HRM-Related Issues And Solutions In An Australian Workplace

Mission, Vision, and Values

For this research project, an Australian telecommunication firm named, Telstra Corporation is taken to understand the issues pertaining to high turnover in the employees and to present the necessary solutions. In order to address the issue multiple solutions have been provided based on the literature review. Enhancing motivation is one among them, motivation can be enhanced through monetary and non monetary benefits to employees, also by being transparent during layoffs. Continuous skill development and personality improvement to stay fit for the job role and culture is also seen imperative. Maslow’s need hierarchy theory is also recommended to order to provide job security and safety to employees to prevent high turnover. The objective of this research report is to analyze the HRM related issues and their possible solutions to the HRM in order to overcome the analyzed issues after thorough qualitative research taking into consideration both primary and secondary data.

Telstra Corporation is the market leader in the telecommunication sector in Australia offering entire range of services related to communication. Presently, the company has 17.7 million stores, 4.9 million retail voice service, and 3.6 million retail broadband services. Their ideology is to provide better connection, the better the connection, the better and the opportunities. The company uses simple technology and content which makes them the fastest and largest mobile network. They have a global presence in more than 20 countries (Telstra, 2018).

The report discusses the issues related to high employee turnover in the company on the basis of the literature review and data collection through a structured interview and observation.  The report further provides the findings, conclusions and recommendations by the means of possible solutions to the current problem and various practices and strategies through the medium of theories which have a direct and indirect impact on the turnover.

The company works on a policy to create a brilliantly connected future for their consumers.

The values of Telstra Corporation are at its core. Every objective and the steps taken to be  aligned with the values.

There are five core values to Telstra

1. Care
2. Work better, together
3. Trust
4. Simple
5. Courage

These values are used to create the actions to achieve the goals, and these work as the guideline to measure all actions.

The company’s vision is to create Telstra a company which is world class empowering people to connect.

It has mission to acehvie at least 40% market share in its industry by creating core competency in product differenciation and cost leadership strategy.

In order to study the company’s policies and understand the company in detail, a questionnaire was prepared and distributed to the key employees and managers to gain insight into the issues to be able to devise solutions to curb the HR related issues (Telstra, 2018).

The following is the summary of the data collected through a primary research from the employees.

Number of employees

According to the data collected, there are over 32,000 employees in the company since its inception in 2013 (Trullen,  et al. (2016).

The company is operating in 20 countries, 3.5 million retail, fixed data services, 5.4 million retail fixed voice services, 17.5 million retail mobile services and 70 Business Centers and over 350 Telstra Retail Stores (Kerzner, & Kerzner, 2017).

Questionnaire

Current Performance

430 million data connections are made over the network each day. More than 400,000km of cable connecting to 2,000+ network points of presence across the globe.

Age mix in the workforce

Owners of the business

1. The CEO of the business MR. Andrew R Penn
2. The Chairman MR. John P Mullen

According to the research, as of 2017, the Directors on the Board include four female employees. Which represents the female gender involvement among the 44% non-executive Directors.

In 2018, a 50% graduate intake female representation is seen. In the company 10% is given to disability representation of employees and in  Indigenous representations hold 5% (Torabi, Soufi, & Sahebjamnia, 2014).

The Telstra corporation supports the women employees, LGBT community, differently-abled working professionals and culturally and linguistically diverse employees. For maintaining such practices at he corporation the company provides a mentoring, training and engagement opportunities.

Desigin the questionnaire

1) Number of employees in the Company

2) Nature of the business and current performance.

3) Gender

1. M
2. F

4) Job Title

5) Number of years working in the current Company

1. Fresher
2. 1-5 Years
3. 6-10 Years
4. 11-15 Years
5. More than 15

6) Reasons that will be responsible for you to Leave the organization

1. Salary
2. Lack of Career development
3. Working Conditions
4. Benefits
5. Overtime
6. Location
7. Alternative Job Opportunities
8. Others

7) What reasons will attract you to stay with the current organization?

1. Health Insurance
2. Incentives and Bonuses
3. Family Benefits
4. Free Meals
5. Others

To maintain the equality in the hiring and selecting the employees without being gender or community biased, there is separate program introduced for hiring and selection.

Contrasting to the data collected, the current annual report shows that the workforce count as of 2017 was 34, 598 with a decrease of 3.5% in the workforce compared to the report of 2016 (Telstra., 2012). 

There is an increased competitive pressure on the company in the market, and the company is facing a disruption, therefore, in June 2017, they announced a restructuring in the company by changing the workforce and lay off the employees due to the closing off of around 1400 roles which are no longer required by the company. On discussion with the unions and employees the actions are taken. The total employee turnover is 9.8% in the Corporation (Telstra, 2015).

