Member Of Staff A Role Change example essay topic

What are the main issues regarding BT's resource management and with hindsight, how could they have been avoided? Before exploring the various answers to the question, I will start by briefly describing the role and purpose of HRM (Human Resources Management) within a firm. HRM is primarily concerned with the human side of management and sees the management team and subordinates as having the same goals. It combines elements of; work psychology, personnel management, employment law, business organisation, training and industrial relations. The HRM team are therefore involved in every aspect of an employees period of employment within the organisation. After reading the case study, it is clear to see that there are several manifestations of various problems that can be related back to the HRM within the call centre system of BT.

The most obvious are the complaints about the staff working conditions in these centres, which were dubbed as 'oppressive' by the CWU (Communications Workers Union). This eventually resulted in the 4,000 Union members voting to go on strike for the first time in 13 years (Financial Times, 23rd Nov, 1999). Examples of the poor conditions highlighted by the members included; inadequate staffing levels, high surveillance and frequent target changes (Caulk in S., 1999). These factors resulted in the call centre staff being over burdened with work in the absence of an adequate level of staffing. As well as having to make up for the shortfall in staff numbers, the staff were often set what they felt were unrealistic performance targets. Another complaint from the union members was the fact that although BT employed 8,000 staff in all of its call centres, there was almost as many agency staff employed as union members.

They felt that BT deliberately employed this tactic because agency staff are not entitled to the same pay, pension and redundancy rights as the permanent unionized employees. These problems caused the employees a great deal of stress, which resulted in high levels of absenteeism, high staff turnover and even musculo-skeletal disorders in some cases (Financial Times, 30th Nov., 1999). One such case even resulted in 13 employees taking legal action against BT over health complaints (Darby I., 2000). BT claimed that the industrial action had a 'minimum impact' on their service - a comment that fuel led the anger of the union members as it was in essence devaluing the enormity of their actions. Taking all of these problems into consideration, it is quite easy to surmise that the HRM dept is clearly at fault. They are responsible for the well being of the employees and also ensuring that all of the staff at the call centres share the same goals - improved efficiency and good customer service.

There appears to have been a distinct lack of input from the HRM team at any point until after the strike action was taken. Had the problems faced by the staff been dealt with at an earlier stage by the HRM dept, they may have avoided the legal actions and strike. One of the fundamental methods of communication between the staff and the HRM dept is the appraisal. This is an analysis of the staff members' performance over a set period of time. This usually involves two-way communication between both parties in an interview format. These meetings help to highlight what has been achieved by the member of staff and also used to develop suitable goals together.

An appraisal can also lead to an improved pay package should the HRM dept feel that a particular member of staff has made good progress since the last meeting. They can also be used to air any grievances that either party may have and these are all logged. This kind of regular contact between all of the parties would have helped to highlight the problems early enough for them to be solved without too much disruption. Another addition to these meetings could be for the renegotiation over the role that is currently occupied by a member of staff - a role change would ensure that staff would not become bored of their current role and ensure that they are sufficiently challenged by the position. This could also be applied to the initial interviews carried out by the HRM dept when employing new staff - setting clear boundaries to the positions they will be filling.

However, in defence of BT, the call centre industry is one of the fastest expanding employment sectors in Europe. There are currently 223,000 call centre workers in the UK and this figure is expected to rise to 274,000 by the end of 2002 (Darby I., 2000). For this reason, they could be partially excused for their delayed reaction to the problems and for trying to use agency staff as a solution for the increase in demand. Another factor that may have had an influence to BT's reaction may be that a survey carried out by the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) about working conditions in call centres were never published, and as such, there would have been no way that BT could have picked up on the full scale of the problems. In light of the problems that were highlighted by the strike at BT, the HSE decided to carry out a more recent and thorough investigation into call centre working conditions throughout the country (Financial Times, 30th Nov, 1999). Discuss a performance management strategy, which could enhance 'a new spirit of partnership " Before discussing strategies that could be implemented by BT to improve the working environment within its call centres, I will briefly describe the measures that were almost immediately implemented after BT representatives met with the union leaders.

The first change BT promised to make was to accelerate increasing the proportion of full-time against agency staff. After this, a system will be implemented whereby groups of staff are set performance targets, rather than individuals. Both sides also agreed to work together on a stress management programme. However, BT did reserve the right to employ additional agency staff in the circumstances where the permanent staff "cannot maintain an acceptable level of customer service" and to cover peaks of work that cannot be "reasonably met by existing staff" (Financial Times, 9th Dec, 1999).

One of the first ideas I would suggest in this case would be to conduct an audit of the staff and the requirements of the various positions. This would highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the whole system. Parts of the audit could take the form of the appraisals I mentioned earlier. They would be carried out on a regular basis e.g. every six months.

By conducting regular appraisals, communications between the various hierarchical levels are improved and the overall hierarchy system would be changed from a rigid, less flexible one to one that is more organic and able to respond to the changing environment far more quickly. BT has the right idea in promoting the use of teams and setting team goals as opposed to individual targets. This improves morale by allowing greater communication between employees and their colleagues. This would also counteract boredom amongst staff and help to promote a sense of 'belonging' in employees. The teams could nominate a team leader who would represent the team when talking to superiors about targets etc. The team leader could also carry out team meetings on a daily or weekly basis to pass on information from the management team.

These meetings would encourage participation from all of the team and allow everyone to express their feelings on the various issues. To implement such a system would mean having to change the management style from one that is autocratic to one that is democratic. This is a characterization of McGregor's (1986) Theory X Theory Y, shown in the table below: X Y Low trust High trust Authoritarian style of management Participation style of management Low creativity Risk-taking encouraged Boring, repetitive work High creativity Inflexible, unresponsive employees Exciting place to work Flexible, motivated workplace Source: Evaluating the Personnel Function, 1986 Other companies have used a variety of techniques to ensure that the staff are kept happy and motivated by making the offices open plan, providing scenic views outside the windows and organising staff quizzes (these can be used to entertain and simultaneously educate / train employees). Another method of increasing motivation amongst staff would be to provide management training to potential supervisors. This would provide the opportunity to develop a career in the industry and spur them on to achieve more in their jobs. My final suggestion would be some kind of incentives scheme for both managers and general staff based not only on performance and attendance, but also reports from colleagues (to prevent any reoccurrence of the pressurizing of staff to get results).

These systems would help to decrease the number of barriers between the various levels in the hierarchy and ultimately promote the 'spirit of partnership'.