High turnover rate and job stress of salesman in orient commercial bank

Not only the working time and workload make them unable to have a work life balance, but also sale target and time pressure every month appear as a nightmare for the employees if they do

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business -

Nguyen Ho Thanh An

HIGH TURNOVER RATE AND JOB

STRESS OF SALESMAN IN ORIENT COMMERCIAL BANK

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Ho Chi Minh City, Year 2018

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business -

Nguyen Ho Thanh An

HIGH TURNOVER RATE AND JOB

STRESS OF SALESMAN IN ORIENT COMMERCIAL BANK

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: PROF NGUYEN THI MAI TRANG

Ho Chi Minh City, Year 2018

The objective of this research is to find out what problems are affecting OCB employee retention and making high turnover rate over recent years

Using secondary data from the HR department and primary data from in-depth interviews with two groups of interviewees who are the current employees and ex-employees who quit job at OCB, the research found out that the job stress is the central business problem that leads to the high turnover rate

Next, in deeper analysis about potential causes of the problem, it is found that work overload, and work-life imbalance or work-family conflict are root causes leading to job stress

Forwards, the paper suggests that the alternatives which is mixed combination of the redesign and apply the new model to put the right person into right function in sales team are proposed to reduce the job stress of OCB salesman

Finally, the action plan with detailed steps was presented to implement this solution

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge all people who supported me during my studies.First, I would like to thank my supervisor – Professor Nguyen Thi Mai Trang for all heradvice and guidance, without her help this could not have been possible.Then, I also would like to show my gratitude to my manager, my colleagues at OCB who gave me chance to conduct the research and spent time on interviews with me to come up the result of this thesis

I also send my sincere thankfulness to my parents and friends for their support and encouragement

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION 8

1.1 Company background 8

1.1.1 Company history 8

1.1.2 Company Vision, Mission and Core Value 8

1.1.3 Company structure 9

1.2 Problem context: 9

1.2.1 Problem symptoms – Turnover rate status in OCB 9

1.2.2 Justify the consequences of the selected symptoms that lead to further investigation 10

1.3 Potential problems and justify the main problem 11

1.3.1 Income dissatisfaction and high turnover rate 11

1.3.2 Lack of career development opportunity and high turnover rate 12

1.3.3 Job stress and high turnover rate 13

1.3.4 Initial Cause and Effect map: 15

1.3.5 Problem justification 15

2 CAUSE VALIDATION: 16

2.1 Potential causes of problem and justification – The factors cause job stress 16

2.1.1 Work overload: 17

2.1.2 Work family conflict/ work-life imbalance 19

2.2 Cause and Effect Map: 20

2.3 Cause justification: 21

3 ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS: 22

3.1 The first alternative solution: Redesign job to enhance specializations and place the employees in appropriate job 22

3.2 The second alternative solution: increase training, coaching and sharing in workplace 25

3.3 Justification and select the solution: 28

4 IMPLEMENTATION 29

Detailed action plan 30

5 CONCLUSION 32

6 SUPPORTING INFORMATIONS 33

6.1 INTERVIEW GUIDE 35

6.1.1 Group 1: Manager/ staff/ saleman who are currently working at Company OCB 35

6.1.2 Group 2: Salemans who already left OCB Company 37

6.2 SUMMARY OF TRANSCRIPTS 38

6.2.1 Group 1: Manager/ staff/ saleman who are currently working at Company OCB 38

First session: To find the problem in OCB 38

Second session: To find the solution 51

6.2.2 Group 2: Salemans who already left OCB Company 59

6.3 APPENDIX 66

REFERENCES 68

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: OCB structure - From OCB Annual Report 2016 9

Figure 2:Cause and Effect Map 21

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Yearly turnover rate in OCB 9

Table 3: Yearly turnover rate in OCB, break down in each group 10

Table 4: Change in recruitment cost and training cost 11

Table 6: Budget to conduct the first solution 24

Table 7: Budget to conduct the second solution 27

Nowadays, OCB has nearly 200 business units in 120 transaction points nationwide with around 5000 employees, and presented in all major cities and economic zones in the Vietnam Over the years, OCB has experienced double the average growth rate of the industry, The bad debt rate has always been controlled at the low level, ensuring the high and stable operating ratios (1) In 2017, total assets of OCB reached 84,353 billion, up 32.2% compared to 2016 Notably, pre-tax profit reached 1.018 billion; NPLs was controlled at 1.48% (2) At the same year, OCB accomplished the Basel II – risk management project and OCB got ranking B2 by Moody’s (one of the three most prestigious credit rating agencies in the world) – the highest level of commercial banks in Vietnam (1)

