HR Manager

Assignment Taken

Develop a Hiring & Incentive strategy for Human Resources working on international expansion to enable a speedy growth

Case Understanding

Ramalingam foods is a fast-food restaurant, its USP is in authentic south Indian cuisine. To stay afloat during the 1975 political turmoil, Mr. Ramalingam introduced dosa-idli batter and packets of authentic south Indian chutneys. Further in 1990, Mr. Vijay Ramalingam grew the business in pan India by selling variety of instant mix products like Instant dosa Mix, Instant-Idli Mix, Instant Gulab Jamun Mix, Instant Laddu Mix, instant coffee powder Instant Dhokla mix and other products of this kind. They observed that their products are being shipped to foreign markets by Indian origin visitors settled in those countries. This gave them an idea to leverage the opportunity of international expansion of their brand. In this sense every function of business is somewhere interrelated and no function is isolated. Here’s an HR perspective of the problems involved in the case. 1. It is observed that other retailers are selling our product in the international markets which is ultimately opening gateway of potential opportunities. Mr. Vijay do not have experience in international business and need proper channel for his first steps in the international market. This can be seen as HR problem because here we need a well-structured recruitment plan to facilitate our distribution channel and the services in the international market. We need is to hire potential candidates having good experience in logistics, supply chain and skilled workers to cater our product to the international market. Also, owner do not have any information regarding permissions and the licenses required to establish our business internationally. In HR’s perspective we can certainly look out for such issues and help them with quality human resource at the location for the smoothness for the channel. As the company holds roots in India and have matured business setup, based on the employee performance reward and incentive system has to be implemented which will significantly bring much more enthusiasm from the staff and the engages them significantly 2. No clarity of thought where to expand and information to get license in the country for expansion 3. No human resource to place internationally so that Mr. Vijay can expand his business smoothly 4. Shortage of managers to guide through the process and of employees having experience in hospitality industry 5. No arrangement of training sessions for the employees so that they can understand about the work correctly and can give best of their services on international expansion 6. Need an employee handling company compliance and legal aspects 7. Need of implementing employee data on HRIS, Performance management system and Employee self-service to bring structured approach within company and trust among the employees

BCS Solution Summary

It was very correctly said by Michael Pollan, “Perhaps more than any other, the food industry is very sensitive to consumer demand”. In an industry which is delivery heavy, we hire employees who are extremely committed, who show integrity and excellence in their work. Once the candidate is on board with us, he/she will be provided with holistic orientation program about the organization culture and policy. A full-fledged internal training program will be conducted for the employees after they join and for every 6 months training will be conducted. As a part of Employee welfare, Accident cover, medical cover, role specific programmes related to food distribution and safety, fitness programs, etc. are conducted. We give away caps, t-shirts to our employee as a part of employee relationship. During expansion, 11 males/female employees will be hired to serve our established business here in India and to get team of 5 employees trained which will act as the international team & will be taking care of our distribution network at UAE (by waterways). This hub will allow us to cater our services at other countries like Malaysia followed by export to Singapore (by road) and Indonesia (by waterways) from there and UK (by waterways). A vendor management team, operations team and customer service will also we hired. Keeping in mind all the cost incurred by the company, in the long run our company will make profits. As of now, we are trying to aim at gaining international expansion and customer satisfaction at aimed location.

Solution

To expand our business in the UAE international market we need to focus on below aspects:

We choose UAE to expand as the people in this country consumes variety of cuisines and have largest migrated Indian population 2.8 million worldwide. and among them one in every four is a Keralite (1 million). 4.5 lakh are from Tamil Nadu.
 The country is rich in tourism and sale of our product will not be a concern for us one we hit the market with a correct strategy. Hiring potential staff and partnering with the delivery partners to cater the segment of people waiting for our product will make sure our success.  Let us discuss in details what all aspects we need to focus on in a HR’s perspective.

Quality Assurance department will play a crucial role in daily needs delivery of our products to the international market. “Quality is never an accident but always the result of High Intention, Sincere Efforts, Intelligent Direction and Skilful Execution” by Willa Foster.
A Quality Assurance team will be set up for ensuring quality of products from our team at India to storage location based at UAE to retailers out there, catering to our new set of customers with first quality products. Taking a record of shelf life of all our products and the quality of packaging. Total Quality Management (TQM) plays a very vital role. TQM itself covers three major aspects viz. Total Quality Control (TQC), Total Employee Involvement (TEI) and Total Waste Elimination (TWE). The word itself justifies about an assurance of quality of our products from consumer’s perspective. At the same time there are stringent laws being introduced for human safety, quality assurance. Thus, Quality Assurance is a key to the success of products for sustainable business & growth for longer time to come.

