Key HRM Issues at UniCall
Order Instructions:
the Case Study title is ‘Call centres in the financial services sector—just putting you on hold…’.
After reviewing your assigned reading and the information presented in the case study, answer the following questions:
1. Identify and assess the key HRM issues at UniCall.
2. Recommend and justify HRM interventions that would improve business performance.
SAMPLE ANSWER
UniCall
Key HRM Issues at UniCall
Human resource professionals are often involved in making key personnel decisions/resolutions in organizations of all sizes. These individuals are in charge of implementing ongoing trainings of workers in different areas within companies. Since human resource professional are always in the management of employees with various qualifications and from various backgrounds, they often face several issues that need their attention (Marie, 2012). In relation to this, UniCall happens to be faced with several HRM issues. These issues are related to personnel and training issues.
One of the personnel-related issues that often present significant problems to HR professionals is the need to identify and recruit qualified and competent workers. Some of the organization’s employees seem to be incompetent, thereby highlighting the fact the firm’s HR has not been active in the identification and recruitment or appropriate workers (Ferndale, Paauwe & Boselie, 2010). For instance, consumers have been noted to present complaints concerning the aspect of rudeness on the part of the company’s staff. This rudeness is linked to issue of inflexibility of the firm’s staff when handling complex account-related matters. In addition, the aspect of incompetency on the part of the firm’s employees is evidenced by all of them giving similar responses to consumers when called upon. As such, it is clear that UNiCall’s HR department lack suitable mechanisms of identifying and hiring competent workers who can address consumers’ problems in various ways. Moreover, UniCall’s HR department also faces the problem of
UniCall’s HR department also faces training-related issues. Prior to the opening of UniCall, UniBank focused on the provision of financial and personal banking services to small businesses and individual consumers. UniBank decided to venture into the telephone banking sector following the increasing commercial success of organizations that operate in the field of direct line banking. As a result, UniBank opened UniCall, and redeployed some its works to the new business, UniCall. Employees that were redeployed in UniCall lacked skills that were required to handle issues in this business, thereby subjecting the firm to its current problems. For instance, some of the company’s staff members face problems using the computer system. These employees cannot manage to retrieve accurate information concerning simple enquiries. Besides, they cannot retrieve accurate information concerning the durations taken by interrogations. Moreover, these workers face problems handling the firm’s monitoring systems, which measure the duration and number of various types of call. As such, the inquiries that are related to direct debit arrangements and standing orders take an extra of 50% of the time required for them to be completed. In addition, some of the redeployed workers are not satisfied with their job as they argue that it is too impersonal.
It is also clear that the management of UniCall’s HR department is facing issues handling their employees in that they seem to embrace the transactional form of leadership. This form of leadership seems to emphasize on intense supervision and directive measures as seen in the case of UniCall. As result, most employees in this organization are not empowered to execute even simple operation on their own as they have to receive directives from the call center. Moreover, the aspect of constant surveillance has led to resentment on the part of employees, which in turn has made them develop informal ways of executing their duties (Anca-Ioana, 2013). Moreover, the firm’s management has not established appropriate systems that can be employed in motivating employees and recognizing workers’ skills. This deficiency has led to discontentment on the part of younger employees who are inclined towards seeking employment in other firms in the industry. In addition, these employees argue that the firm’s pay structure does not take their skills into consideration, thereby subjecting the company’s HR to compensation issues.
HRM Interventions for Improvement of Business Performance
Addressing HRM issues is significant in ensuring that businesses lay robust foundations for organizational growth. UniCall’s HR department should focus on suitable ways of addressing the personnel, training, compensation challenges that it is facing.
The Company’s HR department should engage in active search of sources of potential employees. This undertaking will help the HR department end the problem of incompetency on the part of its employees. Some of the sources of potential workers are employee referrals, recruiters, networks and associations, headhunters, and temporary agencies (Armstrong, 2009). Moreover, the company’s HR department should involve in an active running of advertisements on job websites and newspapers in order to attract competent workers. The firm’s HR should also focus on developing a suitable action plan, which is aimed at attracting competent workers.
UniCall’s HR should implement reward-based programmes, which should be directed to employees and managers. Reward-based trainings have been noted to be suitable motivators to employees. These training should focus on equipping workers with adequate technological skills that are required to handle the company’s computer systems and other technology-based activities. Furthermore, the HR should also conduct a separate training on its supervisors and managers on aspects of good leadership, which is vital in creating suitable leader-employee relationships (Shaw, Park & Kem, 2013). This undertaking is significant in ensuring that employees and managers/supervisor communicate in a suitable way. As a result, employees can manage to present issues affecting them to the management, which in turn can end issues such as informal execution of operations on the part of workers with the aim of pleasing the management.
The company’s HR should also ensure that its managers are trained on the aspect of reward-based management, which will ensure that they implement a performance appraisal system in the firm (Shaw, Park & Kem, 2013). As a result, this undertaking will help identify the skills of all workers. Lastly, the company’s HR department should review its payment structure to provide for benefits and allowance for certain talents.
Reference List
Anca-Ioana, M., 2013. “New Approaches of the Concepts of Human Resources, Human Resource Management and Strategic Human Resource Management,” Annals of the University of Oradea Economic Science, 22(1), pp. 1520-1525.
Armstrong, M 2009, Armstrong’s Handbook Of Human Resource Management Practice, London: Kogan Page.
Ferndale, E., Paauwe, J & Boselie, P. 2010. “An Exploratory Study of Governance in the Intra-Firm Human Resources Supply Chain,” Human Resource Management, 49(5), pp. 849-868.
Shaw, D., Park, T & Kem, E. 2013. “A Resource-Based Perspective on Human Capital Losses, HRM Investments and Organizational Performance,” Strategic Management Journal, 34(5), pp. 572-589.
Marie, H. 2012. “Strategic Human Resource Management in Context: A Historical and Global Perspective,” Academy of Management.
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