Recruitment and Selection Process of SQUARE Toiletries Limited

Recruitment and Selection Process of SQUARE Toiletries Limited

You have to be very careful with our strategy in this business world. Every company in each and every industry takes different strategies to survive in this dynamic world. Most of the companies are now using different HRIS in their operation to make their business more effective and efficient. Even some companies start a business transforming program to get a competitive advantage over their competitors.

This report is actually made to present the work life condition of SQUARE Toiletries Ltd. This report is a study of the recruitment process, supportive management, and working environment in the context of SQUARE Toiletries Ltd. I have focused on the current HR practices that STL is performing in their recruiting process to make their employee enforce more productive.

Objective of the report:

Based on two objectives I have prepared this report:

Primary Objective:

The main objective of this report is to provide necessary information about the procedures of Recruitment and selection techniques followed by the SQUARE TOILETRIES LIMITED through the HR Department and recommendation.

Secondary Objective:

a) To have a clear view about what is actually happening in the field of HRM of the selected business organization.

b) To collect information and insight about the Recruitment & Selection function of the organization.

c) To experience different Recruitment & Selection system those are being followed by Square Toiletries Limited.

d) To relate the theoretical knowledge with the real life experience of the Recruitment & Selection process of Square Toiletries Ltd.

Methodology

The study is conducted in a systematic procedure starting from selection of the topic to final report preparation. The integral part was to identify and collect data; they were classified, analyzed, interpreted and presented in a systematic manner to find the vital points. The overall process of the methodology followed in the study is explained further.

Sources of Data:

Data are collected from both primary and secondary sources –

Primary Sources

• Observation of the organization.
• Discussion with officials and concerned experts.

Secondary Sources

• Annual report
• Newspapers
• Internet
• Textbook

Collection of Data:

Primary data I collected from observation method, face to face communication with the officials. Secondary data was collected from Square toiletries websites and other related websites and documents.

History of the Company

SQUARE today symbolizes a name – a state of mind. But its journey to the growth and prosperity has been no bed of roses. From the inception in 1958, it has today burgeoned into one of the top line corporations in Bangladesh. SQUARE is a Bangladeshi industrial corporation. The industries under this group include Textiles, Pharmaceuticals, Toiletries, Consumer products. Services provided by SQUARE include Healthcare (Hospitals), Information and Communication Technology.Square toiletries limited (STL) started in 1988 as a diversion and ISO: 9001 certified company. In 1994 square toiletries limited began its journey as a private limited company. Now STL is the country’s leading manufacturer of international quality cosmetics and toiletries products. At present, STL is the country’s leading manufacturer of international quality cosmetics and toiletries with 20 brands and more than 55 products covering a wide range of categories like skin care, hair care, oral care, baby care, fabric care, scourers, male grooming and OTC.

Currently Square Toiletries has almost 3,000 employees. Due to its sociable working environment and highly motivated employee, STL is enjoying one of the lowest employee turnover rates in the management level. STL emphasizes on equal employment opportunity for both genders. Besides, STL also provides employment opportunity to physically challenged persons.

Besides core business functions STL has long taken active part in different philanthropic activities like employment generation program for vulnerable community, financial aid to disadvantaged and natural disaster affected people, helping acid victims, tree plantation, creating mass awareness on health and hygiene issues, supporting education and various local community programs and many more.Square Toiletries Ltd. symbolizes innovation. STL is the pioneer in bringing in new products and packaging concepts in Bangladesh. Currently, STL is carrying out its production in its two fully automated plants at Rupshi and Pabna.

Square Toiletries Limited (STL) launched its operations with Jui Coconut Oil, which virtually pioneered the branded Pure Coconut Oil market in the country. Today, STL has over 42 product lines and an annual sales exceeding 2.00 billion taka and has now become one of the leading local toiletries companies in Bangladesh. STL manufactures and markets a wide array of consumer toiletries products ranging from Hair Oils, Toilet Soaps, Fabric Care to Winter Care and Summer Products, Baby Care, Dental Care and Shaving products, among others. The company also markets Feminine Hygiene products manufactured by its sister concern, Health Products Limited (HPL). STL is now one of the largest toiletries manufacturers and marketers in the country, and with popular brands such as Jui, Meril, Kool and Chaka, it operates successfully as a major player in the exceedingly competitive market.

