Case Study 1:

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT AT MAX NEWYORK LIFE

Introduction- Company profile
Max New York Life wants people to view insurance as a financial protection and wealth
creation instrument and not just a tax-saving tool.
Max New York Life Insurance Company Ltd. is a joint venture between New York Life, a
Fortune 100 company and Max India Limited, one of India's leading multi-business
corporations. The company has positioned itself on the quality platform. New York Life is a
Fortune 100 company that has over 160 years of experience in the life insurance business. Max
India Limited is a multi- business corporate dealing in Clinical Research, IT and Telecom.
Max New York Life Insurance started its operations in India in 2000. It is the first life
insurance company in India to be awarded the IS0 9001:2000 certification. Max New York
offers customized products tailored to suit individual's needs. With its various Products and
Riders, there are more than 400 product combinations to choose from. Today, Max New York
Life Insurance has a network of 57 offices spread over 37 cities all over India.
In line with its values of financial responsibility, Max New York Life has adopted prudent
financial practices to ensure safety of policyholder's funds.
Max New York Life has identified individual agents as its primary channel of distribution. The
Company places a lot of emphasis on its selection process, which comprises four stages screening, psychometric test, career seminar and final interview. The agent advisors are
trained in- house to ensure optimal control on quality of training. Max New York Life
invests significantly in its training program and each agent is trained for 152 hours as opposed to
the mandatory 100 hours stipulated by the IRDA before beginning to sell in the marketplace.
Training is a continuous process for agents at Max New York Life and ensures development of
skills and knowledge through a structured program spread over 500 hours in two years. This
focus on continuous quality training has resulted in the company having amongst the highest
agent pass rate in IRDA examinations and the agents have the highest productivity among private
life insurers.

It has established a wide agency distribution network with 172 offices and representatives across
120 cities in India. The company has established additional channel with 22 banc assurance
relationships, corporate tie-ups and a strong Direct Sales Team. Through its wide network of
highly competent life insurance agent advisors, flexible product solutions and strong customer
focus, Max New York life is creating a partnership for life with its customers in India.
Max New York Life, one of Indias leading life insurance companies, expanded its presence in
the southern region by opening its first general office in the city of Mysore. It has now has
established a countrywide network of 172 offices and representatives across 120 cities in India.
Max New York Life, which has till date sold over 1.53 million policies and recorded a sum
assured of over Rs. 46,000 crore, has positioned itself on the quality platform. The company has
developed a strong corporate governance model based on defined core values of caring,
knowledge, excellence and honesty. Its strategy is to establish itself as a trusted life insurance
specialist on the bedrock of quality of advice. The company has over 25,300 agent advisors, who
are widely considered the best in the business.
Their Vision at Max New York Life
Vision statement is Most Admired Life Insurance Company in India".
Max New York Life aspires to be the "life insurance brand of first choice" amongst Indian
consumers. To achieve this company will draw on New York Life's demonstrated competence in
developing and managing a superior personal sales network. For the last 46 years consecutively,
the largest number of agents qualifying for membership to the Million Dollar Round Table
(MDRT) have been from New York Life. The MDRT is the industry's most prestigious
organization comprising the world's most successful insurance agents. Max New York Life, a
merit oriented and equal opportunities employer, is looking for a few good men and women who
will spearhead the effort to realize their vision.
An ever expanding presence of Max New York Life offices across India reinforces our
commitment to serving the nation. We are extremely pleased with our progress in the region and
feel that opening an office in Mysore would help us educate people about the true potential and
benefits of life insurance. As life insurance specialists, Max New York Life will continue to help

