Assignment #1 - Case: Technology Company Call Centre Business: Technology Company Call Centre with 135 employees Business Need: Improve the level of call handling in the call centre by reducing average handle time and increasing customer survey results. Background The business has recently gone through a cost saving exercise because of the global economic downturn and resulting internal pressures to reduce costs. The call centre used to employ 152 staff, but as a result of recent developments, job vacancies have not been filled and new hire training programs have been temporarily suspended. There are now 135 employees as follows: 115 frontline agents 10 second level support agents 5 managers 3 senior managers 2 schedulers Morale is low amongst frontline agents and many agents are showing outward signs of frustration and/or fatigue. Second level support staff are working extra hours due to the increased workload and administrative demands. Managers have had to cancel team meetings and one-on-one meetings more frequently in order to cope with declining customer service levels (e.g., wait time before an agent answers a call, agent providing incorrect information, etc.). There is a high rate of absenteeism due to illness. Overall, the level and quality of call taking has dropped significantly. Customer survey results are below average, and complaints have increased. The call centre operates out of three locations, with the following shifts: Early 6am 2pm Late 2pm 10pm Twilight 4pm 11pm Night 10pm 6am The peak call times are from 8am 2pm. Most agents keep the same hours each week, but some agents work different shift times, or are available to work different shifts as needed. Senior manager of the department has called upon Learning and Development to design and deliver a training session on time management to get the team back on track. You have been assigned to complete an analysis of the situation.

You are assigned a specific scenario of a learning request and you will need to assess what information you currently have about the request and what information is still required before proceeding with a learning solution. You are required to document any high-level recommendations or cautions you may have about an approach for moving forward in conducting a learning needs analysis. Please note that for this assignment, you are not being asked for recommendations for the learning solution. Instead, you are being asked to provide an approach to doing a training needs analysis considering the challenge or issue presented in your scenario. You can post your final assessment using the media of your choice (i.e. PPT, Word doc, PDF, video).

As you work on Assignment #1 you are encouraged to reflect and incorporate the following into your presentation:

What assumptions have you made about the request made of you? What is really going on here? What is behind The Ask?

What indicators and questions will you focus on to determine if you are going to conduct a training needs assessment and to determine if training is a suitable intervention?

How will you assess the following?

Business Needs

Performance Needs

Learning Needs

Individual Learning Needs

What do you believe are suitable interventions and why?

How will you collect the data?

Who do you need to talk to?

What questions will you ask and why?