Formative Assignment 3 4057218 7rtm Gtufis Version 2..docx

Centre name:

ICS Learn

Candidate name:

GEORGETA TUFIS

CIPD Membership Number: Qualification title:

4937248X

Unit title(s):

Assessment number

ICS student number:

21026158

Resourcing and Talent Management

Recruitment, Selection and Induction

Unit code(s):

7RTM

Formative Assignment 3 (40572/18) 7RTM

*Online Class Date *Tutor Name * Not required when submitting a Formative assessment

Keith Watson

Please Note - You cannot submit your assignment until you have attended your Level 7 Online Classroom – all details must be filled in above before your work will be marked. 1st Submission Date 2nd Submission Date 3rd Submission Date

28/06/2018

Word Count Word Count Word Count

1605

Candidate declaration: ‘I confirm that the work/evidence presented for assessment is my own unaided work.’ I have read the assessment regulations and understand that if I am found to have ‘copied’ from published work without acknowledgement, or from other candidate’s work, this may be regarded as plagiarism which is an offence against the assessment regulations and leads to failure in the relevant unit and formal disciplinary action. I agree to this work being subjected to scrutiny by textual analysis software if required. I understand that my work may be used for future academic/quality assurance purposes in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998. I understand that the work/evidence submitted for assessment may not be returned to me and that I have retained a copy for my records. I understand that until such time as the assessment grade has been ratified by internal and external quality assurance verifiers it is not final.

1|Page

You have just landed your first graduate role working in a call centre undertaking some resourcing for the business. The call centre is constantly busy, but you are expected to get the staff in and interested in the role. Discuss how you would effectively, efficiently, lawfully and professionally conduct yourself in such an environment. What short/term planning would you undertake and how would you go about it?

2|Page

Contents Executive summary................................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4 Employee Engagement and Retention Strategy ............................................................................ 5 Effective resourcing and talent practices ......................................................................................... 5 Tracking the impact of recruitment actions .................................................................................... 6 Selection effectiveness ............................................................................................................................ 7 Professionalism and Ethics .................................................................................................................... 7 References .................................................................................................................................................... 8

3|Page

Executive summary The purpose of this report is to draw up a set of short-term actions focused on three intervention axes, mainly attracting, engaging and retaining employees in a busy call centre environment. Relevant correlated policies shall be mentioned succinctly. The presentation shall be structured on two main analysis levels. The first one is dedicated to discuss critical issues related to engaging, keeping committed employees with the aim of retaining good performers as long as possible in the company. An effective retention strategy reflects an organic consistency and efficiency among HR policies, and translates into an acceptable employee turnover, engagement, and high performance. Its positive effects would be on costs as well, those being redirected towards compensation package, training and development, creating a better working environment rather than on costs with recruitment/selection. The second level concerns resourcing and talent recruitment policies with a focus on keeping the cost on minimum with recruitment, implementing a consistent selection and an effective induction process. An effective resourcing and talent planning shall relate to strategic goals of the business, and consider the main employment market trends, anticipated changes of employees’ profile and expectations, legislation changes, emerging social issues. Emphasis will be placed on measuring effectiveness of attraction methods, on selecting efficient selection practices, and on building up a consistent induction program and their impacts on engagement, retention and commitment. The main conditions for creating a positive working environment, along with the main ethical traits of a HR professional are succinctly discussed. The analysis is supported by academic research and reports providing insights into best practices and main challenges of HR policies today.

Introduction Call centres are a growing part of the service industry all over the world in the last decades (DBK, 2007). The explosion and expansion of ICT and their low costs, the restructuring of organisation enabled by technologies, the delocalisation of employment sites, the increased standardization of software platforms, the low costs are among factors of growth (Abraham. M 2008). Despite the advances in technology, employees are still the core resource for a call centre to attain its business goals. While every workplace is different, with a unique culture as sources of significant differentiation (Evenson A. Patrick, Harker. P, Frei. F 1999), call centres crystalize a new service culture (D`Alessio and Oberbeck 2002) that share similar problems and challenges. Major challenges are related to high attrition rate which results into high costs with recruiting, hiring, training and developing; lower employee engagement due to the nature of jobs (dead-end, poorly paid, closely monitored, highly routinised, tightly scripted, limited empowerment and few career opportunities) which result in job disatisfaction, absenteeeism, turnover.