1.1.2 Company Vision, Mission and Core Value

Vision: Become a top commercial bank in financial service for retail and small - medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam

Mission: Create the effective financial solutions to bring the highest value to customers and investors, contribute positively to the development of community and society by buildingenthusiastic and customer-oriented workforce (1)

Five core values (1)

1.1.3 Company structure

Figure 1: OCB structure - From OCB Annual Report 2016 Notes: *: there are some sub – internal complex departments inside

1.2 Problem context:

1.2.1 Problem symptoms – Turnover rate status in OCB

In the period of 2017-2020, OCB targets to increase the average scale from 30 to 40% per year With the strategy to expand the market, OCB has a plan to establish more than 20 branches and agencies throughout Vietnam from 2017-2020, it create the need of

a huge human resource to run this business plan

However, the turnover rate of OCB, is higher than the industry average which is 16.8% in 2014 (Compared with industry average turnover rate is around 13.6% for Banking and finance sector - Tower Watson(3) ) and it has been increasing in next three years from

2015 – 2017 as the table below

Table 1: Yearly turnover rate in OCB

Turnover rate 16,8% 17,2% 18.9 % 21.1%

Source: Statistic of HR Department OCB from 2014-2017

1.2.2 Justify the consequences of the selected symptoms that lead to further

investigation

Although the turnover rate of all departments are quite high, turnover rate of salesman is chosen as the objective of the problem identification due to some reasons: First, in branches, the turnover rate of salesman is the highest with 20% Second, the percentage of salesman among OCB employee is about 65% with over 3000 salesman in 2016 and it takes the highest portion Last but not least, if the turnover rate of salesman continue to increase, it increases recruitment and training cost for new salesman, it takes time for new employees are recruited and overcome the probation, so there might be not enough employees for the expanding strategy Therefore, it is harmful for the company to achieve the sale goal in following years and the expanding strategy of OCB if the turnover rate of salesman is till high

As can be seen from the statistics of HR department, the turnover rate of OCB is so high

in both head office and branches, especially in sales department

Table 2: Yearly turnover rate in OCB, break down in each group

Average number of employee

Number of Leave- job

Source: Statistic of HR Department OCB in 2016

Talking about the seriousness of this issue, Mrs A – Deputy of HR manager stated that:

“OCB has faced the problems related to high turnover rate of staffs The turnover rate is very high compare to industry average rate is 15.9% Company could not recruit more staff quickly to be in charge of new jobs.”

The recruitment cost and training cost for new salesman are estimated to rise a lot in 2017 Table 3: Change in recruitment cost and training cost

Increasing percentage of cost *

Number of Training course 154 basic courses

for new salesman

306 basis courses for new salesman

198%

Source: HR fluctuation report and training report

In the next part, the problem identification will be discussed and investigated

1.3 Potential problems and justify the main problem

It is important to figure out the reasons for high turnover rate of salesman in OCB and its consequences

In addition, to investigate the causes lead to high turnover rate in salesman, 3 in-depth interview sessions are conducted with two main objective interviewee groups (first group: managers/supervisors/workers who are currently working in OCB, second group: workers who already left OCB) From results of in-depth interview, it can be seen there are a variety

of view about some groups of factors lead to high turnover rate However, there are three potential problems are suggested are income dissatisfaction, lack of career development opportunity and job stress

1.3.1 Income dissatisfaction and high turnover rate

Regarding to income, Carraher SM(4) showed that there is a relationship between pay satisfaction and turnover To retain employees, the company needs to make better salary policy than what competitor’s offers

From in-depth interviews, it is found that the income dissatisfaction exists in OCB, however manager of OCB and staffs (included still working and leaving OCB) have some different views about the C&B policy and income of salesman in OCB

While employees said that people who have low performance or who are young with less customer relationship cannot stand with this salary policy

Mr D – Employee who left and change the job, also gave some opinions:

“The salary does not increase but the target increases quickly Wages based on the level of completion of business targets, so if anyone cannot meet the sale target, the salary is low, even not enough for living cost.”

Whereas most of high and middle manager point out that the C&B policy and income are reasonable because the performance-based salary for salesman will be the motivation factor

to push the sale and revenue of OCB In addition, they have also claimed the efficiency of this policy in increasing the productivity in business

Mrs A- Deputy of HR manager of OCB stated that:

“It is clear that the C&B policy in which income increase parallel with KPI increase is the key success of business organization.”

