Submitted To

M.Nazmul Amin Majumdar Sir,PhD

Date: 01/08/2017

Submitted By

MD. ASIF AMIN

#1721298
SEC 02

0|Page
 Table of contents

1. Introduction ..................................................................................... 3-4

2. Dealers of Berger ............................................................................. 5

3. HR Scenario ...................................................................................... 5-6

4. Backgroud of HR in Berger................................................................. 6-7

5. Components of HR.............................................................................8-10

6. Recruitment & Selection....................................................................10-12

7. Selection Process ...............................................................................13-14

8. Training & develpoment.................................................................... 14-17

9. Issues in Hr Practices & Recommendations......................................17-19

10.Conclusion.........................................................................................19

1|Page
Executive Summary

Berger Paints is one of the oldest names in the paint industry, yet, it is one of the most
technologically advanced companies in the country.In this report i tried to put a overview of
the whole organizations HR scenario.As it is one of the oldest and reknowned paint
comapny in bangladesh it has been living up to the expectation of how a established
comapany should be. I tried to highlight mainly on the HR related issues that are going on in
the organization through some of secondary research and an interview. As i proceeded i
found there is very little HR error in the organization. The minor issues that are addressed
can be fixed with a little effort.But overall the organization is doing very well in context of
their HR practices. They take care of their employees very well.However through the
interview i found some issues that can be taken care of which i will describe further in this
report.

2|Page
Introduction

Company Profile

Berger’s inception was laid out in 1760 by a German national named Louis Berger,
who started dye and pigment making business in England. Louis involved his family into the
business and eventually changed the status of the company to Louis Berger & Sons Limited.
The company grew and expanded rapidly with a strong reputation for excellence in
innovation and entrepreneurship. In the initial years, Louis successfully refined the process
of manufacturing Prussian blue, a deep blue dye.

The company grew rapidly, by establishing branches all over the world and through
mergers and acquisitions with other leading paint and coating manufacturing companies.
Berger Paints started „painting‟ in Bangladesh since independence. Over the past few
decades, Berger has evolved and transformed itself in becoming the leading paint solution
provider in the country with a diversified product range that caters to all your painting needs.
Berger has heavily invested in technology and Research & Development (R&D) compared to
any other manufacturer in this market.

The superior quality of Berger's products has been possible because of their advanced
plants and strict quality controls that match international standards. With the strong
distribution network, Berger has reached almost every corner of Bangladesh. Nationwide
Dealer Network, supported by 8 Sales Depots strategically located at Dhaka, Chittagong,
Rajshahi, Khulna, Bogra, Sylhet, Comilla and Mymensingh has an unmatched capability to

Berger answers to any paint needs at almost anywhere in Bangladesh. In 2014 BPBL opened
two new depots in Rangpur and Feni.

Apart from business, Berger Paints has added another dimension to the social
responsibilities by contributing to the well-being of the autistic children in Bangladesh from
2009. Berger Paints Bangladesh Limited has been promoting the young and creative talents
of the country through Berger Young Painters‟ Art Competition (BYPAC), Berger Award for
Excellence in Architecture (BAEA), Berger Award Program for the Students of Architecture of

3|Page
BUET (BASAB), Scholarship Program for the students of Architecture Discipline, Khulna
University(Berger Paints Bangladesh Limited,2014)

Berger Paints Bangladesh limited is one of the leading paints company in our country.
At the time of foundation the company name was Jenson & Nicholson. Their corporate head
office is situated in Uttara, Dhaka. BPBL is taking strides in fulfilling their vision to be the most
preferred brand in the industry ensuring consumer delight. Their mission is to increase the
turnover by 100 percent in every five years which seems very much challenging and
encouraging. Being a responsible corporate citizen, BPBL has been contributing to several
social causes to bring positive changes in the society.