4|Page

Employee Engagement and Retention Strategy Employee retention is ranked as the second more important business priority, right after recruiting, according to LinkedIn study Employee Retention Strategies that work. Employee Turnover is one of the main challenges of call centres; despite being a constant issue, there are relatively few that undertake specific initiatives to improve staff retention; even when a review is undertaken, a fragmented perspective is considered for solving short-term problems instead of integrating a retention effective program as part of the company culture. The most effective methods retained by companies to address retention are focused on learning & developing, induction process and benefits (CIPD, Resourcing and Talent Planning, 2017). Employee engagement is strongly connected with a high retention; motivating and keeping employees commited it is not belong to a single stage of Talent Management. Consistent and constant actions should be integrated at the core of every policy. Of critical importance is to identify the core areas where turnover matters, affects organisational performance, the replacement costs are high so as order to design sound intervention actions to improve staff retention accordingly. A degree of labour turnover among core professionals may be beneficial in terms of organisational learning and the acquisition of new knowledge (Matusik and Hill, 1998). Retained areas to act upon should be measured in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. Learning & developments, for instance, should ideally be correlated with increasing growing opportunities within the company, assess employees percentage got motivated and engaged. The costs related to learning/development resources engaged should be analysed to results obtained in terms of employee retention. A well-designed on-boarding process should provide employees with a clear roadmap for success within the organisation; the effectiveness of induction program should be measured in retention percentage after a determined periods of time (1 year or two). In regards to benefits, emphasis should be placed on prioritizing those valued and acting as retaining driving forces to employees (performance bonuses, annual salary review, flexible schedules). Statistics indicate 35% of employees will look for a new job if they don’t receive a raise within 12 months (Employee Retention Strategies That Work for Small to SMBs, LinkedIn Talent Solutions). A friendly working environment, a culture of connection range among the most unexpansive and highly retaining actions. Considering that unhappiness at work determines 54%employees to leave, while 23% of those happy plan to leave. Identifying the key drivers of productivity, employees’ motivation, and acting upon through actions aimed to reduce unwanted and costly attrition would improve significantly business performance and brand reputation. A good reputation of the call centre on the employment market would facilitate and support its attraction and hiring strategies.

Effective resourcing and talent practices Attracting skilled talent is one of the most expensive, time consuming and challenging tasks for most companies. A busy call centre would face a reasonable high turnover and, depending on industry, would have a bigger or smaller core and contingent employees. In terms of costs, hiring contingent employees may be less expensive as they do not take advantage of the same benefits as permanent 5|Page

employees. There are sectors where a high level of turnover associated with contingent work may be counter productive (Hoque K. 2005). Call centres operate in a high competitive market, exposed and influenced significantly by economic fluctuation, political changes, and employment regulations. Their recruitment and hiring strategies should be shaped accordingly. Organisations may focus predominantly either to develop internal staff or to attract new talent from outsourced sources. A cost analysis of categories of jobs in terms of their strategic position inside the company should be done when designing job analysis. The roles may be categorized according to their importance and difficulties in replacing if vacant. Different strategies may be designed for each job category (high/medium/low risks). For instance, sometimes resourcing eternally may be less expensive than promoting and training internally (double cost involved: training resources for promoted employee plus a new hiring). There are times where for certain positions, promotions may be more efficient in costs and consequences (retaining, engagement, motivation increase). A call centre with a good brand, known for career opportunities, working practices, culture, pay or benefits should attract a significant number of candidates advertising through own corporate website, networking sites, commercial job boards. These are among the most effective and less costly methods for recruitment (CIPD, Resourcing and Talent Planning, 2017). Referrals are greatly used and not expensive. The focus of recruitment strategy may be repositioned based on budget restrictions, the status of labour market – tight or loose, internal needs in terms of increasing interim/contract staff, developing in-house talent for cover critical positions and acting on greater retention, expanding the recruitment migrants. Based on job analysis, emphasis may be placed on motivating and retaining internal employees rather than periodically recruiting. A big turnover has a big impact on employees’ morale in organisation and on external reputation. Attracting may be more difficult and recurring to recruitment agencies more expensive. Well qualified candidates may not be tempted to apply for temporary contracts. Usually the cultural diversity in call centres is significant. Call centres may consider to build up its brand as an employer of choice in terms of multicultural diversity as a great asset for attracting candidates. The perspective of joining a company whose culture and values are welcome, sensitive to multiculturalism and non-discriminative in terms of nationality, gender or age is a good motivator A deep knowledge and awareness of cross-cultural challenges, along with the respect of employment acts and good practices are a must for an ethical and lawfully conduct.

Tracking the impact of recruitment actions Resourcing talent should be related to business goals, financial projections, and budgets allocated, medium investment plans. The cost with recruitment may be variable and depends of estimated needs, methods, internal and external constraints. A valuable practice to be integrated into organisational strategy is to track and measure the impact of recruitment activities. Research indicate that few organisations measure the return on investment of their recruitment investment (cost per hire, turnover rate of new hires, and quality of source, candidate satisfaction or interviews per hire) (CIPD Resourcing and Talent Planning, 2017) 6|Page

The number of vacancies to fill, the complexity of competencies, a tight or loose market may, the urgency and many other external factors may influence the decision to partnership with recruitment agencies. A successful partnership should is dependent on a good understanding of call centre culture, needs, base of skilled tested candidates, specific knowledge resources. The costs through recruitment partners may be justified when good contracts are negotiated for filling a great number of vacancies or when searching specific competencies, senior managerial positions.