consumers make the right choices to meet their financial goals, both for the short and long-term,
through sound quality advice offered by our agent advisors and a right mix of product offerings.
he added.
Max New York Life has been instrumental in changing the paradigm of life insurance in India. It
is the first life insurance company in India to introduce cause related marketing.
Children are at the very heart of Max New York Life's strategy. SOS Children's Villages of India
is internationally recognized for its work in giving underprivileged children a wholesome life.
The mission of SOS is "to help orphaned and abandoned children, by providing them with a
family, a permanent home, education and strong foundation for an independent life." It's mission
ties in with Max New York Life's philosophy of helping people secure the future of their near
and dear ones.
In line with its vision to be the most admired life insurance company in India, it has developed a
strong corporate governance model based on the core values of excellence, honesty, knowledge,
caring, integrity and teamwork. The strategy is to establish itself as a trusted life insurance
specialist through a quality approach to business.
Their Mission at Max New York Life
To become one of the top quartile life insurance companies in India and a national player. To
become brand of first choice, an employer of choice and the principal of choice for agents.
Max New York Life Values and Beliefs
Excellence
"In every aspect of work. Ranging from the in-house training institute to the detailed Personal
Insurance Plan. Max New York Life is focused on achieving the highest standards of quality in
every aspect of their business".
Honesty
"Is the heart of the Life Insurance business. Max New York believes that above all, Life
Insurance is based on trust. Transparency, Dependability and Integrity will form the cornerstones
of the Max New York Life experience."

Knowledge
"Is what makes experts? Max New York Life is focused on the Life Insurance business. Perfectly
combining global expertise with local knowledge, Max New York Life is the Indian Life
Insurance specialist."
Caring
"For the customer. Max New York Life is redefining the Life Insurance paradigm to focus on the
needs of the customers. The Max New York service process is responsive, personalized, humane
and empathetic."
Culture
Their in house culture recipe" has some of the finest ingredients going into its making. Some of
the more prominent aspects of our culture are stated below:

Customer comes first

Do it right the first time

Bias for result oriented action

Financial strength and discipline

Clarity of purpose

International quality standards

Inclusive Meritocracy

Learning opportunities

Fun at work

Commitment to published value system

Training and Development at Max New York Life

What calls for Training?
Training has been defined as the systematic development of the knowledge, skills and attitudes
required by an individual to perform adequately a given task or job. Training refers to efforts that
help enhance employee skills for carrying out the present job. According to Edwin B Flippo,
training is the act of increasing knowledge and skills of an employee for doing a particular job.
Accordingly, Needs for training were identified to be improving the current job performance of
existing employees and to familiarise them with the policies and procedures of the organisation.
Training would also help in enhancing the creativity, adaptability and versatility of employees,
thereby facilitating learning at workplace and preparing employees for future jobs. Merits to
training would infact lead to changing skills, knowledge and attitudes of employees on a
permanent basis. In all, training would enable the organisation to gain competitive advantage
through a knowledgeable workforce and promote organisational growth through individual
growth.
In which areas to provide Training ?

Company policies and procedures

Human relations training

Skill based training

Problem solving training

Onsite Workshops for Leadership Team: Employees need more than bosses... They need
mentors: Professionals skilled at assessing employee development needs and committed to
guiding employees toward professional success.
Team Leadership Workshop provides managers with proven techniques for effective personnel
management. By helping leaders understand and address their employees' requirements, this
interactive seminar offers significant benefit to managers at all levels. New supervisors gain a

solid grounding in the concept of ''leadership,'' while more experienced managers refresh their
commitment to teaching and coaching their team members.
This training program provides healthy perspectives for managers at all levels, making it an ideal
morale-boosting leadership development experience for mixed groups of front-line supervisors
and senior staff members.
Leadership Training for Success
All managers need methods. Leaders need to know the most effective techniques for guiding
teams, mentoring individuals, and validating the results. Without solid methods, managers will
resist the use of a one-size-fits-all approach to leadership that reflects the leader's personality,
rather than the employees' needs. Committed, mentoring leadership is essential to employee
morale, productivity, and retention.
A Results-Oriented Training Program
Team Leadership Workshop provides proven methods and procedures for successful people
management. Participants receive a step-by-step plan for guiding each employee toward success.
This workshop includes elements of Frank Whyte's nationally respected Team Building
Workshops expanding upon this foundation to help leaders:

To recognize each employee's personality preferences and supervisory needs.

To align their leadership styles with those of their bosses, colleagues, and subordinates.

To develop competent and committed employees by mentoring and guiding them towards
their success.

Use practiced real-world scenarios to resolve challenges and to remove barriers.

