Background of Grameen Phone:

Grameenphone started its journey with the Village Phone program: a pioneering initiative to

empower rural women of Bangladesh. The name Grameenphone translates to “Rural phone”.

Grameenphone (Bengali: গ �্র্�ম্�ণফো্�ন), widely known as GP, is the leading

telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh. With more than 27 million subscribers (as

of October 2010), Grameenphone is the largest cellular operator in the country. It is a joint

venture enterprise between Telenor and Grameen Telecom Corporation, a non-profit sister

concern of the internationally acclaimed microfinance organization and community development

bank Grameen Bank. Telenor, the largest telecommunications company in Norway, owns 55.8%

shares of Grameenphone, Grameen Telecom owns 34.2% and the remaining 10% is publicly

held.

Grameenphone was the first company to introduce GSM technology in Bangladesh. It also

established the first 24-hour Call Center to support its subscribers. With the slogan Stay Close,

stated goal of Grameenphone is to provide affordable telephony to the entire population of

Bangladesh. Grameenphone received a license for cellular phone operation in Bangladesh from

the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on November 28, 1996. Grameenphone started

operations on March 26, 1997, the Independence Day in Bangladesh

Human Resources Audit system of Grameen Phone:

Recruitment:

Recruitment refers to the process of attracting, screening, and selecting qualified people for a

job. For some components of the recruitment process, mid- and large-size organizations often

retain professional recruiters or outsource some of the process to recruitment agencies.

The recruitment industry has four main types of agencies: employment agencies, recruitment

websites and job search engines, "headhunters" for executive and professional recruitment, and

niche agencies which specialize in a particular area of staffing. Some organizations use employer

branding strategy and in-house recruitment instead of agencies. Recruitment-related functions

are generally carried out by an organization's human resources staff.

The stages in recruitment include sourcing candidates by advertising or other methods, screening

potential candidates using tests and/or interviews, selecting candidates based the the results of

the tests and/or interviews, and on-boarding to ensure the candidate is able to fulfill their new

role effectively

Grameen phone:

Grameen phone has a dedicated recruitment team which conducts the whole recruitment process.

They depend on both internal and external sources for talent acquisition.

Requirement for any job depends on the specifications of that particular role. However, for the

entry positions of regular type employment in the company, usually the minimum requirement is

a graduation degree.

There is a comprehensive recruitment procedure that Grameenphone follows. There are multiple

tools are being to assess for a position which is dependent on the type of role, level of the

position and complexity of the task. The tools comprise of written test, role play, case analysis,

group exercise, interview session etc.

Selection

With a pool of applicant’s after the recruitment the next step is to select the best candidates for

the job. Selecting the right employees is very much important as employees with the right skill

and attributes will do a better job for the owner and the company. Effective selection is therefore

important and depends to a large degree to some basic testing.

In case of Grameen Phone some steps are maintained for the selection process. The general steps

that they follow to select employees are as follows:

1. Vacancy requirement is raised.

2. Job description, Organization Structure and Job Grade analysis are made.

3. Vacancy announcement and selection process is carried out.

4. Salary negotiation and final agreement are made.

5. Selected employees are taken to the board.

So this is the process of their employee selection. Regarding this process they have to maintain

some documents about the selected employees. So in response to the question of such

documentation they said that “as a compliant company we are aligned with the policy available

in labor law of Bangladesh. Hence our documentation is kept in line with the policy.’’

Compensation:

Employee compensation refers to all forms of pay or rewards going to employees and arising

from their employment.

Compensation has two main components:

• Direct financial payments

• Indirect financial payments

Direct financial payments:

Direct financial payments pay in the form of wages, salaries, incentives, commissions and

bonuses.

Indirect financial payments:

Indirect financial payments pay in the form of financial benefits such as insurance, vacations.

Employees of Grameenphone get better basic payment than the other telecommunication

company of our country. Grameenphone gives medical and transportation facilities to their

employees. Employees get more commission and bonuses in Grameenphone than the other

telecommunication company. Employees enjoy government holidays and vacations during their

employment. Grameenphone maintain some insurance policies for the betterment of their

employees but they don't want to publish these policies publicly.

Training and Development:

The term training and development refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competence

as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific

useful competences.

Training is a planned, organized, and controlled activity designed to improve some aspects or

present job performance

Grameen Phone also provides training to improve capacity, knowledge and practical skills of

employees. They provide following trainings-

Functional

Managerial

Behavioral

Grameen Phone provide different training this depends on the type of training. Following are the

ways we provide the training according to rational need;

Experts of Grameen Phone

Experts from universities

Local training firms

Experts from HR

Leadership Academy

Foreign training firms

Mentoring and coaching

On the job training

Other modes etc.

