Developing People

This report proposes a learning and development plan for Red Telecom to address challenges faced during the implementation of RISE initiatives. The plan focuses on communication and skills development of team leaders and diversity in team management.

Running head: DEVELOPING PEOPLE
Developing People
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The following report is particularly performed on learning and development plan for
maintaining diversity and achievement RISE’s objectives in Red Telecom. The major
purpose of the report is analyse the existing group intentions to implementation of RISE and
form a learning and development plan. The existing workplace scenario at Red indicates that
to gain positive outcome from Red’s inclusive strategy 2020, there are some structural change
in some department which leads to imbalance diversity and apprehension among the staff. To
address these challenges, suitable learning and development plan has been proposed which
focuses on communication and skills development of team leaders and diversity in team
management.

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Table of Content
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
2. Literature Review...................................................................................................................4
3. Methodology..........................................................................................................................6
4. Expected Research outcome..................................................................................................6
5. Conclusion and Recommendation..........................................................................................7

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1. Introduction
This report in the form a proposal is based on the learning and development programs
against the challenges that Red Telecom presently face when implementing the RISE
initiatives. The purpose of the proposal is to analyse the existing group interventions to the
implementation of RISE and design a learning and development program for addressing
training needs and other significant barriers in workplace (Nevala et al., 2015). The plan is
aligned to the aims of General Managers who are involved in the implementation of RISE.
Significance of preparing a learning and development plan lies in the fact existing issues
about training needs and team management and imbalance in diversity will further deteriorate
Red’s overall performance. Thus, to achieve the objectives of Red’s inclusive strategy 2020,
a learning and development plan must be developed.
Background
The multinational enterprise Red Telecom provides business and residential
customers with a comprehensive range of mixed and fixed line broadband and voice services.
As part of a strategic refresh intended enhance outcomes and service for a range of a
stakeholders Red launched a diversity and inclusion initiative known as RISE which aim at
defining diversity. RISE increases to enhance diversity within organization’ workforce by
meeting specific targets such as increase women’ representation particularly in senor
leadership roles from 11% to 25% and increase rate across LGBTIQ representation in
workplace and changes in some other areas. When implementing the initiatives Customer
Resolution Department had to undergo a restructure in which the whole team moved to
Australian Call Centre that depends on several works teams. However, in doing so, the
challenges that are found are employees are feeling stressed and overburdened as well as
there is a diversity imbalance in each team. Thus, to resolve these challenges, Red’s business

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is in the need of a suitable analysed report which must identifies the stated challenges and
develop a suitable learning and development plan. So, this proposal states how the report
should be prepared and what outcomes can be gained with respect to learning and
development program.
Scope
This proposed development plan include a detailed analysis of the issues including the
diversity imbalance in teams, stress and excessive workload on staff, apprehension among
staff regarding the implementation of RISE, lack of coordination among workers due to poor
communication practices and many others. A detailed analysis of the issues have been
presented with theories of management and HR department. The report includes a review of
existing papers performed on diversity management and human resources practices.
However, as the report is based on a case study, analysis also includes primary data and
primary method of data collection and analysis.
2. Literature Review
A performed a study and mentioned that a diverse and inclusive workforce group
could to drive the creation and implementation of new products, business process and
services. The author of this study has mentioned that investing in workforce diversity
contributes to enhanced economic and as well as social performance, effective application to
demographic as well as organizational change. Urbancova, Cermmkova and Vostrovska
(2016) performed a study and mentioned that in order to reap the benefits of diverse
workforce, the business needs to promote as well as evaluate diversity at the team level. It is
certain that multicultural teams provides a great range of advantages with the inclusion of
better adaptability, as well as higher innovation potentials as knowledge of multiple product

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market enhances potential for a service range and culturally more sensitive customer service
(Baker & Kelan, 2015).
On the other side,Mahon and CJM Millar (2014) performed a study on diversity and
inclusion and when it comes to profitability from diversity, and mentioned that for a business
to gain profits from diversity of thought of its diverse workforce, some specific conceptual
factors should come together include the commitment to diversity development process by
employees and top management. The factors such as promotion of diversity and support
companywide structure and process. Mushtaq, Haider and Khan (2015) mentioned about a
factor which is development and training of workforce’s cross cultural competencies as well
as conflict management skills. It is identified that without essential organizational framework,
intercultural training, and support, a diverse team might have difficulties in becoming a
cohesive, innovative and productive team unit. Hanifet al., (2014) mentioned about the
following conceptual steps aligned with a suitable learning and development plan to gain
positive outcome from diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Selection of a cross culturally competent team leader: As put forward by Kemp and
Madsen (2014), in order to lead a multicultural team effectively require competencies that go
effectively beyond the technical knowledge as well as leadership qualities as required. In
order to become an effective leader of a multi-cultural team an increasing level of cultural
flexibility, robust ambiguity tolerance and decreasing level of ethnocentrism
Selection of team members: A team leader who already has the significance
proficiency of cross culture can select the member on the basis of a particular criteria
associated to team’s target population (Manutiet al.,2015).
Learning about the differences: While team members might have similar education,
professional experiences and work role in the same sector but still there are significant

