Overall HR Practices of Independent Television Limited

Overall HR Practices of Independent Television Limited

Human Resources department is the emerging sector in the new era of corporate world. Previously HRM was ignored by big organizations. Today the situation has changed, most of the organizations are emphasizing on HRM practice. The main reason is, the organization runs by the people or human resources not by the machine. So, it is important to maintain these human resources in order to gain long term success in Business. Independent Television also gives emphases on HRM practice. In my Internship Report, my main target is to identify the area of HR practice of Independent Television.

Background of the Report

There is no doubt that the world of work is rapidly changing. As part of an organization then, HRM must be equipped to deal with the effects of the changing world of work. For them this means understanding the implications of globalization, technology changes, workforce diversity. Changing skill requirements, continuous improvement initiatives contingent workforce, decentralized work sites and employee involvement are the issue for confront. Now it is a big challenge for the HRM to support the organization by providing the best personnel for the suitable position in shortest possible time. Starting with recognizing the vacancies and planning for them is a great task. Moreover selecting attracting the suitable candidates and selecting the best person in time is a challenge.

The cost of the recruitment is significant. So, proper planning and formulate those plan is the task that require more focus and improvement. Equal opportunity and sourcing is also a vital part. Realizing this need we tried to find the difference and similarities between theoretical aspects with the practical steps taken by the company. We took an attempt to demonstrate the feature for the further improvement.

Objectives of the Report

The objectives of the proposed study “Overall HR Practices of Independent Television Ltd.” are as follow:

• To identify what type of HRM practices are done by Independent Television Ltd.
• To identify the strengths and weakness of HRM practice of Independent Television Ltd.
• To know the performance appraisal system of Independent Television Ltd.
• To analyze compensation practice of Independent Television Ltd.
• To know the theoretical framework of training and development policy of Independent Television Ltd.
• To know the training policy of Independent Television Ltd.
• To recommend necessary steps for overcoming problems.

Methodology of the Report

In order to contract the report I have collected necessary information from two sources

1. Primary Sources of Information
2. Secondary Sources of Information

(a) Primary Sources of Information: The primary data collected from the following sources:

• Face to face discussion.
• Telephone discussion.
• Oral interview of the responsible officers.

(b) Secondary Sources of Information: The secondary data collected from the following sources:

• Websites of Independent Television Ltd.
• Various documents of Independent Television Ltd.

Scopes of the Report

The report deals with the HRM practice including HRP, recruitment and selection process, training & development process, compensation management, employee relation & separation, etc. in terms of theoretical point of view and the practical use. The study will allow learning about the HRM issues, importance, modern techniques and models used to make it more efficient. The study will help to learn the practical procedures followed by the leading organizations. Moreover the study will help to differentiate between the practice and the theories that direct to realize how the organization can improve their HRM practice & process.

Overview of Independent Television Ltd.

The registered name of the television is Independent Television Ltd. It is a 24-Hour Operational News Channel. Independent Television founded in 2010 and on-aired in 2011. It is a sister concern of BEXIMCO Group. Total No. of employees of the channel are 550. TV Headquarter is in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The website of the channel is www.independent24.tv

About Independent Television

Independent Television is a private, satellite – 24 hours news channel owned by one of Bangladesh’s largest conglomerate Beximco. They are headquartered in Tejgaon, Dhaka. It obtained its license officially from the Government of Bangladesh in March, 2010. Launched in August 2011, ITV provides 24-hour news programming from its main operations center in the capital city of Dhaka. ITV has installed two Khulna switchers, one for news programs, and the other to enable live-audience studio productions.

Primary Human Resource Strategy of Independent Television

The primary Human Resource Strategy of Independent Television is Proper documentation. Here, every process is documented in time. Whenever a decision is being taken, proper documentation is must.

It is said that, the main safeguard of HR is right and easy to locate documentation. In Independent Television, it is strictly maintained by HR department.

Departments of Independent Television Ltd.

Every organization runs under some certain departments. Independent Television is also not different. There are some departments in Independent Television; here are the key points,

Business Operations:

Broadcast Operations is responsible for generating visual production of stories to be on-aired.

Broadcast Technology:

Broadcast Technology is responsible for providing technical support (visual and audio) in broadcasting programs.

