IntroductionResearch Topic [613382]

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Introduction/Research Topic

The following research paper will be focused on the topic of the influence of trainings upon
the internal customer – the employee. This topic will seek to discover how a peculiar set of
trainings can influence the satisfaction and improve the work of an employee within a
company. One of the reasons why the paper poses to the employee as an internal customer is
because it is conducted form a customer-relationship point of view. Many papers have relied
mainly on the external customer, but in this research paper, another important customer of the
company will be observed and analysed, respectively the employee.
The underlying issue found in this particular topic is that of whether the implementation of
trainings in a company can have long-term effects on the employee, respectively the success
of a company. Rather obvious, the trainings are implemented with the intent to prepare the
employee at work, develop him both on a professional and personal scale. However, how can
it be certain that these activities will actually have a lasting effect that in the end, it will also
benefit the company in a long-term? A clearer and straightforward way to describe the effect
that the trainings have is that of a “push & pull” strategy, where the company invests in the
employee in order for him to grow and by it, the company itself will grow on the newly
constructed pillars.
As previously stated in defining the research problem, by achieving this task, the result will
point out whether it is deemed successful for companies to invest in the employees both in
professional and personal capacity. In the aftermath of this research, new sets of information
would show up and they could even confirm, or infirm, whether it has become a necessity for
companies worldwide to invest in the trainings for the new recruits, as statistics show that more
and more undergraduate and master students are less and less prepared to face the tasks at work.
Even more, it could demonstrate whether the services “sold” or “offered” by the company to
the employee, the so-called customer in this equation, are up to par with the demand.

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1. Internal Marketing
1.1 What is internal marketing? Conceptual clarification and definitions

The concept of internal marketing started to appear in literature no less than over 25 years ago,
yet even today there is a struggle regarding its true meaning and aim. While in the present, the
internal marketing concept is being used by companies worldwide as a means to gain
competitive advantage, in the past the concept was restrained to the service industry and how
to incentivize its employees who worked directly with the public. This interpretation of internal
marketing came from Grönroos, who stated that the “objective of internal marketing is to get
motivated and customer-conscious personnel” (Grönroos, pp. 236-238).
Nonetheless, the concept of internal marketing evolved and broadened its purview, thus not
being restricted only to the employees who have direct contact with the clients, but to the
company as a whole. L. Berry gave one of the most simplistic, yet straightforward definitions
of the internal marketing: “viewing employees as internal customers, viewing jobs as internal
products that satisfy the needs and wants of these internal customers while addressing the
objectives of the organization” (Berry, pp. 25-28). At the moment, the companies not only have
to work on gaining and retaining external customers by offering the best products and services
that could satisfy their needs and wants but in order to be able to offer the best quality, they
realised that they have to satisfy their internal customer at first. Thus, by integrating the
aforementioned definition with what Barney (2001, pp. 78-87) recognises as being the four
measures on which a firm can build its competitive advantage in the new economy, a company
can easily gain an advantage in front of its competition by building a strong relationship with
its employees.
Internal marketing is the concept through which a company views its employees as internal
customers and should they be content with their internal products/services, they would
ultimately help the company attain its external aim and vision. In order words, by satisfying its
internal customers, the company will satisfy the external customers (Rafiq & Pervaiz, pp. 1177-
1186). Furthermore, for the concept to work properly, it should be implemented at two levels.
Therefore, while the main aim of the concept is to have motivated and customer-conscious
personnel, the strategic level of internal marketing should be that create and maintain an
internal environment in which the personnel should be able to build and maintain its customer-
consciousness. Also, at a tactical level, the concept’s objective should that of offering services,

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auxiliary services to the employees, so as to make them understand the ways in which they are
expected to perform. (Grönroos, pp. 236-238)
Even more, internal marketing isn’t limited to the idea of a company building relationships
with its employees. In comparison with external marketing, the internal marketing also uses
the tools of inter-group marketing and interpersonal marketing, though with different
outcomes. In terms of inter-group marketing, internal marketing seeks to build relationships
between the departments, thus making it obvious for employees that by helping others, they
help themselves and ultimately, they help the company in the long-run. In regards of
interpersonal marketing, the concept uses it in order to build relationships both vertically and
horizontally within a department, thus creating a stronger bond between the management and
the employee. (Ishii & Ishihara, 1998)
Additionally, the concept of internal marketing has been long studied and developed and it has
been split into four important aspects: Internal Marketing Mix, Processional Internal
Marketing, Strategic Internal Marketing and lastly, Internal Relationship Management. These
aspects have been classified according to different factors, such as the organizational objectives
and focuses, which themselves have been divided into short-term, internal and long-term,
external. Even more, these aspects have also been analysed according to the interaction
orientation, which has been divided into Transactional and Relational. While the Transactional
factor analyses internal marketing as nothing else than an exchange, the Relational factor looks
for the concept of relationship within the internal marketing. (Voima, pp. 238-253) In the
following paragraphs, each activity will be closely analysed and explained:

1.1.1 Internal Marketing Mix

As the name suggests, these aspects is focused mainly on the 4P marketing mix, though, due
to the “products” that are marketed within the company, the extended marketing mix (Booom
& Bitner, pp. 47-51)is proposed to be more suited for the situation. Therefore, it takes into
consideration the Product, Place, Promotion Price, Physical Evidence, Process, and
Participants. It can characterised as being a Transactional, short-term, internal activity.
Within the company, the product marketed to the employees could be referred to the services
and trainings offered by Human Resource, but it can as well be the attitude, vision, values

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needed in order to deal with the public. In regard of the price, it can be represented by the
expense allocation on the departments, but it can also be taken to a more psychological level,
which is represented by the cost of adopting new methods of working. In terms of promotions,
this refers mainly to the tools used by the company in order to communicate to the employees
its’ products. They can be used so as to motivate the personnel, to persuade and/or influence
the attitudes of the employees. The Human Resources department makes use of Advertising,
Personal Selling, Sales Promotions and Public Relations. In respect to the place in which the
employees should be able to receive their products, it should into consideration meetings,
conferences, even trainings delivered by third parties.
Moreover, in respect to the Extended Marketing Mix, the Physical Evidence is represented by
the tangible goods that facilitate the delivery and communication of the product towards the
employees. The Process refers as to how the employee-customer receives the products, which
might be exemplified through new policies introduced by the company. Lastly, the Participants
factor isn’t limited to the employee-customers, but the employee-suppliers as well, as it refers
to those involved in producing and delivering the product.

