Human Resource Management (HRM) Analyses On British American Tobacco Group

Introduction

British American Tobacco Group

The British American Tobacco Group is one of the world’s leading international manufacturers of cigarettes, marketing its products in almost every country worldwide. It is clear leader in a competitive and fast moving business. The group consists of four tobacco subsidiaries and they are:

British American Tobacco Company Limited, which produces cigarettes in over 45 countries for domestic and export markets in Europe, Australasia, Latin America, Asia and Africa.

Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation is the third largest tobacco company in the US.

British American Tobacco (Germany) GMBH is a leading cigarette company in Germany.

Souza Cruz S.A. is the market leader in Brazil and a world leader in tobacco leaf export.

BAT subsidiaries operate in more than 90 countries employing around 173,000 people. Multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-disciplined, British American Tobacco Group, a world-class group of tobacco companies. BAT offers a brand for every taste and preference.

British American Tobacco Co. Ltd.

British American Tobacco, the second largest Tobacco Company in the world is also the world’s most global tobacco company. Based in London, UK, it operates in more than 50 countries with the strength of 100,000 employees and sells more than 250 brands in more than 180 markets worldwide. Tracing its heritage back to a joint venture formed by the Imperial Tobacco Company of the United Kingdom and The American Tobacco Company of the United States in 1902, today's British American Tobacco Company was born on the world stage. Extent of operation of British American Tobacco Company is given below:

America-Pacific (USA, Japan, South Korea)

Asia-Pacific (China, Indo-China, Taiwan, South-East Asia, Australasia)

Europe (50 countries including Russia)

Latin America (Central & South America, Mexico, Caribbean)

Africa (More than 50 countries)

MESCA (Middle East, South & Central Asia)

Today British American Tobacco sells the leading brands in over 30 markets covering 102 countries, has more than 200 brands worldwide, employs more than 55,000 people and produces some 2 billion cigarettes every day. More than a billion people across the globe enjoy smoking tobacco. One in every eight chooses a British American Tobacco brand. In order to support the company's business goals the merger of British American Tobacco with Rothmans International had been announced on 11 January 1999. This global merger was completed on 7^th June 1999. This brings together the number 2 and 4 players which together will boost a combined volume exceeding 900 billion cigarettes around the world with some 120,000 employees and a worldwide market share of 16 percent (Phillip Morris has a 17 percent share). The merger is a major step forward in British American Tobacco’s vision of becoming the world’s leading International Tobacco Company.

British American Tobacco Bangladesh

British American Tobacco Bangladesh a subsidiary of British American Tobacco was established in 1971 and since than it has been the market leader in the country. Based in Dhaka the company has one packaging factory in Dhaka and one leaf-processing factory in Kushtia. The company currently employees more than 200 managers and 1300 employees.

In its brand portfolio British American Tobacco Bangladesh has a wide range of cigarettes for different consumer segments. Starting from Benson & Hedges (Lights & Regular), which are currently imported from Europe to locally produced International Brands such as State Express 555 and John Player Gold Leaf (Lights and Regular) and also National Brands like Capstan, Star family and Scissors family are members of the portfolio.

British American Tobacco Bangladesh is involved in various community services in the country. Afforestation is the pet project of the company, which was started in 1980 and till now the company, has planted 32 million trees across the country. In this regard, British American Tobacco Bangladesh has won many awards during last 28 years but the most prestigious of all are Prime Minister Afforestation Award in 1993, Presidents Award in Agriculture in 1975, Sports Journalist Award and FAO Award in 1998. Besides this, the company is also involved in vegetable seed multiplication project, supports philanthropic organizations like Sandhani and other Social and Cultural groups.

The Company has its Head Office and the cigarette factory in Dhaka, a Green Leaf Threshing Plant in Kushtia and a number of Leafs and Sales Offices throughout the country.

Relation with the parent company

The following figure shows the flow from the parent company to BATB:

 

                                        Relation with the BAT Group

     Company Vision

"To extend our leadership through World Class performance"

BATB is already a leader in the Bangladesh cigarette market. In the future the company wishes to extend the present leadership through world class performance. The company believes that the management already possess world class product and people. Right now they need to concentrate on improving their process capability. This company proved itself to be a world class company by achieving the prestigious MRPII recognition. Now the whole process is going to accelerate more and altogether it will reach the level of world class performance and gradually it will extend its leadership in all aspects in a very competitive environment.

Company Mission

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Double the net revenue by 2005

The company is planning to double its net revenue by the year 2005. That means in the span of 5 years time the revenue must rise at a tremendous rate. This requires a continuous and consistent growth in revenue in the coming years. One thing must be noted here that the target is to increase the revenue rather than the profit. This is because BATB is a responsible company and wants to generate profit for all its stakeholders and create and maintain a win-win situation for all.

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Growing our share of the total tobacco market

The biri segment has captured the major share of the total tobacco market. BATB plans to uptrade the smokers in the country and wishes to transfer their smoking habit from biri to cigarette. This is also coherent with the first objective of the mission as more people will start smoking BAT brands instead of biri, more the revenue will increase.

