Issues and Challenges Faced by Telstra Corporation

The objective of this paper is to identify the issue pertaining to the human resource department and to provide and implement solutions to the manager in order to overcome the issue. Telstra Corporation of Australia is taken into account to understand the issue of high turnover amongst employees and to provide probable solutions to the management.

Telstra Corporation is a leading telecommunication company in Australia, which offers a complete range of telecommunication and internet products and services. At present they have 17.7 million retail stores, 4.9 million voice service (retail), 3.6 million broadband services (retail) in the international market (Telstra, 2018). They believe in providing better opportunities to the customers at reasonable prices (Telstra, 2018). The company uses advanced and innovative technology that is the firm is able to provide the fastest and largest mobile network in the competitive market. They are not limited to Australia, but have a wide presence in more than 20 countries (Telstra, 2018). 

The paper discusses the issues associated with high employee turnover in the company. The paper further offers the recommendation and probable solution to overcome the high turnover rate amongst the employees. It outlines the best practices and strategies to be implemented by the manager to curb the issue. Further, the paper provides various other alternative strategies as well which directly and indirectly impact the retention and employee turnover.

High Employee Turnover

There are various issues such as recruitment, selection, training, development, performance appraisal, and talent management being faced by Telstra while implementing business activities internationally. One of the crucial issues that is being entertained and faced by Telstra is high employee turnover that put a direct impact on the efficiency and outputs of the firm. There could be multiple reasons for the failing of human resource personnel in reducing the turnover rate. The number or the percentage of employees leaving a company and are replaced by another candidate in a year is known as employee turnover. This can be further divided into two major parts, voluntary (when an employee resigns by themselves) and involuntary (when an employer asks the employees to leave, or they are fired). The high the turnover goes; it shows the number of employees leaving in a year (Gnapartners, 2018).

Telstra Corporation is a telecommunication company with a high brand value in the market thus; the employees need to continuously update themselves due to the high demand of technology up gradation and keeping pace with the competition and customer demand (Dysvik & Kuvaas, 2010).  To retain the employees within the company, there are two most important factors which must be kept in mind which is the job satisfaction level and reasons and the job dissatisfaction and levels of the employees, which can be measured through various employee engagement techniques and methods. It is equally important to understand the employee requirements out of the job profile, which will help in retention and achievement in employee satisfaction (Gnapartners, 2018).

It is difficult to increase the company’s effectiveness and efficiency for the manager as well as for the entire human resource department when there is a continuous increasing turnover rate for the employees. Employees are dissatisfied when there seems no self-productivity, improvement in performance and learning out of the job role (Mowday, Porter & Steers, 2013). Thus, they try to seek a new job in the competitive organization. Another issue is when there is discouraging and low work environment which also affect the level of satisfaction and morale of the workers, therefore, they start to quit the current employment. Perks, salaries and other benefits, lack of training and development are some other factors responsible for the high employee turnover rate which directly and indirectly impacts the company efficiency. High employee turnover also affects the long-term mission and vision of Telstra in the international market (Kappel, 2017).

Specific HRM Practices to Overcome High Turnover

To manage this particular issue of high turnover there is a number of strategic human resource practices that can be used by the company which has been discussed below.

Recruitment and selection: It is one of the significant practices that can be performed by the company while conducting task and duties in the global market. Telstra Company is a high technology based company which focuses on hiring leaders with specific skill sets (Compton, 2009). In order to hire candidates for such company, the HRM can focus on candidates who are flexible, talented, and skilled, diversified and are able to fit in the existing culture. The company selects those candidates who are collectively fit for the employment or job. This practice can used by Telstra to manage and handle high employee turnover in the workplace (Strain, 2018).

Pay and benefit: It becomes a duty of the company to maintain the industry trend pertaining to benefits and compensation, Telstra Corporation is considered to be the highest paying corporation in the market in comparison to the competitors. It has been found that Telstra can focus on the pay, incentives, and benefits of the talented and skilled workforce because these benefits help in motivating such candidates internationally. Pay and benefit are significant practices that help to curb and reduce high employee turnover at Telstra because if the company provides good benefits and lucrative incentives to the workers then they do not try to switch the job in other companies (Posthuma,  Campion,  Masimova & Campion, 2013).

Recognition and reward: Employees need continuous encouragement and recognition for their work thus; Telstra can focus on the employee reward and recognition to encourage them towards the attainment of goals and objectives.  The employees need a constant appreciation after every project completion. This will motivate the other less performing employees to achieve their targets. Telstra Corporation could focus on employee recognition through collaborative and innovative ideas to overcome the high employee turnover issue (Heathfield, 2018).

Flexible work schedule:  Employees these days face depression, stress and workload due to high work and target pressures. By allowing them to maintain work-life balance and by letting them choose their own set of hours according to their own convenience to complete 8 hours each day, they will provide more efficient and effective results (Avey, Luthans & Jensen, 2009). Flexible work system might not available and possible for all types of business, but in Telstra which is telecommunication based companies, employees can enjoy the benefit of flexible work schedule and work from home which helps to reduce high employee turnover issues.

