The demand for better customer care services in the telecommunication industry has been raising with an increase in customers who require their needs to be addressed. One of the companies that have indicated lack of proper customer care services when it comes to customer services in Australia is IINET/ TPG. According to Cappelli (2015), this need has resulted from either lack of proper skills or lack of enough workforce to meet the demand.
The continuous increase in customer complains concerning hardship in accessing customer care services from this company implies that its management has not been training its staff members to equip them with proper skills. Based on this issue, there are various things that the management need to do to ensure the customers get high-quality services.
Based on these issues, it is advisable to conduct need analysis in this company to identify what triggers the problem. According to Delamere (2010), the ultimate goal of need assessment is to determine the current and the desired performance.
Over the years, IINET/ TPG has been one of the leading telecommunication companies in Australia. However, the demand for its services has been rising because of high adaptability to the communication and technology in the country. Although this demand has increased, the company has not considered identifying the key issues that have led to increased complaints concerning the kind of customer care services offered to its consumers.
Although this company performs better in other areas, it desires to do better in the provision of better customer care services but this has not been attained. The problem, in this case, is that some of its employees lack the required skills that lead to customer satisfaction. Undertaking need analysis will aid in determining the current and desired performance in regard to the customer care section.
One of the major reasons for undertaking need assessment in this company is that its performance, especially when it comes to providing customer care services has not been good. In the recent years, customers have been complaining of poor services such as delayed response to urgent needs, lack of skills to handle some of the issues they face, and lack of providing feedback which addresses their problems.
The other purpose for undertaking this needs assessment is to identify the reasons that make this company to offer poor customer services irrespective of having many customers and also to suggest some of the ways that can be implemented to ensure the issue has been addressed. The increase in customer complains concerning lack of adequate services implies that the customer care personnel in this company is either working under pressure or lack skills and therefore require the management to address various issues to high-quality services are offered.
Conducting need analysis in this company will be crucial in identifying what triggers the problem, and suggest some of the measures that can be taken to ensure the issue is addressed. Although the customers may complain about the employees because of poor services, the problem may not be triggered by employees but the management. For example, in this case, the problem of not providing proper customer care services may have stemmed from not having training programs. This means the problem is not related to the employees but the Human resource department because it is the one which is mandated to ensure the necessary measures that can improve employee skills are taken.
The method that will be used to conduct need assessment, in this case, will be an interview. This method will be most convenient because it will allow direct conduct with the employees. The interview, in this case, will be both formal and informal, will be conducted in person, and the respondents will be employees especially from customer care section.
Some of the key things that will be considered in preparing the interview questions will including designing them in a manner that is simple and straight to the point. Chenoy (2017) affirms that when conducting needs assessment using interview method, it is important to design the process in a manner which will assist in obtaining as much information as possible. Making the interview to be simple will make the employees to be willing to provide sufficient information concerning the issue.
The other thing that will be considered in this case is proving to the employees that the information that they shall provide will be used only for the needs assessment tasks and not for any other purpose. It will also include attesting to them that their personal information will not be revealed to the third party. According to Don (2011), it is important to safeguard information provided by employees during needs assessment when using interview method because exposing their details may impact their career.
The other reason why the use of interview is ideal for this case is that it facilitates immediate feedback, and makes it possible to analyze the employees’ physical or body language during the process. Guajardo (2015) affirms that learning physical reactions of interviewees during needs assessment makes the person undertaking this activity to judge the authenticity of information being provided.
This method will also assist in making decisions concerning the action that should be undertaken to address the issue without wastage of time. Irena (2012) affirms that interview, as one of the ways of conducting need assessment plays a key role in making decisions without wasting a lot of time to analyze data. This happens because as the interviewee provide information, the person conducting the needs assessment make decisions in the process because the method entails one on one kind of information.
To attain proper need assessment in this organization, various steps will be followed. The first thing to do, in this case, will be comparing the performance of the company by paying attention to its customer care personnel and analyzing the established standards (Singh, 2013). This step will also entail analyzing the current situation especially in their skills, qualifications, and ability to meet the high demand for their services. This will be done through identifying their strengths and weaknesses, uncovering gaps that exist between high and low performers and determining success barriers. The first step will also entail focusing on the necessary job tasks and standards, the required knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as analyzing actual needs versus the perceived needs.
The second step will be identifying priorities and importance. This step will be based on the list of needs identified during the gap analysis such as training and developed, career development, organizational development, and other interventions. This needs will be examined in the view of their importance to the organizational goals, realities, and constraints.
