Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management

PROJECT REPORT ON CHALLENGES IN MODERN HUMAN

RESOUCE MANAGEMENT

(Approved by AICTE, Govt. of India)

(Equivalent to MBA)
ACADEMIC SESSION
2008-2010

Vineet kumar Sarawagi

TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER 1
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
1. Executive Summary

CHAPTER 2
2. Objective of the project

CHAPTER 3
3. Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
4. Challenges of HRM in Indian IT industry
5. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and their HRM problems
6. Birla Soft and their HRM problems

CHAPTER 4
7. Challenges of HRM in Indian Tobacco industry
8. Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) and their HRM problems
9. Godfrey Phillips and their HRM problems
CHAPTER 5
10. Research Methodology

6. REFERENCES
7. ANNEXURES

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is a truly global company. It starts its human resource
sourcing right at the college level. At these institutes, TCS funds many events conferences,
seminars, gets involved in improving curricula, establishes fellowships and exchanges
expertise through visiting faculty programme. To top all these there is the annual retreat
with over a hundred top academics in Thrivananthapuram, the training hub of TCS. TCS
extends its relationships to several universities abroad as well. All the spadework being
done, TCS finds it easy to hire the best talent in campus recruitment.

All major activities in the working life of a worker- from the time of his or her entry into n
organization until he or she leaves- come under the purview of HRM. With the passage of
time HR mangers have started speaking the language of business. HR job is highly
coveted one and so are the Hr practices that are becoming highly visible in the
organization. Its significance does lie not only in the observable practice of its functions,
but contributing to ad drawing from the highest level of managerial policy.

So, the challenges in the HRM practices are being visualized and are better explained
considering two different sectors of the Indian industries. For better evaluation we had
further taken two different companies from each sector. We had had telephonic
conversation with different companies. Its just for a evaluation purpose and so no further
comments on the policies and challenges had given till now.

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT

1) To study the challenges in Human Resources Management that Indian
industries are facing.
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
2) To study the challenges in HRM of some particular industries by visiting
them.
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management

It is a battle where we realize that the balance comes from a lot of sharing of common
chore, of sharing responsibilities and of sharing understanding most of all. The time
demand implementing rigid flexibility.
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
Globalisation:- Many Indian firms are compelled to think globally, something which is
difficult for managers who were accustomed to operate in vast sheltered markets with
minimal or no competition either from domestic or foreign firms. Indian firms need to
move from one end of each
continuum to the other
Rigid, hierarchical and end as shown below: Flexible, flat and
tall structure team based
structures

