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The report here explores the HRS from a rather imperative perspective; Employee Welfare. Such a topic is one of the most hotly contested issues in contemporary organizations in the West, but its impact is yet to transcend our borders. Foremost, the concept of Human Resource is introduced that explains its utility as it beginning to find its place among today’s leadership by defining roles that have been realized to be essential in the smooth flow of the organizations. The people, which is time and again stated to be the most powerful resource is most utilized if it is managed efficiently.
The company that we have based our study on is Tracked Private Ltd that specialized in Business to Business Retail. It was crucial that a topic that is distinct from country to country, we were to focus on local companies that may provide a more reliable and representative sample of the local norms and how with all the constraints, companies in Pakistan can deliver welfare to its employers and help to promote the basic physical and material well-being of people in need. For this oppose we interviewed two officials of the company.
They are: Mr.. Wager All – Assistant Manager, Human Resources Department Mr.. Zanzibar Khalid’s – Assistant Manager, Search Engine Marketing Department We are extremely thankful to them for providing us a deeper insight into the policies of Tracked. The report then goes on to amalgamate our secondary research with the structure studied that is further concluded with our recommendations that we deduce can not only correct some of the measures but also reinforce the measures taken. | Page Introduction to Company The company we selected is Tracked for our Term Report, which was established in 2006, has a global presence with direct operations in many countries. The basic business activity of this company is to operate its online website which is one of the arrest global online marketplaces that connects buyers and sellers from all around the globe through its website (www. Tracked. Com). This online portal is also utilized by its customers all over the world as an interactive online forum for exporters and importers in various countries to enhance their outlay.
With its vision to become the No. L company in the world, and a mission to “help the world do business smartly’ it connects traders with global whole sellers, buyers, importers & exporters, manufacturers and distributors in more than 240 countries in a cheaper and more convenient way. Tracked, utilizing its unique features, search engine, trade promotion and information dissemination, has successfully assisted many online traders and business firms situated all around the globe to explore newer avenues for business which in the long run helps their nation’s GAP and economy.
It has major operations in China, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which are strategically located among the major economic sectors of the world. Tracked Portal can be read in several different languages including English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Russian, and Spanish. Millions of people visits Tracked. Mom every month to order online import orders or to place their proposals for exporting items.
Tracked is the world’s first BIB marketplace that earned both ISO 9001 Quality Management System and ISO 27001 Information Security System certifications which in itself proves to the high quality standards the company attaches to providing the best possible interactive and online marketplace portal for its customers in various countries. 3 | Page Introduction to the Industry: E-commerce – A Global Industry The industry our selected company, Tracked belongs to is the International Online Marketplace or Electronic commerce, which has been growing phenomenally throughout the last decade.
Commerce is trading in products or services using the Internet. In our interviews, we were told that Tracked is the largest online BIB company in Pakistan. Local online BIB companies like Pizza are a small competition, and not a threat, to a global, rather than local, level, Tracked sees itself as competing globally with companies like Alabama and Hardworking. The online services are used for providing the users all around the world to connect to each other in order to indulge in business related activities. The global industry as grown to over $ 1 Trillion in 2014.