Mr C – Sale manager of South area of OCB said that:

“I think the C&B policy for salemans is acceptable because it increases along with the KPI employee achieve Now OCB has been changing the incentive policy in which employee get over KPI will get the attractive bonus, so I think it is acceptable.”

Because the range of salary is confidential, I could not ask more information to compare with other bank range outside Additionally, the conflict in view between two sides who are managers and who are employees in OCB and the salary issue need more time to investigate Therefore, it will be discussed more but not in this report

1.3.2 Lack of career development opportunity and high turnover rate

Relating to development opportunity, Biswakarma G(5) pointed out that career growth dimensions negatively related to employees’ turnover intentions

From two sections of interviews, there are some different points of view from manager of OCB and staffs (included still working and leaving OCB)

Salesman said that because of development program always provide for the group of employees who performs well, in which employees who perform in medium (not low), they cannot find the opportunity to promote or time to be promoted is very slow

Mr H – Sale staff just have job at other organization said that:

“I could not find the opportunity to promotion If I apply for new organization, my position will

be higher and my income will higher too.”

Managers shared that OCB has already had the career path for salesman and they also provide some development program for salesman every year However, the high position

is always limited and they could only provide for the best one and see other people left

Mr C – Sale manager of South area of OCB said that:

“About the development in OCB, salesman will start with the position assistant, then they will promote to relation executive and then relation manager, super relation manager and final one is branch manager The time to promote is based on their performance, but at least 6 months to 1 years of every level”

Mrs A- Deputy of HR manager of OCB stated that:

“The career path for salesman is clear We have the development program for salesman in branches However the ability of internal employees is not meet the requirement of the position to promote

is not enough Those are the reasons why we can’t offer more salary and development opportunity for them.”

After discussing more about the career path of salesman with Mrs A, the career path of salesman in OCB is reasonable and the speed to be promoted is fast if they have good sale performance and good leadership skill Because everyone have chance to join the development program if they could get well performance in continuous two term in OCB and their leadership is adequate For those who doesn’t have the excellent performance it takes a long time to join the development program because of limitation of high position Those are the reasons why some employees claims about the career opportunities as above Since lack of career development opportunity issue need more time to investigate, it will

be discussed more but not in this report

1.3.3 Job stress and high turnover rate

Many following researchers pointed out that stressful work is one of causes to turnover Oginni et al (6) clarified a significant relationship between job stress and high turnover rate Job stress significantly influenced to labour turnover with a strong positive correlation Leontaridi et al (7) also gave some conclusions in their research They found that the individuals who have reported experiencing at least some stress in their current position, have the tendency of quitting or being absent increasing with successively higher work related stress levels

Addressing the issue of work pressure and work-life imbalance, OCB managers, employees and others who left the bank also have same view They all know the nature of banking sector The salesman, especially the salesman in banking industry face a lot of stress and pressure Not only the working time and workload make them unable to have a work life balance, but also sale target and time pressure every month appear as a nightmare for the employees if they don’t have enough customer relationship or lack the of ability to attract customer The legal risk is always high for the salesman in banking sectors If they lose the control and go against ethics to get more customers who don’t have a good credit history or have bad finance, they may face disciplinary action which may lead to imprisonment

The OCB managers pointed out one of main reasons leading to high turnover rate is job stress with pressure and workload

Mrs X – A Branch manager said that:

“One of the main reasons for high turnover rate high in the front-line staff is that they usually work overtime, from 8 am-10pm, 3-4 days a week It is difficult to balance their work and family life, especially saleswoman who is female, they cannot continue do their work with this salesman position, many of them looking for another job.”

Ms Th –Team leader shared that:

“The workload is the root of the problems Beside the sale task, meeting people, making financial analysis for customer , they always need to fulfil the procurement , paperwork and work on the online system In addition, they need to care for the loan of customer from the beginning to disbursement.We go home late and don’t have the balance in work and life.”

The employees also confirm about these issues which make they quit the job relate to working overtime and work-family conflict which present for job stress

Ms L – quit the job shared that:

“Normal working hours is 8-10 hours a day, every morning must be in the bank before 8 am, 8 pm home to come back so every day 9pm to sit at the dinner table I think that is very harmful for my health and I have no time for shopping and going coffee with friends, even lack of time for the family, boyfriends.”

Mrs Tr – also shared the reason that made her left OCB:

“There are many pressure that make this profession stressful- the workload, the time pressure and especially, the work-family conflict has been my case.”