Berger in Bangladesh has successfully been able to position themselves at the minds
of their targeted customers. They accelerated in bringing innovation in products for the users
to enable them a service of great quality and showing that they are very cautious about
customer’s demand and always tries to fulfill their requirements.

Vision: “To be the most preferred brand in the industry ensuring consumer delight”

Mission: “We shall increase our turnover by 100 percent in every five years. We shall remain
socially committed ethical company”

Corporate Objective: “Our aim is to add value to life, to outperform the peers in terms of
longevity, customer service, revenue growth, earnings and cash generation. We will be the
employer of choice for all existing and future employees”

Strategy: “Our strategy is to build long-term partnerships with the customers/consumers.

With their support, we aim to maximize the potential of our business- through a
combination of enhanced quality of product, service, creative marketing, competitive
pricing and cost efficiency”

4|Page
Dealers of Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd.
Berger Paints is a leading name in the paints sector of Bangladesh. It holds a substantial
amount of market share. The top management in Berger is conscious about the needs of
training of its employees. Berger has factories in Dhaka and Chittagong. Its plants are among
the best in South Asia. Berger has close relationship with world famous companies like
MITSUI, MOBIL, and BASF etc as source of suppliers of raw materials. It has sales centers in 7
parts of Bangladesh- Chittagong, Commilla, Sylhet, Dhaka, Rajshahi, Bogra and Khulna.

Dealers from all over the country place their

order into the 7 sales depots seen in the
picture. The management in Barger is
committed to get the best workers for its
factories.

HR Scenario

The culture of the organization should be reflected in succession planning or design of the
organization, the mix of centralization and decentralization:

Staffing - This deals with the recruiting/assessment/selection/

placement/termination of all of the employees across the organization in a manner
that has functional relevance, aligns with culture, and represents the highest and
best use of the human resource of the organization.

5|Page
 Compensation - This competency addresses the benefits, base compensation,
perquisites, bonuses, long term incentives such as stock options are all aligned with
corporate goals and market realities in a way that will induce the type of behavior that
the corporation needs to move forward applied in a manner that is consistent with
the corporate culture.

Employee Relations - This deals with the way in which the organization relates
to its employees, how authority is dealt with in the organization, and how the
employees relate to each other. The issue of trade union, their potential certification
or de-certification is of extreme relevance in this context. But whether a Union exists
or not, the goal of human resources is the relationship between the organization and
its employees.

Communications - This relates to the formal and informal messages, which are
communicated throughout the organization and in particular, whether or not the
messages are consistent internally and externally. Consistent in terms of what is
written and communicated in a non-written fashion and consistent throughout the
hierarchy, are the top executives saying the same things as the staff in the bottom
rungs of the organization. To develop consistency in all of the various dimensions is an
enormous undertaking.

Employee/Executive Development - In today's modern world, this has less

to do with career enhancement as ensuring we are developing our people to meet the
"new" realities. This may mean technological training/upgrading or it may mean
stretching people's minds to breakdown existing paradigms of thought. In addition,
there may be some organizational support for employees who wish to upgrade
themselves in a career sense and this is seen as a trade off for job security. In other

6|Page
 words, the organization is saying rather then giving you job security, we will continue
to invest in you so that you are as marketable as you can be.

Background of Human Resource in Berger

“We, at Berger Bangladesh, believe that our people are our strength.” – From such attitude
of one of the top managements, it reflects that Berger has given the highest priority in the
human resource development. Considering this, Berger has taken several initiatives in
Bangladesh through ensuring relevant in-house and external training programs for its staff.

With the emergence of Berger in Bangladesh, initially it had started its operation in the
personal development specializing in the field of training and skills of its employee. Later, in
1997, it had officially introduced HR focusing on the development of a culture which
encourages professionalism, stimulates team work and promotes innovation reinforced with
highest ethical standard.