Training Program adopted by Max New York Life

Training is a must for every individual when he enters into an organization. Even though the
candidate has experience but he must as well get training. Why, because an organizations
culture, values and beliefs differ from one another. So training is essential when it comes to a

long term skill development of an individual. Training program following by Max New York
Life Insurance is different at various levels. Mainly in training program the company
concentrates on sales managers, agents, operations executives and telesales.
Training program for sales managers:

The training program duration is 15 20 days

Training on product knowledge.

Motivating and encouraging Advisors.

Training program for Advisors:

The training program duration is 15 20 days.

Training on product knowledge.

Convincing people.

Objection Handling.

Training program for operations executives:

Training on customer database files.

Training in product information and documentation

Renewals to be informed periodically.

Required skills for employees in Max New York Life Insurance:

Interpersonal skills

Excellent communication skills

Understanding nature

Aggressiveness

Convincing skills

Ability to motivate others

Willingness to learn

Study of the effectiveness of training and development at Max New York Life showed that only
advisors have more knowledge than the telesales, marketing executives and new advisors.
Advisors had the task of completing the deals, but after the remaining part of the work had been
delegated to the operations executives and telesales. However, without sufficient knowledge
these people could not have worked well. When a telecallers calls a customer for a renewal
premium, then it is extremely important that the person should have a knowledge of how the
premium should calculated etc. Accordingly it was advisable that there be efficient and elaborate
information systems.
It was found that, training not only makes employees work more efficiently but also made them
more loyal to the organisation. It enabled employees to secure promotions easily by realising
their career goals comfortably. Not only were the employees able to avoid mistakes, but also
handled their jobs with confidence leading to greater contribution and higher productivity, ie,
greater job satisfaction with lower employee turnover and with that, enhanced abilities to cope
up with organisational, social and technological change.
Recommendations
T&D exercise at Max New York Life not only contributed to employee satisfaction and
organisational growth, but also highlighted several areas which would have remained out
of visibility , had training and development not been introduced. These majorly hovered
around creating awareness; about products and services among advisors/agents. The
company also needs to reduce its mortality and administration charges and fous upon
giving periodic training. Product promotion strategies should be improved and the
company must act keeping in mind the present competition and evolving customer needs.

Conclusion
In this Knowledge-based economy, training helps people to learn how to do the things differently
or to the different things. Products are now increasingly knowledge-intensive; for these
employers are responsible to providing opportunities for continued learning. To cope with the
challenges and competitiveness in the world, every organization needs the services of trained
persons for performing the activities in the systemic way. So, training program plays a key role
in individual as well as organizational performance.

Case Study 2:
CASE STUDY ON RECRUITMENT
Synergy Technologies is a growing organization in the booming industry of outsourcing. Having
established itself as a reputed all centers within a span of just five years, synergy plans to
diversify into other domains of Business process outsourcing (BPO). In order to plan for the
future manpower requirements of the company, the HR manager, Aditi Arora, conducted a
human resource planning exercise that helped her compare the existing manpower resources visa-vis the resources needed for diversification.
After studying the existing resources and the future needs, Arora determined that Synergy must
recruit over six hundred employees across various departments in the organization for the next
operational year.
Arora studied the pros and cons of using various sources of recruitment. Since manpower
requirement was mostly at the entry level of the organizational structure (customer care
executives). Arora felt that it would be better if synergy hired an external recruitment agency. So
that the initial screening of candidates would be done by the agent. This in turn, would save
valuable time of the company's HR department. Even though the top management was skeptical
about the effectiveness of a recruitment drive using an agency, it finally consented. After a
thorough study of a number of recruiting agencies, Arora decided to offer the project to people
Consulting services Ltd (people consulting). People consulting were a reputed recruiting agency
that specialized in serving the BPO units.
However, while selecting employees for the manager's position. Arora found that the candidates
did not possess the right job competencies. She felt that the basis on which People Consulting
selected those candidates did not suit match the culture at Synergy. They seemed to be a misfit in

