Reflections on Department of Human Resource Management

Reflections on Department of Human Resource Management I did my internship at the Human resource department of Metro Hi-Tech (Pvt) Ltd in Gujrat. I spent six weeks in this department. Where I learnt how practically worked in Human resource Department. In Metro Hi-Tech (Pvt) Ltd the Human Resource Management department was established in November 2004. I worked under HR officer Mr. Aftab Butt, Payroll officer IR officer MR. Ali Raza. In this department I worked with every designation member and analyzed, observed and learned about the responsibilities and activities associated with them. Lets talk about one by one. HIRERCHY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT: Head: Human Resources Administration: Mr. Anwar Murad Human Resource Officer: Mr. Aftab Butt I.R Officer and Payroll Officer: Mr. Ali Raza Admin Officer: Mr. Asad Shah Admin officer (Lahor): Mr. Javed DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT I did my internship at the Human Resource department of Metro Hi- Tech (Pvt) Ltd in Gujrat. I spent six weeks in this department. Where I learnt how practically worked in Human resource Department. In Metro hi-tech the HRM department was established in Nov 2004. I worked under HR officer Mr. Aftab Butt, Payroll officer IR officer Mr. Ali Raza. In this department I worked with every designation member and analyzed, observed and learned about the responsibilities and activities associated with them. Lets talk about one by one. 2.1) Human Resource Management: Human resource (or personnel) management is getting things done through people. Its an essential part of every managers responsibilities, but many organizations find it advantageous to establish a specialist division to provide an expert service dedicated to ensuring that the human resource function is performed efficiently. People are our most valuable asset is a clichà © which no member of any senior management team would disagree with. Yet, the reality for many organizations is that their people remain Under valued Under trained Under utilized Poorly motivated, and consequently Perform well below their true capability Objectives of Huamn Resource Department: The main objective of the department is To hire the best candidate who best fit for job along with the organization and in this way increase the work effectiveness and efficiency of the whole organization. FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF HR DEPARTMENT IN Metro Hi-Tech (Pvt) Ltd. HR department of Metro Hi-Tech (Pvt) Ltd performs below mentioned functions. FUNCTIONS OF HR DEPARTMENT Man Power Planning Job Analysis Recruitment Selection Orientation Training Development Compensation Performance Appraisal Development of Forms New Employees Registrations Scholarships Terminations Legal Applications Resign Arrangements Wages Register Holiday Register Attendance Register Marriage Grant Advances Attention Cards Advance Record Salary Slip Distribution Guest Arrangement Hotels Reservations Entertainment Employees Record Keeping Resignations Final Settlements Death Grants Travel Expanse Claims Pension Cases Leaves Encashment Bonus Working Medical Bills Claim Disable Claim Group Insurance Daily Attendance Over Time Calculation Leave Applications Record Keeping Gratuity Calculation Salary Verification Group Insurance 4Functional Overview: There are four functions which are being performed under the Human Resource department of METRO Hi-Tech, it includes Huamn Resource planning, recruitment and selection IR Compensation and Reward Administration HRM Planning, Recruitment and Selection: The Human Resource planning, recruitment and selection process is done under Huamn Resource officer Mr. Aftab Butt and I worked with them and learned about the responsibilities and activities associated with them. He is the person who assists Manager Huamn Resource in hiring procedure and assessment methods e.g. designing job advertisements, developing competency criteria and effective selection process in coordination with different departments, carry out orientation of employees in junior management cadre and workers. And carry out any other job to meet organizational objectives. For this planning is the most important function. Planning: The penalties for not being correctly staffed are costly. Understaffing loses the business economies of scale and specialization, orders, customers and profits. Overstaffing is wasteful and expensive, if sustained, and it is costly to eliminate because of modern legislation in respect of redundancy payments, consultation, minimum periods of notice, etc. Very importantly, overstaffing reduces the competitive efficiency of the business. Planning staff levels requires that an assessment of present and future needs of the organization be compared with present resources and future predicted resources. Appropriate steps then be planned to bring demand and supply into balance. Thus the first step is to take in METRO for planning is satellite picture of the existing workforce profile (numbers, skills, ages, flexibility, gender, experience, forecast capabilities, character, potential, etc. of existing employees) this picture shows the existing rate of supply and what will be the demand of employees to meet the future needs Future staffing needs will derive from: Sales and production forecasts The effects of technological change on task needs Variations in the efficiency, productivity, flexibility of labor as a result of training, work study, organizational change, new motivations, etc. Changes in employment practices (e.g. use of subcontractors or agency staffs, hiving-off tasks, buying in, substitution, etc.) Variations, which respond to new legislation, e.g. payroll taxes or their abolition, new health and safety requirements Changes in Government policies (investment incentives, regional or trade