Business Programs

Business Programs department is basically for value added service. The main functions of the department are scroll updating of the channel and maintaining social media network.

Current Affaires

The main responsibility of Current affairs department is to make program for current events of the country. Sometimes upcoming events are also becomes concern of this department.

Distributions

Distribution department is responsible to ensure that each television set in every household in Bangladesh has access to Independent Television Ltd. It also maintains periodical  communication to cable operators, arranges of channel placement where required and also covers Client relationship.

Finance and Accounts

Basic functions of Finance & Accounts department are:

• Accounting – keeping books of accounts with necessary compliance
• Finance – budgeting and fund management
• Receipt and Payments – collecting and depositing receipt, arranging
• Payment for vendors and employees
• Traffic billing – keeping books of Accounts and bill collection

Human Resources

Human Resources department performs following functions in employee management:

• Acquisition – Recruitment, Confirmation, Re-contract
• Compensation & Benefit – Salary and Bonus, Leave encashment
• Development – Training, Orientation
• Utilization – Evaluation and Performance Management
• Employee Relations – Grievance handling and counseling
• Employee services – ID card, Business Card, and E-mail address etc.

Support Service

Support Services department is responsible for ensuring following logistic and administrative supports to business:

• Office Management
• Transport Management
• Inventory Management
• Café Management
• Logistic and Protocol Management

Videography

Videography department is responsible for all video related works of the station including, capturing to editing of the program.

Sales & Marketing

Sales department is basically focused to BUSINESS. Responsibilities are:

• New business search
• Client relationship – potential and existing
• Sales event management – arranging and participating parties, campaigns and programs

Input

The duty of Input department is generating all the news and programs for the channel.

Output

On the other hand, the duty of output department is telecasting all the news and programs for the channel.

News

News Department gathers and edits stories for daily broadcast – in Bangla and English.

Categories include:

• National
• International
• Assignment based
• Current Affairs
• Business

Human Resources Division of Independent Television

Independent Television Limited recognizes that a productive and motivated work force is a prerequisite to leadership in the market it serves. Independent Television treats every employee with dignity and respect in a supportive environment of trust and openness where people of different backgrounds can reach their full potential.

The organizational human resources policy emphasize on providing job satisfaction, growth opportunities, and due recognition of superior performance. A good working environment reflects and promotes a high level of loyalty and commitment from the employees. Realizing this, Independent Television has placed the utmost importance on continuous development of its human resources, identify the strength and weakness of the employee to assess the individual training needs, they are sent for training for self-development. To orient, enhance the knowledge of the employees Independent Television organizes both in-house and external training. Human Resource division of Independent Television is taking care of total function for all employees. The main functions of Human Resources division are,

• Recruitment and Selection
• Pay-roll System
• Employee Attendance
• Training and Development
• Performance Evaluations

The major responsibilities of HR

The major responsibilities of HR in Independent Television are

HR Policy formulation

Independent Television emphasis on HR policy formulation for nor only own department but also for the other departments.

HR Planning

Independent Television establishes both short term and long term planning for the organization.

Short Term HR Planning

Independent Television primarily recruits its human resources that will support Strategic Human Resource Planning for current period.

Long Term HR Planning

Here Independent Television is looking forward to build long term resources by several Training and Development programs

HR Info System

Independent Television uses several software to ensure HR Info System includes,

• Vista HR Manager &
• Vista TAS

Work and Job analysis, design and evaluation

For every job there are work and Job analysis, design and evaluation at Independent Television so that jobs are well defined.

Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment and Selection of Independent Television are also important parts. Every recruitment and selection process is made after concerned department submits requisition for workforce.

Diversity Management

Independent Television highly believes in Diversity management. Here, in Independent Television, there are many employees from different divisions of the country, even from other countries like Indian and Pakistani employees.

Career management

Career management is also important part of Independent Television. For every employee, after one year his/her job is being evaluated for long term perspective.

Employee and Management Training and Development

Independent Television offers several in house and external Training program for the employees.

Counseling, Discipline and Separation

Independent Television believes in proper counseling for any problems or prosperity of its employees. It is also very strict in Disciplinary actions and separations process. For every problem Independent Television operates proper investigations and employee separation is very friendly and quick.

Performance and quality management

Every employee’s performance is monitored by his/ her line manager and reviewed by HR department.

