You Have To Complete All Five Sections Of The Case

You have to complete all five sections of the case write-up;
remember that the issue is the surface thing we see here, not just one
of the underlying causes.

Case 1

TeleSouth

Location: Birmingham

Employees: Approximately 400

Industry: Cellular and land-based
telecommunications

Background

TeleSouth was established in
Birmingham in March 2002 and began commercial operations in mid-2003.
TeleSouth operates a cellular telephone network based on digital technology in
competition with Telecom Cellular and Telecom land-based systems. The
parent company is TeleSouth Corporation of Atlanta. The company has grown
rapidly since start-up and by mid-2006 employed 383 people, mostly at its
prominently located Birmingham headquarters. Further growth was planned
to around 400 employees.

Like many start-up and Greenfield
site companies, TeleSouth placed a great deal of emphasis on its recruitment
and selection process. Staff were recruited to a number of different
functions – sales, marketing, information technology, finance, engineering,
customer services, human resources, and legal. Recruitment was rapid; 227
people were recruited during 2005. Sixty per cent of those recruited were
aged under 30 and for many of them TeleSouth was their first employer.
The average length of service of the whole work force is less than two
years. Fifty-five per cent of employees are female and the proportion of
female mangers is 43 per cent.

Approach to HRM

The following is a summary of the
company’s approach in the HRM areas shown.

The Selection Process

TeleSouth had no difficulty in
attracting a large number of applicants for the vacancies. It had a
progressive dynamic image and was in a leading new product market area.
As the company was growing rapidly, management structures were loose.
TeleSouth therefore sought employees who did not require detailed day-to-day
supervision, but who would be able to work in an uncertain, ambiguous fluid
environment. In the selection process the employee characteristics being
sought included intelligence, flexibility and energy.

Survey work done by the company
revealed that employees had a high regard for the selection process. Through it
they were made to feel special individuals on whom a lot of time and effort was
being expended. Coming through the extensive rigorous process
successfully, confirmed them as special people coming to work for a special
company. The formal two-day orientation course also treated new employees
as special people. However, in the socialization phase employees reported
that they received much less individual attention and support and had the sense
of being thrown in at the deep end. They felt that their managers were so
busy doing their jobs that they could not deal with the individual concerns of
the new employees.

Results

TeleSouth found that despite their
carefully structured recruitment and selection process, their well organized
and presented orientation course, and their attempts at socialization, they
suffered what they considered a rather high turnover rate. Moreover, analysis
of turnover revealed that it was rising and that it particularly applied to
people who had only been in the company a short time. Nearly a quarter of
the turnover was in the first six months and 50 per cent in the first
year. People who stayed beyond those early months tended to fulfill two
years’ service before there was another peak of turnover. Analysis of
reasons for leaving revealed that the main reasons were for career advancement,
to travel and work elsewhere, for a complete career change, and because of
dissatisfaction with the job role. Career advancement was not for higher
pay for the same job, but to move on to a similar job at a higher level.
TeleSouth employees were highly regarded in the labor market. Mobility and
travel was seen as an almost inevitable part of the lifestyle of younger
employees seeking to experience a bit more of the country. The reasons
for career change were varied, but such changes could suggest a lack of good
fit in the first place. Dissatisfaction with their role meant that the
actual job did not turn out as the employees expected. More conventional
reasons for leaving, such as dissatisfaction with pay, family, or dismissal,
were not significant in this case.

The Human Resource Manager was
rather concerned with these findings. It was estimated that, at a
minimum, the combined direct and indirect cost of this turnover was $20,000 per
person.

Perhaps this will be of help.

Additional Comments:

Note how each section flows
logically into the next. After identifying the issue, we move to possible
causes and selecting those most probable; then we look at possible alternatives
for dealing with these causes and eliminating the issue and we choose those we
consider to be the best; next we lay out exactly how we propose to implement
this chosen solution(s); and finally, we identify an evaluation metric that
will tell us whether or not implementation of the solution worked