Human Resource Planning and Staffing Strategy of
Intertek Bangladesh
Company Overview: Intertek
For more than 130 years, companies around the world have depended on Intertek to ensure the quality and safety of their products, processes and systems. Intertek goes beyond testing, inspecting and certifying products; it helps customers to improve performance, gain efficiencies in manufacturing and logistics, overcome market constraints, and reduce risk. Intertek have earned a reputation for helping its customers increase the value of their products, gain competitive advantage, and develop trusted brands. Through our services the company helps its clients to minimize the adverse health and environmental impact of their products and processes for the benefit of society as a whole.
Intertek is the industry leader with over 38,000 people in 1,000 locations in over 100 countries. Whether a business is local or global, Intertek can ensure that products meet quality, health, environmental, safety, and social accountability standards for virtually any market around the world. Intertek hold extensive global accreditations, recognitions, and agreements, and its knowledge of and expertise in overcoming regulatory, market, and supply chain hurdles is unrivaled.
Intertek can sharpen a company‟s competitive edge
- With reliable testing and certification for faster regulatory approval
- Through rapid, efficient entry to virtually any market in the world
- With total quality assurance across the supply chain
- Through innovative leadership in meeting social accountability standards
- By reducing cost and minimizing health, safety, and security risks
- By becoming a TRUSTED BRAND
Here is the list of services that Intertek provides:
- Advisory
- Auditing
- Certification
- Consulting
- Evaluation
- Inspection
- Outsourcing
- Quality Assurance
- Risk Management
- Sustainability
- Business Assurance
- Testing
- Training
- Validation
Here is the list of industries that Intertek covers:
- Aerospace & Automotive
- Building Products
- Chemicals
- Consumer Goods & Retail
- Electrical & Electronic
- Energy
- Food & Agriculture
- Government & Trade
- Industrial & Manufacturing
- IT & Telecoms
- Medical & Pharmaceutical
- Minerals
- Textiles, Apparel & Footwear
- Toys, Games & Hardlines
Project
Description of the project:
This project is mainly focused on the HR practices of Intertek BD. In Addition to this, many problems were found along with some critical observations and hence recommendations to those problems were given.
Objective of the study
- To understand the staffing process of the company.
- To analyze how the company incorporate efficiency of employees.
- Identify how the company projects job descriptions and job analysis for the large pool of applicants.
- Recommend solutions for the company‟s potential threats and weaknesses along with suggestions that can help to improve the company‟s performance.
HR Planning and Strategic Staffing of Intertek BD
Intertek is the 2nd largest testing service provider in Bangladesh where quality and on time delivery is their key to success. Even though, they are conquering their pillar of success by end of every well managed order delivery still they have to go a long way to achieve the No.1 title.
The one & only issue for not having the No. 1 position in testing industry of Bangladesh is because Intertek has come to Bangladesh way after SGS arrived.By that time SGS has already developed a strong HR team and grabbed market share. Employee‟s efforts, talents, knowledge and skills matter to organization. They are the key to their performance and survival. Whenever a company earns competitive advantage its company‟s employees who create, enhance or implement the company‟s competitive advantage. So everything begins with employees who come through accurate HR Planning and effective strategic staffing.
Human Resource Planning Process
Intertek BD is racing in race course with planning in a proper manner. They think about what Human resource planning what can give them niche opportunities. Human resource planning involves getting the right number of qualified people into the right jobs at the right time.
Through human resource planning we can identify the numbers and types of employees the organization will require to meet its objectives, for carrying out to meet business objectives and gain a competitive advantage, for comparing the present state of the organization with its goals for the future and for identifying changes in human resources needed to meet those goals. Human resource planning is very important for any kind of organization because often there may long lag times to fill positions, often influences both turnover and productivity and the “demographic imperative” demands more such planning. There are methods used for appropriate human resource planning. They are:
- Expert opinions
- Delphi technique
- “Bottom-up” approach
- Quantitative (mathematical modeling):
- Regression analysis / Trend analysis
Human resource planning process comprises of forecasts of labor demand and forecast of labor supply. Both the forecasts of labor demand and labor supply entitled with forecast of labour surplus or shortage, goal setting and strategic planning last but not the least program implementation and evaluation.
