GrameenPhone (GP) is the largest cell-phone operator in Bangladesh. GP was given the cellular license in 28th November 1996 by the ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. Later in March 26th 1997, they offered their service in Dhaka city and gradually covered the entire country. GP, in collaboration with Grameen Bank, is aiming to place one phone in each village to contribute significantly to the economic uplift of those villages. GP's basic strategy is coverage of both urban and rural areas. In contrast to the "island" strategy followed by some companies, which involves connecting isolated islands of urban coverage through transmission links, GP builds continuous coverage, cell after cell. While the intensity of coverage may vary from area to area depending on market conditions, the basic strategy of cell-to-cell coverage is applied throughout GP's network. GP employ's a large number of employees who are young, dedicated and energetic. GP knows that the talents and energy of its employees are critical to its operation and treats them accordingly.
Human resource strategy:
The number of total staff is more than 1500. The company wants to increase training for its support staff to increase the ability to fix a problem on the first service call and to reduce the period of time consumers have to wait for technical help. GrameenPhone Ltd wants to recruit top talents in every department of the company.
Human Resource Planning (HRP)
3.1 Human Resource Planning:
Human Resource planning is the process of getting the right number of qualified and competent people into the tight job at the right time. Putting another way, HR planning is the system of matching the supply of people internally and externally with the openings the company expects to have over a given time frame. The quality of the candidate and his/her expertise are deciding factor how GrameenPhone will succeed in achieving its visions, objectives and tasks.
Human Resource planning in GrameenPhone must be a part of the Company's overall plan. When drawing up Human resource plans, it is important to take the following factors into consideration:
Potential/expected workload and expertise requirements and to ensure the optimum and effective utilization of the Human resources for the entire Company, both for current and future requirements.
Possibilities for greater efficiency through reorganization and the use of tools/facilities, and making adjustments during expansion and contraction.
Employee turnover/employee mobility
Potential transfer, promotion, periods of leave etc and design and implement plans to help achieve manpower objective.
Human Resource planning should start at the beginning of the year so that HR can co-ordinate Human Resource planning process at the right time. Also necessary budget provisions are important factor to look into.
3.2 Classification of Employees
Regular Employment: Career with GrameenPhone starts with a regular employment; which is permanent in nature.
Contractual Employment: This type of job is project-based in nature. Working hour remaining same as regular employment, the contract is made for a certain period of time, with a fixed salary paid at the end of the day/month. The employment ends when the contract expires.
Part-time Employment: Students are encouraged to apply for this type of job. Working hours are adjusted to match their class schedule and company need. This job also ends upon the completion of contract.
Internship: Upon the completion of graduation courses, students are assigned internship projects in their area of concentration. Under the supervision of a regular employee, they work for the company for three months to generate a report on the project findings and recommendation.
Industrial Attachment: Students from Engineering/Technical institutes spend some time in the company to get real life exposure related to their theoretical knowledge. During this tenure, technical experts in our company guide them accordingly that helps to enhance their knowledge.
3.3 Job Description:
Recruitment process ideally begins with the analysis of job description and person specification for that job. A job description and analysis of person specification provide the foundation for stipulating the job title and salary scale of the position. Person specification defines the education, training, experience, and competencies required by the job holder. The person specification is vital, because the key part of the person specification, established at the beginning, is used in structured selection interview.
Job description is the basis of GrameenPhone's recruitment, selection and placement, training, performance appraisal, salary administration, promotion and other personal actions for its employees.
Job description is prepared by respective Head of the Department and a copy of it is sent to HR. in case there is any change in the duties and responsibilities, then job description must be revised. A copy of the latest job description is kept in employee's personal file.
The appointing authority and the line manager shall ensure that each employee has an appropriate and updated job description stating clearly the context, purpose, organogram, duties and responsibilities of the employees and person specification.
A copy of the job description is provided to the employee when he/she is appointed, promoted, newly assigned or when deemed necessary.
Chapter 4: Recruitment & Recruitment Policies
4.1 Recruitment sources:
An effective recruitment always starts with the correct selection of sources of human resources. A recruited employee who has not the right skill can not perform effectively. As a result the overall performance level is sure to deteriorate which has significant effect on the Company performance. Therefore, GrameenPhone has been on continuous search of effective recruitment sources.