1.1.2 Processional Internal Marketing

This aspect can be characterised as being Relational, short-term, its focus being on the
relationship between the departments. Furthermore, it views that within the company there is
both supply and demand and in order to deliver a high-quality product to the end-customer,
there needs to be a balance between the internal supply and demand. Therefore, it favours a
strong bond between on a horizontal level, between the departments of the company.

1.1.3 Strategic Internal Marketing

The current activity is very similar to the Internal Marketing Mix, it being Transactional,
though, it differentiates itself by its long-term aim towards the external. Therefore, whereas in
the case of Internal Marketing Mix the target is represented by the employees, the Strategic
Internal Marketing is focused on the company’s end customer and it is mainly implemented in
order to increase its satisfaction.

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What’s more, in to achieve the aforementioned goal, this activity is meant to make the
employees aware of the common goals and thus, it promotes organizational integration, which
ultimately will lead to end-customer’s satisfaction.

1.1.4 Internal Relationship Management

Lastly, in comparison to Processional Internal Marketing, the Internal Relationship
Management is also focused on the relationship between the employees, but this time on long-
term and with external customers. By maintaining these relationships, it will lead to satisfaction
of the needs and wants, as well as achieving the organizational goals. Therefore, the internal
goals of this aspect are to reduce the dissatisfaction of the employees, who find themselves to
be both suppliers and demanders. According to Ballantyne, this aspect seeks to develop and
improve the relationship between employees so as to have a better movement of information
among the departments and also, vertically. By achieving this goal internally, this will
ultimately lead to an improvement in the external relationships.

1.2 Relationship Marketing (within the organization) and Customer Relationship
Management (towards customers) – clarifications and delimitations

On account of what has been previously stated, the management of employees’ relationship
across the departments, as well as vertically with the management can have large consequences
in the external environment, in the company’s relationship with the customers. Therefore,
Internal Marketing becomes rather Relationship Marketing, oriented towards the core of the
organization.
While Relationship Marketing has been defined as a way “to identify and establish, maintain,
and enhance relationships with customers and other stakeholders, at a profit, so that the
objectives of all parties involved are met” (Brink & Bernd, p. 6), it could also be applied
internally, which would warrant the definition given by Morgan and Hunt (1994, pp. 20-38):
“Relationship marketing may be used to describe a plethora of marketing relationships, such
as those between a firm and its buyers, suppliers, employees, and regulators.”. As such, through

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the fulfilment of promises, a company can build and maintain a strong bond with its employees,
as well as its customers.
For a better understanding and in order to reach the middle ground between both Relationship
Marketing and Customer Relationship Management, as such the companies need to realise that
their value offering is rather a value carrier and the relationship between them and the
customers is beyond the moment of purchase. While the value offering constitutes the core
product, along with the surrounding services and the products, it should be taken forward and
include also the relational part. Nowadays, the value of having a relationship is considered to
be even more important than what the value offering actually is or not offering to the customer.
Therefore, the issues do not lie in the core product, but rather what kind of a relationship the
company is capable of maintaining with its customers. Even more, here is where the field of
Relationship Marketing intertwines with that of Customer Relationship Management, based on
improving business relations, customer retention and ultimately, sales growth. (Grönroos &
Ravald, 1996)
At the same time, whereas both fields meet in the middle in regards of building and maintaining
relationships with those in the outer layer of the company, Customer Relationship Management
relies heavily on the communication between the company and the customer, so as to have
grasp a better understanding the of the buying behaviour. Nonetheless, CRM means more than
mere communication, but rather collecting information, interpreting the results, making use of
technology in a domain full of human relationships with the end of acquiring customers,
retaining and cooperating with them. Therefore, CRM should be considered rather as a strategy
“with a main goal of delivering a distinguished value to the customer through improving the
marketing productivity”. (Soliman, 2011)

1.3 Training as part of internal marketing

As previously presented, internal marketing is defined as the concept that views employees as
customers for the company itself and by offering them so-called products or services, which
ultimately are meant to help the company reach its own goals. Ranchord and Marandi (2007,
p. 104) define internal marketing as “the process aimed at attracting, developing […] and
retaining qualified employees”. Training activities can become part of the ‘developing

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employees’ focus of internal marketing. Moreover, the same authors mention that internal
marketing is a process where marketing and human resources overlap.
That being so, the so-called products offered to the employees that need to be taken into
consideration should be split into tangible and intangible products. The tangible products that
are tailored to the employees’ needs could be known also as the monetary products, such as
salary/wages, raises, and bonuses. These monetary products are meant to appease the
employees for a short to medium period of time.
On the other hand, the intangible products and services are meant to facilitate the development
of the employees, both professionally and personally. As such, among these products, there
could be promotions either vertically in the hierarchal chain, or it could be horizontally, by
changing the department. Moreover, according to Beamish and Ashford (2005, p. 357), among
the determinants of good quality, employee trainings count as one of these factors. The authors
emphasised that the improvement of such employee skills can take place only through a
dedicated internal marketing program, which is to focus on delivering extensive training
sessions. As the products and services themselves, these trainings are split into hard skill
trainings and soft-skills trainings, which both are meant to help towards developing the
employees in their career, as well as personally. Therefore, the intangible products are meant
to satisfy the internal customer from a medium to long period of time.
Consequently, “trainings will enable employee to become familiar with the aspects associated
with their jobs, making them more efficient and more productive, thereby affecting
motivational level” (Berndt & Brink, p. 97).

1.4 ‘Crew Resource Management’ – an idea that can be transferred to the business
environment?

The concept of Crew Resource Management, or at origins known as Cockpit Resource
Management, was born during the workshop “Resource Management on the Flightdeck” and
deals with reducing errors occurred because of human factors. The current subtitle is going to
go through the short history of the CRM generations, its findings, as well as the effects these
trainings have had on pilots from all over the world. Finally, it should be seen if this concept
could be ultimately transferred to the business environment.