the organization in terms of their technical skills and their values. Their managerial skills also
did not match the standards expected by synergy.
Arora therefore, in the recruitment head of people consulting, and modified the contract, stating
that recruiting agency could hence worth focus only on call center executive. She then sought
alternative sources of recruitment for candidates for the managerial cadre at synergy.
Arora herself was present on the interview panel. While selecting employees for the manager's
position. Arora found that the candidates did not possess the right job competencies. She felt that
the basis on which People Consulting selected those candidates did not suit match the culture at
Synergy. They seemed to be a misfit in the organization in terms. People consulting, agency
could hence worth focus only on call center executive. She then sought alternative sources of
recruitment for candidates for the managerial cadre at synergy. Arora successfully recruited all
the required resources for its new unit.

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTH

BPO is an emerging sector.

Huge difference between demand and supply- Recruitment of man power was easy.

WEAKNESS

Scarcity of talented people.

Recruitment for candidates was time and money consuming.

OPPORTUNITY

Bright future growth prospects

Diversification of company from BPO to KPO (knowledge processing outsourcing)

THREAT

Highly competitive sector

Rules and regulation of W.T.O regarding free flow of skilled worker (U.S.A)

QUESTIONS
1. Though the top management was initially apprehensive about the effectiveness of hiring
an external agency to support its recruitment activity, it was later convinced about the
various benefits it accured to synergy. Decline the advantages of an external recruitment
agency to organizations like synergy Technologies.

2. People consulting could not provide candidate with the right competencies for managerial
positions at synergy. Discuss the probable factors for the failure of people consulting in
this case. Also suggest a better source of recruiting candidates for managerial cardes.

Solution:
Ans. 1: The benefits of External recruitment agencies to the organisation Specialized in
recruitment business:- the external recruitment agencies are specialized in recruitment and
selection. They often specialize in recruitment for specific sectors (e.g., finance, travel,
secretarial, BPO). They usually provide a shortlist of candidates based on the people
registered with the agency. They also supply temporary or interim employees.
Specialist skill:- The main advantages with using an agency are the specialist skills they
bring and the speed with which they normally provide candidates. They also reduce the
administrative burden of recruitment.
Reduce time to hire:- The external recruitment agency reduces time to hire the desired
manpower for an organization. It also save the valuable time of the organization.

Cost saving: - The external recruitment agency reduces the cost of hiring the manpower. It
saves the cost of recruitment. It also reduces management and overhead cost of an
organization.
Better quality services:- They provide highly efficient, effective and quality service
throughout the recruitment process.
Focus on core activities:- the external recruitment agency focuses on the core activities.
They focus on activities suggested by the organization like Synergy Technologies which
gives the order for hiring manpower for the post of customer care executive to the People
Consulting Services Ltd.
Improve the quality of hire:- The external recruitment agency improves the quality of hire
because they are specialized in hiring the people for a particular field such as the people
Consulting Services Ltd that specialized in serving the BPO units.

Answer 2:
The probable factors can be
1. Other people consulting lacked experience in selecting candidates for managerial
position, because managerial position is high skilled position.

2. Each company expects a prospective manager to fit in the companys working

because each companys work and work culture are difficult.

Case Study 3:
HRM PROBLEMS IN NEW EMERGING INDIAN MOBILE GAMING
INDUSTRY
Industry Overview
The fast growing Indian mobile gaming market has become the most sought after destination
for global mobile game developers and distributors. Massive untapped mobile subscriber base
along with increasing penetration of mobile games have infused unmatchable growth in the
industry, which comfortably bucked post recessionary effects and brought revolutionary shifts in
mobile value added services dynamics. According to a study, the industry will sustain its
skyrocketing growth performance in coming years also with projected CAGR of 74.3% by 2013.
The opportunities for mobile gaming companies are enormous in India, which is bestowed with
large untapped consumer base and increasing affordability. Even today, of 100 mobile
subscribers, only 2 are the addressable mobile gamers. This, when compared with the figures of
Japan, the US, South Korea, and the UK shows a clear gap in mobile gamers penetration and
illustrate a vast growth opportunities for market players.
Company Overview:- Arts Electronic Inc. (AE)
Arts Electronic Inc. is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. AE
develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems,
personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Founded and incorporated on May 28,
1982, the company is a pioneer of the early games industry.
AE Mobile, a division of AE, is the largest independent mobile game developer and publisher in
the world. They have offices in Los Angeles, Montreal, London, Tokyo, Hyderabad, Honolulu,
Bucharest and So Paulo.