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Dominating key identified segments

The total brand portfolio of the company is divided into 3 major segments- high, medium and low. BATB is already dominating the high and medium segment in the market. But it is facing tremendous competition in the low segment. BATB wishes to dominate all the key identified segments and they are planning accordingly. The company doesn’t have any brand competing in the very low segment.

 Historical Background of BATB

British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) Company Limited is the recognized leader in Bangladesh cigarette market, with a long established reputation for providing its consumers with consistently high quality brands. The journey of this company started long back. BATB was established back in 1910 as Imperial Tobacco Company Ltd. with head office in Calcutta. In the very beginning Imperial Tobacco Company (ITC) launched a branch office at Moulivibazar Dhaka in 1926. Cigarettes were made in Carreras Ltd., Calcutta. Imperial and Carreras merged into a single company in 1943. After the partition in 1947, cigarettes were coming freely from Calcutta, but introduction of customs barriers in 1948 between India and Pakistan interrupted the smooth flow of cigarettes from Calcutta to East Pakistan. In March 01, 1949 Pakistan Tobacco Company (PTC) came into existence with head office in Karachi; with the assets and liabilities of ITC Limited held in Pakistan. The then East Pakistan Office was situated in Alico Building, Motijheel. In order to meet the increasing demand, the first factory in the then East Pakistan was established in Chittagong in 1952. From this time onwards requirements for cigarettes for East Pakistan markets were met from products manufactured in Karachi. In 1954 PTC established it’s first cigarette factory although high-grade cigarettes still came from West Pakistan. The Dhaka factory of PTC went into production in 1965. After the War between India and Pakistan in 1965; the import of tender leaf from India for the production of Biri was stopped. This gave a big boost to cigarette business. It was at that time the East Pakistani entrepreneurs set up 16 cigarette factories in this region.

After independence, Bangladesh Tobacco Company (Pvt.) Limited was formed on 02 February 1972 under the Companies Act 1913, with the assets and liabilities of PTC. Shareholding position for GOB and BAT was 1:2. BTC (Pvt.) was converted into a public limited company on 03 September 1973. British American Tobacco played a pivotal role in BTC's creation in 1972 and since then has been involved in BTC's development every step of the way. To pronounce the successful relationship with British American Tobacco, BTC has changed its name and identity to British American Tobacco (BAT) Bangladesh Company Limited on March 1998.

March 1949	Formation of Pakistan Tobacco Company (PTC)
1954	PTC opened its first factory in Fouzdarhat, Chittagong
1962	Opened a branch in Moulavibazar, Dhaka
1965	Building of a factory in Mohakhali, Dhaka
February 1972	Incorporation of Bangladesh Tobacco Company with a paid up capital of Tk. 400 million
March 22, 1998	Changed its identity from Bangladesh Tobacco Company (BTC) to British American Tobacco Bangladesh Company Limited (BATB)

                     Source: BATB

Structure of BATB

BATB is a public limited company. Management Director is the operational head and appointed by the British American Tobacco. Head of every department carries out their functions with the help of line managers. Different departments have different structure according to their function and responsibility.

                                              Board of BAT

              The "Board of Directors" and Executive Committee (EXCO) govern the overall activities of the company. The "Board of Directors" is composed of 10 members who are called Directors. The Chairman heads the "Board of Directors". Chief Executive of British American Tobacco Bangladesh is called the "Managing Director" who is normally appointed by "BAT Holdings". Managing Director of the company is the chairman of the Executive Committee. This committee includes the head of all the functional departments.

                                               

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Functional Areas

BATB has been operating its business under the following major functional areas:

• Production
• Leaf
• Finance
• Human Resource
• Brand Marketing
• Trade Marketing and Distribution
• Information Technology
• Corporate and Regulatory Affairs
• Business Development

Ownership Status of the Company

British American Tobacco Bangladesh is listed in the "Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE)". It has an authorized capital of Tk. 400,000,000 of 40,000,000 ordinary shares of Tk. 10 each. British American Tobacco Bangladesh, which encompasses 62% of the shares of the British American Tobacco, London. The Government held 32% of its shares. Subsequently the government has gradually sold its holdings to different organizations of the country. The composition of shareholders on December 31,1999 were:

Raleigh Investment Co. Ltd. UK	65.91%
Investment Corporation of Bangladesh	26.99%
Sadharan Bima Corporation	2.86%
Bangladesh Silpa Rin Sangstha	0.84%
Government of Bangladesh	0.65%
Sena Kalyan Sangstha	0.52%
Others	2.23%

 Source: BATB

Employee and Trade Union of BATB

The employees of the BATB are dynamic, self-motivated and energetic to perform any assigned job, because they are selected on the basis of excellent academic and experience. The company employs 1,244 permanent employees and varying number of seasonal and temporary workers as required. Each permanent employee receives remuneration in excess of Tk. 36,000 per annum. Remuneration depends on the nature and conditions of work. The workers are labeled in the following categories:

• Permanent
• Probationer
• Temporary (seasonal)
• Badli
• Casual

Trade union are established in the following company’s working locations:

• Head office and Dhaka factory
• Chittagong factory
• Rangpur leaf factory

There is a positive relationship between the company and the trade union based on mutual trust and respect. All the employees of the company belong to the trade union. When a worker becomes a member of the union, according to his request a certain amount of his wage is deducted as the union subscription fees on a check off system. Trade union election is held after every two years and governed by their respective constitutions. The terms and conditions of services of the employee are negotiated and determined through a process of collective bargaining between the company and the union.

