Assignment Task

Mr. Perera is the Managing Director of “Tuna Sea Food Export”, a family business located in Negombo employed over 700 staff, which is exporting locally processed seafood for five countries in Europe and the USA. The company is in the process of signing a million-dollar new business agreement with a Multi-National Company (MNC) based in Europe to export their products for another five years.

HR Audit team from the MNC visited “Tuna Sea Food Export” and extensively surveyed the existing HR Policies and Processes and informed the Management of “Tuna Sea Food Export” to review and establish standard HR Practices such as Recruitment & Selection, Training, Performance and Reward Management, Safety, communication, etc. as pre-condition to further proceed with the agreement.

You have been recently joined the Company as Head of HR, and the Management directed you to study the current related policies and practices within 02 weeks. You have observed below areas which can be considered as unhealthy HR practices and brought to the immediate notice of the Managing Director.

• Most of the recruitment for the managerial and key positions were filled with relatives and friends of Perera Family.
• No vacancies were advertised in printed/electronic media, and all the candidates were sourced through a company owned by a family friend of Mr. Perera’s daughter, Operations Directress.
• Most of the promotions were carried out on ad-hoc basis, and the managers were holding senior positions in Marketing, Operations, Customer Service and even HR do not possess proper qualifications, competencies and experience in the related No appropriate duties/responsibilities were allocated to them.
• Over 75% of the key positions were not issued with the Job Descriptions, and most of them were assigned to perform duties as and when a requirement arises, creating numerous lapses and back-log.
• No proper salary structures were in place, and inequity was apparent in Pay and other benefits awarded to Executive Grade employees.
• Turnover of the company was very high, and no mechanism was in place to fill the vacancies on-time without affecting the operational activities

Managing Director very carefully studied your observations and directed you to submit below facts to the forthcoming board meeting to educate the directors on the importance and benefits of proper and effective HR practices and also to confirm the standards set by the MNC to secure the valuable deal.

1. Importance of preparing Job Descriptions and Job Specifications for key positions

2. A detailed explanation of the process (Job Analysis) to be carried with/without the assistance of external agency to prepare job Descriptions/Job Specifications for the above positions.

3. Usage and Benefits of Job Analysis information in areas such as Recruitment & Selection, Training & Development, Performance and Reward Management & Health and Safety.

4. Prepare two sample Job Specifications out of below positions following standard Rodger’s Seven Point Plan or Munro’s Five-Fold Grading system.

• Manager of International Sales & Marketing
• Relationship Manager
• Quality Assurance Manager
• Health & Safety Manager
• Employee Relations Manager
• Factory Manager