AHRI Work Based Report: Telstra Corporation Limited Analysis

This work-based report examines the strategic HR practices of Telstra Corporation Limited, focusing on the absence of a strategic workforce plan and its impact on the organization and key stakeholders. The report provides an overview of Telstra's HR department, its responsibilities, and its internal and external analysis. It identifies legislative risks and gaps in the current HR strategy, proposing a business case for an initiative to address these issues. The initiative involves building a global database to identify talent and requirements. The report details the benefits, assumptions, constraints, and risks associated with the proposed initiative, along with a suggested implementation method and timeframe. Finally, the report offers recommendations for Telstra to improve its HR strategic planning and enhance alignment with organizational objectives. The report highlights the importance of clear communication, stakeholder engagement, and the development of a comprehensive strategic workforce plan for the company's success.

Running head: WORK BASED REPORT
Work Based Report on Telstra Corporation Limited
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary...............................................................................................................2
2. Introduction and Background.................................................................................................3
3. Overview of the Organizational Department with its Impact and Key Stakeholder Groups.3
4. Proposed Initiative for addressing Legislative Risk and Desired Objective or Outcome......5
5. Benefits of the Proposed Initiative.........................................................................................7
6. Assumptions and Constraints of the Proposed Initiative.......................................................9
7. Risks to the Proposed Initiative..............................................................................................9
8. Proposed Implementation Technique and Method and Timeframe.....................................10
9. Conclusion and Key Findings..............................................................................................11
10. Recommendations..............................................................................................................12
11. Reference List....................................................................................................................13
12. Appendices.........................................................................................................................15
Appendix A..........................................................................................................................15
Appendix B..........................................................................................................................15

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1. Executive Summary
The major objective of the report is to understand about strategic HR as well as its significant
strategies in the HR department of Telstra Corporation Limited. It is the most important and
popular telecommunications company for building and operating market voices,
telecommunication network, and pay off television, access to internet, mobile access as well
as any other service or product. Strategic HR management focuses on recruitment and hiring
of the best staff for providing them with benefits, training and development and
compensation that are required for making an organization successful. Strategic HRM
undertakes all types of responsibilities after alignment with the objectives of every distinctive
department and organizational goal. The organizational strategies are a measurable, specified
and obtainable collection of plans for involvement of several stakeholders. There are several
policies, decisions and actions, which guide any group towards the goals and vision of that
particular company. This report has properly described about strategic work force plan for the
organization of Telstra Corporation Limited with various details like impact on organization
and key stakeholder groups, proposed initiative as well as its desired outcome or objective,
advantages and probable risks of the initiative. Moreover, proposed implementation method
as well as timeframe for that initiative is also given here. The final part of the report provides
three distinctive recommendations for Telstra.

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2. Introduction and Background
Strategic planning could be stated as an organizational activity of management, which
is being used to set priorities, to focus on resource or energy, to strengthen operations and
finally ensuring that the employees or other stakeholder is eventually working towards
common objectives, establishment of agreement for the intended results or outcomes and
finally assessing or adjusting organizational direction (Faculty of Business and Economics.
2012). Strategy mainly describes process of goals would be obtained by several distinctive
resources. The oldest leadership of any company is usually tasked with proper determination
of strategies and even as the pattern of activity. Strategy is responsible for including major
processes of formulation as well as implementation and hence helping in coordinating both.
This type of planning is extremely analytical and strategy formation includes synthesis
through strategy based thinking.
Telstra Corporation Limited builds as well as operates the telecommunication
networks, internet accessibility, mobile, market voice, pay television as well as any other
services and products. This following report will be outlining a detailed discussion on the
absence of human resource strategic approach for getting aligned to every organizational
strategic objective. The impact of lack of HR strategies on Telstra and its key stakeholder
groups would be provided in this report. Moreover, an initiative would be proposed and
benefits as well as risks related to that particular initiative will also be given here with a
proposed implementation method and timeframe. The final part of the report will be
providing few suitable recommendations to the organization of Telstra.
3. Overview of the Organizational Department with its Impact and Key Stakeholder
Groups
Telstra is the largest and the most popular organizations within Australia and they
have been giving services to their customers for last 47 years. The average revenue of the
company last year was 26 billion Australian dollars and that of operation income was 6.3
billion Australian dollars. More than 40000 employees are working in the organization and
they have always focused on their unique leadership style. Hence it has been extremely
common for them to maintain a subsequent organizational structure. The human resources
department of this popular organization is responsible for functioning within the company for
dealing with various people and issues that are solely related to organizational members like
recruitment of people, performance management, organizational development, organizational

