Q5. Read the attached case study, and answer the following questions. (Marks: 10) 1. What activities are carried out at the Bulls & Bears Appreciation meetings? [3] 2. Why do you think customer service call centers commonly have high turnover? Why is it so important to motivate employees working at such call centers? [2] 3. Considering the Maslows Hierarchy of Needs theory, which needs of his employees does Bandwith take care of through his motivation program? And how? [3] 4. What would be one additional motivation strategy you would suggest Charles Bandwith to include in his motivation program, apart from the ones already being implemented? [2] Bulls & Bears is a renowned credit card company known for its immensely low employee turnover. The turnover rate ranges from 6 to 8 percent with respect to employees working full time, while for its part-time employees, the rate is minimally noticeable. The biggest strength the company has is that it makes sure to keep the employees fully and happily involved in their work tasks. Managers at Bulls & Bears make employees feel important and empowered, generate excitement in work, and provide adequate learning resources along with training opportunities to employees as and when needed. This improves the efficiency and performance level of the employees. Let us consider this example of workplace setting at Bulls & Bears. The biggest call center of the company accommodates about three thousand employees, who engage in a variety of typical call center tasks such as dealing with customers who have lost or got their credit cards stolen, answering queries related to billing and payments, handling account or statement related issues, etc. While usually these call centers hold the repute of employees leaving jobs frequently, plus dissatisfied customers due to poor service provision, Bulls & Bears on the other hand has been accredited with the highest scores when it comes to customer service ratings for card companies conducted by various survey organizations, and that too for a whole decade. Charles Bandwith, who is the manager of this call center located in Amsterdam, declares that he would always go the extra mile to spark excitement in work for the employees. For this reason, he holds Appreciation meetings every month, which is an event observed in order to pay tribute to the outstandingly performing employees. He makes the senior management team and executives perform skits, recitals and entertainment acts, like dances and singing, before all the employees. Also, what happens at these events is highlighting the star performers at the company who have achieved great milestones by conducting the Oprah interview, where those employees face Bandwith and get interviewed like celebrities who share an account of their journey of success and also how they came this far in accomplishing the company values and objectives. At the end of the event, various games are arranged and competitions held whereby the winning teams get prizes amongst all the rallying and cheering. Additionally, the employees physical, mental and emotional well-being is also looked after at Bulls & Bears. The Amsterdam call center has lots of facilities offered in this regard. There is a well constructed and well equipped gymnasium with professional trainers, latest machinery, with provision of yoga, aerobics and other fitness classes. Child day care is also available for parents who wish to bring their young ones to work and keep them in close contact. As for the cost of these facilities, Bandwith says We recovered all the costs incurred on these services at the center within a years time with the reduced turnover and absenteeism of our employees. One added value at Bulls & Bears is its commitment to and appreciation of diversity in the workforce. Females, old-age employees, disabled workers, all are treated and recognized equitably at the company, which even makes it top the list for global ranking of companies in embracing diversity called Workplace Diversity Awards. Not only does Bulls & Bears embrace diversity, it gives the right kind of functional environment to its workforce such as temporal flexibility so that employees can work according to suited schedule, workplace harassment policies, equal promotional opportunities, support in religious concerns such as observance of religious holidays for Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Jews. The business development executive at the Amsterdam call center truly admires Bandwith for his dedication and mentions that Because of him, our employees feel satisfied and comfy as at home.''