The Human Resource Problems Being Faced by the West Bank Call Centre - Case Study Example

Case Study: The West Bank Call Centre Name Course Name and Code Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Roles of HR 4 Employee Resourcing 4 Learning & Development 6 Reward Management 7 Employee Relations 8 Conclusions & Recommendations 9 Recommendations 9 Conclusion 10 References 11 Introduction West Bank plc is both a banking and insurance company situated within the United Kingdom. The Bank was first established by Sir Arthur Kettlewell of Pudsey in 1870 as the West riding Bank and was based in Leeds. It changed its name in 2009 after the Premier Banking group took over it. Currently, the Premier Banking group has its headquarters in Birmingham with the West bank having its head office in Leeds. The main objective of the Chief executive of the West bank, Anne Jones, is to save its brand as well as retain the Leeds based jobs despite the problems currently being faced leading to high losses. In the 1970s and the 1980s, the West bank was the best in the student banking as well as the finance sector. In order to ensure that this remains a reality that is both beneficial and essential to the bank, a call centre has been established. The call centre has been situated at a new building located around 12 miles from the town of Leeds. This area is characterized by low unemployment. The main aim of establishing the call centre was to ensure that there is an effective portfolio of student services. Nevertheless, Due to the inappropriate Human resource policies and planning of the West bank, the call centre is not fully delivering. As evidenced by past researches, call centres are a source of controversies. It is apparent that in the call centres too much pressure is exerted on the employees and as a result high levels of absenteeism as well as labour turnover problems. From the case study, the sole objective of the call centre is to ensure it operates 24 hours in seven days as it fights to ensure customer retention and satisfaction. In order to achieve this, West bank needs to review its human resource policies and planning. This paper aims at identifying the human resource problems being faced by the West bank call centre and analyzing them so as to provide appropriate solutions to address the problems. Roles of HR The human resource is an essential department of any company (Banfield and Rebecca, 2008). Evidently, without this department, most of the work in the company would be in inefficiently done (Becker and Gerhart, 1996). The role of the human resource department therefore includes planning, testing, appraising, training, rewarding the employees, observing to their health and safety, fairness concerns as well as labour relations (Paauwe, 2009). The department comprises of highly skilled people who assist the managers carry out their responsibilities effectively. In our case, the role of the human resource is to determine the policies and procedures. The only problem is that the policies in the call centre are centrally determined and the local management feels that they are not suitable for the functioning of a call centre. Another problem being faced by the call centre is that the team managing it does not have the experience deemed right for the call centres leading to poor customer retention. Employee Resourcing Employee resourcing is yet another part of the human resource management, which addresses a major aspect of the human resource practice, recruitment and selection (Pilbeam and Corbridge, 2006). As indicated in the case study, external recruitment at the West bank call centre is being handled by two distinct channels with the West bank central human resource function handling permanent staff whereas the agencies are used to recruit the temporary staff. The focus of the recruitment and selection process for the company has been identifying professionals with good communication skills, a personality or naturals. However, after employment and training, the candidates were re-programmed and infused with the sense of conformism. This caused frustrations to the staffs that had been designated for their outstanding personality. At the call centre, the employees work in teams of around 15 individuals and are headed by a team leader who works under the customer service manager. The customer service manager is responsible of ensuring employee motivation and ensuring performance improvement. It is expected that the team leaders motivates their team members and develop them by training them. The members of the team are known as customer service operators and are a requirement that they should have several skills. New recruits to the job only handle the basic calls. At the call centre, the productivity is measured on a daily basis on individual and team basis and the performance reviewed. Additionally, the employees get to overwork themselves. As is evidence from the case study, the contractual working hours are deemed unsuitable to address the prerequisites. Clearly, the employees are getting a shift allowance irrespective of the call centre not being on a 24-hour basis operation. The call centre has a high overtime level, which is described, by one of the managers as nonsense since in a telephone environment people should be fresh as well as busy. Studies indicate that employee resourcing (recruitment and selection are key to human, resource management) (Pilbeam and Corbridge, 2006). However, they get to be used in a prescriptive manner, as is evidence from the case study. The term is taken as a mere technique for filling jobs. As the new human resource manager, the term will be taken also to include upholding the commitment of staff, organizational change and the attainment of high performance (Stein and Nueno, 2010). According to studies, within the free market states, the workforce profession has embraced a best practice model, which suits the contemporary business ideology. The practice is aimed at getting the suitable person in terms of qualification for the job (Boxall, 1998). As the new human resource manager of the West bank call centre, a distinct model of resourcing that has a great focus on the personality as well as attitude rather than the presumed capability will be established. It is expected that the recruits to be selected are those who fit in with the West bank call center’s culture and those that are in a position to build a career within the bank by absorbing the goals (Boxall, 1998). Learning & Development It is evident from the case study that presently, its case study is being coordinated by the central training and the development function of the West bank. It is expected that the team leaders identify and address the training needs of their members. However, due to the pressures of their workloads, they have not been able to achieve staff development as is required of them. It is reported by an ex-team leader that when he was working with the bank he only managed the business and not individual performance. Clearly, the leader did not take part employee development or the identification of the reasons behind the employees not performing. According to McNamara (2011), learning and development is core to employee growth as well as company successful performance. Generally, learning is a term used to refer to the preparation of the mind. Usually, learning is carried out in, and out of the actual work area through training. Training is the methodical growth of attitude, skill pattern and knowledge required by an individual to carry out a specific task sufficiently (McNamara, 2011). Development on the other hand is the learning opportunities aimed at helping the employees grow. It is not a skilled-based aspect but rather provides knowledge and attitudes to ensure the growth of the individual’s ability, awareness and understanding. The efforts often geared towards development