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culture, on boarding of employees and many more (Noe et al. 2012). The entire work force,
economy and business sector of Telstra is being managed by the human resource department
and it has a narrower effect on economic growth and embody of individuals. People, labour,
talent, personnel and manpower are being included in the human resource department and
hence it is quite vital to ensure that several features of employment such as labour law and
employment standard are completely compliant with administration of the employee benefits
as well as few other characteristics of recruitment.
The major responsibilities of human resource are for pertaining to the job. The duties
of HR department in Telstra have the major charges including effective planning, recruitment
or selection process, evaluation of employee performance, posting advertisements for jobs,
organizing job applications and resumes and even scheduling interviews for their candidates
(Cascio 2015). The other significant responsibilities of human resources include benefits
administration and payroll for dealing with ensuring vacation or any other leaves so that it
becomes easier in ensuring that the current databases and HR files regarding maintenance of
employee benefits and performance of payroll or benefit related reconciliations.
i) Internal Analysis: The most significant and important activities of human resource
manager in Telstra Corporation Limited majorly include determination of staff requirements,
determination of utilization of temporary staff regarding filling of the needs, recruitment or
training of the best employees, supervision of the work, management of employee relations,
collective bargaining and unions, preparation of personal policies and employee records,
ensuring high performances, management of employee payrolls, benefits and compensation,
ensuring equal prospects, dealing with major discriminations as well as performance issues,
pushing employee motivation, dissemination of information for providing better benefits and
mediation of disputes internally (Armstrong and Taylor 2014) (See Appendix A).
The entire department of human resources eventually help the other staff in
developing their interpersonal skills for being extremely effective in nature. The
organizational behaviour hence focuses on process of improving the factors to be effective.
Personnel administration of the company majorly focused on aspects of compensating,
training, evaluating and even hiring of employees (DeCenzo, Robbins and Verhulst 2016).
However, the management did not emphasize on any of the employment relationships within
organizational performance level or even on systematic relationship in any party.

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There is a distinctive effect of HR management on the key stakeholders of Telstra
Corporation Limited. The major stakeholders of this specific organization affect the overall
growth of the company and virtually every individual or business to which this organization
has a link and the people in the surrounding community are being termed as the stakeholders
in the projects of HR. The primary stakeholders of this company include direct beneficiaries
like employees who are receiving a raise as the human resources have revised the
organizational compensation structure (Noe et al. 2015). The secondary or indirect
stakeholders subsequently derive major benefits from the human resource projects like
neighbouring businesses gaining profits from the other organization.
Owners of Telstra comprise of a significant effect on overall management of the HR
department. The workforce productivity is required to be improved as it comprises of a
positive impact over the organizational profits. Since the company is eventually publicly
traded, these distinctive shareholders are those stakeholders, who are responsible for
organizational profitability increments similar to the stock. For the human resource project, it
is incomplete to fulfil the objectives and the reverse effect comprises of an effect over
respective business owners. The staff of the company work for improving work processes and
providing workplace structure to increase the skills of organizational workforce (Budhwar
and Debrah 2013). The other stakeholders of the organization are community and insurance
companies. As Telstra is a significant organization in the world, it is extremely important for
them to involve human resource department and strategies in a better manner. However, the
HR department of Telstra Corporation Limited is unable to provide with significant and
effective strategies and they are facing some of the most significant issues in their business.
4. Proposed Initiative for addressing Legislative Risk and Desired Objective or
Outcome
ii) External Analysis: Although Telstra Corporation Limited is providing few of the
distinctive products as well as services to its clients, the lack of human resource strategies has
always been a major issue for their success (See Appendix B). This type of lack of HR
strategies has also given rise to several issues related to legal factors and have given rise to
legislative risks or threats. Since federal laws are extremely helpful in ensuring that job
applicants and employees are being treated fairly and no discriminated under any
circumstance (Chelladurai and Kerwin 2018). Job placement, training and hiring of the
employees should be completely unbiased and promotion and compensation decisions should
be on the basis of performances. Such distinctive laws are helpful for the employees and are