Family centric, closed Dispersed ownership,

minded & secretive open minded &
environment transparent

Caste ridden, Rational thinking &

superstitious, laid-track vibrant styles of
styles of manag. mangement

Changed Employee Expectations: Employees demand empowerment and expect equality

with the mangement. Previous notions about managerial authority are giving way to
employee influence & involvement along with mechanisms for upward communication
and due process. If we look at the workers unions of Otis, Hindustan Lever, ICI, TOMCO,
Blue Star, Webel Electro, and Central Bank. They rewrite their agenda to include quality
and better customer service and are even accusing the management of malpractices. So
everytime there is need to redram the profile of the worker and discover new methods of
training, hiring, renumerating and motivating employees.
Outsourcing HR Activities: The trends towards outsourcing has been caused by several
strategic and operational motives. HR departments are divesting themselves from
mundane activities to focus more on strategic role. Outsourcing has also been used to help
reduce bureaucracy and to encourage a more responsive culture by introducing external
market forces into the firm through the biding process. It is a big challenge before the HR
manager to prove that his/her department is as important as any other functions in the
organization. The relevance of HR is at stack.
Changing Workforce Dynamics: Frequently, physical relocation is required. The
increasing number of dual-career professionals limits individual flexibility in accepting
such assignments and may hinder number of dual-career professionals limits individual
flexibility in accepting such assignments and may hinder organizational flexibility in
acquiring and developing talent. Some demographic changes in the workforce having their
own implications to the HR managers are:
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
(i) inceasing number of working mothers,
(ii) a steady decline of blue-collar employees who are giving way to white-collar
employees, and (iii) increasing awareness & education among workers.
Balancing Work-life: Balancing work & life assumes relevance when both husband and
wife are employed. Travails of a working housewife are more than a working husband,
thus balancing it is becoming a major challenge for HR manager. So a programme aiming
balancing work-life is required and are supposed to include: Childcare at or near the
workplace, Job Sharing, Care for sick children and employees, On-site summer camp,
Training supervisors to respond to work and family needs of employees, Flexible work
scheduling, Sick leave policies, Variety of errands from dry cleaning, dropping children at
schools, making dinner reservations etc and many more like the same or other.
Making HR activities ethical: Hiring ethical strong employees is only the beginning. The
need to institute mechanisms to ensure ethical conduct of employees is increased a lot with
the passage of time. The Hr manager needs to carefully screen applications for jobs, weed
out those who are prone to indulge in misdemeanors and hire those who can build a value
driven organization.
Organizational Restructuring: Peter Drucker prophesis in his book(The New Realities) is
showing its colour and many big companies has reduced their number of management
grades, elimination of layers, & redrawing reporting lines within their organization. ITC,
HLL, Godrej & Boyce, RPG Enterprises, Raymond Woollen Mills, Shaw Wallace,
Ballarpur Industries, Compton & Greaves are some of the companies that are doing so.
Changes are required particularly during the time of Acquisitions and Mergers also during
the bad whether of the firm. This is of need to keep people with and working effectively
and efficiently. These are done according to the changing character of competition, as
major companies operate through complex web of strategic alliances of varying degrees of
permanence.
Managing Diversity: Its value is getting more important issue because of: Increase in the
number of young workers in the work-force, increase in the number of women joining the
work-force, increase in the proportion of ethnic minorities in the total work-force, increase
in mobility of work-force, international careers & expatriates are becoming common,
international experience as a pre-requisite for career progression to many top-level
managerial positions. Organisations that can manage diversity better trend to be more
flexible because they have broadened their policies, are more open-minded, have less
standardized operating methods and have developed skills in dealing with resistance to
change.
Attitude towards Unions: Unionization is preferable because to remain unio-free costs the
organization heavily. Pay raises, out of turn promotions, generous perks & other benefits
need to be doled out frequently to appease workers. General perception of managers is to
avoid unionization but it is very beneficial to the organization. It provide a mean for
workers to express before the management conditions prevailing in the workplace. But at
the same time because of voice mechanism or the instrumentality role, unionized firm
have lower turnover rate and encourage organization to provide more rational and
professional management. So the work of HR mangers gets tough here to decide whether
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
is should be there in the organization or not and if yes then how to control it. Strings of the
union are required to be checked time to time for better performance in the firm.
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
CHALLENGES OF HRM IN INDIAN IT INDUSTRY:
The Indian IT industry poses a baffling challenge to HR professionals-from recruitment to
retaintment, compensation to career planning and from technological obsolescence to
labour turnover. This problem can be tackled with the use of HR planning which in itself is
a challenging task in IT industry. Determining the strength required for the near future is a
very complex problem in an IT company. The deciding factor is the companys perceived
ability to bag projects both locally and internationally. The problem here is thatT until the
company have sufficient right-mix of people, it cannot clinch a project. But unless there is
a project, it cannot attract and retain people. With the advent of MNCs it may be noted
that job prospects are gearing up. The multinationals are offering fantastic pay packets and
working environments to their employees
TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES AND THEIR HRM PROBLEMS
According to the telephonic conversation we had with Mr. Sumit Singhal (hyphothicated),
the answers to some of our questions we had asked from him.
Company Profile of TCS

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, business solutions and outsourcing

organization that delivers real results to global businesses, ensuring a level of certainty no
other firm can match. With a vision of being in top 10 companies by the year 2010.
TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT and IT-enabled services delivered
through its unique Global Network Delivery Mode, recognized as the benchmark of
excellence in software development.TCS has over 120,000 of the world's best trained IT
consultants in 42 countries, with an annual sales of $5.7 billion (fiscal year ending 31
March, 2008)
TCS has also won many awards in different fields as
TCS tops the DataQuest DQTop20 list of IT Services providers in India for 2008
TCS ranked among Top 25 in Business Week's 2007 Information Technology 100
TCS awarded top position in 2007 "Global Services" 100 Top 10 Best Performing
IT Services
TCS is the worlds first organization to achieve an enterprise-wide Maturity Level 5 on
CMMI and P-CMM based on SCAMPISM, the most rigorous assessment
methodology. TCS Integrated Quality Management System (iQMS) integrates
processes, people, and technology maturity through various established frameworks and
practices, including IEEE, ISO 9001: 2000, CMMi, SW-CMM, P-CMM, and Six-Sigma.
This shows that it is lays much emphasis on quality control.