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1.4.1. Crew Resource Management Generations

The history of CRM could be split into five different generations, each focusing on different
types of combating human error or trying to overcome different obstacles that came up in
previous generations.
As such, the first generation commenced once with the first comprehensive CRM program in
1981, initiated by United Airlines. This program was mainly focused on enhancing managerial
effectiveness, as well as dealing with issues such as lack of assertiveness by junior members
of the teams and strong, authoritarian behaviours exhibited by different captains. Therefore,
the trainings conducted during this program were more psychological in nature, stressed
especially on concepts such as leadership. It came to a conclusion that this CRM training should
not be a one-time experience in a pilot’s career, but rather annual and as such, it became part
of the program. Despite the apparent success, the training was accused by some pilots as being
“charm school” or even trying to tailor the personalities. (Helmreich, et al., 1999)
By the time the second generation of CRM commenced, the trainings have been initiated within
the growing number of airlines in the U.S. Among the conclusions drawn at the second meeting
in 1986, held by NASA, it was that the CRM training was thought to disappear as a separated
component of training.
Despite this, a second generation of CRM was emerging, beginning with the change of its name
from Cockpit to Crew Resource Management, as this the emphasis fell on the dynamics in the
cockpit group. As previously said, the first generation trainings were more psychological in
nature, whereas now, the trainings included specific aviation concepts and are more team-
oriented in nature. From leadership, now pilots had to undergo trainings dealing with team
building, briefing strategies, situation awareness and stress management. Moreover, some
modules addressed more complex notions, such as decision making strategies and breaking the
chain of errors, which can ultimately result in a catastrophe. While the acceptance of these
trainings was generally larger than the first one, there still some criticisms related to “psycho-
babble”. (Helmreich, et al., 1999)
The third generation of CRM was focused on integrating the soft-skills training with the
technical training, as well as extending this programme outside the cockpit, to flight attendants,
dispatchers and even maintenance personnel. This generation came to define the concept of
flight crew, though they diluted the original focus on the mitigation of human error.

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The fourth generation of CRM was characterised by integration and proceduralization. In 1990,
the Federal Aviation Administration established a major reform in the training and qualification
of flight crews by initiating the Advanced Qualification Program, which allowed air carriers to
develop innovative trainings. These trainings were tailored to the needs of the specific
organizations. As such, CRM became integral to the flight training programme and also, it was
required for operators to provide it, along with Line Oriented Flight Training (LOFT) for all
members.
The final generation of CRM came to a major conclusion based on several resolutions gathered
in the aftermath of the previous generations. Among these resolutions, it became clear that
despite all the efforts, CRM did not reach everyone, some of the pilots still failing to follow
the concepts. Also, while at first a large number of pilots seemed to have accepted and
implemented the concept learned, over time, the acceptance of basic concepts had decayed.
Lastly, as the success of CRM grew in the U.S., airlines all over the world tried to implement
it in their own organisations, omitting the fact that the CRM training was built on U.S.
characteristics, such as individuality, low uncertainty acceptance and power distance. These
characteristics differ from culture to culture, which is one of the reasons why CRM had failed
to reach its goal in many European and Asian countries.
Therefore, during the fifth generation, CRM came back to its initial focus: reducing human
errors. Moreover, it came to be that errors cannot be fully eradicated, but rather make the most
out of them. CRM became error management and it’s the focus of reducing human errors saw
the trainings develop in a set of error countermeasures with three lines of defence: avoidance
of Error; trapping incipient errors and lastly, mitigate the consequences of the errors.
What’s more, CRM introduced the concept of normalization of error and the development of
strategies in order to manage these errors. The main foundation for this concept became the
limitation of human performance, among which we can count fatigue, work overload or other
emergencies. Besides the aforementioned limitations, trainings have demonstrated that even
over-confident beliefs and “invulnerable” attitudes can foster to human errors. (Helmreich, et
al., 1999)

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1.4.2. Crew Resource Management Core Elements

The Crew Resource Management could be translated as a model of management, which is
meant to manage any threat and error encountered in aviation. At its core, there are four main
elements, which are:
 Goal of a safe flight
 Cooperation and communication within flight crew
 Monitoring both internal and external threats
 Feedback, so as future practices could be adjusted and threats could be avoided
While CRM seeks to attain these goals, it led to the creation of certain throughputs so as to
enhance the system performance:
 Awareness of the current state of both internal and external operations, as well as threats
 Threat detection
 Threat response through expertise, coordination and communication
Therefore, by combining these core elements and the throughputs, as well as teamwork,
feedback and good leadership, CRM is able to avoid errors, trap certain errors and mitigate
their errors.

1.4.3. Crew Resource Management – Reducing Business Errors?

All in all, taking into consideration the aforementioned concept, it can be observed that it could
be easily transferred to the business environment as the aviation industry has adapted
management concepts to their needs. Therefore, Crew Resource Management could be initiated
within a company in upper management, as it includes complex notions such as decision
strategies, leadership, team communication and coordination.
For a better understanding, view a company and its employees working towards attaining its
mission statement. The CEO is the pilot in the cockpit, who views everything before him and
is sets the main goals of the company. The employees represent the flight attendants, dispatch
operators, maintenance technicians, almost anybody who makes it possible for the pilot to fly

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the plane safely from point A to point B, in due time. The core elements in CRM could be
otherwise translated as following:
 Goal of a safe flight becomes reaching the company’s ultimate goals, without becoming
bankrupt along the way
 Cooperation and communication within flight crew becomes communication through
the chain, from the CEO downwards, through each the levels of management
 Monitoring both internal and external threats turns into the SWOT analysis of the
company, which is monitored periodically
 Feedback becomes the basis on which company builds and improves its procedures

1.5 The relationships between training and customer service

Nonetheless, the relationship between trainings, which has been established as an internal
marketing product, and customer service, a service delivered to external clients of the company,
might null and void, without any connection whatsoever. Despite this, it has been demonstrated
by Ahmed and Rafiq (2002) that in the banking system, employees who have been offered
trainings as part of the institutional internal marketing program has ultimately lead to the
improvement in the bank’s customer services. Therefore, the resolution was that better-trained
employees will deliver better services to customers as opposed to employees who didn’t
undergo trainings.
What’s more, the explanation for the improved services in the banking system as observed by
Ahmend and Rafiq (2002) behind this has at its basis the advantages that the trainings bring to
employees, both professionally and personally. Consequently, by using the internal marketing
tools with the view of retention, organisations seek to increase and maintain the motivation of
the employees as well as improve the soft-skills, such as listening, positivity, conflict resolution
and self-control. Thus, by delivery good quality services daily, the employees provide better
customer services accordingly to the external clients of the company. As such, these internal
marketing instruments, though they might appear as being used as retention tools or in the
professional and personal development of the employee, they eventually will also serve the
organisations in their relations with the external clients.

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Consequently, what at first might have been viewed as tools used towards the retention of the
employees, they are used by organisations to serve both internal and external customers and
lastly, trainings are utilised to attain company goals in the long run.