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managed by HR department. A similar situation is being faced by Telstra in their business.
Due to lack of HR strategic planning, the various laws of governing wages, pensions as well
as unemployment compensations are not being followed properly in the organization, hence
giving rise to some of the core and distinctive issues prevailing amongst the employees. If the
strategy is broken, it is the responsibility of a leader to communicate the priority to have a
functional strategic plan (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung 2016). An effective strategy is
required for targeting the organizational function’s main point and making a commitment to
incorporate the points in strategy.
One of the major reason for the issue of strategic planning is that there are several
stakeholders in the company. Being, the largest telecommunications organization in
Australia, it is extremely common for them that they have numerous stakeholders in the
business. They are unable to identify their problems and hence proper tools are required for
learning about the costly delays and utilization of valuable resources for figuring it out. The
major issues identified for this cause are as follows:
i) Inaccessible or Unclear Strategy: This is the first and the foremost issue that is
being identified for strategic planning in Telstra. They have an inaccessible or unclear
strategy and hence the employees have problems for not having clear as well as accessible
strategies in their work (Brewster 2017). Moreover, roles of every department is not easily
understood with such unclear strategy.
ii) Poor Communication Channels for the Strategy: The second issue that is
identified for lack of strategic planning in Telstra is poor communication channels for their
HR strategy. The employees of the organization require to realize the reason of execution of a
strategy and thus it is extremely important to involve effective communication channels for
the strategy. Better communication channels are important for getting point access and
making clear to the employees.
iii) Failure in Incorporation of Interests of all stakeholders to the Strategy: The
third issue is that there is a failure of incorporation of interests of every stakeholder to the
respective HR strategy. One of the most significant documents in the strategic planning
starter kit would be a survey of strategic planning for asking the team.
A significant proposal of initiative for resolving the lack of HR strategic issue faced in
Telstra Corporation Limited would be building a global database for knowing about the
requirement and existing talents in the respective organization (Renwick, Redman and

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Maguire 2013). The most suitable tool towards a globalized HR policy should be a global
database as the multinational organizations comprise of extra strategic posts subsequently
scattered within the world and should observe over career developments of several managers.
In spite of the fact that several multinational organizations in Australia have been compiling
their respective HR databases for bringing higher profits in the business. Global database is a
business intelligence provider that is being created for helping the organizations and
businesses from the entire world with company financial information, insights over
technological innovation as well as advance and business leads that are used by the
organization.
For ensuring that the organization is growing, Telstra Corporation Limited should
check for the proper talent to build their global database. The global HR manager’s strategic
feature eventually reaches to career moves of a third group of people, who are serving in a
specified region or group. Skills and cultural ties are required to be determined effectively
with this particular initiative of global database. After proper analysis of external and internal
environments of Telstra, it is being observed that they require effective human resource
strategies to resolve the consisting issues within the organization (Aswathappa 2013). A
proper planning is required for successful implementation of this particular initiative.
5. Benefits of the Proposed Initiative
The initiative that is being proposed to the organization of Telstra Corporation
Limited regarding their issue of lack of human resource strategic management or planning is
implementation of a global database within the business. Since, they are focusing on
telecommunication products and services, a new global database of the talent would be
providing them with the best solutions and they would be able to make proper and effective
human resource strategies without much issue or complexity. The major benefits that Telstra
would be getting from the proposed initiative of global database are as follows:
i) Improvement in Data Sharing: The first important advantage that Telstra would be
getting is improvement in sharing of data. This particular database would serve as an
intermediary between the database of the company and the human resource managers. Data
accessing would be effortless and database would receive every application request before
translating them into complex operations of the company, needed to fulfil the requests
(Jackson, Schuler and Jiang 2014). Telstra would be able to hide the internal complexity of
the entire human resource department, hence providing support to the employees and