The Czech Republic is the European country where e-commerce provides the largest portion, almost 24% to’ total revenue generated by the country. (marketer, 2013) (Robinson, 2010) (E-commerce, 2013) With 384 million internet users, China’s online shopping sales rose to $36. 6 billion in 2009. Commerce transactions between China and other countries increased to 2. 3 trillion Yuan ($375. 8 billion) in 2012 and accounted for 9. 6% of China’s total international trade. (Forbes, 2010) (Internet Retailer, 2013) By 2016, it is expected that retail commerce sales in Brazil will reach $17. Lion. With internet usage and penetration expanding at the fastest pace all around the globe, the Middle East with a market of 60 million has dramatically increased retail sales revenue generated through commerce. (Seersucker, 2008) 4 page General Overview of HRS System: The structure of the HRS Dept. At Trade Key is that it has 4 sub-departments. The function of each sub department is self-explanatory from its name. These sub- departments are: 0 Recruitment and selection, Organizational development, Training and development, HRS operations (payroll and administration)
The recruitment and selection department is responsible for recruiting, attracting and maintaining an effective workforce. The company considers its people, its HRS, as asset of the company. Trade Key has an excellent Employee referral program. Upon hiring, employees are given preference on references. For instance if there is a Department and that person gets hired, the referring employee gets rewarded by the company for referring someone good who will potentially add to the value of the company. In addition, to help achieve the organizational goals and channeling the efforts of employees in right direction the role of ODD dept. Mess into play that deliberately plans and assures its duties. An important program at this level is Grow Unlimited Program called CUP. This is a unique and excellent feature of Trade Keys HRS Dept. Here, Employee rating is done every 3 months. However for other companies, it is usually annual or bi-annual. Under the CUP, employee gets rewarded on a structure of meeting the target (I. E. 100 %) or performing above the target (110% or 130% of target performance, for example. ) 5 Page If one has an above target performance, he gets rewarded by being given a commission. Also he earns certain points.
These points are used as currency on a Trade Key portal (like an online shop) to buy anything; from perfumes to airline tickets. Training of employees is also carried out at every stage. The Training and Development Dept conducts regular training sessions. These include both in-house training and using external trainers. Training is done in these forms: there is department-wise training (how to effectively do Sales, Marketing etc); training on time management; if employees are being sent to different zones or different countries, they are given training sessions to prepare them for those regions.
Lastly, since Trade Key have offices in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and China, Job rotation is done between these countries, based on employee performance, employee preferences and HRS strategy. Also Exit interviews are conducted at Trade Key, something which is not usually done in this industry. The goal here is to minimize the iteration rate. 6 | Page Description of the Topic – Employee Welfare: The term employee welfare refers to the various services, benefits and facilities that employers offer to their employees.
It includes both monetary and non-monetary measures such as paid leaves, allowances, housing, transportation, medical insurance and food. Significance of Employee Welfare: At the bottom line it may seem that providing employee welfare raise the expenditure for the company. However from a true perspective, it is really significant and an investment with a guaranteed return – as providing benefits to employees ultimately benefit the organization, for instance if an organization’s health plan has wellness coverage and preventative care, employees are more likely to stay healthy, cutting down on absenteeism and sick days.
Firstly at the time of hiring it is the employee welfare package that often serves as significant reason why employee alp retain the right kind of people in your organization. Thirdly it keeps the employee motivated. Via employee welfare programs you show your employees that you care for them. This feeling of being valued make employees feel welcome and motivate them to work harder. James H. Douglas, Jar. Summarizes employee welfare by saying: “A good Job is more than Just a paycheck. A good Job fosters independence and discipline, and contributes to the health of the community.
A good Job is a means to provide for the health and welfare of your family, to own a home, and save for retirement. ” 71 page Employee Welfare at Trade Key: Knowing the importance of employee welfare, Trade Key in the first place provides a market competitive salary for its employees. So there are no issues salary-wise. In addition to this the company has a Provident Fund that is marked at 12%, much higher than the industry average of 7%. Under Provident fund scheme at Trade Key 12 % of employee salary is automatically put in the IF. The company also contributes the same percentage (12%). It then invests it in a safe investment like a gobo. Nod. Once an employee retires, he receives Provident Fund money plus the income from the investment. As far as non-monetary Employee welfare is concerned, firstly there are great Healthcare benefits provided and every employee is covered via Dammed Insurance. Moreover, the industry average regarding Annual holidays is usually twelve annual holidays. However Trade Key gives its employees twenty annual holidays, plus ten casual holidays, and ten sick holidays. So while the industry average is around 25-30 total leaves, Trade Key has forty. Also, roll-over of the holidays can be done if an employee hasn’t availed all forty in the year.
