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TABLE OF CONTENT TOPICPAGE NO 1. 0Company Background2 2. 0Function of Human Resource Department (HRD)4 3. 0Challenges & Issues 15 4. 0Solution & Decision17 5. 0References19 1. 0COMPANY BACKGROUND KTS Holding Sdn Bhd (KTSH) is an investments holdings company started in 1962. The KTSH are mainly non-public listed companies.
Principal activities include timber logging, timber processing (into plywood, sawn-timber, etc) reforestation, plantation (oil palm) & estate development, newspaper publishing & printing, property holding & construction, general & imported goods trading, insurance agencies, shipping, food processing and hotel & restaurant operations. The KTSH has approximate 10,000 employees distributed according to the company need all over Borneo. The head quarter of the KTSH is located at Crown Tower (Jln Pending), which own by the company. Human Resource Department of the KTSH is on the 6th floor, with 30 staff working in it.
The Human Resource Department (HRD) plays several roles in assisting the management to function. HRD plays the role of planner, where they are assign to plan matters related to staffing, such as planning manpower needs, recruitment and employee selection. Other than that, HRD also act as facilitator, they prepare training opportunities and career development to employees and conduct orientation sessions for new employees. Coordinate matters related to employee health and safety, amenities and benefit is also a role of the HRM as a coordinator.
As the auditor of the company, HRM oversee employee performance and control compensation offers such as rewards and benefits to employees, and evaluate accident and injury reports. HRM management division acts as a middle man in matters pertaining to employee disciplinary issues, consultation with worker’s union, handling conflicts and employee dissatisfaction. HRD helps the KTSH to achieve the organisation’s target by fully utilizing skills and ability of the employees of the workforce. HRD also provide the organisation with trained and motivated employees. The works of the HRD also increase the job satisfaction of the employees.
Another function of the HRD is to develop and maintain the quality of the working environment and also the policy delivering. Managing the social responsibility and ethical conducts is also the job function of HRD. 2. 0FUNCTION OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT Human resource management functions as a reference towards the implementation of task and responsibility of providing and coordinating human resource in an organisation. A large organisation like KTSH has its own human resource management department which is responsible for carrying out all the functions of human resource.
Each human resource function is managed by human resource experts specializing in a field. Human resource management functions are not just about record keeping and updating files. They involve a holistic and integrated approach that includes various activities designed to contribute to the effectiveness of an organisation The functions played by the Human Resource Department of KTSH are such as staffing, development and safety & heath. Detail of each functions are discuss as follows:- (a) Staffing KTSH’s HRD staffing involves human resource planning process, job analysis, recruitment and selection of manpower. i) Human Resource Planning In human resource planning, HRD are doing the forecasting process or requirement needed by KTSH to achieve its objectives, aside from developing and implementing activities to fulfill organisation needs. It is used to ensure the organisation has enough workforce and suitable employees, at the right time and place. The planning is important so that there will not be any surplus or insufficient manpower. This is also to ensure employees are able to carry out their duties efficiently.
HRD of KTSH always make sure the distribution of staff is always sufficient so that the problem of surplus or overloaded will not happen in any of the rest department. The overview of all sub-company are always been checked and confirm so the HRD can always keep track with the job distribution of the lower management. (ii) Job Analysis and Design The HRD conducts job analysis to develop specific requirements for a job in the company. It is a process of gathering information on a particular job by identifying the responsibilities and duties related to the post.
Information from the job analysis will be used to develop jobs, prepare job details and job specification HRD of KTSH conducts a process for the job analysis. . For every job, the first step taken by the HRD is to first determine the job that is going to be analysed. After that, they will ensure the source of obtaining data either from the employee or supervisor of the respective. These data source will be obtains in order to list out the job data. Several methods such as face-to-face interview, survey, observation, journals and report are used to gather data.
They will determine the types of job data that need to be gathered, such as duties, responsibilities, and skill requirements. The job data that were gathered will then be use to do the job description such as the duties, obligations and responsibilities of the job. Job specification also can be obtained where the skill, physical, knowledge requirements and capabilities of the each job can be classified. After the analysis is done, the HRD will proceed to do recruitment, selection, training & development, performance evaluation and management.
By using the information obtained from the job analysis, the HRD can later proceed to design the job accordingly. Jobs are design according to every department needs and the employee’s characteristic, qualification and capability. Job design is also used to make a suitable timetable and workflow for each and every department. This is to increase the employees’ contribution. (iii) Recruitment HRD do recruitment to identify and encourage interested and potential job candidates to apply for available posts in KTSH. Task detail and job specifications provide information on candidate’s eligibility and explanation on job requirements.
