Challenges of Data Conversion in HRIS at Fiber @ Home Limited

Challenges of Data Conversion in HRIS at Fiber @ Home Limited

Fiber @ Home Ltd. is one of the growing local companies in the telecommunication and transmission industry of Bangladesh. It is working to reduce the wastage of national resources and to ensure the growth of communication sector in all areas, BTRC issued the Infrastructure Sharing Guideline. Using a view to optimum utilization of existing network, not allowing reduplication of network in the same route and to reach all upazilas of the country, Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network (NTTN) License was obligatory at that time. Fiber @ Home Ltd. visions about a tomorrow where the whole Bangladesh is connected with one single thread and everyone has his portion of the information super highway. Those moments are not far. They are developing a completely Secured & Robust optical fiber backbone network nationwide. They are destined to build a network up to the Upazilas of the country. Working towards that goal Fiber @ Home Ltd. has built Underground Metro Ethernet Network in multiple Metropolitans. Fiber @ Home Ltd. has undertaken a project to cover Bangladesh by laying out optical fiber network with a view to facilitate country‟s ever-expanding TELCO, ISP, PSTN, BWA (WiMax), and cable TV etc sector. Fiber @ Home Ltd. applied and was duly awarded the NTTN (Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network) License from the BTRC on 7 January 2009. It is the first ever company to receive such a license in Bangladesh. Fiber @ Home Ltd. also awarded with ITC (International Terrestrial Cable) License on 5th January, 2012 and IIG (International Internet Gateway) license on 12th April, 2012.

The company has a total workforce of around 377 employees. Fiber @ Home Ltd. as an employer highly put emphasis on an employee-oriented workplace culture and values the wellbeing of its employees. At the same time, the organization focuses on each and every rules and regulations set by the Government. According to Bangladesh Labor Law the minimal age of a person capable for working is 18, and any of the employees in Fiber @ Home Ltd is not under 18 years old. While taking interview especially in time of joining employees are asked to provide photocopy of their national ID card which is a proof that they are not below 18 years old. For permanent employees, they have be in a probationary for six months, after that if the line manager feels that the employee is capable to join the organization as permanent then the probationary period ends else the period is extended for extra three months. In terms of contractual employees, according to the need organization the time period of contract is extended. The payment scale of the organization is very confidential and it is maintained as per company rules. The employees are allotted with fourteen days of casual leave and fourteen days of sick leave.

The target of preparing this report is to give an idea about the organization Fiber @ Home Ltd., the atmosphere of working as an intern, job description in recruitment division and finally the challenges that are faced while working in HRIS.

Challenges of Data Conversion in HRIS

PREFACE

The history of internet is not that old even in developed countries. The people of Bangladesh had to remain in dark about it for a long time because of the non-availability of the service in this part of the globe. The main obstacle to start the service was to have data circuits to a suitable overseas location. However in this condition a few young talents started dialup e-mail service and made it commercially available for public use. In late 1995 the government of Bangladesh invited applications to subscribe the VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) data circuits.

On June 4, 1996 the VSAT base data circuit was commissioned for the first time in the country. Upon VSAT commissioning, internet connectivity was established & its services were made available to the public. After internet was launched, the June 1996 National polls results were made available to the netizens (it is the combination of the words „internet‟ and „citizens‟, which means people who are always active in online communities as a regular user of internet) of the world using World Wide Web. This was the first ever usage event of its kind in Bangladesh. The effort was appreciated in many corners especially among the Bangladeshis living abroad.

At present the usage of internet is used massively, as a result, the metropolitan cities and towns are cluttered with hazardous overhead optical fiber/cables. There are optical fiber/wired networks in the same area laid by the multiple ANS operators causing huge wastage of the national resources. Therefore, reducing the hazardous optical fibre, minimizing the wastage of national resources, BTRC had given licenses namely Nationwide Optical Fibre Telecommunication Transmission Network to Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) and Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network (NTTN) license to Fiber @ Home Ltd. to build and maintain a common telecom transmission network across the country. As NTTN licensee, Fiber @ Home Ltd. is building a nationwide underground optical fiber transmission backbone to create a platform for National Information Highway. This will help building a cost effective and commonly utilizable nationwide transmission backbone up to the Upazilla Headquarters. BTRC mandated the licensee a set of time frame to reach all Upazilla Headquarters within ten years of acquiring license. According to the timeframe by the first year of issuance of license, licensees have to provide the NTTN connectivity covering up to 5%, within second year 10%, by third year 20% as well as by tenth year 100% of Upazilla Headquarters. This company is laying out fibre optical network to facilitate country’s TELCO, ISP, PSTN, BWA (Wimax), and Cable TV Operators etc.