2. Company Overview
2.1 Company Description

DB Schenker is actually a division of the Deutsche Bahn AG, which focuses mainly on the
logistics. It all started in the 19th century, when the Swiss, Gottfried Schenker, founded
Schenker & Co. in Vienna, Austria. The company was later on purchased in the 20th century
by the German railway company, Deutsche Reichsbahn. However, it wasn’t until 2008 that the
“DB Schenker” brand was created, thus rebranding the old Schenker to DB Schenker logistics.
In itself, DB Schenker is split into three Shared Service Centres, located in Europe and Asia.
As a shared service centre represents an entity that is preoccupied with the execution and the
handling of specific operational tasks, such as Accounting, HR, IT, Legal or Compliance. In
the present case, the shared service centres are focused mainly on Accounting, thus becoming
Accounting SSC’s. As previously mentioned, there are three SSC’s: the headquarters in Berlin,
one SSC in Manila, which deals with Asia and the Americas and last, the SCC in Bucharest,
which deals with the processes conducted in Europe. There are several benefits to these SSC’s
and those are the standardization and harmonization, which make the processes easier to be
implemented and to be rolled-out and can even be monitored more easily. Also, this
standardization ultimately leads to a higher customer satisfaction, as there are lower cycle times
and error rates.
In Bucharest, DB Schenker is a Global Accounting Shared Service Centre (GASSC), focused
on delivering accounting services to their partners in over 35 countries, in over 20 languages.
Moreover, it operates in all areas of accounting: Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Fixed
Assets and General Ledger.
The Deutsche Bahn Group offers a wide range of integrated services (DB Services), amongst
which there are Mobility (Passenger Transport), Logistics (Transport and Logistics) and lastly,
Infrastructure. DB Schenker Logistics delivers more specifically global transport and logistics
solutions, scoring the second place in being one of the largest logistics companies in the world,

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with competitors such as DHL International GmbH, Kuehne + Nagel International AG,
Panalpina Welttransport AG.
The transportation industry is considered one of the largest ones, which encompasses every-
thing from subways, commuter-trains to container ships that deliver goods from and to every
point around the globe. Nevertheless, the rail and trucking networks are also paramount to
delivering the goods across countries to the airlines. This respective industry employs mil-lions
of people, from package deliverers to truck drivers to the people working behind the scenes,
the people who coordinate the logistics of the matter. Though it might seem like an easy feat,
logistics is the one cog which were it to go missing, it would stop the whole process and
ultimately, create chaos and would cause companies considerable losses.

2.2 External Analysis

In what pertains to the external analysis of DB Schenker GASSC, before several details should
be established, mainly the Segment-Target Group-Positioning (STP). As such, in regards of
the segment, DB Schenker GASSC looks for businesses who require transport and logistics
services. For their Target Group, almost of DB Group’s accounting activities around the world
are centralized at DB Schenker GASSC Bucharest, as well as the accounting of the group’s
suppliers. Lastly, their position on the market could be described as “global logistics expertise
with a strong rail foundation”.
As for the external analysis of DB Schenker GASSC, the following SWOT analysis will reveal
the strong points of the division, as well as the points which leave room for improvements.
First of all, in regards of strengths, DB Schenker has conducted marketing campaigns in all
over 20 countries, which in itself denotes that the company made itself noticed on the market.
Ultimately, this represented a key factor on its road towards becoming the world’s leading
mobility and logistics company. Furthermore, DB Schenker made itself known as being the
no. 1 in Rail freight transport, as well as Land transport, outsmarting their competition. Even
more, DB Schenker also landed no. 2 in Air freight, as well as no. 3 in Ocean freight. It could
also be considered a strength the fact that DB Schenker prides itself with being a top employer,
with more than 65,000 full-time employees and with a satisfaction index of 3.8, one of the
highest indexes in the whole group for the year 2016. Lastly, in 2010, DB Schenker adopted a

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Master Data Management (MDM) system with the help of Hewlett-Packard. The
aforementioned system comes as a response to the disharmony between the different data
platform that the company bought and integrated over the past 10 years. The main goal of this
system is to ease the employees’ jobs and offer them a source of high-quality data and
information.
On the other hand, one of DB Schenker’s weaknesses could be the considerable difference
between the logistics in regards of the continents. Compared to Europe, the logistics in the
Americas and in Asia are rather different, hence making for a difficult adaption. Another
weakness comes from their mother country, where a liberalization of the railway market in
Germany.
Concerning the opportunities for DB Schenker, the company can enjoy several of them. One
of them is the fact that they still can go for local companies, in different countries, as they still
do logistics, warehousing and transportation by themselves, which in itself represents a feat
and require a thorough investment. Also, another opportunity is the developing engineering
services.
Lastly, DB Schenker cannot exclude the steady rising of threats, some of which already
manifested themselves over the past years. Since their expansion, one of DB Schenker’s main
threat as a transportation company is represented by the infrastructure. In many coun-tries in
which they operate, infrastructure is a considerable challenge to be overcome, which ultimately
affects their performance in the long run. Furthermore, also related to the trans-portation of
goods, the company faced several problems in terms of documentation and cus-toms. However,
by far the most threating hazard that the company is facing is the uprising competition from
various international and domestic players, such as DHL International GmbH, Kuehne + Nagel
International AG, Panalpina Welttransport AG.
Michael Porter’s model of the 5 forces mainly represents a snapshot of a market at a particular
moment in time. Furthermore, this model seeks to describe a certain aspect within the market,
that being the rivalry. As such, based on 5 particular forces (the bargaining power of suppliers,
the bargaining power of the customers, the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitute
products and the rivalry of the existing firms) that shape the industry, Porter’s model can
present the status of a company in the particular market.

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2.2.1. Bargaining Power of Customers

Basically, it refers to the power of the customer to bring the price of a company down or to ask
for the quality of service.
In the present case, DB Schenker uses the MDM (Master Data Management) system, which
improves its operational effectiveness. Built with the help of HP, this system is meant to check,
to collect, to secure and to provide all relevant data to all DB Schenker business units around
the world. Among the benefits that the MDM system brings, it can be observed that it allows
for every business unit to follow and keep track of each of their delivers in real time, thus
ensuring that the job is completed as fast as possible. Moreover, if any issue is detected, it can
be corrected in real time, thus avoiding any costs of storage. Consequently, the customers are
less likely to choose another transporter if their delivery is right on point. By changing their
sup-plier, they might love the quality of the service, induce high costs due to possible ad-dress
errors, major delays. As such, DB Schenker reduces the power of bargaining of customers.

