We can support start-up companies by providing end-end HR solutions.
Start-up Establishment have a lot of work ahead of them, and in the rush of everyday business.
While many small businesses may not see the need for an HR department, it’s a necessary and valuable asset to have at every company, especially if you’re looking to grow. Not only can establishing an HR department early on help keep your company organized while you grow, but it can handle internal issues that are bound to crop up when you least expect them.
HR in a ‘Greenfield project’ is sharply different from HR in a running plant, mainly because the business contexts are radically different. Operating plants run in a fixed location, projects move to different sites, each with a different set of conditions. Layout, products, processes, and activities in an operating plant are generally standardized, whereas in projects these may vary with each passing day. Manpower in a production site is stable, has continuity, and can be easily trained in SOP, but not so in project sites where it is mostly floating population drawn from various sources, their presence transitory, and their activities changing frequently.
The journey from the concept of a greenfield project to commissioning and full-fledged operation passes through several stages and sub-stages like pre-execution stage (Feasibility, management approval, technical specification, tendering, contract signing), execution phase (detailed planning, site clearance, design engineering, equipment ordering, resource mobilization, site execution, PG test, and commissioning) and post-execution phase(Final Payments, documentation, review and learning). HR has to carry out a different set of actions matching requirements at these different stages.
This article is based on first-hand experience for a period exceeding three years of leading the HR team in a large integrated steel plant project in eastern India.
This article is based on first-hand experience for a period exceeding three years of leading the HR team in a large integrated steel plant project in eastern India.
1. HR has to deal with an abrupt rise in the number, diversity of entities, and unfamiliar incidences.
This applies to the number of persons, groups, and work locations and as compared to a plant in operation. The number of these entities swells as projects progress and then tapers down as projects start closing down.
These groups would also be from divergent sources/origins, many of them transitory and fade away after their roles are over. Apart from one’s own employees, there would be outstation people from other units of the company, people from several outsourced agencies, and foreign nationals. This is the reason that previously unknown incidences will take place frequently, and the manager has to keep many alternative plans ready for each of these numerous events.
Therefore, the role of HR in several areas like manpower planning, communication, IR, safety, security, transport, statutory compliances, absenteeism, compensation, accommodation, and welfare facilities abruptly expands to uncharted territory.
2. New project is an opportunity for talent acquisition at the mid-level.
Greenfield setups always call for an elaborate recruitment plan. The same should be prepared to keep in view post-commissioning optimum manpower, the skills available for redeployment, and after benchmarking with the industry best.
Usually, a multi-functional team assesses manpower for new facilities, identifies re-deployable manpower, and recommends the size and profile for fresh intake. They hold detailed discussions with the key drivers, package owners, and HODs for input. A senior management committee then finalizes the manpower norms suggested by the task force.
The volume of recruitment should be phased to fill up around 25% of positions during the erection stage and 50% in the pre-commissioning stage.
The project is also an opportunity to attract industry talents at the mid-level. Many of them who visualize no growth in their organization tend to look for new organizations. Therefore, job specifications should also take into account the mid-level talent pool available in the sector. The selection system should focus on hands-on experience in similar units.
Recruits should be initially placed in the project department and relocated to operation in due course of time.
3. Select the easily trainable persons for redeployment.
Greenfield projects in multi-unit companies are opportunities to optimize manpower costs through internal redeployment. A blend of open recruitment and internal redeployment also leads to a proper mix of experience in the manpower profile.
How to identify persons for redeployment? An important factor in redeployment is designing eligibility criteria and the selection of employees for redeployment. They should have sufficient years of service left. Their skill profile should make them trainable for the new JD. Qualification, attitude, willingness, attendance, discipline records for redeploying able employees should be carefully screened.
To have willing people for relocation in the new area, take the route of internal advertisement. Priority should be given to competent persons of similar phasing-out units if any.
4. Design and implement a fresh outsourcing system for the Greenfield plant.
Organizations adopt outsourcing with a view to attain lower cost, increased flexibility, variable capacity, the ability to focus on core competencies by ridding peripheral ones, lack of in-house resources, and increased efficiency/productivity.
