Your company cafeteria has become a source of employee complaints. Your boss has asked you to conduct a survey of the staff’s feelings of the cafeteria and write a report based on the results, including recommendations for improvements if necessary.
Use your imagination to fill in the detail
Answers
Answer:
This report is written at the request of the Chief Financial Officer in order to investigate the high turnover rate amongst employees in the Kingsley Helpdesk Operation. The information in the report is based on a week-long investigation into the matter by three members of the Human Resource Department. The three-member team interviewed staff, checked administration records and observed working conditions. Recommendations are made in this report on how to decrease the high rate of staff turnover at the centre.
Background
The Kingsley Helpdesk Centre has been in operation for four years. It employs 100 personnel whose work comprises mainly of handling telephone enquiries from the general public regarding our range of telecommunication services. Although situated in an area with high unemployment, the annual turnover has been between 50 and 55% every year since it opened. The average annual turnover for the helpdesk/call centre industry is 33%, already considered high compared to other industries
Findings
One of the first things that the team noticed was the lack of training of the personnel in handling a call. Each employee had their own system of dealing with an issue. Where a process needed to be explained, different employees would provide different steps. In many instances, the employees felt frustrated because they had not been trained how to handle an issue and were merely guessing at the solution.
When the staff survey was carried out, it was found that the most common complaint was about the working environment. Although a fifteen minute break every three hours was promised, in reality the long queue of callers on hold meant that a break was impossible, especially during peak hours. The lunch break was usually shortened for the same reason.
The employees work in teams of eight, supervised by a team leader. The team leaders were observed to criticise and correct the employees when they made mistakes, but never to praise the employees when they did well. Interviews with the team members confirmed this.
Finally, many employees complained that there was no chance of decent career progression. Team leaders are paid only very slightly more than the team members and have to work slightly longer hours. The centre is run by three managers, who were sent there from headquarters rather than being promoted from amongst the ranks.