Beau Street Runners, Ltd (BSR) is a courier service with headquarter on Beau Street in a first-tier suburb of a megalopolis severing four co-joined big cities with many different ethiccommunities and massive transportation grids. BSR provides cabs, bicycles, vans and armored trucks for moving important packages between businesses in the various cities and surrounding suburbs (approx. 125 miles along a waterfront and 100 miles wide edging into foothills) in a “northern” climate with significant weather variations.
Obviously, security is an issue for BSR. Currently, they provide training programs on personal security and on the BSR’s standards for securing packages. Their standards are being met in all areas except customer service. Since customer service is about relationship building between customer and the runner, it may be challenging to build a learning solution that satisfies the need. However, your contact at BSR believes that their Runners are their ultimate image. Therefore, this customer problem needs to be fixed and they will do anything at all to fix it.
You have been hired to build a low-tech training solution for these associates. Based on the information below, what are the key cognitive issues, and memory/attention factors that you will consider in your designs? Based on that analysis of the essential learning needs, what learning theories and technologies would be most likely to meet the need? Explain your reasoning and support your opinions in a 2-3 page paper using APA format.
BSR Runners:
· Age: 18-28 (average age 31)
· Gender: 68% are male; 32% are female
· Type of work:
· 35% are bicyclists specializing in very small packages of less than $500 value
· 15% are cab drivers
· 17.5% are van drivers
· 18.5% are truck drivers
· 13% are special-agents working only with highly insured packages ($100K plus) and special projects that may require days or weeks (e.g., moving museum pieces)
· 80% of the bicyclists indicate that this is first full-time job
· 25% of all employees indicate that this is a part-time second job
· 79% indicate that they have earned a Brown Belt or higher in at least one martial art while the rest indicate that they attend martial arts training
· Special agents earn more than $100k a year and the other runners are unaware that such agents exist
· When surveyed about the work bicyclists Runners indicated that:
· They enjoy the challenges of navigating the multi-city transportation grid but also find it stressful
· Carry a PDA with GPS, phone, internet and carry technology for tracking and managing packages and signatures from those accepting packages
· They are only paid when they work, so they have no “down time” in which to take training
· They enjoy physical aspects of the job and the high-alert energy they must maintain to stay secure and keep their packages secure.
· Extreme weather was their greatest hazard (after traffic) with winter days reaching into the -10 degree range regularly and summer days often near or over 100 degrees.
· A tally of the last 100 customer service complaints show that:
· 5:8 customers indicated that their courier was “curt” and “uncooperative”
· 3:10 customers indicated that their courier was unable to explain why their package arrived late
· 7:20 indicated that pick-up courier “scared them”, when asked for further information they said the following about individuals in various roles:
· The bicyclist courier’s looked weird and scary – like a cross between street people and a terrorist.
· The cab driver was foreign and didn’t seem to understand me
· The van driver or armored truck drivers and assistants had shifty eyes… always checking around them, I felt like they were waiting for someone to pop out from behind me and attach them.
Your paper should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Please include citations to support your ideas.
