Telecommunications Sector in Bahrain

Telecommunication sector in Bahrain has three providers who amongst themselves have a competitive interaction since Bahrain is a small economy. Amongst them, two are the private and one if government run company. Afro being a private company has a high competition to face particularly from the government run company since it has a long history of existence in the country and so the number of corporate and private clients. The sector comes with major attractions for its customers and corporate clients to attract more clients. Seasonally, the company also offer free mobile sim cards to attract new users. Upon asking concerned personnel in the company, she asserted, 'we have to consistently look for promotions, offers and packages to retain exist new employees and attract new users.' This statement leads to understand what type of competition and competitive situation Afro telecom much be going through.

Trouble with Afro:

Besides tough competition and market conditions, the company is also facing the issues within. These principally relates to the engagement of employees whereby; the business has been struggling to retain employees particularly the local Bahrainis. The issue has been principally going very severe in the customer service division where Afro strives to keep a good number of local Bahrainis who are bilinguals to serve Arabic and non-Arabic speaking customers. The issue went so severe last month in the customer service that they had to close two of the customer contact and support service outlets. As per Senior Manager customer services Ms. Amal, 'Employee Engagement in sales is a major issue with businesses everywhere but it seems that Afro

is reaching the stage of severity in this for some reasons. There is a need to explore why it is happening and how to control it'.

Looking at the statements of Ms. Amal, it seems that the issue is quite serious, but the organization is yet to uncover the actual cause(s) to effectively respond to it. The company has been competitively working however, keeping in view the limited market of the country (Bahrain) a company certainly cannot afford high turnover which at a later stage results in high turnover and increasing recruitment expenditures.

Talking further with Ms. Amal, regarding what is her opinion about the issue of employee engagement, she kept repeating her statement of being unaware and the company needs to take measures to address the issue. She in a way seemed reluctant to give any clues or unveil any more details on the matter.

Discussion with the Senior Manager, Customer service at the Head Office

Mr. Amir Al Bari who serves Afro in the capacity of Senior Manager Customer Service at the head office unveiled many details on the matter. It was not easy to get hold of him because of his busy schedule and for the fact that he sits in the head office. Mr. Bari has been working for Afro for past 8 years whereby, he progressed from the junior officer to the current position. Mr. Bari not only expressed willingness to enhance our understanding of the issue but highlighted his current engagement on the matter. The discussion underwent several questions to which Mr. Bari gave detailed answers.

Question: How do you see Afro as a company?

Mr. Bari: Afro is a leading telecommunication company in Bahrain and has been highly regarded for its network, connectivity, service and packages. We at Afro have a visionary leadership that are keen to take the company to the next level and be the market leader in the future, INSHALLAH. The customer numbers are growing every

month and this is an evidence of our attractive services, network coverage and satisfaction of our clientele.

Question: Being in Customer Services department is challenging you think?

Mr. Bari: Yes! But every job role has different challenges I would also say. Here we need to understand why customer service is challenging. This is because of the demanding job responsibilities that require you to behave in a certain manner all the

times; frequent customer contact and the working pattern of the department. However, people who join Afro or any other company in the customer service department certainly come with specialized skills too that enable them to handle this challenging role. Not only this, at Afro, we provide them with the necessary training as well to handle all aspects of customer services.

Question: how do you see employee engagement issue at Afro`s Customer service unit?

Mr. Bari: Customer service departments in all companies go through many criticalities due to the nature of the job and responsibilities. There is a great deal of understanding and patience required when you serve in this unit as there is frequent customer interaction which at times becomes very frustrating and psychologically draining.

Question: So, about Engagement? And how serious is that?

Mr. Bari: Yes, there is a major issue Afro is currently facing with regards to employee engagement. We over the past two quarters, had nearly 18 employees leaving from this department. Particularly from customer contact units across the country due to lack of engagement strategy. The issue is serious and becoming increasingly worrisome for Afro because such incidents often result in triple down effect.

Question: What are the reasons behind this chaotic situation?

Mr. Bari: Well, the HR department conducts exit interviews and they have informed us that mostly people are concerned about leadership involvement, working environment and long shifts at Afro. When I attended a few exit interviews last month and in fact one two weeks ago, I realized people had more issues with long working

shifts. I even asked the employees being interviewed (in the exit interview) that they were aware of the nature of the customer service job and the department responsibilities that it always operates in 'shifts pattern' everywhere. Then why did they decided to opt for jobs in this department and majority were unable to answer.

The reason why I am telling you this is that, I believe some people think it is easy to just speak to customers and handle some related queries but it is a different ball game all together and requires a lot of patience and energy. Parallel to this, I believe there is a lack of career orientation as well; some people don't really have a good idea what they are aiming for in their professional life.

However, this does not mean that I disagree to the existence of these issues at Afro but there could be, and certainly are other reasons too when it comes to employee engagement. It's a two-way thing.

Question: Is Afro considering employee concerns as well in its efforts towards resolving this issue of employee engagement in the customer service department.

Mr. Bari: Of course, there is no doubt about it. Things are under discussion with all domains of information ranging from company reports, managerial views, employee feedback and their concerns.

Discussion with Some Employees at Afro Customer Services:

Employees (five in total) of the company were also brought into the discussion through interviews from different customer service units of Afro across Bahrain. On general grounds, majority of the employees asserted working environment, long shifts and lack of leaders/managers` empathizing. Upon request for further explanation on leaders and managers, one employee said that ocassionally we have rude customers and managers do not intervene to support us. They are only concerned about the customers which disappoints us.

One employee also asserted the fact that Afro has more concern for the customers which is why we don't see much of a healthy working environment for the employees. the supportive teams are not here, and the managers are not ready to help us when

we need them for urgent issues back home if we have to leave early or go out of the workplace for a while.

With regards to long hours of shifts, mostly employees agreed to the fact that, Afro`s customer service department has long working hours and this the same in other companies in the telecommunications sector. The employees also agreed that they were well aware of this before joining the customer service department, but the issue is going severe because of high employee turnover. The employees explained that since there are many employees quitting from this department, the burden comes on our remaining employees and we end up working for long shifts with hardly one break in between to pray or eat.

The issue of employee engagement at Afro seems considerably serious. What seems to be of worry is that both management and employees are highlighting somehow similar causes of it but there has been not action taken till date. In addition, the management of Afro seems to be viewing this issue from other perspectives also which may take time for them to finalize a course of action for it.

1- What are the top three issues you will highlight that Afro is facing with regards to employee engagement separately from the perspective of management and employees? Justify your answers.

2- Based on your understanding of Employee Engagement, assume you are in charge to solve these problems, what are your solutions with justifications?