2.2.2. Threat of new entrants

This force is represented by all the firms that plan to enter the industry. As such, Michael
Porter’s model considers that by reducing this particular threat, the already established
companies should seek to improve the barriers on the market.
Applied on the DB Schenker case, the German company manages to reduce this particular
threat by using its new “Information Systems Solutions”. Take for example the following
situation: each time a delivery is conducted by Air or Ocean freight or basically each time a
customer buys or rents a transportation vehicle, all this particular data about the customers is
registered and stored on the data storage platform. Thus, DB Schenker maintains an accurate
knowledge of the distribution channels of the market and about any relevant information about
the customers. This level of in-formation gathering tools cannot be replicated by any of the
new entrants.
Even more, as previously mentioned, the MDM system put in place by DB Schenker, keeps
track of each and every transportation operation and if any mistake is to occur, not only is easily

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and immediately correct, but it is also reported for the cause of the issue. This information is
stored and if it is to happen again, the business units all over the world have the tools and
information how to prevent it.
Lastly, DB Schenker reduces the threat of new entrants by ensuring high investments in the
latest systems and information systems infrastructures, which for a new entrant on the company
can be quite discouraging.

2.2.3. Rivalry of existing firms

This force consists of the companies which are already established on the market. These rivals
intend to pull their weight and present their best assets in order to obtain the same customers.
In the present case, it can be said that the strategy of DB Schenker, in terms of IT, can be quite
a defensive competitive advantage. This concept is sustained by the fact that DB Schenker built
“DB Schenker Intranet” a few years ago, which was meant to join any employee, from any
department around the globe, to lay the bases for a strong corporate culture and to ensure that
the global objective and strategies of the company were well understood by all the members.
Moreover, the Intranet now facilitates the authorization processes, the transfer of data from one
department to another and also, the global communication of the company. Consequently, DB
Schenker gained yards in efficiency, internal swiftness, also reducing the costs of
miscommunication and ensuring a better global functioning.
In regards of competitive advantage, this concept refers to the conditions that make possible
for a company to produce a good or deliver a service at a lower price or in a more desirable
fashion than its competitors for customers. Applied on the current case, DB Schenker
differentiates itself from the competitors by its defensive competitive advantage. As previously
stated, DB Schenker uses its IT investment as a competitive advantage. Furthermore, DB
Schenker also uses its title of eco-pioneer as a competitive advantage, by presenting a green
product portfolio and expertise in eco-consulting.

18 | P a g e
2.3 Internal Analysis

Before all, an internal analysis is represented by a process which seeks to identify and to
evaluate an organization’s specific characteristics, including its resources, capabilities and core
competencies.
In regards of its resources, DB Schenker focuses mainly on its data gathered through the MDM
system and moreover, on its human resources. The data gathered by the MDM system is
essential to the business strategy and moreover, it could be considered as the company’s
foundation for its competitive advantage. In regards of its human resources, these could be
considered the second most important type of resource through-out the whole company, de-
spite it being heavily technologized. Most of the operations, such as accounting, require
massive human resources in order for them to be conducted and in order for the group to
accomplish its goals.
In regards of the organizational capabilities, it refers mainly to the complex and coordinated
network of organizational routines and processes that seek to determine how efficiently and
effectively an organization transforms its inputs into outputs. In the present case, the inputs of
DB Schenker could be considered the investments in infrastructure, technology and lastly, its
people. From the Intranet, to the MDM system to the hours of trainings invested in the
employees in order for them to deliver the services required by the customers of the DB Group.
Lastly, the core competencies represent the organization’s major value-creating skills and
capabilities that are shared across multiple product lines or multiple business units.
DB Schenker presents as its core competencies the global freight transportation, coupled with
the logistics services, which cover every aspect of the production process. Furthermore, due to
the increase in the worldwide trend towards outsourcing, DB Schenker also increased its
offering in end-to-end logistics packages. Consequently, the company prides itself for always
providing the right solution, always coming up with a value-for-money for its customers,
regardless if it’s in transportation or logistics.

19 | P a g e
2.4. Business, Marketing & HR

In terms of business propositions, DB Schenker offers seamless transportation solutions
worldwide (Baumgartern, 2008) (Huth & Romeike, 2015). Moreover, these services are
completed by logistics services (Deckert, 2016). At its core competencies, DB Schenker prides
itself for offering the right solution, transportation (as setting the stage for more) and a multi-
talented force to be reckoned with.
First of all, regarding the right solutions, DB Schenker prides itself for never failing to offer a
value-for-money solution for its customers. Furthermore, these solutions are tailored strictly to
the customer’s needs and wants, what they call a one-stop service. The company’s specialty is
supposed to the management of integrated transportation services.
In regards of setting the stage for more while talking about transportation, DB Schenker offers
its customers a complete range of logistics services related to their production sites: from
supply chain management or sequenced component delivery on the production line to assembly
work or spare parts supply. Furthermore, these services that they are specialised in, also offer
other types of services such as warehousing, packaging, order piking, customer
communications, tracking, customer clearance, temporary storage.
Lastly, the multi-talented force to be reckoned with is represented by the major workforce all
around the world employed by the DB Group. The employees have an in-depth sectorial
knowledge that makes them able to respond individually to the precise needs and requirements
of customers, thus leaving them to focus on their main speciality.
In terms of marketing, DB Schenker prides for being able to deliver on a global scale, from
America to Zambia. By building a tightly knit global network (of approximately 2000 locations
in 130 countries), DB Schenker is able to offers its services to almost any customer in need of
comprehensive, individual logistics solutions. Furthermore, DB Schenker is doing heavy
investments into rail freight, forwarding and logistics, in locomotives and freight cars, always
expanding their land transportation network and as well, their IT infrastructure. Besides
creating the image of the swiftest transportation company, DB Schenker also wants to be
known as the safest and the most secure company, with rigorous security standards.
Consequently, their goal is to also set a global quality standard, by steadily increasing the bar
in contract logistics.

20 | P a g e
According to their latest figures, DB Schenker occupies no. 1 in Europe in terms of rail freight
and land transport. Furthermore, the company succeeded in surpassing some of its competitors
and occupy no. 2 worldwide in air freight, while also landing no. 3 in ocean freight and lastly,
no. 5 worldwide in contract logistics.
However, besides becoming a profitable market leader, by offering their customers first-class
mobility and logistics solutions, DB Schenker also seeks to be known as an eco-pioneer while
doing so. Besides the investments in their technology and infrastructure, the company invested
millions in order to be able to use resources and energy sparingly and efficiently, by reducing
carbon emissions. For example, in Europe, the company’s rail freight is known as the most
carbon-efficient mode of transportation available.
Lastly, DB Schenker markets itself as being one of the top employers in Germany and also
abroad, by building the loyalty of qualified employees. As previously stated, all employees
have an in-depth sectorial knowledge, which makes them able to deal with the needs and
requirements of the customers.
In terms of HR, DB Schenker seeks to enable the best global team, their employees being their
most important asset. For the company to maintain their market success, they must have a
strong, motivated and qualified force of employees. However, in order for the company to keep
these top employees, they invested heavily in sustainable staff development and a strong
corporate culture. Their strong and professional HR management is what keeps their employees
satisfied, as they work consistently in order to improve the employee satisfaction by setting
clear satisfaction goals and regularly evaluating the company. According to the 2016
worldwide employee survey, DB Schenker’s employees find themselves among the most
satisfied. (2017, pp. 12-13)
Despite this, retention is not the only aspect on which the company is focused on. For DB
Schenker, professional recruitment is an absolute necessity in order to continue to build a
successful, global organization. In their DB2020 strategy, DB Schenker has set out to build a
reputation as a top employer and in the light of achieving this aim, they have to take on the
challenging demographic change and the current battle for qualified and talented employees.
Besides attractive training and graduate programs, the company focuses on continually
increasing their efforts for recruiting qualified and motivated employees. Furthermore, the
company cooperates closely with different universities and associations in order to find their
future employees.