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differences to be discovered between team members. This could lead to creative and
significant ideas and eventually influence the quality of team performance (Cha, Park & Lee,
2014). For instance, a big American Telecom firm increased sales as well as retention of
consumers calling to Brazil based on the brief of its South American team members.
Members explained that Brazilians prefer to take their time talking to friends and family back
home. Consequently, organization lowered the call rate but still increased its gain due to
longer call time.
Communication: Selecting adequate communication channels as well as cooperation
persistently are necessary for local as well as virtual teams. It is necessary to identify which
tools fits framework and methods of work in team (Wilson, 2014). As people know, keeping
a clear flow of communication without any sort of conflict could be challenging and the
difficulties increase multiple vocabularies are used in the field of an international team. Thus,
it is highly important to the relevant rules of communication such as communication with
positive attitude and one should be clear about what he/she is addressing (Curtis et al., 2013).
3. Methodology
The proposed development plan will include a detailed analysis of the background of
diversity and inclusion, making of learning and development plan includes research reports
containing real-world facts about diversity and inclusion and team management. The data
will be collected from reliable secondary sources such as organizational reports of MNCs,
team development plans used by other businesses, corporate norms of diversity management,
etc. The collected data will be analysed with the existing data finding of previous studies. On
the other side, primary data will be collected by performing a survey among the employees of
Customer Resolution Department and General Manager.

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4. Expected Research outcome
The research will help to learn whether workplace diversity contributes to firm’s
success. Red Telecom is in the need of diversity and inclusion initiatives to establish a
diverse culture where both the number of female and male workers in managerial positions
should be equal. The study will reveal how the organization can develop the measures against
system of flexible working hours, procedures of dealing with the complaints and making sure
the work safety are among the most frequent measures. Learning and development plan will
determine how General Managers’ decision making-system and information that might help
to enable the degree to which goals in the area of equal opportunities should contribute to
productive work on the parts of managers (Braun et al., 2013). In addition to this, emphasis
should be recommended on the development of employees and awareness-raising in the given
areas, in the scope of which firm could utilize training in the field of Customer Resolution
Department, programs on multi-cultural skills, leadership and managerial skills as well as
possibilities of stimulating staff. On the other side, findings of existing studies summarize
that diversity of human resources which should be managed by good interpersonal skills
helping business to adjust faster as well as better to their customers, meet their needs as well
as support human resource branding (Bogers, Foss & Lyngsie, 2018).
When making a restructure in Customer Resolution Department, the transition should
be transparent and organization needs to follow the norms of creating equality in staff
management. It is certain that multicultural team like every other team requires room and
time to know each other, experiment and form trust. The business also needs to generate
room for the “diversity of thoughts”, multi-cultural teams required to find the balance
between time-verified practices as well as development of core ideas.

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5. Conclusion and Recommendation
In conclusion, it is worth mentioning that significance of a diverse workforce is
unmeasurable, as equality in the workforce always lead to a productivity unit. In developing
and maintaining diversity and inclusion, team members should commit completely to the
technique as well as intended to exceed beyond their comfort zone and if it happens and
diverse team provides each member an opportunity to bring his/her professional and personal
expertise and to be recognized for it. Nonetheless, on the basis of analysis and expected
outcomes, the following suggestions have been developed which should be further
implemented. The areas needing development is:
 The inability of some General Managers to manage diversity directly because of the
nature of business and its effectiveness
 Managers and supervisors in the Customer Resolution Department do not have
adequate knowledge regarding how to manage workforce effectively.
 It is also identified that there is a lack of open communication between managers and
employees. So, establishment of communication will help team members and
managers to address the complaints about not receiving information and support from
the team leaders.
While managers should be positive about the existence as well as execution of diversity and
inclusion. Culture mentoring is one of the significant ways to orient manager and employees
both existing as well as new people cope up with working environment and their
responsibilities. In addition to this, managers need to be prepared to change some significant
part of Red Telecom’s existing team management techniques, particularly when diversity
management process adopted are no more effective but before doing so, the division for the
change could be communicated adequately.