CHALLENGES IN TCS
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
1) THE MAINTAIN WORKFORCE DIVERSITY
The future success of any organizations relies on the ability to manage a diverse body of
talent that can bring innovative ideas, perspectives and views to their work. The challenge
and problems faced of workplace diversity can be turned into a strategic organizational
asset if an organization is able to capitalize on this melting pot of diverse talents. With the
mixture of talents of diverse cultural backgrounds, genders, ages and lifestyles, an
organization can respond to business opportunities more rapidly and creatively, especially
in the global arena (Cox, 1993), which must be one of the important organizational goals
to be attained. More importantly, if the organizational environment does not support
diversity broadly, one risks losing talent to competitors

Since TCS has offices in more than 40 countries, the challange for hrm is to maintain the
proper ratio between foreign and indian origin employees.

2) THE MANAGEMENT OF WORKPLACE DIVERSITY

In order to effectively manage workplace diversity, Cox (1993) suggests that a HR
Manager needs to change from an ethnocentric view ("our way is the best way") to a
culturally relative perspective ("let's take the best of a variety of ways"). This shift in
philosophy has to be ingrained in the managerial framework of the HR Manager in his/her
planning, organizing, leading and controlling of organizational resources.

TCS deals with this challenge by conducting mentoring programs.

3) LARGE WORKFORCE
There is a big challenge of maintaining large work force consisting of 1.3 Lac employees
for TCS.

4) MANAGING EIS As
information is the basis of decision-making in an organization, there lies a great need for effective
managerial control. A good control system would ensure the communication of the right information at
the right time and relayed to the right people to take prompt actions.
When managing an Executive Information System, a HR manager must first find out exactly what
information decision-makers would like to have available in the field of human resource management,
and then to include it in the EIS. This is because having people simply use an EIS that lacks critical
information is of no value-add to the organization. In addition, the manager must ensure that the use of
information technology has to be brought into alignment with strategic business goals.

5) CONTROL AND MEASURE RESULTS

A HR Manager must conduct regular organizational assessments on issues like pay,

benefits, work environment, management and promotional opportunities to assess the
progress over the long term. There is also a need to develop appropriate measuring tools to
measure the impact of diversity initiatives at the organization through organization wide
feedback surveys and other methods. Without proper control and evaluation, some of these
diversity initiatives may just fizzle.

6) LEADING THE TALK

Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
A HR Manager needs to advocate a diverse workforce by making diversity evident at all organizational
levels. Otherwise, some employees will quickly conclude that there is no future for them in the company.
As the HR Manager, it is pertinent to show respect for diversity issues and promote clear and positive
responses to them. He/She must also show a high level of commitment and be able to resolve issues of
workplace diversity in an ethical and responsible manner.

7) HOW TO KEEP THE SAME LEVEL OF RECRUITEMENT EVEN IN

RECESSION
The biggest challenge for HR is to maintain the company reputation, which it gained over
the period by recruiting a large number of new employees every year.
8) HOW TO ABSORB ALL RECRUITEES
Though there are recruitments in large scale, they do not have enough projects to absorb
all the new recruited employees. In order to tackle this situation, they are calling the new
recruited employees in small batches rather than 2-3 large groups.
9) EMPLOYEES ELIGIBLE FOR PROMOTIONS
TCS has just suspended the promotion cycle till further notice. As told by Mr.
Susheel(name changed) , he is eligible for promotion since Nov -2007.
10) HOW TO MAKE MORE PROFIT WITH SAME REVENUE
As per Economic times, TCS is planning to decrease the variable pay of executives by 10-
15% and keeping the gross same for middle management and developers.
11) HOW TO MOTIVATE EMPLOYEE
The development of an appropriate organizational reward system is probably one of the strongest
motivational factors. This can influence both job satisfaction and employee motivation. The reward
system affects job satisfaction by making the employee more comfortable and contented Motivational
factors in an organizational context include working environment, job as a result of the rewards received.
The reward system influences motivation primarily through the perceived value of the rewards and their
contingency on performance (Hickins, 1998).

