Lahore School of Economics,13th April,2007

IN THIS ISSUE

GLOBAL NEWS

HEALTH & SAFETY

EMPLOYMENT LAW

LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

COVER STORY

HEALTH CARE SITUATION: TOUGH & GETTING TOUGHER

LOCAL NEWS

EUROPEAN HUMAN RESOURCE THEORY NOT VIABLE FOR PAKISTAN

LOCAL COMPANIES ARE LEARNING FAST

CHILD LABOUR

HUMAN RESOURCE ISSUES IN PAKISTAN

WORKPLACE SANITY

HEALTH-CARE SITUATION: TOUGH & GETTING TOUGHER

Health work is hard work. Many health workers spend long, sometimes lonely, hours on duty. Their work may expose them to infection, as well as chemical or biological poisoning. High stress is part of the job. Moreover, many health sector workers - including those who work in nursing homes - face verbal and physical aggression, since they often have contact with people in distress. Of particular concern is the plight of women, who predominate among health care workers. In some countries, women comprise up to 80 per cent of all health workers. Women are good health-care providers, but unfortunately, far too many are at the bottom of the sector hierarchy, facing precarious, arduous and sometimes unsafe working conditions, while earning inadequate pay. They are also often subject to physical violence in the workplace, including sexual harassment. This poses the a problem of equity, or fairness.

Health costs and poor working conditions

The major item in any health budget is the amount needed to pay health workers. This usually represents more than half of the total for a health care budget, even though in many countries, health workers are underpaid, and face low job security and poor working conditions.

To address these issues, the Joint Meeting on Terms of Employment and Working Conditions in Health Sector Reforms, held in Geneva from 21 to 25 September 1998, adopted a number of conclusions, including the following:

"No one will believe you solved this problem in one day!  We've been working on it for months.  Now go act busy for a few weeks and I'll let you know when it's time to tell them."            (R&D supervisor, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing/3M Corp.)

Health care is not a commodity, and therefore cannot be traded. It is a basic human right;

Ensuring universal access, at least to primary health care, remains a challenge throughout the world, especially in developing countries;

Health-care reform efforts should foster primary care and preventive medicine for all, improve quality of care and create better work conditions in this area;

Health-care reforms cannot be imposed from above or outside. In the health care reform process, policies should be developed for social dialogue since the best reforms are developed through such a process;

Health-care staff should have the right to bargain collectively, to be guaranteed decent working conditions and the opportunity for continued training, and part-time staff should be included in such procedures;

Wages should be paid regularly to all workers, including health workers, in accordance with the ILO Protection of Wages Convention, 1949 (No. 95);

Basic training, lifelong learning and continuous training are essential for maintaining the quality of services provided and for career development. Workers' organizations should participate in the design and implementation of training. Management training in the health sector is essential;

Equality of opportunity should be realized to give women the ability to compete for access to higher-quality and better-paid jobs;

Governments and employers should create safe workplaces, especially for women;

Employers, workers and governments have the responsibility of fighting against racism at the workplace.

Employment law

Hundreds of thousands of male workers to face salary cuts: Public sector workers may have pay slashed due to Equal Pay Act Compensation claims from 1.5 million female workers in local authorities, the NHS and Ministry of Defense are expected to cost £10 billion in back pay. Male salaries are set to be slashed by up to 40 per cent to balance the books.

 Organizations have to implement “single status” pay agreements to meet the terms of the Equal Pay Act. A recent EU judgment gave them until the start of April to comply with the legislation, but many will miss the deadline for job evaluation. Unions said staff will have to cooperate to make the changes affordable. “As part of the compromise we sometimes have to bring down male earnings,” said Brian Strutton, national officer for the GMB union. “But it only then takes one woman to want more to break the whole agreement.” Some highly-paid women could also have their salaries cut as public bodies struggle to fund wages for other staff, such as teaching assistants and care workers.

