Hrm Practices in Aarong

Part-1 Introduction Organizational overview: “To provide a stable and gainful source of employment for the under privileged rural artisans, lift up the traditional identity and the commitment of quality service” The name of the organization Aarong is a Bangla word. It means “a village fair or market”. Aarong started its journey on the basis of this slogan. Now-a-days it is an established fashion and home decor in Bangladesh. Its’ dedication is to change the lives of the disadvantages , promoting traditional products from Bangladesh and opening the doors so their products can be exported.

It has grown into a thriving international enterprise showcasing ethnic wear to beautiful crafts from silks, handloom cotton, endi to terracotta, bamboo, jute and much more. It is the handicraft marketing arm of BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement committee), the largest NGO in Bangladesh. Aarong has created a village fair for the craftsmen of all trades come together to exhibit and sale their traditional handicrafts. it helps vitalize the traditional craftsmanship and find a wider market for their products nationally and internationally.

Established in 1978, Aarong is a fair trade organization dedicated to bring about positive changes in the lives of disadvantaged artisans and underprivileged rural women by reviving and promoting their skills and craft. Reaching out to weavers, potters, brass workers, jewelers, jute workers, basket weavers, wood carvers, leather workers and more, Aarong embraces and nurtures a diverse representation of 65,000 artisans, 85% of whom are women.

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Today, Aarong has become the foundation upon which independent cooperative groups and family-based artisans market their craft, in an effort to position the nation’s handicraft industry on a world platform of appreciation and acknowledgement. Background of the Organization Aarong began as a cause – a means to an end for a quiet organization fighting to uphold the dignity of the marginalized. In 1976, when BRAC- a Bangladeshi NGO dedicated to alleviating poverty and empowering the poor, first began encouraging sericulture for women in Manikganj, their only buyers were a few scattered retailers in Dhaka.

Weeks, even months would pass between supply and payment, until BRAC intervened. Aarong was born out of a need to ensure that the penniless silk farmers of Manikganj were paid for their goods upon delivery, so that they could feed their families. Today, Aarong's reach has spread beyond Manikganj to the rest of the country. It has grown into a thriving international enterprise showcasing ethnic wear to beautiful crafts from silks, handloom cotton, endi to terracotta, bamboo, jute and much more.

From a single shop, Aarong has grown into one of Bangladesh's biggest retail chains, with eight stores spread across the major metropolitan areas of the country - in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Sylhet and one in London, UK. Aarong symbolizes fairness in the global village. The organization has identified three basic constraints for gainful employment of the low income and marginalized people in the rural areas: lack of working capital, marketing support and opportunity for skills development.

In order to bridge these gaps, Aarong provides a wide range of services to its workers and suppliers: Figure: The services Aarong provides to its’ customer and suppliers Aarong’s Mission Statement “To make Aarong the best in the world in providing a unique Bangladeshi lifestyle experience to empower people and promote Bangladesh while protecting our environment. ” Vision of the organization Aarong has a vision to establish them as world’s one of the famous fair trade fashion house, and to remain market leader throughout its business. Aarong expanded its business in international arena.

Aarong has a dream to develop more artisans of Bangladesh and make them self-dependent and attract more and more international customers towards Bangladeshi culture. Goals: •Empowering destitute rural women by providing opportunities for employment and income generation. •Ensuring commercial success of the enterprise of women producers. •Reviving traditional skills of rural artisans. Services: •Free Medical check-up including free eye treatment, eye-glasses and treatment costs for severe illnesses •Advance wage payments for employees in need •Day care services Workers retirement fund Twenty five thousand independent cooperative groups and traditional family-based artisans also market their crafts through Aarong. Potters, Brass Workers, Jewelers, Jute workers, Basket Weavers, Handloom Weavers, Silk Weavers, Wood Carvers, Leather workers and various artisans with specialized skills from all over the country come to Aarong for marketing and support services. Personality Test Result Human Metrics Jung Typology Test Based on Carl Jung’s and Isabel Briggs Myers’ Typological approach to personality I have been classified in the ENTP category.