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References
Baker, D.T. & Kelan, E.K., (2015). Diversity management in the workplace. Managing
Diversity and Inclusion: An International Perspective, p.78.
Bogers, M., Foss, N. J., & Lyngsie, J. (2018). The “human side” of open innovation: The role
of employee diversity in firm-level openness. Research Policy, 47(1), 218-231.
Braun, S., Peus, C., Weisweiler, S., & Frey, D. (2013). Transformational leadership, job
satisfaction, and team performance: A multilevel mediation model of trust. The
Leadership Quarterly, 24(1), 270-283.
Cha, M., Park, J. G., & Lee, J. (2014). Effects of team member psychological proximity on
teamwork performance. Team performance management, 20(1/2), 81-96.
Curtis, J. R., Back, A. L., Ford, D. W., Downey, L., Shannon, S. E., Doorenbos, A. Z., ... &
Arnold, R. W. (2013). Effect of communication skills training for residents and nurse
practitioners on quality of communication with patients with serious illness: a
randomized trial. Jama, 310(21), 2271-2281.
F. Mahon, J. & CJM Millar, C., (2014). ManAGEment: the challenges of global age diversity
for corporations and governments. Journal of organizational change management,
27(4), pp.553-568.
Hanif, M.I., Shao, Y., Ziaullah, M. & Hanif, M.S., (2014). Role of Talent Management,
Diversity Trainings and HRD on Effective Implementation of HR Practices in
Telecom Sector in Pakistan. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on
Management Science and Engineering Management (pp. 761-770). Springer, Berlin,
Heidelberg.

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Kemp, L.J. & Madsen, S.R., (2014). Oman's labour force: an analysis of gender in
management. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 33(8),
pp.789-805..
Manuti, A., Pastore, S., Scardigno, A.F., Giancaspro, M.L. & Morciano, D., (2015). Formal
and informal learning in the workplace: a research review. International journal of
training and development, 19(1), pp.1-17.
Mushtaq, A., Haider, N. & Khan, M., (2015). Work Force Diversity as a Source of
Innovation in context of Telecom sector in Pakistan. Journal of Business and
Management Research, 8, pp.205-216.
Nevala, N., Pehkonen, I., Koskela, I., Ruusuvuori, J., & Anttila, H. (2015). Workplace
accommodation among persons with disabilities: a systematic review of its
effectiveness and barriers or facilitators. Journal of occupational rehabilitation, 25(2),
432-448.
Urbancová, H., Čermáková, H. & Vostrovská, H., (2016). Diversity Management in the
Workplace. ActaUniversitatisAgriculturaeetSilviculturaeMendelianaeBrunensis,
64(3), pp.1083-1092.
Wilson, J.P., (2014). International human resource development: Learning, education and
training for individuals and organisations. Development and Learning in
Organizations, 28(2).

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Appendix
Objectives Resources/strategies Evidence of
achievement
Target
dates
Criteria for
evaluation
Progress
I will improve my
skill of critical
analysis and
implementation of
the literatures in
the study in more
effective manner.
In addition, I will
also learn about
how to use quality
and authentic
research paper in
doing the
assignment. There
are certain criteria
that should be
considered in using
the authentic data
and information
and I will learn this
ability about how
Required resources
for mine will be the
assistances from the
professors and
external guidance.
There are numbers of
handbooks and
workshops available,
which can help me in
attaining my
objectives. These
workshops will help
me to gain practical
experiences in doing
research study in
most accurate
manner. On the other
hand, the guidance of
my professor will
help to identify the
areas of
I will gain
the ability to
use the most
authentic
resources in
my study. In
addition, I
can now
relate the
information
in the
resources
with that of
my topic and
what I am
researching. I
will be able
to select the
best articles
from
different
8 months Explaining
about the
importance
of managing
the
diversified
workforce
with
considering
different
communities
equally.
These learning
objectives will be
completed within
the given
timeframe along
with utilizing the
required resources.
This will help to
conclude about
why the
communication
skill of the
managers is
important in
managing the
employees.
Importance of skill
development for
the managers can
also be concluded.

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to meet these
standards or
benchmarks.
improvement and
further development.
sources.