A PROJECT REPORTON STUDY OF

HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES

ATSHAH ALLOYS LTD.

SUBMITTED TO: Prof. Praneti Shah Prof. Vaibhavi Bhatt

SUBMITTED BY: Vinit Modi (090) Chirag Shrivastav(09099) Hardik Surati(09105) Jimmy Vohera(09)

(Beta division)

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PREFACE

No matter how much automation is introduced in our lives but it will always be the people who

will be involved in its success. Man will always be the soul of any working environment

possible. Thus managing the man has and will always hold importance for the success of the

organization.

This project report on HRM practices shares an overview of the general HRM practices being

carried on in a steel giant like SHAH ALLOYS LTD. All the activities that the HRM department

undertakes right from determining the requirement of human labor to the career planning of the

employees have been covered in it. It is also interesting to see how the entire company indirectly

acts as an HR personnel in the HRM practices. We have given our best efforts to explore all the

current and future HR trends in whatsoever time we got to share with industry. We also have

tried to suggest some innovations in the HR process that could help in bringing out better

productivity. As the budding managers, apart from the classroom teaching, it has been our

earnest effort to gain from this practical exposure to the real organization.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Firstly we would like to thanks Ms. Preneti Shah and Ms. Vaibhavi Bhatt, our Principle of

Management subject faculties, who gave us wonderful opportunity to study various facets of

HRM practices in a corporate world and gave us continuous support to complete it with honesty.

The journey of the project not only made us learn the latest HR trends but it also has sharpened

our skills of dealing with corporate people.

We further would like to show our deepest gratitude to Mr. Mayur Gandhi, who readily allowed

us to carry on a project study on HRM practices at giant company like SHAH ALLOYS and

provide an excellent mentorship for the same.

We acknowledge our gratitude to all who directly or indirectly have helped and encouraged us in

this endeavor.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. PROFILE OF TH COMPANY---------------------------------------------------------------------- 5

2. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AT SHAH ALLOYS LTD.---------------------------- 8

3. DEPARTMENTS AT SHAH ALLOYS LTD.----------------------------------------------------- 9

4. MEANING OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

5. APPLICATION OF THE TOPIC

a) MANPOWER REQUISITION AND SELECTION------------------------------------------- 10

DIAGRAM---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10

THE ENTIRE PROCESS OF REQUISITION IN A NUTSHELL------------------------- 11

b) TRAINING------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13

TRAINING FOR NEW RECRUITS ------------------------------------------------------------ 13

CORPORATE RECRUITS

WORKS RECRUITS

TRAINING FOR EXISTING EMOLYEE ----------------------------------------------------- 16

c) BENEFITS AND SERVICES AT SHAH ALLOYS LTD.-------------------------------- 17

INSURANCE

EMPLOYEE SAFETY AND HEALTH

d) PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL---------------------------------------------------------------- 18

e) UNIQUE PRACTICES AT SHAH ALLOY------------------------------------------------- 19

YOUR DEVELOPMENT IS MY CONCERN-------------------------------------------------- 20

f) CRITICAL INSIGHT AND RECOMMENDATIONS-------------------------------------- 21

TRAINING ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL------------------------------------------------------------------- 22

ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMS--------------------------------------------------------------- 23

THE ROLE OF HR IN QUALITY MANAGEMENT------------------------------------------ 23

LEADERSHIP---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24

6. CONCLUSION--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25

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PROFILE OF THE COMPANY

Rajendra VijayKumar Shah - The Chairman and Managing Director from a modest

beginning with acquisition of rolling mill in 1976, graduating to steel production in 1990

with installed capacity of 15000 T/annum steel at Shah Alloys Limited has come to acquire

a pride place in the country with production capacity of over 2, 00,000 T/annum through

technological advancement and cost competitiveness. Today Shah Alloys Limited is the

2nd largest stainless steel producer in the country aiming for the top spot.