Selection effectiveness Investing more resources in the quality of hire and selection process with the aim of retaining competent talent for a longer time may be an effective talent management strategy. A careful assessment of competencies, of hard and soft skills, of driving motivators, personality and cultural fit may be envisaged for permanent positions (David G. Allen, 2008). An effective selection plan should aim to assess relevant core competencies for an accurate predictability of a future performance and integration of new employee. A well done job analysis should serve as tool for identifying core competencies, values, and personality traits to be examined during the process. Awareness of cognitive biases, legislation concerning discrimination of any type should be placed at the core of selection process for a professional approach.

Professionalism and Ethics A professional conduct is of paramount importance for keeping engaged, motivated employees and creating a great place to work. One of the reasons why employees are leaving company is related to bad managers, poor leaders or toxic working environment. Despite an effective resourcing, recruitment, selection or induction process high level of turnover, disengagement, poor performance, and intention of leaving may happen due to poor leadership/management. Ensuring a competent manager team, focused on fostering team cohesiveness, supportive and inspiring should be at the core of management policies, especially in the new context of new generations that are reluctant to tolerate a coercive management style. An evaluation of management, communication, leadership style inside call centre should be conducted as part of improving working environment and act positively on employee’s retention. A professional conduct require consistency, fairness, ethical and respect of labour legislation at every single stage. An integrative HR management should prove capacity and readiness to creating and maintaining a performance – based culture, increasing employee engagement and commitment, responding to external challenges, developing leadership talent. Even perfect practices may be of no use if not integrated, consistent with a whole culture, aligned to business goals and aware of major trends on labour market and talent profile.

7|Page

References 

    



   

         

Abang Ekhsan, A.O. (2009). Recruitment/selection and training/development: value added contribution towards organizational effectiveness. Lex Et Scientia International Journal. Vol.No.3 pp.51-72. Akroyd. K, Gordon-Dseagu V, Fairhurst P. (2006) Well-being and call centres, Institute for Employment Studies Allen, D. G (2008) A Guide to Analyzing and Managing Employee Turnover, SHRM Foundation’s Effective Practice Guidelines Serie SHRM Foundation Anderson, N. and Shackleton, V. (1993) Successful Selection Interviewing. Oxford, Blackwell Callaghan, G. and Thompson, P. (2002) We Recruit Attitude’: The Selection and Shaping of Routine Call Centre Labour, Journal of Management Studies 39(2) pp 233-254 Burgess, J & Connell, J, eds (2006) Developments in the Call Centre Industry: Analysis, Changes and Challenges, Routledge Studies in Business Organization and Networks. New York and London: Routledge D'Alessio N & Oberbeck H (2017) Call Centres as Organisational Crystallisation of New Labour Relations, Working Conditions and a New Service Culture? in Shire K. A., Holtgrewe U, Kerst C (2017) Re-organising Service Work: Call centres in Germany and Britain, London, Routledge Employee Retention Strategies That Work for Small to Mid-sized Businesses (SMBs), LinkedIn Talent Solutions Evenson, A. Harker, P. T and Frei, F. X ( 1999) Effective Call Center Management: Evidence from Financial Services Harada, K. and Bowman, J.S. (2004) Testing a Model of Employee Selection: A Contextual Approach, pp. 2-8 Holtgrewe U, Longen J. Mottweiler H, Schönauer (2009) A Global or embedded service work: the (limited) transnationalisation of the call-centre industry, Paper presented at the International Labour Process Conference, Edinburgh Matusik, S.F.& Hill, C.W. (1998) The utilisation of contingent work, knowledge creation and competitive advantage, Academy of Management Review, 23, 4, pp 680-697 Pearn, M. and Kandola, R. (1993) Job Analysis: A Manager’s Guide (2nd edition). IPM Phuong, Le T. (2015) Human resources development: Induction programs – difficulties, impacts and solutions, Turku University of Applied Sciences, p 29-37 Resourcing and Talent Planning, Survey report 2017 CIPD Reynolds, C.R. and Suzuki L. A., (2003) Bias in Psychological Assessment, An Empirical Review and Recommendations, Reynolds and Ramsay pp 82-108 Roberts, G. (1997) Recruitment and Selection: A Competency approach. London, CIPD Ryan, A. M and Farland L. MC (1999) An international look at selection practices: nation and culture as explanations for variability in practice, Personnel psychology.52, pp. 1-33 Shire K. A., Holtgrewe U, Kerst C (2017) Re-organising Service Work: Call centres in Germany and Britain, London, Routledge Skeats, J. (1991) Successful Induction: How to get the most from your new employees. London, Kogan Page Watt, B., Busine. M Wienker. E Recruiting for culture fit are you getting value(s) from your selection activities? DDI Australia Research Report

8|Page