Greenfield project is also an opportunity to strategically rejig the territories of in-house and outsourced modes of working. Management should revisit the uneconomic and non-core activities in-house and plan their outsourcing. They should review and finalize a new outsourcing policy for the Greenfield unit. Manpower for any remaining activities to be done departmentally can be assessed. An exercise to elaborately map the processes in each new department into those departmental and outsourced activities can achieve this.
5. A composite set of technical, managerial, and behavioral training to be imparted in a short span of time.
Training is important in a Greenfield situation because of two reasons. First, of course, people have to deal with more advanced technology. However, the need is not merely technical. There is an equal need for behavioral and managerial training. People would require to sharpen managerial skills, be more change-oriented, take decisions faster, acquire problem-solving skills, and carry an attitude of positivity and innovation.
As indicated in point 1 above, HR in a Greenfield site encounters several new elements, new processes, and new kinds of challenges. Managers need to be prepared to address numerous unfamiliar events and problems they will face for the first time. Managerial tools like innovation management, six sigma, and value engineering will enable a manager to better deal with unforeseen situations.
What is needed, therefore, is a composite set of training. Also, unlike in regular operation, the training modules may have to be deployed in quick succession to match the competency readiness with the commissioning time of the project.
An indicative training strategy is illustrated below:
compile and circulate a comprehensive technical manual covering engineering processes of all the departments, which would serve as a reference for development for all new members.
6. HR has to primarily play the HRBP role and multitask on monitoring a database of an extraordinary number of parameters.
For major projects, even a day’s delay can turn very costly. HR needs to play a strong HRBP role working closely and in line to meet sensitive timelines.
The construction site requires the placement of a diversity of personnel. Among the direct employees engaged in the project would be those temporarily drawn from other divisions of the company, from contractual agencies, the technology supplier, statutory agencies, and foreign nationals from multiple countries. The HR actions would include a wide spectrum of functions like manpower planning, placement on redeployment, fresh recruitment, revisions in organization structures from time to time in different stages, skill profiling, running existing units after redeploying able persons' leave, compliances of statutory provisions, attendance monitoring system, a training facility in project sites, the release of employees for training, incentive scheme for timely completion of projects, basic amenities at the site including restroom, toilet, first aid, fire equipment, communication exercise, etc. Concerns of foreign nationals such as holidays and visas also need close monitoring.
HR’s work-life would become similar to that of the technical counterpart. Around commissioning, HR may need to monitor over a hundred parameters daily like project engineers.
This is an HRBP role requiring the help of an IT database to enable systematic facilities like automatic alerts on a real-time basis, as each of these is time-sensitive for the whole project.
7. Several sets of organization structures comprising people from divergent groups are operated successively at different stages.
When setting up a Greenfield plant, the entire layout is new, and only related activities seem to be happening. The organization structure comprising formal reporting relationships (including hierarchy and span of control), department layout, communication system, coordination, and integration of activities would be a melting pot for a certain period of time. At different stages of project implementation, different sets of people would be playing their roles. Several sets of organization structures comprising people from divergent groups will be operating at different stages. The organization structure needs to be frequently re-notified and communicated to all.
For the post-execution stage, one should not simply replicate organization design from an existing setup. Start with a simple lean organization and shape it as per evolving needs. From a change management angle, it is easier to split departments than merge later. Therefore, it is prudent to start with a minimum number of departments and bifurcate a few later on if and when the need arises.
8. Culture being in the formative stage, it’s time to experiment with innovative HR solutions.
At the project stage, the culture of the organization is in the formative stages. Recruits and those redeployed would have divergent cultural values drawn from different organizations. It is a golden opportunity to experiment with HR innovations for reasons of change management. Along with new equipment, new people are an opportunity to experiment with many innovative concepts in the structure and culture of the organization. For instance, we may discover areas where operators can multitask or areas that do not need middle management. Similarly, there may be certain jobs that the staff can handle, which elsewhere, are done by managers.