Total Quality Management - T-mobile Trainer - Assignment Example

Total Quality Management - T-mobile, Trainer I. Interviews Interviewee: H. Dool Company/Position held: T-mobile, Trainer Date when the set of 14 Points was given: January 20, 2012 Date of the actual interview: January 21, 2012 Point in reference: Point # 13 - “Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.” Specific Example: As a trainer, she is very much aware of the importance of continuous training and development of people. There was an instance when a big change has to be applied in the collections department due to low scores in customer satisfaction because of some malpractices spreading on the floor just to attain the collection goals.

The learning and development department decided to come up with specific strategies when it comes to collections. These strategies need to be applied in every collection call the employees do. Since so much is at stake, training is given to the employees by waves, sealed by follow-up monitoring by the quality assurance department. In the next few weeks, there have been an apparent increase in employee motivation and a big rise in the hourly amount of collections. Over time, customer commendations poured in and there were lesser complaints.

Had the company decided to just focus on disciplinary actions to employees who do not abide by the company policies when it comes to dealing with customer and had not given additional training as a “reminder” of the proper way to handle customers, the outcome would have not been as positive as this. Interviewee: N. Campbell Company and Position: Bank of America, Client Relations Officer Date 14 Points Were Given and Date of Actual Interview: January 20, 2012 Date of the actual interview: January 22, 2012 Point in reference: Point # 13 - “Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.

” Specific Example: The bank decided to outsource the collections of their delinquent accounts to a third-party company. However, there had been issues regarding the quality of customer service the employees provide to the bank's cardmembers. The third-party company was informed of this issue and was advised by the bank regarding re-training. However, the company tried to minimize the expenses and instead decided to disseminate “updates and new strategies” merely via inter-office memorandum.

The third-party company also implemented “disciplinary actions” to go along with the new strategies. According to Campbell, this had an immediate positive effect on the performance of the employees, however, it did not last that long. What happened afterwards is a series of disciplinary actions carried out on employees, which in turn resulted in demotivated employees and higher attrition rate for this third-party company. In the long run, the third-party company ended up with continuous training of new hires due to the attrition rate.

However, new hires can never be as productive as tenured employees, so the long-term effects of “avoiding the expenses of training” actually resulted in more negative outcomes. Interviewee: T. Marshall Company and Position: JP Morgan Chase Bank, Fraud Analyst Date 14 Points Were Given and Date of Actual Interview: January 20, 2012 Date of the actual interview: January 23, 2012 Point in reference: Point # 13 - “Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.” Specific Example: According to Marshall, the fraud operations department of a bank is a tough department to handle.

This is because the top management gave specific metrics to meet: customer satisfaction while limiting the losses due to fraud. It is impossible to hire people with inborn “detective skills” to really probe effectively to gather answers that will help them decide on the legitimacy of every transaction. Every wrong decision will either lead to a lost customer or money losses for the bank due to fraud. Since fraudsters are always up-to-date with technological advancements, keeping the employees up-to-date with fraud patterns greatly helps in their job performance.

Marshall said that the company makes it a point that employees are trained and re-trained every so often not only for updates, but for a more department-wide sharing of best practices that will help each person in their duties. He said that in the trainings they conduct, they discuss what to do in both common and rare scenarios. The strategy helps keep them a step ahead of possible issues that could arise. According to Marshall, a training need not be a big-time thing because trainings can be short group meetings held during free time or during off-peak hours.

He said that this also helps keep the department employees tightly-knit, which increases their motivation to work. Also, since the productivity level is high, employees tend to enjoy their work more, which is one reason for their low attrition rate. II. Own Experience Name: Point in reference: Point # 14 - “Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.” Specific Example: One good example here is this group activity regarding “Total Quality Management.” Even though there is no company to work for, the group is focused towards attaining a common goal.

Each member brought out the team player in them in order to divide tasks effectively. We tried to look for the strengths of each member and utilize them for the success of the research. Everybody understands that some tasks may not be given to them because they are better placed in a different role. Also, no one was made to feel that he or she is lacking in capabilities that only menial tasks are given to him or her. Each member is made to feel important and heard, which resulted in everyone happily working together with one goal in mind. III. Reflection on Management's 5 Deadly Diseases: http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=ehMAwIHGN0Y Dr. Deming discusses the 5 deadly diseases in the American management: 1) Lack of constancy of purpose, 2) Emphasis on short term profits, 3) Annual Performance Appraisals, 4) Mobility of management, and; 5) Running a company on visible figures alone. 27 years later, I believe these diseases have not been cured completely. If I base my opinions on the interviews I did, what struck me most is the way employees can easily go and move on to the next job opportunity due to lack of motivation in the workplace.

These annual performance appraisals that are sometimes based on visible figures alone can drive away motivation and result in the continuous “moving on” of people, resulting in mobility of management. This is probably because of the emphasis on the importance of quarterly dividends instead of the long-term growth of the company. For me, these 5 deadly diseases seem to be a connected link that is still ongoing nowadays.