Mid Term Exam

11/27/2020
script
MGT 729-1 : Compensation Management

Submitted to

Dr. M. Nazmul Amin

Faculty, Human Resource Management

BRAC University

Submitted by

Fatema Jahan

ID – 18374012

Program - EMBA
 SECTI
ON - A

Question 1

Discuss the challenges facing HR during the Covid-19 pandemic. Use examples to
justify your answer.

What are the limitations and problems of human resource planning? Describe with
examples.

Discuss two (2) factors that affect compensation management (one from external and
one from internal) [Give examples to support your argument].

Answer:
Challenges facing HR during the Covid-19 pandemic throughout the organization are
presented below.

1. Mental Health and Wellbeing - empathy, health, & safety

In response to government direction regarding COVID 19 pandemic, it is challenging to go

work place, and employees are working from home. The sudden Change in work culture has
profound impact on the mental health of the employee. Stress, anxiety and other mental
health problems are always present and this is not a new story. But the sudden COVID-19
outbreak has brought the employees’ mental problems to the front seat. When employees
work in an office work environment, HR can understand their mindset which helps HR
immensely tackle any issue. However when employees work from home, it is difficult for HR
to tackle this kind of issues.

For example: Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited has incurred a big amount of loss due to
COVID 19 shutdown. However, management paid all the salaries and bonuses to employees.
“In response to the outbreak of Covid-19, Bangladeshi Super brand Walton has announced
special financial assistance packages for its Corona-victim employees. Walton has also
launched ‘Covid-19 Surveillance Week’ to facilitate employees with getting free Covid-19
test, vaccine registration, medical support and other services”.
In addition to the package, if a Walton employee dies unexpectedly from Coronavirus, the
family will receive all kinds of necessary assistance including money ranges from Tk. 10 lakh
to Tk. 20 lakh by Walton (WPPF) Trustee.
Ref:https://www.risingbd.com/english/business/news/8093

Managing Remote Work:

There are few of companies had a remote work program before the COVID-19. In addition, many of
financial services companies did not allow remote working. However, today, almost all are making
remote work strategies.
HR managers are trying to build seamless routes and strategies to overcome the challenges. Strategies
are no more designed periodically or in advance but in real-time. The focus on employee productivity
and engagement has shifted to immediate responses and diagnosis. To provide employees with the
right tools and gather real-time updates from them from time to time to untangle the intricacies and
offer support.
Example: Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited has face difficulties to arranging meeting using different
software. All of the managers did not equally understand the software. Besides that, attending meeting
late, network problem, not being updated, were the challenges
Lack of Agility:

Lack of agility is one of major issue during COVID 19 why HR managers are struggling due
to lack of agility. In many organization, HR team never tackle this issue. Organizations
usually less focused on that earlier and this affecting the HR professional. To handle this
problem companies are engaging huge time. Every action need many approvals before
implementing. It is hampering then the normal process of workflow. Sometimes we need to
take immediate action on some critical business issues as managers are not meeting face to
face it delaying that activity. The total outcome of this lack of agility is very bad.

For Example: Sales department has received an order in Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited
the buyer wanted the product within a short period of time. Due to lack of agility and
communication gap the buyer needed to wait some more days to get their ordered product.

1. Uncertainty:

Uncertainty can paralyze anyone in the organization. The daunting feeling of not knowing what the future
holds or what measures to take to sustain organizational operations is a huge challenge. Unfortunately, we
all are more or less affected by uncertainty.

Employees are affected mentally, not knowing what the future holds for them. The HR teams are struggling
to put everything in alignment. To respond to the crisis and develop effective measures and strategies for all.

For Example: As Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited is doing good to minimize uncertainty.
They offered various package to compensate employees. This strategy created a huge
motivation among all the employee. Hope became a new part of their daily activities.
Ultimately employee’s productivity has gone up.

2. Employee Engagement:

It is challenging to Communicate and engage remote employees in same time frame in this
pandemic situation. Employees are very used to in face to face meeting and it is very possible
to get the opinion of all employee regarding any issue. Engaging employee has become a big
challenge. Every employee’s nature is very different. Managing them remotely in same
manner can be difficult. Managers are facing difficulty to manage and get the appropriate
output from their subordinates. It is hampering a systematic work flow. Cross functional
team’s communication is compromising like: HR, Marketing, Production, Purchase, Supply
chain, IT support, Accounts etc. HR has little power to manage employees as they are not
updating regularly, joining meeting on time etc.

