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Assessment - case study Regional Office of Large Telecom Company
The Challenge: A large Canadian telecommunications company was having difficulties at a regional office with 40 employees and 3 managers. This group had been having severe moral problems, high numbers of conflicts, union grievances and personality clashes over a period of 2 years. Factors adding complexity to the situation included language since half the group had English as their first language and half French, corporate culture differences since there had been a recent merger so that half were from an old established institution mindset and half from a fast, entrepreneurial growth mindset and labour relations, as the employees were members of a local of a large Canadian union.
The Response: An assessment was carried out in partnership with the human resources and labour relations department of the company and with backing and support from the company and union executive obtained in writing. Confidential and private interviews were held with the employees, all 3 managers and the union vice president. Interviews were conducted on site over a one week period after which the assessment report was developed. This report included 4 major groupings of issues from the interviews with comments included only if they came from multiple sources. The groupings included company success, union/management relationship, respectful communication and trust and clear roles/responsibilities. Comments were further identified as coming from either management or employees. The assessment also included a detailed plan for next suggested next steps. Suggestions included a series of facilitated group meetings to discuss the interview results and move toward solutions. The design of the meetings was to move from manager and employee only meetings, to small mixed group meetings to larger “final consensus” meetings. Consolidation from these consensus meetings and creation of a memorandum of understanding for sign off by all parties was to be done by the facilitators. A six month follow up survey was also included in the next steps.
The Results: The results of the assessment were a group very well prepared for the next steps identified. They felt heard on their key concerns. They had increased trust in the facilitators and increased understanding of the process. Some employees who did not initially intend on sharing information found themselves doing just that after the interviews began and the interviewers explained the process and demonstrated their genuine interest in the employee's story. The summary report from the interviews provided a detailed, easy to follow picture of how the organization was viewed by the participants including positive comments and concerns. The assessment also allowed for the appropriate series of next steps to be determined and communicated to all participants.
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