Recruitment Process of British American Tobacco Bangladesh

British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) is one of the major multinational companies in the country and has been operating for over 100 years. It is a renowned leader in Bangladesh cigarette market, with a long established reputation for providing its consumers with consistently high quality brands. Today BATB has over 1,000 personnel and it takes pride in being one of the preferred employers in Bangladesh to work in. Besides another more than 1000 people works directly and further 40,000 works indirectly as farmers, distributors and suppliers. BATB is one of the largest organizations with different functional departments.

Among all the functional departments, Human Resources (HR) department of BATB plays a very vital role in the total organizational functioning of the company. Recruitment and selection forms a core part of the central activities underlying human resource management which BATB handles smartly in a structured way.

Objectives

The Primary objective of this report is:

To understand the operations in the supply chain division of British American Tobacco, Bangladesh along with giving some recommendation

In addition to that, the report has a few specific objectives that it has tried to uncover:

Importance EHS at BATB among the managers, workers and vendors alike
Gauge the understanding of EHS in the projects in Supply Chain Division among the workers
Understand the various points of view on the prospective benefits of the EHS equipment usage
Explore the possibilities of Supply Chain for the future
Explore the changes in management view towards HR

Scope

Information for the analysis was collected from the internal websites, database, research papers, annual reports & study materials of British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB).
Geographic scope of the report is limited within BATB Dhaka Factor

Methodology

Methodology refers to the overall procedures of research in my internship report. To achieve the required results to establish the objectives two basic methods were used-

Qualitative Analysis: In-depth interview of several managers, factory workers and Vendor supervisors were conducted to get proper insight on the Supply Chain and HR regulations at BATB.
Observational Analysis: Observation of the work environment throughout the tenure of internship at BATB

Company Overview

British American Tobacco Group is the world’s second largest quoted tobacco group by global market share, with brands sold in more than 180 markets. The business was formed in 1902, as a joint venture between the UK’s Imperial Tobacco Company and the American Tobacco Company founded by James ‘Buck’ Duke. With over 300 brands in their portfolio, BAT holds large market positions in each of their regions and has leadership in more than 50 markets. In 2011, they sold approximately 705 billion cigarettes. Despite its name, derived from the home bases of its two founding companies, British American Tobacco was established to trade outside both the UK and the USA, and grew from its roots in dozens of countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and continental Europe. In 2007, subsidiaries enabled governments worldwide to gather over £17 billion a year in taxes, including excise duty on our products, more than 7 times the Group’s profit after tax. BAT has sustained a significant global presence for over 100 years.

Their business was founded in 1902 and by 1912 had become one of the world’s top dozen companies by market capitalization. BAT has over 55,000 employees all over the world. They always maintain a multicultural workforce. They always try their best to make almost identical decisions for every local stakeholder following a common framework of principles, standards, policies, strategies and delegated authorities. BAT is working appreciably with thousands of farmers internationally in the purpose of tobacco growing. The company provides agronomy support to the farmers for quality crop production as well as they maintain the whole procedure in an environmental friendly way. In 2011 BAT ran this cultivation process in 19 countries and had a notable success. They purchased approximately 440,000 tons of leaf grown by 200,000 farmers.

BAT Bangladesh began its operations in the sub-continent in 1910 as Imperial Tobacco Company Ltd. After the Partition, Pakistan Tobacco Company (PTC) came into existence with its head office in Karachi in 1949. PTC’s East Pakistan office at that time was situated in Armanitola, Dhaka and ultimately moved to Motijheel, Dhaka. After independence, Bangladesh Tobacco Company Pvt. Limited was formed in 1972 with British American Tobacco holding majority shares.

