Work life imbalance of remittance employees at bank a

Number of employees at grade A health results versus amount of employees from 2015 to 2017 Table 2.. Starting with the symptoms as long working hours, increased health problems and low p

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: Dr Nguyen Phong Nguyen

Ho Chi Minh City - 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES 3

LIST OF TABLES 3

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1

1 BACKGROUND 2

1.1 Company Background 2

1.2 Description of Remittance team 2

1.3 Symptoms 4

1.3.1 Long working hours 4

1.3.2 Increased health problems 5

1.3.3 Decreased productivity 6

1.4 Initial cause-effect map 7

2 PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION 12

2.1 Situation analysis 12

3 CENTRAL PROBLEM VALIDATION 14

3.1 Central problem definition 14

3.2 Central problem existence 14

3.3 Central problem importance 16

5 SOLUTIONS AND ACTION PLANS 22

5.1 Individual aspects 22

5.2 Organizational aspects 23

6 CONCLUSION 25

7 SUPPORTING INFORMATION 26

7.1 Interview guide 26

7.2 Transcripts 28

7.3 Questionnaire on Work-life imbalance 40

8 REFERENCES 47

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Structure of Remittance team

Figure 2 Working hours of Remittance team

Figure 3 Productivity of Remittance team

Figure 4 Initial cause-effect map

Figure 5 Updated cause-effect map

Figure 6 Level of fatigue related workplace problems vs overtime level

Figure 7 Priority factors choosing a job

Figure 8 Second updated cause-effect map

Figure 9 Final cause-effect map

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Number of employees at grade A health results versus amount of

employees from 2015 to 2017

Table 2 Rate of employees sick leaving over 3 years (2015-2017)

Table 3 Interview guide questions of group 1

Table 4 Interview guide questions of group 2

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Rem – Remittance

WLB – Work-life balance

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Each organization has its own problems Depending on the seriousness of the problems, the performance or even the survival of the organizations in this highly competitive environment will be determined In problem solving, identify the real problem – the central problem is the most important step The right problem

needed to be determined to propose the right solutions Mistakes in determining the real problem may result in unnecessary wastes of resources

Therefore, this study focused on a specific of a department to have a deep look

of one problem Starting with the symptoms as long working hours, increased health problems and low productivity, the author managed to identify the central problem by root case analysis method Then, based on literature reviews and

surveys, it was recognized that Work-life imbalance is the central problem of this organization

Work-life imbalance is an attractive topic to discuss on both business and

academic research Malgorzata Kluczyk (1) demonstrated that “work-life imbalance

is a central issue affecting wellbeing, as family and work are the most important elements of everyone’s life” The value of this study is through analysis of the problems and the importance of it to suggest the best solutions for bank A practice

It is useful for not only this bank manager but also all employees to find the right

way at their workplace

1 BACKGROUND

1.1 Company Background

For over 20 years since its initial branch in Vietnam in 1995, bank A has nearly

200 employees up to now Among the flourish of banking industry, bank A is facing with many competitors such as HSBC, Standard Chartered and a large number of domestic banks

Vision and mission

Its mission is a statement expressing what bank A aims to do It provides a path

in making the right decisions that will distinctively sets us apart from its

competitors The mission statement is to be a bank that does what is right,

consistently It captures its strategic ambitions, unites it and guide it towards the future Its main vision statement is to be the world’s most trusted bank

1.2 Description of Remittance team

1.2.1 Description

Remittance team has the task to send to and receive funds from various

accounts

- Inward Remittance product description

Authenticated payment instructions received by the branch to pay a named beneficiary are classified as inward remittances Inward remittance can take the following forms: instructions received from overseas agents to credit branch

customer’s account or pay to the beneficiary through a beneficiary bank,

instructions received through local clearing to credit branch customer’s account

- Outward Remittance product description

Payment instructions issued by customer to pay out from their accounts to the beneficiary are classified as outward remittances Outward remittance can take the following forms: overseas telegraphic transfer, local payment order and inter-

account transfer

- FX Settlement product description

A request issued by customers to buy foreign currencies base on their available fund in Vietnam Dong under various following purposes: to repay for loan to the bank/ repay for offshore loan, to pay for L/C (letter of credit), to pay for goods under TTR (Telegraphic Transfer Reimbursement), to repatriate of legal income to overseas and other purposes complied with the Authority’s regulation