grants, etc.) At the end the supply schedule is compared to the demand which shows that employees are either understaffed, overstaffed or according to the needs of companies. If employees are understaffed then company will perform recruitment function and hire new employees, and in case of overstaffing the company will perform downsizing. And at this time the rate of downsizing in Metro is 10% from every department. Recruitment: Recruitment and selection process is a very important part of staffing. Every company whatever their length should follow the recruitment and selection policy. To achieve any companys objective, qualified personnel are needed to be ensured at all level in an organization. In Metro Hi-Tech I learnt how the recruitment process was done. Recruitment of staff is preceded by an analysis of the job to be done (i.e. an analytical study of the tasks to be performed to determine their essential factors) written into a job description so that the selectors know what characteristics applicants must possess, what qualities and attitudes are desirable. Recruitment Process: In Metro Hi-Tech these steps are taken to recruitment process: A vacancy arises, sometimes this is due to the creation of a new job, on other occasions it may be because an existing member of staff has been promoted or is retiring. The job description is updated and an employee specification is written. The job description lists the duties of the job whilst the employee specification gives details of the experience, skills and abilities needed to carry out the job. A vacancy advertisement is written and is circulated via news papers, internet recruitments sites like Pazee.com, and employee referrals are also a major source in metro. Application forms are sent out along with copies of the job description and employee specification and must be returned on or before the closing date that has been set. A shortlist is compiled of applicants who are going to be invited to attend for interview. This is done by the recruitment panel that compare each application from with the requirements of the employee specification, Interviews are held. The panel will use the same set of questions with each interview. The interview may include a selection test. Sources of Recruitment: The main sources of recruitment in metro are Internal promotion and internal introductions (at times desirable for morale purposes) Web based recruitment. Employee referrals. Advertising. Job Description: A job description is a key document in the recruitment process. The job description must be produced for every vacancy and drafted prior to taking any other steps in the process. It indicates the potential candidates the range of duties and responsibilities of the post. It is used during appraisal to help evaluate the performance of an individual. It is a tool for performance management to ensure that the post-holder is fulfilling the appropriate duties to a required standard. I learnt how done job analysis and develop job description in metro. Selection: Effectively, selection is buying an employee (the price being the wage or salary multiplied by probable years of service) .in Metro hi-tech the selection is done by internal experts. Interviewing is carried out by individuals (e.g. supervisor or departmental manager), by panels of interviewers or in the form of sequential interviews by different experts and can vary from a five minute chat to a process of several days. Selection Process: In Metro after a substantial amount of applications have been received, the line and the HR managers again work together to shortlist the applications. This is done by carefully going through all the application and by giving different weightage to the following criteria: Quality of early schooling Grade obtained Extra Curricular activities Overseas travel and education Age Target University Relevant experience The HR Department then issue call letters to the short listed candidates along with blank application forms by Date, time and venue for the preliminary interview is advised and candidates are asked to bring along completed application forms. A two-member panel of HR and line management carries out competency-based interviews focusing on functional skills and managerial and supervisory skills. After the preliminary interview is cleared people applying for different jobs are tested in different ways. The following management competencies are assessed by a panel of cross functional assessors In the case of management selection: Communication skills Resource management Rational decision making Influencing Creative thinking Business development The Huamn Resource department is responsible for overall administration. The Huamn Resource department provides details of remuneration package and terms and conditions of service. The department also prepares appointment letter, service agreement and finalizes other documentation for service record. Grading Criteria of Employees: 1: Manual Workers: Helpers: they are non graded persons Semi skilled workers: after getting some training the helpers are promoted to this grade Skilled workers: semi skilled workers are promoted to this grade after getting some more technical training in their area 2: Supervisory Grade: Skilled workers having two years experience are promoted to supervisory grade. it includes three grades S1 Junior supervisor S2 Supervisor S3 Senior supervisor 3: Executive Grades: Employees from supervisory grades are promoted to executive grades only when they enhance their qualification according to the requirement of the job. They include E1 Junior executive E2 Executive E3 Senior executive 4: Managerial grades: In managerial grades there are different requirements. It includes five grades which are following M1 Assistant Manager (master degree or MBA, 2/3 years experience) M2 Deputy Manager (master degree or MBA 5 yrs experience) M3 