Both managers and employees confirmed about the existence of job stress problem that the salesman faces in banking sector and especially in OCB, which lead resignation of many OCB salesman It is essential to find more relevant causes leading to this, in order to resolve this

1.3.4 Initial Cause and Effect map:

Some key point what employees (not manager) who attended the interview mentioned

opportunity, the current company structure is fully filled with competence managers thus it’s given the view that there is little room for all salesman to be promoted but only the best performance may get the chance Regarding to C&B policy and career path opportunity, these issues can not be solved immediately It’s required a wise and comprehensive long-term strategic planning to change the C&B policy and career path opportunity for all employees Those are the reasons why I do not choose to continously investigate more about these two potential problem in this research In term of job stress, there are same view between salesman and manager, because everyone all know about the nature of job

of bankers and especially the job stress situation in OCB It’s quite stress to be a salesman, thus many staffs have left the organization because they could not stand for it Additionally, many potential cause of job stress is able to see and investigate to find main causes and solutions Therefore, job stress is chosen as a main factor to draw cause and effect map to further investigate

2 CAUSE VALIDATION:

2.1 Potential causes of problem and justification – The factors cause job stress From the results of interview, the job stress in salesman are mentioned a lot Beside the sale task, meeting people, make financial analysis for customer, they always need to fulfil the procurement, paper work and work on the online system also to care for the loan of customer from the beginning to disbursement The reasons can lead to the having job stress might be the lack of skill and knowledge, they don’t have enough ability to do all tasks in process and accomplish the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Salemans go home late, don’t have the balance in work and life Monthly target make them always running with time and have the nightmare with number of sale target and time to achieve

There are a lot of factors lead to job stress such as work overload, pressure, work-family conflict, job security etc According to Rizwan et al (8), role conflict, work overload and work family conflict are the factor impact and lead to job stress in Banking Sector Work overload, pressure, confliction etc are responsible for stress, as result research of Dhankar (9) In the research of Oginni et al (6), It was also found that work pressure, job security were some of the main sources of job stress to bankers and show intention to quit the job

Through the respondents and literature review, there are two main causes lead to job stress

in OCB, which are discussed as bellow

Ms Th –Team leader shared that:

“ The saleman, especially the saleman in banking industry face a lot of stress and pressure The workload is the root …”

From opinions of interviewees, the workload is over come from the role conflict because

of a lot of multitasking, not appropriate assignment or lack of salesman ability

In OCB, salesman have a lot of duties at the same time because they must do almost the process In corporate sector, salesman has to go out to find the customer then making financial analysis and risk analysis In retail sector, salesman not only need to find the customer who need the loan and make personal finance analysis and they need cross-sale, they need to persuade customer give their money to saving at bank or buy the insurance Therefore, they have many roles to be in charge in their job and have many Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to pursue Whenever employees are expected to perform two or more roles that are not feasible or complicated, this creates role expectations, that leads to role conflict, which ultimately results in job stress

Sharing about the multitask of salesman, Ms Th said:

“Beside the sale task, meeting people, make financial analysis for customer, they always should fulfil the procurement, paper work and work on the online system also to care for the loan of customer from the beginning to disbursement …

Additionally, salesman, especially, fresh graduate salesman who are not have enough skill and knowledge will be hard in accomplishing all tasks at the same time, then it makes them get stress It is expected that branch manager and senior employees in every branch could provide the on-board training at their own branch However, most of branch manager said

that they are busy with sale and they are lack of coaching skill, and then it is unknown that they provide the knowledge and skill enough for their new employee or not New employee especially fresh graduate and non-experience in banking sector could not imagine enough about their roles They could not know where to direct his or her efforts and do not have enough knowledge and skill to accomplish all the targets of their job Then it lead to job stress for the junior salesman and then they quit job easily

Mrs A said that:

“The number of saleman fluctuate because they are fresh graduates, lack of experience and lack of relationship, so some of them did not accomplish the KPIs of sale and did not get the expected salary Therefore, they are easy to give up in first and second years.”

Ms Th –Team leader shared that:

“In my opinion, some reasons can lead to the work overload might be the lack of skills and knowledge, they don’t have enough ability to get the KPI… And It is difficult to find new customer in competitive market now, it is the challenge that make a lot of junior employee

to give up the job”

Finally, the assignment is not appropriate with which salesman are good at, that also is root lead to work overload and make salesman get stress Some people are good at networking and get the customer relationship, but they are not good in analysis Whereas, someone who is really good at financial and risk analysis to make proposal, they are not good at communication to get the customer relationship Those brings them face a struggle in accomplish the KPIs and always feel overload

Mr T – Branch manager said that:

