Red Telecom Diversity Management And Inclusion Strategies

Introduction to Red Telecom and the telecommunications sector

The telecommunication sector is that industry in the corporate sector that deals with providing services that enable easy transmission of information along with ease of communication. It includes many different types of service providers linked with different forms of communication like telephone services, wireless networks as well as internet service providers (Red Telecom. 2018). With the increase in the total amount of globalisation and expansion strategies being undertaken by different firms, the mix of labour force is becoming more diverse. However, in certain cases, this variety is not being respected or maintained in different organisations. Red Telecom is one such telecommunication firm dealing with this problem currently (Red Telecom. 2018). The diversity issues found in this organisation are both gender based and cultural background based. This report is based on the initiatives taken in the form of providing training so that the situation pertaining to diversity and inclusion are taken care of.

In order to address the problems pertaining to the differences in the work culture that was adversely affecting the team of workers, the initiative of Red’s Inclusive Strategy 2020 was launched (Red Telecom. 2018). It is very crucial to mention that the problem is not limited to the workforce but also the customers. The most common problem identified in this case was the accessibility issues in the website of the firm faced by disabled customers. The complaint is that the customers with disability are not properly looked after and treated with a discriminative attitude. These problems in turn have led to restructuring of the customer service resolution team which has caused increased contempt among the workers. The reactions from the workers has actually been mixed and confusing. Some are genuinely interested and showing enthusiasm while others are viewing this as a potential threat to their job security. They are basically overwhelmed with the frequency of changes in the organisation.

On analysis of the existing situation in the organisation, the following points were identified as the major areas that need to be worked on and improved:

• Resentment on the part of the team members who are having problems in dealing with the customer issues which are not being dealt with by their respective managers.
• Because of the restructuring, the customer calls were monitored closely and the frequency of the calls were also increased. The calls were being monitored closely with the help of screens and the gaps between calls were monitored and the gaps were reduced. The employees were not being able to cope up with these changes in the system at such short notice.
• The team members were also concerned about their performances being monitored on grounds that the lack of their ability to adapt to the changes introduced in the firm will prevent them from reaching higher positions in the leadership or other positions with higher compensations.
• Team members who were efficient in their respective roles and performed their roles with precision were not being praised or giving enough recognition because of the overall poor performance of the team.
• The most important concern was in the context of inequalities and unequal treatment of employees based on genders. The female employees expressed concerns of not being able to approach their respective team leaders for the problems being faced by them
• Workers and employees also expressed contempt of the team leaders not being able to maintain and monitor rosters the way they should be maintained. This caused extended hours of work for the employees without enough time for breaks and refreshment which was also impacting their performances adversely.
• Concerns were also expressed by team leaders to not be able to manage the employees with disabilities properly in the sense that they were not being able to understand what kind of support was to be provided to these employees. Further, the team leaders were also concerned that hiring increased number of employees with disabilities then employees without any disability would be trying to find excuses to show that they are disabled and hence perform as less as the employees actually suffering.

From the above discussion and analysis of the current situation, the following objectives are to be achieved from this learning and development program:

• The first objective is to provide regular workshops and conferences as well as weekly one on one meetings between the team leaders and each and every employee of the team.
• Including the equal performance of female and male employees in every team as a benchmark to productivity measured for the respective team leaders
• Increasing the communication and interaction between the employees in every team and their managers
• Automating the performance evaluation procedures so that the employees performing better than others in every team can be identified, compensated, and recognised effectively.
• Implementation of smart devices and innovated forms of technology for framing of timed rosters and monitoring of the breaks and intervals being provided to the employees in an effective manner
• Forming a particular team that will specifically look upon the needs and criteria of selection of the employees with disabilities

The tentative plan is presented in the Appendix of this report which includes the objectives, resources required, time of commencement, progress criteria and time till when the different activities or processes will be continued to be monitored so that different objectives are met by the year 2020. The major activities to be undertaken in the learning and development plan are as follows:

• Empathising with the problems of the employees in the team with the team members and also empathising with the customers at the same time so that the resolutions to the problems are achieved easier and quicker  (Wrench 2016).
• Keeping equal productivities from both genders as a benchmark for team productivity so that the team members are compelled to provide equal opportunities to both men and women. It will also take care of the fact that the issues faced by women are solved by the team leaders without the female employees having to go through any hassle.
• Learning of the automation process for both purposes of maintaining and monitoring rosters for better distribution of work as well as the monitoring of performances of employees who perform better than the rest of the employees in the team so that they are provided with increased compensation and recognition
• Empathy with and identification of employee with genuine disabilities by a special team formed as a part of human resource management so that the employees hired with disabilities are specially looked after and so that other employees are not able to gain the benefits and advantages that they get. This team shall also be responsible for solving any of their issues and problems.