ORIGIN OF THE REPORT

At present days a single day without technology especially mobile phone, computer and internet

is hard to think. I chose Fiber @ Home Ltd. because this company not directly but indirectly

helps other organizations to give the internet support. Moreover, without manpower support this

task is not possible. By recruiting suitable manpower HR department supports the organization. I

main topic of this report is a very initial stage of to keep record of the recruitment process

properly and is essential for every organization. This report is completely original.

OBJECTIVE OF THE INTERNSHIP REPORT

Primary Objective

The primary objective of this internship report is to figure out the challenges I faced while storing hardcopy data‟s in a softcopy format of employment program of Fiber @ Home Ltd.

Moreover, another intention is to find out the proper layout of keeping trace of the CVs for future and create a better CV bank for the organization. The Culture of Fiber @ Home Ltd. is totally different from other organizations. There have been conducting their recruitment process according to their recruitment policy. But it is important to conduct studies across organizations to compare its results in order to create sound knowledge, especially for relatively new concepts like Best Practices vs. Best Fit. Second, although employment opportunities or process is a topic that has been increasingly examined from both academic and practical perspectives, its conceptual framework is still unclear. They believe in providing better opportunity to their employees and consider giving chances to learn.

Secondary Objective

The secondary objective of preparing this internship report is to fulfill a partial requirement of having BBA degree from BRAC Business School.

METHODOLOGY

Sources of Information

Primary: The primary information is collected through face to face interview, observation and by participating in the data conversion of recruitment process directly.

Secondary: The secondary information collected from website, magazine, memorandum, journals, internal database and some other relevant sources. Both primary and secondary data sources were used to generate this report. Primary data sources are scheduled discussion with employees of HR departments of the organization, informal discussion with professionals‟ and observation while accomplishing day to day jobs. The secondary data sources are website, different published reports, manuals, different publications of “Fiber @ Home Ltd.”

SERVICES

Fiber @ Home Ltd. is offering multiple services to clients from their very first day. Service diversification will make the organization to be a leader in NTTN operation of this sector in the industry. The organization is currently providing multiple categorized services to the clients to meet their demands. The services are given below-

Passive

Dark Core

It is dark core point to point lease service from one location to another where there is no involvement of active equipment‟s of Fiber @ Home. Client lease the fiber core and light-up the fiber through their own active equipment‟s.

IP/Ethernet

It is MPLS based IP/Ethernet Service. The Ethernet service is provisioning through IP/MPLS network where Fiber @ Home is offering MPLS based L2VPN and L3VPN based service. Client has choice to make their network topology under p2p, p2m or m2m manner through the transmission lease line. Clients can ask for 1Mbps to 10Gbps lease line transmission service nationwide. Presently Fiber @ Home has 10Gbps network and it will be upgraded to 100Gbps within 2014.

SDH

It is provisioning through the SDH network. We are maintaining separate overlay network for SDH to serve the clients. Fiber @ Home Ltd. is offering 1E1 to STM-16 lease line transmission service nationwide.

DWDM

FTTx

Fiber @ Home Ltd. has huge GPON based FTTX network at Dhaka Metro standardized for home broadband services by the ITU. The GPON based FTTx network would enable the ISPs to provide seamless and value-added IP services to the retail broadband users. It would also enable the CATV service providers to provision digital video broadcasting and IP multicasting services for the SD TV as well as HD TV services.

Co-Location Service

Fiber @ Home Ltd. is providing collocation service to the ANS operators in pops owned by it and also in other places shared with Mobile network operators. ANS operators can co-locate their aggregation/pre-aggregation router and distribution switch at our different. Fiber @ Home Ltd. will facilitate necessary power, rack space, grounding and 24×7 accesses for the service.

PARTNERS

Business of Fiber @ Home Ltd. depends on healthy relationships with customers, business partners, and suppliers. They build and nurture strong relationships that are mutually beneficial, making sure that they deeply understand the people they deal with, so that they can anticipate their (partner‟s) needs and always aim to exceed their expectations. Everyone in their organization contributes to the quality of the relationships they build and they actively seek feedback.

They are proud of their reputation, built over these years, which depends on their consistently doing the right thing. Integrity is their cornerstone and character is as important as ability. They build trust and act with honesty. They comply with their Business Ethics Policy, management system and all local rules and regulations. Fiber @ Home Ltd. fosters a culture of transparency and responsibility.