21 | P a g e
3. Analysis
3.1. Methodology

The following chapter is going to be focused on the analysis of the data provided by DB
Schenker, with the view of demonstrating the influence trainings, both soft-skills and hard-
skills, have upon the internal client – the employee.
The information which will be further discussed within the chapter has been provided to me by
DB Schenker, where I also previously worked for a period of one year, during which I was
delegated to gather data about trainings. In terms of data, it amounts to 3% of the global total
training delivered within the company, and therefore, due to the sensitivity of the information,
the names of the employees have been anonymised. The data has been collected between 9th of
November 2015 and 16th of June 2017, therefore spanning a period of almost two years.
The analysis conducted represents a hybrid between primary and secondary research, as I was
in charge in collecting and processing the data collected from the trainers in the company. The
primary research was meant to display to the upper management the wide range of trainings
delivered, as well as the percent of presence during them. Therefore, decisions regarding which
new trainings should be implemented in the future and which trainings should be retracted,
because of high truancy or because of the lack of effects they have had on the employees and
their work. The secondary research, which this analysis represents, will be focused on the link
between trainings and their influence on the employees and the work delivered – whether the
quality will have been improved or the whether the level of success in delivery has been
improved, compared to previous state and to teams who have yet to be registered in the
trainings.
The total amount of employees trained during the span of two years, the total amount is up to
4846, with trainings ranging from in-class and online courses, as well as soft-skills and hard-
skills delivered. Among the trainings delivered, they differ from soft-skills and hard-skills,
surmising to a total of 17 categories of trainings, which in their turn sum up to 49 trainings
offered to the employees (Table 8: Trainings delivered by company between Nov. 9th, 2015
and June 27th, 2017). Moreover, the trainings analysis presented in the tables have been
delivered to all departments, with the exception of some specialised trainings delivered to
certain departments or meant for the professional and personal development of the employee
for a future position.

22 | P a g e
In regards of the criteria on which the employees have been employed to these trainings, the
manager directly enrols or recommends employees towards enrolment, by taking into
consideration the following criteria:
 Level of seniority within company
 Lack of experience within field/ on the position he occupies
 Opportunity for promotion
 Transition preparation
 Development of peculiar skills
By abiding to this enrolment process, all employees are given an equal chance towards the
development of their skills and in the case of soft-skills trainings, they undergo a process
through which the training increases their extrinsic and intrinsic knowledge. In regards of the
extrinsic knowledge, the employee would attain in communication, building and strengthening
work relationships and even more, the team-spirit would be instilled within them and create
the healthy, friendly and closely-knit working environment within the company. The intrinsic
knowledge would imply that the employee would attain the skills to recognise his own
strengths and weaknesses and based on gaining this self-awareness, he would able to foresee
opportunities and know beforehand what decisions he would need to take in the possible
situations.

3.2. Soft-skills vs Hard-skills

The first criteria by which the data will be analysed is based on the types of trainings: soft-
skills and hard-skills. As previously mentioned, there are seventeen main categories of
trainings, which consist of a total of forty-nine trainings. In the table below, it can be observed
that eight out of seventeen categories are meant to hone the soft-skills of the employees, while
the rest focus on increasing the hard-skills. Moreover, these trainings are delivered both in-
classroom and online.
The hard-skills are focused on the development of the employees’ knowledge in Accounting,
depending on the department he belongs to, as well as skills in Microsoft Office, from Word
to Excel and OneNote. Moreover, the company has also invested in employees to hone their

23 | P a g e
skills in Winnie and SAP, both being specialised programs based on managing business
operations, as well as customer relations.
In regards of soft-skills trainings, these range from introduction trainings for employees during
their first days on the job, as well as more specialised forms, such as Transition Trainings,
meant to prepare the accountants for the period spent in different countries, with various
cultures and with the view to help them overcome any barriers in communication and customs.
Moreover, the company also invested in creating trainings for the professional and personal
development of its employees, such as preparing them for possible future positions in middle-
upper management, such as Project Management Training or for a different path, such as Train
the Trainer, meant for forming future trainers within the companies.

Table 1: Trainings delivered, split into Hard-skills and Soft-skills between Nov. 9th, 2015 and June 27th, 2017
Source: Own representation based on data provided by the company
In terms of analysis of the table, it can be seen by far that the most delivered top three trainings
have been those of soft-skills nature, followed then by hard-skills trainings. By taking into
consideration this observation and the nature of the trainings, it can be said that the company
delivers trainings with effects in the development of its employees’ social and association,
rather than in hard-skill. As it can be observed from the bar chart presented above, the training
which have been most delivered within the company is represented by the category of
Compliance, with approximately 18%, which includes both in-classroom and online trainings
in Code of Conduct, Integrity and Compliance for the employees. The second most delivered
and also, requested training in the company is represented by the Language courses, with
approximately 14%. Among the language courses, the most required class, during the period 2015766413
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01002003004005006007008009001000
Collection Training
Email Etiquette
Excel
Introduction to
Accounting Training
Introduction to Logistics
Training
Introduction to SAP
Training
Introduction to
Accounting Training
Introduction to SAP
Training
Microsoft Office
Trainings
Process improvement
Process Training
Compliance Training
Engagement Trainings
Language courses
Onboarding
People management
Project Management
Train the trainer
Transition Training
Hard Skills Soft Skills

