| BEFORE YOU START! Review the provided Case Study and policies & procedures. |
Scenario: You work for CAE Call Centre, as Operations Manager. Currently, the call centre employs 45 personnel. The centre operates 9am – 5pm, Monday to Friday. All HR matters are part of your responsibilities. The marketing department has recently signed a significant 15-year contract with BM Telecom. Key considerations are: BM Telecom is a Perth based fast growing telecom, with over 700,000 residential & business customers throughout Australia. BM Telecom’s customers’ database is growing by 2% per month. BM Telecom provides landline, mobile phone, VoIP, ADSL and NBN services to its customers. BM Telecom has decided to outsource its customer service and technical support departments. CAE Call Centre will provide 24 x 7 customer service as well as technical support to BM Telecom’s customers. By reviewing their current workload, it has been estimated that you would need 170 staff across three shifts. You may need to recruit dedicated HR personnel to manage the growing workforce. BM Telecom’s contract will commence in 2 months. You have 2 months to make all necessary arrangements. BM Telecom’s 2% monthly growth rate will have an impact on the workload. Your existing staff is pre-occupied with other contracts. Premises cleaning has been outsourced to CAE Commercial Cleaning Services. They have assigned three contract cleaners. Total weekly cost is $500 (excluding supplies). The building management is responsible for premises’ maintenance. This assessment is focused on HR planning component only. You will be developing HR Strategic Plan for next five years. |
T2.1: AnalyseStrategicPlan.
Review the scenario given above and the provided case study (including strategic plan). Determine strategic workforce direction by defining mission, goal(s), objectives and targets for the HR Department.
Recordyourfindingsinsection1.0oftheHRStrategicPlantemplate.
T2.2: Internal Environment Analysis.
This involves collecting information about & analysing strategies, objectives, organisational structure, HR, facilities, market position, marketing capabilities, product/ service quality and R&D capabilities. In this section weaknesses or challenges are also considered & analysed.
Analysing information means collecting and integrating multiple pieces of data. Researching a problem to understand it fully, is the first step in an effective problem- solving process.
Collecttherelevantinformationfromthecasestudy,analyseitandrecordyourfindingsinsections 2.0and3.0oftheHRStrategicPlantemplate.
T2.3: Forecasting.
The scenario indicated you would need 170 new staff as well as HR personnel.
Considering your current manpower, you should work out how many operators, managers, team leaders, HR and any other type of personnel will be required.
You should also determine the skills requirements, engagement type, engagement hours for each role/ position and how you will be sourcing the manpower.
Recordyourfindingsinsections4.0and5.0oftheHRStrategicPlantemplate.
T2.4: Research.
You have been asked to embrace the new technologies and take the call centre to next level. An innovation funding of $500,000 has been allocated by the General Manager.
Conduct internet research on call/ contact centres worldwide. Identify emerging technologies/ trends in call/ contact centres industry. Evaluate and shortlist at least two such technologies/ trends you would recommend for your call centre.
Identify the impact of your recommended technologies/ trends on job roles and job design.
| Emerging Technology/ Trend | Justification (for your recommendation) | Impact on the Job Roles and Job Design |
T2.5: Compliance.
Within last few years several legislative changes have been introduced. Some changes have been proposed and may take into effect very soon. Examples are (a) significant changes to WA WHS ACT 2020 (b) proposed privacy legislation amendment bill 2021 (c) Competition and Consumer Amendment 2021 (consumer data right).
Conduct internet research to identify at least two recent and/or potential changes to industrial or legislative requirements AND describe how those changes would have an impact on the call centre’s business activities.
T2.6a: CommunicationPlan.
It is important to consult and/or inform others about your strategic plan as well as the upcoming developments in the organisation.
Using section 6.0 of the HR strategic plan template,
develop a communication plan. This plan will serve as a guideline for next five years, advising what need to be communicated, to whom and when.
T2.6b: Consultation.
As part of your communication plan, you have decided to consult other managers & some team leaders about your HR strategic plan.
Class to divide in small groups. Preferably five students per group. One of you will act as Operations Manager and the others as managers/ team leaders.