1.2.2 Structure

Figure 1 Structure of Remittance team in 2013 vs 2016

According to Figure 1, in 2013, under one manager, there are 4 officers to check the processing from 5 staffs To survive in the competitive industry, the bank tried to connect with various new customers that is the reason why it has significantly increased the amount of customers just in after 3 years Therefore, in

2016, they recruited one officer to help the other officers with checking the

payment more accurately and efficiently This officer can handle the task of both inward and outward reports so the burden of 4 officers was released

However, the number of payment orders continuously goes up day by day, 5 staffs are always whining about their work

Manager

Inward Officer

Staff 1 Staff 2

Outward Officer

Staff 3

Outward Officer

Staff 4

FX Officer

Staff 5

Manager

Inward Officer

Staff 1

Inward Officer

Staff 2

Outward Officer

Staff 3

Outward Officer

Staff 4

FX Officer

Staff 5

1.3 Symptoms

1.3.1 Long working hours

It is easy to discover that the trend of working hours for each employees in Remittance department grows continuously over the years Accordingly, all staffs recently complain that they have no time for family and personal hobbies For this reason, the author took further look at the average working hours of this team

Table 1 Average working hours of Remittance team

Year Average

transaction

Working hours

Number of employees

Average working hours (hrs/no of employees)

change significantly, due to the system upgrade and the wide open of customer accounts, bank A started to develop so the average transactions were at the 200% rate of growth

Secondly, to have a deep look into the table, with one more recruited officer, the average working hours did not decrease (still around 10 hours) This equivalent

to reducing spent time with their family In 2013, the staff left office at 5:30pm for

8 working hours From 2014, when they returned home at 6:30pm, their dinner time must be 1 hour later than the usual time Hence, it is not difficult to

understand that in 2017, all the employees did not often have family dinners

together if they stay at work for 11 hours per day and reach home at 9pm

According to Labor Code of Vietnam - Law No 10/2012/QH13 date June 18,

2012 (Appendix), the overtime working hours with 11 hours per day could be accepted because the working hours are allowed under 12 hours per day and all employees are paid 1.5 times for each hour overtime working However, when the

staffs get their overtime paid while they still complain It must be a problem we should invest in

1.3.2 Increased health problems

1.3.2.1 Low degree of health results

Health check-up programs and insurance policies are always practiced with all employees in the bank By the collected annual health check, it is easy to find out that the status of remittance employees health are in trouble

Table 2 Number of employees at grade A health results versus amount of employees from 2015 to 2017

Rate of grade A health results

By collecting the short summary results from Remittance employees (table 2 and table 3), it is discovered that in 2015, there were 8 employees with good health scores They are ranked at grade A in health check results However, this result falls to 50% in 2016 and it continues to decrease to 40% in 2017

1.3.2.2 High rate of sick leaving

Table 3 Rate of employee sick leaving over 3 years (2015-2017)

Number of days on sick leave/

amount of employees

This collected data shows how many sick leave days all employees had taken

In 2015, nobody was off for health reasons On the other hand, in 2016,

moderately, each person took half of a leave day because of bad health A serious symptom was seen when average every employee had to leave 2 days to cure their disease Obviously, this department should ensure all employees for better health

1.3.3 Decreased productivity

The data given in Figure 3 below shows the trend of the productivity of

Remittance team per day Working hours per day is the average of total working hours of the team per day The productivity is calculated by dividing the average transaction per day and the working hours

Figure 3 Productivity of Remittance team

In 2013, with 9 employees and the small size of 200 transactions, the

productivity was estimated at 2.78 By the growing the amount of customers in

2014, the number of transactions increased and the working hours average equal approximately 9 hours per day for each person, so the productivity was 3.09 Although the average working hours did not change significantly, due to the system upgrade and the wide open of customer accounts when bank A started to develop in 2015, the productivity was at the highest level of 6.40

From 2016, this department recruited one more staff Due to the amount of transactions did not increase too much, the productivity felt to 6.10 Especially, in Quarter 1-2 in 2017, it is worth noting that the productivity drops to 5.73

Therefore, productivity issue is one of the matter that Remittance team should invest in

In summary, the symptoms which are easy to discover are three main troubles: staffs have to work for long hours, warning employee health status should be concerned and their productivity decreased in 2 recent years

2013 2014 2015 2016 Q2/2017 Productivity 2.778 3.086 6.400 6.100 5.727 000

1.000 2.000 3.000 4.000 5.000 6.000 7.000

Productivity

1.4 Initial cause-effect map

Based on the symptoms, the interview guide was designed to investigate the picture of problem 2 respondents were kind to help with questions then the authors discovered that previous symptoms really exist and they lead to various effects Then 2 other interviewees were invited to answer similar questions to validate all the information

1.4.1 Effects of long working hours

1.4.1.1 Lack of elderly care time

Ms Ha shared her story with sayings: “I have an old mom but I reach

at home at 9pm, it is a short time to converse with her I think the elderly should be cared much more.”