24 | P a g e
of two years, was that of English language, with 63% out of total Language courses, followed
by German, with only 36% (Table 9: Language Courses Percentages). Lastly, the third most
delivered soft-skills training is the Transition category (approx. 11%), which at its basis is
actually a mesh between both soft-skills and hard-skills, preparing the teams of accountants for
their period in foreign countries. These trainings are meant to prepare them to face any
situation, being it process related or cross-cultural related.
In regards of hard-skills trainings, the most delivered category of trainings is represented by
Process Training category, which consists of both in-classroom and online trainings in
Accounting (according to the department), as well introductions to specialized programs, such
as SAP. This trainings scores a total of 10% of the total trainings delivered. One other hard-
skills training, which makes up 8.5% out of total trainings delivered, is represented by
Introduction to Accounting training, which is an in-classroom only training that basically
focuses on familiarizing new employees, who have had no previous experience with this field,
with the ledgers, the new terms and ease them into their work capacity. Lastly, the third most
delivered hard-skills training is represented by the Microsoft Office trainings, which is an
online only type of training that is meant to accustom even the most experienced users to all
programs offered by Microsoft Office, such as Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and especially,
Excel. This category of trainings makes up 7% of the total trainings delivered.
In conclusion to the analysis conducted above, in can be said that the effect registered has led
to the improvement of the employees’ activity, in both short-term and long-term. Thus, while
the hard-skills trainings have laid their mark on the employees’ knowledge of the processes
and helped improving it, the soft-skills trainings caused changes in regards the fluidity between
the teams and strengthened the relationships between the individuals. Moreover, moving from
the team relationships, the trainings also aimed to help improve the individual’s knowledge of
themselves and how to perform an analysis on their own strengths and weaknesses. Therefore,
the trainings have succeeded in making changes in terms of employees’ knowledge,
interpersonal relationships and introspection.

3.3. Soft Skills Trainings Focus

Compared to Hard-Skills trainings, it can be considered that Soft-Skills trainings have a larger
influence upon the employees as the skills they try to get acquainted with and develop them.

25 | P a g e
Moving towards to an in-depth analysis of the most delivered categories within the company,
this chapter will focus on the analysis of the trainings delivered within those categories.

Table 2: Top 3 trainings categories delivered between November 9th, 2015 and June 27th, 2017
Source: Own representation based on data provided by the company
Therefore, within the Compliance category, there three trainings, two of which is delivered in
the online environment. Moreover, it can be observed that these trainings are leaning towards
a more theoretical view, rather than a practical and as such, the reason for them being in online.
Due to the delicacy of topics of integrity and compliance, they are imposed by the company to
be completed one month since the enrolment and thus, the larger number of trainings
completed.
The second category of trainings is represented by the Language Courses, with also three
trainings delivered. Out of the tree, the English classes have been most delivered within the
period of November 9th, 2015 and June 27th, 2017, as the most spoken language besides
Romanian in the company is English and it also needed by the employees to complete their
daily tasks. The second most requested and delivered Language training is represented by
German, with 236 trainings, it being due to the hardship the language poses and due to the
German being one of the most requested languages within the company. The last training is
requested only by the foreigners working within the company, but not necessarily compulsory
in order to work. Therefore, for this peculiar reason it explains the reason for such a low value.
The last category of trainings, Transition Trainings, encompasses a total of 6 trainings, all being
delivered in-classroom. As previously stated, the Transition Trainings represent a hybrid type,
made up of both soft-skills and hard-skills trainings, needed by the employees in order to
prepare for working with systems used by their foreign clients. As such, the more hard-skills 218328330419
236
88311213512084
22
050100150200250300350400450
Classroom
compliance
Code of Conduct
WBT
Integrity WBT
English
German
Romanian
Change Management
Country specifics
DTP Creation training
TIKA Training
Transition Training
WINI Training
Compliance Training Language courses Transition Training

26 | P a g e
trainings (WINI and Tika Training) register together a total of 144 trainings, while the soft-
skills trainings have been delivered 424 times. The soft-skills trainings are meant to acquaint
the employees with social-cultural issues depending on the country-destination, offering them
role-plays, situations created based on the customs and other boundaries the employees need
to overcome in order to any issues they might come across.

3.4. Departments Statistics

The following sub-chapter is going to be focused on inter-departmental statistics, relating to
the number of the trainings delivered per department. As such, the company presents a total of
21 departments, though by far the departments on which the focus fell upon are related to the
core of the company’s activity: Accounts Payable (AP), Accounts Receivable (AR) and
General Ledger (GL).

Table 3: Trainings delivered per department, between Nov. 9th, 2015 and June 27th, 2017
Source: Own representation based on data provided by the company
As previously presented in the previous sub-chapter, these departments have been offered both
soft-skills and hard-skills trainings. In an in-depth analysis, it can be observed that there is a
discrepancy between the trainings delivered between each of the main departments. Therefore,
Accounts Receivable is the departments with most trainings delivered to during the period of
November 9th, 2015 and June 27th, 2017, representing 37% of the total volume of trainings
held. The explanation behind the high percentage stands due to several motives, among which
the size of the department is largest in the company. As such, on account of the size, there is
also a high turnover of employees, which explains the high number of hard-skills trainings 1352
61795
1063528691173
2136794 3 19424632104
0200400600800100012001400160018002000

27 | P a g e
delivered. Furthermore, the departments also registered the most soft-skills trainings delivered,
which is, in part, due to the preparing of the teams meant to go abroad on transition and work
locally, with the company’s clients.
The second largest department in the company is Accounts Payable, registered approximately
29% trainings delivered out of the total. Compared to Accounts Receivable, the department
also registers a high turnover of employees (both form outside or from departmental
interchanges), thus needing to train the new joiners in the domain they activate, as well as
preparing the seniors employees for more complex processes. Moreover, in terms of soft-skills
trainings, Accounts Payable registers the second place out of the operational department, with
a total of 807 trainings compared to the hard-skills, which scored a total of 551 trainings
delivered within the period of the data collection.

Table 4: Trainings delivered to core-activity departments, split into Hard-skills and Soft-Skills between Nov. 9th, 2015 and
June 27th, 2017
Source: Own representation based on data provided by the company
The last process department is represented by General Ledger (GL), which registers one of the
lowest turnovers of employees, as it previous knowledge in accounting and very few
uneducated new joiners are taken into the department. Still, even the new employees are
required to take preparatory trainings before starting their processes, if only to examine their
knowledge within the field. As such, the department registered a total of 504 hard-skills
trainings delivered, while the soft-skills trainings scored 669 trainings.
In terms of the support functions, these departments have rather low scores in terms of hard-
skills trainings, as there is little to low knowledge to be gained from these type of trainings,
with the exception of Microsoft Office trainings or other specialised programs needed to
complete their daily tasks. Therefore, the trainings delivered to the 18 departments only makes 551843
504807952
669
02004006008001000
AP AR GL AP AR GL
Hard Skills Soft Skills

28 | P a g e
up 2% of the total trainings delivered during the period, between November 9th, 2015 and June
27th, 2017. On the other hand, the soft-skills trainings outmatch the other type, scoring a high
of approximately 7.5% in trainings delivered to support functions. Out the 18 departments,
Human Resources is the department with the most trainings, with a total of 109.
All in all, the main conclusion in regards of the enrolment in the trainings delivered to all
departments, it can be observed that the trainings are open to both operational and support
functions, with higher percentages in the former departments. Despite this, a considerable
percent in soft-skills trainings have been registered by support functions, thus emphasising the
value the company puts on the employee’s extrinsic and intrinsic development.