BRAND LIST of STL

Square Toiletries Ltd. is one of the few Bangladeshi companies that are successfully exporting it products in foreign countries. Besides serving the people of Bangladesh, STL is exporting its products in

Department of STL

Corporate Social Responsibilities:

Employment Generation

• Employing over 1200 permanent employees, ensuring their consistent welfare and security
• Emphasis on equal employment opportunity resulting in 38% women employees
• Maintenance of the sociable working environment which results in lower turnover rate and a highly motivated workforce

Investment in Bangladesh

• Square Toiletries executes all its investment within the country boundary. It exports its products,but none of its production plants have been set up abroad
• STL emphasizes foreign currency inflow to the country
• When the country was leaning towards being flooded by offshore products, STL raised its voice and initiated movements against these marketing aggressions

Commitment towards Underprivileged Society:

• Square Toiletries gives monetary support to underprivileged society
• STL gave financial aid to Naksha Training Centre, where vulnerable women are vocationally trained for operating sewing machines
• STL also provided rickshaw vans to unemployed people for income generation
• The company extends financial aid for medical treatment to distressed people and employees
• Square Toiletries also provides employment opportunity to physically handicapped persons. At present Square Toiletries is giving employment opportunity for a number of employees who are physically challenged

Patronizing Culture

Meril-Prothom Alo Taroka Jorip – country’s most honoring & luminous event – a once –in –a year award giving program in the field of “culture and entertainment” has been being sponsored by Square Toiletries Limited for several years.

Recruitment & Selection Process in Square Toiletries Ltd

Human Resource Management Process:

HRM is a field of management involves planning, organizing, directing and controlling the functions of procuring, developing, maintaining and motivating a labor force. Human Resource Management Process consists of eight activities necessary for staffing the organization and sustaining high employee performance. The process is described below:

Human Resource Planning in STL:

Planning is the core area of all the functions of management. It is the foundation upon which the other three areas should be built. Planning requires management to evaluate where human resource of the company is currently, and where it would like to be in the future. From there an appropriate course of action to attain the company’s goals and objectives is determined and implemented.

Every organization has employment planning. STL has also its employment planning. They usually forecast their personnel needs based on their mission, strategic goals & objectives & technological and other changes resulting in increased productivity. Although there are several methods to predict personnel needs, but they use managerial judgment because it gives the more real world scenario for personnel needs. They think that the other methods cannot give the accurate situation of the personnel needs. These are basically graphical methods, which cannot measure the actual personnel needs. But managerial judgment method depends upon the change in productivity, market conditions etc.

Recruitment and Selection process in STL:

STL is always looking for top-caliber people who want the flexibility and resources to grow in their career. If anyone is the kind of person who has always stood out, STL offer a place where you can continue to excel. No matter what is the field or range of interests, there are vacancies where the talents can likely be applied and developed. In STL there are thousands of diverse people from different cultures and backgrounds working in a variety of different jobs in different fields. Here there is some requirements in the recruitment and selection process of STL-

• Merit is the sole criteria for selection.
• Attitude is given as much weight age as functional competencies.
• Panel interviews comprising of Functional Head & HR Head.
• Sources for recruitment are through campus, consultants, employee referrals, internal job postings and the internet.
• Positions in Officer Cadre, GET and MT involve written tests.
• Antecedent verification is an integral part of our recruitment process.
• Medical fitness is pre-requisite for all positions.
• There is an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, community, religion or sex.

 Recruitment process:

A responsibility for recruitment, usually belongs to the HR department. This department works to find and attract capable applicants. Job description and specification, provide the needed information upon which the recruitment process starts. The functions of the recruitment office of STL are given below:

• Need Assessment
• Defining the position description
• Checking the recruiting options
• Advertisement
• Screening and Short – listing Applications
• Written test
• Selection interview (3 – tier)
• Employment decision (Application Bank)
• Pre- employment medical check-up
• Offer letter
• Orientation / Induction
• Placement
• Follow –up

Source of Recruitment:

STL is done in three ways recruitment depending on the job category of the vacant position. Therefore, the recruitment process of this organization is classified into three types, which are done based on the job grade/ group. These are as follows:

1. Entry-level Management
2. Mid or / and senior level Management
3. Graded staff / Non- Management staff

Internal Source:

There could be a person competent for the required job working within the organization. If there is, the existing manpower is then shuffled to place the selected person in the new post. If there is no such person inside the company, then the management goes for the second step.

Job-posting programs:

HR department becomes involved when internal job openings are publicized to employees through job positioning programs, which informs employees about opening and required qualifications and invite qualified employees to apply. The notices usually are posted on company bulletin boards or are placed in the company newspaper. Qualification and other facts typically are drawn from the job analysis information.

The purpose of the job posting is to encourage employees to seek promotion and transfers the help the HR department fills internal opening and meet employee’s personal objectives. Not all job openings are posted .Besides entry level positions, senior management and top staff positions may be filled by merit or with external recruiting. Job posting is most common for lower level clerical, technical and supervisory positions.