For Example: In Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited, HR decided to provide employee a free
work routine rather than 09:00 am to 05:00 pm working hour. This is good in employee
perspective but HR has a little control over employees.

3. Changing Business Models & Talent Delivery

This is a big issue right now. Every organization has a business model and lots of talent
people are working there. During this pandemic consumer buying behavior has changes
suddenly as the income level of nation has gone down rapidly. The total economy has slow
down. It became critical for group of company to produce all the produce they usually do.
And companies who do business with single product and service has immensely affected by
the pandemic. Company should understand the evolving needs of market and make talent
decision accordingly otherwise, it will be difficult for companies to sustain in the market
place.

For Example: Due to COVID 19 pandemic Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited has seen a big
loss. It has declared no dividend for its shareholder this year as business had become
stagnant due to the coronavirus centric shutdown.

4. Employee Trust, Communication, & Rapid Policy Change

In shut down situation employees work from home it’s a major cultural change happened
around the world. HR managers need to trust the integrity of employees and try to be flexible
for the manpower. It is a big challenge for the HR professionals in our country.
As employees are working remotely communication on a daily basis is very much important
for being updated about the activities of the staff. CEO and managers should communicate
daily if necessary take action regarding policy change. During pandemic rapid policy change
is very much important. HR professional can take advantage from the webinar, seminar,
conference going on around the world to an effective policy.

For Example: Heidelberg has reviewed its policy and government direction and guideline
regarding worker facility and pay scale and complied the policy according to the guideline.

So these are the challenges facing HR during the Covid-19 pandemic. All these are very
important issues, need to tackle carefully by an HR.
a. What are the limitations and problems of human resource planning? Describe with
examples.

Answer:

Limitations and problems of human resource planning are listed below-

1. Limitations of forecasting

T The future will be unpredictable at all times. Even if the best methods of forecasting are
used and every factor possible is accounted for a prediction is still just an estimation. With
100 percent effectiveness, one can never predict future events. So even the best-laid plans can
be nothing at all. This will still be one of the forecasting's greatest constraints.
For example: Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited failed to forecast human resource
requirement based on market condition that is why it faces a huge amount of loss.

2. Employers’ & employees’ traditional bias & apathy (indifference/lethargy)

Sometimes management has empathy on a specific individual though he / she is not skilled or
efficient. This traditional biasness is a barrier for HR professional to act and make a proper
plan with those unskilled labour force.

For example: Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited appoint some unskilled labour due to the
act of nepotism. It hampers the organizational productivity.

3. Resistance from employees:

Resistance is a natural reaction to change. It happens when people pause to understand and
evaluate what this means for them. And there are always good reasons why people resist.
Often it is due to poor leadership or poor change management. Employees and trade unions
often resist human resource planning. They feel that this planning increases their overall
workload and regulates them through productivity bargaining. They also feel that it would
lead to wide spread unemployment, especially of unskilled labor.
For example: Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited made a policy to increase one working
 hour per day with regular payment but at the end of the month they will give some incentives
to employees on the basis of performance. This policy seriously resisted by the employees of:
Heidelberg Cement Bangladesh.

4. Incidence of absenteeism: A stumbling block in HR planning

Labour absenteeism, labour turnover, trade cycles, technological changes and market
fluctuations are the uncertainties which serve as constraints to Human Resources planning. It
is risky to depend upon general estimates of human resource in the face of rapid changes in
environment. It is impossible for HR to predict when can an employee be absent in work.
Sometimes a serious accident can happen to any employee and that can huge effect on the
production policy. New temporary employee recruitment can be a lengthy procedure when
the production pressure is higher and there is shortage of workforce.

For example: It is very difficult for HR of Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited to make sure
that every employee will be on monthly meeting on production and performance evaluation
fault assessment.

5. Illiteracy & paucity (scarcity/lack) of skilled labor: A serious problem for HR

planning

For boosting the sales employers are looking for professional who is very technology
friendly. For example: IT E-commerce, digital marketing. Seeing the recruitment ads many
candidates are applying for these position but the quality of the candidate is not meeting the
requirements.

For example: HR of Heidelberg Cement Bangladesh looking for social media manager who
knows SOP marketing, digital marketing or social media design but an efficient employee for
these type of job is not available in our country right now. This is a big problem for the HR
of this company.

6. Expensive & time consuming

Human resource planning is an expensive and time consuming process. Employers may resist human
resource planning feeling that it increases the cost of human resource.
 SECTION B

a)      What are the Roles of HR in an organization? Explain with example.

b)      Discuss present Trends of HRM using real world examples.