Physical Infrastructure of the Company

The infrastructure of the company has a broader field where the company plays its important role. BATB has 6 Regional Trade Marketing Offices (RTMOs), 12 Regional Sales Depots, 1 Factory, 1 Green Leaf Threshing Plant, 7 Leaf Depots and a Head office consisting of Corporate Head office and Production Head office. The Company’s Head office and Cigarette factory are located in Dhaka. A Green Leaf Threshing (GLT) Plant has been set up in Kushtia and it has started operation from April 1995.

The company’s products are manufactured in the factory at Mohakhali, Dhaka. The Plant Manager who reports to the Production Director at the Head Office heads Dhaka factory. The company’ procures tobacco leaf maintaining the international standard and it imports processed tobacco leaf for its international brands. It procures green tobacco from the registered farmers of the leaf area mainly for it’s local brands.

The company’s authorized leaf areas are located in Kushtia, Chittagong and Manikgonj. But bulk of tobacco leafs comes from Kushtia region. The Chittagong area is under development process and it now covers Rangunia and Lama. The company operates 7 leaf depots in he leaf area. 4 of them are located in Kushtia region, 2 of them are located in CDA and other 1 is in Manikgonj, The company provides all sorts of supports to the registered growers through its depot personnel. This includes technical know how, agricultural inputs and financial assistance.

The company performs its sales and distribution operation all over the country through its five regional sales offices. They are located in Dhaka, Khulna, Chittagong, Sylhet and Rajshahi. Each of the regions is again divided into operational areas, each of which in turn is divided into territories. To perform its sales and distribution smoothly, the company operates 10 sales depots in different locations of the country and it has 63 authorized distributors.

Tobacco Cultivation in Kushtia

Tobacco cultivation in Kushtia Leaf area was first introduced in 1967 with an area of 10 acres. It was expected to expand to 650 acres by 1971 Flue-cured and air-cured tobacco were cultivated in Kushtia and the Leaf Department achieved self-sufficiency in cigarette tobacco by 1975. Tobacco cultivation though registered growers and procurement of the product tobacco is done through four leaf depots In Kushtia. Those depots are Meherpur, Jhenidah, Chechua and Allardarga Leaf Depot. Kushtia Leaf Factory stands on 4.31 acres of land and is located at about three kilometers away from main town. The Green Leaf Threshing (GLT’) plant could complete the entire leaf purchase in 1995. A team of management including the Plant Engineer, Processing Manager, Shift Manager, Quality Control Manager, Leaf Account and the Leaf personal Manager is managing the GLT plant. The Plant Manager is the team leader of GLT management team.

EHS Policy and Afforestation Program

All the activities in the manufacturing unit and Green Leaf Threshing Plant ensure that work is conducted in a manner to minimize environmental pollution. Kushtia a GLT has won British American Tobacco’s EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) Merit award for the year 1995 and 1996 for achieving consecutive two years of operation with zero accident. The company also received the prestigious EHS Silver Award for 1999 without any lost time accident in any part of the company, which was the second year in a row.

In line with BAT's environmental, health, and safety policy, the company is involved in an afforestation program. The contribution of the company in afforestation program in Bangladesh has earned recognition in the country though winning of the Prime Minister’s Trophy in 1993. In 1998 the company distributed 3.5 million free saplings in Dhaka through the Bonsai Nursery project. This program had caused more than 28.5 million trees planted or distributed till 1998 and is expected to yield around 120,000 metric tons of timber for fuel-wood, furniture making, or construction process in 1998. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has awarded British American Tobacco Bangladesh for pioneering the development of vegetable seed industry in Bangladesh. The company had started its vegetable seed multiplication program in 1990 with the technical support of FAO with a view to provide quality vegetable saplings for free distribution amongst farmers in the tobacco growing areas.

It is not enough for BATB to only contribute to the afforestation of the country. The company felt the need to promote the use of alternate wood fuel for tobacco curing by its farmers. Briquette as an alternate was introduced to the farmers, to reduce their dependency on trees for wood fuels. Briquettes made of paddy husk and sugarcane bagasse. Briquettes can be used for cooking, in burns for curing tobacco and brick. The company promotes Briquette manufacturing in the tobacco growing areas and tries to make them easily available to the farmers.