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customers. Moreover, Telstra would also be able to respond quickly to the changes within
their respective environment.
ii) Improved Data Security: The second vital as well as significant advantage that
Telstra would be getting from the initiative is improved data security. Being the largest
telecommunications company within Australia, it is highly needed for Telstra to maintain
data security on top priority and the more users access the confidential data, the greater the
higher threats of data security breaches (Storey 2014). Telstra should invest considerable
amounts of money, effort and time for making sure that the corporate data are being utilized
perfectly. The global database initiative would be providing a framework for successful
enforcement of data security and privacy policies and procedures. This particular benefit
would be quite effective for the organization for better execution of their strategies and
planning of human resources.
iii) Better and Effective Data and Departmental Integration: Another important and
distinctive advantage that Telstra would be getting from the initiative is better and effective
data integration. A wide access to the well managed data eventually promotes an integrated
overview of the entire organizational operations as well as a clear view of the HR department
and its strategies of Telstra (Alfes et al. 2013). Moreover, the entire department of human
resources would be sub divided into several parts, so that it becomes quite easy for the human
resources manager to execute the project in a better manner. This type of departmental
integration is also effective for identification of the gaps and challenges present in the
organization.
iv) Minimization of Strategy Inconsistency: The fourth important and noteworthy
benefit that Telstra would be getting from the initiative of global database is minimization of
inconsistency in organizational strategies. This particular issue is quite common for Telstra as
they have numerous departments in their organization. The human resources department,
sales department, marketing department and manufacturing department have to make
separate decisions and thus the organizational managers have to focus on effective and
efficient specification of properly designed database. This type of strategy inconsistency is
required to be reduced and with the help of incorporation of global database, Telstra would be
able to minimize such issues without much complexity.
v) Improvement in Data Access: This is yet another important and significant
advantage that Telstra would be getting from the initiative of global database. The entire

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accessing of confidential or sensitive data would be much more improvised and they would
not face any issue regarding data manipulation (Purce 2014). An effective data access could
result into improved decision making skills. Telstra would be able to generate better quality
information and decisions would be perfect.
6. Assumptions and Constraints of the Proposed Initiative
The major assumptions and constraints of the proposed initiative of global database
implementation within Telstra Corporation Limited are given below:
i) Better Optimization: The first as well as the foremost constraint of the proposed
initiative that can be assumed is better optimization. It is extremely common that the
initiative might not provide proper optimization, hence leading to the issue of strategic
management to a greater level (Brewster et al. 2016). This specific constraint is extremely
common for the organization as there could be major issues such as lack of strategic
management.
ii) Validation of Strategy: The second constraint of the proposed initiative that can be
assumed for Telstra Corporation Limited would be validation of strategies. The strategies of
the organization should be both validates and verified before bringing more effectiveness to
the business. Without such proper validation, it is extremely common that the organization
might face a major issue in the business. To complete strategy and data validation, the human
resources managers should focus on their new planning and process to complete that planning
in the most effective manner (Albrecht et al. 2015). This specific constraint could easily bring
out few significant difficulties for Telstra and hence it could become a major reason for the
failure or loss of the company.
7. Risks to the Proposed Initiative
Although, there exists some of the major and the most significant benefits of the
proposed initiative of global database for Telstra Corporation Limited, there are few risks as
well that are required to be considered for proper solutions. These risks to the proposed
initiative are given below:
i) Increased Expenses: This is the first and the foremost risk that can occur in the
proposed initiative of global database. Telstra will have to think about the extra costs that
might be incurred due to this new system and the database systems would need proper
software and hardware as well as highly skilled and trained personnel, which is the major