Encashment of the holidays is also possible at the end of the year. In addition, for a one-time thing, if an employee wants to go for Han, Trade Key provides him with forty days paid leave. This is something not seen in other companies. Regarding work place environment at Trade Key, firstly Employees have cubicles, Head of Departments have offices, and Managers have large cubicles. There is also a Recreational area that includes Table tennis, Fastball and other indoor games. Moreover the cafeteria at Trade Key provides subsidized lunch for its employees. It has a contract with Gain Catering Services.
This is a great feature as it shows that the company believes that providing healthy foods at a subsidized | Page rate is a responsibility of the company. The food variety here ranges from local cuisine to Continental dishes. There is also an Office Mosque nicely built. Mamas breaks are observed for every time of prayer. During Ramadan, a highly regarded and respected Manual sahib’s comes to the office mosque on Fridays to deliver a banyan. Also, during Ramadan, HRS Practices at Trade Key: Trade key is an organization that gives due importance towards proper managing its Human Resource.
Open door policy, Your HRS, Tell the CEO program and Helpless 313 along with Grievance Handling Mechanism are a few HRS practices implemented at Trade key. Each one is discussed below in some detail: Open Door Policy: This policy aims at encouraging effective and clear communication between employee and the top management. Its function is to help every employee get an opportunity to contribute positively by identifying the areas that need improvement and eradicating all sorts of communication barrier at all levels. Your HRS: It is a forum where all the employees share their concerns and get their issues resolved with the HRS people.
Tell the CEO: With this program all the employees can directly communicate with the CEO and give heir suggestions for any sort of improvement. The short listed suggestions are reviewed by the CEO and the best ones are rewarded. 9 | Page Help Desk 313: It is a service via which the employees get a quick feedback and their queries resolved so as to aid them in performing their duties Grievance Handling Mechanism: To avoid any sort of discrimination, harassment or factorization in the workplace, there is a program at Trade Key called Grievance Handling Mechanism.
This program treats and investigates complaints regarding productive, ethical & values based work behaviors. Moreover this program also ensures that all complaints regarding such behaviors are fairly treated, and there exist a good working environment and harmonious relation among the employees. Employee Benefits at Trade Key: The HRS philosophy at Trade Key is they partner with their right people, who are assets of the company, and make their wish, company’s wish.
Hence in line with its philosophy, the company calls its employees its associates and offer a wide range of benefits to them including health and wellness of employees, financial benefits, paid leaves and some other position related benefits. Firstly the health and wellness aerogram covers Medical Insurance (for all eligible family members) along with Life Insurance and POD Coverage. Secondly the financial benefit program include Quarterly Bonuses, Provident Fund, BOBBIE, Associate Referral Program, Mobile Phone Monthly Credit, and Subsidized Lunch Program.
Thirdly Annual Leaves (up to 20 leaves in a year), Sick Leaves, Casual Leaves, and Paternity / Maternity Leaves are counted as Paid Leaves. In addition, Some Other Position Based Benefits 1300 c Car, Laptops & I Phones and Internet Routers. 101 page Analysis of the HRS Employee Welfare System The in-depth interviews with Mr.. Wager All and Mr.. Zanzibar Khalid’s undoubtedly revealed much information about the workings of the company especially with respect to employee welfare.
Both of the respected officials of the company, in their interviews, not only gave us details about company policies and practices but also tried to sell these practices to us; they highlighted how these policies are the best possible ones and how they have been really successful. As being a neutral third party, we will now look at each of these policies and employee welfare related HRS practices of Tracked, analyze it and compare it to the literature review that we had submitted on the same topic. Starting off with the recruitment and selection department of the company, we learnt about the Employee Referral System.
We felt that it was a smart way to reduce the recruitment costs of the company by not having to spend on advertisement and reducing the time spent on screening bulk of C.v.. Also, it might help motivate employees by giving them a sense of control and belonging. It shows how the company wants to involve them in the business processes. Also, the fact that it will earn them monetary benefit if their reference is a good candidate for the Job propagates the mindset that employee welfare is a two-way street. However, this might restrict the diversity in the company and keep better talent out.