Remuneration and benefits

Independent Television has a good structure of Remuneration and benefits for employees which are very lucrative in the market.

Financial Management of employee Schemes and overall accountability and evaluation

For the long term betterment of the employee, Independent television has provident fund opportunity for the employees.

Occupational health and safety

For maintaining occupational health and safety Independent television always take cares of its employees by all-time first aid facility, security forces, fire alarm and fire extinguisher facility.

Organizational Hierarchy of Independent Television Ltd

The organizational structure of Independent Television is very systematic flowchart. Here, at the top, there is board of directors whose are the key decision makers of the company. Under board of directors, there are Executive Editor & Managing Editor. These two positions hold authority to control all Departmental Heads.

Under Executive Editor there are following Departmental Heads;

• Head of Business Programs
• Head of Broadcast Technology
• Head of sports
• Social Affairs Editor
• Head of News
• Head of Broadcast Standards
• Head of Broadcast Operation
• Head of Quality Assurance
• Head of Current Affairs

Under Managing Editor there are following Departmental Heads;

• Head of Sales and Marketing
• Head of Finance & Account
• Head of HR
• Head of Support Service
• Head of distribution

Under every Head of departments there are some Executives to help them in completion of the organizational goals and objectives.

Human Resource activities of Independent Television

Independent television has array of human resources activities. These includes,

• Recruitment and Selection
• Training and development
• Performance Appraisal
• Compensation
• Employee Relations

It is very important for an organization to perform these five arrays of HR activities. All of these are people oriented tasks and must be performed by HR department. Independent television Ltd. is very efficient in these five sector and has a good structure for long term success.

Recruitment and Selection

I. Workforce Requisition:

The workforce requisition is the primary and the first step of recruitment process. It is a process through which the approval is taken to initiate the recruitment process.

II. Employee Requisition Process

III. Approval of ME

Analysis of position and requirement includes understanding the client organization with regard to current business activities, future expansion plans, work culture and extends to mapping competencies for specific position including job title, deliverables, Key accountabilities and other important details which are required to bring success to the position. Independent

Television carefully analyses every positions and recruitment situation of the market. The Managing Editor of Independent Television Ltd. Approves the requisition form and check the required workforce needed for the particular Department.

IV. Candidate Sourcing

Advertisement: Advertisement can be published in job sites, newspaper or other media like, BDjobs, JobsA1.com, and Prothomalojobs. Etc.

Referrals: The length of time spent on sourcing potential candidates can vary greatly depending upon the level and complexity of the position, according to many respondents. Referrals mainly based on Position, Situation, and the nature of job.

V. Short listing of Applicants

Immediately after the closing date, all original applications received, together with a Summary Information Sheet, will be sent by Human Resources to the Chair of the Recruitment Panel, who should forward copies of the applications to the Panel members and arrange for short-listing to take place,

The process involves drawing up a list of target companies from which to recruit and utilizing our network, along with our database then we list most potential candidates within target companies. We then contact candidates and share the opportunity with them and draw their interest in the position.

Primary Short listing by HR: Human Resource Department Primarily Shortlisted the candidates thus who applied for the position and send the list to the concerning department.

Final Short listing by Departments: Department review the list of applicant and finally select the candidates for interview.

VI. Assessment

Written Test: A written test would be conducted if needed. Written test is often required, depending on the types of the position where the candidate is to be employed.

Interview: Interview can be conducted in various ways. Few examples regarding Independent Television are furnished belowTraditional

Face-to-Face Interview

Most interviews are face-to-face. The most traditional is a one-on-one conversation. Focus should be on the person asking questions. Maintain eye contact, listen and respond once a question has been asked. Establish rapport with the interviewer and show them that interviewee’s qualifications will benefit their organization.

Panel/Committee Interview

In this situation, there is more than one interviewer. Typically, three to ten members of a panel may conduct this part of the selection process. This is a chance to show group management and group presentation skills on display. Here candidate is required to read the various personality types of each interviewer and adjust to them. Find a way to connect with each interviewer.

Behavioral Interview

The basic premise behind this type of interview is that the past behavior is the best predictor of future actions. These types of questions may be asked in any interview format—telephone, panel or one-on-one.

This type of question generally starts with the words “Give me an example when…” or “Tell me about a time when…”

Stress Interview

This kind of interview is specially conducted for sales department. Here the interviewer watches the level of patients of the interviewee.