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requirement (Nickson 2013). The expenses to maintain personnel, constraint of the proposed
initiative that can be assumed software and hardware are needed for operation and
management of the database, hence turning it to substantial. Moreover, costs of regulation
compliance, licensing and training are being overlooked whenever these strategies are
implemented.
ii) Complexity in Management: The second risk that is common to the proposed
initiative of global database is complexity in management. The respective systems interface
with several different technologies, hence having a major impact over organizational culture
and resources. The various changes could be easily introduced by the successful
implementation of the database system, thus ensuring that they are helping in advancing the
organizational objectives (Paillé et al. 2014). The several issues related to security should be
assessed constantly.
iii) Maintenance of Currency: The third risk that is common to the proposed
initiative of global database would be maintenance of currency. For the purpose of
maximizing the efficiency of global database, it is important to keep the system working.
Thus, Telstra should perform the frequent updates before applying the latest patches or
security measurements to every component. A heavy investment within personnel training
and technology should be presented by Telstra, which can be quite difficult for their business
and management of profits.
iv) Frequency in Up Gradation: The fourth distinctive and noteworthy risk that is
common to the proposed initiative of global database would be frequency in the up gradations
or replacement cycles (Kehoe and Wright 2013). The products of Telstra are needed to be
upgraded periodically, however this could turn out to be a major problem for them as new
features are needed to be bundled in the new upgrade versions of the strategies and HR
manager has to consider them.
8. Proposed Implementation Technique and Method and Timeframe
Few important and significant fundamentals of the subsequent process might be
uninterrupted and others might be accomplished as subsequent discrete project with the most
definitive starting and finishing point during a specific time. This type of planning eventually
gives inputs for effective strategic thinking that provides guidance formation of actual
strategy and the efforts involve proper evaluation of organizational mission and strategic
issues for the core purpose of strengthening current practices and determining requirement of

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new programming. The end result would be the organizational strategy after inclusion of an
analysis of this specific environment or competitive condition. It is a guiding strategy, over
which the company has the intention to accomplish as well as action plans or key initiatives
to achieve the major goals and objectives.
The process or technique for the successful implementation of the proposed initiative
of global database can be completed in few steps, which are as follows:
i) Construction of a Mobility Pyramid: The first step is constructing a subsequent
mobility pyramid. This is required for making a sequential execution of the entire process
without much complexity. The time required for this step is 1 week.
ii) Identification of Capital: The second step is identification of leadership capital.
This step is needed for understanding whether Telstra is utilizing its resources properly or
not. A proper budget is to be made and the time required for this step is 5 days.
iii) Proper Assessment of the Gaps in Bench Strengths and Skills: The third step is
evaluation of major strengths and skills gap (Crawford 2014). Telstra should identify the
skills and talent of its personnel and requirement for its business. The time required for this
step is 2 weeks.
iv) Proper Recruitment: As soon as requirement has been identified, recruitment
should be started. Time required for this step is 1 month.
v) Advertisement Internally: To complete global database, Telstra should advertise its
need internally and this could be done within 1 week.
vi) Succession Planning: Final step is succession planning, in which global database
is being implemented successfully and time required is 1 month.
9. Conclusion and Key Findings
Therefore, conclusion could be drawn that strategic planning is referred to a technique
and hence has major outcomes, outputs, activities and inputs. This particular process
comprises of few constraints and it might be either informal or formal and would be iterative
in nature with the respective feedback loop in the entire procedure. The formulation of the
competitive strategies include better considering of four important components of
organizational strengths as well as weaknesses, personal valuation of every key implementer,
industry chances and risks and finally broad societal expectation. The very first two

