An Analysis of effectiveness of Banglalink’s leave policy
The purpose of this study was to explore the leave policy in Banglalink. Moreover, another motive is to find out the effectiveness and employees attitudes towards the leave policy. Being the second largest telecommunication organization, with other activities Banglalink have to maintain their human resource properly. To remove monotonous or in any unavoidable circumstances an employee may require leave. An appropriate leave policy can ensure high productivity of an employee. On the other hand a faulty leave policy can harm a company’s progress. Banglalink is very conscious about their employee’s well-being. They maintain a flexible leave policy, although only for dire situation with the approval of higher authority policy might be slightly changed. Banglalink is still improving their human resource activities to ensure better work place for their employees.
Scope
This report will give a clear idea about HR Operational Activities and Leave policy of Banglalink.” Also this report will help to understand the usefulness of leave policies which are followed by Banglalink. Officials of Banglalink may also find research give about their leave policy and recommendations helpful.
Methodology
This part talks about the methodology of this study. Methodology describes how we go through all the processes of research and how we proceed on. Here includes the steps of conducting research and the clarification of the sources of data.
Primary data- I have collected all the primary data to conduct the survey and interview.
Secondary data- On the other hand, the secondary sources which refer the published journals, articles, internet, and books and so on are used by me for extra information which has enhanced my knowledge on the topic.
Overview of Banglalink Digital Communication Ltd.
Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd. is a public limited company which has been registered under the Companies Act 1994. It is the 2nd largest operator in terms of coverage, subscriber base and revenue. It has 31.9 million subscribers as of March 2015, which representing a market share of 26% in terms of subscribers. Banglalink is fully owned by telecom ventures ltd. (previously Orascom telecom ventures limited) of Malta, which is a fully owned subsidiary of global telecom holding s.a.e. (formerly known as Orascom telecom holding s.a.e.) (www.orascomtelecom.com). following business combination in April 2011 between Vimpelcom ltd and Wind Telecom s.p.a, Vimpelcom owns 51.92% shares of global telecom holding s.a.e. (formerly known as Orascom telecom holding s.a.e.). Vimpelcom (www.vimpelcom.com) is one of the world’s largest integrated telecommunications services operators providing voice and data services through a range of traditional and broadband mobile and fixed technologies in Russia, Italy, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Algeria, Pakistan, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Canada and Bangladesh. Vimpelcom is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and listed as an ads on the New York stock exchange under the symbol “vip”.
The success of Banglalink is based on a simple mission: “Bringing mobile telephone to the masses” which was the cornerstone of its strategy. Banglalink has changed the mobile phone status from luxury to a necessity and brought mobile telephone to the general people of Bangladesh and made a place in their hearts. The mobile phone has become the symbol for the positive change in Bangladesh.
Banglalink was previously known as Sheba Telecom. Sheba Telecom (PVT Ltd) was a Bangladesh-Malaysia joint venture company. In July, 2004, it was reported that Egypt based Orascom Telecom is set to purchase the Malaysian stakes in Sheba Telecom.
Afterward it was re-branded and launched its services under the “Banglalink” brand on February 10, 2005. Till March 2015, Banglalink have 31.9 million subscribers, representing 26% market share.
HR Operations and Its Activities
In Banglalink, departments are divided into three groups, they are commercial, technical and support. HR Operation is a part of HR & Administration department, which part of support. There are other teams in department they are Organization development, recruitment and remuneration, and administration. The employees of this team can be considered as core level administrators. Their everyday activity includes employee joining, making and implementing organizational policies such as leave policy, attendance policy. Also maintaining employment law, Bangladesh labor law 2006, and employee exit, providing employees with guidelines and information. Work of this team is visible to others as they have to deal with other employees. So, it can be said that Banglalink’s employee satisfaction directly or indirectly very much depends on this teams tasks.
Major tasks performed by HR Operations in Banglalink:
Major task of HR operations team starts form an employee’s confirmation to the date of the employee’s last day in the organization. Other tasks like hiring, employee training is done by organization development team and recruitment and remuneration team. Major tasks of HR operations are discussed below.
On Boarding Formalities:
On boarding formalities is one of the common tasks done by this team. This task is done very frequently. After getting clearance from medical test, recruitment team provides him/her the joining papers and informs to come for joining on a specific date, on the other hand recruitment team also informs the HR Operation team to conduct the joining procedure. A representative employee of HR Operation team will collect these papers and check if there is any error in the documents. Also the representative will collect copies of educational certificate of the new employee.
Induction and Orientation:
Induction of new employee is done a day before joining. Induction is a process of giving an overview about the organization to new employees. Like other renowned organization, HR Operations team of Banglalink also organizes induction program where they provide a brief overview about the organization to newly joined employees for permanent positions. After a certain period of time for example 1 or 2 months later group of new employees is given another induction. This induction is organized in a big ways, were representative of every department of Banglalink give a presentation about their department.
