The Human Resources Benchmarking Survey (HRBS-2012) revealed that most aspects of the HR function in Pakistan have become more sophisticated over a period of time (the survey has been carried out every 2 years since 2006 by SidatHyderMorshed Associates).
The key survey findings were presented to a wide audience in the form of a seminar and networking dinner held last week. Over the years, 100+ organisations both local business groups and multinationals have participated in HRBS, representing a range of sectors ie Oil & gas, FMCG, IT & Telecom, Banking & FI, Pharmaceutical and Fertilisers, etc. The HRBS survey features a broad based coverage of entities operating in Pakistan and the objective is to document the current HR Practices in the country and benchmark these against HR best practices, both locally as well as globally.
SELECTIVE FINDINGS OF HRBS-2012 Aspects relating to Organisational Culture have shown an overall improvement. All participating organisations had documented vision and mission statements, and majority of them were developing them in house involving relevant stakeholders as well as CEO. Almost all respondents also regularly update their HR policies and procedures, use employee handbooks, and conduct exit interviews. The trend for mobile working is on the rise, and half the respondents allow mobile working, and most of them are from the services sector.
In recruitment, unstructured and behaviour based interviews are most preferred assessment tools, as are technical and psychometric testing. Generally, organisations carry out 2 to 3 interviews before selecting a suitable candidate. HR has veto power in recruitment mostly for junior and middle management positions, but not senior management.
It was reported that, a Formal Grading Structure is present in most of the surveyed organisations (89%). All Manufacturing organisations surveyed indicate that, they have defined Cash Salary Ranges for their managerial and non managerial staff. However, in the Services sector, defined cash salary ranges are not a common practice. Similarly, in the Manufacturing sector, the top 3 benefits are Life Insurance, Petrol and Company car, whereas, in the Services sector, Life Insurance, Hospitalisation and Provident Fund Scheme are the top benefits. Most organisations take part in General Market compensation surveys, at least once a year.
Performance appraisals are generally conducted once a year, with a single appraiser. Most organisations are using competencies, KPIs and interactive face to face discussions as the main features of their performance appraisal systems. About 28% organisations assign equal weight to goal setting and competency based skills in their appraisals. Majority of the organisations conduct trainings on performance management. The performance appraisal process takes on average, 2 to 3 months. Almost half the organisations are using the forced bell curve, and 66% respondents use a 5 point scale for their appraisals.
A Formal documented Career Plan is present in 50% of the organisations, and almost all of them are documenting career plans for the Senior and Middle management levels. It appears that formal Succession planning is common for senior and middle management levels but mostly in larger organisations.
In the case of Training and Development, the use of TNA as a formal technique has been steadily increasing over the years, as it was prevalent in 75% of the organisations in 2008, 81% of the organisations in 2010 and in 2012 it is around 83%. The tools used most commonly for TNA are performance appraisals and employee/supervisor surveys. It also appears almost all learning and development techniques are showing a relative increase in their use when compared with 2010 data. It appears that majority of the respondents are still reliant on external training courses (94%) and in-house training course (83%). There has been a significant increase in the use of job rotations from 46% in 2010 to 72% in 2012 and mentoring/coaching from 27% in 2010 to 56% in 2012.
Most organisations (72%) have a formal policy for HSE, and most of these are from manufacturing sector. 55% adhere to international standards and 83% regularly conduct emergency drills. Most organisations are becoming Technology savvy. 89% respondents use HRIS and 44% use an ERP software.
Majority (89%) of organisations from the manufacturing and services sector use an automated process for employee record keeping. Similarly, most manufacturing organisations (78%) employ an automated process for attendance while its slightly lower in the case of services sector (56%). Only 28% use social media for enhancing employee engagement (and most of these belong to the IT/Telco sector). The majority (78%) of organisations in the services sector allow their employees to have a rich profile in social system such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Skype, etc.
It is interesting to note that, the use of metrics/KPIs to measure the effectiveness of the various HR functions and departments is on a rise. Most metrics are used to measure effectiveness of recruitment and training functions as well as employee engagement and retention.
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S. No Metrics Overall Results Global Metrics
HRBS 2012
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1:80 to 1:110
1. Ratio of HR Staff to 1:68 (depending on
Total Employees size of org)
2. Percentage of HR Staff to Total Headcount 1% - 2% 1.6%
3. Average time taken to hire (Manufacturing) 20-60 Days 64 Days
4. Average time taken to hire (Service) 2-14 Days 24 - 52 Days
5. Average Cost of hiring per hire Rs 25,000/- $2,906 - $5,054
6. Training Days Received per Employee (Manufacturing 3.2 Days 3-5 Days
7. Training Days Received per Employee (Service) 1.8 Days 3.69 -7.78 Days
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