Manager (master degree or MBA 8years experience) M4 Senior Manager (master degree or MBA 10years experience) M5 General Manager (master degree or MBA 15years experience) GRADING CRITERIA Grade (M) M Grade leads to the managers. There are 5 categories in M Grade. Designations according to grades are as follows; Grade Designation M5 General Manager M4 Senior Manager M3 Manager M2 Deputy Manager M1 Assistant Manager Grade (E) E Grade is used for Executives. There are three categories in E Grade. Designations according to grades are as follows; Grade Designation E3 Senior Executive E2 Executive E1 Junior Executive Grade (S) Supervisors are granted Grade S. There are 4 categories in S Grade. Designations according to grades are as follows; Grade Designation S3 Senior Supervisor S2 Supervisor S1 Junior Supervisor Employee Evaluation: One of HR officer responsibility is to assist Manager HR for the implementation of Performance Appraisal System (MBO) according to company policy. And to issue Annual Performance Appraisal Forms to concerned In-charges; follow-up and maintenance of appraisal record. After the performance appraisal maintain personal files of all employees. To working with HR officer I learnt how the employees are being appraised and how the record was maintained An organization needs constantly to take stock of its workforce and to assess its performance in existing jobs for three reasons: To improve organizational performance via improving the performance of individual contributors To identify potential, i.e. to recognize existing talent and to use that to fill vacancies higher in the organization or to transfer individuals into jobs where better use can be made of their abilities or developing skills. To provide an equitable method of linking payment to performance where there are no numerical criteria (often this salary performance review takes place about three months later and is kept quite separate from 1. and 2. but is based on the same assessment). In metro Hi- Tech appraisal is done on annually basis. Appraisals category in Metro hi-tech: There are four categories for appraisals in metro which is following. Appraisal category Definition of category % Of total numbers of employees which can be rated in this category 1.outstanding Indicates exceptional performance 20% 2.very Good Indicate performance that consistently meets the requirements of the position, very good indicates the individual is on track for advancements 16% 3. Good Indicated performance that requires improvement (i.e. meet requirements without initiative or advancement) 8% 4. Basic Performance to be improved (hardly meets requirements) 5% Sources of Performance Appraisal: In Metro the primary sources of performance appraisal are the managers or supervisors. There are used different appraisal forms for supervisors, managers and executives according to their jobs levels and competencies regarding their work. 2.4.2) Compensation and Reward: As internee I did work with Payroll and IR officer Mr. Mohsin Shahzad. their responsibilities are as following; To process the provident Fund Loan of workmen. To prepare daily attendance report. To prepare salary sheet for both divisions. To extract desired information from salary sheet for various purposes. To calculate bonus for both divisions. To verify attendance of both divisions and prepare late attendance report on daily basis. To maintain attendance record of all the employees. To maintain overtime record of all the employees. To maintain record of leaves of workers and staff. To maintain record of advances given to employees of both division. To carry out any other job to meet organizational objectives. I learnt their reward and compensation process. Different rewards that are given to employees by the company and how the record was maintained how fill the forms about the reward category. And also learnt their compensation process how the employees and workers are being awarded. How maintain relation with employees within the departments and outside the departments. To retain good staff and to encourage them to give of their best while at work requires attention to the financial and psychological and even physiological rewards offered by the organization as a continuous exercise. The compensation and reward program is controlled by payroll officer working under head of human resource. Payroll software is used in metro hi-tech to enter and control the pay of employees. They are more concerned about the financial rewards for the motivations of employees but they dont use any non-financial rewards. Financial rewards include bounces, group insurance, car schemes, provident fund scheme, medical policies, and TA/DA policy. 2.4.2.1: Salary: The compensation includes the basic salary of employees. This salary is decided by the job evolution and market surveys. Then it is bargain with the employee at selection time which results in the basic pay for that job. Mode of payments is different for graded and non graded employees. Payments are made to graded employees through banks on monthly bases according to the terms and conditions of contract and to non-graded workers salary is paid through cash. Allocations of remuneration: Managerial category: Basic salary 67% of gross salary House rent 40% of basic salary Utility allowances 10% of basic salary Non-managerial category: Basic salary 62.5% of basic salary House rent 40% of basic Utility allowances 10% Food allowances 10% 2.4.2.2: Bounces: Bounces are given on the basis of given salary. Bounces are 67% of the basic salary. 2.4.2.3: Provident fund scheme: According to this scheme 10% of basic salary of employee is deducted and same amount is added by the employer is put in the saving account of employee. The lump sum amount is provided to employees after his retirement. 2.4.2.4: Group insurance: Its a state life insurance for the death of employee during its job life. It is usually 2 lac rupees. 