Challenges faced by Red Telecom in relation to diversity and inclusion

As the objectives are being expected to be met by the year 2020, the activities pertaining to the tentative plan is going to begin on January 1^st overall. Each objective aimed at is discussed along with the activities, measures of progress and intended results as follows:

• Firstly, the gender representation and available set of opportunities for both genders should increase in the same proportion (Benschop 2016). In fact, the equal productivities of both male and female employees is to be included as a benchmark in the performance criteria of every team leader under the learning and development program. The notion and concept of diversity and inclusion should be included in the corporate social responsibilities of the firm (Ashikali and Groeneveld 2015). This new approach is to be started in the month of January and will be monitored henceforth every week for the entire year so that by 2020 the aim of increasing women’s representation in senior leadership roles by 50% is achieved.
• Secondly, the only procedure to resolve the problems of the contempt of team members about their adaptability to the changes introduced is to conduct weekly meetings (one on one) as well as group discussions (workshops) wherein the team employees are provided trainings based on change management and how their productivities can be improved (Trittin and Schoeneborn 2017). This is also aimed at resolving the communication gap pertaining to the performance being affected by the changes and not being able to coping up with these problems. Some period of time should be additionally provided (a month’s time) so that the employees get used to the new processes and perform without  any problems. This process shall also start at the beginning of 2019 and shall continue for the entire year so that all their problems are resolved and even the LGBT participation in the senior roles is increased by at least 5% by the year 2020.
• Thirdly, smart devices and innovated technology should be used and implemented for identifying the employees who are better performers than the rest of the team and due credit and recognition should be provided to them. The managers along with the team leaders should be able to use the analytical software implemented in the smart devices to identify the better performers than the rest even in the face of changes, start distributing responsibilities, and work accordingly.
• Next, is the use of the same smart devices but different analytical software for building as well as monitoring of proper rosters so that the distribution of work along with the reaching of the objectives (including performance evaluation) is done on time and efficiently so that the objectives pertaining to customer resolution can be achieved easily and as per the changing demand trends of the customers (Ashikali and Groeneveld 2015).
• Lastly, a special human resource management team will be formed only for the selection of employees with medically proven disabilities (Sabharwal 2014). The performance evaluation method for these employees should be completely different from the performance evaluation of other employees and any employee claiming to have certain disabilities will have to provide medical proof of the same disabilities to obtain the performance evaluation process applied in case of employees with disabilities.

The last three activities of the learning and development plan are to be started from the month of March 2019 as these involve the use and implementation of smart devices and software for analytical purposes and the installation of these devices will consume some time. Further, the training provided to the managers and team leaders for using these tools and techniques will also require time before being implemented completely. The formation and inclusion  of the team of disability management as a part of the human resource management will also require some time (Mor Barak 2015). Hence, the last three processes will start after three months once the issues pertaining to customer resolution are solved in between the managers and employees at large for all the different teams concerned.

Conclusion

In order to conclude it can be put forth that Red Telecom needs to implement this Learning and Development Plan in order to ensure that there is smooth change management in the firm along with maintaining balance like situations were before. This plan will help to solve all queries and issues for both team leaders and employees under them as well as help in reaching the desired objectives by 2020.

References

Ashikali, T. and Groeneveld, S., 2015. Diversity management for all? An empirical analysis of diversity management outcomes across groups. Personnel Review, 44(5), pp.757-780.

Ashikali, T. and Groeneveld, S., 2015. Diversity management in public organizations and its effect on employees’ affective commitment: The role of transformational leadership and the inclusiveness of the organizational culture. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 35(2), pp.146-168.

Benschop, Y., 2016. The dubious power of diversity management. In Diversity in the Workplace (pp. 35-48). Routledge.

Mor Barak, M.E., 2015. Inclusion is the key to diversity management, but what is inclusion?. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 39(2), pp.83-88.

Red Telecom. (2018). Support – Red Telecom. [online] Available at: https://redtelecom.com.au/support/ [Accessed 12 Oct. 2018].

Red Telecom. (2018). Red Telecom | Business Phone Systems, NBN, Printers, CCTV Sydney. [online] Available at: https://redtelecom.com.au/ [Accessed 12 Oct. 2018].

Red Telecom. (2018). Services – Red Telecom. [online] Available at: https://redtelecom.com.au/services/ [Accessed 12 Oct. 2018].

Sabharwal, M., 2014. Is diversity management sufficient? Organizational inclusion to further performance. Public Personnel Management, 43(2), pp.197-217.

Trittin, H. and Schoeneborn, D., 2017. Diversity as polyphony: Reconceptualizing diversity management from a communication-centered perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 144(2), pp.305-322.

Wrench, J., 2016. Diversity management and discrimination: Immigrants and ethnic minorities in the EU. Routledge.