FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance AFNI PHILIPPINES A Business Case Study Report Presented to the Faculty of Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance Far Eastern University – Manila In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Bachelor of Science in Accountancy By Al Sudais Z. Macmod Allen Bill Laurence D. De Guzman Andrew C. Bautista James A. Avellino Jerick T. Perez Kurt Eduard A. Baldemoro Lyka Angela S. Alarba Zia Nicolette D. Nuestro 12 December 2022 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance Table of Contents Introduction 2 Viewpoint 3 Time Context 4 Problem Statement 5 Objectives of the Case 6 Alternative Course of Action 7 Recommendation 8 Summary and Conclusion 9 Page |1 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance I. Introduction Leadership skills are one of the necessities in the business world. Not everyone can be a leader, and it is not easy to find a good leader. In research from Baker, almost 77% of the companies and organizations in the entire world are in a state of leadership gap (2022). Inclined with the response of inspiring new leaders, this study was conducted to provide a background and foundation for analyzing the day-to-day company problems that requires the application of proper leadership methodologies and leadership decision-making models. To suffice the lack of experience, expertise, and knowledge of the students in the field of leadership, an interview has been conducted to Mr. Renesto Nieky Talagtag, a Project Coach or Team Manager in AFNI Philippines for the past 2 years as the foundation to answer the following questions and solving the problem. AFNI is a global team of individuals committed to assisting organizations create profitable and meaningful relationships with their customers. It was started in 1936 in which, its purpose is to channel strategy and customer lifecycle solutions that allows present their clients numerous methods to connect with their customers for many reasons. AFNI pays close attention and are prepared to assemble the ideal combination for your company's clients in which, brings forth new techniques for conducting business via the phone, online, or in-person that provides better performance. 2 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance II. Viewpoint AFNI Philippines is a call center or a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Company who handles a huge volume of calls to provide answers in various elements of a business such as troubleshooting, customer service, and support within a company. Its objective is to make it easier for both the business and the client to interact, solve problems, finish orders, and offer goods and services. Call center integration is a valuable service and a selling point for any business because it enables customers to call in and speak to a live person to get assistance when they need it. Companies that use call centers are frequently able to offer better customer service and support than businesses that do not. With this, the case study aims to identify the issue and solutions made by a certain leader when it comes to a company’s workforce optimization. Workforce optimization challenges involve allocating agents appropriately, reviewing call history, ensuring the availability of agents to every customer, and the harmonious relationship of every worker. Employees and employers both have unique opinions on certain organizational or business-related concerns. A Team Manager or a Project Coach perspective is the most appropriate to employ for this case study. Mr. Talagtag, a Team Manager of AFNI, has been employed by the organization for two years. He first began as a regular employee before steadily moving up the ranks to achieve a leadership role. He oversees a team's performance and output while mentoring and growing each member of the team. He is also responsible for managing team members who have just completed a one-month training period to ensure a smooth transfer to production. Since the case study aims to analyze the various issues encountered within the workforce optimization, he has strong leadership skills to serve as the case study's point of view because he has encountered a variety of scenarios. 3 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance III. Time Context March 2020 Was a negative turning point for Afni Philippines as it had no backup plan for the company to cope with the pandemic leading to unable to compete with its competitors. March-August 2020 The first six-months of pandemic was a disaster for Afni Philippines as it struggles to compete with its competitors due to lack of preparedness and strategy. August-October 2020 Afni Philippines responded by having a great set of leadership programs that can enhance their subordinates’ and co-workers’ skills and share their knowledge with others. Afni Philippines made its employees motivated and determined in achieving their goals. October-December 2020 4 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance Subordinates and co-worker’s skills are improved and Afni Philippines was able compete with its competitors. December 2020 Afni Philippines starts to regain a net profit due to a proper leadership style and good strategy. IV. Problem Statement In most companies that are composed of teams to operate, the most frequent problem is work force optimization. It is vital to keep your team intact in terms of time scheduling, performance, and skills management. In AFNI where time is vital in accomplishing activities, time scheduling can be hard specially it is a team made of individual employees. Having their restricted period of 8 hours every shift they are chasing time to finish their quota on that day. While this could arise a problem that can be fixed quickly, this must be maintained accordingly with performance. The team's performance depends on the team's ability to fulfill the objective with precision. Performance also depends on controlling the skills of the individuals in the team. Some skills include efficient communication, knowledge of customer service, coding speed, and—most importantly—the capacity to address client issues. If the leader is unable to choose which aspects of workforce optimization to focus on in specific circumstances, these three aspects will become an issue. 