HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

GROUP ASSIGNMENT (INTERMEDIATE REPORT 3)

Bin Mohamad Abdullah Husaini

Chiara Marsaiolli
Fenet Arthur
Masquelier Pierre
Mouely Maelle
Compensation, Employee Relations and Retention

1. Analyse the company’s current compensation strategy, policy and practices. (ex. pay
structure, pay grades, incentives, etc). What are the key factors that influence the
company’s compensation decisions?

In our case, Concentrix has a general pay scale as below

(Concentrix’s pay scale)

(General Pay Strucutre)

 ( Concentrix Pay Structure)

On the topic of incentives, there’s personal, group and organisational incentives. Personal
incentives concern individuals, for example a remote work program is a personal incentive
because it allows people to manage their timetable better. Concerning group incentive, it can be a
reward such as “better department of the year” or bonuses for the whole team. And finally
organisational incentives are for all employees, like a company committee or health care
program.

Based on the data above, it can be said that the general compensation policy for the
company at least for the remuneration part is a pay at the rate of the market. After cross checking
with a website called payscale.com, the post above all correlates to the average salary of each job
respectively. From an analysis stand point, this might be because the company is in a rather not
highly competitive market where the company would pay the employees on a rate that is above
the market.

In the interview with the employee of Concentrix, few factors were highlighted to be the
main determining point that the organisation values and chose to pay accordingly. Firstly, it is the
experience rather than education. She stated that experienced workers are far more appreciated in
the company rather than one with a high education level. This is because the company deals with
a lot of clients either online or face to face. Such interaction needs training and it takes time for
one to be able to perfect such skill plus that the experience dealing with human beings is
something that graduates could not really have without having to work first.

Next, it the factor of complexity where based on how complex the job is the higher the
remuneration for it is going to be. The complexity can be determined on how long it is on
average to take to finish one single project. This means that a harder job would be paid more
than a mundane and easy job. An employee on the customer service desk will deal with
customers and to many extent it does not require high skill knowledge and experience while jobs
like senior engineer that deals with the company software would be considered to be a more
complex task.

Lastly, it is the responsibility that entails the job itself. The higher the responsibility that
a post holds the higher remuneration that they will get even if it is a low complexity task.
Responsibility is a risk that not everyone can handle and by rewarding a higher amount for such
people that are willing to take on the responsibility is indeed justifiable. An operation manager
though is not that more complex compared to being a team leader, it deserves to have a higher
wage because if an operation manager fails to do his task, it could affect the company financially
more than if a team leader failed their task.
2. What benefits does the company currently provide its employees? What other benefits
would you suggest they apply and why?

The table below are the benefits that Concentrix offers to their employees. These are all extracted
from its official website.

Benefits Categories Precision Benefits

Child care & Parental leave - Family Medical Leave

- Flexible Work Schedule

Culture - Remote Work Program

Health Insurance & Wellness - Dental

- Disability insurance
- Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
- Health Insurance
- Life Insurance
- Vision Benefits
- Mental Health

Perks & Discount - Commuter

- Company outings
- Fitness subsidies
- Pet Friendly
- Stocked Kitchen

Professional Development - Diversity Program

- Job Training & Conferences
- Tuition Reimbursement

Retirement and Stock Option - Employee Stock Purchase Plan

- Performance Bonus

Vacation & Time Off - Paid Volunteer Time

- Paid Holidays
- Paid Sick Days
 The above highlighted points are ons that are rather interesting or novel. Firstly, the
Remote Work Program is a program responding to the latest pandemic that took place recently.
The company managed to comply and follow the HR trend and demand of workers having to
work at home in order to reduce the impact of the pandemic. Interestingly, they plan to continue
this program as it has shown positive feedback by the employee and the fact that such a program
could be an immediate solution to unexpected issues in the future. Next, the Vision Benefits are
quite smart in their part because the management knows that the employees in their company
spend lots and lots of time in front of a computer screen and it has become a norm plus expected
that such employees will have strained eyes after working for a whole day. They manage to
include such benefits so that they could financially help workers that have their health, especially
vision, affected by their work.
Furthermore, the Tuition Remboursement is also some sort of aid to financially ease
the workers. As stated in the previous report, IR2, the company has some programs, workshops
and seminars that require them to pay. Such events are very important for employees to climb the
corporate ladder and seek higher remuneration. Therefore, an incentive to reimburse the tuition
fees and money spent if they were able to improve their skill and upgrade their level, it is
possible to encourage them to attend such a self development program. Lastly to highlight, is the
paid volunteer time for the employees. This effort could create a shared value where a social
service and encouragement for workers to give back to the society will increase. Usual
volunteerism does not have such perks of being paid. This is equal to work with no pay which is
the main reason such people do not want to volunteer.