Intertek BD must focus on HR planning process to gain competitive advantage and to become market leader. They need to work on strategically but not traditionally. Now they are only focusing on expert opinion, bottom-up approach and trend analysis. But it is time when they might think about quantitative methods and regression analysis as well.
Strategic Staffing Process
Effective staffing is the cornerstone of successful human resource management. It lays the foundation for an organizations future performance and survival. By definition, strategic staffing is the process of staffing an organization in future oriented, goal directed ways that support the business strategy of the organization and enhance its effectiveness. This involves the movement of people into, through and out of the organization. Staffing outcomes determine who will work for and represent the firm, and what its employees will be willing and able to do. Staffing therefore influences the success of future training, performance management, and compensation programs as well as the organization‟s ability to execute its business strategy.
Intertek BD is running their staffing process strategically. As I know traditional staffing if different from strategic staffing as: Traditional staffing is less tied to strategy, more reactive and more likely to be done in response to an opening and lacks continuous improvement effort. Whereas Strategic staffing systems incorporate: Longer-term planning, Alignment with the firm‟s business strategy, Alignment with the other areas of HR, Alignment with the labor market, Targeted recruiting, Sound candidate assessment on factors related to job success and longer term potential, The evaluation of staffing outcomes against pre-identified goals.
The Components of Strategic Staffing
There are seven components of strategic staffing activities that, Intertek BD does well strategically, and hence it can create a staffing system that supports business strategy and organizational performance. The seven activities are:
- Workforce planning
- Sourcing Talent
- Recruiting Talent
- Selecting Talent
- Acquiring Talent
- Deploying Talent
- Retaining Talent
Workforce Planning
Intertek BD goes for workforce planning which is basically a process of predicting an organization‟s future employment needs and the availability of current employees and external hires to meet those employment needs and execute the organization‟s business strategy. Usually it involves both the hiring manager and a staffing specialist , can be short-term and focus on an immediate hiring need, Can be long-term and focus on the organization‟s needs in the future. Workforce planning is better strategically the more it addresses both the firm‟s short- and long term needs
Sourcing Talent
Sourcing talent is another component Intertek BD focuses on which is of locating qualified individuals and labor markets from which to recruit. It is an important component of staffing strategy. Sourcing identifies people who would be good recruits.
Recruiting Talent
Intertek BD is mostly dealing with lower level employees where their primary focus is to get proper manpower for primary activities. But now they think about recruiting professionals to have best managerial practice and proper marketing. To do that if they think about recruiting which refers to all organizational practices and decisions that affect either the number or types of individuals willing to apply for jobs and accept job offers. Recruiting activities entice them to apply to the organization and accept job offers, if extended. Employer branding is a component of recruiting, of creating a favorable image in desired applicant‟s minds about the organization being a good place for them to work with.
Selecting Talent
Selecting talent is assessing job candidates and deciding whom to hire. The method is implied by Intertek BD to assess and select job candidates which will determine how well the firm‟s new hires and thus the company as a whole will perform.
Acquiring Talent
Intertek BD think about acquiring talent, which involves putting together job offers that appeal to chosen candidates, and persuading job offer recipients to accept those job offers and to join the organization. Negotiations usually result in employment contracts.
Deploying and retaining talent
Deployment involves assigning talent to appropriate jobs and roles in the organization Succession planning and career development enhances deployment option. Socializing is the process of familiarizing newly hired and promoted employees with their job, workgroup, and organization. Succession management and career development are effective tools. Turnover of high performers can be expensive. Turnover of low performers can be beneficial. Retention saves money in recruiting and hiring replacements for those leaving. Both the policies are taken by Intertek BD.
Matchmaking Process
Recruiting and selection are interdependent, two-way processes in which both employers and recruits try to look appealing to the other while learning as much as they can about their potential fit. Applicants and organizations choose each other. Recruitment continues throughout the selection and acquisition process until the person is no longer a viable job candidate, or until a job offer is accepted and the person reports for work. Some firms continuously “recruit” current employees to maintain their attractiveness as an employer and enhance retention.
