Sui Southern Gas Company Management Essay

Sui Southern Gas Company, abbreviated as SSGS, was created on March 30, 1989, following a series of mergers of 3 pioneering energy companies namely, Sui Gas Transmission Company, Karachi Gas Company and Indus Gas Company. Sui Gas Transmission Company Limited was formed in 1954 with a primary responsibility of gas purification at the Sui field in Baluchistan and its transmission to the consumption centres at Karachi. Two distribution companies were established in 1955 and were responsible for the distribution of gas to consumers in Karachi and other towns along the rout of the transmission pipeline between Sui and Karachi. In 1985, these two distribution companies were merged to form southern Gas Company Limited and later, in 1989, Southern Gas Company Limited and Sui Gas Company Limited were merged to form a Sui Southern Gas Company Limited.

Now SSGC is a public limited company, listed on the Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad Stock Exchanges with more than 70% direct shareholding by Government Of Pakistan. It has an authorized capital o RS.10 Billion, out of which RS. 6.7 Billion is issued fully and paid up and is managed by an autonomous Board of Directors having overall control. Presently SSGC Board has 14 members drawn both from Public and Private sectors. The Managing Director/ Chief Executive is nominated by the Government Of Pakistan and has been delegated with such powers by the Board Of Directors as are necessary to effectively conduct the business of the company.

Today, SSGC’s infrastructure supports more than million customers. Domestic consumers comprise the overwhelming majority of those users (98.8%). However, Commercial consumers represent 1 % consumption and Industrial consumers represent 0.2% consumption.

INTRODUCTION

Human Resource Department (HR): It is the set of individuals who make up the workforce of an organization. HR department serves as the backbone of any organization. It is responsible to manage employees’ relations, rights, transfers, selection and dismissals, enquiry, compensation and benefits etc.

In SSGC, the Human Resource Department is divided in 3 divisions namely Operational, Industrial Relations and Organizational Development and Training. Operational Department deals with the affairs related to the Executive cadre while Industrial Relation deals with subordinate cadre. And the Organizational Development is engaged with HR planning and development. Human Resource Department of SSGC follows “Equal Employment Opportunity” standards and believes that both, male and female should be treated fairly while selection, dismissals, training, providing benefits and compensations etc.

Main Functions of SSGC HR Department

Organizational Development

Leave Management

Enquiry and Discipline

Recruitment

Grievance Management

Contracts Management

Industrial Relations

Human Resource Information System (HRIS)

Performance Appraisal

Transfers and Postings

(Let’s briefly discuss about as above mentioned functions)

1. Organizational Development: This section is headed by Mrs. Beenish Qasim, who is the Manager of Organizational Development, also known as, Training and Development. The main purpose of this sub-department/ section was to give trainings to the employees so that their efficiency and productivity increases. Moreover, there was a training program named as “Succession Planning”, in which employees were given trainings for higher positions.

2. Leave Management: Leave Management is also one of the vital sections of HR department of SSGC. It is headed by Mr. Waqar Haider. Leave Management, also known as “Absence Management”. Employees’ leave data is managed in SSGC in the software named “ORACLE”. Leave of executive and subordinate employees is managed. Leave application should be signed by the concerned departmental head before sending to to HR department to maintain a record of an employees’ leave. Excess leave is communicated to the concerned department by HR manager to let employees know their availability o f leave. In SSGC, this is usually done on the month of September. Common leaves sanctioned by SSGC Human Resource department are:

Sick leave: Up to 25 days allowance to SSGC employees.

Casual leave: Up to 3 casual leaves are allowed to subordinates employees and 5 casual leaves to the Executive employees.

Hajj leave: Hajj leave is allowed up to 30 to 35 days, depending upon the years of services or work of an employee in SSGC.

Leave without Pay: This is the case, when employees are in need of leave but they have already availed their maximum leaves, so HR department will grant their leave but without paying them their salaries. Maximum availability of this type of leave is a month but this will need Managing Director’s approval.

Official visit: Leave issued for the purpose of official visit is for 2 weeks and leave for official visit requires Managing Director’s approval.