The recruitment drive of KTSH is conducted internally and externally as well. The reason for them to implement an internal recruitment is to strengthen the company by giving the opportunity to employees who feel that they are qualified to apply for the position offered. Internal candidates who are suitable can be detected through the human resource information system and job posting and bidding. Existing employees are given chance to upgrade themselves. However, the employee should first get approval from the immediate supervisor before they can proceed to apply for the job offer.
A recommendation letter from the immediate supervisor is compulsory for the employees to go for the recruitment. KTSH is using this method because they believe that by recruiting the existing employees in an organisation, costs related to orientation and training can be reduced. This is because employees are already familiar to the organisation’s working environment. Other than that, promotion in an organisation can act as a reward for an employee’s performance. The result is to increase in employee morale and motivation.
The performance records of employees who are offered a new job is more reliable when compared to a new employee who is hired from outside the organisation. However, if they face the problem of job requirements cannot be match by existing employees, especially for those higher ranking positions. HRD will choose to conduct external recruitment. Normally, the external recruitment will be announced to the public by advertising the job vacancy on the newspaper. There are also recruits who are proposed by existing staff. The staff usually can suggest candidates who are really qualified.
The company encourages the staff to continue the effort of searching for the right candidate by giving bonuses for each successful employment. Once in every year, there is also intake from Higher Learning Institutions (Public and Private). Some of these candidates are chosen form the college or university and were given scholarship until they finish their studies. After finishing their studies, the candidates will work for the company under contract basis for at least 2 years. Through institutions, the potential candidates are young and formerly trained but they are having less experience. (iv) Selection
HRD uses selection method to identify the most suitable candidate to fill the vacant post whereby the candidate is chosen from a group of applicants obtained from the recruitment process. Selection is a process of identifying the most suitable candidate to fill a vacant post whereby the candidate is chosen from a group of applicants obtained from the recruitment process. HRD usually practiced the selection procedures process where checking of the application form and resume (curriculum vitae) is done, checking the candidate’s background, conducting interviews and conducting selective tests such as on the job skill and personality tests.
The HRD will firstly sort out the list of candidates they want in order to simplify the information they obtained. They will first find out what can be done and what will be done by a candidate in his or her job. Factors of what candidates are able to do include knowledge, skills and ability to gain new knowledge and skills. Factors of what candidates will do include motivation, interest and other personality traits. HRD of KTSH believes that employee who has the ability to do something but has no interest to do it is better than an employee who has interest but not the ability.
It is easier to measure what an applicant is able to do rather than what he or she will do. Test scores are used as a tool to measure a candidate’s abilities. The result of the interview is a basis to assume what the candidate will be able to do in future. HRD use the decision strategy in hiring personnel is different according to the different job categories. HRD will determine the types of approach to be implemented in deciding to hire an individual for a particular job. The approaches are clinical approach and statistical approach.
Through clinical approach, those involved in the selection process will go through again all data on the candidates. Decision will be made based on the interviewer’s understanding on a particular job, and their observation towards the individual who are successful in that particular job. The clinical approach is subjective in nature but is often practiced in most organisations. The statistical approach is more objective in nature and is better compared to the clinical approach. The data obtained on candidates will be considered in detail and the forecaster will be identified statistically.
After going through the pre-selection process, a candidate who is qualified will be referred to sections or units where there are vacancies to be filled up. The manager or supervisor in that particular sections or units will interview the candidate and decide whether or not he or she will fill the vacancy. HRD section is responsible to deliver the result of the candidate’s application, as well as to provide work details of the job if the candidate is offered the job. (b) Human Resource Development
HRD undergo human resource development process in order to aim at producing employees who are well informed, skillful and understand their goals as well as the organisation’s goals. In addition, human resource development is designed to help employees contribute positively to the organisation through excellent and satisfactory work performance. Activities in Human resource development include conducting orientations to new employees, identifying, designing and carrying out training programmes to increase employees’ skills and abilities. It is also aimed at producing a culture that appreciates and rewards continuous learning efforts.
At KTSH, the HRD will conduct training for the newly recruited staff once they joined. For the existing staff, training will be conducted once a month if necessary for the lower management, and once quarterly for the higher management level. Evaluating employee performance after training will be executed to monitor the effectiveness of the training programme. Human resource development also stresses on an employee’s career development in the organisation by providing new skills and abilities needed in his or her job scope; as well as helping employees develop their own career plans. c) Compensation and Benefits Compensation and benefits are part of human resource management functions which are related to rewards, whether it is financial rewards or non-financial rewards. It is given to employees as part of work relations. HRD is responsible for designing and implementing compensation and benefits system to every employee. Aside from that, it also needs to ensure that the compensation and benefits system is fair and consistent. KTSH has individual incentive plan and group incentive plan.
Under individual incentive plan, work unit is one of the earlier forms of those introduced. There are two types of work unit incentives, which are the fixed rate work unit and different rate work unit. HRD is using the fixed rate work unit; employees are given incentives based on a certain fixed rate for each unit produced in a particular time period besides their basic salary. Through the standard hour plan, the incentive rate pay is based on the standard time set by the organisation to complete a certain task without taking into account the actual time taken by the employee to complete the task.
