The Impact of Training and Development Assignment Sample

Evidence-Based Progress Report

Evaluation of Feedback

The Evidence Based Intervention proposal focused on two problems – workforce management and performance management. Based on the highlighted problems and their possible solutions suggested by me as a Team Leader, I have received some valuable inputs from my tutors and peers, which I shall be reviewing. I was asked to focus on the method of using CSAT scores. Peer Review, suggested to include various leadership models and the other factors which will plan and help me in the workforce management and the force management systems which is suitable especially for the call centres or the BPO. It also included suggestion form peers to have audit recorded phone calls and chat, shift Scheduling for the team, prepare their SLAs, team would like me to do, to do people Management and handle the escalation Management Tutor has guided about the compliance issue and ensure Agents adhere to the policies. This is a sensible suggestion, as keeping a record of the customer satisfaction levels will help the company focus on what the problem areas that requires attention. It will help in motivating the workforce to add quality value to their work to maintain high scores. Another suggestion which was presented to me was to make my action plan brief and clear. I understand that I am looking into too many avenues for improvement. For now, all I am focusing on is to improve issues related to staffing and target achievement. To address these issues, I would like to implement the following strategies – provide adequate training to the call centre agents to improve their quality of work, ensure the tools that are utilised are working and employ policies involving monitoring of work to ensure everything is progressing smoothly daily. Coming to the budget, I am yet to finalise it and I understand that it is an important aspect of the planning process. The literature reviews mentioned are, to my knowledge, relevant to the problems I am addressing. So far, the feedback received has provided me with some much-needed clarity on the problem areas and the strategies to alleviate these problems.

Review of Evidence

As mentioned before, there are two challenges my team is facing – the accuracy and production of target achievement and dealing with the rise in customer expectations due to high competition, which is affecting the customer satisfaction levels. The solutions that I want to implement are – introducing CSAT scores, providing the members of my team with training that will help improve their skills and introduce a force management system to help with sales. The model that I will be implementing is the contact centre mode of Prosci. The model proposed by Prosci addresses all of the issues that I am focusing on in this research. It will help tackle issues such as individual change, organizational change, understanding the gaps in performance, training and coaching plans as well as accessing and measuring the changes in behaviour. It is a holistic, systematic and practical approach which is easy to implement. Its implementation will greatly benefit my research. The bias would be escalation management, people management and in the compliance regulation.

The sources which has helped me to understand the problems, was the reoccurring escalations and facing conflicts in the people management, handling the compliance management. issues and finally SLA was lagging behind, All these parameters has helped to understand the process lags. the plan of intervention would be to train the employees in delivering quality rsults and how to provide best customer services. Implement and evaluation of the intervention, would be based on improvement in the CSAT performance and the results

Customer satisfaction is a crucial aspect of any business. The CSAT performance indicator is a measure on the feedback survey that is presented to a customer at the end of a call. The responses are on a scale of 1-5, from 5 being extremely satisfied to one being extremely unsatisfied. The results from these surveys are then averaged out for a composite CSAT score. There are quite a few benefits of using the CSAT measure. These surveys are cheap, affordable and easy to implement. The data provided by them is simple and easily interpreted. It clearly shows customer satisfaction trends as well as scope for resource allocation (Bleuel 2019. p. 1). Moreover, these scores are easily benchmarked so that comparisons and analysis of the team or company’s performance can be made easily. It is an added advantage that on being asked for feedback, the customer feels valued. Customer satisfaction significantly affects the overall performance and competitiveness in a company (Ngo and Nguyen 2016, p. 105). The downfall of this method is that the results may be skewed as not all customers, especially the dissatisfied or neutral ones, fill out the survey. By implementing this method, it would make the analysis of team performance easier to measure and overall, seems like a good addition to the proposal. Some additional measures that can be taken would be – to issue follow-up actions for scores of 3 or less, keeping a track of the number of complaints received, how long is it taking to resolve the issue and the percentage of issues resolved. This will help understand whether the problem resolution aspect requires to be worked upon or not.

Workforce training is a necessary addition that has to be introduced to improve the quality of the employees so that they are better suited to meet the targets and expectations of customers. Training and development are instrumental to the productivity of the workforce (Engetou, 2017). The training focuses on the overall development of the employees and is an effective tool to enhance employee performance (Farzana and Bari2019, p. 27). Training involves the strengthening of already existing skills and the development of new skills, receiving feedback on performance and changing one’s approach towards the work, gaining more knowledge and insight into the work and working on developing of self or self-improvement. Through training and monitoring, identify their key strengths, focus on how they interact with the customer, provide feedback and encourage them to take it seriously. Also, identify employees who have been consistently low performers and especially focus on their progress during training.