VII. Pool of Suitable Candidates

After having the written test and interviews we have got the pool of suitable candidate. Candidates are called for salary negotiation session.

VIII. Salary Negotiation

Before start talking pay (and salary negotiations) with a prospective employer, we need to find out how much the job is worth. We will need to take the time for research. That way we will be prepared to get what we’re worth and to get a job offer that’s realistic and reasonable.

Salary negotiation is something at which hiring managers are usually a lot more proficient than the people they hire. Human Resources must be consulted to provide detailed guidance and advice on determining appropriate offer salary levels within the grade.

When deciding upon an appropriate salary to be offered, consideration will normally be Given to the following objective criteria:-

• The level, breadth, depth and complexity of the individual’s knowledge and understanding of different aspects of the job and, as appropriate, expert, professional and theoretical knowledge.
• The level and breadth of existing relevant skills.
• Qualifications and length of relevant experience of the successful candidate.
• Current salary and monetary benefits (e.g. bonus) of successful candidate.
• Equal pay principles that all staff should receive equal pay for the same or broadly similar work, for work rated as equivalent and for work of equal value.

IX. Offering Candidates

The final stage in the selection procedure is to confirm the offer of employment after satisfactory references have been obtained, and the applicant has passed the medical examination required for pension and life assurance purposes or because a certain standard of physical fitness is required for the work. The contract of employment should also be prepared at this stage.

• If there are several suitable candidates, it may be appropriate to “hold” rather than reject these until the outcome of the offer to the most suitable candidate is known.
• All unsuccessful candidates should be notified of the outcome appropriately and are provided with feedback, if requested, by the Chair of the Recruitment Panel.
• If anyone accepts this job offer, the hire date will be on the day that s/he attends new-hire orientation. Plan to work for the remainder of the business day after new-hire orientation ends.

X. Recruitment paperwork

The Chair of the Recruitment Panel should complete the Recruitment Panel Chairperson’s Report and return to Human Resources, together with all associated recruitment paperwork, Including:

• The original applications of all candidates;
• The completed short-listing form(s);
• The original interview/assessment notes and test sheets, if applicable;
• The completed Interview/Assessment form(s).

XI. Joining and Placement

It contains few steps, candidates required to take appointment letter from HR, needs to fill joining document, and finally he placed under his\her reporting line manager.

XII. Confirmation

After recruitment, permanent employees will need to serve under probation period as follows:

-Skilled Employees: Initially for three months, extendable for further three months.

-Unskilled Employees: Initially for six months, extendable for further three months.

Superiors must notify HR department one week prior to the maturity of employees have completed their probation period. A formal confirmation letter is issued subject to successfully completion of probation period and necessary approval as well.

XIII. Promotion, Transfer, Re-Designation, Deputation, Absorption

Promotion: As required by the company, an employee may be promoted to a higher level or may be absorbed, deputed or transferred at any position, in any place of company’s operation or in any of its sister concern or other associated Group\Companies.

Transfer: Where the duties and responsibilities of an employee change, the company may change the remuneration, designation and job description of the post.

Re-Designation: The promotion, transfer or change of designation, duties and responsibilities shall not however, be disadvantage to the employee with regard to his or her nature of work, status remuneration.

Absorption: However, provision of clause 12.3 will not apply to transfer on account of inefficiency, misconduct or where the transfer is made at the request of the employee.

XIV. Selective Recruitment Using Job Boards

Although staff turnover is not a major issue for media world and Independent Television ltd. Authority, the agency relies on selective recruitment techniques to maximize the use of limited hiring budgets. To ensure the most appropriate methods of sourcing and attracting qualified candidates are used, the agency considers the following details for each position: level of entry (junior, intermediate, and senior), level of education (degree, diploma), professional association, and technical requirements (Engineer, GIS tech). Using this information, the company determines which job boards, communication channels, and advertisement strategies are best for targeting candidates with the required skill sets.

A key component of this process is having an in-depth understanding of the variety of job boards in the market and what types of candidates they attract. Depending on the position, Independent Television will either choose to advertise using a niche job board or employ a mass recruitment strategy that utilizes a variety of job advertisement services.

