Business Driven Management Of Infrastructure – Discussion

Consultation with Stakeholders

Discuss about the Business Driven Management of Infrastructure.

The Reserve Bank of Australia is the central bank of Australia which became operational in the year 1960. It is the bank issuing authority in Australia which has its headquarters in Sydney. The components of the Bank include the Payments System Board, which is responsible for the administration of the payments system policy (www.rba.gov.au). The institution is responsible for governing the banking and monetary system in Australia. The board comprise of the bank members, government agencies in Australia, Treasury and the institutional leaders (Rba.gov.au. 2017). The Treasurer is responsible for appointing the governor of the Bank. The main function of the Bank includes the currency stabilization, maintenance of employment and the economic prosperity of Australia.

The Bank has made several strategic as well as operational plans regarding financial market operations, financial stability, monetary policy, payments and infrastructure, banking, bank notes and financial position (Rba.gov.au. 2017). It has also formulated policies regarding the risk oversight and management.

The human resources department of the Reserve Bank of Australia focuses on attracting and retaining the best talents in the organization. It has formulated policies regarding the compensation and benefits, diversity, equity, training and development and occupational health as well as safety (Rba.gov.au. 2017). The attracting the best talents would ensure that there would be formulation of excellent monetary policy and the retaining of the manpower would lead to efficient handling of the financial market operations.

The internal as well as external stakeholders are consulted so that they can ascertain the needs related to human resource department. A training needs analysis would be done which would measure the difference between the needs of the training process and the employee’s training procedures (Phillips and Phillips 2016). The internal stakeholders such as the employees were interviewed regarding the level of training provided by the organization. It was found out that the employees emphasized on the need of being trained on matters related to the customer service (Dhar 2015). There have not been adequate trainings on this subject and hence they were not confident while interacting with the customers. This deteriorated the service quality of the Bank. The external stakeholders such as customers are also interviewed regarding the service standards of the Bank and it has been found out that they were not satisfied with the communication skills of the employees (Punjaisri and Wilson 2017). This makes it evident that the organization requires implementing training modules which would enhance the skills and knowledge of the employees.

Relevant Legislation

The focus of the SLA would be training needs of the employees. The required focus should be on enriching the knowledge, skills and expertise of the employees in handling the customers. It is important to define the operational service levels in the operational environment. It is also important to define the customer values which should be embedded in the service level agreements (Kindström Kowalkowski and Sandberg 2013). It is also important to develop the SLA norms and the various resources to fulfill it. The stakeholders should be made clear regarding the benefits of the SLA and how it assists in the business management (Fitó and Guitart 2014). The delivery of the training process is a complex area in which it is important to manage the expectations of all the stakeholders. It is also important to measure the SLA and the performance improvements of the employees post training (Cascio 2014). The focus of the training would be to provide structured study program for attainment of training objectives, which is concerned about increasing the customer satisfaction rates.

The training services in Australia are governed with the help of suitable legislations. It is also important to incorporate suitable legislations for enhancing the efficiency of the training process. The National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 gives training specifications (Billett et al. 2015).

The training of employees in customer service should be formulated using a variety of channels. There would be classroom training aimed at improving the customer service skills (Valentine et al. 2015). This would make it possible for one to one feedback mechanism with the employees. The training would not only focus on the theoretical aspects of the training but would also involve practical aspects of the training. There would also be training delivery modes through e-learning. Each of the participants would be logging in the learning database with the help of unique login username and password (Clark and Mayer 2016). This would help the participants learn in their own convenient time. This would make it possible to enrich the knowledge of the employees in dealing with the customers. It would also encourage feedback from the participants regarding the quality of the training. There would be other modes of training such as teleconferencing, internet classroom link, self-paced learning and others.

The implementation plan of the SLA would be done in phases and there would be several steps in the implementation process (Cassidy 2016). It would comprise of the development of the performance tracking mechanisms and the establishment of the reporting processes. It is also important to reinforce the roles as well as responsibilities for the usual cross cultural services. It is also important to consider the background of the participants and then decide on the suitable methods.

Service specification	Performance Standard	Timeframe
Provide structured program	Excellent content	2 months
Provide an induction program	Interactive platform	1 month
Monitoring progress of learning	Evaluation tools	2 months
Carry out risks assessments	In depth review	3 months
Provide training material to student	Quality learning material	1 month
Ensure students are getting cohesive pathway	Actual learning of the student	6 months

Implementation Plan

The monitoring and the evaluation of the service delivery is one of the most important aspects of the organization. The training process should be constantly monitored in order to make it sure that the employees are gaining necessary skills as well as knowledge. A weekly assessment comprising of multiple choice questions should be implemented which would assess the current knowledge intake of the employees (Dimitriu 2015). There should also be one to one feedback sessions in order to learn the knowledge level of the employees. This would be helpful in discussing the progress of the employees and the identification of the further support which is required. This would also ensure that the existing training plans would be adjusted for the training as well as assessment. It is also important for the negotiation of the training as well as assessment. A practical monitoring process should be implemented which would assess the quality of the human resources interaction with the customers (Moore 2014). It is important to review as well as adjust the training plan based on the progress of the employees. Any required changes in the training plan should be agreed by all the parties. The monitoring data needs to be communicated to all the stakeholders.