Official leave: Leaves issued for the Festivals such as Eid, Diwali and Christmas. Availability is maximum 3 days.

Maternity leave: This leave is given for 3 months and 3 times in a whole of an employee’s tenure in SSGC. And this leave required an approval of GM Medical department and then goes for verification and maintaining a record at HR department.

3. Enquiry and Discipline: This section is headed by Mr. Sohail Jalil. When misconduct of an employee is been reported from the any of the department of SSGC, it has been then sent to HR department to report an enquiry regarding employee’s behavior and bad relation with other employee(s) in a formal document called “Charge sheet”. This charge sheet includes; facts of enquiry, acts of enquiry, prosecution version, defense version, findings of enquiry and conclusions & recommendation. And after the whole process of enquiry, if employee found guilty, General Manager HR will suggest punishments mentioned in the rule books of SSGC; such as stoppage of annual increment for 2 years, demotion for 1 year, Nonpayment suspension for 3 months or Dismissal (i.e. Firing) an employee.

4. Recruitment: Recruitment section is headed by Mr. Ali Akbar, who is a Recruitment Manager. Employees in SSGC are given Grades. Grade 1 Designation held the least post while Grade 10 Designation held the highest post and after that Board Of Directors are there, which are above Grade 10 and are not ranked according to the grade.

SSGC Human Resource Department follows 3 types of Recruitment:

Internal Recruitment: This happen through job posting program which inform about openings and required qualification and invite qualified employees of SSGC to apply.

External Recruitment: This happen when HR department advertise the job and qualifications needed in newspapers, business magazines etc so that people from outside can apply.

Ex-staff Recruitment: This usually happen in rear circumstances, where the company need experience and want the job to be completed safely and in less possible time. After recruitment from either of the above type of recruitment, HR department follows further procedures of recruitment such as, Selection Committee, Selection and Interview, Medical Exam, Security Clearance, Appointment, Succession Planning, Notice Periods, Exit Formalities, Service type and after service compensation policy.

5. Grievance Management: Mr. Waqar Shaikh is head of this section of HR department. This section basically deals with the problems and complains of the employees in a formal procedure. Mostly he grievances emerged in SSGC are related to promotion cycle or promotion on seniority base. When the formal application is received by the Head/ Manager of Grievance Department, he then verify the application then evaluate an employee’s performance and then take whatever possible steps in his control to satisfy the person having such grievance.

6. Contracts Management: This section is headed by Mr. Sattar Shahani. This is the function of HR Department of SSGC because the purpose of this is to make an agreement or signed by both respective parties to work on some contractual basis to meet their obligations in order to deliver the objectives required from the contract. This section was established when Ministry of Oil and Gas put ban on the hiring of employees, for various organizations that comes under the ministry. So, due to that, SSGC use to take people in for their ongoing projects on contractual basis, so to run the projects smoothly without delays.

7. Industrial Relations: This section is handled by Mr. Iqbal Hussain. This section is important because it deals with the relations of Labor Unions, other unions. Labor Union in SSGC is named as “People’s Labor Association” (PLA). The PLA negotiates with the head of this department over Charter of Demands, on agreed terms so that matters regarding union members should be settled. Most of the negotiations held are for giving union employees with some benefits and perks, depending on their performance.

8. Human resource Information System (HRIS): This section is headed by MR. Fakhar. It is an integrated system, designed to provide information used in HR decision making. The main purpose of this section is to maintain a record of data related to Human resource Department. Such as record of employees sent on training, record of new employees hired, record of any employee who did misconduct etc.

9. Performance Appraisal: This section is headed by Mr. Ali Imran. The review on performance appraisal starts from June and ends up in July next year. Performance Appraisal is conducted through some series of steps regarding Performance evaluation and employees are awarded with monetary and non monetary benefits and perks accordingly.

Step 1. Performance Plan: It is regulated at the beginning of the year. The performance plan form is comprise of sections such as, ongoing duties, the duties employee is performing now, future planned objectives to achieve and HRM development objectives. In this step, employee is supposed to identify what development he / she be needed to perform his / her job more satisfactorily.