The challenge which HR is facing is that how to motivate employee without any
significant salary hike or promotion.

BIRLA SOFT AND THEIR HRM PROBLEMS

Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
Birlasoft is a leading provider of information technology services in both onshore and
offshore models to Fortune 1000 as well as mid-sized organizatiaons in banking, financial
services, insurance, retail, healthcare, manufacturing and independent software vendors
sectors. Birlasoft services include application development, support & maintenance,
enterprise application implementation, integration, infrastructure management and quality
assurance & testing.

Birlasofts robust delivery processes embrace digitized project management

methodologies, embedded within proven practices of Six Sigma, SEI CMMi Level 5 on
Continuous Representation and secure services framework with BS7799. The Noida
centers of the company have been recently assessed at PCMM Level 3 for its HR
practices. Headquartered at Noida, India, Birlasoft has 4,000+ employees across US, UK,
Germany, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore and India.

Birlasoft is part of the global $1.4 billion CK Birla Group which traces its roots back to
over 150 years and has diversified interests ranging from automobiles, cement, paper,
software etc. to hospitals, schools and colleges as part of its philanthropic work.

The company is a joint venture of CK Birla Group of India and Computer Horizons
Corporation (CHC) of USA. It is leading Information Technology company with offices
world-wide. It offers high class solutions and offshore services to its clients that includes
companies like AT & T, P&O Containers, Merrill Lynch, ICL, Oracle Corporation, Ford,
IBM, Network Managers, Shawn Ice, Saudi Aramco, DDA, NEI, BMBHRC, ET &T, C-
DAC. In the year 1999 it has rated as the third fastest growing software companies of
India by Dataquest of India, Magazine.
CHALLENGES IN BIRLASOFT
1. Communication
Focusing on establishing effective communication throughout the organization and
to ensure that Birlasoftians have the skills and avenues to share information and
coordinate activities effectively.
2. PerformanceManagement
Driving the organizations and its members progress by establishing objectives
related to committed work against which performance can be measured, ascertain
capability development assistance required to continuously enhance performance.

3. CompetencyDevelopment
This starts with identification of requisite competencies at the organization level
which are ultimately dependent on competencies that are needed to be identified,
built or enhanced in the individual Birlasoftian. Enhancing constantly the capability
of Birlasoftians to perform assigned tasks and responsibility in turn uplinks to the
organization capability building.
4. Training and Development
To ensure that the identified competency requirements are built through a systematic
and focused approach.
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management

5. Compensation
To provide all individuals with remuneration and benefits based on their
contribution and value to the organization in a fair and transparent manner.
Competitiveness of the compensation offered in comparison with the prevailing
markets' reality is the driving force.

6. Career Development
To ensure that individuals are provided opportunities to develop their competencies
that enable them to achieve professional and personal career objectives within the
organizations goals.

7. Participatory Culture
A myopic outlook of utilizing talents of people only in the delivery of assigned
duties has two broad undesirable effects: It prevents people from developing as well
rounded professionals; and it denies the organization the readily available multi-
talented internal resource pool that could potentially contribute to most of the
challenges and opportunities facing the organization. Building a participatory
culture enables availability of avenues to harness/give exposure to employees full
capability by involvement in making decisions and solving problems that affect the
performance of business activities

CHALLENGES OF HRM IN INDIAN TOBACCO INDUSTRY:

Large companies can afford to keep surplus staff and keep them engaged in internal
projects or training programmes. However, employees deeply resent transfers from one
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
projects to another as it adversely affects their carrier planning and prospects. Unexpected
employees turnover and overseas deputation may aid further strain on HR department.
Notwithstanding with the complexity of the problem, it has to be tackled to enable the HR
department to plan its recruitment campaign, at least 3 months in advance. The marketing
department has to play a vital role here. It must forecast the technologies in demand in the
near future and indicate what slice of the cake the company can reasonably expect to get
so that recruitment and training process can be greater geared accordingly.