1.4.1.2 Lack of household time

Ms Ha added to her answers: “After work, I have to go to supermarket and cook meals for mom It takes me a lot of time.”

1.4.1.3 Lack of childcare time

Ms Uyen who had 2 year-old child got trouble with her baby She told her story that she often go home when her baby is going to sleep, she had no time to take care of her child

1.4.1.4 Lack of personal time

Shared by Ms Minh, what influenced her after work is tiredness and time management She left the office at 8pm, reached at home at 8:45pm and she usually denies to eat anything, her choices are her bed And actually, I became this slim because I get used to skipping dinner already

Moreover, she did not have enough time to talk with her sister, call her parents or do what she loves to

1.4.2 Increased health problems

For Ms Uyen’s situation, when her baby cries overnight, she is unable to sleep She described herself as a farmer walking and carrying a heavy burden on shoulder every day

1.4.2.3 Eyestrain

Another thing came to Ms Minh is developing eye strain She explained

“Seeing the screen for a long period of time makes it easy for tears to come out after just 2 hours.”

1.4.3 Decreased productivity

Mr Thanh shared that when he gave the instructions to transfer money to companies for chargeback from credit card department, he did not think the process is smooth, it still has error process

Factors cause those symptoms

With further deep questions, all interviewees listed many factors cause those symptoms

1.4.4 Unqualified system

Mr Thanh said that “the computer system to input customers’ data were not really good in 2014 at the time I worked in Remittance department Up to

now, I supposed the process is better”

When Ms Minh was asked to compare the process between bank A and bank B (she worked in bank B before 2015), she thought that system of bank B is more qualified so it took less time than bank A She also stressed that “I did have some proposals to change our system to be operated more productively.”

1.4.5 Overload transactions

Both Mr Thanh and Ms Minh described the average amount of transactions reach nearly 600 transactions per day It usually takes one person 1 minute for 1 transaction, so if there are 600 transactions, it takes 10 hours for one staff It is easy to understand that is why they have to stay late at work

Mr Thanh also provided that the tasks of each staff are fair due to job

rotation among staffs each month However, maybe the overload

transactions lead they feel tired and do not talk to each other too much

1.4.6 Complicated tasks

+ Multiple processing at the same time

I asked whether she normally worked with constrains at work She said yes Officers usually rush her to process the transactions Furthermore, when she was typing the remittance forms, she had to answer many calls from

customers and other departments Besides, monetary remittances need the accuracy so the staffs are very careful for each transaction

She highlighted that “I have to do those transactions of the customers

continuously without stopping, upon the requirement and urging of the officers to finish it in the shortest time and not leave it to the next day.”

For example, to outward remittance, due to cut-off time, all outward

domestic transactions need to be processed quickly before 4pm At the end

of each month, the number of transactions are double or triple to normal, staffs left the office nearly 8pm

1.4.7 Low cooperation

He also told that the tasks of each staff are fair due to job rotation among staffs each month However, maybe the overload transactions lead they feel tired and do not talk to each other too much

After conducting in-depth interviews, an initial cause-effect map was built upon those collected data

Figure 4 Initial cause-effect map

Decreased productivity

Long working hours

2 PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

2.1 Situation analysis

It is not enough evidence if the author just summarizes the problem by

interviews, it should be validated based on previous research By theory informed, there are some changes of term to describe “Complicated tasks” and “unqualified system” are related to “inefficient procedure” “Work overload” is described for overload transactions And “low cooperation” can be called as “Lack of support from co-workers”

Thus “inefficient procedure”, “work overload” and “lack of support from workers” are factors which influence to symptoms and are drawn on updated map Following that, the author tried to search for more variables which could be the potential problem of this issue

co-2.2 Potential problems

It is lucky when the author read the article “Work-Life Balance and its impact

on employees and organizational productivity” The article stated that a negative impact could affect not only employees but also organization productivity if there

is poor life balance From this point, work-life imbalance is considered as a special clue to all questions

Greenhaus (2) mentioned that there are associations between work-life

relationships with overtime work Moreover, Shepard (3) stated that long working hours can affect both the health and the productivity so there maybe the

relationship between 3 previous symptoms: long working hours, health problems and decreased productivity