At present, using those skills through appropriate use of information technology, Berger has
enhanced its Competitive edge and productivity. Depending on on-going surveys, research
works, suggestions, the top management of Burger realized the market structure and
characteristics of Bangladesh is becoming competitive. Moreover, free market economy and
liberalized trade have pushed this country to move forward with rapid change and innovation.
As a result, to respond to such change, Berger had focused on it’s employees strength and
efficiency. Later, it was evident that the employees perceived such strength and efficiency
would indicate the overall productivity of the company.

Following the never-ending process of development, Berger’s team of professionally qualified

and dynamic managers’ experiences have been placed at the different services. Such as:

7|Page
coating specification, surface preparation, Application Methods, On-site inspection and
Designing Maintenance program. In this regard, Berger’s technical consultants work closely
with engineers, architects and specifiers to ensure that their design requirements are
achieved with an optimal coating system.

Components of HR Department

The components of HR Department in Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd are as follows:

Department Head

Manager Operations Remuneration Manager Development Manager

Co-ordination Management Payroll Manager Training

Officer Trainee Manager

In house Outstation
Training
Training
Officer
Officer

8|Page
Departmental Head

Departmental head of Berger in Bangladesh co-ordinates all functions in HR department

and responsible for all sort of HR related activities.

Manager Operations

Manager operations oversee all kind of manufacturing functions required for paint of the
company. He needs to specify coating and prepares surface. In addition, the
administrative parts of the factory including monitoring and supervising factory workers
are guided by his instruction.

Remuneration Manager

He is directly involved in ensuring that all employees are given rewards and incentives on
the basis of their merit.

Department Manager

Development manager of Berger has to stay in the company with constant pressure for
developing policies which mainly focuses on skills, training and development.

Co-ordinate Officer

Co-ordinate officer assists operation manager in monitoring factory infrastructure.

Management Trainee

Surprisingly, the present HR structure and design are strongly practiced by one official
who has recently joined as a management trainee. Therefore, this particular post is
developed as a transition point from which the employees can concentrate with-
functional exposure on the potential part of the company.

Payroll Manager

Payroll manager is surprised by the Remuneration manager. His tasks are related to
maintain payroll structure, pension and so on.

9|Page
Training Manager

He is entitled with participating in various training programs under the supervision of

department manager.

In house Training Officer

He is engaged in co-coordinating all those training sessions which are mainly organized
within the company and he needs to be authorized by the training manager.

Outstation Training Officer

Under the guidance of Training Manager, he plays an active role in setting and designing,
training modules organized at the outside of the company.

Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment recommends policies to top management. It develops the strategies and

procedures for advertising job opening, collect information from prospective job applicants
and screen these information to form an application pool. The human resources department
is also responsible for evaluating the recruiting process to identify the most effective
procedure.

The recruitment process in Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd. is basically exhaustive and
structured. Despite such characteristics the organization draws a large pool of applicants
every time. These applicants go through various types of screening process so as to select the
best applicant out of the large.

Recruiters

The recruiter plays an important role in the recruitment process. In the Berger Company the
recruiters are usually the HR manager, Line managers, Chief Operating Officer (COO). The
Corporate Officer sometimes also acts as a recruiter. The company selects the right people as
the recruiter because they think that the recruiter can make a good impression about the

10 | P a g e
company to the applicants. Not only that the recruiter should have a fair knowledge about
the skills and abilities a person needs to have in order to perform the job. Berger has achieved
a good reputation in terms of recruitment. It is one of the best firms to get the best people in
the market. In Bangladesh hiring good persons is a headache for any company. Cronyism is a
common practice in all level of business life. Therefore it is always a challenge to hire the best
talents in all levels. On the other hand Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of
unemployment in the whole world.