“My branch have 3 sale teams, although everyone are recruited to work as sale After long time, everyone work independently and do all the stuff things in JDs said, they said they are overload because of doing what they are not good at, make them spend more time”

The workload leading job stress is also confirmed in many researches Through survey employees working in India banking sector, Lopes et al (11) find out more than 50% of employees across various banks feel stress because of work overload and time pressures The same results in the research of Priya et al.(12) In the other research,Abbasi TF (13) stated that work overload that is a dilemma in almost every organizational sector to perform

more activities at one time, consequence of this are in the form of increase in stress, turnover intentions, and lower job satisfaction and his research confirmed that work overload has negative effect on stress, turnover, and job satisfaction

Through theory informed and interviews conducted in OCB, workload of salesman in OCB

is heavy and it could lead to the job stress with relation to high turnover rate

2.1.2 Work family conflict/ work-life imbalance

Work occupies a huge space in our life People devote more and more in their work

to achieve a position in society In case of OCB, through the interview results, some of respondents said that they lose the balance time spending for work and family, this lead them choose to leave or change the job in bank sector

Ms Th –Team leader also shared that

“We go home late, don’t have the balance in work and life Monthly sale target make us always running with time and have the nightmare with number of KPIs and time to achieve them."

It means work- family conflict or work-life imbalance also the factor makes OCB salesman feels stress

A lot of work to achieve the sale target every month and keep the accurate procedure

in the limited time, which lead to the time pressure on salesman and may impact the job performance and decision making by its influences Continuously low job performance and unwise decisions for a long time might lead to job stress In addition, most respondents of OCB in interview feel stress when in some day they had to work until 9-10 pm when the work hour ended at 5 pm They felt not easy to keep the balance between work life and family life Time pressure and monthly sale target make salesman need to work overtime and spend more time at work even at night which should be for family and their own personal life

Mrs X said:

“One of main reasons for turnover rate high in the front-line staff is that they work under time pressure, from 8 am-10pm, 3-4 days a week It is difficult to balance their work and family”

Ms L – quit the job shared that:

“Normal working hours is 8-10 hours a day, every morning must be in the bank before 8 am, 8 pm

go home, I must have dinner about 9 pm and it replays every day.”

Especially, for those who are married, they are stress because pressure to balance the role

at family and at work Family pressure also the root lead to stress of them According to Dubrin(14), work-family conflict was considered as individual’s role conflict occurs when

an individual has dual roles as a working father or a working mother

Mrs Tr shared her case:

“Because the work is include both meeting customer, financial analysis and paper work I start working at 8 am but the end could be 8 pm with no overtime allowance Sometime I need to go out for drink with customer after 5 pm My husband do not like it and advise me to leave Even, some

of my female colleagues had the same situation One day, I realized that I need to change my job

to protect my health and care for my family.”

The work-family confict or work-life imbalance leading job stress is also confirmed in many researches Regarding to the effect of work family conflict in job stress, general findings of Nart et al (15) showed negative effect of work-family conflict on job stress and partial effect on organizational commitment They also found out that job stress causes

a negative effect on organizational commitment Additionally, Surienty et al (16) also found out that work-life balance, supervisory behavior and job characteristics have the negative regative impact to turnover intention Therefore, Work-life imbalance or work- family conflict also present as a factor make job stress at OCB and as the predictor of turnover intention

2.2 Cause and Effect Map:

From above analysis based on theory informed and interview conducted in OCB, it could

be summarized as cause and effect map below:

Figure 2:Cause and Effect Map 2.3 Cause justification:

To sum up, based on the interviews and theory informed, there are two main causes lead

to job stress at OCB which are work overload and work-family conflict or work-life imbalance

Through the analysis of causes, it is obvious to see the connection of two main causes When salesman are overburdened with work it leads the salesman working overtime and

it causes the work – life imbalance, then the work-life imbalance continuously stresses employees Therefore, work overload needs to be prioritized to discover the solution When the workload will be more reasonable, it will help salesman to reduce the overtime

in work and make work-life balance The following section will discuss about the alternative measures to solve the reasons causing work overload in OCB

Discuss about this solutions, there are some agreement from manager and also employees:

Mr C – The area manager emphasized that:

“ In fact, the BOD are considering to separate the sale team in Branches into 2 group, one is customer relationship which specialize in attracting customer for branches and one is credit service which specialize in assisting the customer relationship finish the credit proposal include finance analysis, risk management and paper work before and after the deal done.”