Fagan (4) asserted that the factor in determining the compatibility of one's work and family responsibilities is the amount of working hours All interviewees agreed that the more time they spend at work, the less life outside work gets done

Through theory informed, there are some factors added and re-arranged into updated cause-effect map

Figure 5 Updated cause-effect map

3 CENTRAL PROBLEM VALIDATION

3.1 Central problem definition

Work–life balance has been defined by Sturges & Guest (5) as “satisfaction and good functioning at work and at home with a minimum of role conflict”

Levenson(6) remarked that “work-life balance can influence individuals’ attitudes at work” Clarke, Koch and Hill (7) called it as an “equilibrium or maintaining overall sense of harmony in life” Guest (5) considered that it is “a misnomer and serves simply as a convenient shorthand for work and the rest of life”

3.2 Central problem existence

To examine the work-life imbalance existence, 10 participants were chosen to fill in the online Questionnaire It is conducted with 8 females and 2 males Among them, 6 people are under 30 years old, while the others are older than 30 years old There were 4 Remittance staffs and 1 line manager with responsibility for

Remittance team The others were 3 staffs sorting from Business Banking,

Customer service, Digital Channel departments and 2 staffs of HR who have

responsibility for personnel policy

o 5 Remittance members filled that they work 45-50 hours average per week and the other respondents filled in under 45 working hours

The results show that all Remittance employees find it hard to cope with the balance between life and work Many feel that their efforts are not in best shape Overall, the result observed that almost Remittance employees stay

at work above 50 hours, half of the interviewed are those who work in other departments rarely or never work overtime Most of Remittance employees complained that they have to work exceed hours One reported that her longest week ever was 60 hours, average 12 hours a day

o Almost the answers agreed that the number of hours are acceptable and they feel satisfied or a lot, but doable Just 1 respondent thought her job is too much, she wants to work less

o In Remittance team, 5 members chose they had to fit their co-workers’ schedule It proves that the understaffing is one of the issue here It leads to the result that they cannot take vacation more than 20 days in a year In contrast, 5 members came from other teams enjoy their trip to several

o In section health check-up, all Remittance staffs suffer frequent headaches, depressions and some are obesity

o About reward for overtime, the employees are paid for any shifts However, line manager is unpaid for overtime This manager suggests she would like

to have some benefits for extra working hours

o Moreover, one staff from Customer Service Department who had worked as

a Remittance staff in Bank B said that she left the office before 7pm She considered that the system of bank A should be upgraded for saving time on each transaction

o One thinks that employees will come out of more creative ideas and the way they treat each other is also more in harmony She shared that she tries

to finish work in the office so that her mind not be occupied by it at home

If there is any issue that needs more concern, she is willing to spend time keep thinking about it

3.3 Central problem importance

3.3.1 Organizational side

Any companies have to acknowledge that work-life balance relates with the success or failure of an organization The reason is when an employee keep the balance between life and work, he/she could have a positive effect on performance and improve their productivity Meyer et al (8) included that “work-life balance and firm’s revenue have a positive effect”

To investigate how work-life imbalance influences bank A, the author was back to the Remittance department to validate the information with Ms Ha (leader

of this team) She told that she heard a few complaints from customer due to staffs’ mistake Customers sent emails to her because the transaction processes was slow

In room’s meeting, she asked them why and the fact was that some of them was exhausted and they explained because of pressure from work put on them every day

In the first interview, Mr Thanh mentioned that he gave the instructions to transfer money for chargeback from credit card department, the process was not smooth, and it still has error process

Furthermore, looking back to table 3 about rate of sick leaving and figure 3 about productivity of Remittance team, it is easy to conclude that from 2015, all the factors showed the negative results It is considered as the signals of work-life imbalance affecting to them

Through this data, it cannot be denied that the status of work-life imbalance had a bad effect on this team performance If it is not solved quickly, it will make stronger negative impact

3.3.2 Individual side

Sarika (9) indicated that work-life balance has an impact on all aspects of life

He also stated when employees have enough time for family and personal interests, their work will be better

In contrast, if any employees are in stuck of work and they cannot balance their life, they will surely feel stress On the physical side, how to maintain good health is the big question to them Family side is another important problem to these employees If they cannot receive the understandings of husband or wife, even suffer from their partner saying that “your work is more important than me”, these employees must feel loss of love and strength for the next day working O’Driscoll’s study (10) explored that work-life imbalance may have negative consequences “on health and individual performance in organizations”