They use following methods of training:

Grameenphone follows the 3E (Education, Experience & Exposure) Approach.

The talent management caters to employee who have the Ability, demonstrates

aspiration, and show Engagement in their work and the organization.

There is Leadership Academy, Talent Management process and Leadership Pipeline apart

from functional and management training that enables growth and development.

Training is need based and hence each is unique in accordance to targeted employee and need.

Duration of training depends on requirements, design, elements and nature of the Training.

Motivation:

Motivation is a general term applying to the entire class of drives, desires, needs, wishes and

similar forces. Motivation is the state of an individual’s perspective which represents the strength

of his or her propensity to exert effort toward some particular behavior.

Grameen Phone:

There are various programs and activities that are being organized to attain employee motivation.

Grameenphone provides both financial and non-financial means of motivation as well as other

motivation programs are followed here. Some of the most highlighted programs are mentioned

below:

Boithok:

A monthly program named “Boithok” is arranged where randomly selected employee meet the

CEO and the CEO rewards employee of the month.

Long-Service Recognition:

Employees completing 5 or 10 years employment with Grameenphone Ltd. are recognized and

rewarded through a gala ceremony.

Recreational program and Sports events:

Annual picnic, Celebration of Pohela Baishakh, Movie shows, Family Day, Badminton-Cricket-

Table Tennis etc tournaments are held for employees.

Internal Value Creation:

There is also survey conducted to check employee satisfaction, engagement and motivation.

Actions are taken for individual team and leaders according to the result derived from the survey.

Team effort:

Individual team effort and organizational innovative initiatives are constantly being taken to

ensure work-life balance, health, safety, security of employees and other relevant aspects.

Performance Evaluation:

Performance evaluation is formal determination of an individual's job-related actions and their

outcomes within a particular position or setting. In financial trading, its objective is to assess the

extent to which the individual added wealth to the firm and/or its clients, and whether his or her

achievement was above or below the market or industry norms. It’s also called performance

measurement.

The major aims of Performance Evaluation are to:

Collect and disseminate information relative to performance aspects

Promote interdisciplinary flow of technical information among researchers and

professionals

Serve as a publication medium for various special interest groups in the performance

community at large.

Grameenphone:

Mode of working:

Mode of working of employees in Grameenphone is conducted within set time and deadlines.GP

is less group work oriented most of the time. They are less flexible and feasible. A certain pace is

maintained to reach the targets. It doesn’t vary person to person.

Team working skill:

The team working skill and performance of the employees depends on type of work and need

and nature of employees. Both individual and group work is seen.

Performance evaluation:

Grameenphone does the performance evaluation of their employees in a regular basis. As it

seemed to be a confidential fact to them, they did not provide us with detailed information

about the process.

Insurance Coverage:

GP has been giving insurance coverage under ALICO Silver plan to its employees. It is

implemented for confirmed employees, their spouses and their children. To come under health

insurance umbrella, children have to meet two criteria- below 23 years old and unmarried. The

benefits include the followings:

General medical illness claim

- Medical

- Surgery

Maternity claim

Children claim

Promotion

Promotions traditionally refer to advancements to positions of increased responsibility. Most

working people look forward to promotions which usually mean more pay, responsibility and job

satisfaction. For employers promotions can provide opportunities to reward exception

performance and to fill open positions with tested and loyal employees.

On the other hand Grameen Phone makes their promotion decision based on their employee’s

performance, job scope enhancement, talent management, succession planning etc. This

promotion process is not always a positive experience for either employee or employer.

Unfairness, arbitrariness or secrecy can diminish the effectiveness of the process. So, decision

should be taken effectively regarding promotions.

Benefits

The term benefits are indispensable part in today’s competitive Human Resource Management.

Most companies offer today a wide variety of benefits, especially larger companies. Among

these benefits some of the benefits are compulsory. There are many major categories of benefit

plans like mandatory security, voluntary security, and financial service, social & recreational

service. Some forms of benefits and services which are common in Bangladesh are health

benefit, gratuity, pension, housing facilities, loan allowance, telephone allowance, car service

etc.

On the other hand Grameen Phone said that they have clear policy manual which is easily

accessible by all employees. They also have regular awareness session, induction programmer

for communicating the employees on these aspects.

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