INDIAN TOBACCO COMPANY (ITC) AND THEIR HRM PROBLEMS

Company Profile
ITC is one of India's foremost private sector companies with a market capitalisation of over US $ 13
billion and a turnover of US $ 3.5 billion. Rated among the World's Best Big Companies by Forbes
magazine and among India's Most Respected Companies by BusinessWorld, ITC ranks third in pre-tax
profit among India's private sector corporations. ITC has a diversified presence in Cigarettes, Hotels,
Paperboards & Specialty Papers, Packaging, Agri-Business, Packaged Foods & Confectionery,
Information Technology, Branded Apparel, Greeting Cards, Safety Matches and other FMCG products.
History
ITC was incorporated on August 24, 1910 under the name of 'Imperial Tobacco Company of India
Limited. Though the first six decades of the Company's existence were primarily devoted to the growth
and consolidation of the Cigarettes and Leaf Tobacco businesses
ITC's Packaging & Printing Business Division, was set up in 1925 as a strategic backward integration for
ITC's Cigarettes business In 1975 the Company launched its Hotels business with the acquisition of a
hotel in Chennai which was rechristened 'ITC-Welcomgroup Hotel Chola'.
Products
CIGARETTES
Wills, Insignia, India Kings, Gold Flake, Navy Cut, Scissors, Capstan, Berkeley, Bristol, Flake.
FOODS
Ready to eat foods, staples, confectionery and snacks.
LIFESTYLE RETAILING
Wills Classic work wear, Wills Clublife evening wear, Wills sports wear.
GREETING, GIFTING AND STATIONARY
Expressions greeting cards, autograph books, slam books, party invitations, pop up & mini books,
Expressions Regalia(collection of premium greeting cards & social cause cards and desk calendars)
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
Market Share
ITC has captured a market share of 8%.
In confectionery, ITC has built up a 17% share of mint candies and 24% of hard-boiled candies
Ready-to-eat Sunfeast Pasta Treat has clocked 6% of the branded noodles
Indian tobacco acts amendement 2003.
Cigarettes Act is passed with first statutory health warning, 1975
States like Delhi, Goa and a few more had created their own tobacco control laws
Kerala High Court and Supreme Court had given momentous decisions in favour of tobacco control
policies
Prevention and Control of Pollution Act included smoking in the definition of air pollution, Motor
Vehicles Act of 1988 made it illegal to smoke in a public vehicle and Cables Television Network
Amendment Act of 2000 prohibited the transmission of tobacco commercials on cable TV across the
country.
The Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and
Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (COTPA), a comprehensive tobacco control
legislation, comes into force on 1st May 2004
India ratified FCTC on 5th February 2004.

According to the telephonic conversation we had with Mr. Udit Gujarati (hyphothicated),
the answers to some of our questions we had asked from him
Ques 1. How long have you been associated to the company?
Ans. I am associated with the company with last 7 years, and has seen many ups & down
in my life period. The company has been very good in performance appraisal and I got
many rewards in this tenure. There are some special certifications which only I have, and
thats because of my interest that the company has sent me for the training. I got many
offers from many companies, which were better in monetary terms, but I had not gone
with them. The policies of the company had made a type of family relationship that cant
be broken anyhow. Even if I may not be associated with the company my heart would
remain here.
Ques 2. How many employees are working under you?
Ans. I am Sales Manager with 3 area sales manager under me with approximately a pool
of 44 people under.
Ques 3. What challenges you are facing due to stringency in govt. policies?
Ans. There is decrease in sales of the company, when we compare the statistics of the
companys sales with the past years; there has been a tremendous decrease in the sales of
the cigarettes and cigars. With decreasing profits, and increasing pressure due to govt
policies, we had to pressurise our employees to increase the sales. This in turn is
increasing the attrition rate of the employees. Hence, the company is trying to retain their
old employees by motivating them and giving them appraisals.
Ques 4.In what way attrition is affecting the company?
Ans. With the strict policies and increased attrition, we have to recruit new employees, and
hence provide them with training and knowledge of our products. With this, we have to
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
spend a major part of our budget on their training and development, which is affecting the
companys profits.
Ques 5.What is the basic criteria of recruiting new employees?
Ans. We dont have any such particular policy for any recruitment and it is according to
the post and the recruitment we had for the particular post. The decision is taken by
experts at the time of need and normally we go to different consultancies.
Ques 6. What methods have been adopted by your company to retain your old employees?
Ans. We dont have to do anything special to retain our old employees. They are very
happy here and they dont want to leave the company. Even though we have many
Schemes and different activities running in our company that make the employees not to
leave the company.
Ques 7. What kind of motivation policies your company has adopted?
Ans. The company is motivating the employees by providing them tangible and intangible
benefits, in the form of appraisals, bonuses, best performers, gifts on festivals, pension
policies for old employees, health benefits, rewards and incentives.
Ques 8.In this LIQUIDITY CRUNCH we have seen the recruitment been frozen, how
does your company manage recruitment and selection process?
Ans. Currently we are not giving any such call for new recruitments. We have enough
employees to work and will definitely announce for recruitment if we will require so. The
crunch has not impacted us too much.