Telstra Corporation is further into targeting the $1 billion by cost cutting by 2022, taking the total cost cutback so far to approximately $2.5 billion. This will result in the reduction and laying off of the employees, nearly 8000 employees will have to leave their jobs. The middle management positions will be impacted and executives will have to suffer the cost cutting trend. According to Andy P. (2018) the company had to make such drastic structural changes in order to fight with the competition to stay at the top (Michael, 2018).

One of the issues faced by the Human resource department of a company is high employee turnover. The multiple reasons can prove to be the factors for failing of HRD in controlling the turnover rate. The turnover can be defined by the number of employees leaving the company to be replaced by the other suitable and skilled candidates. This can be of two types, one, voluntary resignation, when an employee resigns by his or her choice and number two when there is a layoff and an employer asks the employees to leave the jobs, in order to control the cost, to hire a skilled employee and or to get rid of the non performing liabilities (Gnapartners, 2018).

Current Performance

According to the review and data collected and observed, the Telstra corporation being a telecommunication company works on continuous technology up gradation to continue being the leader in the telecommunication market by keeping pace with the competition and being ahead in connecting people. The review shows that in order to retain the best talent with the company in the phase of lay off by providing specific employees the job security and job satisfaction, there are two important factors which needs to be assessed for further research. One, the job satisfaction and the reasons to maintain the level of satisfaction and second the levels of job dissatisfaction along with the reasons. Each employee has certain requirements and expectations out of the job context, it is inevitable for the management to understand the requirements to retain the talent (Telstra, 2012).

When there is a continuous increase in the employee turnover, it becomes almost difficult for the employers to retain the talent and provide job security. Laying off has similar impact on the other employees in the company, there is sense of disagreement and insecurity amongst the employees of all departments and they might leave jobs as soon as they seek any new opportunity with the competitor.

In order to control  the issue related to employee turnover, which is currently 9.8%, but seems to increase if there is a lack of transparency as to how and why the employees are being laid off in such huge number. The literature gives provides the insight into a number of strategic human resource practices and the practices followed by the Telstar corporation according to the primary data and secondary sources.

1. Recruitment: To manage and control employee turnover, at must be controlled at the initial stages of hiring that is recruitment. According to a research the company must hire candidates those fit into the culture of the organization and secondly on the basis of a need analysis report, the chances of layoff will be reduced if the company has hired people internally and according to the need. The candidates must be screened on the basis of the skills they have acquired and if they are able to continually update themselves according to the industry requirements (Garavan, et al.  (2016).
2. Pay and benefits: According to the annual report the company is the highest paying in the telecommunication industry, which makes it a reason for the employees to be secured and satisfied in terms of pay and benefits, but not every employee seek financial satisfaction there are employees who has a  need of recognition and incentives (Ziegler, Hagen And Diehl 2012).
3. Recognition and encouragement: working in telecommunication is mentally and physically demanding, therefore employees need more recognition and encouragement to be able to control their stress during work hours. The recognition of a high performing employee will serve as a reinforcement of the less performing employees (Telstra, 2012).
4. Flexible work schedule:These days most of the companies are providing the flexible working hours, which is not being able to be noticed in the Telstar Corporation, the company works on data and data management, flexible working hours will retain their interest and they will be able to work in high pressure conditions according to their preferred hours (Mike, 2017).

The company is laying off around 8000 employees of the corporation. It was orderd to cut the cost by removing the job roles, this can turn out to be fatal for the company, because the number of employees will now be joining the competing firms. Apart from this a major setback would be if high skilled employees would leave jobs due to job insecurity, they might feel that the company at any point of time may also run the strategy with them. Therefore, it is important to maintain the transparency and continuously boost employee morale to retain the selected talents to control the turnover rate arising out of voluntary and forced resignations (Kayl, et al.  (2017).

There are many motivational theories to boost the employee morale and maintain the positive attitude of the workforce towards the employer.

There is a need to aware employees that it is important to constantly update their own skill sets and knowledge pertaining to their job role and increasing demand, according to the market need, consumer demand and competitor product and service launch.  

Another important factor which helps in reducing the turnover is keeping the transparency among the employees in relation to the hiring, laying off, structural changes taking place and to make sure that the employees participate in the decision making process in the decisions which impacts their working and performance.

Age mix in the workforce

To control voluntary and forced turnover, the company can implement the internal hiring and promotional policies, this will keep the employees motivated, alert and they will keep refreshing their skills through internal exams and continuous assessment for performance appraisals.

According to Maslow’s Need Hierarchy there are different levels of need satisfaction which together are responsible for the employee motivation and retention in the company. The need for basic salary is seen to be fulfilled by the company, the job security and safety are seen as a concern for the employer due to which there is a high turnover among the employees in the company. Belongingness in a group is the third level of need satisfaction, employer must focus on creating smaller employee groups and teams which will make it easier for the employer to keep a check on employee functioning and productivity as well. The last level includes the need of status and respect (Fernandez & Pitts 2011).