A company wide safety awareness program was initiated and completed in 1996. The objective of this program was to brief employees about the techniques to reduce the risk of occurrence of preventable accidents. The company's commitment to the highest level of safety practices is recognized with awards being received from the British American Tobacco Group headquarters in more than one year. Workers and management are provided regular safety training. Hard hats are required during shift work. All movable machine parts have guards to prevent workers from accidental injury.

Commitment to Develop the Future

British American Tobacco has over the decades consistently invested in the Bangladesh market through BATB. Thus BATB has always been in the business of manufacturing and marketing brands that meet standards found anywhere in the world.

The company believes in attracting the best talent available by offering a challenging working environment with international career development opportunities. Individuals here are entrusted with significant responsibility and autonomy, and investment in people through regular training and career development has helped to establish a culture, which encourages people to think creatively, generate new ideas and approach problems from a number of different perspectives. In the quest of becoming a World Class Company by achieving the visions, strategic imperatives and the values, the company has launched a change management program called – Winning In Our World in 1999. The objective is to bring about a cultural change by embedding the WOW Values and removal of barriers. To this effect the company has organized different workshops, employee care and development activities throughout the year with direct participation of its people.

With state-of-the-art machinery, world-class people, and a portfolio of world-beating brands, British American Tobacco Bangladesh couldn't be anything but instinctively international.

People's attitudes have changed much over the time. Without this changed attitude of excelling in their performance it would not have been possible to make so much progress. This spirit of people will help in achieving the company's Vision and Mission and ultimately to be a world lass company.

Lotus notes is a highly evolved advanced communication system of BAT through which all the employees of BAT worldwide communicate among themselves. This is a hi-tech device that helps to provide quick and uninterrupted communication and factual information. Quantum is a marketing information tool with the objective of effective utilization of marketing spends through better targeting and evaluation of BATB’s marketing activities. This is a strategic investment that helps BAT to achieve competitive edge in case of facing any competition. The company has implemented Tetra CS/3, a totally integrated software package that links Manufacturing, Finance, and Distribution providing one set of clearly understood information that can be used throughout the company. Apart from this software, the company uses several other software packages for some specific purposes that can also be shared throughout the company.

Another important development with regard to accessibility of information is the implementation of the Global Enterprise Network (GEN) standard. GEN provides a standardized IT infrastructure throughout the British American Tobacco group that allows users to access their work areas from any location within the group.

Also the company has developed a system to have better control of its supply chain process. This has made a major impact in terms of automating the entire supply chain process from shipping godown to retailer, providing on-line information at every stage of the secondary supply chain.

As a company that aspires to be the world class, the company also looks at the interests of its suppliers and trading partners. A team is currently looking at how the company can support them as they strive to improve their performance.

Journey Towards Class A

At the end of 1993 the company adopted a change management program called MRPII, the acronym for Manufacturing Resource Planning, with the objective of becoming a world-class company with world-class systems, processes, products, and people. The strategy for "Partnership Excellence Program" is based on a clear understanding on meeting world-class performance and to achieve MRPII Class A. BATB conducted series of training for the vendors and the result was very positive in terms of quality and delivery improvements. Back in 1997, the organization was a Class C company. In 1999 it had achieved the status of Class B and in this year, 2000 the company was awarded Class A status which has made BATB the only member in BAT group to achieve A in four categories. The categories are:

1. Strategic Planning
2. People and Team
3. Planning and Controlling
4. New product development, reducing lead time
5. Continuous improvement

    BATB has achieved Class A in the first four categories.

Human Resource Department

                        HUMAN RESOURCE ORGANOGRAM

Head of Human Resource is the head of the department. The Human Resource Development Manager, Production HR Manager, and Resourcing and Remuneration Manager work under him.

Activities of HR Department

The HR process is carried out through the following four ‘Guiding Principles’.

Open Minded

It encouraged within the organization to be able to maintain an environment where the managers can have open-minded approach to various strategic decision-makings.

Enterprising Spirit

The core asset of the organization will come from the enterprising spirit embedded in the minds of the managers, resulting from effective strategies.

Freedom through Responsibility

Managers at all levels work with freedom of responsibility in their areas of functioning.

Strength from Diversity

The company derives its drive for effective attainment of goals from the strength of diversity it creates.

BATB believes in the strength of human resource and uses the modern concept of resource utilization. Every job description is carefully designed and modified under dynamic environment. The company believes in the concept of best fit and trains and develops company personnel as the key ‘human capital’ of the company.

The Human Resource Department thus concentrates all its activities for the development of human resource for the benefit of the company. The department also believes in maintaining harmonious relationship between the management and workers all the times. The department ensures that managerial development contributes to organizational development.

The departments’ various activities cover setting criteria for the selection procedures. Interview techniques, training standards etc. According to the BAT policy guideline, the department maintains the personnel through formulation policies on wages, fringe benefits, annual leave, training calendar, provident fund, performance appraisal etc. Remuneration is managed centrally and there is never any negotiation but settlement. It also settles with the trade union for Long Term Agreement (LTA) between management and workers and the ‘collective burgeoning agents’. The concept behind the industrial relations is always ‘win-win’ situation.