British American Tobacco Bangladesh is one of the largest private sector enterprises in Bangladesh, incorporated under the Company’s Act 1913 on 2nd February 1972 and has been operating for over 100 years. Since 1972 BATB is operating as the market leader in the tobacco Industry by providing some of the most powerful global and local brands. In March 1998, Bangladesh Tobacco Company changed its name and identity to British American Tobacco Bangladesh pronouncing its common identity with other operating companies in the Group. British American Tobacco Bangladesh is one of the oldest and largest multinational companies operating in Bangladesh. The British American Tobacco Group holds 65.91% share in the Company. The Government of Bangladesh owns 26.57% through several of its agencies, while 7.52% is owned by other shareholders. We are a public company listed on the Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges. The Board of Directors has nine members – a Non-Executive Chairman, four Non-Executive Directors and four Executive Directors. We are also a leading business organization in the industrial sector employing more than 11,000 people directly and a further 60,000 indirectly as farmers, distributors and suppliers. We have business contracts directly with approximately 45,000 registered farmers who produce high quality tobacco leaf.

In its effort to create an international market for Bangladeshi leaf tobacco the Company has been exporting tobacco to markets in developed countries like UK, Germany, Poland, Russia and New Zealand.

British American Tobacco Bangladesh’s motto is “success and responsibility go together”.

The Vision of BATB is: “To extend our leadership through world-class performance”.

There are two main tobacco industry associations in Bangladesh-

Bangladesh Cigarette Manufacturers Association (BCMA) and

Bangladesh Biri Manufacturers Association (BBMA) representing the industry.

The main cigarette manufacturers in Bangladesh are:

British American Tobacco Bangladesh
Philip Morris International
Dhaka Tobacco Industries
AbulKhair Tobacco
NasirTobacco
Azizudin Industries and
New Age Tobacco.

The main biri manufacturers are:

AkijBiri
AbulBiri
NasirBiri
KarikarBiri
Aziz Biri and
Hundreds of local Biri manufacturer

Product Offerings

International Brands:

As a major international Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company, BAT is proud of their reputation for producing high-quality brands that are chosen by one in six of the world’s adult smokers. British American Tobacco produces many local brands to satisfy the needs of different markets. But BAT has different international brands that are highly accepted by the consumers all over the world. Among the international brands there are four Global Drive Brands – Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall. These brands accounts for 21% of the global volumes from the subsidiary companies.

KENT: Kent was introduced in America in 1952 and is now sold in more than 70 countries. It is a free standing premium brand for consumers seeking a mild and smooth taste. 45 billion Kent cigarettes were sold in 2006. The brand achieved its fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth, rising 16 per cent on 2005 with strong growth in Russia, Eastern Europe and Chile.
Dunhill: It was launched in 1907 and now sells in more than 120 countries. Dunhill’s role is to establish a strong global position in the premium / super premium segment. In 2006, total Dunhill volumes were 33 billion cigarettes, up 6 per cent on 2005. Key markets include Australia, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan.
Lucky Strike: launched in 1871, is one of the oldest trademarks in the world and is now sold in more than 90 It is among the leading global brands for the premium segment and 2006 saw the launch of new product and packaging initiatives. Volumes in last year rose 0.4 per cent to 22 billion cigarettes. Key markets include Germany, Spain and France.
Pall Mall: It was introduced in 1899 and is now sold in more than 60 countries. It is BAT’s leading global value-for-money brand. Pall Mall delivered outstanding growth in 2006, with volumes up 40 per cent on the previous year to 46 billion cigarettes, making it the best-selling brand in the portfolio. Key markets include Germany, Poland, Spain and Russia and Bangladesh. While the Global Drive Brands remain central to BAT’s strategy, BAT is also increasing the profile of Vogue and Viceroy.
Vogue: It is a super-premium brand and includes the aromatic Vogue Arome. Sales are strong across Europe, especially Russia, and the brand is well placed to grow where consumers are increasingly able to trade up to premium brands.
Viceroy: It is sold in over 30 countries. Introduced in 1936, key markets for Viceroy today include Romania, the Middle East, Turkey, Bangladesh and Argentina.
Rothmans: It was launched in 1890 and is now sold in about 115 countries. Key markets include France, Italy, South Africa and Saudi Arabia.
Kool: Kool was introduced in 1933 and is now among the world’s biggest selling menthol cigarettes. Available in more than 45 countries, Kool is one of the fastest growing brands in Japan and is also popular in the United States and a number of Latin American countries.
Benson & Hedges: cigarettes were created for the then Prince of Wales in 1873. British American Tobacco acquired the rights to the brand in a large number of overseas markets in 1956. Today, British American Tobacco Group companies sell Benson & Hedges in more than 80 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Malaysia and South Africa.
State Express 555: It was launched in 1895 and is one of British American Tobacco’s best-selling cigarettes. Now sold in more than 55 countries, the brand is particularly popular with smokers in China, Taiwan, Bangladesh and Vietnam.
Peter Stuyvesant: It was first launched in South Africa in 1954 and then internationally in 1957. Now sold in around 55 countries, Peter Stuyvesant is popular in South Africa, France, The Netherlands, Greece, and Malaysia.
John Player Gold Leaf: It is today sold in over 20 countries and is particularly popular in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia. The brand dates back to the 1890s. For historical reasons, British American Tobacco does not own the brand in the UK, continental Europe or the United States.