Recruitment Source
Recruitment is said to be effective if the recruiting sources are correctly chosen to fill in the
respective position. Certain recruiting sources are more effective than that of other with
respective to the type of job. The common areas the Berger Paints of Bangladesh chooses in
terms of selecting recruitment source are –

Advertising
Direct Applicants
Reference
Headhunting
Job fair and
Online application.
Advertising:
Advertising acts as an important source for recruiting employee. At first the HR department
frames out the source and sends it to the respective functional employee. This gives them the
opportunity to comment, modify if required. The department frames a role profile, which
explains the necessary job skill and requirement. Depending on the job for which the
advertisements are set, relevant skills are mentioned. In case of shop-floor workers, they
specify for an educational requirement of Higher Secondary, while in case of management
level that take applicants with a minimum education level of university graduate. After
finalizing the course and its content the HR department brings out advertisement in the
national newspapers. This brings in a large number of applications to the department.

11 | P a g e
Direct Applicants and referrals:
The company also recruits from direct applications send to the company. They also value
referrals because they think that the employees in the organization who refer other people
can actually understand whether the applicant interested to apply for the post is suitable for
the company. Direct referrals are given the same importance as any other recruitment source.
However, it is very important o be careful in this regard. In Bangladesh cronyism is a common
practice everywhere. Bangladesh has been rated as the most corrupted country in the world.
Therefore, cronyism is a common practice here.

Headhunting:
Sometimes, Berger Paints of Bangladesh recruits people and enjoys the growth of employee
in the organization. Often such practices do not take place but recruitment of employee
occurs through headhunting. Such recruitment policies are used mostly when the job requires
people at the senior level and when the job is too technical in nature. As the organization
wishes to maintain its unique characteristics, it does not compromise with selecting the best
people for their job.

Job fair:
Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd. takes an active role in job fair which was arranged on OSMANI
AUDITORIAM. (2002). The organization finds this approach an excellent way to get new
potential graduates, whom they can train according to the needs of their organization.

Online application:
This is a recent approach taken by Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd. to increase the ease of the
applicants to apply and to keep up with the globalization. This process is under construction.
Their web site address is: www.bergerbd.com. They hope that soon they will start online
application process.

12 | P a g e
Selection Process

Initial Screening:
The applications obtained by Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd. in response to a job offered are
large number. Not all the applicants satisfy the requirement of the job description given in
the advertisement. As a matter of fact, this causes the department to skim through the
applications and identify those ones that are as par with the job description.

Preliminary Interview:
Applicants who qualify in the former case go through the preliminary interview with one
person from the HR department and one person related to that specific function. Here, it is
considered that an application along with a CV and photographs do not say much about an
employee. That is why, they intend to see the applicant and talk to him. At this point some of
the applicants are rejected who cannot provide his or her best effort to impress the
interviewer. The interview is basically directive and structured. Thus, this step reduces the
number of applicants for the next step of selection.

Assessment Centre:
The assessment center of Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd. performs a large and important role
in deciding which employee is eligible among the applicants. Assessment center provides a
mechanism to assess potential of the applicants and find out the applicant in terms of a whole
day process, which includes various exercises like individual presentation, group work,
syndicate work, case study and some tests that related to the departments they have applied
for. It mainly measures the logical and verbal reasoning of the applicants. These structured
requirement procedure in the assessment center provides a result, which is indicative in
nature.

In case of shop-floor workers, they go through a test that is skill based and includes questions
that are based on general knowledge. Such tests are usually conducted inside the factory. This
step of selection further specifies the number of eligible applicants who then go through the
final interview with the department head.

13 | P a g e
Final Interview:
After the HR department finds, the eligible applicants out of the total applicants for the job,
they call them for further interview with departmental head (say, head of the marketing
department) with whom they are to work. This interview is basically competency based. At
this point, applicants are usually accepted by the respective department head but there can
be certain exception when they are rejected at this point.

Job Offer:
Out of the large pool of applicants, the successful applicants who pass in all the tests at
different parts of the selection process are given the offer. If Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd.
offers for only one position and two or three applicants are found to be eligible for the
position, in that case they rank them according to their performance In the selection process
and gives the offer to the one whose score is the highest. The other two applicants are given
the opportunity to remain in the waiting list, so that Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd. can call
them when they require for a job.

