Report on

Submitted To
Dr. Mohammad Toufiqul Islam
Date: 03/04/2019

Submitted By

MD. ASIF AMIN

#1721298
SEC 02
MARUF BIN MUKIT
#1821288
SEC02

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Table of contents

1. Introduction & Company profile.................................................3-4

2. Importance, Objective, Methodology, Scope & Limitation of study......5-6

3. HR Scenario.......................................................................................6-7

4. Background of HR in Berger.................................................................8-9

5. Components of HR..............................................................................9-11

6. Recruitment & Selection.....................................................................11-13

7. Selection Process.................................................................................14-15

8. Training & development......................................................................15-18

9. Issues in Hr Practices & Recommendations........................................18-20

10.Conclusion..............................................................................................20.

11. Reference...............................................................................................21.

12.Questionnaires..........................................................................................22

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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 an overview
of the whole organizations HR scenario. As it is one of the oldest and renowned paint
companies in Bangladesh, it has been living up to the expectation of how an established
company 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 were addressed
can be fixed with a little effort. 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.

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Introduction

Bangladesh’s paint industry has been growing at a double-digit rate for the past several

years riding on the increasing demand from the construction sector, market players said.

With the leadership of BPMA, Bangladesh paint industry is getting a strong position day

by day both nationally and internationally. It is the voice of paint industry providing

representation in the market place and at government level. This association seeks to

advance, encourage and recognize the highest standards of paints by providing members

and consumers with up-to-date information on a regular basis and through their Awards

for Excellence, which is held annually at AGM.

A German national named Louis Berger, who started dye and pigment making business

in England, laid out Berger’s inception in 1760. 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.

Company Profile
Berger Paints 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

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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 eight 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 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”

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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”

Importance of Study
We are studying the HR scenario of Berger Paints, as it is a leading paint manufacturer in our
country promising to cater the whole Bangladesh and abroad market. This study will help us
know what are the current HR practices, norms and grooming process of each employees of
Berger Paints. We will interview a HR personal from Berger to know what is going on in the
HR department of Berger.

Objectives of Study
Our objective to this study is to find out how our study materials actually relate to an ongoing HR
scenario. Moreover, we will try to figure out the following topics through interview and secondary
research:

 HR policy
 Planning & Practices
 Issues in HR practices
 Recruitment & Selection
 Recruitment Sources

Methodology of Study
To get this report accumulated we used various types of research methodology for the outcome. We
have gone through primary and secondary research to figure out all of the information. Here we are
explaining what methods we chose to complete this research.

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Primary data

 Qualitative research- We set a questionnaire for the HR personal who gave us

qualitative information regarding the HR scenario.

 Interview- Through the interview, we got to know deeper insights which were not to
be found with the questionnaire.

Secondary Data

For industry analysis and company profile, we went through the internet and various old
reports, which gave us a lot of information about the overall company and the industry.

Scope & Limitation of Study

Since Berger Paints is a huge nationwide organization, the scope of learning was huge but
due to lack of resource and Budget, we could not get wider array of information. Due to
company confidentiality, we could not get our hands on in any quantitative data of the HR
scenario.

HR Scenario
The culture of the organization must 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.

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 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 deals 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. However, 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, 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 tradeoff for job security.
In other words, the organization is saying rather than giving you job security, we will
continue to invest in you so that you are as marketable as you can be.

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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 teamwork 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 its 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: coating specification, surface preparation, Application Methods, On-site inspection
and Designing Maintenance program. In this regard, Berger’s technical consultants work

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closely with engineers, architects and specifies 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 Trainin

Officer Trainee g
Manag
In er Outstati
house
on
Traini
ng Training
Officer Officer

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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
based on 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

The Remuneration manager surprises payroll manager. His tasks are related to maintain
payroll structure, pension and so on.

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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 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 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

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about the company to the applicants. That not only 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.

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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.

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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 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.

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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 competency based. At this point,
the respective department head usually accept applicants 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.

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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 level 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

The HR manager extensively covers this phase. 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, sometimes 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

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to deal 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 ads, 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

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technological equipments. For instance, the employees who are chemists are sent to
Bombay IT on Kanpur IT to learn how to handle and monitor the chemical equipment 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 one's own department but mentors from other departments may be effective
enough to resolve selective problems.

Issues in HR Practices
&Recommendations

Problem 1

During the selection, process there is no test like

 Drug screening
 Honesty testing

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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.

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 police man (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.

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Problem 4

The whole orientation and training program is in fact expensive.

Recommendation

The company should be looking for a more cost efficient 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

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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.

References
mr.muhasan@gmail.com, M. (2019). Berger Paints Bangladesh Limited. [online] Bergerbd.com.
Available at: http://www.bergerbd.com/company_profile [March25 . 2019].

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 [March25 . 2019].].

Scribd. (2017). Berger Fnl Report Mira Apu | Employee Benefits | Employment. [online] Available at:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/136415674/Berger-Fnl-Report-Mira-Apu [March25 . 2019].].

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

http://dspace.bracu.ac.bd/.../791/Marjana%20Mahjabin%20Chowdhury%20abstract.pdf? [March25
. 2019].].

One on One interview with Mr.Mainul Hasan Choudhury (TO of Berger paint)

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 Questionnaires

1. How Berger formulated their HR scenario?

2. What are the HR components followed in Berger?

3. What are the possible sources you follow to recruit the new employees?

4. Do you participate in job fair of renowned Universities and Institutions?

5. What are the methods you follow to accomplish the selection process?

6. In training and development session, which methods you are mostly followed? On the job
or off the job?

7. Do you follow any other methods apart from on the job or off the job method?

8. Do you send any employees to any international institutes in order to upscale their work
skills?

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