Greetings,

This is an attempt to understand the HR Practices in the Construction

Industry, as discussed in this community. We invite the experts from
the industry to correct us on what requires to be added or upgraded.
Any contribution towards the points missed below would be valued:
HR Practices in Construction Industry PPT - Download
This presentation discuss the following challenges
Challenge #1 Matching skilled labour supply and demand
Challenge #2 Creating a responsive apprenticeship system
Challenge #3 Establishing an innovative training system
Challenge #4 Facilitating worker mobility

HR Strategy for a Construction Company as contributed by

Saby: Post
Normally in a construction co., goal is first set by the management. It
depends on the type of construction the company is in viz. Power
Plant Construction, Residential, Commercial, Projects from other
organizations, Townships, Fuel line construction, chemical plant
construction, docks construction, etc.
After the goal is set, this is then informed by the management to the
respective departments. Strategy is then formulated after discussions
and/or debates between various department heads including the
share holders of the company.
After the strategy is adopted, a guideline is prepared to implement the

strategy. Normally the strategy is distributed to the respective

departments, viz. planning, contracts, purchase, sales, marketing, etc.
It is true that without manpower, the construction of any product does
not come into effect. And therefore to handle the various concerns
related to the manpower (viz. recruitment, safety, health, behaviour,
work, etc. ), an HR and personnel department is established.
Since you are talking about goals, strategies, etc. be more sure what
you wanted since these things might have been developed by the
organization you are working for.
To set up policies related to code of conduct of the employees,
medical assistance, housing and food assistance, leave travel
assistance, leave calculation, overtime calculation, minimum wage,
increment, super annuation, security assistance, accident assistance,
gratuity, insurance, etc. you will have to comply with the GCC
employment rules and regulations. Similarly for HRD, statutory
requirements for recruitment, interview procedures, working hours,
etc. you will have to gather the details from the respective
departments the candidate will be selected for. Your role will be short
listing the candidates for interview, co-ordinate the interview between
the candidate and the head of the respective department, preparation
of contract agreement (which will differ from positions to positions
and nationality of the candidate), air-ticket arrangement, visa
arrangement, medical check-up of the candidate for residence
permit/work permit, accommodation arrangement, food arrangement,
transportation from site to accommodation arrangement, and a whole
load of other arrangements as and when required for the upkeep of
the employee.

Few areas for HR Operations and Practices as discussed by Dr.

Shanmugan: Post
HR in service and construction industry is really tough enough. it is
only through major results HR initiatives are being recognized. If you
want yourself to be recognized, slowly start with HR activities.
1. HR Manual
2. HR Policy
3. initatives like 5S, performance management system, competency
assessment, team bulding, etc.
HR Issues as voiced by rashmishingh: Post
This industry is still in early 20th century mentality where
employers think that they are doing some favor to employees by
giving them employment and employees think that they have
nothing to do with overall picture of company's development.
Even if you try to implement something new (new means new for
this industry or company), neither management nor employees
are interested. They have their general comment..if everything is
going fine, whats the use of these fundas...
I am equally disappointed by the management view as well as
employees.
This industry needs overhauling process in not only organizational
structure but in mind set too.

Leave Policy as discussed by Kumaran Siva : Post

For Office Staff

 All Weekly Of
7 CL
1 EL/20 w.d.
10 Holidays

For Site Staff

2 Weekly of in a month
45 Days EL which include CL, balance Weekly of etc.
5 Holidays (balance 5 days will be added in leave)

All leaves are encashable.

Organisation structure and designations as shared by Udhav :Post
There are different positions which varies from company to company.
In a sizable co. with +5000 employees hierarchy could start at lowest
position of
Asst. Engineer {Traineee} and further upgraded to...
Asst. Engineer (Projects or Planning or Contracts or Billing)
Jr. Engineer (Projects or Planning or Contracts or Billing)
Engineer (Projects or Planning or Contracts or Billing)
Sr. Engineer (Projects or Planning or Contracts or Billing)
Asst. Manager (Projects or Planning or Contracts or Billing)

 Dy. Manager (Projects or Planning or Contracts or Billing)

Manager (Projects or Planning or Contracts or Billing)
Sr. Manager (Projects or Planning or Contracts or Billing)
Asst. Gen. Manager (Projects or Planning or Contracts or Billing)
Sr. AGM (Projects or Planning or Contracts or Billing)
Dy. General Manager (Projects or Planning or Contracts or Billing)
Jt. General Manager (Projects or Planning or Contracts or Billing)
General Manager (Projects or Planning or Contracts or Billing)
Vice President (Projects or Planning or Contracts or Billing)
Sr. Vice President (Projects, Planning or Contracts or Billing)
Director (Projects/Technical)

However, last five positions could be for overall management and are
highest levels at many organisations where people with +20yrs
experience are offered such designations.