CHALLENGES FACED ITC BY THE HR MANAGER

1. ATTRITION
Attrition is the gradual reduction of a workforce by employees' leaving and not being replaced
rather than by their being laid. Reducing attrition rate has been a challenge for HR Managers since
many years. Tobacco industry was not much not affected by the problem of attrition, but due to
stringency in govt. policies this problem became a prominent challenge for HR Managers of this
industry.
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
The same is the case with HR Manager of ITC, due to stringency in govt. policies the sales went
down and the profits declined. In order to maintain the profit levels employees were pressurized
and thereby adding to the attrition rate. Now, HR Managers are working hard to reduce this
increasing attrition rate.
2. RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING
As the employees are leaving the organization due to increased work pressures, it has become
mandatory for the HR Manager to recruit new employees. And in this liquidity crunch they are
spending on the recruitment and training of the new recruits.
3. RETENTION
Retention is a process of continued possession. Retaining an employee without giving any fringe
benefits is although more difficult. In the current scenario when each and every organization is
suffering from liquidity crunch it is very difficult for an organization to give tangible or intangible
benefits.
HR Manager of ITC also is moving in the same boat. He is also facing difficulties in retaining the
old employees, as he is not able to motivate them and with the increased pressure the attrition is
increasing.

GODFREY PHILLIPS AND THEIR HRM PROBLEMS

Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management

Company Profile
Godfrey Phillips is today the second largest player in the Indian cigarette industry with an annual turnover
of over US$ 265 million. The company was incorporated in India in 1936, the Company established its
own manufacturing facilities in 1944. The Company today is the proud owner of some of the most
popular cigarette brands in the country like Red and White, Four Square, Jaisalmer, Cavanders, Tipper
and Prince.Its products are distributed through an extensive India wide network comprising 484 exclusive
distributors and over 800,000 retail outlets
History
1844 - Mr. Godfrey Phillips, founder of Godfrey Phillips & Sons commenced business in the Barbican
(London), as a Cigar manufacturer
1944 - Company established its own manufacturing facilities
1946 - GODFREY PHILLIPS became a Public Ltd. Co. with its manufacturing operations in Mumbai
1967 - D. Macropolo & Co., which was the sole selling agent for GODFREY PHILLIPS, opened a
subsidiary company called "International Tobacco Co.",
1967-68 - Philip Morris acquired substantial holding in Godfrey Phillips Ltd
1979 - Philip Morris. joined hands with the K.K. Modi Group and in the following year the Modi
Enterprises took over the management of GODFREY PHILLIPS
2002 - The Company re-launch some of its brands, by giving them an entirely new look & positioning,
while some new, innovative products like Tipper & Piper were also introduced
2003 - Jaisalmer & Prince re-launched
Cigarette brands
Four Square, Jaisalmer, Red & White, Cavanders, Tipper, North Pole, Prince.
Cigars - Brands
Don Diego, Hav-a-tampa, Phillies, Santa Damiana H-2000 Rothschild.