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components mainly associate to the aspects that are internal in the organization, while the
third and fourth components relate to the aspects that are external in the company. Such
elements are eventually considered all over the procedure of strategic plan.
There is a wide variety of analytical techniques and tools, being utilized in strategic
plan and these tools are being established by the organizations as well as management
consultation firms for helping to give a proper framework regarding strategic plan. The most
significant tools of strategic planning majorly involves PESTEL analysis, planning of
scenario, five forces’ analyses of Porter, SWOT analysis, strategy maps, balanced scorecard
and responsive evaluations. This above report has clearly featured a detailed description on
strategic planning for Telstra. An initiative of global database of HR strategies is being
proposed for Telstra regarding their issue of lack of HR strategies in the business. Moreover,
several significant benefits and risks related to that specific initiative are also described in this
report with relevant justifications.
10. Recommendations
The recommendations for Telstra are as follows:
i) Incorporation of Strategic Workforce plan: This type of planning is the disciplined
effort, which can produce fundamental decision or action for shaping and guiding
organizational work and focusing on future. An efficient and effective strategic planning
eventually articulates wile actions getting required for making progress and hence ensuring
success. The strategic planning helps in communication with the respective organization for
their objectives and goals during planning exercise and alignment of resources. A proper
strategic planning and strategic work force plan is required for this purpose and without such
planning, it is not possible to follow such standards and rules.
ii) Incorporation of Global Database: This global database is the collection of talents
and planning, which is responsible for managing the respective database structure before
controlling the access to the data stored within the database. As soon as strategies and
planning would be better, the overall management of decisions and solutions would be much
more effective and efficient for the entire company.

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11. Reference List
Albrecht, S.L., Bakker, A.B., Gruman, J.A., Macey, W.H. and Saks, A.M., 2015. Employee
engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An
integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and
Performance, 2(1), pp.7-35.
Alfes, K., Shantz, A.D., Truss, C. and Soane, E.C., 2013. The link between perceived human
resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated
mediation model. The international journal of human resource management, 24(2),
pp.330-351.
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Aswathappa, K., 2013. Human resource management: Text and cases. Tata McGraw-Hill
Education.
Brewster, C., 2017. Policy and practice in european human resource management: The Price
Waterhouse Cranfield survey. Taylor & Francis.
Brewster, C., Vernon, G., Sparrow, P. and Houldsworth, E., 2016. International human
resource management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Budhwar, P.S. and Debrah, Y.A. eds., 2013. Human resource management in developing
countries. Routledge.
Cascio, W.F., 2015. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill.
Chelladurai, P. and Kerwin, S., 2018. Human resource management in sport and recreation.
Human Kinetics.
Crawford, J.K., 2014. Project management maturity model. Auerbach Publications.
DeCenzo, D.A., Robbins, S.P. and Verhulst, S.L., 2016. Fundamentals of Human Resource
Management, Binder Ready Version. John Wiley & Sons.
Faculty of Business and Economics. 2012. Q Manual, Monash University, 5th edition.
Jackson, S.E., Schuler, R.S. and Jiang, K., 2014. An aspirational framework for strategic
human resource management. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), pp.1-56.

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Kehoe, R.R. and Wright, P.M., 2013. The impact of high-performance human resource
practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of management, 39(2),
pp.366-391.
Nickson, D., 2013. Human resource management for hospitality, tourism and events.
Routledge.
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2015. Human resources
management. Instructor, 2015.
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource
management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
Education.
Paillé, P., Chen, Y., Boiral, O. and Jin, J., 2014. The impact of human resource management
on environmental performance: An employee-level study. Journal of Business
Ethics, 121(3), pp.451-466.
Purce, J., 2014. The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New
Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67.
Renwick, D.W., Redman, T. and Maguire, S., 2013. Green human resource management: A
review and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 15(1),
pp.1-14.
Sparrow, P., Brewster, C. and Chung, C., 2016. Globalizing human resource management.
Routledge.
Storey, J., 2014. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals).
Routledge.

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12. Appendices
Appendix A
SWOT Analysis of Telstra
Appendix B
PESTEL Analysis of Telstra

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