Products being tampered during delivery – Proper handling of the products during delivery must be done. During the initial period of the business performance appraisal must be done on high frequency and on regular basis, Ramalingam foods as the company that delivers the products shall provide methods of handling product that prevent damage or deterioration.
This takes care of two problems simultaneously: -
1.    Possibility of low-quality product reaching to our potential customers
2.    Developing a proper channel to look for authenticity of our product and making sure for a sustainable future.

Employee Welfare:

1. Implementing Human Resource Information System, Performance Management System and Employee Self Service 
2. Accident cover and medical insurance cover will be provided to all our employee working in India as well as hired for the international expansion and making license / travel arrangements for them.
3. We work towards awareness and training of our delivery and logistics partners
4. We also provide role specific awareness programs for our teams working in wide areas handled by an experience professional
5. We offer minimum payment structure irrespective of the daily delivery performance and medical insurance

Employee Benefits:

1. Recognition – Employee of the month will be recognised and awarded
68% of employees work harder if they felt that their efforts were appreciated. 51% of the employees that being thanked by the managers not only enhances the relationship with the managers but also build trust with their higher-ups. 93% of employees hope to be recognised at least quarterly, if not more
Reference – Business2community.com
2. Physical rewards – Company named T-shirts, Caps, Hoodies, Pens, Calendars
These non-monetary rewards give the employee something tangible that they can use over a period of time
Conclusion - Money isn’t everything employee just look for motivation and support from there leaders. In fact, for long-term retention and engagement, non-monetary employee incentives can often work just as well

Employee training and development plan:

1. Initially 4 employees designated to a manager will undergo a 10 days training programme with the supply chain, updated technology and other requirements for the work
Employees will be trained on client engagement and relationships
2. The entire routine of their work will be made into a video format pertaining to their role and shared with them and also given field training regarding the same. Any further doubts and clarifications will be addressed during the orientation program
4. The IT manager will be provided with training on the technological advancements happening currently on expansion to international markets
This solves two problems simultaneously: -
1.    This will ensure that the information tracking system is intact and problems regarding the same can be zeroed down
2.    This will also ensure that the right products are being delivered to the respective customers
 
Policy of work:

We believe strong mental health plays a significant role in productivity and the overall quality of work-life, across all levels of organization.
 
  1. Greeting with “Happy working”, “Good day”, when you meet any co-worker maintains a positive relationship among the employees
2. Sending Festival, Birthday, Anniversary greetings to all the employees
If employees do not show up to work, then over the allowable period of holidays taken he/she will be subject to penalty
This can ensure that delivery peoples’ attendance improves drastically

Employee Hiring:

Current size – 30 employee + 4 managers
During expansion in the fore coming years – 

Management: 1 General Manager (Male/Female) + 2 Assistant Managers (Male/Female) with full-time MBA, having atleast 2 years of experience in hospitality industry

Operations: 4 Employees (Male/Female) with atleast graduation & having atleast 2-3 years of working experience in supply chain / quality assurance
Customer Service: 4 employees (Male/Female) with atleast graduation & having atleast 1-2 years of working experience in customer service catering to hospitality industry.
Note:
Candidates having UAE work visa would be preferred.
Candidate must be willing to relocate as per business requirements when required.
Giving women equal chance to participate achieves gender equality and empower women and girls. Pertaining to that, Ramalingam aims at providing employment to women.

Expansion plan: -

A team for operations team of 4 members, customer service team of 4 members, and international team of 6 members will be hired and the production will be totally centralised from India. We will be delivering our products available in 13 different varieties of packets to UAE with the help of our operations team and the delivery partners. One international team will be hired and will be working for UAE taking of product safety and storage of the products arrived. The team will also make sure of distribution of the product at distinguished UAE markets and stores where we can get maximum customer reach. Also, we will sell our products using e-commerce platforms at UAE such as tradeline. One our product will define its place at UAE market we can certainly step forward to other locations like Singapore and UK having high Indian populations and the segment of people like south Indian food.

Conclusion

Coming to the final conclusion, we as a team identified the gaps currently in Ramalingam Foods and come up with effective solutions to it. As per HR Department, Ramalingam Foods is a firm every employee would to love to work with. With this kind of compassion towards each of our employee, we are sure to succeed in the near future. If Ramalingam Foods follows the practices and policy stated in the solution, it can successfully expand and it will be a Unicorn in its own field one day. The service is provided to the customers simultaneously with the eligible remuneration to the employee.

Attached File Details

View Attachment file (Ramalingam Foods_HR Department_NMO.docx)

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKRPioxOhbQ