Recommendations for a Business

¶ … workplace profile, the analysis of the organization, and the development of the organization. Accompanying this report as separate submissions will be a PowerPoint that presents change in a way to inspire action and a personal reflection. While the organization under assessment in this report is far from perfect, there are a lot of things that they are doing quite well and they are well-positioned to do big things in the future.

Organizational Assessment

To get this out of the way in advance, the author of this report does not work for the organization in question but got to observe the company with the condition that the name and industry of the company was kept anonymous. Of course, the author of this reported wanted full access so this was complied with in full detail. Even so, there will be a complete and full assessment of what is known and what was observed about the company. With that out of the way, the basic definition of the company will be offered. The company in question is a Fortune 500 regular and has been around for a number of years. The wider organization is broken down into core business units and those units are based on the size of the customer in question. Whether it be the headcount of the organization or the revenue size, there are three basic divisions. Those divisions are small businesses, medium-sized businesses and large businesses. There are exceptions, but the small businesses are usually "mom and pop" or otherwise small operations that are fairly local in terms of their reach and business sphere. Medium-sized businesses are more likely to be online and/or more regional in nature rather than just limited to a single city or suburb. National businesses often have a national scope and quite often have an international reach in terms of their suppliers, partners and so forth. Even with those trends, there are always outliers (Ekore, 2014). There are some very large businesses that keep their scope very local and there are some small businesses that reach out very far. In short, the clients served by this business are extremely varied and so forth. This does not matter a whole lot in that the company being observed in this report is in the business of outsourcing. They fulfill a core task that pretty much every business has to deal with to some degree or another but, and this is especially true with small businesses, they do not tend to have dedicated staff to these business functions. Given that hiring people and allocation resources to this function would cost a lot of money, these clients of the business under observation typically outsource to exterior companies. The company under observation is able to do the tasks in question in bulk and the clients of said business can save a lot of money in outsourcing the task while at the same time getting a level of service and performance that would generally not be possible if they tried to do so on their own (Chou et al., 2015). . It would either be cost-prohibitive or it would at least be entirely too expensive in comparison (Gupta, 2009).

Even with the disparate business units to serve the different sizes of businesses that make up the client bases of the same, there is indeed a focus on a singular driving culture that encapsulates and motivates the entire business. To be sure, the business practices and the resources allocated do vary from business unit to business unit but the overall ethics and goals to be met in each unit are basically the same. There is a strong focus on several things including strong customer service, a strong dedication to accuracy and completeness and keeping things efficient, streamline and otherwise adept. Given these guiding principles, it takes a certain kind of worker to do well within this business. Any new hire for this firm needs to be ready and willing to learn and they need to understand that the pace of work is quite often fast, if not frenetic. The business under observation likes to keep things "lean and mean" but they are certainly not oblivious to the idea that five people cannot do the work of ten people when volume doubles. At the same time, the business is hesitant to dedicate new hires to a team unless it is truly necessary. If there is indeed a spike in business and it is temporary (e.g. peak season, etc.), there will indeed be some use of overtime but that will be mitigated by outsourcing more simpler tasks overseas or the use of temporary employees. Even so, the field in question is fairly specialized to asking either the offshore employee or the temporary employees to know anything and everything they can and should to do the job well can be a challenge at times. Even so, the more complex and important tasks are obviously left to the permanent and full-time employees while the other people are harnessed to deal with more menial things (Lee & Lee, 2015).

Due to the specialized nature of the job, the company is very careful with who they hire (Souliotis et al., 2014). If a temporary employee shows promise, they will quite often latch on to that employee. Indeed, many people in the human resources sphere actively suggest this method (Zappe, 2005). When it comes to exterior hires, those with experience are valued but those with a willingness to learn and a high aptitude overall are often hired quite quickly because those people can be molded and shaped. Regardless of who is hired, the people brought on are expected to agree with and otherwise mesh with the organizational culture in play. If it is clear that there is a disunity between a person's ideals and habits of the business, there is a very strong chance that person will not last. Indeed, there is a fairly obvious chasm when it comes to the rank and file of the business. There are a good number of people that have been with the company for a few years or less. There are also a lot of people that have been with the company for ten, twenty or even thirty years. When it comes to people in between, there are a lot less employees. Even with employees in general around the country seemingly being opportunistic and much more willing to jump ship to another employer of things go south, this company exhibits and manifests the opposite in a lot of ways and this actually includes a lot of younger employees as well. While most of the senior executives are older people, a lot of the middle-level managers are fairly young. A lot of the time, they are younger than forty.