As the competitive world is changing with the speed of light, Training and Development becomes an integrated part to stay on the top. Thus BATB puts great importance to training and development of managers and employees. The company has Technical Training Center at the Dhaka Head Office, which organizes different training programs for its management people around the year. As a subsidiary of BAT, BATB sends its managers for training to BAT group of companies.

Problem Identification

We have visited British American Tobacco, and we have interviewed two managers of the Human Resource Department. They were Mr. Zulfikar Hyder (senior manager), and Mr. Imtiaz Farook (Personnel Relations Manager). What we have learned from them is that all the managers working under the human resource are from different disciplines in the education background, and none have any education of human resource management. Asked how they perform their functions, since they have not specialized in human resource management, they have said, 1) from trial and error, 2) From other senior managers who have had enough experience, 3) From managers coming from the England and other BAT companies, and 4) From training and seminars done locally and abroad. The next question asked about the strategies regarding "Motivational" techniques, and it was learned BATB was following the traditional style of motivation, which was basically "money talks". But it was learned over years that money was not everything an employee wanted, they wanted recognition among the company itself rather than having a lump sum of cash. The next question which was asked about their turnovers in top, middle, and junior management. For the last 15 years, the top management and middle management had about 3 to 4 percent, while the junior management has about 9% turnover annually. The junior management’s functions are normally fieldwork, and the candidates who are chosen for the junior management, normally comes from the upper class of the society. They feel it is an insult coming from that level of family background they have to do fieldwork hence they leave the job within 8 months. Hence the main problems which the group have identified are:

1. Motivational Problem
2. Problem in Selecting and Recruitment.

The group has decided to work on the "Selection and Recruitment".

Selection & Recruitment

An organization’s success depends on its human resource. No matter how much an organization invests in other assets if its human resource does not have the competence then the organization will be unsuccessful. Even when deciding which fixed assets to invest the organizations go through many hurdles, so when it comes to human resource they have to be even more careful.

First an organization conduct a human resource planning to identify their personnel needs. Once these needs are established a job analysis is conducted, which clarifies the job being done and the individual qualities necessary to do these jobs successfully. Then on the basis of this information a pool of qualified applicants are recruited. The next steps calls for thinning this set, which is the major objective of selection. The purpose of this research paper is to find out whether the real world companies follow the theoretical concepts in terms of selecting their employees or not. If there are any differences, will be compared with the concepts. In perspective of Human Resource Management, it will be found out in this report whether the real world company’s selection process is based on the theoretical concepts or not. If there are any differences, how much does it differ? Is the practiced process fair enough? All the secondary data that can be collected will be used. However, the research paper will be mainly based on primary research. A questionnaire is developed to interview the concerned managers of the previously mentioned company. This report helped us to learn about the reality by comparing the selection process in terms of the concepts and real world situation. Our access to the renowned organization "BAT" gave us the opportunity to learn about them and their selection process. It also gave us further insight into the subject matter. Moreover, it will help us in the near future to make ourselves prepare to face any kind of selection process.

Limitations

Limitations were there to deal with from the very beginning. They are discussed below:

• Research was based on only one company. The situation may be completely different for other companies.

• It took a lot of time to get an appointment with the BAT personnel. As a result we had to start the report late.

All the selection activities, from the initial screening interview to the physical examination if required, exist for the purpose of making effective selection decisions. Each activity is a step in the process that forms a predictive exercise- which applicant will be successful if hired. Successful, in this case, means performing well on the criteria the organization uses to evaluate personnel.

The cost of selection

        If the selection were free then the organizations would not go through all these in order to select the right employee. But unfortunately the cost of selecting people who are         inadequate performers or who leave the organization before contributing to profits is a        major cost of doing business. The cost incurred in hiring and training new employee is        very expensive. Proper selection of personnel is obviously an area where effectiveness       choosing competent workers who perform well in their position can result in large saving.

The Outcomes of Selection Decisions

Any selection decisions can result in four possible outcomes. Two of these outcomes would indicate correct decisions, but two would indicate errors.

Correct decisions are those where the applicant was predicted to be successful and later did prove to be successful on the job, or where the applicant was predicted to be unsuccessful and would have performed adequately if hired. In the former case we have successfully accepted; in the latter case we have successfully rejected.

Problems occur when we make errors—by rejecting candidates who would have later performed successfully on the job (reject error) or accepting those individuals who subsequently perform poorly on the job (accept error). As mentioned above selection is not free and thus the wrong decisions are, unfortunately, far from insignificant. Reject error means that the cost in performing selection activities would be increased. Accept errors, on the other hand, have very obvious costs to the organization, including the cost of training the employee, the cost generated (or profits forgone) due to employee’s incompetence, the cost of severance, and the subsequent cost of further recruiting and selection screening. Thus the major thrust on any selection activity is to reduce the probability of making reject and accept errors while increasing the probability of making correct decisions.