Local Brands:

British American Tobacco Bangladesh operates in key segments of the cigarette market of Bangladesh with drive brands like Benson & Hedges, John Player Gold Leaf, Pall Mall, and Star.

Benson & Hedges: Group Benson & Hedges cigarettes were initially made for the Prince of Wales back in 1873. British American Tobacco acquired the rights of the brand in a large number of overseas markets in 1956. Today, British American Tobacco companies sell Benson & Hedges in more than 80 countries in the In Bangladesh Benson and Hedges was launched in 1997 and it is dominating the premium segment of cigarettes in Bangladesh. B&H has a value of TK 4/ stick and can be found in two different flavors, Special Filters and Lights.
John Player Gold Leaf: John Player Gold Leaf is one of the oldest brands of BATB in Bangladesh that was launched in 1980 and one of the highest selling brands in the Medium Segment in the market. JPGL is mostly found in the Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. JPGL has a value of TK 2.5/ stick.
Pall Mall: Pall Mall is an International Brand operating in more than 60 countries in the world. Pall Mall is the First Global Drive Brand launched in Bangladesh in March 2006. Even though Pall Mall is a premium brand worldwide but it is under Medium Segment in Bangladesh. Pall Mall has a price of TK 2/ stick, and can be found in three flavors, Full Flavor, Lights, and Menthol. Pall Mall made record sales in terms of volume in 2007 that was initially maintained by Star brand of BATB.
Star: Star and Star Next are positioned in the VFM segment. Star was launched in 1964 and Star Next was launched in 2012. The brand has absolute leadership in the segment with a robust BATB launches colorful new packets for star during the Spring Season in Bangladesh to represent the true colors of Bangladesh.
Pilot, Hollywood and Derby: BATB has three brands in Low Segment – Derby, Pilot & Hollywood. Derby was launched in 2013 and is the biggest brand among the three, offering taste differentiation to the consumers through its two variants. On the other hand, Pilot offers true and authentic smoke to the consumers. Pilot was launched in 2009 and at present it is the fastest growing brand in the industry. The third brand is Hollywood which was launched in 2011.

Local Brands with Market Segmentation:

From the customer’s point of view, the products of British American Tobacco Bangladesh are divided into four product segments. The segments are –

Premium
High
Medium
Low

The brands can be identified as below according to their product segmentation:

Premium- Benson & Hedges
High- Gold Leaf, Pall Mall, Capstan
Medium- Star, Scissors
Low- Pilot, Hollywood

Premium: Benson & Hedges (B&H) launched in 1997, maintains its dominance in Premium segment and drives the growth of Premium price segment in Bangladesh market. Within a short time Bangladesh became a leading B&H market across the British American Tobacco world. BAT Bangladesh was the first market to launch the new pack of B&H at the beginning of September 2005.

High: Launched in 1980, John Player Gold Leaf is one of the highest selling brands of the Company – dominating the High price segment. In 2005, they launched three flavored Limited Edition Product and Packs under the ‘Taste the World’ campaign, which were extremely well received by consumers. In July 2006, three Limited Edition Product and Pack (LEPP) were launched under the campaign ‘Blender’s Choice’. BAT Bangladesh launched John Player Gold Leaf Smooth on December 2008. The new cigarette with its enhanced filtration and perforated long filter is geared to offer smokers a smoother smoking experience with a full bodied flavor.