This might also create a moral hazard by incentives nepotism and a cultural of unjustified referrals. Going into the core policies regarding the employee welfare, we see that Tracked has a lot of compatibility with larger Macs and its practices are, to a great extent, at par with huge corporations perceived to have a modern employee welfare system. It also contains most of the features identified by research articles that we did in the literature review. (Indignation, 2013) identifies the following characteristics of an effective employee welfare system: 11 | Pa GE Benefits, e. . Meal vouchers, business car, flexible working hours; Assurances, e. G. Life Services, e. G. Laundry service, bank consulting, factory outlet; Welfare, e. G. Nursery, children summer campus; Promotional agreements, e. G. Wellness centers, restaurants, volume retailing and stores; Technology, e. G. Laptop, mobile phone and other technological appliances. Also, the following are a few selected objectives deemed to be fundamental by (Pentagonal, 2011) 0 Fair Pay Social responsibility of Employer Personality Development Development of Private Life as well
Transparency The wellbeing should not only be limited to as long as the worker provides monetary benefits to the firm, but make sure whether this is being translated into his private life or not. Comparing Tracked and these research articles, we can see that it is actually doing most of the items on the list. According to the two company officials, it pays a competitive pay to its employees, gives them subsidized food in the premises, allow relatively flexible working hours and then there are benefits and rewards schemes based on both, the seniority level (company car) as well as the performance appraisal.
This appraisal process is, at least from the perception of the two assistant managers interviewed, highly fair with no history of disputes or grievances. On the social responsibility spectrum also, we see that Tracked fulfills its responsibility by giving every employee an insurance, medical allowance for family and a provident fund with greater employer contribution than the industry average. Also included in the social responsibility duties of a company is the development of personal life of the employee, cultural sensitiveness and religious freedom.
Looking at Tracked, we can see 121 page hat it accepts and embraces cultural differences and makes sure that they are culturally sensitive. The fact that they don’t do overnight shifts in China shows their attitude of upholding and respecting cultural norms. The Ramadan policies of Tracked highlighted in the earlier part shows its commitment and goodwill to work upon giving religious space to employees. However, one needs to stop here and look at this thing in a deeper way before personal space and privacy in an organization.
It seems like Tracked whilst giving religious space to Muslims in Ramadan might be unintentionally taking some from employees from other religions. With all the regular sermons by Muslim clerics and the Arabic and Quern sessions, the “others” might feel they are being forcefully put between something they don’t want to do. Also, does Tracked gives the same religious space and spiritual development sessions to people of other faiths when they have their occasions?
Lastly, another measure to look at when dealing with employee welfare is the exit rate and reasons. As mentioned in Richards (1999), proper evaluation of the reasons for employee turnover is essential in understanding employee needs and improving the welfare system. The exit interviews together with the anonymous grievances feedback system carried out by Tracked is a good step and can give them valuable insights into what their employees are expecting from them and make this exchange of services and benefits a continuously improving win- win process. 31 page BIB industry is a relatively growing sector and when compared to other more established industries, it needs to work on a lot of aspects to reinforce its lucrative paychecks as well. Firstly, from a business mindset, mental sustainability is profoundly crucial in establishing the future performance of employees. It is usually overlooked as being the worker’s domestic issue and it does not fall under company’s responsibility. Whereas, it is his/her office space that sets the mood.
Therefore, psychiatric counseling is needed that not only help tackle public issues but possibly private matters as well. This tradition practiced in the Japanese culture helps bind the worker with the company. Day Care Female employment is steadily increasing in Pakistan as well that look for opportunities to channel their talent while maintaining their cultural roles as well. Here Tracked and other companies in the industry can provide an excellent opportunity by including Day Care in offices as well.