2.4.2.5: Car scheme: Car scheme are offered to only those employees who are working for managerial positions. This scheme for different managerial levels are Mehran to M1 and M2 Cultus /city to M3, XLI GLI to M4. Honda Civic to M5 (40% of book value is paid by employee in 60 installments) Fuel Policy: Free fuel or the CNG of the same amount is provided to managers 115kg to M1 145 to M2 175 to M3 225 to M4 250 to M5 2.4.2.6: Medical policy: Metro provides Medical facilities to employees and their family for OPD and Hospitalization. In OPD (Out Patient Door) policy allowances for supervisory grade are 12000, for Executive grades are 20,000, and for Managerial grade are 30,000. In case of hospitalization the whole expense of hospitalization is beard by company. 2.4.2.7: Loans: Temporary loans: temporary loans are one month salary in advance. Permanent loans: it includes loan more than one month salary and have to be returned in six installments. 2.4.2.8: TA/DA policy: Grades TA DA M1 5r/km 600/day M2 6rs/km 800/day M3 7/km 1000/day M4 8/km 1200/day M5 10/km 1500/day 2.4.2.9: Business cards: All HODs are eligible for business cards .they may request for 200 cards at any point. 2.4.3): Administration The work of admin officer is to control transport, maintenance, security management requirement and scraps. 2.4.4): Industrial relations: The responsibilities for IR officer are To maintain proper record of Employee Old Age Benefit ( Registration, Monthly contribution, Pension claims) To prepare documentation pertaining to Social Security Institution. To process workers applications relating to Marriage Grant and maintain their record. To handle all cases related to Scholarship of employees children, maintain record and follow up. Responsible for keeping liaison with the Government Labor Welfare Department, legal advisor in legal matters and whenever necessary official of the district administration of their public utility departments. To participate in domestic enquiries, to produce documentary evidence on behalf of company representative. To arrange Group Insurance of employees and prepare updated list of all employees, to lodge disability and death claim etc. To prepare updated list of employees members of Provident Fund Contribution Scheme. To prepare the list of employees applied for permanent advance update its record in coordination with payroll Administrator. To verify attendance of both division. To assist Pay Roll Officer in salary preparation. To update record related to statutory requirement. To arrange EOBI cards of employees within time and to arrange monthly contribution. To arrange new Social Security Cards and renewal of cards at the earliest opportunity. To maintain smooth relationship with all workers of the company. To carry out any other job to meet organizational objectives. Good industrial relations, while a recognizable and legitimate objective for an organization, are difficult to define since a good system of industrial relations involves complex relationships between: (a) Workers (and their informal and formal groups, i.e. trade union, organizations and their representatives) (b) Employers (and their managers and formal organizations like trade and professional associations); (c) The government and legislation and government agencies l and independent agencies like the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service. Oversimplified, work is a matter of managers giving instructions and workers following them but (and even under slavery we recognize that different managing produces very different results) the variety of forms which have evolved to regulate the conduct of parties (i.e. laws, custom and practice, observances, agreements) makes the giving and receipt of instructions far from simple. Two types of rule have evolved: Substantive, determining basic pay and conditions of service (what rewards workers should receive); Procedural, determining how workers should be treated and methods and procedures. I worked for filling the documents relating to the induction. I filled the payroll entries which is the basic documentation. And learnt how to include new inductions in payroll which is done through HR. and also seek how made salary sheets in the end of the month During work under Mr. Aftab butt he assigned an task to create any job vacancy for metro hi-tech. So I create job vacancy for telephone operator and describe the need of telephone operator which is following. Metro Hi-Tech Telephone Operator in Gujrat The ingredients of the implementation plan are. Need/problem at the branch. Qualities of a telephone operator Benefits of a telephone operator. How the need created and companies staff decision. Need problem at the branch. Every organization has some problems. Metro has the problem of telephone operator. It can save the precious time of not only manager but other staff as well. On the other hand companys communication system was not doing well overall. Therefore as an internee I felt that there should be a telephone operator who can easily handle this situation. Benefits of the telephone operator It saves precious time of the manager and staff members. It saves the time of the customers. Creates good impression on the customer. Communication within the company. Communication of company with outside enhances. How the need was created The need for telephone operator was created because the staff members would have to leave their work and attend the telephone but sometimes it would be a wrong call, others call or the calls which they wanted to avoid this would not only waste their time but also affect their performance a great deal. Therefore they think its useful to have a spare person for this facility. CRITICAL ANALYSIS Metro Hi Tech have all the departments working and also have got sufficient man power available in terms of quantity