Ms Linh who have the new job as salesman at other financial company also agree about the specializations could help her more fulfil in job

“In the new place, there are the specializations in our work distribution My team had enough the people for every position, so the task work smoothly, I don’t need to cover a lot of work and work overtime anymore Moreover, I am assigned what I am really good at, instead of a lot of unnecessary work as before I feel I grow up in career everyday”

Steps to conduct this solution:

According to Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (19), there are five steps

to conduct the job redesign:

 Do an assessment of current work practices

 Do a task analysis

 Design the job

 Implement the new job design gradually

 Re-evaluate job design on a continual basis

Based on discussion with some consulting expert, I recommend this project should be conducted by internal employees, not outsource it to external employees to conduct the project because the budget is limited and the internal employees can understand the situation of OCB more than the other

To deal with situation that assignment are not appropriate with ability lead to work overload and job stress in salesman, we must consider to the recruitment as the first stage

in progress put wrong people in wrong place

From literature, Khattak et al (20)also stated that it is important to place employee in appropriate division of labor to reduce workload

When asking the opinion from OCB managers about this solution, I got some confirmation

as belows

Mr C – The area manager also confirmed that:

“With this consideration, the HR department must add the method to identify the ability of candidate which advise the branch manager in the recruitment processs and to give candidate the suitable position into 2 group.”

Then, for the current staffs, it is not reasonable if force them to quit, then the better step is rearrange current employee into suitable group of work and give them a opportunity to work on field they good at This is the key successful point, one of branch manager who rearrange successfully sharing

Mr T – branch manager emphasized about his solution for this situation:

“To keep the team work effective, I have already divided every team into some smaller groups and rearrange the work for each people The “Shark” group is include people who are excellent in finding customer and bring customer to OCB, “Bear” group is include people who are excellent in analysis and evaluation customer, newbies group is include the junior people who are ordered to rotate and help both team to enhance the skills and knowledge.”

Through the literature and opinion from branch manager who dealt with this problem successfully in his branches, placing the employees in appropriate job position could be the first solution to solve the existing job stress To place the employees in appropriate job position, HR department should consider adding the aptitude test to recommend branch manager to arrange employee into right place

 Place employee in appropriate division of labor to reduce workload

 Assign tasks based on the particular strengths and abilities of individuals, ensuring equity throughout the process is one of action to decrease workload for employees

 Utilize the advantage and ability of employees to create the mutual goal of team and branches Employees accomplish the work in the working time and no need to work overtime more like before

 Quality of work might be increase because the right people do the right work could lead to the effectiveness

Cons:

 The cost to conduct this solution is estimated as below:

Table 4: Budget to conduct the first solution

In-depth interview between HR and Division/Branch managers in OCB

about the structure in sale team to redesign the JD which is more effective 15,000,000

Allowance for expert who design the JD and KPIs for sale team (25 million/

Allowance for 2 HR employees who joined in project team in 3 month (5

Cost of training the new structure in sale team and new JDs to all branches in

OCB within 3 areas in Vietnam, which conducted by internal trainer from the

design team (11,000,000 million/class)

33,000,000 Purchase the aptitude test bank from outside 154,000,000

into the appropriate part in sale team in the first period

 For employees, they could be potential for boredom, obsolescence and limited skill set Because employees might feel boring if they keep doing the same job from year

to year, and then mastering in only one part of process might lead they limit their skills, could become out of date in the daily changing world today

3.2 The second alternative solution: increase training, coaching and sharing in workplace

When employees don’t know exactly what they’re supposed to do, how to do their jobs or why they need to work a certain way, they could spend time more on useless task and it lead to work overload It is essential to find the solution to help salesman, especially junior salesman enhance the knowledge and skill related to job, then save the time spending on correcting mistakes and the problem solving necessary to correct bad performances, then employees will not suffer from job stress more and more

Many researches pointed that training and coaching is also the method to help employee handle with workload and job stress

According to Nweke (17), training is also viewed as essential It is helpful in building confidence on workers and makes them deliver their jobs with speed through their acquisition of new techniques in dealing with their job demands, then they could manage their time to handle work and have less stress

To reduce the stress for employee, David L(21) also emphasized the organization should make sure employees have the resources and training to do their jobs well

Enekwe et al (22) also showed in their research that the most helpful method of dealing with stress is learning how to manage it These acquired skills when learned work best when they are used regularly and not just when the work pressure is on The management

of banks should arrange, from time to time on their own, training their employees on some stress management mechanisms

Managers from OCB also confirm that training is really essential and need to do as early

as possible for new employees

Mr C said that:

“ Training is really important, if people do not have enough knowledge and skill they can accomplish the sale goal sustainable Especially for fresh saleman, who do not have large network But sometime the attending the training class in Ho Chi Minh city, Da Nang hay Ha Noi is really difficult for employee from the rural province”

Mr T added:

“Some of my new employee quit job because of lack knowledge about the process, risk appetite and stress because their loan and credit proposal continuous rejected by the board of risk management So I think it is necessary to hold the on-board and on-going training for employees

to help them work smoothly and reduce the stress.”