The contact centre model deals with bringing about change with minimal disruptions, with the ultimate aim of focusing on customer satisfaction (Dharamdass and Fernando 2018, p. 36). The change management strategies enable employees and companies to adapt to and thrive in an evolving environment, with the help of training, performance management and communication. It helps workers deal with the transitions at the workplace without letting it affect their work. Care should be taken to address the fears of the employees, as change is never easy and acceptable. Since as a team lead, I am planning on bringing changes to the way my team functions, I think this model will help me as well as the members of my team through this process. As a lead, I will look into keeping the morale and level of motivation high, implement changes gradually and not all at once and take regular feedback from everyone to ensure that the changes are effective or not.

Workforce management systems are a set of policies and protocols which are implemented by an organization to improve the efficiency and performance level of its employees. If strategies such as goal-setting, feedback and coaching (Sahoo and Mishra 2012, p. 3) are employed in a BPO set-up, it will help with the overall performance of the employees, which will lead to a better image of the organization and help with the increase in customer satisfaction level. Some of the methods which I plan on implementing for my team are standardization of policies to ensure consistency and transparency, tracking of attendance, the flexibility of shift timings, job rotation, forecasting and scheduling. Flexible timings would help with contributing to employee wellbeing thus, maximising performance (Kutty 2018, p. 164). Scheduling and forecasting will help in the planning process. Scheduling will ensure that a certain amount of time is spent on certain activities and the optimum use of time can be made. It also enhances productivity (Nowicki and Waszkowski, 2017, p. 355). Forecasting will specifically be able to help anticipate the workload, prevent fluctuations (Luinstra 2018), help with scheduling decisions and estimate how many employees will be required for the work. The accuracy of this information will help the team run smoothly.

Stakeholder Analysis

Using the Power/Influence Model for Stakeholder Analysis, we can identify the important stakeholders and based on that information, determine what action can be taken.

Based on this model, we have identified four types of stakeholders:

1. High Power and High Influence– These stakeholders are extremely important to the study. Keeping them engaged, satisfied and properly managing them is crucial. For the purpose of this study, these stakeholders would be the employees taking part in this study or the participants of this research. Based on the data obtained by them, the outcome of this study would be determined. Hence, they require more effort and close monitoring, failing which would lead to the failing of the study. Here the customers are at the high power and in the position of the high influence. They have the power to negotiate and can acquire services..
2. High Power and Low Influence – these stakeholders need to be kept satisfied, as even though they do not influence the data much, they do have high power which may impact this research overall. The stakeholders included here would be the senior management team, as they are not directly a part of the project, their permission is required for certain procedures. The management has the high power, as they have the power to take decisions and to decide appropriately, for the best interest of customers and the employees. They have influence only on employees, but low influence on customers, as the management has minimum interaction with the customers.
3. Low Power and High Influence – the stakeholders falling in this category are the ones who do not have much power, but determine to some extent the direction of the study. This would include the telecommunications team, as proper communication and spread of information is an essential aspect of any study. Employees have the low power but have the high influence as they are able to provide quality decisions and services to customers, based on which more customers would come. They have low power in the decision making.
4. Less Power and Less Influence – These stakeholders only need to be monitored and be given the minimum required information as their actions do not impact the research much. The stakeholders here would be the Human Resource Team, who do not have any meaningful role in this project. The investors, vendors and the other valuable people part of the firm, have the low power and less influence to get more customers and to achieve a higher results. Low power and less influence, as the vendors, suppliers have limited customer interaction and have low participation in the decision making within the company.