According to the telephonic conversation we had with Mr. Udit Gujarati (hyphothicated),
the answers to some of our questions we had asked from him
Ques 1. How long have you been associated to the company?
Ans. I am working in GODFREY PHILIP since 6 years as one of the most loyal
employees. The company stands second in the market share of the cigarette products. I
have seen the progress of the company with the increase in sales over a period of time and
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
the expansion of the company, with the production of candies and chocolate as the latest
introductory offers and many other such projects that are in the pipeline.
Ques 2. How many employees are working under you?
Ans. I am the area sales manager of the company. I have a workforce of 23 employees
who are reporting me on daily basis.
Ques 3. What challenges you are facing due to stringency in govt. policies?
Ans. The govt. has made some amendments in the INDIAN TOBACCO ACT 1975 with
special reference to advertising, smoking in public places, selling to and by minors and 10
to 15% decrease in land allotted for cultivating tobacco. With this coming into effect, there
has been a considerable downfall in sales of cigarettes and related products. The company
has to switch to other alternative fields like consumer goods, and with these developments,
the employee workforce has to be recruited and thoroughly trained in their specific
departments. Also, the company has changed the working platforms of its employees who
are working in production department; hence a major challenge is to plan the management
of the workforce.
Ques 4.What is the basic criteria of recruiting new employees?
Ans. The employee are recruited for various posts and selected on the basis of their areas
of expertise. Those employees having work experience in related job-work is given
preference. The recruitment is done by a step wise with following steps.
1. Preliminary interview
2. Selection tests
3. Final interview
4. Reference checks.
After going through these steps, if the employee fulfils all the criterias, then the
employees are recruited.
Ques 5. What methods have been adopted by your company to retain your old employees?
Ans. Some of the employees have been shifted to other platforms by training them about
the new production methods. Along with this the employees are motivated to outperform
in their respective departments. The old employees are given the option of pension
schemes on retirement.
Ques 6. What other motivation policies your company has adopted?
Ans. The company motivates the employees by providing with gifts and rewards, and
bonuses on quarterly basis. Also the best performing employee is being rewarded a tour to
MALAYSIA along with his family. Also the managers seek to provide specific attention to
employees by meeting them once in every month. The company follows the process of
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
self-appraisal in which the employee can fill in the form and send it to the department
depending upon his/her own performance.
Ques 7.In this LIQUIDITY CRUNCH we have seen the recruitment been frozen, how
does your company manage recruitment and selection process?
Ans. The way the liquidity crunch has banged the countrys backbone, same way it has
also affected our company too. But our company has sustained various such disasters, and
during these tough times, our country will emerge as the winner. Since the company is
expanding into new ventures and launching new products, hence company has to recruit
new employees. There is a lot of investment in the recruiting and training process, but it is
a part of the strategy that has to be followed.
CHALLENGES IN BIRLASOFT

1. Communication
Focusing on establishing effective communication throughout the organization and
to ensure that Birlasoftians have the skills and avenues to share information and
coordinate activities effectively.
2. Performance Management
Driving the organizations and its members progress by establishing objectives
related to committed work against which performance can be measured, ascertain
capability development assistance required to continuously enhance performance.
3. Competency Development
This starts with identification of requisite competencies at the organization level
which are ultimately dependent on competencies that are needed to be identified,
built or enhanced in the individual Birlasoftian. Enhancing constantly the capability
of Birlasoftians to perform assigned tasks and responsibility in turn uplinks to the
organization capability building.
4. Training and Development
To ensure that the identified competency requirements are built through a systematic
and focused approach.
5. Compensation
To provide all individuals with remuneration and benefits based on their
contribution and value to the organization in a fair and transparent manner.
Competitiveness of the compensation offered in comparison with the prevailing
markets' reality is the driving force.
6. Career Development
To ensure that individuals are provided opportunities to develop their competencies
that enable them to achieve professional and personal career objectives within the
organizations goals.
7. Participatory Culture
A myopic outlook of utilizing talents of people only in the delivery of assigned
duties has two broad undesirable effects: It prevents people from developing as well
rounded professionals; and it denies the organization the readily available multi-
talented internal resource pool that could potentially contribute to most of the
challenges and opportunities facing the organization. Building a participatory
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
culture enables availability of avenues to harness/give exposure to employees full
capability by involvement in making decisions and solving problems that affect the
performance of business activities

METHODOLOGY
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
BLUE PRINT OF THE PROJECT

COMPOSITION
Opinions were collected by interviewing the
experts.

CONSOLIDATION
All the opinions were consolidated in terms of
commonality.

CONFIGURATION
Research questions were formulated on the basis
of opinions
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management

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Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
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ANNEXURE
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management
Ques 1. How long have you been associated to the company?

Ques 2. How many employees are working under you?

Ques 3. What challenges you are facing due to stringency in govt. policies?

Ques 4. In what way attrition is affecting the company?

Ques 5. What is the basic criteria of recruiting new employees?

Ques 6. What methods have been adopted by your company to retain your old employees?

Ques 7. What kind of motivation policies your company has adopted?

Ques 8. In this LIQUIDITY CRUNCH we have seen the recruitment been frozen, how does your
company manage recruitment and selection process?
Challenges in Modern Human Resource Management

People are not Difficult, they are Different