Further description of the challenges and cost control

measures
It is true that all companies, be it in the construction sector,
manufacturing sector, power sector, etc., normally tend to curtail
or root out the unwanted and unnecessary costs so as to achieve
a product at a very reasonable rate. This is largely due to
increased competition in the same sector. And they start with
purchase department, contracts department, execution
department etc. and finally the HR department. It is easy to shed
off some employees who might not be required in the
organization or who is unskilled and non-productive. Though it is
tricky to retrench (it may affect the morale of some other good
workers), it is not so difficult. You have to be convincing and very
cautious while dealing with this subject.
When a project is in progress, each employee is bound to show
his or her potential to his superior, which information is passed on
to the department head and ultimately to the personnel
department. This is done through appraisal report of the
employee. Normally, based on this appraisal report and other
parameters rewards or punishment is meted out to the
employees.
To get in cost control of manpower, first of all the respective
departments have to list out their requirements to admin.
department. List will and should consist of the candidates desired
qualification, technical skills, age, years of experience, flexibility,
role to be performed, responsibility, alertness rating, etc. etc.
Based on this, the admin. dept. have to check with the current
market to know about the remuneration paid to such candidates.
On receiving the approximate amount, they have to forward the
proposals to the Director/s of the company for approval. Once
approval is granted, the recruitment procedure lies in the hands
of the admin dept. While recruiting, if all the required parameters

are met in a candidate, the admin has to come to his

remuneration part. Though you know the market rate and the
approval is accorded by the management, it is your duty to
bargain with the candidate and offer him the best least of the
remuneration. Normally a candidate has got his own expectations
but more often it is below the market std. rate. This is one way of
reducing the manpower cost.
The other way is to divert good qualified and experienced
personnel from one project to another project (of course in coordination with the planning department) so as to reduce the
project cost, if it is in finishing stage and the other is at starting
or middle stage.
One more way to control cost is two assign a personnel to two or
three different projects. This way extra manpower is not required,
unless compulsorily required, and money saved.
If you find a person working with you for a long period of time,
naturally his payment and other benefit (gratuity, promotion,
bonus, etc.) also increases. In such case, delegate his
responsibility to his junior staffs with a minor raise and either
promote this guy with more responsibilities or retire him. This is
one way of effecting cost control.
If you find a person who is well qualified and talented and
appointed in a job below his category, promote him with 100
bucks. The guy will be highly grateful not because of the meager
amount you have provided but due to his qualification and talent
being observed and promoted by you. This is a very effective way
of cost control.
If you find a person ineligible to work in his assigned task, try to
train and use his services, otherwise put him in another
department and check his performance. If he is still not able to

deliver, give him his ticket.

And if a company is expecting a project maybe after 6 months,
and the present manpower is a burden on the costs but do not
want to terminate them because they are talented and difficult to
replace, then the best way is to send the employees on a long
leave. The employees will surely not mind this.

I would like to add one more point regarding cost control is to

look into the non-productive workforce like cleaning, stacking of
material and housekeeping team in construction site. Instead we
can give the instruction to the concerned skilled workforce to
clean on daily basis in a stipulated time before closing hours, i.e.,
30 minutes after completion of task (with that we can avoid
scattered materials lying here and there due to which accidents
may take place) and idle manpower due to non availability of
continuous work front to the skilled manpower.
Continuous supply of materials also helping us to do cost control
by which, we can avoid stoppage of work due to want of materials
with the effective supervision of Stores, Planning and Execution
team.

Great compilation. It gives a lot of insight on the various issues.

The list is a pretty big one and somewhere I felt that we are
entering more into the Personnel or the Administrative
requirements rather than core HR requirements.
I feel two fundamental issues have been missed out:
1. Organizational design
2. Organizational efficacy
If we don't track these effectively, the other activities mentioned

will just collapse (They actually support the Design and Efficacy
strategy)
In our program on Project Management, we explained and
demonstrated these factors. We have a new simulation model
that can assist companies address these basic issues. And if you
recall, we had also discussed some of these topics last time.
The other issue is that of flexibility in the practices. It is often
seen that the Business-Cost-of-Strong-HR-Policies might be far
too high for most companies to bear. Hence, if the HR
professional is forcing the roll-out of a system that works on the
'policing principle' as indicated in the 'suggested rules for leaves,
salaries, overtime, etc.', it would fail to touch the required
potential. This also distances the HR from the internal
stakeholders (project managers, etc.). While rules are important,
cost and the productivity of the system need to be carefully
considered.
I would rather focus on principles. Interestingly, none of the posts
tried to incorporate the Critical Chain Project Management
practice... I think it is VERY VERY important to understand this
methodology because you will see explicit contradictions coming
out...