HR FOCUSLAHORE SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS,13TH APRIL,2007

European human resource theory not viable for

Pakistan’ISLAMABAD: “The European human resource development practices are not workable for our region. We have to develop our human resource potential in accordance with our own values,” said Zafar A Taji, president of the Human Resource Foundation (HRF), while opening a two-day India-Pakistan Human Resource Management conference organized by the foundation in collaboration with the Delhi Management Association (DMA). He said that the conference would develop collaboration and coordination among the human resource experts of the two countries and called for student exchanges to strengthen the bonds and explore the talent in the region. The first human resource management conference was held in New Delhi last year.Jagdish Chandra Jhuraney, vice president of the DMA, said there was a need for joint ventures in human resource management between the two countries. He said India and Pakistan shared the same culture, values and history and they faced the same problems of poverty, unemployment and low wages.Dr Yasho Verdhan Verma, vice president of Human Resources and MS at LG Electrics Ltd India, said 10-15 percent growth rate is satisfactory and efficient human resource management could help to achieve an 80-90 percent growth rate. He underscored the importance of leadership and said organizations are built and enhanced by effective leadership.Leon Menezes, Head of Human Resource at Shell Pakistan Ltd, urged that a friendly environment strengthens leadership and enhances productivity. Junaid I Khan, the CEO of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd, said a leader is a visionary and change and motivation is crucial for growth. The second technical session discussed ‘Business Challenges for Human Resource - A CEO’s Perspective’. It was addressed by Zuhair Khaliq, the CEO of Mobilink, Zahid Aslam Rehman, ex-vice president of business strategy at Phillips International, and Aquil Busrai, managing director of Shell People Service Asia. In the third technical session the speakers deliberated on ‘Change Management - Creating a Winning Culture.’

HR FOCUS  LOCAL COMPANIES ARE LEARNING FAST

"We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discussit with the employees." (Switching supervisor, AT&T Long Lines Division)

In an increasingly competitive world, the readiness of Pakistani companies to compete on a global platform comes into question. In these rapidly changing times, every second counts. Survival and achievement demands not only being result-orientated, but also cost-efficient, continually innovative, or clearly just the market leader. Every year a survey is conducted by local firm to assess the trends in management and leadership practices within Pakistan's corporate sector. Last year, a nationwide survey was conducted with the aim of "identifying transformations in corporate culture to meet world-class performance standards." Responses were received from thirty five per cent of the organizations surveyed, whereas three per cent refused to participate in the process for one reason or another. The survey was analyzed on four broad areas via, strategic perspective, processes, training and culture. All four areas were considered vital to ascertain how companies are responding to the challenge posed by globalization and increased competition to meet world-class global standards.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: Companies have started realizing the importance of continuous learning and development of their people. Consequently, their spending on enhancing technical and managerial skills has risen, in order to further improve the quality of performance. 56 per cent of the organizations have increased their training and development budget by over twenty per cent. This increase is driven by their expectation that a more competent, knowledgeable, motivated and inspired workforce, working as a team, will be better able to face future challenges. Companies have awakened to the fact that if they intend to remain competitive and move forward with speed, they must focus more on enhancing the capacity of their employees. For this reason they are aligning their training and development initiatives with their strategic business objectives. Even though companies are now more willing to invest on training and development, they are beginning to establish precise learning needs critical for process improvements to measure the actual benefits. The survey established that companies are less willing to invest in people who look likely not to benefit the organization in the long run. As a result companies have registered improvements in performance in terms of reduced wastage, better efficiencies and higher quality, through skilled and competent people. Motivation is spiraling upwards; which in turn is improving customer satisfaction and profitability.