Of lesser importance, but still an objective of selection process, is informing. In actuality the selection process represents an effort to balance the objectives of evaluating and attracting. The interview is an obvious example of an activity where both objectives must be served. At the same time an interviewer is attempting to acquire information about the candidate so an intelligent selection decision can be made, he or she is also informing the applicant about the job and the organization. This latter activity is critical if the organization is to be successful in ‘selling’ itself to the candidate.

In summary, selection has two objectives: (1) to predict which job applicant will be successful if hired and (2) to inform and sell the candidate on the job and the organization.

There are two types of selection process—the discrete selection process and the comprehensive selection process. There are many steps involved in a selection process. In the discrete selection process if an applicant is unsuccessful in any of the previous steps then he is discouraged to continue. This selection process is designed so that tripping over any hurdle puts one out of race. Thus in each steps some candidates’ drop out and in the final steps only the best of candidates stay. On the other hand, in the comprehensive selection process all the applicants go through all the selection hurdles and then the final decision is made.

No matter which approach is used or which steps are involved, one critical aspect must be present: The devices used must measure job-related criteria. That is, these devices must be able to predict how one would perform on the job.

The company that we have selected uses discrete selection process. So, lets see their selection process in detail. The diagram form of this process used in BAT and the general diagram are shown in the appendix.

Selection Process For The Entry Level

From our text we have learnt that selection activities typically follow a standard pattern. It begins with initial screening and concludes with the final employment decision. In British American Tobacco, the discrete selection process is followed for entry-level employees. Let us discuss the eight steps of this process comparing the text and the company BAT.

Initial Screening

This screening is a two-step procedure:

1. The screening of inquiries (Short-listing)
2. The provision of screening interviews (Preliminary Interview)

Based on job description and job specification, some of the respondents are eliminated. Factors that lead to a negative decision at this point include -

• Inadequate or inappropriate experience
• Inadequate or inappropriate education

But in BAT for entry-level jobs, it does go for prior experiences.

The screening interview describes the job in enough detail so the candidates can consider whether they capable or eligible enough for the job. Here with a minimum of cost to the applicant or the organization frequently encourage the unqualified or marginally qualified to voluntarily withdraw from candidacy. Another important point during the initial screening phase is to identify a salary range.

BAT terms this screening interview as preliminary interview. In this section BAT encourages the unqualified to make the decision, also finds out whom to reject and whom to select for the next level of assessment. One more thing should be mentioned; BAT does actually discuss salary with possible employees. There is standard structured pay scale for each level of jobs.

Completion Of Application Form

The application form gives a synopsis of what applicants have been doing during their adult life, their skills, and their accomplishments. Some organizations follow a structured application form proving spaces for specific attributes. On the other hand, some organizations ask to give a six to ten pages of personal history.

BAT doesn't go for this section. After preliminary interview, it sends possible candidates to the assessment center. Others are sent the regret letters. Organizations historically relied to a considerable extent on intelligence, aptitude, ability, and interest tests to provide major input to the selection process. Handwriting analysis (graphology) and lie detector (polygraph) tests have been used in the attempt to learn more about the candidate. In recent years, reliance on traditional written tests for selection purpose has decreased. Given the historical difficulty and costs, many organizations have merely eliminated employment testing as a selection device. But, just scrapping the employment test is almost equivalent to "throwing the baby out with the bath water".

BAT successfully portrays that they have not thrown away the baby and also they have kept it clean. In this part the candidates face the assessment center. This is a whole one-day program. The tested items are given below:

1. Oral communication
2. Written communication
3. Sales ability
4. Analysis and judgment
5. Planning
6. Delegating
7. Initiative
8. Creativity
9. Conflict management
10. Organizational sensitivity
11. Tolerance for stress

Then candidates are further short-listed as per their performances. Therefore, they go for the comprehensive interview.

Comprehensive Interview

The individuals who are still viable applicants after all the tests are then given a comprehensive interview. The personnel department interviewers, executives within the organization, a potential supervisor, potential colleagues, or some combination of these may interview the applicant. The question pattern of the interview are shown below:

Questions That May Be Asked in the Interview

1. What did you like most about your last job?
2. What did you like least about your last job?
3. What are your career goals?
4. What is your greatest strength?
5. What is your greatest weakness?
6. What kind of boss do you work best with?
7. What is most important to you on the job?
8. What were your favorite courses at school?
9. What extracurricular activities did you participate in during school?
10. How did you choose this particular field of work?
11. What do you think your current supervisor’s greatest strength is?
12. Why did you leave your last job?
13. Do you prefer to work alone or in a team?
14. What are your hobbies?
15. Who was your favorite teacher? Why?
16. Who paid your tuition in college?

This comprehensive interview is designed to probe into areas that cannot be addressed by the application form or tests. These areas usually consist of assessing one's motivation, ability to work under pressure, and ability to 'fit-in' within the organization.

Some important points must be addressed:

• Information consisting motivation, under pressure working, coping with organizational norms must be job related.
• The questions asked and the topics covered should reflect the specific characteristics of the job and qualities sought for the jobs incumbent.
• The questions should be structured so that the applicants are asked the same questions.

