1.

0 Company Background

Concentrix is a business services company, founded back in 1983 and became a wholly
owned subsidiary of SYNNEX Corporation in year 2006. With the tagline Different
by Design, the company offers outsourced services, Customer Engagement Services,
IT Consultation, and IT Services as means of platform for its clients to catalyze their
business operations of various industries such as Automotive, Banking and Financial
Services, Empowered by more than 100,000 employees, Concentrix current President
and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chris Caldwell, ensures the company to grow by
means of multiple acquisitions, such as the IBM Worldwide Customer Care Services
Business and Minacs Group Pte in both year 2013 and 2016 respectively.

Concentrix Malaysia is a call centre based in Cyberjaya, which mission is to provide

sales support services to Korean Airlines customers. In detail, this centre provides pre-
sales support and post-sale integrated frontline services. Even though trainings and
facilities were provided to employees, the company still had high abandoned call rates,
failed to meet service level agreements, increase on absenteeism, employees lacked in
product or process knowledge and poor performance among employees. Hence, it has
caused stressful call centre working environment, high turnover rate among its agents
and customer dissatisfaction.

2.0 Problem Statement

While it is known that Concentrix has achieved tremendous success in relation to the
growing industries, the company is also known to be facing several internal Human
Resource issues. These issues are noted by the former employees of Concentrix
themselves, providing useful information related to the problem as further described
below.

2.1 Unrealistic workloads

A review by a former employee of Concentrix mentioned about how the Concentrix
employees are bombarded with immense workload without any given support by their
supervisors or rewards for their performance. This kind of treatment would eventually
exhaust the employee, not to mention that it would also demotivate them to work as
there is no reward or acknowledgement given for every good performance made.
2.2 Lack of training and development opportunities

There is a review by a former employee of Concentrix that discusses on the insufficient

amount of training provided by the company, where he also mentioned that Concentrix
forced him to take a new job position. The employee was in a state of confusion, having
little to no idea of what his job was about. This would subsequently results in poor
work quality, low performance as well as low confidence level of the employee. Call
centre agents complain that the repetitive and monotonous nature of their work offers
little opportunity to expand their capabilities and skills. Additionally, the training they
received was minimal and ineffective. As a result, career development is hindered
given the lack of transferable skills.

2.3 Poor communication

There was a review in Glassdoor website made by a former employee of Concentrix,
which described how the departments in the company are lacking in communication,
where he mentioned that it was difficult to acquire information even when it comes to
salary matters. This communication issue would inhibit employees to attain important
information regarding their work, thus making them work ineffectively and
inefficiently, consequently reducing their performance outcome.

2.4 High turnover rate

A number of reviews has mentioned that the turnover rate for Concentrix is quite high
due to certain factors such as poor management, high work pressure, and poor work
environment. Employees of Concentrix had always tried their luck in voicing out their
dissatisfaction to the higher management, but usually to no avail. As the pressure
mounted, it became clear and only a rational action for the employees to leave the
company and look for better opportunities in other companies.

All the problems described above lead to poor employee morale, where employees feel
their efforts were not properly recognized by the organization, which leads to
employees resigning from the company.
3.0 Analysis

Concentrix Malaysia took very few approaches to overcome the problems faced as
discussed above. The management paid more attention to reduce the calls abandoned
rate and call wait queues. Agents were put under pressure to spend less time on each
call to reduce the abandoned call rates caused by the absent members of the team.
Operations manager made his best effort to focus on workforce, especially when
understaffing happens, and made sure number of staffs were sufficient to answer calls.
Due to this, eemployees morale tend to be so low with high frustration and they were
ready to walk out of the office anytime.

As a comparison, we are looking into two companies, Intel Corporation and FedEx, as
they are well-known to have excellent HR practices and managed to overcome all the
problems discussed above.