Medium: Star, launched 40 years ago, is still a dominant brand in this segment. Currently it is the highest volume generating brand for the Company. At the same time, the cigarette stick carried a new look with brighter paper and bi-color dye.

Low: In order to meet the demand of the smokers of the increasing Low segment, they launched this Pilot, Hollywood.

Supply Chain Division

Leaf:

Mission: To exceed customer expectations by providing quality tobacco at competitive price the leaf department of BATB is accountable for Tobacco Growing, Production & Procurement, Green Leaf threshing and packaging, leaf bending, leaf export and import. BTAB secures almost 80% of their leaf from their own cultivation. The Leaf department is involved in refining and purchasing flue-cured tobacco. BAT does not own farmland nor does it employ farmers directly to produce the tobacco that they use for cigarette production. Instead, each year the company registers thousands of farmers along with their land, to grow and cultivate tobacco crop. The company provides seed, fertilizer, and other loans to the farmers throughout the crop season to ensure quality growth. At the end of the season BAT buys fixed amounts of tobacco from the farmers, paying the accurate rates based on the grade of the crop. Tobacco growing and buying activities are conducted throughout the country. The two main areas are Kushtia Leaf Division and Chittagong Development Area.

Green Leaf Threshing Plant (GLT)

The tobacco crop is processed at the Green Leaf Threshing (GLT) plant in Kushtia. The purpose of the GLT is to convert the tobacco into a form suitable for cigarette production. The tobacco is brought to a uniform moisture level and temperature. Initial blending of the different grades of tobacco takes place at the GLT. The processed tobacco is sized and packed before delivery to Dhaka factory. The Leaf department makes an estimate of the quantity of tobacco that BAT will need to purchase for the based on the input of the Sales & Operation Planning (SOP) committee. Based on these estimates the number of farmers and the amount of land, which will have to be registered, are fixed.

Manufacturing

Mission: We delight our customers with superior quality product through flexible operations In order to support the mission; Production department is performing the following activities successfully:

Support brand portfolio / new product launch.
Availability/product harmonization.
Quality/ meet international standa
System/ ISO 9002.
Low cost producer.
Competitive position of EH&S in the group

Supply Chain department is mainly comprised of-

Primary Manufacturing Department (PMD)
Secondary Manufacturing Department (SMD)

Primary Manufacturing Department (PMD): The Primary Manufacturing Department (PMD) is responsible for further conditioning of the domestic and imported tobacco to make it ready for cigarette production. The tobacco passes through a set of integrated and regulated machinery whose purpose is to blend the different “Packing grades” in specified proportions, convert bales into “Rag” suitable for use in cigarettes, and bring tobacco to a uniform temperature and moisture.

Secondary manufacturing department (SMD): The secondary manufacturing department (SMD) uses the tobacco that is blended and conditioned by the PMD along with wrapping materials to manufacture cigarettes. The PMD delivers its final processed tobacco to the Cut Tobacco Store (CTS). The CTS has a 50-ton storage capacity and the tobacco is stored there typically for one and a half days before it is used. The SMD brings in the processed tobacco from the CTS as needed for production along with wrapping material.

Shipping:

The finished cigarette stock is brought in from the holding room at the Secondary Manufacturing Department and kept at the shipping prior to delivery. The storeroom has a capacity of 260 million cigarettes. Trucks belong to outside contractors arrive daily to deliver the stock to the various Regional Trade Marketing Offices (RTMOs) around the country. The marketing department issues a daily shipping program specifying the stock that needs to be allocated. This information is processed by software to generate a truck allocation scheme. Trucks going to Dhaka carry 2 million cigarettes per trip and those going outside Dhaka carry 3 million cigarettes per trip. Vat documents are sent along with the trucks.