a part from human resource department. In the whole organization there are quite good enough experienced human resource available, who are motivated fresh and committed again except human resource department. There is autocracy in organization but still rests of the employees are taken into consideration while making any decisions but partially. CEO of Metro Hi Tech have got strict attitude with employees. He takes an adequate part in daily operations done by management team. Culture of the organization is very learning. Employees tend to help each other they dont feel fear of inferiority by telling or helping. They have flexible culture regarding timings but still everyone has to complete ones working hours. About other rules and regulations they have strong culture each and every thing is communicated to every employee. Coordination among departments has been on the better side in the whole period of mine as an internee. But there is overlapping in departments, which is causing some problems. Organization has very good sales and marketing department with experienced and qualified staff that is why their customer service department is very strong and takes care of customer. Rest of all department are also working properly they all have sufficient quantity and quality of employees but there are two departments about which I recognize that there is problem in terms of quality and quantity of employees, those departments are purchase and human resource department. In purchase department they have sufficient quantity but they have unskilled department because they dont know how to use computer because they have to do a lot of work on computer. Where as in human resource department they have many problems to face some of them are internally caused and some externally. Internally factors are that there is overlapping in human resource department they have insufficient quantity and quality of staff. There are tow retired employees are working whos performance, motivation and commitment is on the lower side and they are very lazy in their work which is disturbing whole coordination of the department. Secondly there is need of at least one employee in human resource department because they have loads of work to do and often fail to meet the assignments. So there is need of fresh blood. Externally factors are stopping them to perform all the human resource functions e.g. training and development of employees, organization doesnt have strategic focus about training and development of employees although human resource department wants to do but top management doesnt. That is reason they have lost many experienced and qualified emp loyees in the past. Another problem is that all the promotions are done on the basis of references and favoritism although they have very good policy of performance appraisal. There is another problem which is that they must have to have their HRIS (Human Resource Information System). They are maintaining their record on MS EXCEL but they must have HRIS to maintain skills inventories. In their workplace area to avoid conflicts between workers they have made a policy which name is supervisory system. They have appointed supervisors to groups who work as moderators. Recommendations: Following are some recommendations for Metro, which we personally feel can be useful for the organization, its employees and the customers. And which helps the organization to improve its effectiveness and efficiency in highly competitive world. The Human Resources should take less time in recruitment and selection. There should be training centers for employees and workers. In training refreshing courses should be adequate and more frequent. Advanced training should b given to employees which enhance their skills. Human Resource Department may advice and train employees for one window operation in order to reduce the time and conserve the resources. Executives and employees should be trained on continuous basis to give them knowledge about the current market trends and new marketing concepts. The promotional criteria by the Human Resource Department should be defined and be as per rules. The proper and competitive evaluation of the methods and procedures adopted by other competitors will enhance the performance of Human Resource Department. Metro should use 360 % appraisal and potential appraisal process to evaluate employees. This is the era of Information Technology. The functions and procedures of the Company should be converted from manual to the automatic. It will enhance the performance of the Human Resource Department and ultimately of the company Human Resource Department should allocate resources for this purpose. Pay packages may be revised in the light of profit earned by the organization. Metro has a formal environment which can be changed to more relax and friendly environment. To establish core competence and to bring competitiveness, metro should implement numerous effective plans to improve the performance of its various departments. Supervisors must manage employee performance well in order for Metro to accomplish its mission and achieve its goals. There should be effective communication system .Establishing and maintaining effective communications with each Employee not only requires good oral and written communications Skills, but it also includes the ability to establish good working Relationships. To communicate effectively with employees, Supervisors must establish an environment that promotes an open Door atmosphere, the sharing of ideas, and employee involvement in decision making processes. When HR manager is going to prepare job description must get information about work to employees it is easy for employees to do work effectively. Employees should be known that what is expected to them and how it will be measured. So KPAs and performance measures should be well communicated to employees.