1 Executive Summary
This case study is to identify, analyze and provide solutions for after identifying the
problems according to best of my knowledge, which is related to key HR functions in
Asian Engineering PLC.
Asian Engineering Company PLC is an organization which is in business for the last
9 years. The business activity carried out by this company is all kinds of engineering
works. The company head office is situated in Grandpass and they have 4 branches
island wide.
Asian Engineering Company PLC have matrix hierarchical structure. Matrix
organizations are the concept of project structures. The project team consist of
functional representatives from various areas such as research and development.
Structures like this have more opportunities for the employees for their career
progression than other hierarchical structures.
This company is high profitable company which is earning averagely over 200 million
profit annually. They also hired outsourced workers for their island wide project
works other than permanent and casual workers.
When we studying about their recruitment methods they given more priority to
external sources of recruitment than internal sources of recruitment. Before selecting a
recruitment method normally we need to follow the HR planning process steps
because both recruitment methods have advantages and disadvantages so we need
have strong HR planning process to have a correct recruitment method according to
the situation.
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2 Problem Statement
This problem statement is to identify the key issues that Asian Engineering Company
PLC have within their HR process, Key result areas of Human Resource Management
and day to day activities.
2.1 Problems
The following are the problems revealed from the analysis.
2.1.1 Recruitment and Selection procedure problems
01. Choosing Recruitment method without having a proper HR planning process.
02. Short listed candidates interviewed only by departmental heads.
03. Panel Interviews are conducted only for non-technical staff. No trade tests are
held for skilled workmen.
04. Chief Engineers in different departments have been opposing the move that
administrated tests must be held for technical and executive level staff at the
first entry point taken by the new HR manager.
05. Workmen Outsourced depending on the projects.
2.1.2 Flexibility of the Organization is an issue.
2.1.3 HR planning has not been formalized on year on year basis.
2.1.4 Employee Resourcing
01. No formal job analysis has been conducted.
02. Streamline of job descriptions has been week.
03. Fixing of salaries and benefits have been done at the whims and fancies of the
heads of respective engineering and technical departments.
2.1.5 Issues under HR operations
01. Casual and medical leave have not been allowed to probationary staff. They
have also not granted earned annual leave in the year following the year of
employment on the basis that they have not been confirmed.
02. Work exceeding 45 hours per week has not been remunerated in that the
excess hours have not been paid for.
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3 Literature Review
Within the Literature review, I’m trying to gathering data from various sources to gain
better understanding about integrated theoretical and literature perspective of the
problems and that help me to get better understanding about the problems also more
helpful to provide solutions for them.
3.1 HR planning
In the words of Leon C. Megginson, human resource planning is “an integration
approach to performing the planning aspects of the personnel function in order to
have a sufficient supply of adequately developed and motivated people to perform the
duties and tasks required to meet organizational objectives and satisfy the individual’s
needs and goals of organizational members.”
3.1.1 HR Planning Process
Figure 1: HR Planning Process
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01. HR Planning Monitoring, Control and Feedback:
It mainly involves implementation of the human resource action plan. Human
resources are allocated according to the requirements, and inventories are updated
over a period. The plan is monitored strictly to identify the deficiencies and remove it.
Comparison between the human resource plan and its actual implementation is done
to ensure the appropriate action and the availability of the required number of
employees for various jobs.
3.1.2 Importance of HR Planning to an Organization?
01. Human resource planning meets the organization need for right type of people
in right number at right times.
02. By maintaining a balance between demand for and supply of human resources,
human resource planning makes optimum use of human resources, on the one
hand, and reduces labour cost substantially, on the other.
03. Careful consideration of likely future events, through human resource
planning might lead to the discovery of better means for managing human
resources. Thus, foreseeable pitfalls might be avoided.
04. Manpower shortfalls and surpluses may be avoided, to a large extent.
05. Human resource planning helps the organization create and develop training
and succession planning for employees and managers. Thus, it provides
enough lead time for internal succession of employees to higher positions
through promotions.
06. It also provides multiple gains to the employees by way of promotions,
increase in emoluments and other perquisites and fringe benefits.
07. Some of the problems of managing change may be foreseen and their
consequences mitigated. Consultations with affected groups and individuals
can take place at an early stage in the change process. This may avoid
resistance for change.
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08. Human resource planning compels management to asses critically the strength
and weaknesses of its employees and personnel policies on continuous basis
and in turn take corrective measures to improve the situation.
09. Through human resource planning, duplication of efforts and conflict among
efforts can be avoided, on the one hand, and coordination of worker’s efforts
can be improved, on the other.
10. Last but no means the least, with increase in skill, knowledge, potentialities,
productivity and job satisfaction, organization becomes the main beneficiary.