The service delivery process would involve certain amount of costs for the appropriate delivery of the training process. There are various direct costs associated with the training delivery such as cost of the training materials, cost of training venues, cost of auditorium, cost of training modules, cost of training software, cost of the training manuals, cost of the trainers, travel costs, accommodation costs of the participants and others (Duffield et al. 2014). There are indirect costs associated with the workers compensation, cost of temporary staff, administrative costs and the management time cost. The return of investment of the training module for ensuring customer service is 168%. The details are shown in the following table

Define the anticipated benefits	List anticipated costs	Associated Costs ($)
Educate the audience	Cost of the training materials	45
Place for giving training	Cost of training venues	215
Easy updation	Cost of training software	850
Better understanding of the concepts	Cost of the training manuals	70
Convenience and comfort of the outstation employees	Accommodation costs	1000
Support for carrying out the training process	Administrative costs	900
TOTAL		3080

Total Cost of Investment	Net Profit	Return on Investments
$3080	$5200	168%

The participants were provided adequate support during the delivery of the training (Shanley et al. 2017). The participants were selected based on the training needs. They were also supported during the actual conducting of the training. All the participants were engaged in one to one communication with the trainer so that their individual doubts and concerns can be taken care of. The SLA was also made clear to them so that there is no confusion regarding the same.

The SLA should be well communicated to the audiences by fulfilling all the specifications (Cornelissen 2014). There should be transparent communications that should be maintained between the organization and its stakeholders. There must be selection of adequate communication channels such as meetings, conference calls, emails, newsletters and posters. The internal stakeholders should be communicated with the help of meetings, intranet, and posters. The external stakeholders should be communicated with the help of email and telephonic conversations. In the SLA, there must be the mention of the following key entities-

• Name of each party
• Roles as well as responsibilities of each party
• Scope of services
• Performance related targets
• Cost and return on investment
• Communication methods
• Resources required

Monitoring of Service Delivery

The ethical practices should be followed by adhering to honest and fair practices. It should consider the practices such as integrity, excellence, promotion of public interest and respect for the stakeholders (Bond 2015).

It is important to ensure that there is adherence to the service level agreement so that there is approval of the same.

• Stating the objectives of SLA
• Stating the service goal
• Determining the elements of SLA
• Specific applications, methods applied, customer responsibilities and service tracking
• Escalation procedures
• Contact resolution by IT service
• Reporting methods
• Determining the SLA contract period

Conclusion

The Reserve Bank of Australia is one of the most reputed financial institutions of Australia. This report analyzed the preparation and the implementation of service level agreement between the Bank and Training Council. The consultation with stakeholders is identified along with the focus of SLA. The relevant legislation is identified and the training delivery options. The implementation plan is also devised along with the monitoring of the service delivery. The expected ROI is done along with the training support of participants. The communication of service specifications along with the ethical aspects is done. The concluding part of the report would identify SLA.

References

Billett, S., Choy, S., Dymock, D., Smith, R., Henderson, A., Tyler, M. and Kelly, A., 2015. Towards More Effective Continuing Education and Training for Australian Workers. National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER).

Bond, T., 2015. Standards and ethics for counselling in action. Sage.

Cascio, W.F., 2014. Leveraging employer branding, performance management and human resource development to enhance employee retention.

Cassidy, A., 2016. A practical guide to information systems strategic planning. CRC press.

Clark, R.C. and Mayer, R.E., 2016. E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. John Wiley & Sons.

Cornelissen, J., 2014. Corporate communication: A guide to theory and practice. Sage.

Dhar, R.L., 2015. Service quality and the training of employees: The mediating role of organizational commitment. Tourism Management, 46, pp.419-430.

Dimitriu, R., 2015. Vulnerability of Part Time Employees. Persp. Bus. LJ, 4, p.111.

Duffield, C.M., Roche, M.A., Homer, C., Buchan, J. and Dimitrelis, S., 2014. A comparative review of nurse turnover rates and costs across countries. Journal of advanced nursing, 70(12), pp.2703-2712.

Fitó, J.O. and Guitart, J., 2014. Business-driven management of infrastructure-level risks in Cloud providers. Future Generation computer systems, 32, pp.41-53.

Kindström, D., Kowalkowski, C. and Sandberg, E., 2013. Enabling service innovation: A dynamic capabilities approach. Journal of business research, 66(8), pp.1063-1073.

Moore, C.W., 2014. The mediation process: Practical strategies for resolving conflict. John Wiley & Sons.

Phillips, J.J. and Phillips, P.P., 2016. Handbook of training evaluation and measurement methods. Routledge.

Punjaisri, K. and Wilson, A., 2017. The Role of Internal Branding in the Delivery of Employee Brand Promise. In Advances in Corporate Branding (pp. 91-108). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Rba.gov.au. 2017. [online] Available at: https://www.rba.gov.au [Accessed 24 Jan. 2017].

Shanley, T.P., Calvin-Naylor, N.A., Divecha, R., Wartak, M.M., Blackwell, K., Davis, J.M., Ellerbeck, E.F., Kieburtz, K., Koziel, M.J., Luzuriaga, K. and Maddox, J., 2017. Enhancing Clinical Research Professionals’ Training and Qualifications (ECRPTQ): Recommendations for Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training for investigators and study coordinators. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, pp.1-8.

Valentine, S.E., Bankoff, S.M., Poulin, R.M., Reidler, E.B. and Pantalone, D.W., 2015. The use of dialectical behavior therapy skills training as stand?alone treatment: A systematic review of the treatment outcome literature. Journal of clinical psychology, 71(1), pp.1-20.