Step 2. Executive Input Form: The input form is filled by executives in the starting of the review year (i.e. June). In which it is being checked whether the goals and objectives set by the employee in the performance plan are being achieved or not. Evaluation at this stage let the employee, a chance to judge his performance on his own set criterion.

Step 3. Performance Review Form: This step is the last evaluation step performed by SSGC Human Resource Department at the end of the year. Sections mentioned in this form are, name, department, grade, target achieved or not. And then performance rate is given according to the evaluation. Rating 80 or above means performed extra ordinarily well, rating 66 to 79 means very well performed, rating 51 to 65 means just performed according to expectations, rating 26 to 65 means performance below expectations and Rating below 25 means performance not acceptable or poor performance.

10. Transfers and Postings: This section is headed and controlled by Mr. Dinesh Mehta sometimes supervised by Mr. Sattar Shahani.

In SSGC, transfer by Human Resource Department takes place in following 6 ways:

Disciplinary transfer: Management may use this transfer policy as an instrument to penalize an employee, involved in undesirable activities. Employee is transferred from convenient place to far sited remote area as a punishment.

Interdepartmental transfer: These transfers are made when one of the sections of particular department facing shortage of employee requirement. The additional employees from other sections are transferred to that department in need.

Operational request based transfer: These transfers are made on operational request, also called “Job Rotation”. In these transfers, employee gets opportunity to have varied experience of different jobs.

Performance based transfer: These transfers are made to motivate an employee. Employee is transferred to the convenient and desired place according to his wish due to his previous better performance record.

Personal request transfer: Transfers made on personal demand due family reasons and health issues.

Political requisition: Transfers made of a particular employee due to his / her political recommendation.

Purpose

General Purpose: General Purpose of my project research is Human Resource Department of Sui Sothern Gas Company and to be well aware with the fact that how the Human Resource Department plays an important role in SSGC. It serves as a backbone of the SSGC because it is the one which is responsible for recruitment process, selecting best employees for the company, giving them training so that they should be productive along with providing them with performance appraisal plan so that they should achieve their target accordingly and focus on Company’s future goals, missions and objectives. It has several functions (discussed above). Each function is performed by different sections or sub-departments of Human Resource Department so that SSGC should work smoothly. Such functions of HR Department are:

Organizational Development

Leave Management

Enquiry and Discipline

Recruitment

Grievance Management

Contracts Management

Industrial Relations

Human Resource Information System (HRIS)

Performance Appraisal

Transfers and Postings

Specific Purpose: Specific Purpose of my project research is Functions of Human Resource Department and to focus only on the functions of Human Resource Department and to see what these functions are used for.

Scope

The scope of my study will be limited to only Human Resource Department and its functions at Sui Southern Gas Company. My study research will not go through any other department such as Marketing Department, Finance Department, Production Department, and Customer Service Department etc.

Hypothesis

Following are my hypothesis (assumptions) regarding Sui Southern Gas Company:

1. All Human Resource Management work is managed automatically through Human Resource Information System;

2. All employees are (including labor) are sent for trainings and workshops for their productivity and advancement of knowledge.

3. Increments and benefits are properly provided to every employee according to their work and conduct

Findings

After my findings, I come up with the following answers regarding my above mentioned 3 hypothesis:

1. All work is managed automatically via Human Resource Information System EXCEPT the attendance of SSGC employees. There is a manual attendance system in SSGC. So in my opinion this attendance should also be based on automation computer system.

2. No educational training is provided to labor employees. So in my opinion, labor employees should be sent for educational training and workshops because since they are illiterate, so educational training will not only improve their knowledge and performance/productivity but also their attitude towards their peers and employers.

3. In my hypothesis, all employees receive increments and benefits BUT this hypothesis is totally wrong. Increments and benefits are given on the basis of the seniority level and mostly to the senior employees in SSGC.