It refers that- I m Extrovert (67%) Intuitive (31%) Intuitive Thinking (25%) Perceiving (33%) More specifically --- * I have distinctive preferences of Extraversion over Introversion (67%) * I have moderate preferences of Intuition over Sensing (31%) * I have moderate preferences of Thinking over Feeling (25%) * I have moderate preferences of Perceiving over Judging (33%) HR Planning of Aarong: Aarong is the one of the biggest fashion house in Bangladesh with ten outlets around the country. Behind the fashion house/lifestyle store Aarong has a corporate office and branches of Ayesha Abed foundation in several districts.

Aarong & AAF has been employing a huge number of employees from all over the country and in some cases overseas employees. Here is the organogram of Aarong & AAF to have a look on the positions of the employees who are involved in different Human Resource activities: Figure: Organogram of HR & Training Department of Aarong Recruitment and selection Process: Selecting and recruiting good employees for an organization is indeed one of the most crucial and critical aspects of running an organization as the decisions so taken to this respect can take the organization to the heights of success.

In this respect, it must be borne in mind that each individual has a valuable contribution, irrespective of the position or status of the employee in respective organization. Staffing is the process of recruiting applicants and selecting prospective employees it is known as the key strategic are of Human Resource Management. Stated that an organization’s performance is a direct result of the individuals it employs. The specific strategies used and decisions made in staffing process will directly impact an organization’s success or lack thereof.

Planning for recruitment and selection: The aim of the policy and the procedure is to support the recruitment and selection of people with necessary ability, skills, qualification and competencies to contribute effectively to delivery of Aarong & AAF Recruitment and Selection Strategy: As Aarong has huge number of employees all around the country, they recruit different types of employees based on the nature of the jobs. Aarong recruits five types of employees, these are ?Regular ?Part time ?Temporary ?Contractual ?Project based Regular employee:

Regular employees work five days a week from Sunday to Thursday, starting from 8. 30 am to 5. 15 pm. These employees will receive the entire compensation program (bonus, increment, overtime and insurance) and every other facility that are given by the organization. Part-time employees: Part- time employees are those who does not work on the regular working hours, they are given the facility of flexible work hours. Part time employees are recruited for the outlets for example – sales associates, store helper, guards etc. They are not given the facilities of the regular employees.

However they will be given some facilities based on the contracts they have with the organization. Temporary employee: Aarong recruits temporary employees for different purposes. Some times when a position is vacant and the recruitment might take long to fill in that’s when Aarong & AAF goes for recruiting temporary employees. Temporary employees may work full time or part-time. The temporary sales associates for Ramadan work as part timer. On the other hand temporary employees for documentation work as long as full timer in Aarong. Contractual employee:

Contractual employees are hired to work on certain projects or for a certain period of time. The sales associates for the Ramadan are under contract of one month whereas the interns have three months of contracts in Aarong. However depending on the nature of the job the organization may extend their contract with employees. Project based employee: Project based employees are hired for specific projects. The organization make contract with them to work on a certain project. To open new outlets in Mirpur and Uttara Aarong hired interior designers to design new outlets is under project based employment.

Recruitment method: Aarong recruits its employee’s mostly on viva voce and they do not take any written examination of the candidates. But the interviews are conducted by several steps, which are, in first round if someone qualifies the interview then they are selected for the second round of the interview. These types of interviews are arranged for officer, executive and managerial level. But for the technical posts like IT department computer literacy is tested. But recently Aarong has stated taking written examination on computer for finance and accounts department and also for other departments as well.

Only In case of design studio the applicants has to present their portfolio. The steps of recruiting the employees: To recruit the employees for different departments Aarong goes through several steps, these are performed by the HR department: Figure: Recruitment Process in Aarong & AAF Requisition for Staff: In the beginning of the year all the departments’ head send their requisition in a fixed form to the HR department estimating the requirement of new staff for the whole year in their respective department, then HR collects the approval of the director.