mostly are dependent on the ambition and drive of an individual (McNamara, 2011). The new HR manager will aim at encouraging his employees to actively take part in the development activities as so as They can be developed to undertake challenging tasks Acquire conventional training Heighten efficiency as well as standards performance Ensure health and safety By so doing, the West bank call centre will be in a position to meet the special needs arising from knowledge and change needs. Reward Management Apparently, when compared to the local labour market, West bank call centre has a relatively low rate of pay. Besides, its fringe benefits despite being good, they reveal a lifetime employment based remuneration structure of bank branch as well as head office employees. Currently, the call centre does not have a clear progression for the employees. This clearly indicates that the current earnings are insufficient to attract as well as retain highly skilled employees deemed right for a customer service of high quality. Another major problem being faced by the call centre is that they have few incentives for the employees to attain the desired level of service. These include such things as training and therefore non-career development. Moreover, the contractual working hours are not suitable to address the cover requirements. According to the experts, the success of any company is dependent on the reward management being used by the company (Guthrie, 2001). Evidently, employees are the most important part of a company and their performance is linked to the treatment given to them by the company (Purcell et al, 2003).The new HR manger aims at reviewing the employees pay structure with the aim of ensuring that it matches the market value (Guthrie, 2001). In addition, the manager will also aim at providing training and development incentives to ensure highly skilled employees to ensure customer retention. Employee Relations According to the case study, the labour turnover is approximately 35 per cent. However, the call centres’ absenteeism levels are not high, compared to the West bank total employees, they are comparatively high. The sales as well as productivity are measured on a daily basis based on the individual or team performance. The calls are closely monitored and the performance reviewed and documented indicating individual performances. According to the commentators, the monitoring as well as measurement behaviour used by the call centre has aroused controversies contemporary call centres are a source of problems related to absenteeism and labour turn over. In addition, the call centre lacks a clear channel of communication. Evident from the case study, the employees use the computers to guide them and they sign customer service operation on phone. In order to enhance team building the employees are urged to socially interact outside the work environment but the extent to which this happens is not clear. This means that there is no evidence to prove the call centre’s team building. The only recognized trade union by the West bank is the Unite union and is the largest in the United Kingdom. The total membership of the bank is 50 per cent with a lesser percentage in the call centre. From the case study, the role of the union is to address the issues that arise from the customer service operations. According to Gennard and Judge (2005), employee relations should ensure the commitment of the employees so as they can fully deliver within the organization. In our case, the employees do not deliver as expected due to job pressures resulting to absenteeism and low labour turnover. The new HR manger aims at ensuring that the employees are not overworked and that a new channel other than the computer system is established for consultations. This will, include holding meetings to get feedback on various customer service operations (Gennardand Judge, 2005). Conclusions & Recommendations Recommendations In order to address the problems with the human resource management, the West Bank call centre should embrace the strategic role of human resource management (Paauwe, 2009). This entails the long-term plan of the company to balance the internal weaknesses and strengths with the external forces to maintain a competitive advantage. This comprises of job analysis, recruiting, selection of employees, training them, performance appraisal and labour relations as well as ensuring their safety and health (Paauwe, 2009). Besides, the HR manger will ensure to have distinct policies and planning for the call centre different from those of the West bank, as the two are separate businesses with different expectations. Moreover, the new human resource manager of the West bank call centre, will ensure that a distinct model of resourcing that has a great focus on the personality as well as attitude rather than the presumed capability will be established(Pilbeam and Corbridge, 2006). In conclusion, the manager will ensure that incentives are availed to the employees to enhance their commitment to their job (Guthrie, 2001). This will include such things as an increment in their salaries, training for development and motivation through compensating their efforts to improvement. Conclusion This paper has aimed at identifying the human resource problems being faced by the West bank call centre. It has then analyzed them to come up with appropriate solutions to address the problems. The problems identified include centrally determined Human Resource policies and procedures, inexperienced management team, recruitment and operation problems, lack of career development, employees working under pressure, lack of incentives, low pay to the employees, no clear channels of communication as well as high labour turnover. In order to address these issues the new Human resource manager to the West bank call centre recommends that the centre embraces the strategic role of human resource management that entail job analysis, recruiting, selection of employees, training them, performance appraisal and labour relations as well as ensuring their safety and health. By so doing, the call centre will be able to separate its policies from those of the bank. In conclusion, the call centre should take their employees as the centre to their business and hence offer incentives to motivate their working for the success of the company. References Banfield, P. and Rebecca, K. 2008. Introduction to Human Resource Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Becker, B. and Gerhart, B. 1996. The impact of human resource management on organizational performance. Academy of Management Journal, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 779–801. Boxall, P. 1998. Achieving competitive advantage through human resource strategy: Towards a theory of industry dynamics. Human Resource Management Review, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 265 – 88 Gennard, J. and Judge, G. 2005. Employee Relations, 4th Ed. London: CIPD Publishing. Guthrie, J. 2001. High involvement work practices, turnover and productivity: evidence from New Zealand. Academy of Management Journal, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 180-90. McNamara, C., 2011, Employee Training and Development: Reasons and Benefits. Accessed on October 15, 2011, http://managementhelp.org/training/basics/reasons-for-training.html Paauwe, J., 2009. HRM and Performance: Achievement, Methodological Issues and Prospects. Journal of Management Studies, vol. 46, no. 1 Pilbeam, S. & Corbridge, M. 2006. People Resourcing: Contemporary HRM in Practice Harlow. New York: Prentice Hall. Purcell, J., Kinnie, N.J., Hutchinson, S., Rayton, B. and Swart, J., 2003. Understanding the People and Performance Link: Unlocking the Black Box. London: OPD Stein, G., and Nueno, P. 2010. Managing People and Organizations: Peter Drucker's Legacy. New York: Emerald Group Publishing. Read More