Measuring the value of employee relations:

Employee relation is a vertical of HR department which takes care of: Employee grievances, Employee recognition, Boosting the morale of employees to make the working environment more healthy, live and at the same time fulfills the managements expectations Maintain the work culture and ethics.

Employees have many issues within the organization that contributesconflicts thus organization needs to focus on Employee Relations :Hinders work productivity and quality. Frequent absenteeism Unhealthy relationship with the employer or immediate boss andcolleagues. Lack of concentration on work. Frequent breaks, or long break hours. Coming frequently late to office. Employee relation is needed: Due to high attrition rate. Hostile environment on floor Not meeting deadlines Poor target achievement. Disinterest in the job profile Needs promotion. Needs Salary hikes, bonus and other incentives. Discrimination and Favoritism among employees. Dissatisfaction with the work and organization

Thus due to such issues the work suffers a lot, company has to bear loss and itcreates unhealthy work environment which is neither beneficial to management nor the employees.

Types of relationship within the organization: Employer And Employee relation Employee relation within themselves Employee And Employer relation

How to maintain Healthy Employee relation: Show that you care: Marriage Anniversary / Birthday cards and gifts can be given to theemployee. He /She should be given permission either to take leave and spend quality timewith his family on that special day. Extra effort given to be counted Employee bonding Activities: Should arrange staff picnics. Safety & Security: Life insurance, health insurance should be given for their safety. Recreational facilities should be given to employees like: free breakfast, educationallowance for him/her and children. Learning : Seminars should be conducted to increase their knowledge and inner potentials. Transport facilities can be given during rains when its really hard for them to copeand reach on time. These are the small efforts which matters a lot to enhance commitment level of employees with the organisation Employee relation practices in corporate: One to one session in a month where employees can come out with their personal and professional problems. Give positive feedback in front of all the staff members for the excellent jobdone. Employees can be rewarded by giving monetary rewards, gift vouchers. Regular health check ups should be conducted and concession can be givento certain limit for him/her and family. Movie tickets can be given where one can enjoy with their family on weekends.

Once in 6 months free holiday tour tickets can be given to hangout. Employer can keep party and dinner for the staff members once in a month so that it makes the bond more strong Conducting annual events where employees can participate and show their talents. Welfare activities can be conducted on weekends. Discounts coupons can be given on shopping during Diwali or other festival time. Free t-shirt with companys logo or jackets can be given to employees in a year. Internal job promotion should be encouraged so that employee get opportunity to grow within the organization. Soft skill training should be conducted on regular basis to make employees more confident, skilled and proficient in their work.

Benefits of employee relation: It maintains harmony at the work place. It maintains healthy relationship among all the staff, boss and colleagues. It reduces absenteeism. Tool to reduces attrition rates. It can retain more talented employees. It reduces cost on training due to low attrition rate. It improves moral level of employees and makes them more responsible. It increases quality and productivity of work. It encourages more creativity, new innovative techniques and ideas from employees.

Employee relation:
People matter result counts. Employee relation is the way to build loyality and enhance commitment.

Employee Retention:
Employee Retention involves taking measures to encourage employees to remain in the organization for the maximum period of time. The top organizations are on the top because they value their employees and they know how to keep them glued to the organization.

Why employee retention is critical?

The process of employee retention act as key whichbenefit an organization in many ways: The Cost of Turnover: The cost of employee turnover Loss of Company Knowledge Interruption of Customer Service Turnover leads to more turnovers Goodwill of the company Regaining efficiency

Major challenges which follows attrition:

Who is going to do the work? What knowledge are we about to lose? What skills will we lose? What traditions will change? Is this good?

The External Challenges: The market place for good talent will be competitive. The good people will be able to pick and choose their working environment How do we create an organization in where people want to stick around?

Top attraction and commitment drivers:

The old practices are not enough to retain talent: HR is responsible for people management We provide good pay and benefits Recruiting is like purchasing Development happens in training programs We treat everyone the same

Retention Tools: Exciting work & challenge Career Growth, Learning & Development. Working with great people & relationship Fair pay Supportive management/great boss Being recognized, valued & respected Additional Benefits Meaningful work, making a difference & contribution Pride in organization, its mission & product Great work environment / culture Flexibility Autonomy, creativity and a sense of control Empowerment Job security & stability Location Diverse, changing work assignments

Assesing value of outsourcing and call centers

The increasingly competitive global business environment and the pace of technological innovation over the last decade have had huge ramifications for the way companies operate. As national borders have shed some of their significance in commercial terms, companies have sought out new ways to focus activities on their core strengths while seeking to delegate other activities to external parties with specialist expertise in particular fields. Thus, companies with a