HRD would make yearly plan to recruit staff on the basis of the received approved requisition. According to the organizational chart, it is previously determined how many people are required to run a particular department or to do a specific kind of job. So with the resignation of an employee respective department needs to get approval for a new position, it forwards the form to HRD along with the detail particulars like educational level, experience, interpersonal skills and other skills that the job required of the deserving candidate. Check and Verify organizational Chart:

Once the HR department receives an approved job requisition, it is the foremost duty of the HR departments to check and verify the approval with the organizational chart. Next, the manager of HR prepares the job watch, which is to circulate for job announcement. This job watch contains job responsibility, objectives, number of vacancies of the department, educational background of the candidate, working experience and other interpersonal skills. The job watch basically asks the potential candidate to send their CV if they qualify the minimum qualification level. Sources of Recruitment:

There are two kinds of sources Aarong & AAF uses for recruitment. They are ?Internal source ?External source ?Internal source: Aarong & AAF think that current employees are a major source of recruits for all but entry level positions. Whether for promotions or for lateral job transfer, internal candidates already know the informal organization and have detailed information about its formal policies and procedures. Promotions and transfer are typically decided by responsible department with involvement by HR department. Employee references/ recommendation: Employee reference has universal application.

Lower level and mid-level positions can, and often are filled by the recommendation of a current employee. In higher level positions it is more likely referral will be a professional acquaintance rather than a friend with whom the recommender has close social contacts. In jobs where specialized expertise is important, and where employees participate in professional organizations that foster the development of the expertise, it can be expected that current employees will be acquainted with or know about individuals they think would make excellent contribution to the organization. External sources: Aarong & AAF believe in innovative inspiration so HR department use to look outside of the organization for applicants. The external source starts with the job advertisement on different media. Job Advertisement: Aarong gives their advertisement mostly on the major newspapers and internet to collect applicants for all the departments and posts. Through the advertisement they declare the posts of the jobs and the job description which includes duties and responsibilities along they also mention the facilities Aarong provides.

In the advertisement they mention the required qualification of the applicants, age and experience etc. Collecting & Screening: After the advertisement for a particular job the HR department starts collecting the bio data. The bio data are collected from sources, for example the bio data dropped in the application box in the head office are collected, online applications are downloaded and printed, some are collected from the outlets by post and some are through references. After collecting the applicants’ bio data the qualifications, experience and age are matched.

The applicants are selected and prioritized based on their education such as applicants from reputed universities and year of experience they possess. While screening them qualified applicants for the specified jobs are found, but sometimes applicants with fewer years of experience are kept separately. And some time these candidates’ bio data are used when there is lack of candidates for interview. Short listing the potential Applicants: After going through the bio data that matches the qualifications, applicants who are well qualified for the positions have to be put on a short list.

Following completion of short listing process, HR personnel should give them priority in calling for interviews. Schedule and Arrange the interview: After short listing the bio data, the arrangements of the interview starts. The shortlisted candidates are to be called and they should be well informed about the interview method, date, time and venue etc. For these responsible personnel has to make a schedule for interview. HR manager and respective departments’ managers, sometimes program head altogether decides a convenient time for the interview.

After scheduling the applicants are informed of the time date venue of the interviews and if appropriate, be asked to bring photographs for further identification. Conduct interview: Interviews must be fair, objective and structures to allow the maximum amount of information to be obtained from the applicants. The person specification and outline job description should form the basic questioning . which should be relevant to the recruitment of the post. In the interview panel there are two personnel from Aarong most of the time, one person from the HR department and another person should be from other department.

For example recruiting a marketing officer the representative from the HR department is either a senior HR officer or an executive and the other interviewer in this case would be marketing head or marketing manager. In the interview panel the judges are given an interviewer appraisal form to keep the record of applicants’ personal attributes and their educational and professional qualification. From officer and above there are two rounds of interviews taken. The candidates selected from the first round interview are to be interviewed by the director of Aarong.

Compile interview results: At this stage HR compiles the interview results. In order to compile the result, average score of the interview is calculated. Usually, the candidate that matches with hiring departments requirements is called for the second round of interview. After the interviews the candidates are selected by analyzing their qualifications by the director mostly and then it is the responsibility of HR to inform applicants about the result. But for but for entry level jobs it is the responsibility of an HR officer to finalize the selection.