Internal sources: It is GrameenPhone's policy to give preference to appoint internal candidates provided that the employee is suitably qualified for the vacant or new position and also meets the existing and future requirements. Appointments may be made by the way of promotion, upgradation, secondment or transfer with the approval of the authority. No one is allowed to apply for appointment during probationary period. Promoting internal employees on the basis of succession planning may also be looked into. "As a usual procedure, job vacancies in GrameenPhone will be advertised through internal notices to the concerned offices.
External sources: Whenever job vacancies are required to be circulated outside, the main objective will be to attract a pool of candidates to apply from which qualified candidates for job vacancies can be chosen. Here are a number of external sources that will be used by the company:
Newspaper advertisement: Vacancy announced will be circulated by publishing advertisement in the national newspapers. The newspapers that are widely circulated will be chosen for publishing advertisement, one in English and one in Bangla.
Request to other organizations: In some cases, if deemed necessary, GrameenPhone may request other organizations to circulate job vacancy among their employees. Job vacancy advertisement may be posted in their notice board as well.
Employee referrals: Employees of the Company may refer prospective job seekers to HR Department. There are professional or technical jobs which are frequently harder to fill. Employees with hard-to-find job skills may know others who may meet the desired job requirements and do the same work. In such case, employee referral method may be useful.
Walk-ins and Write-ins: Often Job seekers arrive at HR department in search of a job. They are walk-in people. Write-ins are those who send their curriculum resume for suitable position. Both groups may be asked to fill up an application blank. Their relevant information may be kept in active database file for any suitable position in future. Based on their suitability, they may be called for interview against any vacant position.
Website: Modern information technology such as websitehttp://www.grameenphone.com also is utilized for advertising job vacancy of certain senior positions.
Other: Depending on circumstances, other professional/employment agencies, educational institutes, technical institutes and journals may be chosen to give wider coverage of job openings.
The role of HR personnel is very important in dealing with external job seekers because the outsider individuals draw an impression about the company on the manner their candidature has been dealt with. HR department should greet the candidates in a pleasant manner, provide with pertinent information about job openings, and treat them with dignity and respect. If so, the applicants are expected to develop a listing positive impression about the company.
4.2 General recruitment policies:
GrameenPhone is committed to recruit suitably qualified and experienced
Bangladesh citizens for vacant positions by way of:
Implementing effective and appropriate recruiting, screening and selection procedures,
Identifying and implementing standard selection procedures that are relevant to education, skills, training, experience and knowledge necessary for successful job performance,
Conforming the hiring procedures to country's law and in line with the Company's requirements and financial situation.
From manpower requisition/publishing advertisement step to placement step, a total of 29 working days will be required.
Individuals between the age of 18-57 years can be hired as regular employee of GrameenPhone.
Under no circumstances a regular or contract employee of any other organization is allowed to undertake regular, long-term or short-term contract employment in GrameenPhone.
All appointments in GrameenPhone shall conform to its existing position with Grade and Salary level.
In the spirit of internationalism, GrameenPhone may recruit senior employee from abroad in case suitable national employee could not be hired, upon approved by Board of Directors.
The employment status can be changed from regular to contract or vice versa depending on the situation arising from Company need or a situation that arises on the ground of performance.
The GrameenPhone internal applicant will be entitled to normal perdiem and travel expenses, according to the Company policy, for the interview held in other than his/her place of posting.
HR and the concerned line manager will maintain absolute confidently of the implementation of any part of the recruitment process. No query will be responded or no information will be provided regarding the status of any recruitment until the entire process is complete.
It is an important role on the part of HR to evaluate the effectiveness of recruitment methods, short-listing criteria, testing tools being used etc. an evaluation is useful to validate hiring steps and subsequently adopt better selection procedures for the Company.
Chapter 5: Selection
5.1 Selection:
Selection process includes series of specific steps used to decide who should be hired. Selection process begins when recruitment ends subject to sufficient number of applicants obtained who are willing and able to do hold the job. The purpose of the selection interview is to collect information about a candidate and assess how far he/she can perform in the job.
Selection process involves screening and appraising the applicants in a systematic manner. Those who are found not suitable for the jobs are excluded from selection tests. During selection process, GrameenPhone focuses on performance-related issues whether the applicant fulfils the job requirements and can do the job. The Company uses a multiple cutoff technique including series of screening devices.