If the employee is able to complete the task less than the standard time, the employee is still paid an incentive based on the standard time. Bonus is also given to the staff at the end of the calendar year according to the profit of the respective sector and the company as a whole. Bonus is one of the payment incentives given to the employee as an addition to their basic salary. Bonus is awarded based on increase in performance quality and the profits the respective sector perform.
Under group incentive plan, Team Incentive Plan is to award to each team member through bonus incentive payment when the teams successfully achieve the set performance standards. Since there are various types of teams which can be formed such as cross functional team, process improvement team and others, it is difficult to form one method of payment or a standard calculation formula for team incentives. The company determines the team performance evaluation criteria such as the increase in production, capabilities, quality or decrease in material and labor cost. HRD also set the maximum level of total incentive that can be given.
For example, the total incentive cannot exceed 10% of the basic salary. KTSH’s employee benefits programme is based on a specific objective. The objective formed by an organisation depends on many factors such as size of the firm, location and the degree of worker union involvement. However, the specific objective of the benefit programme has to be in line with the organisation’s compensation management strategic plan. The main objectives of a benefit programme are to increase employee satisfaction; to fulfill employees’ safety and health needs; to attract and motivate employees; and to retain the organisation’s competitiveness.
KTSH provide lots of benefit for the employees, which are categorized as mandated benefits programme; and non-mandated benefits programme. Mandated benefits programme is a benefit set by the labor system. It is the most minimum allotment on employee rights and provided by the company. Among the mandated benefits provided by KTSH include payment for time off; maternity leave protection; contribution to Employee Provident Fund (EPF); and Social Safety Scheme (SOCSO). Non-mandated benefits are benefits offered by employers to employees voluntarily and without force.
Among the mandated benefits provided by KTSH include insurance scheme and health care. (d) Safety and Health The human resource management team is more sensitive towards creating a work environment that is able to prevent any safety and health hazards. “Hazard” refers to a potential circumstance which can cause injury to an employee, therefore lessening is ability. Due to that, HRD is responsible to design and implement health and safety programmes to ensure the safety of its employees. KTSH’s HRD were so concern about their employees’ health by organizing arious programme such as exercises, healthy diet campaign, organize football tournament, netball, badminton and so on, monitoring weight problems and avoiding things that are harmful to health. These kinds of organisations will provide facilities such as gymnasium and aerobic classes. The HRD often organize health care seminar for the employees and also organize health assessment sessions for high risk employees. The HRD even manage to get a budget to build a floor of gym at the head quarter for the employees located at the Crown Tower 10th floor.
The gym include of a badminton court, squash court, sauna room, table tennis room, and etc. Employees are encouraged to fully use gym provided by the management. Other than that, in order to have a healthy environment for the employees, smoking in the working place is strongly prohibited. For employees who are more than 40 years old, a whole body medical check must be make once in 2 years to ensure the employees of KTSH is always in a good shape. Small units are form at every department to take care of the Operational Safety and Health Act 1994.
Office hazard risk is taken into attention by this small unit and every single incident found by the unit should be reported to the HRD. HRD will provide training and update on OSHA quarterly or when necessary. [pic]KTSH is an investments holdings company which have sub-company in charge of timber logging, timber processing (into plywood, sawn-timber, etc) reforestation, plantation (oil palm) & estate development, newspaper publishing & printing, property holding & construction, general & imported goods trading, insurance agencies, shipping, food processing and hotel & restaurant operations.
Despite of the large company size, the intake of new staff is a must. While taking the correct person to do the correct thing is the main thing to do. Hence, staffing becomes the main function of the HRD of KTSH. Human Resource Development is second major function of the HRD because the main function of the KTSH involves technical and engineering knowledge. Practical or so-called “on hand” skill is needed to operate. Sufficient skill and knowledge is needed by the employees no matter at the lower, middle or top management. Compensation and benefit is another function of the HRD. This is because having over 10,000 of employees orking for them, the advantages and rewards of the employees should be taken good care of in order for the employees to give their best to the company. Even though Safety and Health is the least of the HRD function but this does not mean that the company is not concern on the safety and health of the employees. The health of the employees is at top concern, hence, before the company decides to employ a person the health issue is a major issue for them to pass the interview. This is why after the employee was employed; the safety and health issue does not stand more than the other function of the company. . 0CHALLENGES AND ISSUES FACED Case #1 KTSH is an investment holdings company having over 10,000 employees working for them. The main challenge of the HRD is to having 30 staff in the HR department to control and plan over 10,000. The ratio is approximately 1 to 333, which means 1 staff in the HR department has to take care of 333 employees in the company. The challenge of the HRD is to take care of the whole company because all the employees are not concentrating at the head quarters. Employees are distributed at different places according to the base and need of the sub-company.