Summary of the Project:

Recruitment and selection can play a pivotally important role in shaping an organization’s effectiveness and performance. That is why an organization should properly plan about their recruitment and selection strategies and BATB is very conscious about it. The recruitment and selection process starts from the advertising and then ends with the selecting or hiring employees. Recruitment and selection is a continuous process in BATB that happens round the year. Throughout this report I have done some statistical analysis based on the recruitment and selection process of BATB and the author’s assigned project ‘Analysis of Recruitment and Selection Process in BATB’. Later on some recommendations has been made that will be helpful for the company in future.

With the help of the some hypothetical numbers in the recruitment database I did some statistical analysis of the recruitment process to make the whole scenario more visible and understandable. Among all the functions, Marketing has highest number of selected employees during this period of time. A recruiting yield pyramid has been developed which implies that to hire 10 candidates the company will have to generate at least 325 leads. After analyzing the performance of different university graduates it has been found that Dhaka University IBA and North South University is dominating in the selection process with their performance.

An analysis has been shown on the most reliable source of potential candidates for BATB. Internal Referrals and Career Counseling Centers of different universities leading as the most effective source of candidates followed by Battle of Minds and Head Hunting Agencies. Battle of Minds, being the own event of BATB is quite successful in finding out talents for their organization. A number of hiring has been done from the BOM participants.

Finally, a statistic showed that in most of the cases BATB HR has successfully provided desired candidates in different vacant positions. The incident ascertains that BATB HR is prompt and efficient in their recruitment and selection process.

Background:

According to Bratton ad Gold (2007), Recruitment and selection forms a core part of the central activities underlying human resource management. He also added that, Recruitment is the process of making a pool of capable people to apply for employment to an organization. Moreover, Selection is the process by which managers and others use specific instruments to choose from a pool of applicants a person or persons more likely to succeed in the job(s), given management goals and legal requirements.

Recruitment and selection can play a vital role in influencing an organization’s effectiveness and performance if organizations are able to get employees who already possess relevant knowledge, skills and aptitudes and are also able to make an accurate prediction regarding their future abilities. That is why an organization should properly plan about their recruitment and selection strategies. The process starts from the advertising and then ends with the selecting or hiring employees. A better recruitment and selection policy can help a business to gain the sustainability and to perform better than others, because human resources are the main assets who are responsible to run the business. Organizations tailor their recruitment strategies to the specific position(s) they are seeking to fill. These strategies may differ depending on the level of the position. As recruitment and selection process plays the most significant role in making an organization successful, I prepared my project on “Analysis of Recruitment and Selection process in BATB” I also ensured that all the necessary record keeping of all there recruitments takes place properly and accurately. For making the project effective, I had to do some other regular works. Back-end duties assigned to him were

Taking CVs from sources and screening rendering to the criteria mentioned
Scheduling recruitments through cooperating with the interviewers/assessors
Calling applicants and updating about the interview timings
Making files for each applicant for interview and assessment purposes
Updating the information and status of recruitments in the database
Organize and facilitate training programs for employees
Calculating and preparing bills for events and training programs
Scheduling and facilitating induction program for the new joiner

Description of the project:

HR Mission – “Embedding winning culture where people always strive to excel” Human Resources Department of BATB plays a very vital role in the total organizational operation of the company. From recruitment to selection and also from employee welfare to industrial relations, this department has to play an important role. Employee recruitment, selection, transfer, promotion, performance appraisal, needs and wants of the employees are managed by this department to give the whole organization productive benefit. HR department of BATB consists of some great peoples who act as leader and guide for the employees of the organization. To develop human resource department, BATB has put in a lot of efforts in responding to various changes and problems through effective formulation and implementation of human resource strategies through the HR department.

HR department believes in-

Bridging the gap between top level and lower level management
Improved performance through attractive reward system
Strive for excellent management practice

BATB HR team has around 25 employees leading by the Head of HR. Some key personnel in BATB HR are-

HR Business Partners i.e. Corporate HR Business Partner, Marketing HR Business Partner, Supply Chain HR Business Partner, Manufacturing HR Business Partner
Corporate Employee Relation Manager
Employee Services Unit Manager
Payroll and Funds Executive
HR Executive (Learning, Sourcing & MIS)
Management Trainees
Interns

In this project starting from calling up the candidates till giving the appointment letter, I tried to analyze every aspect of recruitment and selection process. Finally I also added some recommendations for making the process more effective and productive.