Fiber @ Home Ltd. divided their partners in 3 measures –

Clients
Financial Partners &
Service Partners

Challenges of Data Conversion in HRIS

INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT

A regular day without cellphones, cable TV or internet is not possible. And Fiber @ Home plays a major part in the communications sector in Bangladesh in providing better services, especially Telecommunications. They build, develop, operate and maintain a nationwide optical fiber based Transmission Backbone to enable a common connectivity platform for different service providers like mobile operators, cable TV operators, ISPs etc. and thus helping to create a Digital Bangladesh. This common infrastructure will use national resources optimally in the growing need of Information & Communication Technology and Telecommunication sector. As Fiber @ Home is a growing organization. Day by day, its activities are increasing and competing with that the demand for new manpower requisition is also increasing. To keep track of all the resumes that the organization receives everyday, we were introduced to an excel format, where we would enter the necessary data to gather the summary of the CV to have a look at a glance and keep updating the feedback regularly to the datasheet. In this report, I would like to discuss about the challenges I face regularly while maintaining the datasheet.

LITERATURE REVIEW OF DATA CONVERSION

Definition of Data Conversion

Data conversion means changing data from one file type to another. There are many data conversion programs on the market that support a wide number of text, database, spreadsheet and graphics formats. If a text document, database or spreadsheet format is not supported in a packaged conversion program, the textual data within the file can be converted. According to my report, data conversion means typing data from hardcopy to storing them as softcopy version in word file or spreadsheets.

Starting Journey Of The Datasheet

The excel format was initiated by AGM of HR department Mr. Md. Masud Rabbi, in order to keep record of all the reference CVs that the department receives from the employees working in the organization. The CV bank was getting enriched day by day, and the increasing number of both hardcopy and softcopy CVs were very hard to keep in track. So, to keep proper track of manpower support of future, he decided to maintain a better datasheet system for the organizations as well as departments welfare.

Advantage Of Data Conversion

The advantages of data conversion (from hardcopy to softcopy) is given below-

Any employee of HR department or higher authority can go through the CVs at a glance anytime as it is saved in server.
Reduces cost as the organization does not need to keep any other paper written information of those resumes.
To keep backup for future, the CVs are scanned and attached to the datasheet, which is works as a reserved filed both as hardcopy and softcopy.
The reference number that is given to every resume gives a proof that the CVs are previously screened.
Including the departmental feedback, interview feedback resembles that whether the CV is shortlisted for the position that it was applied for or got rejected. An overall preview can be done while skimming the datasheet.

Updated version of Data Conversion

I was asked by my Supervisor Mr. Md. Masud Rabbi to bring update the current version of datasheet that is maintained. To build it in such way, that every position of every department has individual datasheet and they are linked with their parent department. So, I worked on it and it result like-

To maintain the CVs received as a result of job advertisement (referenced, internal and external) in the CV bank properly, the following process would be helpful. Open an excel sheet, name it “CV BANK, (Year)” for the task to get easier.

Name the first sheet as “Department” and write the entire departments name in a column.
In the second sheet, write “Position – „dept. name‟” in the first column hyperlink it with the same department name situated in the previous sheet. For example- Link “Position – A & S” with “Admin & Supply Chain”. It will help to keep trace.
The next step is to write the name of the positions beside “Position – „dept. name‟.
It is applicable for every position of each department.
Create pages named after each positions of every department and link them with the position name so that by clicking on the position name, the page named on the position comes.
In the page named on the positions, there will be detailed information of the CV holder including the attachment of the CV.

CHALLENGES OF DATA CONVERSION IN HRIS

While converting the data from hardcopy to softcopy, there are various problems I faced. The challenges that I faced during this data conversion period is given below-

Conversion From Hardcopy to Softcopy

Converting information from hardcopy to softcopy itself is a big challenge. While filling up the related field in the datasheet, I have to be very careful so that no typing error occurs during that time. It is because any simple mistake can be turned into a big fault to the resume for which the candidate might have to suffer. The main thing in this data conversion process is full concentration.

Maintain The Reference Number/Serial Number

At present we are maintain two datasheet for reference/posted CVs, one for techniciansas the organization need a huge number of technicians in various part of Bangladesh, so in response to that we are getting a massive reply from candidates. Another is for rest of the positions. So, while giving a number, we have to focus on the fact that a reference number should not get repeated in any CVs.

Repetition Of CVs

Sometimes we get same CVs referred by various people. And the datasheet does not react on same information all the time. So, to avoid double entry of the same CV, one have to put his best effort to recognize every single CV that come everytime to figure that if the CV was entered in the datasheet previously or it is the very first time that the CV was received.

People Having Same Information

Many people apply in the organization against various posts. Some of them have similar name or a part of their name is similar. While entering their basic information in the datasheet, the datasheet sometimes gives objection to take the entry because of similar information (name, date of birth, organization, degree etc). It causes waste of time.

Technical Difficulties

As all these work are done over computer/laptop, sometimes these devices get hang and stop working properly. In addition, sometimes while saving the updated version on server the internet connection gets disconnected, which create difficulties while uploading the latest updated version and replaces with the old one.

Trouble To Understand

Sometimes when we get new CVs, we get them in a hand written manner. Some are understandable, some writings are not understandable. It is troubling for us, as wrong information entered by us might cause damage to the candidate.

