SUBJECT: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Background Information or synopsis * Customer Service agents represent a large percentage of the call center staff * Schedules are based on seniority, which means that priority is given to most senior employees. * High turnover rate among CSA’s. * Due to high turnover, recruitment is ongoing and takes up most of the Human resource Advisors time. * Most of the CSA are students or young people in their twenties. * During exit interviews, two main reasons for leaving the company is the work don’t meet their expectations or they don’t feel there is any opportunity for promotion within the organization.

Primary /Root Problems

Absence of Core workforce or Full time workers.
Since most of the CSA’s employed are part time because maximum hours given to each employee is 35 hours or minimum of 15 hours so it clearly shows that most of them are working part time. Part time workers won’t be given the benefits or the perks that would motivate them to work or remain in the organization so I think drawback of hiring part-time workers is their lack of commitment relative to full-time workers. Full-time workers rely on the consistent income and benefits typically buy in to the organization more strongly and feel a deeper attachment. Part-time workers usually have less commitment because they spend less time at the company and find it easier to leave because of the lack of full-time income and benefits. So since employees have nothing attractive to work for in the organization so there is high turnover. Though part time workers offer flexibility, they won’t have the loyalty and commitment full time employees would have.
Poor match between the person and the job
Another reason employees told during exit interview was that the work doesn’t meet their expectations. It could be because employees who are placed in the jobs may be too difficult for them or their skills were being under-utilized so they became discouraged and quit. Inadequate information about skill requirements that are needed to fill a job may result in the hiring of either underskilled or overqualified workers. The company should carefully study the requirements of the CSA job and then workers should be tested for the requisite qualifications and then hired. Proper interviews should be conducted with candidates not just to ensure they have the right skills but also that they fit well with the company culture, managers and co-workers.

Poor organization commitment:
Since schedules are seniority based, new employees are not given hours. This can affect the loyalty of both new and long-term employees. A disadvantage of seniority-based scheduling system could be the negative effect it can have on new hires. New workers may feel disheartened with work because of their inability to get hours, leading to higher than normal turnover. This would also affect productivity as well .By not working full time they would have low job commitment as most part time workers have low job ownership as they wouldn’t be worried about the organizational goals and objectives . Secondary Problems
Low job motivation
Since employees are scheduled on basis of seniority, new hires don’t find the motivation to work and go for jobs that provides better stability and compensation package. Since there is high turnover it may lead to low productivity, diminished morale, and increase costs of hiring and training new employees. As the schedules are based on seniority it’s obvious there is less scope of junior worker being promoted. Seniority - based promotion and transfer systems can encourage lower levels of performance from employees who are not in line for potential promotions. For example, a younger employee surrounded by more experienced co-workers may do only enough work to keep his/her job. A younger employee may put in extra effort to gain recognition and higher status in a company but if a seniority-based system of promotion is in place it removes much of the incentive for that extra effort, which can hurt the company's bottom line. Also they would find any motivation to work or they would leave for better opportunities that give them more job security, good pay may be based on performance and opportunity to advance in the organization based on performance.
Lack of opportunity for advancement or growth.
Since the job doesn’t have any advancement for growth, company should have explained before hiring so as not to mislead the employee. They should have described precisely without raising false hopes for growth and advancement in the position so that could be a reason the company may have given false hopes and when they started working they found that the work didn’t meet their expectation as they didn’t find any opportunity for growth. They might be feeling that they are stuck in positions with no potential for advancement. They may be bored because the tasks are routine and they are not encouraged to take on new projects or new responsibilities.
Alternatives to resolve primary problems: 1. Absence of full time employees/Core workforce
Alternative for this would be by making part time employees Full-time employees would greatly increase their job motivation and likely develop company loyalty, and they may feel a sense of ownership in the business. This will result in a committed, hardworking workforce, willing to go through any tough times the business may encounter. Full-timers also tend to hold only one job giving you more control over their time and efforts. So by doing this one of the primary problems would be eliminated like the absence of core workforce this will greatly reduce or eliminate turnover
Pros:
This would increase job commitment, motivation and loyalty and would reduce job turnover as employees would get a sense of their value and importance since they are made full time and would work with improved satisfaction and increase all over the work environment and productivity which has reduced due to high turnover also would reduce the cost of hiring new employees and training them.
Cons:
The disadvantage of full time workers would be the cost involved in maintaining such a staff. The company will have high amount of payroll taxes to pay. 2. Poor match between the person and the job

For reducing turnover another alternative could be to redesign the job by adding more attractive duties and reassigning some less desirable ones so that employees who did not find the work interesting or exciting would get interested and motivated by the new duties and tasks added. Restructuring the elements including tasks, duties and responsibilities of a specific job in order to make it more encouraging and inspiring for the employees or workers is known as job redesigning. This would eliminate the primary problem which was poor match between the person and the job since the employees would be matched to the job according to the knowledge, skill and abilities they possess, and also would increase job loyalty
PROS
It will motivate the employees and would enhance the quality of their work life. It will also increase their on-the-job productivity and encourage them to perform better. By Redesigning the job and allowing employees to do what they are good at would also create a sense of belongingness in them towards the organization and would reduce turnover. It would also create a right person-job fit while harnessing the full potential of employees.