BAT shares the same attributes we discussed in this section. In this part of interview, interviewers are half the number of the interviewees. Such as, if there are six candidates for the interview, there will be three interviewers.

Background Investigation

The next step in the selection process is to go through an investigation of those applicants

Who appear to offer potential as employees. This include contacting with the previous employer or referrals to confirm the candidates work record, behavior, attitude and other performances which was appraise or prominent in that person. This also includes contacting other job related and personal references, and verifying the educational accomplishments shown on the application.

The background investigation has some major implications. Every personnel administrator has the responsibility to investigate each potential applicant. Although in some organizations, failure to do so could have negative impact on the job or the organization itself. It can also result in loss of his or her job.

Many managers consider the background investigation date highly biased as list of reference only includes possible positive recommendation. To avoid the biases, the personnel administrator can ask e reference whose name has been provided on the application form to give another reference, someone who has the knowledge of the candidates work experience and other performances.

As we are focusing on selection process of BAT we came to know that, they put less importance on investigating background information. The willingness of the employee to work in their environment and the ability to do the job perfectly is what is considered as major requirements. In the case of new entrants coming from different sources like walk- ins, interns, management trainee and new graduates -BAT still look for attachment of the candidate with a reputed institute. Thus the impact of the applicants’ educational institute or work place counted positively or negatively.

Conditional Job Offer

In some organization, the administrator often put some condition to the new employee. The requirement of this part is that, to judge whether the employee is able to fulfill his or her job requirements, whether that person could cope with the organization's environment and culture etc. The employee will be given a certain time period to prove his or her ability in those preferred area. The period may be one month, six months or a year. This period is called probation period If the employee pass to show his or her ability in the job field out of willingness, then the condition will be fulfilled and the job will become permanent for the new comer.

In case of BAT-They don’t follow any probation period or list of conditions to confirm the job of the new comer. As they judge the person in the assessment center, whether they are taking the person or not. During this daylong assessment period the HRM department evaluate the candidate through different type of test and presentation Thus for this previously defined routine test will allow the department to evaluate more precisely according to their need. So BAT don’t need to provide any condition for the job they offer. But the is maintained for Management Trainee which is discussed in the later part of the report.

Physical Examination

The last step prior to the final decision of having the applicant takes a physical examination. For most jobs, this is a screening device in the selection process; that is, it can only act negatively on the applicant. It is assumed that the applicant can pass the physical examination; however, it is intended to screen out those individuals who are unable to comply physically with the requirement of the job and the organization. The majority of physical examinations are currently required to meet the minimum standards for the organization’s group life and medical insurance programs and to provide base data in case of worker’s compensation claims

In the selection process of BAT-They also look for some physical requirements, only for routine check up like blood-group test, HIV test, Eye power, Hepatitis, drugs and fitness test. These are only to see whether the person could fit in the actual job setting. This part of the selection process is less important for the HRM department of BAT.

  

Final Employment Decision

Those individuals, who perform successfully on the employment tests and the comprehensive interview and are not eliminated by the development of negative information on either the background investigation or the physical examination, are now considered to be eligible to receive an offer of employment. For administrative purpose, the personnel department should make the offer. The manager in the department that had the position should make the actual hiring decision open. The manager of the department should have this authority. The reason behind this authority are given below:

• The applicant will eventually work for this manager and therefore a good "fit" between the boss and the employee is necessary
• If the decision made is not correct the hiring manager has no one else to blame

In this stage the organization also try to attract the potential employee who has the solid understanding of the job and the organization. This represents personnel selection from the perspective of the potential employee rather than the organization, because individuals appear to move toward matching their work with their personality. People desire to work where their expectations are positive and where they believe their goals can be achieved. So in the final decision-making process all these areas are covered to select the right person in the right job.

In the selection process of BAT, they form a three-member group from the concerned department. These three members evaluate each candidate separately based on his or her own judgment. After their own evaluation they sit together to justify each other’s judgments to remove biasness. Finally, among the potential applicants the best applicant is chosen whose score is high in the justified evaluation sheet and considered to be selected as an employee.

Comprehensive Selection Process

In comprehensive selection, all the applicants are put through every step in the selection process, and the final decision is based on a comprehensive evaluation of the results in each stage. The comprehensive method can be a realistic approach, if it recognizes that the most applicants have weaknesses as well as strengths. However, it is also more costly, since all the applicants must go through all the screening hurdles.

The company we selected –BAT does not go for the comprehensive selection process. It finds the discrete process more convenient and appropriate while selecting their employees.

Selection Process For The Top Level Positions

Usually the existing employees get promoted to the Top Managerial positions, as they gather experiences and achieve adequate knowledge for the benefit of the company. But sometimes the VACANCY occurs when there is none to replace within the organization. Such selection is done globally.

• First, the head of the HRM department of the native branch selects the most possible person who could be employed.
• Then, the regional functional head further investigates and makes his/her part of decision.
• Finally, Global functional Head makes the decision- whom to employ.
• In this case usual HRM department does not play much of the roles.

