Unicall call center UK: HRM issues and solutions

Author: Iloka Benneth Chiemelie

Published: 10th of March 2014

Questions

1 Identify the key HRM issues at UniCall.

2 Recommend and justify HRM interventions which will improve business performance.

HRM Issue in Unicall

1.      Lack of performance management and appraisal system – the case highlight this issue and it is very significant because it makes it difficult to measure which employees performed best as well as how the employees can be rewarded. The outcome is increased dissatisfaction from employees that performed well but are not being rewarded.

2.      Overstaff is stressing training and development plan - as a result of the company’s need to increase its performance by recruiting new staffs, the present training and development plans are being stretched, which implies that staffs might not have the right environment to gain all the necessary skills to improve their overall performance. The impact is a significant decline on the company’s performance.

3.      Lack of competence with computers – the case also highlighted that staffs spend a lot of time on gathering data, which the customers are not happy about. This is significant because decline in processing time will increase volume of customers served and overall financial performance of the company.

4.      Poor staff image that can impact on company’s image – there have also been complaints on staffs’ rudeness and lack of flexibility and this can have negative impact on the company’s image as customers will discuss the company as a whole instead of the staffs in particular.

5.      Unhappy staffs - Staffs are not happy with increased pleasure and some of the redeployed staffs don’t welcome the new role that they have been assigned to. This decreases their overall commitment and productivity.

6.      Reward and remuneration – the case also made known that some of the new recruits think that they are performing better than older ones, thus demanding that the standard reward system be made void. This is because they want to be paid higher with their high performance, as well as ensure employability by rewarding them with new roles that can place other people under them.

HRM intervention that will improve business performance

1.      Numerous literatures (such as: Huselid, 1995; Fritis and MacDuffie, 1996; Guest, 1997; Michie and Sheehan, 2001; Ahmad and Schroeder, 2003; Guest et al, 2003) have strategies for solving HRM issues in companies and their ideas will be shared in this context. Thus, the solutions include:

2.      Design strategic training and development program – Unicall should develop quality training and development programs that focus on needed skills for working in the company, as well as ensuring that such programs are not congested in order to enhance easy learning process. This will eliminate issues of employees’ lack of competence such as computer skill highlighted in the case study.

3.      Have clear code of conduct – the company should instruct employees precisely on ways to deal with customers in order to replace the image of rudeness with politeness. This can also be achieved from training and development program suggested below and the justification is increased positive image for the brand.

4.      Pay per performance based on clear and transparent reward system – instead of adopting the mode standard payment approach, the company should adopt an approach that rewards employees based on how they have performed, and this will bring about an increase in performance as employees will work more in order to earn more.

5.      Recruit more staffs – in order to decrease stress that staffs are currently facing, the company need to recruit more staffs to assist them. The recruitment of staffs will also ensure that redeployed staffs will be assigned with their familiar job description, thus reducing their unhappiness discussed above.

In conclusion, the case illustrate that HRM issues are always present in companies, but these issues can also be solved by adopting the right solution as discussed above.

References

Ahmad, S. and Schroeder, R.G. (2003), “The impact of human resource management practices on operational performance: recognizing country and industry differences”, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 19-43.

Frits, K. and MacDuffie, P. (1996), “The adoption of high-investment work practices”, Industrial Relations, Vol. 35 No. 3, pp. 423-55.

Guest, D.E. (1997), “Human resource management and performance: a review and research agenda”, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 263-76.

Guest, D.E., Michie, J., Conway, N. and Sheeman, M. (2003), “Human resource management and corporate performance in UK”, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 41 No. 2, pp. 291-314.

Huselid, M.A. (1995), “The impact of human resource management practices on turnover, productivity, and corporate financial performance”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 38, pp. 635-72.

Michie, J. and Sheehan, M. (2001), “Labour market flexibility, human resource management and corporate performance”, British Journal of Management, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 287-306.