Objective of the Study:

Primary Objective

The primary objective of the study is to analyze recruitment and selection process of BATB from the recruitment database.

Specific Objectives

To describe the common phases of BATB recruitment and selection process
To find out total selections in last six months in different positions of different functions
To analyze the performance of different university graduates in BATB recruitment and selection process
To develop the Recruiting Yield Pyramid
To find out which source brings the best candidates for BATB
To analyze the effectiveness of Battle of Minds in finding out the right talents for BATB
To determine the required time to fill up a vacant position

Methodology:

For preparing this report, both primary and secondary data was necessary.

Primary Data Source: The primary data were taken to make an effective report while working in British American Tobacco Bangladesh. Main primary data sources were-

Personal observations and experiences
Face to face conversation with the officials
Record files used during for the recruitment and selection process
Recruitment Database of BATB

Secondary Data Source: Some secondary data were explored and included to have a better understanding. Main Secondary data sources were-

Relevant books and annual reports of BATB
Print media and web Journals (websites, magazines)
BATB interns’ resources in their server
Internship reports
BATB internal website (interact)

Nature of the study:

The nature of study is exploratory and descriptive. All issues intended from this study are explored through assessing and analyzing information gathered from different sources. The internship report was truly done on the learning and experience in four months of the internship period.

Analysis of Recruitment and Selection process in BATB

Sources of Recruitments

British American Tobacco Bangladesh usually recruits either from the internal sources, i.e., by promoting the existing employees for higher positions, or they may go for outside sources, i.e., giving advertisements in media by creation a pool of applicants. Thus, internal and external sources of recruitment can either be resorted to by any organizations, subject to convince and feasibility. Recruitment is an art of attracting applicants, from whom the most suitable ones may be selected in a particular job or jobs.

For BATB, the major sources of recruitment for different types of personnel are written below-

Internal Sources- The sources within BATB itself to fill a position is mainly termed as internal sources. These are primarily two- transfers and promotions. Internal recruitment may lead to increase in employee’s productivity as their motivation level increases. It also saves time, money and efforts.
HR & Management Consulting Agencies- Several private consultancy firms i.e. People Scape, Grow n Excel, HR Kites etc. perform recruitment functions on behalf of BATB by charging a fee.
Career Counseling Centers of Different Universities- BATB has gets the CV of potential candidates from Career Counseling Centers of different universities.
Internal Referrals- Most often existing employees recommend prospective candidates for a vacant position. Internet (LinkedIn, Job Sites)-BATB has their own server in the leading job site of Bangladesh bdjobs.com where hundreds of applications are being received. Now-a-days, professional site LinkedIn has become a valuable source of recruitment.
Internship- Sometimes interns are invited in the selection process based on their performances.
Posted CVs- Many interested people post their CVs to be considered for a vacant position or any suitable position.

Selection Process:

Recruitment and Selection policies at BATB are much structured. They prepare the policies according to their requirements so that they can meet up their desired requirements. The recruitment and selection process at BATB differs from department to department, function to function and level to level. They know that department’s requirements differ from one to another. So to get the right candidates, they have different recruitment and selection processes. But there are consistencies in between the different methods. The process starts with the screening of CVs and ends with the selection of employees.

Preliminary Screening of Applications:

The number of applications normally received against any vacancy is usually huge. This makes it a challenging task to select the right persons from this huge pool. Moreover, conducting tests and interviews for all the candidates may not be always feasible and cost efficient. To avoid such problems, BATB screens out candidates who don’t meet the criteria for a particular position before going ahead with the selection process. BATB, before going for the selection process develops their own standards or potentials attributes for the vacant roles and thus screen the applications.