Organization is benefitted in terms of increase in prosperity/production,
growth, development, profit and, thus, an edge over its competitors in the
market.
3.2 Job Analysis
Job Analysis is a process to identify and determine in detail the particular job duties
and requirements and the relative importance of these duties for a given job. Job
Analysis is a process where judgments are made about data collected on a job.
3.2.1 Job Description
A broad, general, and written statement of a specific job, based on the findings of a
job analysis. It generally includes duties, purpose, responsibilities, scope, and working
conditions of a job along with the job's title, and the name or designation of the person
to whom the employee reports. Job description usually forms the basis of job
specification.
3.2.2 Job Specification
Job Specification is a statement of the essential components of a job class including a
summary of the work to be performed, primary duties and responsibilities, and the
minimum qualifications and requirements necessary to perform the essential functions
of the job.
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3.3 Recruitment and Selection
Recruitment is the process of identifying the organization needs to employ someone
up to the point at which application forms for the post have arrived at the
organization. Selection then consists of the processes involved in choosing from
applicants a suitable candidate to fill a post. Recruiting individuals to fill particular
posts within a business can be done either internally by recruitment within the firm, or
externally by recruiting people from outside.
Figure 2: Hiring Process
3.3.1 Advantages of External Sources of Recruitment
01. Provides new ideas / fresh perspectives
02. May bring new insights from other industries
03. Initiate a turnaround
04. Hiring experienced employee can reduce training needed
05. Internal politics may be avoided (e.g., less upsetting to present organizational
hierarchy)
06. Allows rapid growth
07. Increase diversity
08. Only hire at one level
09. Bigger talent pool / more applicants
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3.4 Labour Flexibility
Both innovation and labor flexibility are bored terms. Labour flexibility refers to
firms ability to make changes to their workforce in terms of number of employees
they hire and the number of hours work by the employees. Labour flexibility also
includes areas such as wages and unions.
3.4.1 Forms of labour flexibility
01. Numerical Flexibility
By altering the number of workers employed and by altering the working hours (Flexi
time).
02. Functional Flexibility
This refers to firm’s ability to redeploy their employees after identifying who perform
their current jobs well and who performs not well.
03. Distancing Flexibility
Replacing employees with sub-contractors. Employment contracts are replaced with
contract for services.
04. Pay Flexibility
Wage levels are not described correctively and there are more differences between
wages of workers. Wages are dependent on supply and demand of labour and also
dependent on individual performance levels.
3.4.2 Advantages of labour flexibility
01. Reduced labour costs
02. Firms will be more efficient and competitive. Flexible labour markets help
keep cost down for firms.
03. Increased productivity from core workers there could be increase output and
export.
04. Better work life balance for employees so that they have more time to spend
with their family.
05. Increases managerial control.
06. Reducing absenteeism.
07. Retain valuable and talented staff.
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3.4.3 Disadvantages of External Sources of recruitment
01. Less information available on applicants
02. Search takes longer and costs more
03. Outsider takes time to become familiar with current systems and organization
culture
04. Destroys incentive of present employees to strive for promotion
05. Can hurt employee morale and loyalty
06. May have to pay more for the job
07. Current organization members may fight new ideas
3.4.4 Selection Process
Following steps could be seen in formal selection procedure.
01. Application and Short listing
02. Preliminary Interview
03. Employment Tests (E.g. Aptitude tests, Psychomotor test, Job knowledge and
proficiency test, Interest test, IQ and general knowledge tests)
04. Diagnostic Interview (E.g. Board / Panel / Group Interviews, Structured /
unstructured Interviews, Stress Interviews)
05. Reference Checking
06. Medical Examination
07. Final Selection
08. Collection of various documents
09. Job offer interview
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[Link] Structured interview
Structured interview involves one person asking another person a list of pre-
determined questions about a carefully selected topic. The person asking the questions
is allowed to explain things the interviewee does not understand or find confusing.
Advantages of Structured Interviews
01. They can evaluate competencies that are difficult to measure using other
assessment methods.
02. All candidates are asked some pre-determined questions in the same order (not
time consuming).
03. All responses are evaluating using the same rating scale and standard for
applicable answers.
04. Fairness: - All candidates are treated objectively. Because questions are based
on job requirements. This is also make it easier for candidates to see the link
between what they are been evaluated on and the job, improving the candidate
experience.
05. Can ensure questions are fully understood.
Disadvantages of Structured Interviews
01. Can be time consuming if sample group is very large.
02. The quality and usefulness of the information is highly dependent upon the
quality of the questions asked. The interviewer cannot add or subtract
questions.
03. A substantial of pre-planning is required.
04. There is limited scope for the respondent to answer questions in any detail or
depth.
