MGT 3670 Human Resource Management for ABC Company

ABC Company Pvt. Ltd. is a multinational company that is based in Australia and has a number of foreign subsidiaries in India, China and Singapore. The company provides technical assistance to a number of its clients that are also multinational companies and are market leaders in the industries in which they operate. The company has an approximate workforce of 35,900 employees and works 24/7 to help its clients in effectively serving their customers. The company was started in 1978 and has grabbed a significant market share as of 2017.

Problem definition 

The company has been recently facing a number of issues with respect to its human resource management practices, which was identified when the company started losing a significant portion of market share and receiving a number of complaints from the clients regarding the service which they were being offered. The problem that the company is with respect to its training and development programs that are being designed and implemented for the employees.

Symptoms of the problem 

Symptoms, in simple words, can be defines as the signs that something is out of place and is causing a major damage to an individual, department or an organisation (Insightstohealth, n.d.).

It is obvious that the company has been able to recognise the problem that is existing the workplace because of some symptoms which were clearly acting as signals for something that is out of place and needs to be carefully analysed for correction. The symptoms of the training and development problem, which the company is facing, are discussed below:

First of all, the human resource management of the company has been noticing a decrease in the employee morale and their confidence to perform their day-to-day operations. As the competition is increasing, the use of technology to deal with the competition is becoming essential and the employees have not been able to deal with the technology factor quite well. Their morale is always on the lower side and they lack enthusiasm while carrying out their work operations.

Secondly, the human resource management of the company has also been experiencing high employee turnover rates since the past few months and when analysing the data from exit interviews, the management has discovered that one of the prime reasons behind the increasing tendency of the employees to quit the company was a lack of career development and progression opportunities and that the company was not doing enough for them to learn new skills and competencies (Ferguson, n.d.).

Thirdly, the human resource management has also been experiencing a steep rise in the customer complaints because the employees were not being able to communicate with customers from different parts of the world efficiently and were taking a lot of time in providing them with the services that they asked for. The increase in customer complaints clearly indicates that the employees lacked communication skills and were not being able to use the information systems adequately to provide quick resolutions to customer problems (Elnaga & Imran, 2013).

Lastly, the most important symptom of the problem was the lack of motivation in the employees and a consequent drop in their performance levels which was taking a toll on the organisational competitiveness and performance (Noe, Wilk, Mullen, & Wanek, 2014).

Fundamental issues and causal factors

There have been a number of issues or causal factors that have been acting as antecedents of the training and development problem that the company is facing. These issues or causes are discussed below:

First of all, in the past couple of years, the human resource management of the company has been busy in carrying out recruitment and selection programs to fulfil the human resource needs and has not been allocating sufficient resources to assess the training needs of the employees or designing and implementing training and development programs for the employees.

Secondly, the lack of an effective performance management system in the organisation, which can monitor the performance of individual employees, has also made it difficult for the management to assess the skills which the employees lack.

Lastly, there have been lack of employee feedback system in the organisation, which would have otherwise helped the organisation in identifying the training needs of the employees through anonymous employee surveys.

Justification of problem definition

The problem that ABC Company Pvt. Ltd. is facing is a major problem that most companies are facing in the present day business world. Training and development is not just important for employees in developing career prospects, learning new skills and competencies, etc. but also helps employers in keeping their employees engaged, committed towards their work and the organisation, becoming more competitive, learning new skills and competencies and using them in their work to perform better and contribute more towards the achievement of organisational goals and objectives (Frost, n.d.).

In the present day business world of global competition, organisations are spending billions of dollars every year to design and implement training and development programs for their workforce so that they can become more competitive by having a pool of talented employees. Consequently, companies that are not allocating sufficient resources towards the training and development of their employees are definitely going to suffer and are going to find it difficult to sustain in the market in the longer run (Aguinis & Kraiger, 2009).