Studio Overview:- AE Hyderabad

AE Mobile has one of its studios in Hyderabad, India. AE Hyderabad has several departments
like Development Finance, Human Resource, Production, Quality Assurance, Engineering, Game
Studio, Pogo, CTG, Flight which support worldwide operations. AE Hyderabad has employee
strength of around 700 employees and Quality Assurance (QA) department having 400
employees forms the major chunk of the work force. QA is the systematic monitoring and
evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service or facility to maximize the probability that
minimum standards of quality are being attained by the production process. QA checks for the
quality of the mobile Applications/ Games and report related bugs for different mobile vendors
based on different operating systems.
Manual testing is the most preferred method of checking the quality of the Mobile games.
Manual testing is the process of manually testing Mobile games for defects. It requires a tester to
play the role of an end user, and use most of all features of the application to ensure correct
behavior. To ensure completeness of testing, the tester often follows a written test plan that leads
them through a set of important test cases. For this profile the preferred skill set required are
good spoken and written communication skills, Ability to work on different web based tools to
submit games to different channels and Ability towork on mobiles to check proper functionality
of the game. For such kind of profile, college freshers with good and average technical skills
were the most suitable candidates. AE Hyderabad became operational in December 2007 and
needed workforce which it was able to get in midst of Global recession.
The purpose of setting up studio in India was to outsource low technical jobs and reduce
operational cost. As the QA tester profile required least technical skills, experience and
responsibilities so the pay scale of a fresher tester was least in comparison to freshers joining
any other department which required more technical skills with in AE. In fact the pay scale was
even less in comparison to the compensation offered by major Indian IT companies like Infosys,
TCS, and Wipro etc. Initially AE was able to attract fresh college graduates due to global
recession, less availability of jobs and it was able to leverage on the job profile which was to
play games and test them.
Problem 1: Managing different Time Zone imbalances

After one year of operation AE Hyderabad became the major hub of Mobile QA testing within
AE and there was increase in the workforce of AE Hyderabad QA department where as QA
workforce in other worldwide studios was reduced. So now AE Hyderabad was assigned work
from across the globe, such as Asia Pacific, European, and North American. As these regions
operates at different time zone in comparison to India, so there was need to have proper
coordination with these studios irrespective of the time difference. Also more testers were
recruited for the future projects but there were space and infrastructure constraints. Also number
of computers was also less.
The general practice in industry is that workforce is divided in shifts and allocated different
working hours and geographical region. Working in shifts helps in proper distribution and
coordination of human resources and assets such as computers. Also, it helps in sharing of
technical assets and office space. Also the team working in a shift gets responsible for a region,
so this increases their accountability for the projects for the assigned region. But, the problem
with working in shifts is that employees are not keen to work in early morning or late night shifts
due to conveyance and change in life style problems.
Appraisal Process
AE has an annual appraisal process in which review of the employee performance of the last year
is done and proper feedback is given. According to the rating given by the supervisor and the
number of years of work experience, employees are given salary hike and promotion. For annual
appraisal process AE makes use of several internal AE IT tools such as AE game plan, Hades,
Time Sheet. As appraisal is an annual process supervisors make use of these tools extensively to
keep a track of an employee performance apart from their own personal observation. These tools
have a significant role in appraisal process as supervisor may tend to forget activities that have
been carried put in the past year. These tools and their functionality are mentioned below
AE game plan
It is the primary tool for the appraisal process. Initially in the beginning of the annual year,
employees are supposed to set their target and goals in AE game plan for the coming year and
their plan of action to achieve their goals. AE game plan has features were employee can update
their status of their goals such as Complete, Incomplete, and On track. AE game plan also
provides feature where employee can raise request for feedback from other supervisor of other
departments with whom employee has worked. Usually employee set their objectives in the
month of April and they have to make sure their goals are in sync with organization and teams
objective. Through AE game plan any employee can see any other employee goals and objectives
including CEOs. In the next year during end of February employee are asked to mention their
achievement and how they contributed to the organization and final status of their goals and
objectives. Once employee has written down achievements then they get locked and are
forwarded to supervisor for review. Keeping in mind the employees achievements, supervisor

observation and with the help of reports generated from other tools supervisor gives rating to
employee which are as follows