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3.5 Contracts of Employment
Types of employment contracts are as follows:
3.5.1 Probationary Period
The probationary period is the initial period of employment, a kind of “trial period”,
during which the supervisor carefully considers whether the employee is able to meet
the standards and expectations of the job. Usually these are 30 or 90 or even 180 days
where extra feedback is given and employees are warned that they can be terminated.
3.5.2 Casual Employment
Labour laws do not describe who is a casual employee. For purpose of EPF and ETF,
there is no difference between a casual employee and others. Casual employees
should be paid on a daily rated basis. This employee does not receive payment for
public holidays (except under certain circumstances), leave, or annual leave. An
important aspect of this type of employment is that the employee’s services may be
terminated without notice.
A casual employee who continues employment for a long period can claim the
permanency through the Labour Dept. applying the “Termination of Employment
Act”.
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4 Alternatives
From alternatives I hope to give better solutions, provide the right kind of view and
what is the methodology to solve the problems with the use of literature review and
my existing knowledge.
4.1.1 Recruitment and Selection Procedure Problems
01. HR has allocated 5% of vacancies to internal sources and the rest is recruited
from external sources.
02. Short listed candidates interviewed only by departmental heads.
03. Panel Interviews are conducted only for non-technical staff. No trade tests are
held for skilled workmen.
04. Chief Engineers in different departments have been opposing the move that
administrated tests must be held for technical and executive level staff at the
first entry point taken by the new HR manager.
05. Workmen Outsourced depending on the projects.
Alternatives
At the first point we can identify there is a main issue related to HR Planning process.
In the Recruitment process HR planning is the first step and the third step is Job
analysis fifth step is the choosing recruitment method. So without having a proper HR
planning and Job analysis how these people decide what kind method we have to use
for the recruitment and what kind of recruitment we have to give the priority to.
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HR
Panning
Evaluate
Identify the
the
HR
recruitment requirement
programme
Implement
the Job
recruitment
Progranmme
Analysis
Choose the
sources and Decision
methods of
Recruitment
to recruit
Figure 3: HR Planning Process
So this is a huge issue. To overcome this HR manager need to implement the regular
HR planning process and its evaluation.
According to the formal selection process short listed candidates are interviewed by or
generally preliminary interview is conducted by HR manager. So this is not formal
procedure to conduct the preliminary interview. New HR manager need to focus on
the selection process and he need to take that into correct path with the conducting
board meetings to inform other managers to how to conduct the selection process
formally.
Also there is problem with the how they conducting the Employment tests. Normally
employment test are conducted to who are selected in preliminary interview because
that candidates are selected staff after second selection process step. But here at first
entry point the new HR manager conducting the employment tests for the mentioned
staff. As chief engineers says this could be very time consuming move because there
could be huge amount of candidates at the first entry point. We can reduce that
candidates with first two steps in the selection process. So HR manager need to focus
on the Recruitment and Selection process again.
Outsourcing Workmen is key HR point in Recruitment but sometimes there is
advantages as well as disadvantages. So outsource decision needs to dependent on HR
planning.
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4.1.2 Flexibility of the Organization is an Issue.
Alternative
According to the formal selection process short listed candidates are interviewed by or
generally preliminary interview is conducted by HR manager. So this is not formal
procedure to conduct the preliminary interview. New HR manager need to focus on
the selection process and he need to take that into correct path with the conducting
board meetings to inform other managers to how to conduct the selection process
formally.
Those aspects I mentioned above, I find is not the factor of change that requires the
workplace to be flexible. Another factor I find to be important is the employees.
People are changing. Their needs and wants are changing, their ways are changing,
how they live is changing and how they work is changing too.
Therefore some people are not wanting to work normally, having a Monday to Friday,
9 to 5 job. People are wanting to be more flexible with their time, therefore wanting to
work less hours, certain days of the week, have time off or whatever it may be.
Therefore some of the workplaces might benefit if they make themselves flexible in
the sense of offering these things to employees. So the workplace should be flexible
with that factor too.
I suppose in the past organizations were very structured, rigid. And today there still
has to be structure in the workplace, as an organization won’t work if there wasn't
some form of structure. In today's workplace, heavily structured organizations, with
rigid job specifications, with strict management styles won't work. The workplace is
changing due the ever changing and not predictable environments. Therefore that is
why there is a need for organizational flexibility.
So finally I need to say the management and CEO need to focus about Organizational
Flexibility because some organizations like Google, apple are in this positions due to
flexibility of their organizations, they are developed because they are balanced their
employees personal life and work life.
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4.1.3 HR Planning has not been Formalized Year on Year basis.