Short listing of candidates
Short listing is done on the basis of appraising information on the application form in the light of job specifications of a job being advertised. How far a candidate meets the job criteria will critically be reviewed. The short listing method should be qualitative one where managerial judgment plays an important role.
Short listing depends on the nature of job. Before short listing of candidates for tests, job criteria are set by HR and line manager. There are general and technical job criteria that a candidate has to meet for consideration of next step of selection. HR determines general criteria while line manager determines technical criteria. Although both the type of criteria is important, however, it is the nature of job that determines which type of criteria should give more weightage than other.
Short listing will be done by evaluating the following:
Educational qualification: whether the candidate has the required education qualification
Relevant job experience and required skills: how far candidate's most recent job experiences and skills match the job requirements of the position in question.
The candidate may have irrelevant job experiences and skills that will not be considered during short listing.
The following situations may provide some guideline during short listing:
Situation
Short listing decision
Highly relevant job experience and meets all or most job criteria and length of past job experience fully or fairly satisfactory
Should be considered
Moderately relevant job experience and meets most or fairly moderate level of job criteria and length of past job experience is fully or fairly satisfactory
May be considered subject to the number of candidates based on above are not up to the desired number
Irrelevant job experience, meets little job criteria and length of past job experience is fairly satisfactory or unsatisfactory
Should be considered
GrameenPhone follows a standard set rule of short listing of candidates. For one position the number of candidates for written test should be more than 8. The number of candidate in the oral test should not be more than 4-5.
Role of different departments in short listing
In regard to short listing of candidates, the role of the concerned line manager and HR is crucial. HR is in better position to know exact job specifications, job challenges and job standards; therefore the responsibility of short listing rests on HR.
For non-technical positions, HR will exclusively be preparing short list of candidates. For technical positions, HR will seek line managers input, if necessary. The procedure is that line manager will send technical job criteria to HR who match those criteria and will ultimately candidates.
During short listing the following criteria must be taken into account:
Type of the position
Urgency of a personnel
Career development of the position
Importance of other related skills for that positions
Administering tests and interview
Following short listing of prospective candidates, internal and external, appropriate employment tests such as written tests, oral tests or any other tests as deemed fit will be arranged to assess candidates suitability for the position. Through the tests candidate's selected psychological factors such as intelligence, aptitude, temperament and attitude will be measured/observed.
The main focus of employment tests will be on:
job related questions to assess in-depth knowledge of the candidate
assessment of mental ability, reasoning, memory etc
assessment of potentiality and ability to learn
proficiency in performing tasks
assessment in line with job analysis
The selection is made on the basis of successive hurdle approach. The candidates will be rejected following each of the stage or test being administered. Performing in one test will not be considered in the succeeding tests rather the performance in the next stage will be decisive factor for selection.
Written and oral test questions will be drafted by HR. A set of questions of technical nature will be drafted by line manager and be sent to HR confidentially from which few will be included random basis by HR. while finalizing test question, HR will stick to job requirements of the position and maintain relevance, consistency and standard on the pattern of questions.
The type of question will depend on the nature of the position. Usually a combination of multiple and narrative type of questions will be set in the written test.
All multiple type of answers will exclusively be checked HR. Also the non-technical narrative part of the written answer papers will be examined by HR while the technical part will be checked by line manager. The compilation of score obtained in written test will be done by HR. It is the responsibility of HR to select and call candidates for subsequent tests based on the performances of written tests.
The minimum qualifying score in the written test is 50%. Candidates who have qualified in the written test will be invited for the next selection test.
Chapter 6: Training and Development
6.1 Need
GrameenPhone training policy is to support employee training which is directly linked to the individual's specific jobs and his or her future development. The training program is expected to enhance job-related knowledge as well as develop technical and/or managerial skills. In addition to training program, employees are encouraged to search and utilize personal developmental opportunities for his/her career progression.
6.2 Mode of Training
GrameenPhone organizes in-housing training programs for its employees. Senior staff, in-house trainers, or consultants hired for special purposes provide such training. GrameenPhone provides need-based training to the employees through using appropriate external training institutes.
The company also sends selected employees to other countries for attending need-based technical or management training.
6.3 Career Development
Career planning/development identifies a sequence of development activities, formal and informal, short-term or long term that help make an individual capable of assuming a higher position in future.