When it comes to organizational processes, there is a huge dedication to that with this business. The compliance aspect of this business demands that as non-compliance on the part of the outsourcing business can lead to issues with the client having similar issues. However, the depth and breadth to which that phenomena exists varies based on the function in question and the business unit that is being spoken of. When it comes to interactions, there is a heavy use of email and instant messenger services. Indeed, the business makes heavy use of Microsoft products such as Skype for Business (formerly Lync), Microsoft Office in general (e.g. Outlook, Excel, etc.). This was a conscious choice, apparently, on the part of the business because the fact that all of the products are Microsoft allows them to integrate and function together (Saran, 2014). For example, if a person emails another in Outlook, they can double-click the user's name and instant message them and/or they can see the online status of the person on the email screen itself rather than having to add them to their contact list or bring up the Skype Business window. The company is very tight-fisted when it comes to investments. However, there has been a fairly major shift in the last few years. For example, the business stayed with Windows XP and Office 2013 for a bit too long but they now have Office 2010 and Windows 7, which is a huge improvement. In short, the company has already leveraged technology as a wider part of organizational processes but they have caught up significantly.

When it comes to distributed management and processes, there is a fairly regimented and defined structure. There is a strong amount of delegation and the "chain of command" that exists is rather protracted. The organizational chart of the business is rather defined and elaborate. At the same time, there are people that function as "leads" or something else along those lines that do not actually manage people. Indeed, the organizational chart often puts them at the same level as many of their peers even if the things they do and the way they work separates them from those same people. Even so, the people that are actually in charge empower them to monitor and report on the progress and performance of the workers. The managers focus more on more protracted and severe matters while these people in between focus more on monitoring, being a first line of escalation from the lower people and so forth. When a certain issue or problem comes up, it is usually quite clear who could or should deal with the issue. A basic troubleshooting issue would be handled by a lead. However, if a client is threatening to term or is otherwise unhinged, a manager would likely be the go-to person because they have a high approval authority and can make concessions and decisions that a front-line representative or lead would not be able to make. This saves a step because a lead might have to push off and get approval to fulfill a request form a client who is aggrieved but this not obviously not usually required with a manager.

Even with the fairly regimented hierarchy that exists, there is also a very matrix-like communication structure in play because the departments that serve the clients are numerous and varied. However, they quite often have to work together because some issues require it and there are other cases where a client will ask one person to do something but it might be something that another department should or must do themselves. For example, a front-line representative might get a question about the delivery of a package. While there are some ways in which that representative can check on the matter for the client, there would be a lot of cases where referring to that particular department could or should be called for. Of course, it all depends on the severity and urgency of the situation. As with the other matters discussed in this report, there is usually not a gray area as to who should deal with it. Indeed, the main issue is getting to the bottom of what is going on and making sure the proper person is handling the matter. Even though the processes and procedures are fairly defined, there has been a shift in recent years to leverage technology more and more rather than relying on additional headcount and other resources that are expensive to allocate and assign (Malik & Bergfeld, 2015). One thing that has paid dividends for this business is to empower clients to answer their own clients and service their own needs through online portals and other services. For example, there is a mobile application that is provided by the company that gives information on the spot. Of course, there are situations where a human touch can and should be involved. However, many clients love the instant gratification of verifying a piece of data or updating some information without having to pick up the phone or otherwise spend more time addressing.

One complaint that seems to be arise with this firm is that they are loathe to spend money when they do not think they have to. At the same time, they do not turn a deaf ear to employees who are concerned or even frantic about a situation. For example, if there is a cut in overtime but workloads are still rather high, there are many employees that start to freak out a bit. However, the managers and other leaders in the organization are quick to respond to such banter and they try to soothe the employees. As noted before, the company leverages resources that cost less money and they also make use of technology to make things as streamlined as possible. One example cited to the author of this report was a process that required hand-keying of a lot of data. This led to a lot of time spent on menial keying and this led to a high rate of errors. However, a programming feature was added and it allowed data to be imported via a simple spreadsheet. This ended up lowering errors significantly and saved a huge amount of time for everyone involved ("Automation and Information Technology," 2012).

When it comes to other matters of the firm, a few things can be seen. First, social networking is not banned or anything but doing so in a matter that has the company's name attached to it is highly discouraged and cautioned about. Indeed, a lot of the social networking associated with the company is done by people that are paid to do so, such as in the public relations office. Even so, employees are encouraged to network both within and outside of the company. However, they are just cautioned to be careful what they say when their name is associated with their profile. Of course, this is a normal part of daily life in a socially connected world. Connections with external people such as client contacts and such has to be done with care but is also quite common.