Proposed benefits:

On top of all the existing benefits, the company could implement additional benefits that
could help the employees to be happier and would like to stay longer in the company. The
proposed benefits is Foreign Training Program. This benefit could be an option for an
employee to go to another country that the company has their branch in and do some sort of an
exchange program. The practices in another country, their work culture and how they manage the
team are some of the things that an employee could learn from going to a foreign training. They
could learn the dos and don’ts there, and if suitable could be implemented back in their home
country.
Other than that, the company could also introduce benefits that promote inclusivity. The
one example could be a paid holiday for Special Festive Days. Such cases are very important in
a company that is diverse with multicultural people (which is the case for Concentrix). In many
cases, during their festive season, it is not a national holiday and they have to work while leaving
their family behind to celebrate the festive season without them. This benefit although is
exclusively for people that celebrate those celebrations, it in the end shows inclusiveness. For
example, Concentrix in France could give a one day holiday for their Chinese employees to
celebrate Chinese New Year which is not a national holiday in France.
3. How are employees’ voices represented in this company? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of such employee representation?

From the interview session, it was stated that the functionality of a labour union at least
in Malaysia, where the interviewee works in, is not as huge plus the fact that a labour union does
not have a good reputation in Malaysia due to political reasoning. However, in order for the
employees to voice out their opinion, it is done internally and similar to, of course, a
management-established system. The company occasionally will listen to formal or non formal
representatives of the employees in a meeting with the management or board of directors.
Employees from all levels are able to give their opinion through representatives that stand in
place for them. From the hearing session, the management side would further discuss and solve
the issues that were presented.

Advantages
Along with the fact that there is no labour union that unify and represent the workers
voice, the company and people could avoid an orchestrated protest that could disturb business
fluidity. The Labour union especially has a reputation of voicing out their opinion in a rather
vocal way and could cause riot if it goes to the extreme route. Such an event could not only halt
business in the short term but also could make the company image and business to be badly
affected.
Furthermore, the employees could avoid paying participation or membership fees to the
union which does not have a concrete guarantee towards improving their working conditions or
remuneration. Moreover, having a direct representation by the employee directly towards the
management could actually improve collaboration between employees within the company as
well as with the management. Having to refer to an external organisation to solve an internal
problem could actually deteriorate the relationship within the company and dynamic between
workers could be disturbed.

Disadvantages
On the other side of the coin, not having a labour union to represent a cause and just
voicing out opinion through internal communication could mean that it has a less binding
agreement. Discussion between workers and the management could take place to actually just
satisfy employees' demand to speak up but actual results by the management could actually differ
from expected. In this issue having a labour union would concretely binds the company to be
obliged to fulfil the demand of the employees.
An additional disadvantage of this method is that it is slower to reach a conclusion or
agreement with the management. A labour union also in this case would be more mature and
experienced in handling problems if anything happens. They would also have a more organised
and well prepared representative that could bring the company to justice if things went wrong.
4. What are the steps in the company’s grievance and discipline procedure? What are its
advantages and disadvantages, and what skills should managers develop in order to solve
employee grievances at the early stages?

Concentrix seems to give a high importance to its code. It is redacted in an easy to read
fashion and, upon integration on the company, every employee has to sign and abide by it. The
code is also easily found on the internet.
According to the code, if there is any suspicion of misbehaviour, it should be recorded
immediately to the Human Resources department. According to this same code any employee
knowing a “ violation and does not promptly report and correct it may be subject to similar
consequences as the griever”.
If an employee is in need of reporting, there are three main channels to notify. The first
one, is as stated earlier, the Human Resources department. The second one is the employee's
immediate superior, in case they would be more comfortable with. The latter will notify their
superior if needed. Finally, there is an anonymous line to report any kind of violation of the code.
Furthermore, confidential assistance is disponible for workers if they require it.
If a formal process of grievance needs to be opened, there are four steps to be followed.
According to Concentrix’s collective agreement, the step is to notify the team leader verbally, if
no measures are taken after the term of 5 days, a written grievance can be given to the team
leader. Followed by a written grievance to the operations manager if needed, then to the vice
president. If the union determines it is needed, there can be arbitration between the different
parties.
Two advantages of the policies of Concentrix are the access to anonymous help in the
early stages. This means that the person reporting issues should be protected when reported.
Psychological help is also offered to victims of misbehaviour. The visibility of a grievance until
the executive level if judged essential. This a certitude that any issue can be solved, or at least
considered with due attention, avoiding the need to bring external authorities to into the problem
On the other hand, before arbitration is allowed, a long processus that can go up to more
than one month and a half has to be endured. In some situations, this might be too long for the
potential victim. It will also decrease the productivity of all involved. Additionally, the high
incentive and facility to report can turn into a certain form of witch-hunt or revenge tool. This
will harm the relationship and the trust inside teams.
To stop grievances in the early stages, the manager needs to be attentive and present with
the team. Observation skills need to be developed in order to perceive and fight against
misconduct before it is irremediable. Moreover, managers cannot judge what the employees may
denounce to them. They must appear to be open minded and reactive to what is reported.
5. This company has asked you to prepare an employee satisfaction survey in order to
improve their employee climate and prevent voluntary turnover. What factors would you
include in this survey? Suggest ways in which the company could improve the retention of
high performers, while encouraging low performers to leave the company.