CORPORATE CULTURE: Senior management in most companies surveyed are actively working on improving their company's corporate culture. As many as 45 per cent of the respondents felt that their senior management was consciously and actively contributing to building an identity and culture for their organization. Subsequently as much as 78 per cent of organizations stated that they felt they had created their own culture. Respondents felt that their company's culture had progressed to one that was open, family like, caring and that believed in values. At the same time, the same companies gave importance to target achievement, commitment, teamwork and competitiveness. As a direct result, as many as 61 per cent of the companies strongly agreed that the culture change in their organization had facilitated changes demanded by their company's strategic objectives.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: Interestingly, when asked about influence our government had on corporate culture in Pakistan, not a single respondent answered in the affirmative. This shows an immense opportunity for our government to actively participate in developing and encouraging professionalism in organizations that contribute to economic growth of the country. All organizations that were part of this survey had at least one strategic management goal in place. It can be inferred that leadership teams of organizations are ardently looking to the future strategically. By this method, companies have developed a clear framework that guides human energy in achieving demanding goals without losing direction in the short and the long term. Fifteen per cent of the respondents identified competitors as the primary reason for undertaking process initiatives. This indicates emergence of healthy competition in Pakistan. Companies are willing to learn from their competition. Benchmarking and sharing of best practices between companies within the same industry, and from other sectors is on the increase. Of the companies surveyed, 60 per cent registered improvements in behavioral and cultural aspects of their business, attributed largely to regular exposure to training programs. This shows that mindsets and paradigms change for the better through group interactions and reflections during formal and informal learning programs. Companies are giving up the old ways of doing things, and are becoming more aggressive and dynamic.

In a labour-intensive country like ours, developing people must be at the forefront of every initiative. Pakistan's greatest potential has always been its people. A young person with no direction will not add any value to society. Instead he/she will become a burden. Given a little direction and opportunity for learning, this untapped resource will flourish.  

Quote from the Boss:"Teamwork is a lot of peopledoing what I say."(Marketing executive, Citrix Corporation)

"Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting

                                             the schedule."

                                     (Plant Manager, Delco Corporation)

"What I need is an exact list of specific unknown problems we might encounter."(Lykes Lines Shipping)

HEALTH & SAFETY

 HOW TO MANAGE

PREGNANCY IN THE WORK

PLACE

As pregnancy isn’t an illness, you may wonder why you should make any special allowances for an employee. But with the new regulations of the Work and Families Act 2006 coming into place on 1 April, organizations are being encouraged to sit up and listen to their female workforce and efficiently manage pregnancy in the workplace. Some studies have shown that premature birth is more prevalent in women who work while pregnant.

The main thing to remember is that every individual pregnancy is different, so what you, a partner, friend or relation went through in terms of pregnancy may be totally different to what your employee goes through. However, the following steps can make a huge difference to your employee’s physical and emotional well-being, not to mention your own. It's also important to reduce stress levels wherever possible for your employee. If your employee needs to slow down, let them – it could be their body’s way of letting them know they need to have a rest. Simple things in the work environment can make all the difference in providing a comfortable workplace for pregnant employees. Examples include easy access to the toilet, readily available drinks and snacks and having somewhere quiet to sit down during breaks.

Your employee must inform you of her pregnancy by the end of the fifteenth week before the baby is due if she is to take advantage of maternity leave and pay. As soon as you are formally informed of the pregnancy, your employee is entitled to paid time off for antenatal appointments and parent-craft or relaxation classes if recommended by her midwife/GP. A summary of the government’s new maternity legislation, which applies to any employee whose baby is due on or after April, is as follows: Employees are entitled to take up to 52 weeks’ maternity leave. Statutory maternity pay, if the employee qualifies, is paid for up to 39 weeks. It is paid at 90 per cent of average earnings for the first six weeks, then a flat rate for the following 33 weeks. Employees can do up to 10 days’ work during maternity leave – known as “keeping in touch days” – which can be used for an employee to do her usual job, or for training or events. Both parties must agree to the arrangements (including what the employee will be doing and how she will be paid).

Your employee must give you eight weeks’ notice if she wants to change her date of return to work.

TWO-THIRDS OF THE EMPLOYEES

MADE ILL BY STRESS

Stress at work is making people ill, according to a national survey by training company Work Life Balance Centre and supported by research from three UK universities. Around 80 per cent of people claim to have difficulty juggling the competing demands of work and home life. Almost 70 per cent of women and 63 per cent of men, out of more than 3,300 respondents said that at times this left them unable to cope.

A similar proportion said they had been made ill by stress. Among those who reported illness from stress, the most common disorders reported were depression (48 per cent) and anxiety/panic attacks (43 per cent). More than 30 per cent of workers said they resented the long-hours they had to work, while 25 per cent said their family or relationships had suffered as a result." Our relationship with work continues to be a complex one,” said Julie Hurst, director of the Work Life Balance Centre. “On the one hand people have reported many positives about enjoying their jobs

At the same time, however, the levels of depression and anxiety have been increasing. Depression and anxiety have become a silent epidemic in the workplace and yet there is so much that can be done to reduce both problems.”

LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT

 LEISURE SECTOR GETS SKILLS

BOOST

The first national skills strategy has been launched for the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sector in response to the Letch Review of Skills. The strategy, “Raising the bar”, is part of a drive to overhaul training and qualifications and boost skills in the sector.   It identifies four priority areas for employers to focus on to tackle low skills and productivity, including retention, management and leadership, customer service and chef skills. .

These will be delivered through a 10-point action plan to be published in April as part of sector skills council People 1st’s sector skills agreement. Launching the scheme, tourism minister Shaun Woodward said: “We need better qualified and trained people if we are to compete in the long term."

He added that skills improvements needed to be made in time for the London 2012 Olympics: “This is a fantastic opportunity to change attitudes towards training,” Woodward said. Andy Westwood, adviser to the Letch review, said the strategy “gives life to some of the recommendations we give in the review"."

It proves that employers and industry can get together and make ambitious plans to go forward,” he added. Brian Wisdom, chief executive of People 1st, said the launch of the strategy marked a “seminal moment” for British tourism

"This project is so important we can't let things that are more important interfere with it." (Advertising/Marketing manager, United Parcel Service)

HR FOCUSCAREER OPPURTUNITY

BUSINESS ZODIAC SIGNSHuman ResourcesDate Posted: 3/12/2007Job Name: FULL-TIME OFFICE MANAGERType of Firm : Acoustical Consulting FirmLocation : CTDescription: Interested in applying your marketing and administrative talents to mid Fairfield County based acoustical consultants who have marquis value clients such as Carnegie Hall? For over 45 years, this firm has specialized as acoustic and audio and video system design consultants encompassing all aspects related to buildings--including room acoustics, sound isolation, mechanical systems noise and vibration control, environmental assessments and audio-video systems. Their consultants specialize in services for all types of facilities, including: opera houses, multiple- use theaters, performance and concert halls, amphitheaters, museums, educational facilities, acoustics for church and historic facility renovations.

In a family friendly environment, the Office Manager reports to the Chief Financial Officer of the firm. There are 14 employees in this location and another four in a California office and three more in remote offices on the East Coast. You would interact regularly with the firm's principals, consultants and administrative personnel. Responsibilities include the day-to-day operation of the company's Office/HR/ and Administrative functions.

Clerical duties include phones, mail, fax, travel itineraries, filing, database management and off-site meeting coordination. Contract administration including maintenance of the firm's sales contracts and proposals files; data entry of all new proposals and projects into the firms database; and coordination of new project information flow from consultants to the Administration and Finance departments.

The Office Manager's Human Resources duties include responding to incoming resumes, coordinating offer letters from Principals and maintaining the firm's personnel files. You would also review, administer, update, and recommend changes to HR policies as well as the employee handbook and maintain the company benefit plan including coordinating benefits with outside vendors. The Office Manager is also the point of contact for the company School-to-Work program.

In this role you would also be responsible for the management of office services, including the cleaning service and refuse removal vendors. Administration of parking passes and city contracts for parking, safe deposit boxes, and budgeting/purchasing of general office supplies and expenses would also be your responsibility.

Requirements include: 3-5 years of experience in Office Management 3-5 years of HR related experience Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite Applications, including Word,

Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook.

This is a 40-hour per week in office position. Compensation will be $45K--and the total compensation package includes health benefits, a 401(k) plan, the possibility of a bonus, and one nice perk is that you can get tickets to many performing arts openings!

MARKETING You are ambitious yet stupid. You chose a marketing degree to avoid having to study in college, concentrating instead on drinking and socializing which is pretty much what your job responsibilities are now. Least compatible with Sales.TECHNOLOGYUnable to control anything in your personal life, you are instead content to completely control everything that happens at your workplace. Often even YOU don't understand what you are saying but who the hell can tell. It is written that Geeks shall inherit the Earth. ACCOUNTINGthe only other sign that is studied in school. You are mostly immune from office politics. You are the most feared person in the organization; combined with your extreme organizational traits, the majority of rumors concerning you say that you are completely insane.HUMAN RESOURCESIronically, given your access to confidential information, you tend to be the biggest gossip within the organization. Possibly the only other person that does less work than marketing, you are unable to return any calls today because you have to get a haircut, have lunch and then mail a letter.MANAGEMENTCatty, cutthroat, yet completely spineless, you are destined to remain at your current job for the rest of your life. Unable to make a single decision you tend to measure your worth by the number of meetings you can schedule for yourself. Best suited to marry other "Middle Managers" as everyone in your social circle is a "Middle Manager." CUSTOMER SERVICEBright, cheery, positive, you are a fifty-cent cab ride from taking your own life. As children very few of you asked your parents for a little cubicle for your room and a headset so you could pretend to play "Customer Service." Continually passed over for promotions, your best bet is to sleep with your manager. RECRUITER, "HEADHUNTER"As a "person" that profits from the success of others, most people who actually work for a living disdains you. Paid on commission and susceptible to alcoholism, your ulcers and frequent heart attacks correspond directly with fluctuations in the stock market.

CONFLICTS Dear Workplace Sanity

.I am a Science graduate with three years' administration experience: now I want to do my MBA in human resource (HR) but some people have said that mostly females do MBA in HR and it is a female dominated field .Should I select another discipline?....

HR GURU

Dear HR GURU.

Interestingly enough even human resource is being branded as "female occupation." Often such roles are referred to as low paying and no growth careers ,but ask any HR professional ,HR is neither. Just a sampling of salary packages in the Pakistani market reveals that on an average the starting package for a fresh HR people is around 25,000 rupees, middle manages easily take home 80,000 rupees, and wait till you hear the average take home for Senior HR professionals-300,000 rupees! While I  was checking salaries I also noted the ratio of females to males in different HR roles and I wasn't surprised to see males were dominating! In fact in senior positions, they out number their female counterparts significantly. The criteria should not be female versus male but your interest and passion for the work. GOODLUCK!

Dear Workplace Sanity.

Two years back, during selection for a management post, one of my colleagues was rejected on medical grounds (he was found positive for hepatitis C), though he qualified the written test and interview and received a call letter. A few months ago, my friend selected in a multinational company, was rejected in the final medical check-up because of diabetes. We are afraid that, if we resign we may not be able to join another organization if we don't clear the medical exam. Are there any human right laws/legislations which protect people?

STRESSED BY MEDICAL

Dear STRESSED BY MEDICAL.

The purpose of the pre-medical examination is to verify that the perspective employee is physically and mentally fit to perform the inherent duties of a job, and help guard against work related illness and injury. If a detected medical condition does not directly impact on your ability to perform a job, you may even offer to opt out of medical insurance .But if medical insurance is important to you, then apply to large employers because they offer group health insurance on employment basis." open -enrollment " means that you will not be disqualified on existing medical problem.

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HOW TO REALY ANNOY YOUR CO-WORKER!!!

CHALLENGING PERSONALITIES

MARGINAL PERFORMANCE

IN-COHESIVE TEAMS

STRESS OR BURN -OUT

IN-SENSITIVE OR INAPPROPRIATE 

CONDUCTHARASSMENT OR

WORKPLACE VIOLENCE

PERSONNEL OR SUPERVISION ISSUES

"E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data.It should be used only for company business."    (Accounting manager, Electric Boat Company

LSE,FRIDAY,APRIL13,2007

Fireworks Photo Caption

Human Resource Issues in Pakistan

Human Resource Management can broadly be defined as a strategic and coherent approach to the management of the organization's most valued assets - the people working there, who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives of sustainable competitive advantage. It involves all management decisions and actions that affect the relationship between organizations and employees-its human resource. Pakistan came into being on 14 August 1947 and today in 2006 she is struggling for sustainable development. Over the years Pakistan faced many challenges and the time of independence there were many genuine problems but 59 years were not less for developing and managing the human resource effectively. Now we are standing in a situation where our government setups have failed to deliver and achieve a level of excellence. The private local companies have HR department but not properly functional. The Army is a little organized but is over indulging in the areas that are not their domain The multinational are better because they are following the same internationally used management tools. The past practices can not be overlooked as they have created a bunch of unskilled qualified man power and unproductive organizations The issues or problems in the human recourse management are in all the functions of HRM discipline:Job Analysis and Design: This function of HR needs constant update as every moving day has new performance implications. In our country the job descriptions and specifications are not properly taken care off. Many times people are performing overlapping tasks. The task that's not in the terms of reference does not add to the achievement of the job goal. Work Flow Process: Work process are not studied and worked out well so the tasks take longer to finish and unrequited process that could be negated are also present. So more people end up doing less work and the management process is complicated and over dragging. Recruitment and Selection: Though the government set up has evolved many procedures and formats for hiring and selection but it's over shadowed by nepotism and mal practices. In the private sector things are a bit better, as who ever is hired has to be apt for delivering the desired so even if the incumbent is hired by reference he/she has to come on a criteria and perform to sustain in the organization. Work Environment: The impact of office environment on the employee is negated all around Pakistan especially in the government sector. The rooms do not have proper filling place, proper seating, cleanliness is ignored and it's not at all enabling. Hierarchy: In the government sector hierarchy is too complex and giving your point of view to the boss can make you lose you job. The higher grade officers certainly require a complete paraphernalia and protocol which costs government money. Where as in the private sector at times hierarchy is ignored and over passed causing frustration to the manager. Working Hours: The flexi time concept is not applicable in the government sector. The employees have to follow timing be them doing nothing in that time. A new issue has also emerged in past years that people come at 8 in the morning show presence and than on the government vehicle go to various offices for networking, chat around, go home for lunch, rest and than come back at 5 in the evening and still till nine. This technique not only proves them to be committed but also give them the credits of hard wok and perseverance.

Performance Appraisal: The ACR in the government can make and break careers. All the factors that distort performance appraisal can be observed very obviously in many government departments. One average report can not make you go up the ladder of success so performance effectiveness is not performing above the mark but keeping a good rapport with the boss. The person up in the hierarchy is not bothered about the relationship with the juniors as they are not thee to give feedback of the boss. Systems and SOPs: Government still has some systems in place be them bad but the local NGO sector has nothing in black and white they do what they want. The multi nationals are in a better position as they have some system for performing activities. Reward System: In our set up money is the only motivator even than the employees are not compensated according to the task. One example is of a police officer and an ordinary police man, the prior is given as many facilities as possible where as the subsequent is highly less rewarded. The reward system has no motivational components as high performance does not result in promotions, salary increase etc and bad performance does not cause any problems for the employee. Career Development: The aspirations of the employees are not kept in mind for his growth. Training and Development: In the government set up various national and international trainings are financed for the employees. There are issues with the selection of the individual, relevance of training, and the application of training to the job. It's been observed that the Pakistani officials who go for international trainings take them as shopping trips. In addition to these issues the following issues are also troubling the sustainable growth of human resource.The concept of cost benefit analysis is not in place. The education polices are not linked with the industrial requirements.During education more effort is put on the theoretical implications than the practical implications. Political pressures are the cause of many mal practices. Right people are not placed on the write jobs so jobs are just duties t hat have to be performed there is nothing like keenness and respect for the job. People have their vested interest that hinders organization effectiveness.Poor leadership.Diversity and innovation is not encouraged by many.Lack of opportunities.Low motivation.Passive behaviors.MBO is not in place.Multitasking is not present in the government employees.Pay is not related to performance.Commitment level is very low.Lack of subject specialists.Deficient research in the area.Improper Communication with in the organization.Rigidity.False perceptions.Many organizations operate without a vision.Shortsightedness.We can't say that finances were not incurred on the human resource in the past half decade, a huge amount of government's money was spent but due to poor planning the output was not witnessed.. Many organizations are being formulated for enhancing the HR capability. The scenario in Pakistan will for sure improve as every cloud has a silver lining.“People are definitely company's greatest assets. It doesn't make a difference weather the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is as good as the people keep it.”