Justification

My research for topic is unique and will help students of BBA to have an advanced knowledge regarding Human Resource Management of Sui Southern Gas Company. Students will also be able to know the functions of Human Resource Department and how these functions work for the betterment of SSGC. Moreover, they will be aware of the policies and code of conduct maintained by SSGC regarding recruitment, leave management, transfers & postings, performance appraisal, labor union and misconduct etc. So, this will give them an overall idea of Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and even this will be beneficial if they want to do their internship from SSGC in Human Resource Department because my research study is all about Human Resource Department and functions performed by Human Resource Department.

Research Methodology

Observations: During my project research at Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), I observed numerous following things:

Proper Industrial relations with Labor Union named as “People’s Labor Association” (PLA) of SSGC. Head of PLA negotiates properly over charter of demands with the management.

No misconduct behavior or inappropriate attitude of labors/workers with their employees/ supervisors because of the strict policies and codes of conduct against misconduct behavior of an employee.

Proper way of dealing with complaints regarding any issue under the section of “Grievance Management”, headed by Mr. Waqar Shaikh.

Proper record of an employee, who has been recruited, sent on training/ workshop, transferred to other branch, dismissed or even employee on leave through Human Resource Information System (HRIS). But the only thing, which was manually tracked, was daily employee attendance.

Last, but not the least, I observed that there was no proper prayer room or pray area at all at SSGC Head Office Karachi. So in my opinion, there should be a prayer room for ladies and gents so that they can properly perform their prayers.

Interview: I have asked several questions from the Deputy General Manager (HR), Mr. Shahbaz Islam and I thank to him to take out his precious time to answer my questions.

Q1. What is the Mission Statement of HR Department of SSGC?

ANS: To proactively enforce best HR practices maintain transparency in recruitment, compensation and benefits, career/succession planning undertake initiatives for communication, coaching, counseling and mentoring, enhance personal effectiveness, encourage creativity, team culture, ownership of strategic goals and seeing positive attitude towards change initiative to gear for organizational growth.

Q2. What is the Vision Statement of HR Department in SSGC?

ANS: Committed to be strategic business partner inculcating a culture leading to efficient. Human Resource Management, innovative ideas, policies, processes and self-renewal of human capital through effective training and organizational development initiatives to attain professional and motivated workforce.

Q3. Is Performance Appraisal System the only method to evaluate the performance?

ANS: No! There are other methods that evaluate performance, such as; sometimes, employees are given authority to complete the task on their own time and premises so this will not only motivate them but also make them evaluate their performance according to the completion of work on their own. Another method is “Bonus System”, in which the more employees work for more than their working hours, the more pay they will receive. So in this way, employees perform more and evaluate that how much they worked extra to get bonus.

Q4: Why there is a manual attendance system instead of having all other work automated?

ANS: We are working on it and it will soon be converted to an automatic thumb detection attendance system where every employee will be asked to put his/her thumb on attendance scanner and will be marked “present at work” if his/her thumb detected and matched. And even that data will be connected with Human Resource Information System (HRIS). So in this way, employees’ attendance record will be maintained.

Q5: How you usually motivate employees?

ANS: We usually motivate our employees with some following 3 factors:

Laissez-faire policy: This policy means that let employees decide that how they should do their work and what resources they will utilize is totally depends on employees.

Training and workshops: To let them aware with the advanced technologies and methods so that they should be more efficient.

Non-Financial Benefits: We offer most of the time non-financial benefit s to our prestigious employees such as, giving them award on extra ordinary performance, 2 days leave grant, celebrating their birthdays and even sometimes, we grant living expense and primary education expense of children to our worthy and loyal employees.

Definition of Key Terms

“Human Resource Department of Sui Southern Gas Company” (Head Office)

Human Resource: It is the set of individuals who make up the workforce of an organization. It is the resource which manages all other resources. It is like a backbone of any organization. It is responsible for employees’ relations, rights, recruiting, termination, compensation and benefits as well as dealing with union relations and employee’s laws and codes of disciplines.

Department: Specialized functional area within an organization or a division, such as Accounts Department, Marketing Department, Human Resource Department, Sales Department etc. Generally every department has its own manager and chain of command.

Sui Sothern Gas Company: It is abbreviated as SSGC, and it is a company which provides Gas to domestic as well as industrial users. It has a series of mergers and most of the shares are owned by Pakistan Goevernment.