Divisions are responsible for selection employees to enhance their performance to take higher responsibility in future. Divisional Head is to facilitate the development of a subscriber's career.
Management is responsible for providing leadership and ensures effective training programs by investing in training. HR will pay facilitator's role in career development.
6.4 New Employee Orientation Program
When a new employee joins the Company, s/he needs to be introduced to his/her job as well as to the Company. The objectives of the orientation are to welcome the incumbent, orient him/her about the Company's vision, purpose, values, shareholders, service rules, divisional activities etc. This will make a new recruit feel s/he is part of the Company.
HR will arrange a two-day orientation program as per requirements. The representatives from each division will make divisional presentation. Each employee must attend the next available orientation program from the date of his/her joining.
6.5 Training Calendar
HR prepares a yearly training calendar based on the identified training needs of the employee. The management team will review and approve the calendar before implementation.
Chapter 7: Termination and Other Disciplinary Action
7.1 Transfer
The company has the right to transfer an employee from one location to another at any time, at any circumstances depending on its need. Even a transfer order is delivered at a short notice; the concerned employee must be willing to accept it. By moving people into jobs in the sane grade, managers may be able to improve the utilization of their human resources. Transfer may also be beneficial to job holder, since the experience may provide a person with new skills and a different perspective. All transfer issues are handled by HR. HR issues transfer letter at any time with or without giving any notice period to the employee in consultation with departmental head.
A placement at another location for a period of more than 30 days is treated as transfer. During transfer, an employee's salary and benefits level remain the same. However, the employee may receive normal relocation facilities such as travel expenses, per diem and hotel rent if located at another place away from the normal location for less than 30days.
For any temporary transfer for a period of more than one month and less than three months, an employee will be entitled to the following transfer benefits:
Accommodation facilities or alternative arrangement with prior approval from the immediate supervisor
A disturbance allowance of Tk. 5000 per month
A return air ticket as per entitlement of the employees once in 30 days.
If a transfer is made on permanent basis then the employee will be eligible for the following benefits:
Expenses in relating to shifting of personal effects, and
Disturbance allowance of Tk. 20,000 for Manager and above and Tk. 10000 for DM and below level.
7.2 Termination
Employees are required to perform and behave acceptably but whenever deficiencies in performance and behavior threaten to interfere with efficient Company operations, they must be corrected.
Termination is a serious course of action that should be considered only when it is clear that less drastic action will no serve the purpose. It is the discretion of the GrameenPhone management to decide which course of action will warrant termination.
GrameenPhone can terminate a permanent employee at any time without assigning any reason whatsoever by serving one hundred and twenty days notice or pay in lieu of such notice.
The employee will be paid gratuity for every completed year of service or for any part thereof in excess of six months, in addition to any other due benefits as per the Company policy.
The probationer will be terminated without any notice or pay.
The termination of contract, unconfirmed or part-time employment will be approved by Head of HR while the termination of Confirmed employee must be approved by Managing Director.
Discharge
An employee may be discharged from GrameenPhone service for reasons of physical or mental incapacity or continued ill health or other reasons not amounting to misconduct. Discharge is not due to the shortcomings in the employee's performance.
A medical board comprising 2-3 registered medical practitioners will be formed to examine the employee's health condition and submit their recommendation. Based on the board's recommendation, discharge decision will be made.
The discharge of any category of employee will be approved by Managing Director.
The employee will be give one month's notice or pay in lieu thereof. The employee will also paid gratuity for every completed year of service or for any part thereof in excess of six months, in addition to any other due benefits as per the Company policy.
Resignation and Exit Questionnaire
A permanent employee of GrameenPhone can tender resignation from his/her service by giving one month notice. Failure so submit resignation letter prior to one month notice will result deduction of one month's basic salary.
The resignation letter is submitted to respective departmental Head who in turn sends a copy of it to HR with his/her acceptance and comments. HR formally issues a resignation acceptance and release order to the resigning employee based on Department Head's comments. The issuance of release order is contingent on the following:
The separating employee has handed over the charges to assigned person
A clearance certificate is obtained from the respective Department head
The employee has no liability with the Company.
Once resignation acceptance letter has been issued, the employee fills up an "Exit interview Form" and submits it directly to Manager, HR confidentially without copying to any body. The form is kept strictly confidentially and is not a part of employee's Personnel file.