The third step of conducting need assessment will be collecting appropriate data. Because the assessment will be conducted by use of interview method, this step will assist in determining the number of people who will be interviewed. For this case, the interview questions will be answered by the customer care providers.
After collecting data, the fourth step will be ensuring it is well analyzed. This will be through tabulating the results to attain a clear picture of the action plan. According to Dave (2013), taking time to review and organize results is always fundamental because it assists one to have a clear understanding concerning the available needs and what should be done to address them. This stage will also entail organizing the results to determine performance objectives as well as instructional objectives.
The fifth step will be providing appropriate feedback. This will entail identifying the causes of performance problems, explaining the performance requirements, reporting whether they are met, explaining the required solution, and stating how the solutions can be accomplished. This step will also include finding out if the employees do their job effectively, and whether they understand how to accomplish their tasks.
The last step of conducting this need analyze will be developing an action plan. This will be done through analyzing results as the basis for training, design, development, and evaluation. It will also entail identification and analysis of the causes. To implement a proper action plan, it will be important to determine the general and specific cause of high priority needs, identify the items that are controllable with training, and so forth.
According to Loise (2014), failing to have proper planning concerning the manner in which needs assessment is conducted lead to wrong findings which may make the person conducting the activity to make wrong conclusions. Coming up with wrong conclusion makes the organization and the person conducting the activity to waste time and resources because it does not aid in addressing the problem.
Premkumar (2010) affirms that one of the major results of poor planning while conducting this activity is lack of adequate or reliable information. When conducting needs assessment, the person undertaking this activity must ensure he/she obtains as much information as possible so as to enable to analyze it to come up with proper conclusions. The information obtained in this case should be adequate and accurate.
The other possible outcome if needs assessment is not properly planned and conducted is implementing the wrong action to address a problem in the workforce. Greg (2013) affirms that the primary reason for undertaking needs assessment is to identify a problem and implement action to solve it. When the activity is not properly planned, the possibilities of implementing the wrong conclusion are always high because it makes the person undertaking the exercise to identify wrong conclusions.
According to Eric (2016), lack of having a proper plan while conducting needs analysis leads to wastage of resources. This happens because lack of proper plans when undertaking this activity make organizations to spend money on training programs that are not necessary because of not being related to the company’s business strategy. Peter (2017) affirms that training bears positive results when it is aimed to address a need that has been identified. Because improper planning in needs assessment leads to wrong results, money used to undertake training goes to waste.
The other consequence of having need assessment which is not properly conducted is that it makes organizations to come up with training programs that may have wrong content, methods, and objectives. Brown (2012) states that training that is not related to addressing the needs affecting an organization is useless. This is because it enlightens employees on other unnecessary things while ignoring those that should be given attention.
Balisis (2014) states that one of the consequences of failing to conduct needs assessment in the right manner is that it may make an organization to send their employees in training program which they do not have the basic skills, confidence needed to learn or the prerequisite skills. The primary reason which makes this to happen is that it makes people to come up with wrong decisions concerning workforce needs.
Conducting needs analysis in organizations is fundamental because it enables the management to identify some of the things that need to be done to improve skills among its employees. Conducting this activity by the use of interview method is beneficial when it comes to data analysis and identifying interviewee physical reactions during the process.
Because there are various problems associated with lack of proper planning when conducting this activity, it is recommended to ensure the right process is followed, the best method is used and the target employees are well chosen. It is also important to ensure the person conducting the exercise provides best measures to address the issues identified based on his/her findings.
Conclusion
Needs assessment plays a key role in identifying factors that may make an organization to require training for its employees. The reason for conducting need analysis in this company was to identify the reasons that make its customer care personnel not to provide high-quality services, and suggest the best ways of addressing the issue. The problem, in this case, stems from the fact that irrespective of being one of the leading companies in the telecommunication industry, its customer have been complaining of poor customer care services.
The method used to conduct this process would be interview because of its various advantages. The interviewee, in this case, would be the customer care personnel because it is the ones which seem to have a problem in addressing customer needs. There are various consequences of failing to conduct needs assessment in the right manner. Some of them comprise of; wastage of money, using wrong content or methods in training, identifying wrong needs and so forth.
References
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Cappelli, P. H. (2015). Skil Gaps, Skill Shortage, and Mismatches. ILR Review, 68(2), 251-290.
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