ABC, Inc.: Improving Communication and Efficiency

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ABC, Inc. Case Study

Introduction:
Communication and working together as a team has not been a critical part of the ABC Company, and because of the communication and team work problems, the hiring and training of new employees is problematic. When this happened they hired a new recruiter and hiring manager but within his first year on the job he ran into many difficult problems. Many steps will need to be taken to help with these certain problems if the ABC Company wants to go and advance to help the company grow.

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Background:

Robins was hired to recruit and hire new employees, and in six months he was able to talk hire 15 employees as his first mission recruitment. Training, coordination and communication with the other departments caused this process to be unsuccessful, costing the company not only money but valuable work hours. Within the next three months Robins was, of course, held accountable to train and introduce the new employees into the company’s system to accomplish the duties that they were hired to do.

Monica Carrolls, the Operations Supervisor, was Robins’ direct supervisor to help assist him on the duties he was hired to perform, if he ever needed or wanted any help, to also help overlook the completion of the missions. The supervisor and employee relationship is needed and very important to keep a healthy relationship, to be able to keep straight communication and learning of the job a priority. Carl should have been directly supervised because he was still new to the job and may have helped if he was closely supervised, had he had enough time to prepare and get the proper training of the company’s ethics and code of conduct.

Within a couple of months problems started presenting themselves, poor communication was certainly showing. This did not only show by the work he was doing but also by his supervisor not paying any mind to him.

Key Problems:
The greatest accountability is on the supervisory position. As Nostran points out (2004),"Above all, leadership communication entails nurturing and maintaining a workplace environment in which communication flows freely and quickly in all directions with minimal distortion or lag time.” While Robbins was new, his supervisor could and should have stepped up more and told him he was doing wrong. It is at times complicated to train new employees, help can always be used, with all of the other duties and responsibilities at hand; and on the other hand it is their responsibility to do so. This keeps the company on track and to help them in finishing their goals that they have set out. This coincides with the up -front approach to business. The communication and management between the supervisor and that of other divisions lead to a situations for the newly acquired employee. With only a few months within the company, Robins was put into a situation to hire new employees for the corporation. This is a very important and difficult task to do with only a short time with the company. The right training, experience and full knowledge of understanding of not only the company itself but the business and target market are needed. No one can’t lead, or manage what they have not done themself. Experience and knowledge are needed and necessary, and possibly it was just too fast to put him in that role, or the supervisor may not have given him the training and information essential to accomplish the mission. Alternatives:

This situation could have been prevented if Carrolls was more pro-active in training the newly hired recruiter. The corporation needs to have a complete plan when hiring new employees, including a new employee checklist and resumes need to be thoroughly checked prior to employment. This could have saved Carl some time, worrying and effort. With a company new employee hire check sheet, Carl may have been more efficient and not have waited until the last few weeks to make sure that all paperwork and training schedules were coordinated and completed. Communication with Human Resources office of the company requirements needs to be done immediately upon hiring, to ensure all the necessary paperwork is filed out and completed. This not only helps the company, but it also helps the supervisor later on, as they will not have to micro manage every action and can trust the work being done by their employees based on the outlined guidelines. Proposed Solution:

Better coordination and communication with the business process needs to be put into place. With useful tools like E-Mail, shared calendars, and company Intranets these types of complications can be stayed away from. Carl could have checked a companywide shared calendar to see if the training room was being used during the times that he was scheduling his own training or put someone in charge of the scheduling. The supervisor could also have assisted the Carl in properly preparing and training the newly hired employees. With the use of technology like Intranet and E-Mail, the communication and organization can be greatly increased. Furthermore, scheduling weekly conference calls for likely issues like this can be very helpful.

This gives an update not only to the supervisor, but also gives them the ability to lead and train the incoming staff to complete the tasks in a well-organized manner. Carrolls also needs to understand the tasks that their subordinates are working on, and support and teach them to take full advantage of their abilities to assist the company. Mr. Robins stated that all the policies, manuals, training, orientations, and drug tests would be arranged at an allotted time. However, this did not happen. There was no follow-up from the Ms. Carrolls and this needed to be done to ensure that the employee was not overwhelmed, make sure he was using the proper resources, and getting the job done in a timely manner. Recommendations:

A more efficient and thorough communication system needs to be put in place. This is especially critical for the different divisions within the company that may use shared resources. A company Intranet with all the policies, procedures, manuals, and training schedule can assist in the new hire process and will greatly improve work productivity. Given this resource, not only can the newly hired employees reference and read the companies policies, but also the current employees in case new manuals are placed in effect. This serves not only as a teaching aid but also a legal one. If all the company’s rules and regulations are readily available by all workers all the time the company can limit its legal responsibility in the event of bad behavior, or compromising company policy. Additionally there should be regularly set scheduled conferences, or meetings to discuss not only departmental issues but company-wide, monthly meetings should be set by supervisors. With all the different departments knowing what the other is doing and setting up, it will, or should, improve the miscommunication or scheduling of shared conference rooms.

This will also help in the planning phase for new projects, being able to comprehend and get everyone involved in the process. With the constant arrival of competitors, technology, and changes in the market it is the executive’s duty to keep up with the pace. Regular scheduled training and classes should be held for the company as a whole, focused for their role in the corporation. This will assist them in carrying out their duties and responsibilities, keeping the company competitive and on the cutting edge. Conclusion:

While this regrettable occurrence can be in part due to Robins, but also the supervisor in charge is at fault, or the business procedures in place. Having good communication, scheduling and coordination needs to be improved and implemented for the business to function more efficiently. With the availability of all the companies’ information, not only to new employees but current ones it by itself increases, heightens awareness, and reinforces the policies of the company. This will also alleviate some of the labor from the hiring manager or Human Resources staff. Supervisors, Managers and Executives need to use the opportunity to have a more hands-on approach, not only to direct but also to educate employees in the procedures ABC, Inc. prefers. Straight forward communication is the key in any business, and without communication issues will always occur one way or another, and the company may not improve. Building awareness to not only the companies’ interests but the market place, teamwork with all units within the organization, will help to build a high performance corporation. This will enhance the morale of the employees, and to create a great and productive work team environment.

Reference
Nostran, K. Van. (2004). Top-down: building a better organization through effective communication. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4422/is_2_21/ai_n14887958/