The Goals of Strategic Staffing
There are some goals to have strategic staffing. Before implying that, Intertek BD scrutinize the importance of pulling it. Creating hiring goals that are clearly linked to organizational strategies and objectives guides the strategic process. Process goals relate to the hiring process itself, including how many of what quality applicants apply, attracting appropriate numbers of diverse applicants and meeting hiring timeline goals such as completing interviews within two weeks and making job offers within one week of the final interview. On the other hand, outcome goals apply to the product of the hiring effort and including the number and quality of people hired the financial return on the staffing investment and whether the staffing effort improved organizational effectiveness.
Integrating the Functional Areas of Human Resource Management
To laying the foundation for a firm‟s strategic execution, staffing impacts the effectiveness of the other human resource management practices within the firm. Intertek BD goes for integration because the various functional areas of human resource management like staffing, training, performance management and compensation interacts with each other, getting enough people with the right qualifications and competencies to apply for jobs with the organization in the first place will impact these functions. Other human resource functions that are affected by the firm are staffing system:
- Training,
- Compensation
- Performance Management
- Career Development and Succession Planning
HR Planning Analysis
Forecasting Demand: Considerations
Product / Service Demand
Product or service demand is the organization‟s internal consideration based on which it simply design its human resource planning strategy. It refers to the want of particular products that are shaped by one‟s society and are described in terms of objects that satisfy needs, when backed by buying power, wants become demand. Therefore it helps measure the potential market for a particular product/service.
Technology
Technology refers to the explosive advances and exciting ways to learn about customers and to create tailored products; it also refers to the development of original products, product improvements, product modifications, and new brands through the firm‟s own research and development efforts.
Financial Resources
Before forecasting demand the organization should also determine the financial resources the organization has its own. Financial resources are in the form of capital and equity‟s. It includes the building, land, and current condition of stock‟s price, debt securities, solvency and the ability to cope with the marketability of the organization as well as liquidity ability of the organization.
Financial resources can significantly affect an organization‟s competitive advantage.
Absenteeism/Turnover
Absenteeism refers to the failure of employees to report to work when their schedules require it, whether or not such failure to report is excused. Whereas, scheduled vacations, holidays, and prearranged leaves of absence are not counted as job absence.
Organizational Growth
Organizational growth is something for which all organizations desire in order to strive and to prosper. The ultimate goal of most companies is profit, net profit, revenue, and other financial data, sales figures, number of employees, physical expansion, or other criteria to judge organizational growth are often utilized as “bottom-line” indications of growth.
Management Philosophy
Management philosophy refers to a system of principles that describe attitudes of managers toward their responsibilities to the enterprise and it stakeholders.
Forecasting Supply: Considerations
Demographic Changes
Demographic changes refer to the statistical characteristics of human populations, such as age and income that are used by businesses to identify markets for their products by determining just who their potential customers are and to serve as a means of locating geographic areas where the largest number of potential customers live. It is important to identify the changing needs in the marketplace and adjust to them.
Education of the Workforce
Education is a social science that encompasses teaching and learning specific skills and when it comes to workforce it is very much necessary to hire an employee with the right educational background.
Labor Mobility
Labor mobility refers to the availability and transportation of labor from the available source to required source
Government Policy
Government policies refer to the rules and regulations of a nation that restricts or permits the activities of organization. Government regulations make great impacts on an organization.
Government policies can also limit or prevent new competitors from entering industries through licensing requirements; limits on access to raw materials etc.
Unemployment Rate
The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed workers divided by the total civilian labor force, which includes both the unemployed and those with jobs (all those willing and able to work for pay).
Balancing demand and supply:
As soon as Intertek starts with the manpower for next 5 years where each department will have to fix their yearly manpower requirement, it will be feasible for HR department to project each department‟s yearly manpower requirement along with the required skill. For this HR will proactively work upon sourcing the candidates through taking prior interviews written exams and frequently coordinate with department‟s requirement.