Background Check/ candidates’ verification: The selected candidates will provide copies of their educational and professional certificates ant the HR department will make arrangement for verifying these records by calling their references checking the copies of certificates with the original ones. Inform the selected candidate: After verification of the papers submitted by the candidates, HR department will call them for further formalities that are to be carried out like negotiation of salary, confirmation of joining date, fitness certificate, releasing order etc.

Appointment: After completion of the introductory training sessions, the candidates are asked to come with their certificates, releasing order from previous employer, experience certificate, reference letter etc. The regular employees are required to fill-up several forms on the day of their appointment. These are • Personal information form • Insurance form • Joining form Training: Training department of Aarong is a part of Human Resource department. Training personnel are responsible for all the necessary training sessions for the new employees.

As they are to be acquainted with the new organization, working environment, people and job responsibilities. The training officers train the new employees to be introduced with the job and organization and make sure they are able to perform effectively. As the training section is very small and yet they are responsible for training employees all over the country, the training session lasts for one day. In mid-level and higher positions the employee gets on the job training. But positions like Sales associate, store helper and maintenance workers are mostly trained about their job. Orientation or induction:

Generally the HR department arranges employee’s orientation or induction which provides new employees with basic background information about the organization, information they need to perform their job, their job description or so on. It is called a socialization process. it helps to cope with new environment very easily and it minimizes reality shock. Performance Appraisal System: Performance appraisal system is defined as a systematic process of performance planning, organizing, monitoring, appraising, and guiding & rewarding individual employee’s performance by using standard tools.

This is a formal management process being conducted through participation. The system does not merely represent an annual event rather it represents a systematic processed viewed from the standpoint of total perspective. The essence of performance appraisal system is that the employee’s perform the best of their abilities to attain individual standard and achieve the organization goals. Aarong and Ayesha Abed Foundation has a performance appraisal system closely similar to an amalgamation of “Behavioral anchored ratings scale (BARS)” and “key performance indicator (KPI)” performance Appraisal mechanism.

The present performance is done using: a) Appraisal by Achievement against certain behavior b) Competence profile in current job, which includes rating or leadership quality, resource management, business development, communicative etc. The organization views the system as year round process. Every employee at Aarong is being evaluated once in a year. And employees are evaluated when their working period is more than six month. Aarong has three types of performance appraisal form, these are – top level, mid-level and entry level, as all the employees cannot be evaluated in same manner.

The reason for having the performance appraisal system is to evaluate them from different aspects and find out their strengths and weakness and provide them chances to improve them in order to perform more effectively. There are different component of the performance appraisal system namely performance planning, performance monitoring and performance development and annual appraisal each of those are inter related and integrated with each other having several sub- component under each of those components. The Annual performance Appraisal format:

In this study, focus has been given on the performance appraisal system of the management executive. The elements of the performance appraisal form are a) Performance planning b) Career growth & development c) Performance competences d) Overall performance evaluation e) Review and comment by appraiser, appraisers’ manager and appraise her/himself. In Aarong has four types of Performance Appraisal formats, Form-A, for top level employees, PA Form- B, for mid-level employees, PA Form-C, for lower level employees, and the last one is Performance Appraisal or Sales Associates. Aarong mainly uses customized software developed for carrying out the specificfunctions involved in the various functional departments. The Key In-HouseSoftware used by Aarong is as follows: Part-2 IT in HRM The IT used in Aarong: 1. Central Office Management System (COMS): COMS also used by the export department for handling export orders. The retailing department uses COMS to check inventory levels and maintain re-order levels by analyzing data such as amount sent to outlet, amount in display and amount in the warehouse. 2. Point of Sale (POS):

Point of sales software is used in all the outlets of Aarong. When a sales staff scans the barcode of any product, the software records the transaction. This database enables the organization to identify the demand of the product and adjust their inventory level accordingly. 3. Ayesha Abed Foundation Software (AAFS): Ayesha Abed Foundation, which is the primary manufacturing unit of Aarong, uses this Software to check product levels. 4. Customer Relationship Management: This software enables Aarong to identify the most loyal customer and to retain them.