Additionally, comparing to some factors causing stress on staffs (such as leader relations, job security), Mauno and Kinnuen (11) found that work-life imbalance

“had a stronger effect than other stressors”

Likewise, as the chart from Statista shows, in 2014, work-life balance is still

an important priority for people choosing a job

Figure 7 Priority factors choosing a job

Source: statista.com

4 CAUSE VALIDATION

As first observation, there are many factors contributing to the work-life

imbalance in the working environment These below are proposed as the causes of work-life imbalance of Remittance team

4.1 Unmanageable workload

In section 1.4.5, “the overload transactions” was proved by interviews On the other hand, the author would like to confirm if it is the real cause, so the literature reviews were conducted

By using Induced Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (IFCM), Victor (12) listed 10 factors which may attribute to work-life imbalance Three of them are referred factors in this research Those are “unmanageable workload”, “long working hours”, “health problems” However, “unmanageable workload” is “standing in the first position in affecting the work life balance of an individual” For this statement, once again, this factor is affirmed to be one of the cause of work-life imbalance

long hours to remain productivity

The author began to investigate by asking the manager whether this department should recruit more staffs She agreed but the HR replied that there was no

headcount In addition, Ms Minh said the staffs have to arrange their leave days except She means if someone is off, the tasks with 5 employees would divide into

4 For that reason, they have to stay late to finish work

After validating, it is concluded that staff shortage is one of the cause that leads

to excessive working hours and work overload

4.3 Lack of support from co-workers

Following 1.4.7, Mr Thanh (one of interviewees) reported overload

transactions lead all the employees feel tired and do not talk to each other too much

Ms Uyen (fourth interviewee) shared her story about her colleague that her partner just throws the tasks to her She wants that they should share the amount of work equally and understand each other’s side, so it will be better and build the peace Then, the author searched for additional study to verify the information Byron

(14) reported that “less work interference with family” and “family interference with work” happen when employees have their supportive coworkers Noor Fatima (15)

also remarked that there are positive effect between “work-live balance and college support”

4.4 Work stress

By collected interview, Ms Uyen revealed that she was in stress She told “I really feel tired because there is a lot of work At home, my baby sometimes cries overnight, then I am unable to sleep To describe me, I am as a farmer walking and carrying a heavy burden on my shoulder every day.”

Additionally, when the next day comes, she is scared due to the fact that she was exhausted the day before She sighed deeply because she is unable to do the day's work properly Terribly, she goes to work with no energy because of fatigue from the previous day She felt sick for 2, 3 times this year

Through this information, the author has the evidence to add the factor “Work stress” become the cause of work-life imbalance

4.5 Technology

A lot of employees agreed that the system to process transactions at bank A should be improved more According to the questionnaire collection in section 3.2, one staff from Customer service department suggested that “system of our bank should be upgraded for saving time on each transaction”

With complex or slow system, they could influence the output of productivity

It is known that if the technology is improved, every organization will see

increased productivity

Figure 8 Second updated cause-effect map

5 SOLUTIONS AND ACTION PLANS

important to individuals to help them cope Engaging in leisure was also found to

be important in helping individuals manage their work-life balance, when they made the time for it

Having a manageable workload allows individuals to be able to complete their work at work and not eat away at their personal life Many participants stated that

in order to cope with many competing demands they prioritized In doing so, there were a lot of things that got ignored or forgotten during the busy times Some of those things were their own leisure time, household tasks and their personal

relationships Most of these things were sacrificed for work

5.2 Organizational aspects

5.2.1 Staff recruitment

As the mentioned cause in the previous section, understaffing is one of the problem of this department It needs to be solved by increasing the number of staffs When recruiting one staff, he/she can help the others to reduce workload and also

to improve the productivity As the result, the other staffs would not feel stress and suffer less burden from work so they can go home earlier and the next day, all the staffs will work in the best mental and physical health

5.2.2 Technology

Although the systems of this department was upgraded in 2015, the software should be updated by IT regularly Furthermore, bank A should give IT more

challenges to search for quicker and more convenient system to make the best

processing to give the good products to customers

5.2.3 HR suggestions

5.2.3.1 Training program

The author suggestion is that HR department should have many clear work-life balance programs such as “Employee and Family program”, some training classes about time management, organizing work, teamwork skills, etc

5.2.3.2 Benefits and rewards

As Ms Ha mentioned, she usually gave some shopping vouchers for her staffs

to have relaxing time at the weekend That has brought many positive impacts on her employees However, the bank still don’t have any special benefits for those who met work-life imbalance