Assessing Internal Candidates
Internal Assessment is the evaluation of a firm‟s current employees for training, reassignment, promotion or dismissal purposes. For ensuring Intertek‟s success, they evaluate which employees skills are needed to execute their business strategies and evaluating their employees if they have these skills and create development opportunities‟ for them. The Internal assessment goals are like:
- Maximize fit
- Accurate assessment
- Maximize return on investment
- Positive shareholder reactions
- Establish and reinforce employer image
- Identify employees‟ development needs
- Assessing ethically
- Legal compliance
I can say Intertek BD strictly follow the legal issues. Laboratories are located in multi-storied building around Bangladesh including Dhaka and Chittagong. Working conditions in Bangladesh are good and meets the western standards. On a par with other local testing service providers, laboratories are often dimly lit, with poor ventilation, and open for very long hours. However, Intertek BD laboratories operate with good lighting and are not overly hot or crowded. The workers, both male and female, work with a break during their shift. Seldom the laboratories doors are locked. Guards with key cards stand by the locked gate. Overtime hours occur during peak periods in the production cycle when manufacturers are rushing to fulfill their export quotas. Then I can easily make a conclusion that Intertek BD follows some of them if market share and shareholder relationship and market growth of last five year are considered then it can be said that they are doing a great job.
Existing Internal Assessment Methods
- Skills inventories
Strategic HR planning is important to the success of any organization. It involves analyzing the need for and availability of human resources in meeting the organization‟s goals and objectives. Creating and maintaining a skills inventory can assist HR in these efforts. A skills inventory is a compilation of the skills, education and experiences of current employees. Organizations use these inventories to assess their ability to meet certain company goals in that case for promoting mid level employees Intertek BD uses these.
- Specializations in specific skill areas
- Academic credentials
- Employment experience by industry and position
- Prior training and education classes
- Acquired licenses and certifications
Multi-source assessment, popularly referred to as 360-degree assessment, is being embraced by organizations at an accelerating rate. As its name implies multi-source assessment analyzes employee performance and development from multiple points of view, including supervisors, peers, subordinates, and customers. Knowledge of how a person is perceived by others can have a significant impact on a person, especially when such information is derived from credible work associates. Common applications of multi-source assessment include, but are not limited to, motivating employee behavior change, supporting cultural changes, reinforcing team behaviors, and career development. Behavioral Insights offers customized multi-source feedback processes that allow individuals to gather feedback about their performance in areas determined to be critical for success. All of our multi-source instruments solicit feedback on competency models that have been specifically tailored to targeted individuals in your organization. For doing this Intertek BD creates flexible systems that can be administered in paper-and-pencil format. They coordinate the entire process, including the distribution of surveys, computation of results, providing customized feedback, and creation of developmental action plans. With the administrative burden removed, these resources can be devoted to transforming the results into real behavioral change.
Staffing System Evaluation
- Staffing evaluation: the analysis of a staffing system to determine its performance and effectiveness.
- Evaluating a staffing system allows them to objectively identify which staffing activities are related to business strategy execution and company performance, assess how well different staffing initiatives are working, and improve the staffing system based on what is learned.
- Competitive advantage can be created through staffing by identifying the staffing activities that drive business success and strategy execution, evaluating them, and improving them.
- Measurement occurs at a single point in time, and isn‟t as useful as is tracking and making comparisons over time.
Recruitment Channels (upper and mid Level)
For a service provider to run its operating functions efficiently it is more important to depend on the lower level employees. But there is a role that the mid level has to play to giving the proper command to the workers.So, the recruitment of managerial level positions is very important for this testing service provider to improve their quality of performance and boost up the production. Intertek BD does follows a formal recruitment policy which would be beneficial for them. In Intertek, some major channels for recruiting the managerial employees are:
- It is concentrated on references
- Advertisement for specified skills to few extent; it means for a particular position which is need some specified and extra-ordinary skill and that is not fulfilled by the referred person at that time director or departmental head would go for an advertisement for that job position (advertisement media usually for them is newspaper )
- Internal recruitment
Recruitment Channels (junior level)
Recruitment Process- Starts from Job Requisition. Then the nerxt step is Job Ad preparation followed by Job Posting/Advertisement.Then comes CV Sourcing and CV Screening. After that Written exam of shortlisted candidates are taken. Those whose qualifies in the written exam, they have to give a preliminary Interview. From there the shortlisted ones goes for final Interview.