Primary Interview:

Generally, an interview means a conversation with a purpose. After screening the CVs, BATB arranges primary interview for the candidates. Interviews are basically aim at giving information to the candidates about the role, judging the candidates through various conversations and finally shortlist few candidates for the next step. The conversation is intended to get information from candidates regarding their, background, experience, education, training and interests to evaluate their suitability as per the requirements of the organization, its philosophy, personnel policies, etc. in BATB, most of the interviews are structured Interview. Before every primary interview, an interview guide is given to the interviewers based on which they interview the candidates. For entry level positions especially Territory Officers, hundreds of applications come. After primary screening the number remains is also considerable. It consumes a lot of time to take primary interviews of such a good number of candidates. In order to examine more number of candidates in a short period of time BATB introduced an alternative to primary interview for the role of Territory Officer which is called ‘Pre-assessment’. Here there are 8 candidates who sit together where they are given a short case to solve and present in groups. The duration is 1 hour. So in an hour the assessors can assess 8 candidates and pick the best ones.

Assessment Centre:

Afterwards, the assessment center is arranged for the selected candidates. Here they call several candidates to give different types of tests. It is usually a day long process. Here the candidates are assessed by the group test, individual test and critical problem solving session, role play and presentation. They have to do group work, they have prepare short report, have to present the report. And all of their activities are monitored by the respective assessors. They are judged according to the factors like their leadership quality, decision making, influencing capability etc.

An assessment center is a very effective platform to judge a candidate properly. Assessment center evaluation is also very structured. Every assessor is given an evaluation sheet with some factors based on which they score the candidates.

Final Interview:

The candidates who perform well in the assessment centers are called for the final interview. This interview is usually with the functional heads. During this interview the interviewer mainly checks the candidates’ interests, motives, commitments, willingness and positive attitude towards the role. After interviewing they select the best candidates.

Physical Examination:

BATB has another selection step which is known as the physical examination. After all the psychological and critical analysis tests, BATB conduct this physical tests. Physical tests include the strength and fitness test, drug test etc. Through the fitness test they try to find out that the employee will be able to work in the organization or not. As a Tobacco Company, It is very important for the workers (especially working in PMD) as they need to be in contact with the tobacco all the time.

Job Offer:

After selection of the candidates BATB offers the job to that employee. Usually, an HR personnel calls the selected candidate and congratulates for getting the job. If the person accepts the offer, then he is called for fulfilling some formalities. Then the employment contract and other procedures are supposed to be completed by the selected candidate. And then the induction process starts two or three days afterwards.

Induction Program:

Induction is a very important activity for any organization. Induction helps an employee to know the organization, be familiar with its culture, to know the different functions, to become socialize with the new environment, to match their expectations with the organizations demand, to prepare their career ladder etc. In BATB the induction process is usually 3-days long which includes visiting different factories and outlets. BATB tries to give information about every departments and their function to their new employees. These help the new employees to know that to whom they should conduct in a certain emergency. Also they will be able to perform their best as they got the information about all of the BTAB activities. This actually helps them to relate all the function of BATB. The new employees are also informed about the awards that they will get on the basis of excellent performance, leadership, and positive attitude.

Analyzing the Performance of Different University Graduates

From the recruitment database we can easily figure out which university’s students doing well in recruitments. We can also find out which university students are being selected for a particular role. This information could be very helpful for BATB to grab their desired talents for various entry level positions. For mid-level positions work experience is more preferred than the universities. If we analyze recruitments we can figure out which universities are doing well.