Table 5 Trainings delivered in support functions departments between Nov. 9th, 2015 and June 27th, 2017
Source: Own representation based on data provided by the company

3.5. Enrolment Evolution

Considering the analysis on the types of skills and the amount of trainings delivered, the
following sub-chapter will take up analysis of evolution of enrolment of total employees for a
period of 12 months, in the year of 2016. The trend lines represent the types of trainings, hard-
skills and soft-skills, split over the course of the months. For the year of 2016, the total number
of employees enrolled is at the height of 4516.
As such, taking into consideration these facts, for the first three months of the year, both trend
lines have fluctuated. The Hard-Skills trend line has started the year with 139 enrolments, while
the Soft-Skills trend line registering only 78 enrolments. The following 2 months, they suffered
a slight decrease, both below the 100 employees milestone.. Afterwards, in the month of April,
while the Soft-Skills trend has remained constant, at a value below 100, the Hard-Skills trend 5349227
1242 21420
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020406080100120
CEO
CREM
Facility
Finance
GPO
HR
LL
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LL-AR
MD
SAP
SPM
CEO
CREM
Facility
Finance
HR
LL
LL-AR
MD
SAP
SPM
SSC
TM
Transition
X Processes
Hard Skills Soft Skills

29 | P a g e
has surged to up to 200 people enrolled. This event might be explained due to a new surge in
the recruitment, interdepartmental changes or request from the managers for their employees
to receive specialised trainings regarding their processes.
Entering the second trimester of the year, the Hard-Skills trend line came to a stop, remaining
constant until the end of August, while the Soft-Skills trend line began its increase, starting
from May until the end of August. From an in-depth analysis perspective, as it can be observed,
the Hard-Skills trend line registered in the month of May, a total of 190 enrolments and
beginning its slight decrease until the month of August. In July, it seemed that there was short
increase in the employees enrolled, but it continued to fall until in August, hitting a low of 184

Table 6: Hard-skills and Soft-Skills Trainings delivered between January 1st and December 31st, 2016
Source: Own representation based on data provided by the company
people enrolled. In contrast, the Soft-Skills trend line had known a period of increases, almost
from month to month. Starting from May, the trend had begun its increase, with a new height
of employees enrolled at 205. Continuing in June, it had fluctuated, with a slight decrease in
the enrolment, but in July, the enrolments started rising again. As such, while the Hard-Skills
trend had fluctuations, leaning towards decreasing the number of enrolments, the Soft-Skills
trend line had increased from 260 employees in July to a new record of 420 employees in
August, almost doubling its value.
In the last trimester of the year, both trend lines had known surges and plummets, but ending
the year below 50 employees enrolled. At the beginning of the trimester, while the Soft-Skills
trend line had ended August with a surge, in September it plummeted to a new value of 101
employee enrolled. At the same time, the Hard-Skills trend has continued its decrease into the
new trimester, with a new low of 101 employees enrolled. However, in October, the trends Janu
aryFebr
uaryMarc
hApril May June JulyAugu
stSept
emb
erOcto
berNove
mberDece
mber
Hard SKills 139 69 69 202 190 161 208 184 101 248 184 29
Soft Skills 78 107 59 66 205 155 260 442 297 232 825 60100200300400500600700800900
Hard SKills
Soft Skills

30 | P a g e
seemed to have bet the junction between the trend lines, with the Soft-Skills trend decreasing
again, while the Hard-Skills trend have known an increase. Despite this, in November, a surge
has taken place for the Soft-Skills trend, with a new value of 825 employees enrolled in the
trainings. At the same time, in November, the Hard-Skills trend began a new decrease,
continuing even in December. In December, while previously having hit a new record, the Soft-
Skills trend had once more plummeted, meeting the Hard-Skills trend at a junction.
As a conclusion to the analysis of the evolution of the enrolment, the surges could be explained
to the increases in the recruitment process delivered by the HR department, as well as a new
surge in the recommendations and enrolments by the direct manager of the departments.
Moreover, another reason for the large amount of enrolments could be due to the number of
transitions that occurred during the year. At the same time, this could also represent the reasons
for the number of plummets during the year, with the employees being in the transition period
and not being able to attend to the local trainings. Moreover, the plummets in enrolments could
be explained because of the employees leaving the company.

3.6. Trainings Delivery

Considering the types of trainings delivered within the company, the way they are delivered
needs to be considered in order figure out how much influence it can have on the employees.
Therefore, within the company, there are only two methods of delivering the trainings: Online
and Classes.

Table 7: Trainings delivered using different approaches between November 9th, 2015 and June 27th, 2017
Source: Own representation based on data provided by the company 1211
800 8471988
05001000150020002500
Hard Skills Soft SkillsOnline Trainings
Class Trainings

31 | P a g e
By comparing the two types, it can be observed that it differs for one to another, as the Hard-
Skills trainings are delivered by far more in the online environment, compared to Soft-Skills
trainings. While the class trainings for Hard-Skills are around at 847 trainings held in-
classroom, the online trainings score around 1211 in the online environment. This could be
explained through the fact that these skills are acquired and developed more in the online
environment, needing specialised information and online classes that show step-by-step
approaches towards completing the tasks. At the same time, some of the trainings deliver
updated approaches or these trainings are held for new employees who have yet to acquire any
experience with these types of programs and need some help in the introductory process.
On the other hand, Soft-Skills trainings are delivered by far in in-classroom trainings better
rather than in the online environment. The trainings delivered in the online environment are
800, while the delivered in-classroom score over 1900 trainings. The reasons behind this
particular decision to organise the trainings in such way is due to the fact that soft-skills are not
acquired through theory or in a technical matter, but rather though practice, in role-plays,
situations created especially during these in-classroom trainings. Moreover, the trainers have
the capability to deliver and explain these concepts to employees rather than let them acquire
these trainings through reading. At the same time, several concepts, such as Compliance and
Integrity cannot be delivered differently than from theory and such way, online courses are
organised for them.