Lack of Information

Every single resume that we get is entered in the datasheet. Some CVs that we get are not in a proper manner. It means, the basic information that we update in the database, some of them are not there in the CV which make the datasheet incomplete as there CV.

Not Maintaining Proper Format

Sometimes we get resumes for technician/jr. technician post which is not exactly CVs but a bunch of certificates only. It gets hard for us to gather information from those certificates and update them properly in the datasheet.

Keeping Softcopy

As I told earlier, we keep both hardcopy and softcopy in our CV bank. The CVs we get through mail or collect against advertisement from various websites are already in kept as softcopy but the CVs that we get by post or as a reference CV are scanned in PDF form and get attached in the datasheet. Many a times the scan machine gets out of order and sometime pages get stuck in the machine. Both the situation kills time and hampers in working order.

Update Every Information’s Regularly

The biggest challenge we face is to update information‟s regularly (whether the CV is sent to the respected department or not, what is the feedback from the department, is the CV shortlisted for the position, was he called for interview on scheduled date, will he come for the interview, did he arrived in the interview session or was update, the feedback from the interview board, is he selected for the position, expected joining date etc). Besides keeping track of regular updating CVs, these seem the toughest part.

FINDINGS

The finding of the report is to overcome the challenges faced while converting the data in the softcopy version rather than keeping them alike they are. It would not end the problem but will turn into a massive problem afterwards.

Overall Findings

The overall findings of the reports are-

Firstly, converting from hardcopy to softcopy needs proper concentration towards itself else it will turned into a huge difficult to overcome the situation. Secondly, maintaining two or three reference datasheet at a time causes difficulty to maintain chronological serial number in each datasheet. Next comes repetition of same CV through several persons, as we have to handle many CVs at a time, it becomes hard to recall the previous reference number.

Again, some people have similar information‟s including names, date of births etc. and the datasheet wants to enter the previous information that is stored. Technical difficulties, which have become a common problem nowadays. Moreover, trouble in understanding handwritten CVs is another challenge I faced during data conversion period.

In addition, More or less CVs that we get are not in a proper manner. They have lack of proper information that are needed to maintain our CV bank. Some of the candidates send their documents as CVs which causes severe trouble while preparing datasheet. Maintaining softcopy reference and updating regularly are some other challenges that I face while converting the datasheet.

To overcome these problems the recommendations are-

Recommendation

The only solution of concentration problem and reference number problem faced while data conversion is paying proper attention towards the work itself. No other alternative for this challenge is available.
There is no substitute of stopping repetition of the CVs from various people. The only outcome to this challenge is finding the CVs manually if it seems familiar and then put the entry.
To overcome the same information challenge, it would beneficiary to avoid auto correction suggested by the datasheet and do the task as it is being done usually.
Technical difficulties may arrive anytime; the possible way to avoid the outcome is to keep proper backups (sometimes it might not work as well).
Possible solution for problems in understanding data‟s written in hand is to take help from other colleagues. If anyone is not available at that time, mark the place, skip the information for that particular period and move to next information
Incase of lack of proper information and format problem there is no other alternative rather than skipping the required part.

CONCLUSION

Recruitment, one of the most important function of HR department. To keep regular update of the resumes that are arriving, the necessary data are being collaged together in a spreadsheet to keep proper record of them. This task is important because, it would help to figure out necessary data‟s in emergency period though there is no hardcopy CV along.

As Fiber @ Home is a growing company and it is expanding its business throughout the country, a huge number of manpower supports is needed. It is not always helpful to keep records in papers at the present time. In time of crisis finding a simple CV in hardcopy is very much time consuming whereas, when they are stored in datasheet it is very easy to find required information in few minutes including attachment.

The challenges/difficulties that are faced during the data conversion period are-

Conversion From Hardcopy to Softcopy
Maintain The Reference Number/Serial Number
Repetition Of CVs
People Having Same Information
Technical Difficulties
Trouble To Understand
Lack of Information
Not Maintaining Proper Format
Keeping Softcopy
Update Every Information‟s Regularly

In order to overcome the challenges faced while data conversion in HRIS some steps could be helpful. They measured steps are-

Paying proper attention while entering data‟s
Searching manually helps in some cases of repetition
Avoid auto correction in some special cases
Backup is an alternative suggested for recovery from technical difficulties
Taking help for coworkers/colleagues to understand hand written information is a recommended substitute.
In some cases skipping information‟s for time being might help.

To conclude, I would mention that without facing challenges nothing can established properly. So, by trying to overcome again and again one can be successful in any manner no matter how hard the job is. As Fiber @ Home Ltd. is trying to maintain their CV bank in a completely new format in spreadsheet, it will be easier to keep record as the time passes.