Challenges in Attracting and Retaining Workforce in Telecommunication Sector

This paper discusses the challenges faced by the human resource management team in attracting and retaining the workforce in the telecommunication sector. It explores issues related to job design, recruitment and selection, performance management, discrimination, and employee satisfaction. Recommendations are provided to address these challenges.

Human Resource Management
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Key challenges in attracting and retaining a workforce in
Telecommunication sector
The purpose of the paper is to identify the challenges in attracting and retaining the
workforce in Telecommunication sector. Human resource management team of the
telecommunication company takes the responsibility to manage the personnel present in the
market. It has been found that while performing the human resources practices the
telecommunication company deals with the several types of issues related to the attracting and
retaining the customers. The telecommunication industry is witnessing the exponential growth
and showing that there is no sign of the slowing down. This strategic growth in the
telecommunication companies can only take place because of the effective workforce due to
which the companies attract and retain the employees in the industry.
In the present era, most of the telecom companies are taking the support of the
recruitment as well as the talent management specialist because this allows them to determine the
needs of labour in the competitive market. This has been done by the human resources
management team of the companies because they deal with the different challenges related to the
attracting and recruiting the employees (Cook, 2015). In the research, this has been found that
telecommunication sectors generally known as the call centers due to which the average turnover
rate of the employees remain higher. The sort of work that is offered to the employees is one of
the reason due to which the companies are not able to attract the employees.
In the research article, this has been found that the change in the business environment
plays a vital role in the practice of the human resources as it leads to the effect on the
development of company. It is found that dynamic environment leads to the influence on the

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various HR practice, system, processes and strategies and their impact on changes in technology
and environmental change in the telecom sector. Thus, this presents the fact that says
development of technology in company affects the working of human resource (Razzaq, Aslam,
Bagh & Saddique, 2017). The issue that has been witnessed on the strategies, processes, and
system of the HR are discussed below in the form of the issues faced by them while performing
the operations.
Human resource management in telecommunication sector face the issue in attracting and
retaining the employees because of the job design (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). The job design
is one of the essential function of any of the company as it get relate to the method, content and
the relationship of jobs. In other words, job design major reflects the roles and responsibilities
that they need to perform at the workplace. In the telecommunication sector, the job design says
that the employees need to take the calls, they have the long hour shifts in which they need to
perform, there are not long leaves, and with this, they need to listen to the client for performing
the back office work. In most of the telecommunication they communicate for 24/7, customer
service that leads to the success of the company but it remains difficult for the human resource
management team to hire the employees for the night shift. This job design of the
telecommunication sector is one of the major factors due to which the employees are not able to
manage the work-life balance. Job design is one of major issue due to which HR team in
telecommunication sector will not be able to attract and retain the people (Khashman & Al-
Ryalat, 2015).
HR of the company finds it difficult to offers the work-life balance without affecting the
productivity as well as the efficiency. For example, the telecommunication company Vodaphone
who are offering 24/7 services to their customers recruit the employees who work for more than

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10 hours. This affects them, as they are not able to manage the work life in the effective manner.
In addition to this, the impact on the personal life will affect their working life due to which they
leave their job from the telecommunication sector. However, the company in the
telecommunication company tries to offer the overtime amount to the employees who are
working additionally for the customers (Safiullah, 2015). This additional amount is offered by
them so that they can retain the employees for the longer period but the job design affects the
employees due to which they are not willing to remain within the industry. It is suggested to the
human resource management team within the telecommunication industry to add duty in order to
care obligations as well as the flexitime requests and the job that is majorly of balancing the
needs and expectations related to the work life balance.
In the telecommunication section, the recruitment and selection of the employees is one
of the major challenges for the human resource team. It has been found that recruitment in the
telecommunication needs effective skills and knowledge related to the networks. The lack of
knowledge among the employees affects the recruitment as well as selection of the employees
(Boxall & Purcell, 2011). In addition to this, Telecommunication Company is looking for
experienced candidates but in the market, there are majorly youth who do not have skills. Thus,
this is the reason due to which the human resource team need to put extra efforts in searching for
the right candidate for them in the market with experience. The high turnover in the
telecommunication with the lack of work life balance affects the human resource team to attract
employees (Yadav, 2016). This is the reason due to which they always remain in the demand of
skilled and experienced employees. In addition to this, when the telecommunication companies
needs the employees they hire people with less skilled which leads to the high turnover because
they do not fit according to the culture of the company.

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The employees do not accept the culture of company leads to conflict among the managers and
new employees. This occurs because the views of the employees and managers vary a lot, as they
do not fit in the culture. This employee’s relation is again one of the issues of attracting and
retaining the employees in the telecommunication sector (Husain, 2018). The employee’s
relation with the superiors leads to conflict due to which they will not survive in the company
and leave the company. Thus, this leads to the rise in the employee turnover and companies face
the challenge in retaining the employees. For instance, one of the team members of
telecommunication operation team of TPG/iiNet has different views in handling the customer
complains. On the other hand, the manager might have different way of handling it. This issue
might affect the communication among the both which will directly influence the culture of the
organisation. This is the responsibility of the human resource management to manage the
effective culture of organisation (Boxall & Purcell, 2011). It is suggested to the human resource
management to conduct the group activity through which they can resolve the issues. Moreover,
they can conduct the one on one session in which the employees communicate with the
supervisors and they should listen to their employees in order to act according to it.
This high turnover of the company also creates the impact on the performance
management system of the human resource team in telecommunication sector. The performance
management is the process in which the telecommunication companies measure the performance
of the employees and accordingly they share the feedback for the future improvement areas. In
the telecommunication, there is presence of the high turnover of employees because the
employees of the company have less commitment towards their job (Cascio, 2018). This leads to
the issue for the human resource management in retaining the employees. It has been witnessed
that telecommunication industry does appraisal of their employees performance when they