HR’s job is to:

❑ Help build and reinforce the company’s values and culture. Employers have a vital role in perpetuating
a strong culture, starting with recruiting and selecting applicants who will share the organization's
beliefs and thrive in that culture, developing orientation, training and performance management
programs that outline and reinforce the organization's core values and ensuring that appropriate
rewards and recognition go to employees who truly embody the values. Organizational culture can
manifest itself in a variety of ways, including leadership behaviors, communication styles, internally
distributed messages and corporate celebrations. Given that culture comprises so many elements, it is not
surprising that terms for describing specific cultures vary widely. Some commonly used terms for describing
cultures include aggressive, customer-focused, innovative, fun, ethical, research-driven, technology-driven,
process-oriented, hierarchical, family-friendly and risk-taking.

Company values represent a key part of company culture, and it’s one of the easiest elements to define.
However, defining values and instilling them in your workforce are very different activities. It takes a quick
brainstorming session to come up with a list of company values, but it takes constant and consistent effort
over weeks, months, and years to instill them.

❑Play a leadership role in building capabilities that ensure the successful execution of business strategy.

The leadership role in an organization is assumed when an individual or group of individuals has a clear vision
of what needs to be accomplished and is able to get the members of the organization to strive willingly for
common goals.

The most effective means of influencing people is through communication. A leader communicates to his or
her followers a direction that they should move toward and tries to influence their attitude so that they will
be ready to move in that direction. This requires vision on the part of a leader and the ability to guide people
toward a common goal. Clearly, the capability of the organization’s leadership to channel the energy of the
members of the organization to act on what needs to be done determines the effectiveness of those leaders
and the potential impact of the organization.
The Trends Shaping HRM

❑Globalization & Competition Trends;

❑Deregulation;
❑Technological Trends;
❑Trends in the Nature of Work [High-tech Jobs,
Service Jobs, Knowledge Work & Human Capital];
❑Demographic & Workforce Trends [An Aging
Workforce];
❑Economic Challenges & Trends [Dramatic economic
downturn starting in 2007/2008, Slowdown in Deregulation and
Globalization]

Question 5

Write short note on:

Technology and HRM;
Write short note on Technology and HRM.
Technology and HRM: Technology has brought the positive change that we need in our HR
Department.
Human Resource Management (HRM) includes activities such as recruiting, training, developing and
rewarding people in the organization. HRM must aim at achieving competitiveness in the field of HR
by providing constant educational and training programs for the personal and professional
development of the employees of the organization.
It has been conventionally proved that Information and Communication Technology (ICT), such as
the
Internet, mobile communication, new media, and such in HR can greatly contribute to the fulfillment
of personnel policies of the organization. Technological advancement can have a huge impact on the
HR department of an organization. It allows the company to improve its internal processes, core
competencies, relevant markets and organizational structure. Human Resource must mainly be
focused on the strategic objectives of the organization. These strategies must be led to incorporate an
IT strategic plan for the organization. These are activities related to any development in the
technological systems of the entity, such as product design (research and development) and IT
systems.
Technology development is an important activity for the innovation process within the business and
may include acquired knowledge. In the context, all activities may have some technical content, and
results in greater technological advancement. Information Technology may have a greater impact on
organizations that exist in a dynamic environment. This will lead to greater efficiency and
effectiveness of the Human Resources. Hence, utilizing IT application for database management and
advances recruitment system will increase the efficiency of the business.
Below are few major areas where Technology is helping HR management significantly -
Simple Time Tracking & attendance management: It can be a catastrophe if your company faces a
deluge of leave requests, so managing them is essential for any business. HR technology helps you
avoid this disaster by tracking the information behind the absence. Furthermore, it enables you to
manage holiday requests, monitor remaining leaves and allows you to automate the time-consuming
process of holiday booking.

Easily Accessible Information: With an HR management tool or TMS, it’s easy to access all your
employee’s essential information. It’ll be readily available on your laptop when you attend a meeting
and get asked questions from your employees. It simplifies decision-making as all data is instantly
accessible and up-to-date, so you won’t have to worry about having wrong or old information.
Frees Up A Lot of Time: HRM system can automate any time-consuming manual processes which
will allow you to focus on more productive and important work. If your company has a decent
number of employees, you’ll find it difficult to manage their information on paper. Finding even the
most basic details about how many holidays are available for an employee can be a complete
nightmare, but if you have an HR management tool in place, it will allow you to automate basic
processes like employee self-services, training, sick days and holiday allowance

(i) (ii) Markov Analysis;