Training and Development

In order to achieve competitive advantage in terms of superior efficiency, quality, innovation

and customer responsiveness, Berger has prioritized on its existing resources and capabilities.
As a result, to achieve distinctive competency, these resources and capabilities needed to b
upgraded. Believing this nation, Berger has involved itself on certain training and
development programs. The prime objective of such training is to create highly skilled
employees who can retain the image and can comply with the organization’s vision. Due to
adding extra value through training and development, Berger has differentiated itself through
holding a substantial amount of market share.

14 | P a g e
Necessity of the Training

Berger arranges employee training and held meetings and symposiums with specialists in
different fields to boost up its employee skills. Berger held training for its employee at
different levels, for example, in the entry level especially for the employees working in
accounting and public relation sector. Considering the necessity of the training, Berger has
developed its training process through introducing orientation program. This program is
divided in 4 phases. These are given below:

Phase – 1:

In the first phase, the managing director of Berger gave a speech to the employees. The
employees can understand what exactly the company expects from them.

Phase – 2

The management director, executive body and the top lvel management are introduced to
each other. For example, the general managers are given responsibility to let the employees
know how their jobs are to be performed. Moreover, they told about the mission, goals and
objectives of the company.

Phase – 3

In this phase, managers from different departments, such as: finance and costing, planning,
human resource and so on are introduced. In short, they inform about their job description.

Phase – 4

This phase is extensively covered by the HR manager. He/She tells about the company’s policy
in terms of hiring, firing, compensation and training.

On the Job Training

After the orientation program, on the job training initiates. The duration of this training varies,
for example, some times it lasts for 1 month, Sometimes 2 months depending on the need of
the customers. In this session, the employees are given several tips regarding how to deal

15 | P a g e
with the agents. Because agents play an important role in Berger for which yet it dominates
other local and multinational paint companies.

Next, Berger also arranges different workshops through which selling people can know what
would be their target customers, how they can reach to those customers and sell the product
and how they can maintain after-sale service etc. Finally, employees are instructed how to
develop team work.

In House Training Program

This session is organized according to two different levels, such as: skills and competency
based. In terms of skills based training, employees are given training on technical know – how.
For instance, while staying at the factory, employees need to wear gloves, specified boats.
Moreover, they need to communicate through wireless with others. On the other hand,
competency based training decision making process, leadership strategy and so on. For
instance, Berger is constantly giving importance on the promotion sector by developing
attractive adds, offering incentives. Therefore, employees are trained up to extract their
hidden competence.

Other Training Program

Depending on the competition, Berger has some special training packages which are applied
on the need basis. Such as: it trains some of its employees through computer software about
“Color Bank”. By such software, employees can create different color combination from the
color bank and thereby can attract their buyers. In addition, it educates its employees with
the assistance of fire brigade about using fire extinguisher.

International Training Issues

In order to retain global images and being dominant in the competitive business environment,
Berger has also several extensive training facilities. Such facilities are mainly offered to the
top level management and the mid-level management. Under this training, the selective
people from the top level management are sent to Singapore from where they can broader
their scope of talents and competencies. Moreover, mid-level employees need to be stayed
in India. From there, they can learn to maximize efficiency by using technological equipments.

16 | P a g e
For instance, the employees who are chemists are sent to Bombay IT on Kanpur IT to learn
how to handle and monitor the chemical equipments and raw materials.

Development Methods

Developing is nothing less important an activity than that of training in an organization. Such
practices also prevail in Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd. where people at some point at their
job go through a development process. The top executives of the organization often develop
themselves taking the permission of the senior officer. Common practices that are done are
counseling and coaching. Mentors are also there to actively guide those people who require
such guidance. Sometimes an employee may have difficulty in his workplace, which he may
not wish to disclose to their peer workers. In that case, a mentor from another department
can help the employee to resolve the problem. Usually, mentors are selected from ones own
department but mentors from other departments may be effective enough to resolve
selective problems.