Alternative courses of action

The problem that the company is facing is a major human resource management problem, which can throw the company out of the market if the conditions are not improved. To bring about an improvement in the training and development practices of the company, the following courses of actions can be used.

• Implementing a new performance management program in the workplace that will be aimed at analysing the performance of individual employees, departments and the organization on the whole.

• Start conducting more employee surveys where they can anonymously provide answers to questions related to workplace environment, culture, training needs, etc. (Nathan, 2016 )

• Analysing the market trends by collecting market information and keeping a check on what the competitors are doing

Evaluating alternatives

The alternatives discussed above are out of the few best alternatives that most of the leading multinational companies are implementing to strengthen their training and development program. An evaluation of each alternative is given below:

First of all, a new performance management system will not just only help the company in fostering a performance oriented environment but will also help it in analysing the skills and competencies which the employees lack. By monitoring the performance of each employee separately, the managers will be able to assess the areas where they need to improve and design and implement training and development programs for the employees to learn the skills and competencies that they lack. A performance management system, implemented to assess the training needs of the employees, is always a huge plus point for any business organisations because it can have multiple benefits form a business point of view.

Secondly, conducting regular employee surveys is one of the most important strategies that every company should implement. Employees are the best source of information for human resource managers and the quality and reliability of feedback increases exponentially when the surveys are made anonymous. Using employee feedback surveys, he human resource managers will not only be able to analyse their training needs but will also be able to collect information regarding employee satisfaction levels, employee engagement levels, workplace environment and climate, employee grievances, etc. which will be a huge benefit for the company. Using the data collected from employee surveys, ABC Company Pvt. Ltd. will be able to assess the right training needs and consequently design and implement efficient training and development programs for its workforce (Employee surveys, 2013).

Lastly, analysing the market trends is also an effective way to strengthen a firm’s training and development programs as it allows business organisations to stay cope up with the changing market trends and planning for the future. It might be difficult to continuously analyse the actions of the competitors and acting similarly as each business organisation is different and has different budget and resources allocated to various functions but analysing their actions and market trends is still an effective way to assess the training and development needs of the employees.

Conclusion

If the company has to survive in the market in the longer run and ensure a competitive edge, it will have to introduce some major changes in its training and development programs as soon as possible. To strengthen its training and development programs, the company should design and implement a new performance management system and should design employee feedback surveys, which should comprise of questions that would help it in analysing the training needs of the employees along with various other parameters and attributes.

Bibliography

Insightstohealth. (n.d.). What is the difference between symptoms and the cause of my problem? Retrieved May 10, 2017, from www.insightstohealth.net: https://www.insightstohealth.net/question/symptoms_v_cause/

Ferguson, G. (n.d.). The Effects of Lack of Employee Training. Retrieved May 11, 2017, from smallbusiness.chron.com: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/effects-lack-employee-training-42687.html

Noe, R. A., Wilk, S. L., Mullen, E. J., & Wanek, J. E. (2014). Employee Development; Issues in Construct Definition and Investigation of Antecedents. In J. K. Ford, Improving Training Effectiveness in Work Organizations. 

Elnaga, D. A., & Imran, A. (2013). The Effect of Training on Employee Performance . European Journal of Business and Management , 5(4).

Frost, S. (n.d.). The Importance of Training & Development in the Workplace. Retrieved May 11, 2017, from smallbusiness.chron.com: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-training-development-workplace-10321.html

Aguinis, H., & Kraiger, K. (2009, January 10). Benefits of Training and Development for Individuals and Teams, Organizations, and Society. Annual Review of Psychology, 60.

Nathan, A. (2016 , March 10). 7 Key Steps for Better Training and Development Programs. Retrieved May 11, 2017, from www.shrm.org: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/organizational-and-employee-development/pages/key-steps-for-better-training-development-programs.aspx 

Employee surveys. (2013, May 24). Retrieved May 11, 2017, from explorance.com: https://explorance.com/2013/05/5-types-of-employee-surveys-you-can-use/