Motivation of employees at Telstra Corporation is imperative because from the literature review, it is observed that the Corporation is at a risk of losing the high performing talent after the huge layoff losing trust amongst the internal and external stakeholders. However, a continuous motivation is demanded by the employees to keep them engaged in the company and reduce the employee turnover rate (Korzynski, 2013).

Based on the research review, primary data collected and the books referred so far in the review process, the following are the key findings to illustrate the issues faced by the human resource management and the possible solutions to control the problems. The review showcases that there is a requirement to motivate the employees by being transparent in terms of the job related needs, targets and the job role must be clear. The study is done to identify the issue of high turnover and factors leading to the issue. It has been found that in a high technology based setting the involvement of continuous skill development serves a pivotal role. The paper reviews the fact that not only monetary but non monetary factors also lead to employee satisfaction and trust in the company. Hiring the right staff and providing them with accurate training is a must for preventing firing and voluntary turnover due to job role dissatisfaction. Further, the Literature review, has given a wide spectrum to understand the concept and various methods to retain talent (Zhang, Levenson, & Crossley, 2015).

Conclusion And Recommendation:

The Telstra Coporation of Australia headquartered in Melbourne is a principal telecommunications corporation which has a diversified business in more than 20 countries. A high turnover rate and the recent layoff from the managerial and executive positions proves that in spite of being at the top of the market, having more than 34000 employees, a high percentage is leaving the company every year. In a company which is completely technology driven if employees are not updated with their skills and latest technology in the market, their performance will decrease which will further decrease their morale and motivation. Mismanagement from HRD in terms of employee motivation, training and development provides a stressful environment for employees. Therefore, it is recommended that the employees must be continually motivated, there must be training and development programs for employees to develop and enhance their skills and knowledge. Awareness regarding the latest technology must be given timely.

Reference: 

Fernandez, S., and Pitts, D. (2011). Understanding Employee Motivation to Innovate: Evidence from Front Line Employees in United States Federal Agencies. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 70(2), pp.202-222.

Garavan, T., Watson, S., Carbery, R., & O’Brien, F. (2016). The antecedents of leadership development practices in SMEs: The influence of HRM strategy and practice. International Small Business Journal, 34(6), 870-890.

Gnapartners, (2018). What is employee turnover, and why should you care? [Online], retrieved from https://www.gnapartners.com/article/what-is-employee-turnover/

Kayl, I. I., Zudina, E. V., Epinina, V. S., Bakhracheva, Y. S., & Velikanov, V. V. (2017). Effective HR Management as the Most Important Condition of Successful Business Administration. In Integration and Clustering for Sustainable Economic Growth(pp. 23-30). Springer, Cham.

Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. Australia John Wiley & Sons.

Korzynski, P. (2013). Employee motivation in new working environment. International Journal of Academic Research, 5(5), pp.184-188.

Michael. J., (2018). Telstra slashing 8,000 jobs to cut costs, but shares still slammed [Online], Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-20/telstra-to-slash-8000-jobs/9889116

Mike. K., (2017). Contributor 5 Ways To Reduce Employee Turnover [Online] https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikekappel/2017/08/09/5-ways-to-reduce-employee-turnover/#674a5aa05001.

Telstra., (2012). Our people [Online], Retrieved from https://www.telstra.com.au/content/dam/tcom/about-us/community-environment/pdf-c/bigger-picture-2012-our-people.pdf

Telstra., (2015). Creating a great place to work [Online], Retrieved from https://www.telstra.com.au/content/dam/tcom/about-us/community-environment/pdf-e/bigger-picture-2015-sustainability-report-our-people.pdf

Telstra., (2018). Our company [Online], Retrieved from https://www.telstra.com.au/aboutus/our-company/past.

Torabi, S. A., Soufi, H. R., & Sahebjamnia, N. (2014). A new framework for business impact analysis in business continuity management (with a case study). Safety Science, 68, (1) 309-323.

Trullen, J., Stirpe, L., Bonache, J., & Valverde, M. (2016). The HR department’s contribution to line managers’ effective implementation of HR practices. Human Resource Management Journal, 26(4), 449-470.

Zhang, W., Levenson, A., & Crossley, C. (2015). Move your research from the ivy tower to the board room: A primer on action research for academics, consultants, and business executives. Human Resource Management, 54(1), 151-174.

Ziegler, R., Hagen, B. & Diehl, M. (2012). Relationship Between Job Satisfaction and Job Performance: Job Ambivalence as a Moderator. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42(8), pp.2019-2040.

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