5 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance Workforce optimization will most likely be more of an asset if the organization executes it well and the crucial job of the leader is executed properly. The workforce optimization problem can be tackled by breaking it into three parts. The first is time-scheduling, in which the group is assigned a certain task for a specific period. The second is performance tracking, which involves keeping numerical data on the performance of individuals in the group and providing performancebased compensation to top performers. This will encourage staff to do better in their tasks. The next step is to invest in employee training to improve communication skills. This will significantly increase the employees' skills. In an organization, especially one that is run by several groups with their respective leaders, it is hard to keep a team intact. In terms of controlling absences, time, performance, and skills, the team must be unified to yield the best results. With the above-mentioned solution paired with the best leadership and management style, it will be a successful team. Particularly in the world of BPO, where there are numerous competitors, and they rely solely on their efficiency to stay ahead of the competition. V. Objective of the Case Objective of the case are the following: 1.1 To demonstrate student leadership competency as problem solvers and solution provider. 1.2 To apply appropriate leadership decision making 1.3 To learn the leader’s ways of solving a problem or crisis 1.4 Finding a creative and innovative solution to specific and complex problems is considered as evidence of a leader’s intellectually stimulating behavior. 6 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance 1.5 To identify the main behaviors that are observed in the traits of leaders such as goal clarification, team boundaries setting, the guidance of members, leading followers, engaging members to the team, meeting organization and information flow control. VI. Alternative Courses of Action 1. Embrace Hybrid Set Up Give the employees the ability to choose if they want to work onsite or if they want to work from home. Employees will think that they have a say in the organization, leading to a motivated work. Working from home can maximize what time they do have available; they do not need to use their sick leave in case something happens. Advantages: They can work overtime because they do not need to worry about the traffic. Some people work best alone, so their performance can go up. Disadvantages: Costly, the company will provide them an equipment and internet that they will use. Unmonitored performance. 2. Implement Decentralized Communication 7 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance All employees have direct communication access to everyone. Skilled members can share their ideas directly, it may help the company problem with communication. Some employees are scared to speak up in a meeting, they prefer sharing their thoughts directly. Advantages: There will be no stealing of ideas. Can improve the relationship between the higher ups and with the employees. Disadvantages: This will be a big change; everyone will need to adapt and adjust. 3. Monthly Team Building Team building activities can improve communication and strengthen relationships between the team members. Advantages: Stress is common in the workplace, having the employees a mental break can improve their efficiency. There is no awkwardness between coworkers. Friends to everyone, enemy to none. Disadvantages: Costly. Risky, team building activities are mostly competing with each other, it can backfire and cause the opposite effect. 8 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance VII. Recommendation Based on the study and collected data, the chosen alternative course of action is implementation of Decentralized Communication. This paper recommends the use of behaviorist theory. Due to this theory, in order to boost the output and morale of their team, managers should be mindful of their own behavior. This theory classifies managers into the following categories depending on the leadership styles it acknowledges: Task-focused managers Leaders who put people first Apathetic leaders 9 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance Effective leaders Dictatorial authorities Current authorities Reliable leaders Shrewd businesspeople Daddy-like bosses Heads of Country Clubs In conclusion, this recommended theory will make positive Significant changes to the problem as it includes aspects of effective and reliable leadership which it targets the major problem. 10 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance VIII. Summary and Conclusion Afni Philippines, a BPO company, is the focus of the study. Mr. Renesto Talagtag, a team manager in the said organization, was the sole foundation of every information acquired and used to answer and fulfill the study's goal, which is to determine Afni's organizational problems and the solutions they enforce as a response. The researchers found two main organizational problems that Afni Philippines faces: first is handling and coping with uncertainties, i.e. Coronavirus pandemic, and the other is revolving workforce optimizations. 11 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance The unforeseen appearance of the Coronavirus disease in the early months of 2020 shocked business entities, and Afni Philippines is no exception. Through the first few months, the company suffered a huge loss and was not able to compete in the BPO industry. The problems relating to the effects of the pandemic were later remedied months after. Responding to the challenge faced by Afni Philippines regarding coping with and handling uncertainties like the pandemic, the researchers highly suggest that the company should strengthen scenario planning strategies and take a proactive approach if another uncertain scenario arise in the future. Another organizational problem that Afni Philippines faces is revolving workforce optimizations. 12 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance IX. References Cyriac, F. (2015, August 27). Top 5 Challenges Call Center Managers Face Today . Ameyo. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https:// www.ameyo.com /blog/call-center-management-challenges/ Fabula, J. K. (2022, May 25). How To Write Viewpoint in Case Study (With Examples). FilipiKnow. https://filipiknow.net/example-of-viewpoint-in-casestudy/ Al-Malki, M. (2021b, January 19). Leadership literature review | Leadership Styles and Job Performance. Research Leap. https://researchleap.com/leadership-stylesjob-performance-literature-review/ 13