HR planning is the essential thing for an organization and for its success. HRM is a
strategic and systematic approach to managing people in a way that would maximize
their motivation and contribution towards meeting the organization’s objectives. A
HRM Plan is a departmental document which sets out what programmes are required
in the following few years to practice HRM in the department. The aim of a HRM
Plan is to help the department to achieve its mission and objectives through a
systematic design and implementation of HRM programmes.
This is critical situation for an organization cause of this issue organization may have
to face many other issues like follows:
01. Planning and Staffing
02. Leveraging Technology
03. Change and Engagement Issues
04. Due Diligence
05. Poor Hiring
To overcome this issue HR manager need to evaluate the HR planning or if they does
not have HR plan they have to implement the HR plan.
01. How to Implementing HR plan
Managers, Supervisors, Business owners and professionals need to participate in
implement HR plan because they are responsible for human resource function in the
organization.
a) Conduct a departmental strategic analysis:
b) Identify strategic HR issues arising from the strategic analysis:
c) Identify ongoing HR issues:
d) Prioritize the strategic and ongoing HR issues and determine actions:
e) Draw up the HRM Plan:
Once the department's top management has given their input into the HR priority
issues and key actions to be taken in step four, the HRM Plan and its associated
programmes are ready to be formulated.
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02. How to Evaluate the HR Planning
Evaluation is a process that have be reviewed regulated periodically or annually.
a) Measure the programme’s outcome and impact
b) Identify the defected areas or HR planning issues
c) Analyze those issues
d) Inform the future planning and design
e) Provide important internal lessons for those conducting programmes
f) Ensure the transparency and accountability
g) Provide broader lessons about good practice
h) Take corrective actions as needed
4.1.4 Employee Resourcing
01. No formal job analysis has been conducted.
02. Streamline of job descriptions has been week.
03. Fixing of salaries and benefits have been done at the whims and fancies of the
heads of respective engineering and technical departments.
Alternatives
Hiring is of key importance to the overall productivity of businesses. A well put
together job description is a good business investment because it can be used to
support most HR functions: recruitment, selection, orientation, training, work plans,
compensation, performance reviews and legal defense. Job descriptions explain the
key responsibilities of the actual position, reporting relationships and work
environment. The first step in writing or rewriting job descriptions is job analysis. Job
analysis is an in-depth study of a job. It provides information for job descriptions. In
doing the analysis, you or an employee will gather information about jobs through
interviewing employees, observing performance of certain tasks, asking employees to
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fill out questionnaires and worksheets, and collecting information about a job from
secondary sources.
Preparation of salaries is major part in HR department in the other words HR
department is accountable to preparation of salaries due date and the formal salary
process need to check by different levels of HR department. As they said, in this
company the salary process have been done at the whims and fancies of the heads of
respective engineering and technical departments. This is huge problem to the
organization because salary is the main factor and most important thing to the
employees and also it is one of main function in the organization. So I think there is
also some work and authority delegation problem So CEO and other top management
need to redeploy the work and need to handover the salary process to the HR division
with prior responsibility.
4.1.5 Issues under HR operations
01. Casual and medical leave have not been allowed to probationary staff. They
have also not granted earned annual leave in the year following the year of
employment on the basis that they have not been confirmed.
02. Work exceeding 45 hours per week has not been remunerated in that the
excess hours have not been paid for.
Under this situation employees can complain to the labour commissioner about this
misbehave done by the employers. HR manager of the organization is responsible for
this matter. Due to this matter new employees will not like to work in the organization
and this will get huge black mark to the employer’s brand. So new HR manager also
need to focus the Law relation matters and acts covered their employment types.
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5 Conclusion
The project has provided an enormous knowledge which is not limited to the
technologies used but also the aspects of different types of users since, at the testing
phase several improvements to the user interface was raised from the actual users.
Therefore it is possible to conclude that not only the knowledge and skills that is
obtained but also the practicality of implementing real world solution has also
experienced throughout the development of the project.
The Case Study can be described as a result of knowledge gathered from all the
Books relevant, Internet Studies and courses throughout the programme.
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6 References
01. Wikipedia,. 'Strategic Human Resource Planning'. N.p., 2015. Web. 8 Sept.
2015.
02. [Link]: The Next Generation Library,. 'HRP: Human
Resource Planning: Meaning, Definition And Features'. N.p., 2014. Web. 8
Sept. 2015.
03. Certificate Course in Human resource Management Study Pack
04. [Link],. 'Recruitment And Selection Recruitment And
Selection Business Studies And Business English | Business Case Studies'.
N.p., 2015. Web. 8 Sept. 2015.
05. [Link],. 'Civil Service Bureau. N.p., 2015. Web. 9 Sept. 2015.
06. UKEssays,. 'Business Essays | Free Essays On Business'. N.p., 2015. Web. 20
Sept. 2015.
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