a) Intel Corporation
Intel Corporation is the worlds largest and highest valued semiconductor chip makers
based on revenue and supplies processors for computer system manufacturers. It was
ranked as top 10 best companies in Malaysia to work for.
i. Workload Management
Intel manages its employees by using a transparent and agile goal management process
known as OKR (Objectives and Key Results) that focuses on integrating performance
management process with employees career development. They separate the career
development aspect of performance appraisal from the salary review component. This
is to ensure employees career needs receive as much attention as salary issues.
ii. Training and development opportunities.
Employees were given feedback and support, in the form of coaching, developmental
training and management development for the employees to establish their careers.
The managers facilitate career establishment by providing feedback on performance
and on-the-job training. These activities helped employees get the job done while
meeting their career development needs. For instance, Intel boasts an employee
development tool called DOT, which connects talent to short-term needs to match
development goals.
 iii. Communication at Intel
Andy Groove, co-founder of Intel, believed strategic change starts at the top, and
leaders should adept at communicating it to their subordinates. The company delivers
concise and convincing visions to motivate employees and informs company direction
during times where the companys business fundamentals are about to change. They
believe the first task for leaders of any company or organization facing a monumental
change in its business is to form a mental image of what the company should look like
when they change their strategy. Due to this, Intel conducts employee communication
sessions frequently all over the world, besides email communications, banners and
booths, to reach the information directly to their staffs, if there are any changes or
improvements to be introduced in the company.
iv. Staff retention
Intels staff turnover rate was 2% in 2013, very low compared to other companies.
They increased their retention rate by helping employees build internal career paths
and create cultures where managers are supportive, not restrictive. Employees were
given the first opportunity to apply for roles over external candidates, makes them feel
empowered to apply for other roles and advance within your company. Intel also
promotes flexibility to remain competitive, where employees work from various
locations. They were expected to be reachable outside of the office by phone or email
and the 9-to-5 workday no longer exists. The performance evaluation procedures and
system used is synchronized and standardize within the organization around the world.
Employees participate in a variable pay program, called the Intel Employee Bonus.
Employees receive an annual pay-out, which is determined based on an employees
bonus target, the financial performance of the corporation, and the performance of
his/her business group against present goals.

b) FedEx
FedEx is a leading global logistics solutions provider, provides customers and
businesses worldwide with a broad portfolio of transportation, e-commerce and
business services. According to FORTUNE magazine (2012), FedEx was ranked 6th
among "World's Most Admired Companies".
i. Workload management
FedEx uses performance measurement information to help set agreed-upon
performance goals, allocate and prioritise resources, confirm or change current policy
or program directions to meet those goals, and report on the success in meeting those
goals. The appraisal technique was based on nature of work performed and
management identify different parameters for evaluating employees. They are
measured on People-Service-Profits matrix. This is a framework that measures a
company's performance in an integrated manner to achieve a balance between non-
financial and financial measurement.
ii. Training and development opportunities
In 1988, FedEx developed a program known as Leadership Evaluation and Awareness
Process (LEAP) to encourage non-managerial employees to move to the managerial
level within the company. Purple Pipeline Program was launched, aimed at broadening
employees' leadership abilities and their understanding of corporate objectives.
Managers nominate high-performing workers who have demonstrated their ability to
lead and manage staff. Those selected workers remain in their day jobs, but spend 70
to 80 percent of their time in the program, where they are chosen to move into a
position different from their past roles, testing their leadership abilities.
iii. Communication at FedEx
FedEx have open communications to communicate with departments around the
world. In generally, the open communication is used to deliver strategies and initiatives
by the director to ensure the other departments can achieve their goals. FedEx has
always used two-way communication, giving employees autonomy and motivation,
helping them feel being part of business activity. SFA program (employee relations
and satisfaction program) helped management take decisions regarding promotions,
where every employee is asked to participate in the on-line survey. After the results
are gathered, managers hold feedback sessions with their employees to discuss the
survey findings and identify problems within and outside of their department. FedEx
also devised a mechanism to address and resolve employee grievances.
iv. Employee Retention
FedEx believes that career advancement is not the only way to increase the growth,
and the recognition and reward programs can also work well to reinforce desired
behaviour, such as customer focus and quality. FedEx rewards employees for their
work with awards such as the Bravo Zulu and the Golden Falcon Award. FedEx is
an example of an organization that has created an effective HR strategy that supports
productivity and profitability. In FedEx's reward process, customers can select
employees with outstanding service. If the employees have fulfilled service to their
customers with full hearts at any time, they will win "The Golden Falcon Award".
Every month, the winners of these awards will be announced by company video
programs and publications and will receive shares of stock as well as an award. "The
Five Star Award" is FedEx's highest award which is given to individuals with
outstanding performances.

4.0 Recommended Solution

The management of Concentrix must detect the underlying problems faced by

employees and find ways to overcome them. The performance management processes
of planning, monitoring, developing, and rewarding performance surface time and
again as critical factors for success. The results of these surveys show that effective
performance management is critical to retaining good employees and achieving a
productive work environment. To ensure that performance management is
implemented effectively in your organization:

set goals and plan work routinely,

measure progress toward those goals,
give feedback to employees,
develop employees' skills so they can reach their goals, and
use formal and informal rewards to recognize the behavior and results that
accomplish organizational mission.

5.0 Conclusion

References

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-caldwell-3004617

https://www.owler.com/iaApp/286415/concentrix-company-
profile?onBoardingComplete=true

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrix
https://www.concentrix.com/about-us/company/

https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Concentrix-Reviews-E31549.htm