CONS
It may increase cost as the process of job redesign is lengthy and time consuming. 3. Poor organizational commitment
To increase employee commitment you have to make the employees want to feel like they can do their assigned job confidently, that their future is secure, and that they are progressing in their own personal life goals. By facilitating career advancement and opportunities to improve skills through training, employers can improve their employee engagement. An employee who is feeling confident and improved by the organization actively promotes the organization to others. When employees feel there is a career plan for them, they will be more likely to stay with a company. Regular performance reviews should be a part of the plan to provide feedback to the employee and to reinforce their career goals. By facilitating career development and growth primary problem of employee commitment and secondary problem of employees feeling that they didn’t find any opportunity for growth may get eliminated.

PROS:
Employees will feel more motivated and committed to their work. Employees who have access to a career development process, resources and tools feel much more engaged and “taken care of” by the organization
CONS:
Cost of training employees can be costly.

ALTERNATIVE FOR SECONDARY PROBLEMS
Low job motivation:
To increase employee motivation and make work more attractive alternative I would suggest is Job enlargement. Job enlargement is a job design technique in which there is an increase in the number of tasks associated with a certain job It increase flexibility in the workforce and at the same time reducing monotony that may creep up over a period of time. However interesting the job may appear in the beginning, sooner or later people start complaining of boredom and monotony. Job enlargement can help reduce boredom and make it more satisfying and fulfilling for the employees.
PROS
Since the individual are already performing the task in the past, there is no great requirement for imparting of new skills.
CONS:
It may increase burden of work of the employees and company will have to provides incentives and extra salary for extra work.

RECOMMENDATION: * The problem Credit Inc. facing is low employee motivation and low job satisfaction as there has been no incentives provided or because they have hired part timers and they are not provided job security as their schedules are based on seniority and growth in the organization is also difficult. So the best approach would be to implement pay based on performance which will increase employee productivity and employees would be motivated to perform better since they would be getting reward in return. So if an individual pay-for-performance incentive programs is implemented, it will help to identify top performers .By continually motivating top performers to maintain their high level of productivity through incentive payments, the company would be able to recognize the top employees for the work that they do. * Another recommendation would be to implement incentives such as flexible work schedules and telecommuting which can improve worker satisfaction by improving an employee's work-life balance, making employees feel happier and more productive. * Hiring the right people from the start would be the best way to reduce employee turnover. Interviews with candidates should be done carefully, not just to ensure they have the right skills but also that they fit well with the company culture, managers and co-workers. * Another cost effective way could be sending simple emails of praise at the completion of a project, or monthly memos outlining achievements of the team t, and peer-recognition programs will induce some positive feedback into a workforce. A thank you note to the employee is good. Copying the higher level also would makes that note even more effective as it would increase employee motivation as they would be happy that their effort has been recognized and that would increase productivity and loyalty. * Another option could be to Offer employee’s cross-training. There may be employees who only want to know their own job and don’t want to try new jobs, but many can get bored and would like the challenge of learning new skills. Having employees who know more than just their own job benefits both the company and them. If the company loose an employee, there will be others who can step in and take their place so the employee can be moved to a new area with the skills they have acquired Though many employees may not take up this offer to cross-train them, some will. Those who want to grow and develop in the organization would go for it. This way employee morale and productivity will increase and also those who felt there was no opportunity for growth would also feel happy about it.

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN SHORT TERM
For the short term, recognizing employees work and praising them for their achievement by sending emails praising them about their work, offering flexible work schedules and offering pay based on performance would be some of the cost effective and less time consuming option for the company. The person involved in the implementation could be the benefits administrator and the supervisor in charge of the team as they would have an idea who the top performers are.
MEDIUM TERM
For medium term, cross training would be a good option as it would require time for a proper training procedure to be planned First employees who would be interested in participating in the program would have to be identified and then assessment of the employee KSAOs should be done and then be matched to the job which is open so that if an employee would be lacking in it, they would get proper training. It would cost money to implement cross-training program as it would require extensive training and employee would have to be paid for it. It would also increase burden on the employee as the work would increase. The supervisor can do the training or the person currently performing the job could also do it as they would have better idea of what the tasks are and how can it be performed. By implementing cross training employees would be motivated as they get career advancement opportunity and will increase employee commitment to the organization and would reduce turnover as they didn’t find any opportunity for growth or the work didn’t meet their expectations.

LONG TERM
As job redesigning is a lengthy process as it includes revising, analyzing, altering, reforming and reshuffling the job-related content and dimensions to increase the variety of assignments and functions to motivate employees and make them feel as an important asset of the organization. The main objective of conducting job redesigning is to place the right person at the right job and get the maximum output while increasing their level of satisfaction.
The people involved in the job redesign process would consist of at least 3-4 people, from a HR as well as supervisor and team leaders of CSA’s.