SAT- Significantly Above target

AT- Above Target
OT- On target
BT- Below target
SBT- Significantly below target

Then these ratings are forwarded to the manager and appraisal interview of employee happens
with Manager and supervisor. In this meeting the salary hike, promotion if any and rating given
to the employee are disclosed. If employee is not satisfied with any of the results then he/she has
the chance to put his/her point forward which is then discussed with in the meeting. If the
employee is able to justify that rating is not in sync with performance then revised rating and
salary hike is given to employee else no changes are done in the result of appraisal system. This
whole process takes around 2 months and the change in the salary happens in the month of June.
Also during the review period employee can always monitor its current appraisal process status
in AE game plan.
Hades: - This tool keeps a track of number and types of games an employee has worked on and
number bugs faced in a particular mobile handset. This tools contains the complete information
about the assigned work to an employee.
Time Sheet: - This tool is to be used by employee daily. Employees are supposed to enter their
summary of daily activities in this tool and the time allocated to each activity.
Problem 2: Improving Appraisal System
From the past two year the QA tester complained about the inappropriate rating given by the
supervisors. Majority of the QA tester complained that they deserved at least AT (Above Target)
rating or promotion instead of OT (On Target) rating which was given to majority of QA
employee. So from year 2009 AE QA department experienced very high attrition rate close to 4045%. In few cases employee left the organization just a few days before the salary appraisal was
about to happen. This was unusual as most employees always preferred to wait till salary
appraisal before moving to other organization. This will help them to negotiate for higher salary
in other organization. But in AE, QA testers didnt expect a significant salary hike and accepted
job offers from other organizations. This showed that QA testers didnt find appraisal process
reliable. There was requirement of immediate action to be taken to retain the QA tester
workforce.

During the exit interview of the QA tester who were leaving the organization, feedback process
was conducted through which HRs came to know that QA tester were unhappy with the appraisal
system as the ratings were not up to the expectations. So to check the attrition rate management
decided to dig into the issue. So the HRs conducted one to one sessions with the existing AE QA
testers and asked their feedback about the appraisal process. As the more QA testers were
interviewed management figured out some strange facts which are mentioned below

Most of the AE QA testers were unaware of the kind of performance expected by

organization at a specific rating
1. OT (On Target):- Means continuously meeting target and some time exceeding
expectations
2. AT (Above Target):- Means always exceeding expectations
3. SAT (Significantly above Target):- Means brought about some radical changes which
improved the functioning of the organization.

Most of the QA testers used to set their objectives in AE game plan without the guidance
of supervisor so their goals were never aligned to organization goals. Also testers after
setting their objectives in the beginning never used to update the status of their objectives
for rest of the period.

QA tester never asked for the feedback from their supervisor after completion of any
project. Nor they showed any interest in inquiring about what was expected from them to
achieve excellence.

QA tester never used to update their Time sheet so their supervisor was not able to keep a
track of their daily activities.

QA testers were not aware of the importance of Hades and Time Sheet in appraisal
process. They all were under the impression that AE game plan is only required for
appraisal process. So they never cared to update their completed games and mobile
handsets on these tools. As mentioned before AE has an annual appraisal process so

during the time of appraisal supervisors use to generate the reports form Hades and time
sheets and use to consider those reports while giving ratings.

There was no quarterly or semi annually feedback given by supervisors to QA testers

about their performance.

There was no proper training being given by the IT support department for AE game
plan.

QA testers were not aware of unique feature of AE game plan- Additional Feedback form
(AFP) Feedback from employees of other department.