Positions that require specific technical skill sets, the company often relies on niche job boards since they reduce the candidate pool by targeting a more applicable audience. On the other hand, Independent Television utilizes as many free job posting or partner sites as it can to maximize exposure and increase the number of applicants for other positions.

XV. University Internships

Independent Television with expert advice, information, and tools to assist with the development and implementation of sustainable policies and practices—offers internships to Masters and Bachelor level university students as part of its recruitment strategy. Using the internship program, Independent Television can target students who excel academically and provide them with the opportunity to obtain practical work experience. This helps to train and develop the skill sets of interns at an early stage of their career while giving the company an opportunity to gauge the intern’s skills, abilities, and inner drive. The program has proven beneficial to both the interns and the company, and is one way Stratus is helping build the capacity of new graduates in the environment industry.

Training and development

Training is an essential part of every employee. Well training leads to development of them and thus leads to development of the organization. Independent television offers Employee Training program both internally and externally.

Internal Training Program

Here, Independent Television organizes in house training program where both internal and external trainer facilitates training program for individual departments. Internal training program is very helpful for the employees as in this system they can get training in their own environment.

Human Resources Department organizes mainly two types of internal training; for,

• Own department&
• Other departments

External Training Program

Here, employees are trained by external Training Institutes like; bdjobs, prothomalojobs etc. employees are sent towards to the several training institute for a period of time.

Performance Appraisal

Performance appraisal system of Independent Television is very efficient in terms of evaluation. The main intention of the system is to evaluate the employee’s performance of the job. Performance appraisal is conducted for an employee after completion of one year service in the channel. Based on the evaluation Independent Television offers the employees Increment, if the performance is satisfactory. If the performance is not satisfactory, the employee may be warned for that and asked to perform better.

The main pre- requisite of performance appraisal is that, the employee must complete one year service length in channel. Based on the performance, Independent television also offers Promotion for employee.

Compensation

Compensation is an important issue in Independent Television. Here, HR department uses a software- “VistaHR manager” to process Compensation for all employees. Here, for every employee there are two parts in salary payment, one is addition and another is deduction. Under addition part, 50 % is basic salary and other 50% is divided into House rent, Medical facilities, Conveyance, and Miscellaneous costs. On the other hand, in deduction part, there are provident funds, income Tax, absent and leave without pay deductions.

The total pay of an employee is determined by adding up all additions and subtracting all deductions. Then the salary inputs to employees bank account.

Employee Relations

Independent Television emphasis on wonderful employee relations with long term perspective, so that the employees retains for many years. Independent Television is careful on ethics, justice and fair treatment for every employee in order to ensure employee relations.

In Independent Television there are good practices of ethics. There are several policies to ensure ethics, for example,

• Equal Employment Opportunity Policy and
• Sexual Harassment Policy

These two policies indicate that Independent Television is highly motivated to ensure ethics in workplace. Ethically Independent Television is very committed that all employees will get fair treatment in every aspect of work life.

Justice is also a very important concern of Independent Television in every cases, Independent Television ensures justice for all employees. In case of any occurrence, justice Independent Television investigates with high level of importance and endures

Fair treatment is also for every employee ensured by Independent Television. Here, HR department ensures that all employee gets equal treatment in every sector of work life.

Other HR activities of Independent Television Ltd.:

There are some other Hr works done by HR department; here are some brief,

1. Policy Works

A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done; this is normally referred to as either procedure.

1. Leave Management System

Web‐based Employee Leave Management System streamlines communication between HR and employees, facilitates simple yet efficient management of employee leaves. Leave management ensures that all leave taken and leave requests are properly accounted for. Office staffs can apply, approve and view leave records without the hassle and delay of going through the admin staff ‐ it’s all at your ID card with anytime, anywhere access. For employees, this system allows them to easily determine their vacation availability (from any point‐in‐time) and request leave online. For managers, leave approval no longer involve trails of paperwork. The system provides full audit trails of your staffs’ leave balances and plans.

Below are some essential features of leave management system:

• Organization Leave Policy masters.
• Yearly Leave & Holiday Set‐up.
• Employee leave master (with eligibility for applicable leaves)
• Leave Application (by Employee)
• Leave Application (by Front office/HR)
• Approval / Rejection.
• Request for cancellation of applied leave.
• Leave Approval/Rejection & cancellation.
• Leave encashment.
• Special grants.
• Reports.