Even with the above, communication with clients as part of the job is obviously quite common. It happens quite a bit on both an email level and a phone call level. However, there is no communication via instant messenger services and social media in general. Most of the representatives seem to favor email as there is an audit trail and a clear history of who said what and when. However, there are also many clients that prefer or even demand to speak on the phone. Regardless, calls into the company are to be answered in a loosely standardized way. There is not a firm "script" that has to be followed but there are expectations for all calls such as identifying themselves, speaking in a professional tone, not using industry jargon and so forth. Calls that are not answered by the representative whose phone rings will roll to the next available person unless the caller decides to leave a voicemail. The phone system is fairly fancy in that there is a voice recognition system that allows a person to identify who they are trying to call. However, it can roll to the general queue of who is available. The power is mostly left up to the client. There is a robust amount of services and options that exist with some systems (Artalejo et al., 2007).

One issue that comes up with this organization is that communications in email or phone are expected to be logged in the central CRM system that exists for the company. The unwillingness or inability of the employees can lead to issues since a new person to the issue cannot check prior notes and details as logged by the prior representative. This usually leads to the client having to recite what they did before and this can lead to aggravation. Even with this happening a lot of the time, the company is making a strong effort to instill the idea that notes should be logged every time and in real-time. Rather than catching up later or not doing it at all, it is expected to be done as the emails or calls come in. One way that this is enforced is that calls are monitored for adherence and compliance with the laws and rules that apply. The monitoring is dual in nature as the audio of the call as well as the computer screen display of the representative taking the call can be seen by the system that is recording the call. Meaning, if the representative is messing around on their Facebook, it will be seen whether the employee wants it to be or not (Richards, 2012). If the representative is struggling and is not looking in the right place, this will also be known. Finally, if the representative is not logging notes during the call as they should be, this will be revealed to the client as well. The representatives are a little resenting of the level of monitoring but the people that the author of this report spoke to understand why it is done and also understand what can go wrong if the management is not keeping an eye on what the employees are doing or not doing. To be sure, having to deal with the inactions or messes made by others can lead to a desire for higher enforcement. Even so, some people get a little edgy when they know or think they are being watched.

One huge thing for the company is that they are embracing flexible work situations such as working from home and so forth. The extension and use of these options are not universal and automatic. The company holds the position that not all people are fit for home-based work because they get off-track and/or they do not stay on task. However, it saves a lot of money and resources for both the employee as well as the company. The author of this report understands that many metropolitan areas have gone from larger offices to smaller offices while the headcount has remained the same. This is allowed for because of the home-based work of a lot of the representatives that were working at the old location but are not at the new location. There have been a few challenges in that laptops get stolen, broken or lost and some employees are deemed to be worth of home work but are not. Even so, it has been a boon and huge cost-saver for the company in the grand scheme of things.

Workplace Profile

When looking at this company as a whole, they are doing fairly well. Even so, there are seeds of discontent when it comes to the monitoring of computer and phone use as described in the observation section. The company has been very traditional over the years and they have been extremely conservative. However, they are starting to loosen up the investment in technology, people and methods. However, it has been a long time coming and the organization is having to catch up as a result. To be honest, it will probably take a good five to ten years for the company to truly realize the benefits of what they are doing now. However, they seem to know this and seem to know that there will be growing and adjustment pains. Also, they seem to understand that there is a lack of buy-in in a lot of situations and this leads to wasted motion and re-explanations of why changes are necessary. More than one employee has noted that the company has been good at explaining what is coming but the overtime and headcount restrictions are less than easy to deal with a lot of the time.

Even with the challenges and potential problems noted above, there are also some very good things going on that have been occurring for some time. For example, the company's conservative spending nature might prevent them from realizing the leaps and bounds that are possible with companies like Google and Amazon due to their more aggressive nature but the company under observation is on very firm footing, has a lot very entrenched processes and so forth. Even so, the company is realizing that the "evolve or die" credo is alive and well nowadays because so much of the technology and processes of the company are extremely dated. The company has come to realize that this needs to change but they are not completely abandoning their conservative and streamlined practices. The organization is coming to realize that investment in the future is necessary and needs to happen. At the same time, the company needs to keep things streamlined and efficient as this is necessary to keep operating margins as high as is reasonably possible. If there is one grievance that has to be stated, it would be that overtime is sometimes needed and necessary and being too tight with the money for that can lead to work not getting done, people working off the clock (which is illegal for the company) and clients not being happy overall. Beyond that, the employees get bent out of shape because they are having to juxtapose a huge amount of work and a very tight window of how many hours can be worked in a given week.