Selection Process
Selection is the most important part in the whole talent acquisition process because by recruitment a number of applicants are targeted to be finally selected and selection the next step to fully allow a person to working in the organization as a specific job position. So first in Intertek BD goes for reference checking and salary verification. Then salary is negotiated between HR personnel and the candidate. Once salary is finalized job is offered by handing a offer letter. Lastly placement of joiners on joining is conducted.
After Selection
For employees
In the operational field of Intertek BD, after selection process has been initiated then the selected workers have to go through the process of permanently selected. So, in lower level the technical workers have a certain time for a probationary period. They have to work for a probationary period of 1 to 2 weeks
For machine operator, helper and trainee:
For the machine operator, machine helper and trainee which are also from production level have to go through with this probationary time also. It is a guaranty that after working for that particular period of time he or she would get fully prepared to do the specific job tasks permanently. They have to work for a probationary period of 3 months.
Work Environment
In the lunchtime, scores of young men and women walk towards an area where the food is served while others stroll out for a quick meeting with their families living close by. Inside the building, everything is squeaky clean, the executive offices, glass walls, even the laboratories floors where machineries add to the sophisticated process of making each product tested. Hundreds of workers wears colorful masks and feverishly operates the machines, sorting, cutting fabrics and foot wears. The masks are to protect the workers against cloth dust and harmful chemicals and supervisors strictly enforce this practice. Health and safety of the workers are a major priority, the floors are clean and airy with proper emergency exits, fire extinguishers and warnings about wearing safety gear such as gum boots in the washing unit and metal gloves for the cutters. A Full-time doctor is on duty at the medical unit, which is again, clean and has two beds for workers who may fall ill while on the job.
The main issue for foreign clients has been work conditions and age limits of the workers. At Intertek BD, the Human Resources Department makes sure that every worker is treated fairly in terms of salary, overtime and other benefits, that workers are not abused in any way and that all complaints from workers are addressed. The compliance manager visits each floor regularly to hear out any complaints or problems any worker may have and tries to come up with a satisfactory solution.
Compliance Measures by Intertek BD
-Fire Fighting Techniques and Instruments
Intertek BD ensures compliance with foreign buyers conditions strictly, so modern fire fighting techniques and instruments is used and fire fighting training is maintained strictly.
-Ensuring of Protective Equipments
In order to comply with quality standards and employee health and safety, all workers are given protective equipments from the company.
-CPR Trained Personnel
CPR trained personnel is there at Intertek BD for emergency needs.
-Free Treatment
Employees and workers are given free treatment by the company.
-Minimum salary as per rule
Minimum salary is ensured for its workers according to the directive of the labor law.
-Ensuring no Extra Overtime
No extra overtime is imposed to the workers by the company.
Work Hour:
At Intertek BD, the Human Resources Department makes sure that every worker is treated fairly in terms of salary, overtime and other benefits, that workers are not abused in any way and that all complaints from workers are addressed. A woman ‘welfare officer’ visits each floor regularly to hear out any complaints or problems any worker may have and tries to come up with a satisfactory solution.
Recommendation and Implementation
(1) For HR positions the company should take only those people who have a sound knowledge of HR. The designated person will be responsible for developing the HR Management as well as develop the staffing procedure which will ensure the Strategic Staffing in Intertek BD.
It is found in the majority of companies in Bangladesh that in most firms the people who are performing the HR activities are not having a sound knowledge or a degree on HR. These people are found to have completed their bachelor degree in other fields like Engineering, Marketing, etc. The problem arises with the passing days, as the HR issues of this country are getting more complex. It is difficult now to perform well in business due to increase in competitive environment and especially if without a strong base of Human Resource Management. They will have to face problems at every stage of business if they do not concentrate at this particular department especially when it is a global business.