Beside formal training, coaching is also the method could be considered With the same benefits as training and more, McManus (23) also mentioned that coaching could make more effective use of company resources; coaching costs less than formal training

Ladegård (24)also pointed out planning skills acquired through coaching reduce stress in the short term, and that the effect is mediated through a decrease in job demand and the decrease in job demand is further shown to reduce stress in the long term

From interviews in OCB, other views about training are released Although no one denied the impact of training, the interviewees emphasize the essential role of coaching that branch manager/ line manager conduct for their own employee to provide the properly skills and knowledge in time they need In view of HR expert, Mrs A shared that training course is costly and with the limited budget, they only conduct some classes monthly and other is quarterly However, only 10% knowledge could learn in class, the rest the employees learn from manager and on the job Therefore, she proposed coaching from line- manager and sharing or support from colleage will be more effective From view of saleman, Ms Th also agree that training is helpful but it is hard to attend full class because of customer service all week day Then She said that she was lucky because she had the manager who sharing a lot experience and knowledge, this mentoring and coaching helped her overcome the stress when she was a fresh saleman

Ms Th

“ It is not denied that improve knowledge and skill of saleman is good idea In my case, I love to attend the class but it takes a lot of time and I always get the phone call from customer or staff to

ask about the product, the sale deal So I thinks that, the line manager could show us some and we are free to find the time and learn by ourselve When I was a fresh saleman, I was lucky because I had the manager who sharing a lot experience and knowledge so I could overcome the stress.” Pros:

From opinions which collected in interviews and many researchs mentioned above, this solutions can bring these below benefits to company

 Enhance the knowledge of product, credit process, sale skill for saleman

 Building confidence on workers and makes them deliver their jobs

 Apply new techniques in dealing with their job demands, then they could manage their time to handle work and have less stress

 Improve retention and reduced employee turnover; employees are more loyal and motivated when their bosses take time to help them improve their skills

Cons:

 The cost to conduct this solution is estimated as below:

Table 5: Budget to conduct the second solution

Option

1

Formal training cost for the whole training road map of saleman

quarterly next year for about 3500 salemans (average 2

Coach the coach program for branch manager in 3 area and then

branch manager will coach for new and current employee 660,000,000

Train for on-going employees technical courses include the finance

analysis, law, risk management, debt settlement, Collateral

valuation in 3 area (5 module* 3 course for every area.)

to reinvest to come up with the change of knowledge and new workforce annually The cost for training and coaching are also costly as above calculation, but the budget is limited

 For employees, the solution might lead staffs more stressful Since OCB want to keep the staffs up to date with latest trends and knowledgeable in their specific area, OCB need to conduct the training more more hours, more courses and even in working hours At the same time employees also need to fulfil their responsibility

in their main jobs, then they can not work and learn effectively and they get more stress

3.3 Justification and select the solution:

Based on the above cause justification, theory informed, opinions from interview and the pros and cons analysis has been compared between two alternative solutions, I recommend

to prioritize the first solution - redesigning job and placing the employees in appropriate job

There are several explanations as below:

First of all, the conflict in multi-task or multi-role in the job of salesman now in OCB is the main root lead to the work overload, so it is important to conduct the redesign job to make the work more smoothly

Second, the job redesign also the way helping manager to assign appropriate work for each different ability group of employees and to utilize the ability of employee to get the high performance and release stress for them Nweke (17) stated that allowing employees have more control over their jobs and works in their areas of specialization are the method to reduce the work stress Kaur et al (18) also pointed out that jobs which are hampering employees’ abilities and capacities should either be eliminated or redesigned according to employees potential Then, as mentioned before, when asking about the solution in interview, Mr C – The area manager also emphasized the Board of director also are considering to divide sales team into two smaller group One of them specialize in customer relation and other specialize in financial analysis and credit evaluation

Additional, Khattak et al (20) also stated that it is important to place employee in

appropriate division of labor to reduce workload Therefore, method to categorize the group of employee such as aptitude test also is recommended adding into the solution to help not only prepare for the stages after redesign work but also help manager assign current employee more appropriate, right person into right work That might help employees to release the job stress

Finally, total estimated budget for this suggestion is 307.000.000 VNĐ, lower than the second one