competitive edge in design could, for example, outsource their manufacturing to a contractor, while other businesses focusing on sectors such as mobile telecoms may choose to outsource their billing and call-centre operations to a specialist third party. However, companies must recognize that as customers will judge themrather than the outsourcing specialistby the overall experience they have in buying and using their products, they must ensure that the outsourced services meet the standards expected by customers, or the reputation of the company will suffer. The increased use of off-shoringthe transfer of business processes abroadover recent years has been further driven by rapid advances in data networking and storage technology. Rather than simply outsource services to specialists in the same country, many companies have seized on opportunities to offshore support services to countries such as India and China, taking advantage of the availability of labour capable of doing the work to the required standard. In most instances, the primary incentive for off-shoring is cost, given that the average wage in many developing countries is considerably lower than that demanded by western employees. However, specialists in the provision of off-shoring services claim that using overseas suppliers brings companies other benefits, such as a sharper focus on core activities, better operational efficiency, and improved cultural awareness through contact with overseas contractors. Nevertheless, while off-shoring can bring many benefits, the use of overseas external service providers entails some risks, as several financial institutions have found to their cost. Fraudsters have been quick to investigate opportunities of their own, recognizing that they too can take advantage of cost savings by attempting to bribe employees who have access to secure data, including customer account details. Companies that fall victim to such fraud can run the risk of considerable damage to their reputation and loss of customer confidence. Advantages Outsourcing and offshoring can bring significant cost benefits. Using high-quality specialist external providers can allow companies to capitalize on their strengths and, indirectly, help to improve customers experience of using such companies products or services. The use of outsourcing and offshoring can free local employees to focus on strategic planning and other activities, with the potential for a dramatic impact on a company's future performance.

 Provided that service suppliers meet the required performance standards, the use of outsourcing can improve a companys operational performance. External providers can help a companys competitiveness by delivering greater flexibility and responsiveness than would be available in-house.

Disadvantages Some in-house employeeseven those involved in core activitiescould see the use of external specialists as the thin end of the wedge, taking the view that ultimately their own roles could be outsourced. This could impact on their morale, leading to poor performance.

Selecting an Outsourcer
Selecting an outsourcer for your company requires more than finding vendors that say they are call center experts. The real question is, are they a good match for our program and its needs? There are many considerations that enter into the selection process. To get you started, here are 15 questions to ask ourself as WE evaluate vendors and their capabilities. 1. Similar Work. Have they done similar work? If your program is inbound and they primarily do outbound, tread carefully. If you are looking for sales calls and they currently do customer service, their reps won't have the right skills and personalities. Experience in your vertical business area such as health care, catalogues or charities can be desirable, although not always a must. 2. Professional Reps. Listen to calls on a site visit and mystery shop their clients, if you require inbound call handling. Do the reps sound like the types of reps you want placing or handling your calls? 3. Knowledgeable Supervisors and Account Service Staff. These are the primary individuals who translate your wishes into telephone rep behavior. Are they knowledgeable? Are you comfortable with them? 4. Training Program Quality. Telephone reps require training in call center skills to succeed at their job. They require training in your program to succeed on your company's

behalf. Make sure the vendor conducts new hire, refresher and program-specific training, and review the training curricula and time to get a feel for its quality and depth. 5. How Much Monitoring and Coaching? It should be frequent rather than occasional. How can your vendor know their reps are doing a good job if they rarely listen to them? Also, look for a call center that allows you to remotely monitor your own calls and that can send you recordings of your calls on request. 6. High or Low Turnover? If the telephone staff turns over several times a year, this means you will frequently have new reps handling your calls. If it is a very simple program, this may be OK, but most programs require deeper knowledge or experience. Lower turnover enables reps to acquire that. 7. Usable Reports. If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. Ask for a copy of the vendors' standard reports to assess if they meet your needs. If you require custom reports, ask for a quote on the cost to develop them. For inbound, make sure to ask for wait time and abandoned call reports for your program. For outbound, make sure to get reports on the "no" responses, bad numbers, unreachables and list penetration. 8. Value-Added Services. Does the vendor add value beyond placing or answering calls? For example, will they alert you when they think your program could be improved, or could this wait months until you notice it in the numbers? 9. Productive Culture. What's the culture of the call center? What's the emotional feeling there? Is it a pressure cooker with people on edge, or a pleasant place to work where people are busy doing their jobs? If the reps are happy, they are more likely to treat your customers well. 10. Responsiveness. If the vendor isn't responsive when you are a prospect, what will happen when you're a client? Are their response times for set-up, and for changes to your script or program, acceptable? If yours is an inbound program, will they have adequate staff to handle your calls when they arrive? 11. Primary Contact and Escalation. Are you comfortable with the individual who would be your primary contact at the vendor, typically an account service rep or account

executive? If things aren't working out, how far up can you escalate to get action on your issue? 12. Fair Contract. Although vendor contracts could be the subject of an entire article, and perhaps even a book, there are a few basics. Is their contract reasonable? Can you work in elements that protect your interests, such as wait times and abandon rates? Is there a way to exit the relationship before the next renewal if things aren't working out? 13. Adequate Technology. People are more important than technology, but a few basics are necessary. Inbound call centers should have an ACD to route calls (and increasingly emails) to the next available rep. Disaster recovery is also important. For outbound, the call center should use a computer to dial, which is more productive than dialing by hand. All call centers should have call monitoring and call reporting. Also, an on-screen program for information display and entry that can accommodate your specific needs is essential. 14. References. Ask for at least 3 references and contact them. Do any have calls similar to yours? Surprisingly, some company references aren't all that enthusiastic, which is usually a red flag, since one expects a reference to be among the happiest of customers. Long time customers are usually a good sign. 15. Cost. Cost is always a factor. However, also think about the total value of your calls. It could be a bargain to pay $3.25 instead of $2.75 for an inbound call. When? If your company gets 5% more $200 orders for $3.25/call, or if the more expensive vendor is the one that is responsive and meets your needs. Look at the total picture. Selecting the right call center vendor isn't a snap decision. It requires homework. It's prudent to know what and who you are buying before you sign on the dotted line. After all, you are entrusting your vendor with nothing less than your customer relationships.