Issues In HR Practices & Recommandations

Problem 1

During the selection process there is no test like

 Drug screening
 Honesty testing

Recommendation

The materials and resources should be brought within the organization to judge drug
screening, honesty testing etc. as honesty testing can be needed at factory level workers.

17 | P a g e
Problem 2

During the interview technical side of the candidates is not judged as the interview is basically
competency based. The organization considers the background results of schools and colleges
to judge the technical side of the candidates.

Recommendation

I think the organization should to develop some additional tests that judge the technical side
of the candidates.

Problem 3

During the selection process the organization faces political pressure on the recruitment of
the applicants. Furthermore, Berger’s agents are dispersed widely among the country since it
has a broad distribution network and huge market coverage. These agents are to face certain
misdeeds and threats from the local mastans and hooligans. As a result, to protect the interest
of such agents, Berger has to take shelter from the local police. Such dependency again
creates difficulty when its internal activities are interfered by those police. Like political
pressure, some policemen (officer in charge and so on) also keep pressure to recruit their
relatives. Therefore Berger has to confront two different pressures coming from both law
enforcement agency and terrorists.

Recommendation

Although sometimes, Berger has to select some people according political people or police,
they have to be conscious about their selection to keep up the competency.

Problem 4

The whole orientation and training program is in fact expensive.

18 | P a g e
Recommendation

The company should be looking for an more cost effecient orientation and training program.
Problem 5

The higher officials sometimes assign some sensitive tasks in the SAP software with their
userID to interns or junior officers which might lead to a disaster.In their SAP account if the
interns or junior officers make any illegal attempts then higher official will be responsible.
The HR department doesn’t bother with this sort of incidents but rather it is a very
important fact that the HR should look into.

Recommendation
The HR should specify a proper program for the interns so that they can learn the
organizational challenges. Moreover the higher officials who does this sort of incidents they
should be held responsible and warned not to repeat such incidents because it can cause a
major problem in their operation.

Conclusion

Berger is among the success stories in Bangladesh. However, it is not using its full potential in
terms of recruitment and selection process. It should give more importance to the Internet.
Other leading companies like Lever Brothers, British American Tobacco Corporation, Daffodils
Group are using the Internet to get skilled professionals. Berger has a lot of advantages in its
salary structure. Even it shares its profits with the employees. Berger should highlight its plus
points to the people so that university graduates become attracted to it. On the other hand
Berger management should have a more positive outlook towards training. HR department is
always ahead of current thinking with new practices, concepts and management techniques.
HRM department operates at the center of the business, managing the dynamic people,
policies and practices. Skills and competence are ensured to align with that of corporate
objectives.

19 | P a g e
 References

mr.muhasan@gmail.com, M. (2017). Berger Paints Bangladesh Limited. [online] Bergerbd.com.

Available at: http://www.bergerbd.com/company_profile [Accessed 28 Jul. 2017].

Quotes.wsj.com. (2017). BERGERPBL.BD Company Profile & Executives - Berger Paints Bangladesh
Ltd. - Wall Street Journal. [online] Available at:
http://quotes.wsj.com/BD/XDHA/BERGERPBL/company-people [Accessed 28 Jul. 2017].

Scribd. (2017). Berger Fnl Report Mira Apu | Employee Benefits | Employment. [online] Available at:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/136415674/Berger-Fnl-Report-Mira-Apu [Accessed 28 Jul. 2017].

Anon, (2017). [online] Available at:

http://dspace.bracu.ac.bd/.../791/Marjana%20Mahjabin%20Chowdhury%20abstract.pdf? [Accessed
28 Jul. 2017].

One on One interview with Mr.Mainul Hasan Choudhury (Former intern of Berger Paints)

20 | P a g e
21 | P a g e