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complete one year with the company. Although, this has been found that employees do not stay
for a year due to their appraisal gets affect. Further, it has been found that the employee who
stays in the company does not get the good appraisal because the company has fear that the
employees will not stay with them for long. In addition, they also think that in this amount they
can easily hire the other members who are skilled and can work effectively (Tooksoon,
2011).This affects the willingness of employees to stay within organisation and they leave the
organisation due to which the employee’s turnover will increase.
Moreover, this has been found that the employees who leave the company have the
opinions about the company and they comment on the performance appraisal system due to
which the labour market gets affected. The reputation of the telecommunication companies will
affect the attraction and retention of the company (Management Study Guide, 2019). It has been
found that no candidate is willing to work with the company who is not able to take care of their
employees. Thus, this lead to the issue for the human resource management team because they
do not get skilled and talented employees who likes to work with the telecommunication
company. The recommendations to the human resource management are that they should
consider the performance of the employees and should appraise a good amount because this
helps them in attracting the good crowd (Lewin, 2015).
Adding to this, the author presented that labour market is one of the emerging reason due
to which the humane resource management team in telecommunication are not able to find the
best candidate because every labour demand for more amount that is not possible to be paid by
telecommunication companies because they have their own set standards (Barak, 2016). In
addition, the rise in the competition among the telecommunication companies gives the
opportunity to the other candidates due to which they switch the job on the frequent basis. For

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instance; an candidate looking for the job in the market gets an package more than $1200 a
month in Optus but at the same time the other company Vodaphone offers $1500 then the
candidate would select the second option. This creates the impact on the labour market because
the other candidates available at the place will also demand for it.
In the research, this has been found that the high turnover of the people in the company
also occurs because of the discrimination and diversity within the telecommunication industry.
This discrimination has been witnessed in the organisations in terms of hiring and selecting the
employees in telecommunication industry because companies are looking for the people with
high experience (Barak, 2016). In addition to this, it has been found that in telecommunication
industry there is presence of high number of males comparing it with the females. Thus, this
clearly witnessed that there is discrimination that occurs as one of the issue due to which the
companies are not able to recruit and select the employees. It has been found that
telecommunication also discriminate in terms of age while hiring the employees as it has been
found that they prefer adults with the experience. This means that neither they hire the people
with youth age that is approx. 15-22 years nor they hire the people with 45+. Thus, this leads to
very less scope for the Human resource manager because they left with very less option that
leads to the issue at the time of hiring and selecting the employees. It is suggested to the HR
team of the company to consider the employees who are skilled and can perform the work
irrespective of any other element.
In the dynamic environment, the human resource of the telecommunication company
ensures that they are able to conduct the human resource planning. This human resource
planning is considered as one of the processes that majorly determine the requirements of the
human resource within the organisation to meet the goals and objectives (Armstrong and Taylor,

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2014). It has been found that within the telecommunication companies human resource
management of organisation ensure that they conduct the proper planning which include the
number of employees they are willing to hire. This human resource planning also includes the
identification of the skill set that are required within the candidates so that they can get fit in the
organisation (Alnidawy, 2015). The effective planning of the human resource resolves the
different issues that are faced by them in the market. The HR planning is considered as one of
the essential step towards the future that can contribute in bringing the improvement in the
system of attracting and retaining the employees.
The employee’s satisfaction is one of the major factors that lead to challenges for human
resources management of telecommunication in attracting and retaining the employees. Every
employee who is working in the organisation works to get the satisfaction that comes when their
needs get accomplished by the companies (Alnidawy, 2015). It has been found that different
employee work for various needs that include the rewards, compensation, promotion, basic
needs, and many others. These needs of the employees can be understood with the help of the
Maslow’s hierarchy needs that define the needs of the employees in the different terms. Thus,
when the needs of the people remained unfulfilled then they do not get satisfied. The
dissatisfaction of the employees forces them to leave the job due to which the retention rate
reduces. HR who deals with the challenges works in order to bring the strategies that can
improve the condition of the workplace. In the telecommunication sector, the employees do not
get satisfy switch their job and work in different segment.
In the overall analysis, this has been witnessed that human resource management plays a
vital role in the attracting and retaining the employees in the telecommunication sector. The
attracting and retaining the employees within the telecommunication sector is one of the major

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practice but this leads to the challenge for the company in the competitive environment. In the
telecommunication sector, the major issue that has been witnessed include job design, work life
balance that are related with the job design, recruitment and selection, performance management,
discrimination and diversity, employee satisfaction and many others. Further, the research also
includes the ways through which the HR can resolve these emerging issues at the workplace. The
analysis includes the strategies that are followed by them in the market to reduce the issues of the
key attraction and retention of the employees.

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