During the meeting:
- discuss, update (if required) and finalise section 1.0 of the plan i.e. HR strategic direction (mission, goals, objectives, targets)
- discuss, update (if required) and agree on section 2.0 of the plan i.e. internal environmental analysis
- discuss, update (if required) and agree on section 3.0 of the plan i.e. organisational weaknesses
- discuss, update (if required) and finalise section 4.0 of the plan i.e. manpower
- discuss, update (if required) and agree on section 5.0 of the plan i.e. labour supply options/ sources
- determine a list of activities required to plan & recruit the new staff, implement the HR strategic plan in full and provide workforce services
- determine timeframe, cost and other resource required for each activity
- priorities/ sequence the activities (if required)
- as the call centre will be moving to 24 x7 operation, discuss start & finish hours for each shift
- discuss number of team leaders and/or managers required for each shift
- discuss any contractors (including cleaners) requirement for next five years
- discuss and agree on HR philosophy, values and policies you would adapt
- identify at least five potential risks and discuss mitigation strategies
- identify future training requirements for operators, team leaders and managers.
T2.7a: UpdatethePlan.
Based on your discussion during the meeting:
- developanactionplanusingsection7.0oftheHRstrategicplantemplate
- documenttrainingrequirementsandassociatedcostsinsection8.0oftheHRstrategicplantemplate.
T2.7b: Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA).
CBA is one of the most important tools to analyse the viability of your plan and obtain senior management’s support.
Considering the training cost and total cost involved in implementing your action plan, conduct cost benefit analysis.
Youshouldusesection9.0oftheHRstrategicplantemplate.
T2.8: Technology/Systems.
Identify at least three technologies/ systems you would need/ use during implementation of the HR strategic plan.
Recordyourfindingsinsection10.0oftheHRstrategicplantemplate.
T2.9a: RiskManagement.
Based on your discussion during the meeting, develop risk management plan for the identified risks.
Youshouldusesection11.0oftheHRstrategicplantemplate.
T2.9b: Processes.
Now develop the following processes to assist you in successful implementation of the HR strategic plan:
- performance review process
- recognition & reward process
- HR plan’s implementation process
- monitoring & review process.
Youshouldusesection12.0oftheHRstrategicplantemplate.
T2.10: Presentation.
Now, as you have consulted managers & team leaders and have developed the HR strategic plan, it is the time to obtain support from the senior management i.e. GM and Cooper Angus Enterprises’ CEO.
Develop and deliver a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation. Your presentation should cover the following:
- goal(s) and objectives of the plan
- identified organisational weaknesses and the contributing factors
- current payroll size
- future labour needs
- skills requirement
- summary of the action plan
- training requirements
- technologies/ systems you would adapt
- identified risks and their mitigation
- Cost Benefit Analysis
- implementation strategies.
Towards the end of the presentation, invite questions and request the GM & CEO (your trainer/ assessor will represent them) for their support & approval.
T2.11: Report.
Assuming, the HR Strategic Plan was rolled out 18 months ago. The call centre is now operating 24 x 7. New staff has been recruited and all clients including BM Telecom have been served according to the contractual requirements. No complaints so far.
Your progress on the action plan is good. All activities are being performed according to the given timeframe.
Despite all your efforts you are experiencing the following challenges:
- high staff turnover – although you have introduced reward & recognition system, wages have been increased, work overload issues have been rectified; but you couldn’t control the high turnover.
- skills shortage – you are finding it difficult to source skilled call centre operators. On various occasions you needed to re-advertise the job vacancies.
- ‘SalesForce’ CRM – new staff is finding it hard to use the CRM. Although a two-day induction/ training program is part of your recruitment process, but the CRM tends to be too complicated due to its multiple functionalities. The company has already spent over $1 million on the CRM and replacement is not an option. Extending induction/ training program to four or five days is on table but due to high cost and high staff turnover, you are reluctant to implement it.
WriteaonefullpagereportfortheGM.Forthisreportyouwouldneedtorefertoyouractionplan.Notedownalltheactivitiesscheduledforfirst18months.
You report should cover the following points:
- Summarise your achievements
- explain how you monitored and reviewed the plan
- explain how you evaluated and reviewed the performance against planned objectives
- highlight the challenges
- make recommendations to address the challenges.
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