HRIS Management:
The name of Banglalink’s HR Operations software is HRIS (Human Resource Information System) which is known as HITS. This software can be considered core element of HR Operations team’s tasks. Most of their task is related to this software.
Employment Clarifications:
Another task of HR Operations team is providing employment clarifications to employees regarding different needed situations. For example visa processing or educational purpose, pilgrimage purpose, higher study and other personal reasons of employees. Also checking the educational certificates provided by the new employees to ensure authenticity.
Personnel Database Management:
The HR Operations team in Banglalink is also maintains the employee documents. This documents are stored personnel file, both soft copy and hard copy. Softcopy kept in their HRIS software and hardcopy in their file room. Times to time these files are updated by HR operations.
Exit Formalities:
Exit formalities refer to process of quitting from a position. Completing exit formalities under law code is another major responsibility of HR Operations team in Banglalink. The exit formalities are same for permanent and temporary employees. The exit process starts by receiving copy of letter of resignation from an employee. Resignation letter have be given one month before last working day. Then at the last working date all the necessary procedures regarding exit formalities are done.
Disciplinary Issue Management:
Another task of HR Operations is to manage disciplinary issues in Banglalink. According to the company policy and, Bangladesh labor law 2006. This operation is divided into three parts. They are explanation, Investigation and action. If any undesirable situations occur, for example theft of company property, first the employee has to notify his line manager and HR Operations, and then he has to provide a written explanation of the situation. After that an investigation will be conducted by HR Operation. If found guilty, actions according to the Bangladesh labor law 2006, will be taken.
Other HR Operations Process:
Confirmation:
Employee confirmation is a decision process to make an employee permanent. The first step is to inform the line manager to conduct performance appraisal of this his new employee. If performance appraisal matches expectation level then that employee get confirmation as a permanent employee. On the other hand, if the performance appraisal is stay below expectation level then HR Operations extend the probation period for that particular employee.
Transfer:
Transfer process of employees for one department to another or from one place to another conduct by HR Operations team. With the approval from director they send transfer letter to the employee.
Increment:
After a certain period of time, Banglalink provides increment. HR operations work in there is to prepare the letters and distribute them to respective departments.
Employee Care line:
For each department there is a HR Operation’s employee who is designated to provide help or guidance to the employee’s. This is another important and demanding task of HR Operation team.
Banglalink Leave Policy
According to the labor law of Bangladesh 2006, every organization must have a certain leave policy and this policy should be in accordance with the labor law of Bangladesh. Banglalink, one of renowned multinational company stickily follows the law regarding leave policy given in the labor law. Below I have discussed all the elements present in Banglalink’s leave policy. The information below was collected by taking interview of Aleza Hasan Sharmin, HR Operations executive, human resource operations.
Annual leave:
Annual leave refers to the leaves that an employee can avail within year. In Banglalink number of annual leave is 21 working days. This leave in given for employee’s recovery from continuous working. The entire annual have to be consumed within the given year.
Most of the time it is seen that the annual leaves are consumed by taking vacation to abroad or in time of religious occasions. Bridge holidays are cut from an employee’s annual leave. Also one annual leave is cut, if an employee comes late and leaves office in a single day, more than three days. For example: man employee came late and leaved early form office in 2nd, 8th, 15th august, and 16th in this case for late in and early out of 16th august one annual leave will be deducted from his total annual leave.
Sick Leave:
Leave in time of sickness is right of an employee. In also true, total number of sick leave in Banglalink is 14 days. For one day sick leave employee does not have to provide any document but in case of more than three days, the employees have to provide prescription from a doctor. This prescription will be verified by company doctor and then the leave will be granted. In case of a severe injury or sickness an employee can be unable to come to work for more than 14 days.
In that case some leaves from annual leaves can be adjusted to increase number of sick leave day, although for this procedure have to be approved by the head of HR department.
Maternity Leave:
Now day’s renowned companies are following gender equality in recruiting employees. So more woman are getting opportunity to work. Maternity leave policy is implemented to ensure a female employee safety and balance of life. In Banglalink number of maternity leave is 120 working days. For availing this leave an employee have to submit relevant document including expected date of birth.
Paternity Leave:
Paternity leave is a new concept in Banglalink. It was included in there leave policy one month age. This policy was added to provide an employee time to be with his family. Number of days for this leave is five working days after the birth of the child. To avail this leave employee have to provide necessary documents to HR operations. This leave can be availed two times in his job tenure.
Pilgrimage Leave:
Pilgrimage leave, another useful and innovative leave policy in Banglalink. The name of this leave refers to its purpose. It is given so that employees can fulfill their religious believes. This leave is granted for fifteen working days. This leave can be availed only one time in job tenure.
