Human Resource Management at the Westbank Call Center

Answer

Human resource department is the single most important segment of an organization. Similarly, it is the most sensitive and most challenging to manage, since dealing with human personnel requires a wide array of parameters and considerations. The success of an organization solely rests on the human resource department, fulfilling the old adage, which goes that the greatest asset a company or an organization can ever have is the human resource (Gary 13). Human resource management is an organization’s function which deals with recruitment, training, management and directing employees. It is the process of recruiting, training, compensating and appraising organization’s employees, and attending negotiations with labor relations, as well as taking care of the welfare of employees in terms of health, fairness and safety.

A call center, defined as a central office tasked with responsibility of collecting and relaying voluminous correspondence and requests by use of a telephone (Adams & Beck 9). Various kinds of information are received by a company on a daily basis, including customer requests, complaints, orders for product delivery, product support, as well as business deals from other corporations. Being operational for 24 hours, seven days a week, it poses a complex scenario of human resource management in many organizations (Adams & Beck 10). This paper analyses the human resource problems experienced at the Westbank Call Center, and possible remedies that can be employed to mitigate the situation, thereby ensuring success of the banking group.

Westbank has showed tremendous trends in employee management in its initial years of inception. Over the subsequent periods, challenges at the call center has seen a number of employees being absent for work, where the staff absenteeism is higher as compared to standards of Westbank employees on the average. Dimension Data, a benchmarking firm, reveals that the average absence of its employees at the call centers is at 11% across the globe (Gary 96). This means that out of every 100 employees, only 89 would be present at their stations at every given minute. The situation at the Westbank is far much alarming as compared to this ideal figure. The reasons behind this high figure may due to unfavorable working conditions at the workplace, or employee dissatisfaction with the benefits reaped from the job. Regardless of the cause, remedial measures need to be taken to combat this situation.

One of the ways to reduce agent absenteeism is to better the working conditions of the workplace. As has been described in the case study, employees at Westbank work for long hours, thereby succumbing to internal pressure and fatigue. By properly managing employee schedules and increasing the number of attendants in the call center, number of shifts can be increased so as to be reasonable and favorable to all the employees. This will serve to reduce fatigue and monotony of work, given that call centers are rather monotonous and redundant. Secondly, giving benefits commensurate with the work done and amount of time committed to work, employees will be adequately motivated to present themselves at work efficiently.

Staff attrition

High staff turnover is undesirable to an organization, particularly a call center. This is because every time one employee leaves, or resigns, fewer workers are left to attend to an equal amount of task at the center (Konrad, & Deckop 274). Consequently, maintenance of optimum level of duties becomes very challenging in a demanding situation (Marr & Parry 58). In addition, the process and fiscal implications of selecting, recruiting and training new employees is hectic and extravagant, not mentioning the costs incurred as result of reduced productivity as new recruits hassle to get up to speed. This must be the case at Westbank call center, where labor turnover is running at about 35%. This a relatively high figure, as compared to ideal standard in the industry.

To avert the alarming trend of employee attrition at Westbank Call Center, and lower the rates of labor turnover, comprehensive counteractive scheme has to be put in place. Usually, employees are on constant lookout for greener pastures in their career. By lowering overhead costs and channeling those funds to employee remuneration, payment of the workers can be raised to its optimum levels. As the Human Resource manager, conducting a research on employee grievances and cause of distress would be a first step in solving the problem of employee attrition. Appropriate efforts need to be taken to focus on employee retention, so as to avoid costs associated with hiring new employees.

Flat structures

Research has shown that the number of call centers planning to upgrade their workers’ skills is on the increase, though less than a third defines properly the path for career development for their staff (Konrad, & Deckop 276). As witnessed in the case of Westbank, trainings are conducted after recruitment by the Westbanks’s training and development function, though the pressure on the team leaders, who are tasked with the responsibilities of defining the training needs of their team members, is too much for them. In addition, though the selection and recruitment process focuses on identifying those with natural talents in communication, the type of training offered is inappropriate and disorienting. Instillation of a sense of conformity into the worker with outstanding qualities leads to employee frustration and ultimate lack of sufficient delivery in work.

As a human resource manager, one would ensure that proper training scope and path is defined for every individual employee, so that skills instilled are specific and far-reaching. Due to the rapid development of the IT sector, adapting to conformity would lead to backwardness in dealing with current technology, thereby interfering with service delivery. Besides, easing the task of the team leaders so as to shift their focus from other areas to employee management and development would ensure better layout and attention for staff development as well management of individual performance.