Motivation: Enhancing employee motivation is another major factor which has a significant impact on employee turnover. Employees leave the company because they do not find a fit in the skills they have and the skills required. Further due to the lack of training makes it difficult for them to cope up with the technological changes in the market (Tooksoon, 2011).The company can highly focus on the motivation and employee engagement to encourage them effectively.

From a managers point of view it is important to reduce employee turnover and implementing the above mentioned HRM strategies for a consistent production and high profitability because when an experienced, skilled and knowledgeable employees leave the organizations the productivity is hampered highly. Hiring a new employee and training them for a job requires a lot of time and during this, the production is reduced. It is a costly affair to replace a highly experienced employee and provide training to them.  The Telstra Corporation is a high customer-centric company involved in selling services to the customers. The high turnover may impact the service quality and this may, in turn, affect the loyalty of the customer because they will have to deal with a new employee in every time they have an issue (Bratton & Gold, 2017). There is a benefit of personalization in service with older employees, they remember customers by their name and purchase history, but with new employees, they mismatch the service required and it hampers customer relationship management. Thus, it is needed to the manager for implementing the innovative strategy at the workplace. It is stated that the manager uses motivation strategy to overcome the high employee turnover issues at the workplace. It is a responsibility of the manager to maintain a good relationship with employees by providing motivation and enhancement to them (Boxall & Purcell, 2011).

Another important reason is developing and maintaining employee morale when an employee leaves it impacts the other existing employees, they will have to work overtime and in odd hours to cover the shift schedule of the fellow employee. This increased workload may impact the other employees’ performance and efficiency; they will be more stressed and disappointed. It will also affect the mouth publicity and brand value of the company. Thus, the managers use motivation practice and recruitment and selection strategy to build a dynamic image in the minds of the customers across the globe (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

Being a manager, a number of alternative strategies can also be implemented which are beneficial in a long-term employee retention and reduce high employee turnover. In Telstra, Corporation manpower needs to be hired keeping in mind the frequent technological changes. In hiring for such projects the manpower must be skilled and acquainted with the latest technology.  A continuous training and learning are necessity for the HRM and teams to appoint new candidates and reduce high employee turnover. Therefore, the HRM must focus on looking for appropriate candidates and offer jobs to those who are able to fit themselves in the culturally diverse and technically strong workplace. A strong intra and inter team communication is needed for the strength of the teams working in the company, to improve this, continuous team building activities must be conducted in order to increase team cohesiveness. Other alternative strategies which can be implemented include incorporation of the healthy and peaceful work environment to increase employee productivity and effectiveness (Schwinger, Steinmayr & Spinath, 2009).

Employees want to make sure that they are important for the firm and they are making a difference in the success of the company they seek performance feedbacks and reviews on the efforts they put in order to complete tasks before the deadlines, this is another motivational technique to reduce turnover and increase retention. It is also considered as the most powerful tool to positively reinforce other employees to perform better as well. It is seen that employees shift jobs in order to work in a more peaceful and fun-filled places which allow them to stay stress-free. Implementing a strategy which allows them to balance their work and personal life will let them stay in the existing workplace. In today’s competitive world, Telstra provides flexible work schedules; therefore, it becomes imperative for the firm who is a market leader to follow the route (Alderman, 2013).

Employees are the assets to any organization, to maintain low employee turnover and sustainability in the market thus it is important to identify the issues and formulate the effective strategies to overcome the issue. Being a manager they must work upon enhancing employee motivation in order to reduce the turnover. There are certain motivational theories which can help in boosting the motivation in the workforce. The attitude of the workforce towards company policies, mission and vision must be reinforced continuously (Larsen, 2014).  

Maslow’s need hierarchy theory explains the need of basic salaries, job security, and safety at the workplace, belongingness in a group; therefore, the employers must focus on making smaller groups and teams of employees for more efficient working. Other motivational needs include the need of status, respect and having responsibilities and accountability of their jobs. Finally, there is a need for personal growth and development (Stringer, Didham & Theivananthampillai, 2011). The need hierarchy also puts forward an argument that this high-level needs will only be demanded and achieved after the achievement of the low-level needs. Some of the steps to implement a motivation strategy have been discussed below.

• Clearly and effectively define Telstra’s vision and mission
• Give workers what they need, expect and want
• Communicate and collaborate often and well
• Get everyone engaged
• Coach for success, growth and practice random acts of kindness
• Act fairly, respect and creates trust among the workers
• Give special and attractive attention to high and talented workers
• Be creative and innovative to avoid downsizing
• Implement motivation and incentive program

In this way, Telstra can implement or initiate motivation strategy at the workplace while expanding business operations widely (Stringer, Didham & Theivananthampillai, 2011).

Conclusion 

On the above-mentioned analysis, it is concluded that Telstra uses innovative and dynamic strategies to keep motivated the workers for attaining desired targets and goals.  In today’s globalization world, if the employees are not motivated on a continuous basis then they get distressed and disappointment as it also affects the productivity and effectiveness of Telstra. Mismanagement in skill sets proves to be a stressful work environment. Therefore, to overcome the main issue of high employee turnover it is required by employers to motivate their employees, which can be done by using various theories, approaches, and policies. Various steps have been taken to motivate and promote the workers in order to augment profitability.

References 

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