QA testers were not aware that if the ratings or salary hike are not up to expectations then
they can always discuss the matter with the managers and if management is satisfied then
new rating and salary hike will be given in few days. QA testers use to accept the rating
and salary hike without raising their concerns

Case Study 4:
Human Resources Management challenges faced by a retail organization
About the Case Study
This case study is about the Human Resources Management challenges faced by a retail
organization and the appropriate HR Technology solution provided to meet out these challenges.
About the Organization in Case Study
The organization in the study is one of the largest retail stores chain across the globe. They have
around 100 retail stores in India in different locations and looking to expand further to more than
200 stores across India.

Organizational Structure

Organization has a centralized Human Resource Department located in Head Office. HR

decision and process are controlled centrally. However, many HR tasks, policies and procedures
are managed by retail Store Managers or regional offices.

Current HR management Process

The organization used excels sheets to exchange reports. Reports coming from various regional
offices and stores were compiled in Head Office by a team of HR Executives and HR managers.
Applicability of the Case Study:

This case study is equally applicable to organizations having retail chains in Consumer Goods,
Health Care, Multi Locational sales offices etc.
Challenges Faced by the Retail Industry
Their Sr. HR Manager during the pre-sales discussions revealed that there were many
administrative and HR issues with the retail store sites. Due to high focus on sales, the Retail
Store Managers has no focus on issues like attendance, discipline and critical HR practices. The
problem areas that were identified during the discussions were:
Challenge1. Irregularities in the attendance data of the staff at retail stores and other
regional offices. Sometimes many of the staff did not sign the attendance register or
signed at their wish and will. During HR audits it was found that some staff signed the
attendance register just at the end of the day. Some Customer Service Executives have
signed the attendance register but were not present at the duty.

Challenge2. There was no mechanism to track the leave data of employees. Employees
did not know their exact leave data. At the end of the year it was revealed that some
employees have taken excess leave while some employees worked incessantly, thus
causing frustration among the hard working lot.
Challenge3. Discrepancy in HR reports: HR provided a set of Excel Sheets and paperbased forms to Store Managers to maintain data. However, many Store Managers created
their unique formats of reports making it difficult to collate the reports using Excel
macros. The data thus collated had to be verified again and again, yet there were errors at
the end of the day.
Challenge4. Salary Discrepancies and Issues: HR and attendance data was used to
generate data for payroll. As there were discrepancies in HR data, these also found their
way in payroll data. This created many salary discrepancies and caused numerous salary
issues raised by the employees, thus lowering employee satisfaction rate and also
effecting the employee morale.

Challenge5. Mis-management of Employees Expense during Travel etc. There were lots
of travel and expense activities in the organization. The travel and expenses data that
reached the head quarters was based on individual's feedback and there was no
mechanism to verify the validity or requirements of the travel. There was no policy based
approval mechanism for travel and expenses. The decisions were taken at local levels and
the expenses were also disbursed locally. This was also negatively impacting the
company's budget. It was very difficult to analyze or validate a travel expense.
Challenge6. Training and Communication Issues: As company was growing at a fast
pace, training employees on various HR procedures and policies was becoming
increasingly difficult. Thus employees took the decisions based on their previous
experience or personal logic and created unnecessary hassle for HR to intervene and
resolve. A few good employees even departed from organization because of the paltry
issues. This was thus causing harm to organization's Employer Brand.
Impact of challenges: The above challenges directly or indirectly affected critical business
metrics like availability of staff at the stores, Customer Service, Professionalism, and financial
issues like unnecessary expenses, lowered sales and poor customer experience.
Analysis of the Problem:
After identifying the challenges, a stream of discussions were conducted by the Saigun's Team
Project Managers, Analysts, & HR Consultant and the Organization's HR Managers, HR
Executives and the Operations Managers.
These discussions churned out the following as the top 5 reasons of the problem:
1. Lack of consistent HR systems across the organization.
As operations managers come from different domains and industries they bring with them
different practices and feel comfortable in applying the same to their current organization.
2. Lack of consistent, recorded log, and communication mechanism:
There was no reliable feedback mechanism for HR to communicate policies, change in
processes and training for employees and managers. Thus there was much confusion

among employees about the HR issues. Also each one tried to interpret the HR policies in
their own favor.

