Implementing the assessment or needs analysis should prove fairly quick and not very costly if the employees are willing to communicate directly with the management or via the union. If this doesn’t work, conducting an employee satisfaction survey would prove costly and time consuming at the outset, but would be well worth the payback given the amount of data that can be gathered. Training the employees is a necessary step. The associated costs and time frame are difficult to determine as we aren’t sure of the level of sophistication of the technology nor are we aware of the aptitude of the workers.
We must consider whether the training would need to be outsourced (for example to the technology company or to another third party). Also, can training be effectively carried out in large groups? We suspect yes which would result in reduced costs and less time to train all staff. Costs and time to create the suggested documentation such as: job descriptions, standard operating procedures and/or policies, shouldn’t be great. This can be carried out by a small cross-functional team.
We suggest a supervisor, human resources manager and one or two employees should be able to complete this in a short period of time. Of course these should be reviewed by all of the necessary management team as well. If these items already exist, making adjustments as they relate to the new technology or job design should be even less time consuming. Implementing a system in which employees can learn new tasks is not something that should be entered into quickly. By offering just a few opportunities at a time it allows for employees to do their own work without being distracted by something new.
It also promises to keep them motivated as the opportunities will not all be learned quickly. As well, the cost of training and time will be spread out over the employees’ tenure with the company. We have assumed that customers are already randomly completing satisfaction surveys. We are unsure whether these are being assessed on a per operator basis or simply across the board. In order to implement the recognition program they will need to be assessed individually. This shouldn’t prove to cost much more in terms of dollar value or in time.
The reward itself shouldn’t be something that financially costs the company too much or else it may be deemed to be superficial. Instead, it should be a carefully thought out reward. It may be an idea to roll this idea into the mentoring program mentioned above, whereby operators with high ratings are given an opportunity to take on new tasks. If this wouldn’t be deemed as an appropriate reward based on the employees, recognition via newsletter or card of thanks from senior management (along with a small gift) may be more appropriate.
The team building ideas may prove to be expensive if they are done as a group. Costs can be kept down if they are done on via partnering or in groups but in small segments of time. Trust takes time so achieving goals will not be done overnight. It may be most worthwhile to have groups meet for small, but frequent (i. e. weekly) meetings. Without fully understanding the corporate climate it is difficult to make a true recommendation on how this should be designed.
References: A Case Study Approach written by famous author Michael Muller-Camen, Richard Croucher ; Susan Leigh