It is vital for employers to be aware of the level of satisfaction of their employees. From
human nature, a frustrated employee will intentionally contribute less than a beaming employee.
Surveys are a handy tool to measure job satisfaction. According to Imran Aslan, good working
conditions are directly connected to job satisfaction. In good working conditions, we mean
flexible working hours, bearable work load, and supportive management. Those are factors we
could consider in the survey with questions such as “can you support the work load?”, “do you
feel encouraged?”, “is the amount of work given manageable?” . Voluntary turnover can be
explained by job stress, lack of communication, or limited growth opportunity. That is why the
survey could also incorporate questions such as “rate, from never to always, the frequency of
communication in your team”, “are you satisfied with your position in the company?”. The
survey could be taken through email. Each employee would receive a link and be given a
deadline. An anonymous survey would encourage employees to be more sincere, allowing more
accurate answers.

Clear as day, the main incentive to retain high performers is money. No matter how much
someone loves their job, they still need to receive a salary at the end of the month. Allowing a
bonus that would increase this salary is the best way to show an employee how valuable their
contribution is. However, that is not the whole picture. Rewarding an employee with a higher
position in the company is another way to demonstrate their importance. A higher position
means bigger responsibilities, means the company believes in the employee’s capacities and is
satisfied with their production. The proof of recognition would make it more appealing for the
employee to stay in the company. Encouraging low performers to leave the company is more
subtle. Scheduling a meeting with the employee and the manager is the most direct way to
inform an employee of its low contribution. It is not necessary to threaten them of firing but it is
essential to show proof of their underperformance compared to their peers. Once the employee is
aware of their precarious situation, managers need to surround them to show support and that
there is a possibility of a positive ending. A frustrated employee left alone is much more likely to
give up. Once again communication and mutual aid are crucial factors. After a certain period of
time, if it becomes clear that the employee is not willing to fully commit, firing can be
considered.
6. Based on your research/interviews, what are the key problems or improvement points
regarding this company’s compensation and employee relations policies? What are your
recommendations for improving these and promoting pay fairness?

From the interview, the interviewee stated that they have many problems with their
remuneration policy (at least in their place), with employees complaining that there is unfairness.
Employees' efforts are not recognised and employees do not receive bonuses in accordance with
the BPO standard or at least the so-called paltry bonuses. With regard to remuneration,
employees also complain that seniority is not a factor in their salary progression. Salaries are
minimal in relation to the workload produced by the employees. This is highly important
knowing that Malaysia is a country with a high power distance. Therefore, it is important to
adjust the employees wage according to their seniority.
There is also a problem with medical leave, which is only 8 days per year, which also
impacts on annual leave, which is 30 days. This leads to employee discomfort as they are forced
to work to the point of burn out. One of the effects of this situation is that employees take very
little sick leave, which makes it difficult to balance work and private life.
The feeling shared by all employees is that they all share a sense of unhappiness at work and fair
pay for effort.
In order to improve the remuneration policy, the company should take into account new
measurement factors such as seniority but also the performance of each employee. Indeed, a
ranking of the best performances could be established, which would allow the evolution of each
employee to be known. And according to this, bonuses will be given. This is one of the best
ways of rewarding employees in a fair way, while taking into account the good functioning of the
company's activities.
On the other hand, to improve the feeling of well-being in the workplace, the human
resources team should put forward a schedule for each employee with his or her tasks for the
week and the skills required to carry out these tasks. From these schedules employees will then
know what to expect each week and especially the rate of effort they will have to put in. In
addition, it will be fairer in the distribution of tasks because all employees will have to work in
the same way and each one will have to put in the same amount of effort.
A policy that could be a solution to the weel-beeing of employees and serve as
compensation is the implementation of wealth related benefits. These benefits will increase
remuneration satisfaction and help retain employees. Additionally, making use of nutritionists,
sleep professionals and SPAs will help employees relax from work stress and avoid health
problems before they occur, in this way, reducing the need for sick leaves. Concentrix can
implement a cafeteria plan of benefits related to well-being, letting employees decide their needs.
Working in group:

While working in a group, our main strategy was to divide work in order to give special
attention to every question. After the first assignment, we realised that this method had its flaws,
therefore, we started doing harmonisation meetings. In general, Abdullah was in charge of the
interviews, two questions and proofreading. For the rest of the members, we were in charge of
one or two questions. We were all present in the meetings and responded to the questions in a
reasonable delay; with the exception of Maelle that had problems with her whatsapp and could
not attend the meeting.
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