1. Attendance Tracking System

Tracking the time and attendance of the employees working for the company can be a difficult task for any business. Careful records will need to be kept to ensure that all employees are being paid the correct amount on each paycheck and their earned or taken sick and vacation time is correctly logged. Keeping track of all of this information for each employee can be a daunting assignment, but using HR software to assist in the process can make tracking the time and attendance of employees much easier and more streamlined. It provides customized reports for review by HR personnel and department managers.

1. Security

User can login into system using their corporate email credentials. This application is accessible only with in office intranet. Application encrypts all essential information before storing it into database for better protection of data. For password protection used MD5 based 64 bit encryption. So that even developer cannot decrypt password.

1. Health and safety at work

A young worker or employee must do an assessment of possible health and safety risks, before they employ in this organization. They must pay particular attention to their age, lack of experience, and other things that could be a risk to their health and safety.

There are special restrictions on the following types of work:

• Work which you are not physically or mentally capable of doing.
• Work which brings you into contact with chemical agents, toxic material or radiation. (e.g. Independent television broadcast technology department)
• Work which involves a health risk because of extreme cold, heat or vibration.

You are only allowed to do the work above under the following circumstances

• Where it is necessary for employees training.
• Where an experienced person is supervising them.
• Where any risk is reduced to the lowest level that is reasonable.

These rules do not apply if employees are doing short term or occasional work in a family business or in a private household, which is not considered to be harmful to them.

1. Night work

There are special limits on the hours employees can work at night. Employees cannot usually work between 10pm and 6am (only for thus who belongs to non-news Departments like HR, Finance, Accounts, and Support Service etc.) but journalists are allowed to work on different sessions in order to their assignments.

1. Holidays

Employees are legally entitled to paid holiday in the same way as other workers. How much paid holiday they get depends on how many days they work and when they leave year begins.

Analysis

SWOT Analysis of Independent Television

Strengths

• Web based HR management.
• Diversification
• Good relationship with employees.
• Training for Train up the Employees.
• Immense machineries support.

Weakness

• Manipulation of other Departments.
• Small workforce.

Opportunities

• Skilled workforce.
• Introduce new HR strategies.
• Time to time foreign trade training.
• New employees (fresh graduates) are recruited every year.
• New branches will be opened in different part of Bangladesh.

Threats

• Market leaders are very experienced in this concern.
• Increase Competition to better customer service.
• Pressure to decrease rate of profit.

Recommendations

According to my work on Independent Television, I have identified some sectors where some development can happen; here are those,

• Training and Development issue:

More intensive training program should be introduced to increase the employee performance to the optimum level. The HR policy could include certain provisions regarding to a reutilized and modern training.

• HR counseling cell:

In this system, the employer-employee relationship can increase. Here, to authorized HR personal, all employees will come and will tell their problems. HR personal will then take necessary steps.

• Continuous modernization and revision:

Modernization and revision of the HR policies and strategies are indispensable for any organization as the world is getting more diversified day by day. The head of HR should continuously monitor the changes happening around and adjust the policies to match the changed scenario.

Conclusion

Finally, I would looked at the extent to which Independent Television hold themselves accountable for effective HRM systems and adherence to the Merit System Principles (as appropriate) or other organizational values and policies.

In sum, the organizational performance of ITV could be explained by its effective recruitment and selection practices and performance appraisal practices. As the review of the literature showed, research has established that although the value of a company’s human resource assets may not show up directly on its balance sheet, it nevertheless, has tremendous impact on an organization’s performance. However, there was insufficient evidence to show that ITV remuneration practices as well as its training and development practices contribute positively towards its corporate performance, as perceived by the respondents.

Based on the findings of this research, it is recommended that the management of GCGL continues to ensure that the HR policy, which is a result of the corporate strategy to use human resource, among others, to achieve outstanding performance every year, is upheld. In addition, copies of the HR policy should be made available to all employees to ensure widespread dissemination and application of the policies. Management should continue to ensure that the recruitment and selection process is, and seen to be fair. There should be measures that will ensure that all recruitment and selection practices adhere to the standards and policies of the company since effective recruitment and selection practices will ensure positive financial returns for the company, either through ensuring effectiveness on the part of employees, or minimization of costs associated with training and retraining of employees.