Customer databases are maintained with the help of this software. It also enables Aarong to provide special services, such as “My Aarong Rewards”, to loyal customers. With the buying and contact information of all loyal customers, Aarong is able to notifythem whenever products that suit their taste are available Figure: HRIS department at Aarong The Human Resource Department of Aarong is responsible for managing , controlling and the employment of the total employees, staff, and managers. The firm maintains some IS function with its HRM department.

These functions have been given in the upward diagram and described here: Employee Database: All the information of the employees is saved in the database following the Microsoft access. This database includes the information of the employees from the joining days to the last days. Performance Tracking: Sales representatives are given a percentage of commissions on the sale that is why performance tracking is an important issue. The sale per day is tracked by using bar code readers and time punch machine.

Pre specified reports: Based on the database maintained at the central office managers are allowed to access pre specified reports on the company’s employees and the key performance indicators. Company Intranet: The intranet provides managers to extract data on employees personal records and qualifications, sales performance, and past reports on sales and managerial activities using the online. Part-3 Biography of Mr. Fazle Hasan Abed Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder & Chairperson, BRAC was born in Bangladesh in 1936.

He was educated at Dhaka and Glasgow Universities. The 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh had a profound effect on him, then in his thirties, a professional accountant who was holding a senior corporate executive position at Shell Oil. The war dramatically changed the direction of his life; he left his job and moved to London to devote himself to Bangladesh's War of Independence. There, he helped to initiate a campaign called "Help Bangladesh" to organise funds to raise awareness about the war in Bangladesh.

When the war over, he returned to the newly independent Bangladesh, finding the economy in ruins. Millions of refugees, who had sought shelter in India during the war, started returning to the country and their relief and rehabilitation called for urgent efforts. It was then that he established BRAC to rehabilitate returning refugees in a remote area in north-eastern Bangladesh. He directed his policy towards helping the poor develop their capacity to better manage their lives.

Thus, BRAC's primary objectives emerged as alleviation of poverty and empowerment of the poor. Under his leadership, in the p of only three decades, BRAC grew to become the largest development organisation in the world in terms of the scale and diversity of its interventions. Sir Fazle has received numerous national and international awards for his achievements in leading BRAC, including the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award (2008), the Inaugural Clinton Global Citizen Award (2007), the Henry R.

Kravis Prize in Leadership (2007), the Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) Award for Lifetime Achievement in Social Development and Poverty Alleviation (2007), Gates Award for Global Health (2004), UNDP MahbubulHaq Award for Outstanding Contribution in Human Development (2004), Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Award (2002), Olof Palme Award (2001), UNICEF's Maurice Pate Award (1992) and the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership (1980). He is also recognised by Ashoka as one of the "global greats" and is a founding member of its prestigious Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship.

In 2010, he was appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the Eminent Persons Group for the Least Developed Countries. Sir Fazle has received several honorary degrees including Doctor of Humane Letters from Yale University in 2007, Doctor of Laws from Columbia University in 2008, Doctor of Letters from the University of Oxford in 2009 and Doctorate of Laws from the University of Bath in 2010. In February 2010, he was appointed Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St.

George (KCMG) by the British crown in recognition of his services to reducing poverty in Bangladesh and internationally. He was awarded WISE Prize, the world's first major international prize for education by Qatar Foundation in November 2011. Comparative analysis Illustrated profile of Fazle Hasan Abed I can imagine my to be career as an entrepreneur. I am graduating from Dhaka University in BBA and I would prefer being an entrepreneur. For this I have to be- 1. More patient as I see it is less in me 2.

I am enthusiastic but in some matter I easily loose my enthusiasm for this I have to work a lot Part-4 Recommendation * Greater use of MIS, DSS and ESS for effective decision making. * Adoption of fully automated supply chain management system to ensure greater quality and flexibility. * Streamlining the Designing and approval process into one workstation. * Automation of the Demand projection and Trend analysis tasks. * Greater use of networking to carryout financial transactions with partners and suppliers.

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