External Source:

All the above options being considered, the company goes for external recruiting if needed. Those who best meet the skills, qualifications, experience and competencies required for the position should fill vacancies. Therefore, if there is no candidate within STL, Bangladesh who is suitable for the role, external advertisement should be placed to attract the potential candidates followed by the selection procedures.

Advertisement:

The Company gives advertisement in national dailies (both Bangla and English) to attract the talents from the market. Bdjobs is one of the main source of SATL to collect resumes of potential candidates. STL puts two types of advertisements in the newspapers. It sometimes keeps the identity concealed in the ads, mentioning a GPO BOX number only. The purpose of the concealed identity is to avoid the unwanted pressure from the stakeholders for the employment of their desired candidates. But this way the company  may lose the talents out there in the market who would have applied for the same post had they known the name of the organization. This is why the company kept the identity open in their recent job advertisement when the quality of the candidate was a very important factor to consider. By revealing the STL identify, the company attempts to attract the best potentials among all the others.

Employee referrals:

This is another source for STL. Employee referral means using personal contacts to locate job opportunities. It is a recommendation from a current employee regarding a job applicant. The logic behind the employee referral is that “it takes one to know one”. Employees working in the, in this case, are encouraged to recommend the names of their friends working in other organization for a possible vacancy in the near future.

Employment Agency:

An agency finds and prescreens applicants,referring those who seem qualified to the organization for further assessment and final selection. An agency can screen effectively only it has a clear understanding of the position it is trying to fill. Thus, it is very important that an employer be as specific and accurate as possible when describing a position and its recruitment to an employment agency. STL often recruit via an employment agency for non management level.

Walk-in and Write-in:

Walk-ins are some seekers who arrived at the HR department of STL in search of a job; Write-ins are those who send a written inquiry, both groups are normally asked to complete an application blank to determine their interest and abilities. Field level management jobs like Area Sales Coordinator, Regional Managers are recruited through Walk-in interviews.

Consulting the CV Bank:

The unsolicited applications stored in the data bank. If the quality of a person matches with the requirements mentioned in the position description, then he / she is called for a written test or interview. If applicants match for another position,then he/she will get called for that matching position in future.

Selection Process:

Selection is the process of gathering information for the purpose of evaluating and deciding who should be employed in particular jobs.

Screening and Short-listing Applications

The responses to the advertisements are sorted and screened. The CVs as well as the Covering letters are judged. In the covering letter, the style and language of writing, the emphasis put on the areas asked for tin the advertisements and the quality of the letter (whether it is specifically tailored to the advertisement or just a standard response) are the aspects that are judged. Different weights are assigned to the selection criteria mentioned in the main specification depending on their relative importance. (For example, educational institutions like IBA, BUET give the highest weight among the local ones and the foreign universities of UK, Australia, etc. are put on par with the best in the country). Based on the presence of these factors to the desired extent (experience, educational degree, computer literacy, etc) the cumulative weights for all the applicants are counted and the short list of a sizable number of the topmost candidates is generated. However, the HR officials also study the CVs with the respective line manager to check whether any valuable deciding parameter is missing that are mentioned in the CVs. Then the candidates selected in the shortlist are called for the written test.

Written Test

The Written test is a regular part of the normal recruitment process . It is conducted for maximum positions. The top management of STL believes the written test before the interview process has proved to be effective and a useful tool to select the desirable candidates. The written test has conducted in terms of knowledge about required fields. The candidates are called for the preliminary (first) interview based on their performance in the written test.

Selection Interview

The interview process is a three-tier one. A preliminary interview is conducted which follows the “elimination method”. After that, the second interview takes place with a very few number of candidates.

Then the finally selected person is called for the final interview. The interview time is kept convenient for the candidate, especially if s/he was working elsewhere at the time of interview. The shortlisted candidates must fill up an employee information form before the interview.

Reference Check

Reference checks allow obtaining information and opinions regarding the person’s character, quality of the work and suitability for the position. It is an opportunity to validate the information received from the candidate via their resume and the interview. Speaking to the candidate’s manager or other people whom they have worked with should also check internal candidates. The opinion of a referee who has worked can for an extended period is likely to be more accurate than the assessment from one to two hours of interviewing.