Lack of Improvements in Performance Levels

Adherence to set goals or even surpassing them is a positive trend that most call centers would adopt. Surprisingly, some of them find themselves lagging behind their targets. The result of this is usually frustration of both front-line staff and managers (Marr & Parry 59). In Westbank situation, there has been obvious decline in performance as compared to its heydays, when it was the market leader. Setting of tough level-service objectives and targets, which are not usually met end up as a discouragement to employees. As the system is inside the call center, all customer service operators (CSOs) have to display the performance of their teams and individual members. If the sales service targets are not met by either an individual or the entire team, the effect can spread within the entire network, causing lack of morale.

As a remedy, service targets should not be set over-ambitiously in each operational team. The target should realistic and practical, commensurate with the level of expertise and number of operators in the team (Marr & Parry 56). In essence, the targets set should be able to act as driving force towards better performance. Besides, the performance levels of employees could be enhanced by providing them with better machinery, upgrading their work skills and engaging in performance appraisal activities. Proper employee evaluation should be done, both by the individual employee and the supervisor; and the two reports be criticized with suggestions on the way forward being given. The employee must cite his/her areas of weakness and strengths, and if there is marked improvement in performance, pay increases and promotion should be discussed.

Assessment of Productivity

Normally, a common goal of all human resource managers is to be able to organize their employees in a proper manner to ensure optimum productivity, as this brings in more revenue. A lot of attention is thus given to employee motivation issues like bonuses, favorable shifts, team assignments and boosting of morale (Wegge, Dick, Fisher, Wecking & Moltzen 71). As in Westbank Call Center, this system seems to be less effective, as several important frameworks of employee motivation, and keeping of high morale are lacking in all manners. For instance, there are no clear incentives to enable staff achieve the desired level of performance; contractual hours of working are also inappropriate to meet the requirements of the cover. These challenges impede on the level of productivity of the employees, thus measurement and assessment of individual and team productivity becomes a problem.

To curb this, the manager needs to pay close attention to the nature and number of shifts per day, to make them realistic and favorable to all employees and team members. Secondly, lucrative incentives need to be put in place to boost the morale of the workers, as well as keep them highly motivated (Marr & Parry 60). A motivated worker has high productivity, which s measurable and assessable. Consequently, elaborate assessment criteria needs to be put in place for every individual employee. To make it interesting and unique, workers can be allowed to draft their own assessment programs, which would be done monthly, quarterly, or yearly.

Mode of Recruitment

Human personnel managers are largely concerned with the process of selecting, recruiting, training and management of employees in an organization (Bordoloi 313). The recruitment process is a very important process in the process of employee inception. Searching and developing interest in the most relevant and experienced personnel for a company is a challenging task that the manager has to undertake, by attending professional forums, job fairs, and sending promotional mails to prospective employees. In the case study, the recruitment focus and process is flawed, as it is done on a higher level of leadership of the baking group, which widens the scope and ends up getting the wrong people.

As a human resource manager, one would want to bring the recruitment function down to the head of the call center, so as to narrow the focus on specific, related employee traits. Since call centers have unique character demands separate from the bank, mixing the two would generate confusion and the wrong people might end up being selected. Instead of just focusing on persons with good communication skills and naturals alone, the call center needs people with expertise in current communication technology to take care of problems arising from the IT department.

Training

Training is needed in almost all businesses and organizations, so as to fine-tune the minds and skills of employees in dealing with specific organizational issues. This responsibility also falls on the human resource, to figure out how training for every employee would be conducted, to avoid strain and interruptions of programs (Bordoloi 315). As is obvious in Wesbank’s case, training of employees is not relevant to their fields of interest and natural talents, as they are basically ‘re-programmed’ once they are recruited. In addition, their team leaders do not have enough time to set out comprehensive training scopes for every employee, which as a result, ends up messing the whole process and producing weak and less skilled workers.

Outlining a clear training program, with complete specific and relevant scope for every level of employee would be the first step towards combating the problem at the call center. This should be done before the recruitment process, so that it acts as a template for every incoming worker. For staff development, benchmarking with star organizations on this basis would provide a roadmap on how to go about the matter (Farazmand 14).  Since technology changes rapidly as well as nature of human relations, constant trainings are necessary for every aspiring company.

Poor Remuneration and Benefits

Offering payments and benefits to employees that are commensurate to the amount of task handled is a crucial step in winning their loyalty and satisfaction. Poorly paid workers will always be on the move, looking for greener pastures (Wallace, Catriona, Eagleson & Waldersee 160). This raises the percentage of employee attrition, which, as aforesaid, is detrimental to the company in no less ways. The case study clearly notes that pay rates are lower as compared to ideals in the labor market. Though the benefits are good, they only apply to permanent employees in the baking group. There are largely inadequate to ensure employee retention.