Objective of Exit questionnaire: The objective of filling an exit questionnaire is to know why the employee leaves the Company. After compiling the information provided in the questionnaire, management examines the causes and takes preventive measures to minimize employee turnovers.
The employee gets usual service benefits and unpaid salary, if any, as per Company policy at the time of leaving the Company.
Chapter 8: Benefits. Leave and Other Allowances
8.1Compensation and Benefits
Compensation is what an employee receives in exchange for his/her physical and mental works, and contribution to the company. Compensation does not represent only salary but a wide range of benefits and service are part of the total compensation package. GrameenPhone wishes to pay rewarding and competitive salaries to attract, retain and motivate competent and skilled employees at all levels of the Company. By rewarding and competitive salaries we mean that each employee should be rewarded in accordance with:
What the post requires,
How skilled the employee is and
What the market pays for work of the same type.
GrameenPhone wishes to design a compensation system that has strong positive impact on employees and ultimately on the Company's performance. Keeping Company's strategic objectives and unique characteristics and environment in mind, GrameenPhone determines a number of criteria for designing a compensation system. The criteria are:
Internal and external Equity: Internal equity means that there should have fairness of the pay structure within the Company i.e. similar jobs get similar pays. External equity assures that jobs are fairly compensated in comparison with similar jobs in the job market. To achieve internal equity, periodic job evaluation that assesses the relative worth of jobs throughout the Company should be conducted. On the other hand, to achieve external equity, periodic market survey and cost of living adjustment should be taken into account.
Competitiveness: There are obvious affect of market forces on compensation. Compensation must respond to the supply of and demand for employees in the market since employers compete for work force.
Cash and non cash benefits: Cash payment motivates employees through monetary rewards such as salary and allowances. The Company pays cash benefits according to ability to pay. Non cash benefits such as job security and making the job interesting is also taken into account.
Performance based pay: Employee productivity, skills and performance are also important determinants of the compensation system of the Company.
Consistency: All-out efforts are made to ensure that compensation system is consistent with HR policies and it is uniform and stable.
Provident Fund
The permanent employees of the Company are eligible to become members of the Provident Fund. Employee contributes 10% of their basic to the provident fund and the Company makes equal contribution to the fund. The Company's contribution starts once the employee has become permanent employee of the Company.
A Provident Fund Trustee, with separate rules, is formed for managing the provident fund.
The PF maturity period is three years. Employee has to serve minimum three years for being eligible for both employee and company contribution.
Gratuity
Gratuity is paid to an employee for providing a life time service to the Company. The eligibility is minimum five- year service with the Company.
Gratuity amounts are linked with the respective employee's length of service which are as follows:
Gratuity Years of Service
@ 1 month's basic/for each year 5 years
@ 1.5 month's basic/for each year 5 Years to 10 Years
@ 2 month's basic/for each year More than 10 years
Gratuity is equivalent to one (or more as the case may be) month's basic based on the last drawn basic salary for every completed year of service or for any part thereof in excess of six months.
Bonus
All employees are eligible for two bonus in a calendar year which is an amount equivalent to their two months basic salary.
One bonus is paid during Eid-ul-Fitr at a flat rate to all employees irrespective of the religion. Another bonus is paid as per the following festival of different religious affiliation:
Muslim : Eid-ul-Azha
Hindu : Durga Puja
Buddhist : Buddha Purnima
Christian : Merry Christmas
Two month's basic as bonus is paid in full for a calendar year or a pro-rata amount for incomplete calendar year, whichever may be the case. The bonus will be paid according to the basic that is due on the festival day, not the basic on the payment day.
An example: An employee who joins on April 1 and if there are two festival in that calendar year, then the employee will get fractional festival bonus according to the following formula:
2 months basic x days with the Company
----------------------------------------------------------------
365
HR will prepare the bonus list prior to three weeks time of Eid-ul-Fitr and the respective festival day and Accounts, based on the list, will arrange to transfer bonus amount two weeks ahead to employee's account.
An employee who joins after festival date will be paid bonus after the end of the year.
If an employee leaves the Company on any day preceding to the festival bonus payment date for whatsoever reasons other than retirement, his/her festival bonus will not be paid.
