Initiation Document below.

This assignment is worth 50% of the total mark for the Project Management module. The remaining marks are for the second assignment.

Learning outcomes addressed in this assignment:

 Locate, synthesise and critically evaluate recent/current information from a wide range of published literature in Project Management  Apply knowledge of the theory and practice of project planning and control and the use of Project Management methods and techniques.  Assess the value of theories and concepts to the practice of planning, control and process management.  Demonstrate a sound understanding of the importance of Project Management in the development and maintenance of sustainable and global organisations operating in complex market environments

Enterprise introduction

Founded in 1957, Enterprise Rent-A-Car is an internationally recognized brand with more than 6,000 neighborhood and airport locations in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Germany, France and Spain, as well as franchise locations throughout Europe.

Through tremendous leadership and the entrepreneurial spirit of our employees, Enterprise have built the largest car rental brand in North America, known for exceptionally low rates and outstanding customer service.

Today, Enterprise offers a wide variety of car leasing, replacement rentals, vanpooling, car sharing and hourly rental programs – and local car rental customers are picked up at no extra cost. In addition, the Enterprise Holdings Foundation has contributed more than $200 million to thousands of local non-profits focused on community improvement, education and environmental stewardship.

With annual revenues of $15.4 billion and more than 74,000 employees, Enterprise Holdings (The holding company operating three brands (Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National and Alamo) and its affiliates own and operate almost 1.3 million cars and trucks. Enterprise Holdings – the largest car rental service provider in the world measured by revenue, employees and fleet – and its affiliates together offer a total transportation solution and are all united by a common mission: To be the best transportation service provider in the world ... to exceed our customers' expectations for service, quality and value ... to provide our employees with a great place to work ... and to serve our communities as a committed corporate citizen

Project brief

Please note: All facts and figures within this document are purely for the purpose of this assignment and are no reflection of current financial targets or estimates

Core business areas

Enterprise Rent-A-Car identifies four core areas of focus within its business;

Customer Service Employee Development Fleet Growth Profit

Every branch and region is measured on their achievement of the four core business areas: such figures are key metrics for the organisation.

In the UK, Enterprise Rent-A-Car is made up of eight operational groups (regions), including the North West of England. Each group includes many branches. The philosophy of the organisation is to allow individual branches and operational groups significant autonomy and entrepreneurial scope, except where there is a clear business case to share best practice across regions or between nations.

The North West has recently made some noticeable improvements in the “Employee Development” core area, shown in the table below:

Figures for achievement in core business areas, business year 2012-13. NW figures for 2011-12 shown in brackets

UK average NW average

1) Customer Service 82% 84% (82%)

2) Development (Measured as retention) 75% 82% (78%)

3) Fleet Growth (Yr on Yr) 10% 12% (9%)

4) Profit £24m £30m (£26m) New staff training scheme All figures are for an entire region- there are of course significant branch variations The company attributes a large part of this success to the innovative training and development introduced and delivered in the North West in the last financial year. Better achievement in the other core areas may also be attributable to the training and development, although fleet growth and profit are in part also attributable to national economic factors.

Enterprise run a four stage trainee development scheme. In total the four stages typically involve 8 days of training at the regional training centres together with many other activities conducted at branch level and off site. “Project based learning” has been introduced for two of these stages in the North West training model. This type of “live learning” relates the training directly to the study of the employee’s branch performance in the four core areas. It is very similar in content to Problem Based Learning, relating training directly to the employee experience. The employee will observe the customer experience at a branch, analyse this (eg using a SWOT analysis) and feedback to the branch staff. The employee has responsibility for organising the last two stages in the North West model, which (for good employees) results in them completing the final two stages more quickly.

On average across all UK regions it will take a new employee 12.5 months to complete the whole scheme, although this varies from 10 to 16 months across the UK. Regions with a shorter completion time (including the North West) enjoy a higher staff retention rate. New staff can only be promoted and secure a pay rise upon successful completion of the training as judged by the Training Manager and another senior manager.

Project proposal

Whilst the corporate ethos is to value autonomy, the organisation as a whole is keen to disseminate best practice across branches, regions and (potentially) between countries. The UK head office therefore wishes to capitalise on the success in the North West, rolling out this training initiative to the other seven UK groups. The project is thus to establish and implement a UK wide training plan. The project is subject to approval by the USA head office, whose support is likely to be forthcoming. It is also likely that the corporate head of training would wish to see training materials prior to their being used on a national basis.

A budget of £200k has been allocated for this project. Costs would include the employment of a project manager for one year and other expenses associated with the project. Costs do not include the time of employees who attend the training. No cost is incurred for the use of regional training centres, but it is possible that additional premises may be needed if all staff are brought in for re-training. In addition they are interested to investigate the potential for the introduction of a simple e-learning package that employees would have to undertake prior to each of the four stages of the trainee development scheme.

You are responsible for managing this project. You will work closely with the NW Training Manager and other regional Training Managers (one for each region) that will see the plans, processes and operations developed in the NW introduced nationally. The initial idea is that all new employees joining the company in the UK from May 2014 would undertake the revised four stage trainee development scheme. All existing employees (with the exception of new NW employees) would undertake a one day project based learning course prior to the start of the new financial year. This would be a conversion course built upon the existing training they have previously undertaken. Enterprise currently employs 4,500 staff in the UK. The project must evaluate the views of the staff after completing this retraining. The Board would also be interested to know if there is a way of measuring the training undertaken by current employees.

The project plan will be submitted to the Project Board including representation of the eight regional General Managers, who may or may not have concerns about the projects validity in their operation due to the entrepreneurial nature of the business. Training cannot commence prior to submission of the project plan and approval by the Project Board. The project should be completed and reported on by early 2015.

The plan must be designed to have no negative impact on any other core area of the business, and be in line with the high standards Enterprise Rent-A-Car sets itself.

Task Produce a detailed project plan, including some of the key headings given below, and any other information such as recommendations to the Project Board that you consider appropriate. Your plan could also include a schedule created with Microsoft Project (MSP).

 Introduction  Business case  Project objectives  Stakeholder analysis  Performance Measurement  Activities to be carried out and scheduling including any milestones  Resources to be used including project budget  Constraints and Risks  Communications to be used  Management of quality

In addition please discuss the following in your report:

 Possible success/ failure factors for this project  Considerations concerning future operation  Any recommendations concerning training at Enterprise Rent-a-Car in the UK  Brief notes of team meetings including participation of team members.

Please note that you are being assessed on your understanding of Project Management and not the discovery of the ‘correct answer’.

Please note that penalties apply for late submission of work. Lecturers are not able to give extensions.