3. Lack of Proper Tools with HR, Employees Managers and Leaders:

Neither employees nor manager had appropriate and easy to use tools to follow HR
practices and policies; they invested more time in creating improvements rather than
using existing practices. Thus they were reluctant in partnering with HR and considered
HR as an hindrance to their routine jobs.
4. Delayed reports to make Business decisions:
The HR reports were often delayed or completely avoided while making business critical
decisions.
5. Lack of Accountability:
As there were no Job Descriptions, SMART Goals, mechanism or work-flows for
managing human resources or for approvals, managers and employees did not feel
accountable to HR. During meetings they tried to stress their own decision making as an
important factor and provided excuses for declining performance like competitive market
and economy etc.

The leadership and top management considered above problems highly critical for business and
immediately advised HR and senior management to look for possible solutions.
Solution Offered:
On the basis of previous discussions, Saigun team suggested the organization to implement
'EmpXtrack Professional Edition'. Professional Edition is a state-of-the-art solution for managing
Human Resources. It automates all significant functions of the HR Department. With
Professional Edition organizations can manage employee data, extend HR services to employees
and managers, and evaluate performance of employees using a web based appraisal system.

As organization was completely paper based, migrating instantly to an on line system could
cause anxiety among employees and also create change-management issues. So Saigun and the
Organization decided to implement the HR technology solution in two phases.
First Phase: In first phase, Organization opted for on-line Employee Database and Employee
Self Service. This helped them to painlessly switch from current traditional practices to a
paperless global HR system. On-line Employee Database helped organization's HR Department
to slowly absorb the benefits and challenges of on-line management. While Employee Self
Service with functions like on-line leave approvals, travel and expense management, personal
data update slowly transformed the HR practices.
Benefits of First Phase:
1. Painless Change Management: The simplicity of the solutions did not cause much
training issues and also eliminated any anxiety or confusion among employees. The
simplicity of the Starter Edition's functions smoothened the change process and could be
absorbed in the organization with minimum resistance from employees. Within 3 months
the usage of EmpXtrack system reached up to 90 %.
2. Accuracy of Employee Data: With Self Service mechanism, employees helped HR to
change the data accurately and effectively. After three months of implementation, 99% of
the data was accurate. After three months there were almost no personal data
inaccuracies. All personal data updates became incidental like employee status changing
from unmarried to married etc.
3. New Employees inducted in the system effortlessly: All new employees joining the
organization were instantly added to Employee database and they used self service to
provide further data. Thus organization could always have accurate & fully updated
employee data with them.
4. Accuracy of Payroll data and accuracy in Employee salaries: Correct leave data was
available for payroll department, thus salaries were transferred accurately.

5. Decrease in Travel Expenses: Most travel expenses were approved through a predefined process. This resulted in higher accountability for expenses incurred during travel
and other related activities. All insignificant travel and expenses were disapproved by
management thereby improving the financial health of the organization.
6. Increase in Employee Availability at Stores: Due to increased accountability of
managers in implementing HR Policies and procedures and improvement in Employee
morale, there was a significant improvement in employee availability and hence
productivity.
7. Better MIS reports: Instant reports were available to HR and company Leadership to
help in making critical business decisions. Indeed while their competitors were laying off
employees, this organization which did smart hiring in the past had no need to layoff
employees; instead they hired the talent from competitors.
Second Phase: The second phase is still under process. The second phase will focus on
Performance Management to measure & improve employee performance and meet
organizational Goals. Goal Setting Process will be initiated for all employees for a specific
period. At the end of the duration, Appraisals based on the Goal Sheets will be initiated for all
employees.
The impact of HR Technology Solution on the Organization
The HR Technology Solution helped the organization to implement their HR policies and
procedures effectively. Appropriate and accurate data became available to the management to
make objective decisions. Employees felt satisfied with the HR services and did not consider
them as a hindrance to their jobs.
Employee Strength of Organization:
1000+ Employees across 150 Locations
HR Technology Solution Used:
EmpXtrack Professional Edition