MY ROLE AND THE ORGANIZATION
I am the Vice President of Human Resources Department of Rango Retailers Limited. This company deals with suppliers of clothes, food stuffs and other household items. Most sales are to American families. Shopping is usually done in the shop premises. However, there are also online orders as well as phone orders. In addition, sales, are more high on the shelves themselves than online and order. The customer care center however is supposed to keep the customers happy by responding to any of their quarries and acting promptly to their demands. The key matrices of this organization are the profit making, market share and the sales. The directors of the Human Resource department have asked me you offer more training and hire more works. The directors suggested supervisors are not keeping their end of the bargain.
You are an organizational development consultant for a large operational division of a book and audio retailer customer service center that processes online and phone orders.
While the majority of sales come from retail stores, a little more than one-third are made through the customer service center. In addition to sales, the customer service center is responsible for working with customers to ensure quality, market rewards programs and support customer needs. Among the key metrics for the organization are market share and profit.
The organization is composed of 30,000 employees, working at the more than 1,000 retail locations. Approximately 5,000 employees work at the customer service center, and nearly half of those employees are unionized. Operational supervisors, who are nonunion employees, manage most of the union personnel at the customer service center.
The Request
Directors from the customer service center have asked you to offer more training to the customer service supervisors. The directors suggested that supervisors are not managing properly, and as a result, customer service is not consistently meeting its goals or the organization’s goals. The directors are concerned that the situation will escalate and negatively affect market share and profit.
The directors feel that the supervisors—particularly recently hired supervisors—do not have the skills needed to perform their jobs effectively. Apparently, the quality of the recruiting pool for supervisors has been weaker than the directors remember it being in the past. Currently, training for supervisors is inconsistent and may be lacking. There are existing training programs available to supervisors, but there is no requirement that they participate. Also, the training is designed for leaders across the organization and not specifically for the supervisors in the customer service division. Existing training delivery metrics are mostly composed of reaction measures the example below that represents a correct way to track attendance during a shortened workweek.
After meeting with the directors, you meet with the organizational development director. The organizational development director is your manager and is responsible for ensuring that consulting solutions are appropriate and will help the organization reach its goals. The organizational development director, who has been with the organization for eight years, tells you that the issues with the supervisors may relate to something different than training because training currently exists for supervisors. Directors expressed the same concerns almost five years ago and special technical training—highly encouraged but not mandatory—was created for the supervisors at that time. That training focused on tactics supervisors could use and seemed to resolve the performance issues over time. Slowly, new supervisors who had struggled at the outset improved their skills. The organizational development director also points out that the customer service center directors may not be close enough to the supervisors to provide full information.
Background Summary
Here is what you know as you begin preparing your recommendations:
The customer service center directors are having trouble ensuring their units meet operational goals.
Customer service center directors report that supervisors are the source of the issues.
According to customer service directors, supervisors are not receiving enough training. Directors believe that the worst-performing supervisors are the newly hired operational supervisors. The organizational development director believes the source of the issue may not
be the supervisors. If it is an issue with the supervisors, it may be something other than training.
New training for supervisors was created approximately five years ago. Training was focused on tactics for frontline managers and was offered to all supervisors. Supervisor training is still available.
Contact your instructor as needed to obtain more information about the organization.
Data
The following pages contain data that can assist in your assessment of the situation and the development of a recommendation.
Summary of Current Training for operational Supervisors
Call Center Supervision Training
Purpose: To train operational supervisors on tactics that can be used in managing a call center.
Sample content: Managing call queues, reviewing call center reports, scheduling customer service representatives, monitoring calls.
Origin of training: Purchased from vendor with expertise in call center management.
Audience: Operational supervisors.
When to enroll: As needed. Determined by operational supervisor and his or her manager.
When offered: Annually.
Frontline Leader Training
Purpose: Competency development for frontline leaders.
Sample content: Learn how to motivate others, give and receive feedback, be a better communicator, set goals, and build teams.
Origin of training: Purchased from vendor with expertise in leadership.
Audience: All frontline leaders in the organization, particularly those at the manager level.
When to enroll: Optional.
When offered: Quarterly.
Essential Tasks
Resolve customer complaints and answer customers’ questions regarding policies and procedures.
Supervise the work of office, administrative or customer service employees to ensure adherence to quality standards, deadlines and proper procedures; correct errors or problems.
Provide employees with guidance in handling difficult or complex problems and in resolving escalated complaints or disputes.
Implement corporate and departmental policies, procedures and service standards in conjunction with management.
Work with employees to identify causes and develop solutions to any job performance issues.
Train and instruct employees in job duties and company policies or arrange for training to be provided.
Evaluate employees’ job performance and conformance to regulations and recommend appropriate personnel action.
Review records and reports pertaining to activities such as production, payroll and shipping to verify details; monitor work activities and evaluate performance.
Recruit, interview and select employees.
Interpret and communicate work procedures and company policies to staff.
Skills Required
Active listening
Communication
Reading comprehension
Critical thinking
Monitoring
Time management
Management of personnel resources
Education and Experience
Previous leadership experience preferred
Average Annual Satisfaction Survey Scores
Diagnosing and Planning
When approaching HR requests such as the one described in this case study, taking a systems view can help uncover the root causes and guide the proper solution.
Implementation of data-gathering and talent management models help assess situations and provide appropriate recommendations.
Using a model ensures an objective approach to data-gathering and helps keep needs assessment accurate. One of the more common models used in organizational development initiatives is the action-research model, which includes the following steps:
1. Diagnose: Identify and understand the issue or theme.
2. Plan: Propose actions that will affect the issue or theme.
3. Act: Implement the plan.
4. Evaluate: Monitor the changes related to the issue or theme.
This cyclical model aids in the production of quality solutions to organizational effectiveness issues. At the diagnosis stage, the consultant may consider completing an initial diagnosis, but then gather additional data to fully understand the issue. Consultants should seek out data related to problems, causes and symptoms, and then consider the immediate and long-term issues and implications if the problem is not resolved. Decision criteria should be determined to help decide how to move forward. Once criteria are in place, alternatives are developed and recommendations selected. After due diligence in the first stages of the diagnosis process, the consultant meets with the client to provide feedback.
Viewing issues through the scope of talent management can help ensure a proper diagnostic approach and ultimately help guide the planning stage. Talent management is broadly defined as “the implementation of integrated strategies or systems designed to increase
workplace productivity by developing improved processes for attracting, developing, retaining and utilizing people with the required skills and aptitude to meet current and future business needs” (SHRM, 2008). In internal consulting initiatives, a review of all the relevant talent management processes (e.g., workforce planning, talent gap analysis, recruiting, staffing, education and development, retention, talent reviews, succession, and
Evaluation) as an integrated function is considered a best practice (McCauley & Wakefield,
2006).
Talent management models vary by organization, and for this case, all components are likely to be relevant, but the primary focus is on the processes around criteria definition, recruiting and selection, and onboarding and socialization. Some of the data provided fits into the category of performance management. In the current context, a fully integrated solution would likely involve a review of the relevant HR processes, and an ideal solution would be fully integrated. Realistically, a partially integrated solution based on diagnosis that resolves the issues in the customer service center would serve as a bridge to the next diagnosis.
