Hrm: Identify a Specific Human Resource Management Issue in Your Organisation and Develop a Proposal to Address It.
Introduction:
Telone, formerly known as PTC is the pioneering and largest telecommunication company in Zimbabwe. Through the PTC Act it had been enjoying a monopoly until this was successfully challenged in Dec 1995[1] by Econet Wireless Zimbabwe. The government of Zimbabwe then opened up the industry by licensing three mobile telecommunication networks namely Net One, Econet and Telecel.
Since inception in the early 1900s, Telone has been training all its telecoms engineers at the Telone training centre facility. Immediately after training the engineers would be deployed to man the various telecom exchanges throughout the country. With the massive investment in telecoms industry in the early 90’s, Telone was training on average 90 trainees per year who underwent the 2 year course. Upon completion the engineers would be bonded for a period of 2 years.
Problem briefly:
With the opening up of the telecommunications industry, Telone has been experiencing a high engineering staff turnover of as high as 50 per cent immediately after completion of the bonding period.
Background information on the issue:
The advent of competition in the form of licensed mobile networks on the one hand, and fixed telecoms companies operating under license soon depleted Telone’s stranglehold on market share.
The liberalisation of the industry opened up a lot of job opportunities for IT and Telecoms engineers. The competition’s strategy was to penetrate the industry as quickly as possible. To this end, they put together an attractive HR package. They then simply turned to Telone to poach their highly trained engineers.
In response, Telone seemed to keep training more and more engineering staff to replace the ones leaving. Even for a company as big as Telone, this type of strategy lacked sound Human Resources judgement as it was treating symptoms as opposed to solving the real problem.
Area needing Improvement:
Three main areas were identified through exit
Telone, formerly known as PTC is the pioneering and largest telecommunication company in Zimbabwe. Through the PTC Act it had been enjoying a monopoly until this was successfully challenged in Dec 1995[1] by Econet Wireless Zimbabwe. The government of Zimbabwe then opened up the industry by licensing three mobile telecommunication networks namely Net One, Econet and Telecel.
Since inception in the early 1900s, Telone has been training all its telecoms engineers at the Telone training centre facility. Immediately after training the engineers would be deployed to man the various telecom exchanges throughout the country. With the massive investment in telecoms industry in the early 90’s, Telone was training on average 90 trainees per year who underwent the 2 year course. Upon completion the engineers would be bonded for a period of 2 years.
Problem briefly:
With the opening up of the telecommunications industry, Telone has been experiencing a high engineering staff turnover of as high as 50 per cent immediately after completion of the bonding period.
Background information on the issue:
The advent of competition in the form of licensed mobile networks on the one hand, and fixed telecoms companies operating under license soon depleted Telone’s stranglehold on market share.
The liberalisation of the industry opened up a lot of job opportunities for IT and Telecoms engineers. The competition’s strategy was to penetrate the industry as quickly as possible. To this end, they put together an attractive HR package. They then simply turned to Telone to poach their highly trained engineers.
In response, Telone seemed to keep training more and more engineering staff to replace the ones leaving. Even for a company as big as Telone, this type of strategy lacked sound Human Resources judgement as it was treating symptoms as opposed to solving the real problem.
Area needing Improvement:
Three main areas were identified through exit
References: Noe R.A., Hollenbeck J.R., Gerhart B., Wright P.M., 2006. Human Resource Management Gaining a Competitive Advantage, McGraw Hill, 5th Edition Bratton J., Gold J., 2001 Cooper C. L., Channon D.F., 1998, The concise Blackwell encyclopaedia of management, Wiley-Blackwell http://www.bydbest.com/ebooks/E-books/Harvard%20Business%20Review/Harvard%20Business%20Review/2002/March%202002/the%20coach%20who%20got%20poached.pdf