8.2 Sick leave and related leave
Sick leave
There will be no standard annual entitlement to sick leave. Sick leave at actual will be availed based on advice of registered medical practitioner. For sick leave of three days or more, certification of registered doctor or HSE head is required. An assessment will be carried out by HSE/ medical board if any employee is frequently availing sick leave.
If more than three months leave is necessitated due to occupational injury or on-duty accident, the same will be allowed. However dismemberment/ prolonged sickness more than 3 months will be reviewed by HSE/ board of doctors.
Maternity leave
A female is granted maternity leave for a period of 16 weeks. A female employee can avail the maternity leave only twice during her tenure with the company. A female is not entitled to maternity leave unless she has completed a period of not less than nine months immediately preceding the day of the delivery. A pregnant employee should inform in writing to her supervisor confirming her delivery date along with a medical certificate. A female employee should not be dismissed during maternity leave without sufficient cause.
Paternity leave  Â
A male employee is granted one week of paternity leave during his child birth. A male employee can avail the maternity leave only twice during his tenure with the company.
The condition is that he stays with his wife and uses the time to look after his family and home. If he does not live with his wife then he has no right to take such leave even if he is the child's father. Such leave can be taken before and/or after the birth of a child.
Annual Leave
An employee will be allowed to avail 25 days of annual leave per annum. Maximum 15 days annual leave will be carried forward to the succeeding year, if any, and excess of 15 days annual leave as of December 31st will be forfeited automatically.
Recreation Leave
Every employee must avail 5 annual leave at a time in a calendar year, proportionate annual leave will apply in that case.
Leave form:
All leave application shall be made by using a standard Registration of leave/Absence Form. The concerned Unit/Section head shall approve the leave by signing the form. The employee will provide full address on the leave form during the period of leave applied for. At the time, they leave place of posting that must also be intimated with new address. In the event requested leave is not approved or the approved leave is canceled, then the reasons for refusal or cancellation shall be recorded on the form. Such form will be part of employee's leave retained by HR.
Chapter 9: Other Human Resources Related Activities
9.1 Identity Card
The GrameenPhone employees must have their respective Identity cards with them and keep them displayed while on duty so that it is easily visible and can easily be checked against the person wearing it. External visitors, who arrive a Company premises on official business, must always be collected and escorted temporary ID cards to and from reception.
ID card is not transferable to anybody. HR will issue ID card to all employees of GrameenPhone at the time of their joining. The employee will sign an undertaking that he/she will carry out all official rules in this regard.
Employee will fill up ID card information form to get the card.
During separation from the Company, an employee must return ID card to HR otherwise release order will not be issued.
If the ID card is lost, the employee has to report and make a GD entry to nearest Police Station within 24 hours. The employee will submit a copy of the GD to HR. In order to get a new ID card, an application, duly recommended by Director of the concerned Division/Department, will be submitted by HR.
9.2 Confidentiality of information
All employees must maintain secrecy in respect of all Company matters and polices. All employees are bound to retain silence regarding all business relation or other relations which could provide unauthorized information to outsiders, especially competitors. Technical or business related information should not be shared with outsiders and those will remain within the framework of sales or general information activities. A Secrecy and Loyalty Form has to be signed by all employees of GrameenPhone. The employees will declare that they will maintain secrecy in all matters that come to his/her knowledge during employment in the Company and shall not divulge matters relating to the operation of GrameenPhone in any respect. Non-compliance of any of the provisions contained in the declaration form would lead, at the discretion of GrameenPhone, to disciplinary actions according to Company Policy.
Employee Information
Outside organizations or individuals may request GrameenPhone for ex-employee or present employee information. The sharing of any of the information with them exclusively depends at the discretion of GrameenPhone. Employees may ask for Experience certificate or salary information certificate from GrameenPhone for any valid reason. In such case, GrameenPhone may issue such certificate to the employees. HR, in consultation with line manager, may issue such certificate.
9.2 Promotion policy
Definition
Promotion will mean a move to a higher grade with a larger scope of job.
Situation for promotion
- Creation of new position, due to organizational re-structuring, or due to significant increase in the scope of a particular job.
- Vacancy at a higher grade position.
- Creation of new position.
Respective functions will initiate a proposal and submit it to HR justifying creation of the new position. The proposals will be forwarded to HR on a quarterly basis, if any.