To sum up, when the employees are put into the suitable position and could work in their strength zone, it could help them reduce the situation of work overload, and release the job stress

 Placing the employees in appropriate job the by adding one more step in recruitment to identify the aptitude and help branch manager recruit right person to right job, based on Clatworthy G (25)

The detailed action plan to implement is described as next page

Detailed action plan

Design the new

model for sale

team with new JD

and KPIs for sales

team member that

means the job

redesign

Research and make the appropriate model to help branch manager assign right person right job and make the business more effective

Do an assessment of current work practices In-depth interview between HR and Division/Branch managers in OCB about the structure in sale team to redesign the JD which is more effective

Implement the new job design gradually Pilot in 3 business unit and edit

it if needed Train employees in the new procedures and use of equipment Allow for an adjustment period and time to gain experience with the new job design.

Project team and training center

x x x x

Re-evaluate job design and announce to apply widenly in OCB

Announce about the new model for sales team in all OCB

Reseach and make comparison the partner of test bank and Buy the aptitude test bank from outside

Recruitment team

x x x

5 CONCLUSION

Human resource play the most vital role in every area, especially in service sector as banking Although the banking has the signal to recover after few years in crisis and OCB also have the great steps in development However, the turnover rate during 3 recent years

of OCB has the upward trend It is the unexpected symptom which administrators has to

be put more consideration Because turnover intention is a major issue, mainly in the field

of human resource management This study with the topic “Turnover rate and job stress in Orient Commercial Bank” has clarified some points as below:

Firstly, the turnover rate status of whole OCB as well as in salesman has been indicated through some analysis of data collected from OCB and other statistics studies

Secondly, there are many reasons leading to the turnover intention of employees, especially salesman in OCB such as low income, lack of development opportunity, job stress Because there are many conflict view about two reason about the salary and promotion opportunity and they both need the long-time strategy to change the situation and policy to solve, this study focus in the final reason which most of interviewees confirm it exist and impact to the turnover intention of salesman

Thirdly, based on the root reason lead to job stress in OCB, some solutions to help salesman release the job stress have been examined by considering their benefits and costs

Finally, the solution in which include redesigning job to enhance specializations and placing the employees in appropriate job are recommended to reduce the job stress of OCB salesman The action plan is prepared and need to be implemented immediately to bring the impact in employee retention and decrease the turnover rate

6 SUPPORTING INFORMATIONS

This study using two types of data First, secondary data was collected from reliable source such as statistic from HR department internal report of OCB, previous researches from online academic website, seminar documents and HR related website Then, primary data was collected by conducting a qualitative research with method of in-depth interviews

The target interviewees are divided into two groups:

Group 1: Manager/ staff/ saleman who are currently working at Company OCB

 First session: To find the problem in OCB

 Second session: To find the solution

Group 2: Salemans who already left OCB Company

Group 1: Manager/ staff/ saleman who are currently working at Company OCB

Ms

Th

Group 2: Salemans who already left OCB Company

Mr M Male Former saleman, quit job in OCB 4 years 3 years October, 2017 OCB

Mrs Tr Female Former saleman, quit job in OCB 2 years 2 years August, 2017 OCB

Ms L Female Former saleman, quit job in OCB 3 years 2 years August, 2017 OCB

Mr D Male Former saleman, quit job in OCB 1 years 6 months August, 2017 OCB

6.1 INTERVIEW GUIDE

6.1.1 Group 1: Manager/ staff/ saleman who are currently working at Company OCB First session: To find the problem in OCB

WARM – UP:

Greeting and introduction

1 Could you introduce a little bit about yourself?

2 How long have you worked at OCB?

MAIN QUESTIONS:

Compulsory question

3 The turnover rate of OCB is high, how about your division/ department? How it impact on your operation?

Probe: How much is the turnover rate in your department last year?

4 What do you think about the reason make a lot of employees left OCB ? What you think about these reasons?

Prompt: Income, Development opportunity, Jobstress

Optional question, based on the answer of question 5

5 Do you think the C&B policy for employee is reasonable and worth with what they have done for OCB? Probe: How was it in past and How is it in present?

6 Do OCB have the career path and create the opportunity for employee to be promoted?

Probe: How was it in past and How is it in present?

7 What do OCB do to help your employee to achieve the KPIs? Probe: How was it

in past and How is it in present? Prompt: Coaching, training, mentoring…

8 In your opinion, do they face any difficulty or stress in their work? What are those? Probe: How was it in past and How is it in present? Prompt: Workload, Time pressure, Work-family ballance

THANK AND CLOSE