During my internship period the entry level positions for which recruitments took place are-

Management Trainee
Territory Officer
DPO
Team Leader (GLT)
Learning & Sourcing Officer
Cycle Planning Officer

Effectiveness of Battle of Minds in Finding out the Right Talents Battle of Minds:

Battle of Minds (BOM) is one of the most prestigious inter university competition in the country. British American Tobacco Bangladesh has been organizing this event for the last 8 years. The competition takes place among the best students from leading universities in Bangladesh. One of the very important reasons behind organizing this event is to bring out the best talents from across the country and take them to their organization. During Battle of Minds, BATB marks best performers and later on calls every shortlisted participant for interview. A question may arise, is BATB getting their desired candidates from Battle of Minds? Here is an analysis regarding the question. I’ve made a status summary of the Battle of Minds 2015 Participants. This will help to figure out whether Battle of Minds really adding value to their recruitments. In the recruitment database there is a column named ‘Source of Getting CV’ and for the Battle of Minds candidates the source is written as ‘BOM’. So it becomes easier to filter the Battle of Minds Candidates. From the Battle of Minds 2011, out of 40 semifinalists 26 have been called so far. 11 of them were failed in the primary interview, 8 of them failed in the assessment center, 7 made it to the final interview and from there 6 were hired. The ratio is almost 3:13 which is 23%.

Findings:

In this report I wanted to find out the reason, why candidates are not qualifying and getting their desired jobs in BATB. In my internship time period I had the opportunity to talk to all the departmental heads who are engaged in assessments. I took this advantage seriously and interviewed them to collect some essential information which will help the candidates to understand their capabilities and demonstrate it to the interviewers to be selected for their dream jobs. I interviewed 50 interviewers to know about the real scenario.

Here, I found out that to be a full package, these factors should be present in a candidate who wants to join BATB. Here, it is shown that a person should be passionate towards his job, and also be proactive and lead others. Another, information is that, when I asked the interviewers that if they think CGPA or GPA is a great factor or not, number of assessor confirmed that it hardly creates any difference in performance.

Difficulties faced in Selection Process:

Some observations regarding the recruitment and selection process while conducting the different phases are given below-

Firstly, a lot of problems were faced due to rescheduling the interviews or assessments several times in internship period due to interviewers’ or assessors’ busy schedule. BATB HR always gives the exact time to the candidate so that they don’t have to wait a long. But, while working in this project I experienced frequent delay in interview or assessment. Though the schedules were finalized based on the given time by the interviewers/assessors still because of workload they couldn’t maintain the schedule. As a result sometimes the candidates had to wait for a long time.
Though BATB provides Interviewing and Assessing Skills training to quite a good number of employees, most often it is seen that some common personnel are taking the interviews or assessments. Others try to avoid them. Most often the major reason is given by them is that their schedule is booked for another task. So the training given to the employees remain unutilized.
More training should be given to make an interview more effective if BATB wants to take the best candidate out of 1000 people in a short time schedule.

Recommendations:

After analyzing the recruitment and selection process the author suggested some recommendations that might be helpful for the organization. Following are some recommendations given to BATB:

BATB can plan more campus recruitments according to the time period of university graduation to get the best candidates.
After selection, BATB HR should monitor the performance of graduates from different universities to find out whether their selection process is effective or not and to figure out which university graduates are performing the best.
There was a performance monitoring tool named “Your Voice” earlier to make the new employees familiar with their team mates and coworkers along with measuring their level of satisfaction. This should be started again and more attention should be given towards this tool.
To overcome the problem of assessors’ unavailability, BATB can schedule at a quarterly basis and book assessors’ schedule through internal software to ensure they remain free in that time.
In the case of urgency they should utilize the sources of candidates well to reduce the recruitment and selection time but should not be confined to those sources only. It might deprive them in getting diverse talents.
BATB should not be biased towards some particular institutions. As they believe in diversified working environment so graduates from different institutions might be taken at BATB.
They should invite graduates from all over Bangladesh so that graduates from those universities can at least get a chance to prove themselves.

Conclusion:

From the whole report it is clear that the recruitment database is a very effective tool for BATB HR for efficient recruitment and selection process. The facts that came up at the end of this report are that BATB has a very structured recruitment and selection process. Recruitments and selections are being conducted throughout the year. The number of entry level recruitments and selections are greater in marketing department while there are some mid-level recruitments and selections in different functions as well. BATB has some very effective source of recruitments including Battle of Minds (BOM). Some graduates from different universities are doing extensively well in BATB recruitment and selection process. And overall, the efficiency rate of BATB HR regarding selecting employees for a vacant position is acceptable.