In order to increase employee performance and retain the existing ones, offering an alluring pay coupled with benefits is a sure way to meeting this goal. In order to appear competitive, the Westbank call center must offer competitive benefits in compliance with industrial, national, regional, and local standards and regulations. The common benefits that would be beneficial to employees include life and health insurance covers, dental plans and others related to performance appraisal (Raduan & Kumar 23). The extra funds to take of more impressive employee compensation packages would be derived from decreased overhead costs, proper management of shifts to ensure optimum productivity and thus, maximum revenue.

Inadequate Workplace Representation 

Employee unions strengthen their will and sense of belonging in any working environment. With someone to express their concerns and attend bargaining meetings, they are confident that issues to do with pay increase, benefits, working hours and allowances will be duly addressed (Seyed-Mahmoud 42). As in Westbank’s case, the only recognized trade union is Unite, which has a worrying membership of only 50% of the employees. This shows that most employees do not have confidence in the union, due to lack of autonomy and adequate representation. Since collective agreements are only signed by trade unions and the employers, the weight of collective bargaining in Westbank is low and discouraging.

It is the duty of the human resource manager to attend union meetings and sign contracts with the trade unions on behalf of the company. The HR manager should thus encourage employees to join the union, so as to strengthen its bargaining power, and also honor most agreements made between the two parties. This would set in place a formal channel of consultation with staff, to enable them raise pertinent issues affecting their performance and job satisfaction. With this in place, issues to do with unimpressive pay packages, wrong working hours and shifts would be handled amicably.

Misappropriation of Funds

The human resource manager at every organization should ensure that employees are paid for what they do, and avoid unnecessary pay releases which only serve to increase expenditure and overhead costs (Seyed-Mahmoud 38). For instance, paying for an un-operational nightshift does not serve to raise employee morale, but is a manifestation of poor fiscal management in an organization. It also implies that what is paid out is not comparable to the productivity derived from the employees. The result is, the company ends up spending more than its revenue. This can lead to poor performance and generate bad financial reports, which ultimately damage the good reputation of a company.

To remedy this situation, a human resource manager should maximize on practical benefits and pay packages, and avoid paying for imaginary projects. This would help reduce company expenditure, while maximizing on profits (Wallace, Catriona, Eagleson & Waldersee 174). In addition, employees would be rightfully paid, motivated and compensated for the work done. The working morale would go higher, increasing productivity and performance. Since increased productivity comes with increased revenues, the company would reap more benefits including winning customer loyalty and expanding their business base.

Lack of Experience in Use of New Technology

Due to rapid advancement in technology, technical skills require frequent upgrading so as to keep abreast with the current developments and be competitive in the market (Farazmand 7). As noted in the Wesbank Call Center scenario, workers from the central branch of the bank have been absorbed to run the call center. These personnel are largely inexperienced in using current sophisticated communication technologies, which brings a load of IT problems in the call center. Similarly, new recruits are not conversant with the environment either, and are only allowed to handle basic calls. This is a human personnel manager’s problem, which should be tackled at the recruitment stage.

To ensure better performance of the employees, they need to be posted to their areas of expertise. Primarily, the company needs to pouch experienced personnel from other recognized institutions to act as team leaders to the new recruits. This would ensure proper training and guidance offered to the inexperienced staff, thus thoroughly orientating them to the system. Additionally, training path and scope would be designed more clearly by the experienced team leaders, as opposed to irrelevant staff sourced from the head office (Stavrou-Costea 114).

Inadequate Promotion of Team Building

One strong pillar of a successful workforce is a collaborative team. Effective team building ensures that employees work synergistically, helping one another where one is handicapped (Raduan & Kumar 22). In this regard, team should be allowed to develop coherently, work humorously, and consider one another as members of a family, with one common goal. Westbank’s management has put in place provisions for this, though it is inadequate.

To maximize on team building efforts and workforce cohesion, the human resource management should put in place activities to tighten this bond. It should be able to create in employees’ minds the notion that all are for the purpose of a common goal, and benefits accrued from adequate productivity are mutual (Stavrou-Costea 121). Social forums should be organized by the management, for example, every Friday of the end of each month, or quarterly, depending on the company’s budget. This will serve to bring workers together, to work as members of a common team.

Conclusion

Numerous problems have been identified in Wesbank Call Center’s human resource management. Some of them are common to all call centers, while others are specific to its management. Conclusively, a human resource manager should be able to embrace all roles of the human resource department, and initiate all the necessary changes discussed above, so as to salvage the call center from its current situation.