CHILD LABOURChild labor is a threat to human resource management (HRM). It is one of the most serious issues faced by HRM in the current scenario and is becoming even more complex as the population continues to grow. Most children engaged in child labor belong to the 5-14 age groups. Although the government has taken up the issue, as have some NGOs, child labor continues to exist in its worst form. It is almost slavery. Toiling children can often be seen at such as roadside restaurants, services stations and shops where welding work is done. Some of the jobs done by these children, such as welding, are potential hazardous for children and young people. These children should be attending schools instead of working. If they are educated they can play an effective role in the development of the country. In any case, these children are just as innocent as other children. Living in the adult world at workplaces they come across different kinds of mental pain, tension, and work stress. They are affected emotionally since they are not treated well. They can adopt bad habits from the environment to which they are exposed. These have a negative effect on their mental growth and personality development. The children's lives are spoiled. For example, they can get involved in criminal activities or become drug addicts. Labor kills the child's innocence. A lot of work needs to be done to eliminate child labor from our society, starting with a campaign to raise public awareness about it, so that this serious problem can be addressed. Child labor is a great offence and needs to be dealt with effectively

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

'Flexible work generates a greater

output'

The introduction of flexible working for all staff at a recruitment consultancy has increased productivity and helped to attract top talent. Abe Avdiyovski, a divisional director at Ellis Fairbank, told PM: “In 90 per cent of cases, we are finding that those who work flexibly generate a greater output." Other advantages to come out of the measure, which was introduced for all staff in June 2005, include lower absenteeism, reduced staff turnover and increased morale. Last month, children’s minister Beverley Hughes suggested that flexible working rights should be extended to all employees to boost business. From next month, the right to request flexible working will be extended to careers. Ellis Fairbank has also launched an advertising campaign to recruit flexible workers externally. Avidiyovski described it as “a great way of attracting talent into the business”. Avril Gallo, a full-time employee on the interim team, and mother to a six-year-old, began working for the company in November after seeing the advertisement. Gallo, who now spends 85 per cent of her employment time working at home, said: “The advert caught my eye and struck a chord with me. It has given me the most fantastic opportunity. I have huge career progression prospects as well as good work-life balance." Currently, 20 per cent of Ellis Fairbank’s 170 employees work flexibly. This includes arrangements such as flexi-time, job shares, home- and remote-working. But Avdiyovski warned: “It’s a no-brainer as long as you manage it the right way and have got the technology and support mechanisms in place. If it is not managed correctly, flexible working can be a massive negative." He added that it was important to remember that “flexible working is not only for back-to-work mothers and careers

My sister passed away and her funeral was scheduled for Monday. When I told my Boss, he said she died on purpose so that I would have to miss work on the busiest day of the year.  He then asked if we could change her burial to Friday.  He said, "That would be better for me." (Shipping executive, FTD Florists)

EDITOR’S NOTE

DISCLAIMER“THIS NEWSLETTER IS OUR

SCHOOL(LAHORE SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS) ASSIGNMENT FOR

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SUBJECT AND IT IS NOT PUBLIC PRINTING

MATERIAL”

The newsletter has been specially designed to cover all topics concerning human resource management and its values. We have covered news at local and international level. The news has been carefully selected and keeping in mind the related issues in hr such as employees health & safety, employee benefits and career development. the best thing is that any employee can write into us if he is facing any workplace problem and our dedicated team of professionals will solve it for you.

PRESENTED TO

MISS ANQA SAIF( HUMAN RESOURCE TEACHER AT LAHORE SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS)

PRESENTED BY

MAHAM JAVED( THE ENTIRE FORMATTING , ARTICLE RESEARCH , AND SELCTION AND THE

IDEA OF WORKPLACE SANITY)

AMNA RASHIDSAADIA HASSAN

HASSAN SHAHZADSHAHREEN SHAHZAD

(COMICS AND ARTCLES “HUMAN RESOURSE ISSUES IN PAKISTAN )

PRINTING

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