Ethical Concerns

During the process of research, there arise various ethical challenges that must be considered. When there is look through of implementation of changes in an organization, there is always the challenge of how ethical these changing policies and strategies will be. Ethics should be how manage the employees, customers and the valuable stakeholders in the same framework of organization. For example, over allocation of job duties, giving more responsibilities and mismanagement, can cause violation of the ethics. Unethically handling customers, by not providing appropriate services and handling them with low quality services, are the other ethical dilemmas, for the company. Care must be taken that throughout the process, the compliance guidelines are to be adhered to. There should be no instances of violation of confidentiality and privacy as well as no legal concerns coming into the picture. Hence, for the purpose of this project, I will be providing a consent form stating the guidelines of consent and compliance to the participants, informing them of their choices and taking their signature as proof that they have understood the ethical considerations and are voluntarily participating in my study. Through this process, it will be ensured that there is no infringement of privacy and rights of the external as well as the internal stakeholders. From customer feedback to the employee performance, I will be making sure that no sensitive information is leaked or made public. The data obtained will be kept confidential and will remain between me and my tutor who is assessing me on this project. If needed, I am willing to submit the same in writing to the senior management team. The policies and strategies employed will be well within the legal boundaries. Ethical concerns are also managing conflicts, timely responding to the stakeholders and keeping employees and customers engaged, by providing them quality services and maintaining the brand value. An appraisal system, managed by me, will be put in place, keeping in mind the performance of the employees, which of course will be kept confidential as well. I will also see to it that prejudiced and discriminatory practices are not carried out by anyone and the dignity of the participants should not be compromised. If any participant wishes to drop out of the project, they are free to do so and it will be seen to that they are not penalised. Care will also be taken that no other model or study is copied or duplicated in any way during this research. The results of this research will be observed by me and the identity of the participants will be kept strictly confidential unless permitted by them to do otherwise. I also agree to full and honest disclosure regarding this research, that is, I will not be hiding anything about the results, tampering with the results or provide false or misleading results. I will report my findings honestly, accurately and the research procedure will be completely transparent. I will also be stating any limitations that I have faced as well as any conflicts of interest that require to be reported.

How My Position Affects Evidence Gathering

Since this is an action project, my role is that of a researcher as well as the implementor. I understand that due to the dual role, certain ethical conflicts may arise. However, I plan on clearing them out as I intend to follow all the compliance guidelines and maintain complete transparency regarding the project – which includes addressing conflicts as well as limitations. I am the team lead and it is my responsibility to monitor whether the methods are being implemented properly as per institutional guidelines and if the data being collected is accurate and a reflection of the same. I am also responsible to ensure that the project is relevant and beneficial to the organization, the time and resources requested are minimal and used to their optimum potential, the project should not be politically sensitive and the reputation of all of the stakeholders involved should be intact. To understand how my position affects the data collection process, it is important to understand how my team views me as a leader – do they think I am approachable enough to be given honest feedback concerning the training and other changes, are my methods working or not. Also, I am willing to discuss my research and the results I have obtained, without disclosing the names of the participants involved in this study. This is a step to ensure that the participants are honest about their feedback (Petrova, Dewing and Camilleri 2016, p. 445). Their identity will be kept confidential unless stated otherwise by them. I am aware that according to the policies of the organisation, I am not allowed to share company data. I intend to present to the stakeholders and members of the company in writing that the data procured by me will only be available to myself and my mentor who is assessing me on this project. I will be assuring them that the data will not be published or be made publicly available and the company name will be kept anonymous at any cost.

References for The Impact of Training and Development

Bleuel, W., 2019. CSAT or CES: Does It Matter?. 2019 Volume 22 Issue 1, (1).

Dharamdass, S. and Fernando, Y., 2018. Contact centre service excellence: a proposed conceptual framework. International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 29(1), pp.18-41.

Engetou, E., 2017. The impact of training and development on organizational performance.

Farzana, R. and Bari, W., 2019. CRITICAL EVALUATION OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF EMPLOYEES – A STUDY WITH REFERENCE TO BPO COMPANIES IN CHENNAI CITY. Journal of Management Info, 6(1), pp.27-30.

Kutty, S.R.S., 2018. Impact of working hours on family wellbeing, health and lifestyle of women employees working in It/Bpo sector. IJAR, 4(8), pp.164-175.

Luinstra, J.M., 2018. Reducing workload fluctuations through causal forecasting: a case study in the plaster room of Sint Maartenskliniek (Master's thesis, University of Twente).

Ngo, M. and Nguyen, H., 2016. The Relationship between Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty: An Investigation in Vietnamese Retail Banking Sector. Journal of Competitiveness, 8(2), pp.103-116.

Nowicki, T. and Waszkowski, R., 2017, June. Productivity oriented cooperative approach to scheduling IT project tasks. In IFIP International Conference on Computer Information Systems and Industrial Management (pp. 354-365). Springer, Cham.

Petrova, E., Dewing, J. and Camilleri, M., 2016. Confidentiality in participatory research: Challenges from one study. Nursing ethics, 23(4), pp.442-454.

Sahoo, C. and Mishra, S., 2012. Performance management benefits organizations and their employees. Human Resource Management International Digest, 20(6), pp.3-5.

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