                                             Management Trainee:

A special kind of selecting device is practiced in BAT. This culture of management trainee is somewhat similar to conditional job offer. But there are some basic differences.

• Conditional job offers occurs for those who have to prove themselves, as they are capable of doing the job.
• On contrast, management trainees are believed to be potential workers and are developed in the way that can soon make them fit for the soon to be vacant position.
• Yes, management trainees are such employees who are trained to fill the future vacancies.
• They are trained by working in more or less at every department.
• Salary is equivalent to entry level.
• When a trainee gets employed as a full time worker a portion of his salary goes for the provident fund.

Validity

High reliability may mean little if the selection device has low validity; that is, if the measures obtained are not related to some relevant criterion, such as job performance. Foe example, just because a test score is consistent is no indication that it is measuring important characteristics related to job behavior. It must also differentiate between satisfactory and unsatisfactory performance on the job. We should be aware specific types of validity; content, construct, and criterion related. For simplicity’s sake, we will discuss each of these types of validity as it relates to employment tests, although the concepts also apply to the application form, interviews, or background investigation.

In the case of BAT, it can be seen that they use more than one assessor to assess the applicants. Usually the number of the assessors is half of the number of the total number of applicants. For example, if there are eight applicants, the number of the assessors BAT uses will be four, the half of the total applicants. And this technique makes their assessment reliable. Furthermore, after the daylong assessment, the four assessors sit together and evaluate each other’s assessments. They even charge one another for evaluating any applicant in positive and negative way. If an assessor seems to be bias towards any particular applicant, he must clarify the reason to others. So in this way BAT makes their selection process valid.

Recommendations

Selection process is one of the most important jobs of the HRM department. Getting the right people, at the right place and time is crucial for the success of each and every organization. The help of the selection process identifies right kinds of people. A synopsis of the selection process, generally followed by most organization, compared to the process of BAT is presented in the whole report. We have described the selection process, reviewed the selection process, and compared the generally followed procedure with the real world situation. We found out that most of the part of the discrete selection process is followed by BAT. However, deviations were there as well. It is seen that in the case of BAT, some steps are occasionally omitted. It was also found out that their selection process is reliable not as reliable it should have been. We have suggested an alternative solution to choose the candidates for the junior management posts and hence by doing so they can reduce their turnover. Finally, it can be said that the previously identified steps are usually followed sometimes with some exceptions in most of the real world organizations.

Alternative Solution

If we see the Armed Forces of any country we would see that it is a perfect organization with every aspect of Human Resource Management elements working in it. The Armed Forces maintains the perfect hierarchy, there exists the chain of command, motivation is necessary, leadership is the key element and more precisely the process for selection & recruitment is a comprehensive one. The recruitment & selection is done by the ISSB (Inter Service Selection Board). The main function of the Board is to recruit candidates for Army, Navy, and Air force with in each organization’s criteria. The Board is Independent form the rest of departments of the Armed Forces, it has it’s own testing schemes, and the most important thing is that each member in the board cannot influence the other member in any way. The main function of the board is to facilitate the procedures during the selection, to see if the markings are done properly, and to see if the biasness during selection is not going on. The whole selection procedure takes about four to five days. The selection procedures in short brief as follows:

Written Exam: The board takes a comprehensive written exam from disciplines such as Bengali, English, Mathematics, History, and General knowledge. The main purpose of the written exam is to see whether the candidates know the basic subjects and how good they are. From the written exam 60 % of the candidates are chosen and are sent to ISSB where they will spend four days and will perform various kinds of activities. Some the activities are as follows:

1. Psychology Testing: each candidate will sit in with a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist will ask a series of questions which will test a candidates emotions, personality, character, ability to think, ability to perform, to see how the candidate behaves when he/her under pressure.
2. Group Case: The candidates are divided into groups of five, and a team leader is selected. Then they will be given a case to be solved. From the case it will be learnt which candidate performs a better teamwork, and which candidate has a better leadership skill. The group will do five cases with a new leader every time each case is done.
3. Debating Activities: through debates the members of the ISSB can understand how logically, and innovatively each candidate can debate, they observe how well each candidate works out the strategies with his/her partner trying to defeat the opposition.
4. Physical Activity: The ISSB has a training ground with different kinds of obstacles. Each candidate is expected to cross these obstacles with in a given time, approximately 5:00 minutes. These tests would allow the members to select the potential candidates with proper physical fitness along with a thorough medical checkups.

The above are just some of the activities performed by the ISSB to choose candidates for the Armed Forces. Now we do not expect the British American Tobacco to perform these "Boot Camp" activities, but believe it or not the Corporations in India, as well as in Bangladesh, are taking some of these activities. One of the corporations in Bangladesh, which does very similar to ISSB except for the physical activity, is the Summit Group. One test performed by the ISSB board was to forecast the behavioral aspect of the officers chosen in 1985, and in 1995 the forecasting was made, and they were 80% correct. As we see these tests are very much effective, and it would be a better option if the corporations and other company’s take up this kind procedures of "Selecting & Recruitment".

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