Causal leave:
Causal leave the most common leave in the corporate world. The main purpose of this leave is to give leave to employees in emergencies. Also this type of leave can help the employee to make work life balance. Number of casual leave in Banglalink is 10 working days. This leave cannot be availed in back to back working days.
Findings & Analysis
One of objective of this report was to find out the effectiveness of leave policy of Banglalink. In this section of the report, findings and analysis of that survey will be given. This survey was conducted on number of 30 employees in Banglalink. Data for conducting this survey was collected by a short interview with each respondent.
Banglalink provides equal opportunity to both male and female. From the total population of 30 number of male respondent is 19 and number of female respondents is 11. Shown in figure:
To conduct this survey more effectively, level of employees in Banglalink is divided in three levels. Currently Banglalink have 18 levels, starting from junior executive to CEO. The divided levels are Entry level, Mid-Level and Top level. In the figure 2, below we can see that out of 30 respondents 23 respondents were in entry level and 7 respondents were from mid-level.
Almost all of the companies in the country have a certain time period in which they try to measure the newly recruited employee. This time period is known as probationary period. In this time they measure new employee by following some criteria. Leave policy in this probationary period is commonly 3 days and most of companies have probationary period of three month. This is also same for Banglalink. One of the questions in the survey was if the respondent considers leave during the leave period is acceptable. Figure 3 shows that out of 30 respondents, 40 percent respondent was neutral, 23 percent of the respondents agree with the statement and 20 percent respondents disagreed with the statement. So, from these finding, we can say that most of the employees at Banglalink do not have any objection if leave during probation period is three day.
Casual leave is designed for any unplanned or emergency leave for the employees. This type of leave is very common practice in every well-known organization. Number of causal leave in Banglalink is 10 working days. We asked the respondents that, number of causal leave in Banglalink is acceptable. The result is shown in figure 4. The figure shows that out of 30 respondents 16 respondents said that they are satisfied with 10 days causal leave, 7 respondents were neutral and 5 respondents strongly said that they are satisfied with number of causal leave. From this finding we can say that Banglalink is maintaining acceptable causal leave days.
Regarding causal leave there is another rule in Banglalink, which is that no employee can apply for causal leave for more than one day. In our survey we have asked that if the employees think that rule of causal leave is appropriate. In figure5 it shows that among 30 respondents, 12 respondents were neutral, 9 respondents said that causal leave should be availed for more than one day. On the other hand 6 respondents agreed that causal leave should be applied for one day. We can assume for the result that employees have no objection against the causal leave rule.
An essential element of a leave policy is sick leave policy. A human being can get sick any time. So it is must for an organization has to have suitable sick leave policy keeping in mind employee’s betterment. In Banglalink number of sick leave per year is 14 days. In the figure 6 below, it shows the result of our survey. In our survey we asked the employees if they think that sick leave policy in Banglalink is providing suitable benefit. 15 respondents out of 30 strongly agreed that Banglalink is providing suitable sick leave policy. 9 out of 30 respondents agreed to the statement.
Paternity leave is a common practice in many foreign countries. In our country multinational countries are also following this type of practice. Banglalink has recently added paternity leave in their leave policy. Number of leave of paternity leave is 5 days in Banglalink. In our survey we have asked the respondents about presence of paternity leave in an organization. The survey results in the figure below shows that 11 respondents out of 30, strongly agreed that paternity leave should be present in accompanies leave policy. 9 respondents agreed and 7 respondents were neutral to the statement. Form the result we can say that employees believe that an organization must have paternity leave in their leave policy.
Recommendation
From the foundation of Banglalink, maintained good human resource practice. There leave policy is example of their remarkable human resource practice. From our survey we have found that employees have no objection with current leave policy. Although we have seen that most of employees have neutral position in the survey. In this part we will recommend some change in the leave policy. We believe that this recommendation will have Banglalink to make their leave policy more efficient.
- Flexibility in applying for casual leave for more than one day.
- Re-create leave encashment policy.
- Flexibility in probationary leave days.
- Rethink Bridge holidays policy.
Conclusion
Effective leave policy is one of the most demanding issues of the modern HRM. To survive in the competitive era of globalization an organization like Banglalink need to more focused on creating innovative ways to ensure effective use of leave policy. From the survey it is found that Banglalink is maintaining a sound leave policy. Furthermore, HR Operations activities are very significant for an organization to manage their employees in a well-organized way. As I have made this report on Banglalink’s HR Operations that is why I got the chance to know that how they perform their HR activities and how they implement those in their organization. Moreover, HR Operations is more responsible to create and manage leave policy. Thus ensuring employee satisfaction.
At the end of this report it can be said that the HR Operations team of Banglalink have created an efficient and effective leave policy which keeps in mind the betterment of employees.