The candidate’s immediate supervisors are needed to be contacted. Permission should be obtained to contact the candidate’s referee, especially if their current employer is contacted. It is not unusual for a candidate to be uncomfortable with the organization’s speaking to a current employer. If they are uncomfortable, an alternative person other than the current employer has to be chosen by the candidate (work colleague, for example). Unless the candidate is a graduate or school leaver with no prior work experience, only contact work related referees should be contacted. At least two reference checks should be done, however the more the better. There is a sample reference-checking guide that ismore or less followed. It is important to prepare a reference check guide that asks the referee about the key skills, competencies and experience required for the position. Reference checks need to be done by the line manager or personnel of the HR department.During the interviews, the candidates would have given some examples of incidents, tasks or projects that can be asked about. The referee should be asked what the candidate did in those examples, which ascertain whether the information received from the candidate is consistent with that of the referee.Subjective questions may not always be a reliable guide; however, it can be useful to get the referee’s opinion on areas such as quality and quantity of work, strengths and weaknesses etc.

Employment Decision

If the candidate has no problem with the stated terms and conditions of the job and the organization mentioned and discussed in the final interview, he/she is offered an application blank. The application blank is a standard format of employee-information that includes all the information the organization needs regarding the personnel. The candidate has to fill this blank and submit this to the company along with a CV.

Pre-employment Medical Check-up:

After submission of the application and the CV, the selected person has to go through full medical checkup that guarantees her/his physical fitness to perform the job successfully. A medical practitioner who uses a physical capability analysis that assesses the candidate against the physical capabilities documented for each role conducts the medical. A medical is also appropriate for internal candidates if they are applying for positions that require different physical capabilities.

Joining of the Candidate:

After completing all above process the selected candidate requested to bring all their academic & professional certificates along with their previous job separation confirmation application & other related documents and follow below criteria.

Offering the Role:

Once the health check-up is done, the candidate is given an offer letter specifying the salary package, job responsibilities, utilities that will be provided by the organization. Even at this stage, the selected candidate has the chance to withdraw her/himself from the job offer. He/she is always free to discuss whatever difficulty may arise regarding pay-structure/facilities, etc. the door of HR is kept open for any sort of relevant discussion.

Verbal offer:

The verbal offer of the role to the candidate is given once the medical and reference checks have been successfully completed. The discussion should cover the following:

• Tell the candidate that you would like to offer them in the role.
• Congratulate them.
•  Tell them the remuneration package that is being offered, including superannuating.
• Ask them if they are happy with it.
• Ask them if they verbally accept the position.
• Tell them that we will be sending them a written letter of offer and introductory package.

Written letter of offer:

A written letter of offer must be forwarded to the candidate. Once the candidate has verbally accepted the position, the appropriate letter of offer is organized. This letter should be sent to the candidate within two days of making the verbal offer. An introductory package will be sent to the successful candidate, along with the letter of offer. At least one week before the person commencing in their new position, an appointment notice will be placed on notice boards and/or the internet.

Summary of THE RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PROCESS OF STL

Recommendation

1. The HR Department should look into the matter of consuming more time in the process of calling the applicants after their responses very seriously. The organization could control the size of applicants’ pool by using more clear and specific statements in the ad in terms of the minimum educational degree, preferred institutions and other necessary criteria based on which the initial screening of the applications was conducted. In the job advertisement specially for bottom line employees, The HR department should mention the pay structure.

2. The Company could participate in the job fairs in their recruitment. A considerable volume of applications is dropped in the organizations as a result of the exposure created in the job fairs. The organization can promote its image as a potential recruiter through its successful participation in the job fairs.
3. The company can recruited also for campus recruiting that could bring a yield of highly educated fresh-starters for the entry-level the organization could arrange seminars in the top business schools.
4. The company should facilitate online CV-posting system that is a very popular and effective practice used by the top business organizations.
5. In the case of non management recruitment like Sales Representative, interview board should follow the same selection criteria. I observed that some boards were not with the same selection criteria. One board was really tough to get through on the other hand another board was easy to get passed.

Conclusion:

Toiletries & Cosmetics Industry has grown in Bangladesh in the last two decades at a considerable rate. The sector consistently creates job opportunities for highly qualified people. Toiletries & Cosmetics companies are either directly or indirectly contributing largely towards raising the standard of healthcare through enabling local healthcare personnel to gain access to new products and also to latest Toiletries & Cosmetics. As one of leading Toiletries & Cosmetics manufacturer Square Toiletries Ltd. plays a vital role in the industry as well as in the national economy.

To be successful, relentless contribution and dedication of the organizations human resource management is very much needed. To compete in the international as well as in local markets in adverse situation the HR managers work has become much more difficult in today’s ever changing business environment. Developing plans in a dynamic situation demands critical analysis of the situation and strictly adhering to the core principal of the organization. As Square Toiletries Ltd is decentralized organization and core values are cherished by everyone within the organization, operating in dynamic situation is easier than it seems.