Therefore, I recommend that they when hiring people to work on HR, they must make sure that the person has a very extensive knowledge on HR, a degree or a MBA with major in HR will serve as an added advantage for the organization. They should avoid this thinking that HR is a simple task to do and they according to the growing need of HR activities, it is their responsibility to hire appropriate people for it. If they think that it is not possible for them to identify the talents required for this field, then they may go for some external consultants in the country who can help them in the talent acquisition process by charging certain amount of fees. They can hire some students from some reputed universities.
Well, the justification behind the recommendation is that when they will have these HR experts in their organization they will be able to retain the high performing employees in the organization, there will be continuous improvement in the performance of the employees, as loyalty will be created between the employees and the employer, they will be able to have good industrial relations, improved compensation system and there are other areas which are due to improve with progressing time.
(2) They can differentiate their organization from the competitors by giving various types of benefits to their employees.
Here, the company gives some benefits to the employees but the benefits are very common and are very few in numbers. The benefits are not attractive enough comparing to the other industries. They should introduce a wide range of benefits like pension schemes, insurance programs, loans for housing, car, etc.
While setting up the benefit packages, they should keep one thing in mind that a benefit preferred by a young person will not be preferred by a forty year old employee.
Therefore, taking feedback from the customers, communicating with them about the benefits are very important things to be considered for the success of this benefit plans.
(3) Balanced Scorecard Process
The Balanced Scorecard emphasis‟s the importance of measuring business performance from the perspective of strategic implementation, rather than relying solely on financial results. By specifying the important process measures, assessing them, and communicating the firm‟s performance based on these criteria to the employees, the managers can ensure that the entire organization participates actively in the strategy implementation process.
To achieve strategy alignment, firms must engage in a two-step process. The organization focus divides on two dimensions which are breadth and causal flow. Breadth refers to the fact that companies must study more than just financial results. It must also focus on other key performance drivers. Causal flow refers to the series of linkages between financial and non-financial determinants of firm performance. The Balanced Scorecard identifies four key perspectives that define strategy measurement and analysis. These are financial perspective, the customer perspective (e.g. customer loyalty and satisfaction), the internal processes perspective (e.g. process quality and process cycle time) and finally learning and growth perspective (e.g. employee skills) that is the leading indicator.
The last part is communication which relates to the findings and decisions to the middle and front-line managers, who in turn must communicate it to the other employees. This helps to allocate resources intelligently and guides employees‟ decisions.
The Balanced Scorecard model recognizes the importance of both tangible and intangible assets and of financial and non-financial measures. The leading indicators are the unique indicators for each firm.
They include process cycle time, customer satisfaction or employee strategic focus. These indicators assess the status of key success factors that drive the implementation of the firm‟s strategy and hence emphasize the future rather than the past.
(4) Training and Development
Many entrepreneurs admit that the ‘silent revolution’ that they are anticipating is dependent on several factors. One of them is developing a pool of highly skilled workers which are in high demand but low in supply. One of the major factors that need to be addressed is training, coaching and mentoring of the workers and staff.
In the present scenario of Bangladesh, there are virtually no institutes to train workers so that they have better skills that also result in better paying jobs and greater efficiency.
Bangladesh should have more institutes in the country, where students will receive practical training. For example an engineer is basically of no use if he or she has never seen a garment factory, leave alone the operation of the machinery. Therefore, practical knowledge and vocational training is extremely important for the workers.”
Workers need to be trained, educated and updated on a regular basis as well. This is the responsibility of the HR department. This would also lead to a better level of productivity in the industry. The owner can fund these training programs and the resources required for the programs as well.
Conclusion
Intertek BD should go for building a Human Resource department to handle the workforce employed in the organization and also to keep track of the employees working. I am glad to see that in order to comply with the labor law they have incorporated some programs in their organization that are tailored to the needs and safety of the labors. These are Medical and Health Care Units, Training Program for labors to increase their skills and efficiency etc. The most preferred recruitment channels for them are Behavioral fit . Although Intertek BD is working well on their field of expertise they still need to focus on their workforce and comply with the recommendation and should implement those as they thrive towards the future.