The HRD face difficulty to be perfect for every single employee in the company. It’s impossible for the HRD to fulfill every needs of the employee, and it’s even more difficult for the HRD to be able to watch over everyone in the company. Case #2 Having over 10,000 employees working at the various sectors, it’s hard for the HRD to ensure every single employee have enough knowledge to perform their assign job. Some employee especially those working at the timber field may not have sufficient knowledge about the job they are doing.
Most of the worker at the forest are those lower educated, there are even some workers are foreigner from countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh and etc. They may not have enough knowledge about safety and health. However, it’s hard for the HRD to reach out to these workers. HRD provides training mostly to the higher management but not the workers due to the lack of education of these workers which would be a difficulty for them to understand the talk and chalk, black ink and white paper theories. The challenge faced by the HRD here is to have all knowledgeable staff for every job they were assign to.
Case #3 Counseling is the top issue that the HRD faces. The business organization requires the HR department to effectively deal with the employees and provide them counseling in various matters. Complaints and conflicts often occur in a big organization, personal conflicts and complaints will be harmful to the company because it may affect the operation of the company. Counseling on employees’ issues such as medical, workplace, knowledge, skill and etc problems has to be given top concern as it may delay or neglect the operation of the company.
Hence, appropriate solution should be carried out to solve the problem. Case #4 Getting the right person at the right place is also another major issue faced by the HRD. Recruiting the right staff to do the assign job is another difficult issue to solve by the HRD. The HRD only obtained very little thing and know very limited things about a person during interview or sometimes just through the resume given. Some staff that are assign to do a job may be not really suitable for him/her, he/she might be talented in another way and may have performed better in another position. 4. 0SOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS
Solution #1 HRD takes the action of instructing that a supervisor should be assign to at most 5 subordinates; supervisor will be assign to a manager whom at most can only have 10 supervisors; and every manager have to report to their department head; and at the last stage, every department head will report to the HRD. Even though the process line is quite long, but this is one of the way where the HRD can manage the 10,000 over employees of KTSH. Other than that, the HRD will occasionally send a team of people to check on the sub-company and have a town-hall session with them.
This is to ensure that every employee will have a chance to voice out their queries. A questionnaire of the employees’ view on the company will be handed out once a year (normally during end of the calendar year) to the employees and they will have a chance to rate the company and voice out their suggestions. Solution #2 In the case of employing a knowledgeable employee, the HRD have to make a strict picking and sorting of qualified staff during the recruitment. Candidates should have a minimum requirement of education in order to be employed.
A minimum year of working in the relevant field can also be included as a requirement of the candidates in applying the job for the specific vacancy. The immediate supervisor of the respective sector should be well knowledgeable enough to guide their subordinate. Training is provided to these supervisors quarterly in order for them to get updated on the most recent case and method. Training to the existing staff is given once a year or when necessary depends on their sector needs. These training are not necessary an in-class theories training but sometime are mix with out-class practical training.
Solution #3 The possible solution of these issues is to have several employee and staff meeting and to promote the concept of conference in the firms. Another way is to educate and provide guidance to new employees so they could better understand the business environment and adjust according to the ethics of the business organization. Manager and supervisor would be the one who will be playing the big role to educate these employees. The SPI, collective agreement and disciplinary actions booklet had been pass to every staff on the day they joined the organization.
Teamwork outing, seminar and company trip is held in order for the employees to build a bond between the employees. This effort is to minimize the conflict between employees and also act to strengthen the relationship of the employees. Solution #4 A probation period of 6 months is given to the newly recruited staff. During this period, the employee will be trained, learnt and be guided through the job assign to them. After 6 months, the supervisor or manager of the respective sector would have to assess the recruit, and the recruit will nly be taken as the company’s staff if he/she passed the assessment. If he/she failed, probation period will be extended for another 1 month. If the recruit failed for the second time, the company will have to reject the joining of his/her. Supervisor and manager are always being reminded by the HRD to pay more attention on their subordinate; evaluation of performance is carried out once a year to evaluate the employees’ performance. Suggestion and comment are taken positively by the HRD to improve their employees.
Other than that, internal recruitment is also carried out by HRD to open a chance for the existing staff to have a choice to work at an environment which he/she think is more suitable for him/her to perform his/her talent. 5. 0REFERENCES – Minsuld, A. (n. d. ). Human resource basics: The Department. Retrieved on February, 2009, from http://www. kaizenciachang. com. au/articles/human_resources_PLC. htm. – Wikinvest. Wikinvest Human Resource [Online]. Available: http://www. wikinvestans. com /human_resource_dept/ – Anna, HJ (2003). Human Resource Issues and Challenges. [Online]. Available: http://share. hrdept. corp/assignment/spring_2003