Shah Alloys – A brief history

Incorporated in the early 90' the company was originally started to manufacture alloy steel

castings. Carbon and manganese steel castings, ingots and billets. Its initial capacity was

15,000 tons per annum for ingots and slabs at a capital cost of Rs. 26.39 million. Having

established its operations and achieving maximum capacity utilization, the company went

in for expansion and increased its capacity to 45,000 tons per annum at a capital cost of Rs

71.15 million.

In July 1994, looking at the overall favorable market conditions, additional equipment at

total project cost of Rs. 42.5 million to manufacture 15.000 tons per annum of Stainless

steel ingots within the overall capacity of 45.000 tons per annum was installed. Says Mr.

Rajendra Shah. Managing Director of Shah Alloys. "We realized that in the coming years

there is bound to be overcapacity in the mild steel sector and the stainless steel segment

would be more profitable than mild steel. That is when we decided to have a greater focus

on this sector."

Looking at the overwhelming response for stainless steel ingots and flats from the market,

the company expanded its installed capacity by 20.000 tons per annum with a capital cost

of Rs. 65.2 million. The project was completed in July 1995, but due to power problems,

the production commenced only in January 1996. According to Shah, as that time, it was

planned to install a capacity of 30,000 tons per annum for manganese steel products and

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35,000 tons per annum for stainless steel .But today the company is Utilizing capacity

mainly for stainless steel products.

A look at the financial performance of the company given below in the table and we can

see that Shah's move paid off well for as the world steel industry is reeling under

overcapacity and high costs, Shah Alloys financial performance has been improving

steadily over the last few years. Although margins in the stainless steel industry are not

those high. Shah Alloys has shown a consistent growth pattern.

CUSTOMER SERVICES:-

Shah Alloys accords priority to customer’s feedback. Manufacturing practices are constantly

updated and modified to subsequent requirement of customers in terms of quality, timely

delivery and after sales services.

QUALITY ASSURANCE:-

Shah Alloys accepted the fact that the reputation of the company lies on the quality of its

products. With stringent quality control measures aided by modern process control,

inspection and testing facilities. Shah Alloys ensures supply of quality products confirming

to International Standards. The quality assurance efforts are complemented by the testing

facilities of laboratory equipped with sophisticated equipment like. :

Universal Testing Machine

Hardness Tester

Impact Tester

Ultrasonic Flaw detector

Ultrasonic thickness gauge

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Full Fledged Chemical Laboratory

Temperature measuring equipments optical and infrared.

PRODUCT RANGE:-

-Grades of stainless steel

Utensil Grades

Austenitic Stainless Steel

Martens tic Stainless Steel

- Stainless Steel plate and H.R. coil

-Stainless Steel Bars

Stainless Steel Black Bars

Stainless Steel Wire Rod in Coil

Stainless Steel Bright Bars

Stainless Steel Wires

Stainless Steel Hex & Square

Stainless Steel Flat

Stainless Steel RCS

Stainless Steel Angles

-Stainless steel product range for Export.

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ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AT SHAH ALLOYS LTD.

Chairman and Managing Director

Vice President (Production)

Vice President (Administration)

General Manager (Purchase, Sales, Export)

Assistant General Manager

Senior Sales Executives

Supervisors

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THE DEPARTMENTS AT SHAH ALLOYS

Corporate Office:

GNFC Infotower, 9th Floor

Sarkhej-Gandhinagar Highway, Bodakdev

Ahmedabad 380 054

Gujarat, INDIA

MARKETING DEPARTMENT

PURCHASE DEPARTMENT

EXPORTS

ACCOUNTS

FINANCE

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Total employees: - 130

WORKS:

Block No. 2221-2222

Shah Industrial Estate

Sola-Kalol Road, Santej

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PLATE MILL

ROLL MILL

FLAT MILL

QUALITY CONTROL

STAKE MILL

CAPRI POWER PLANT

SLAB CASTER

CONE CASTER

CRM

HRM

Total employees: - 800

MANPOWER REQUISTION AND SELECTION

DIAGRAM

Specifying the requisites as per education, experience, age, Etc.

All the major local and national dailies

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Vacancy created due to Termination, expansion, promotion, increased work load

Requisition made by concerned department head to HRM

HRM department accordingly prepares the advertisement to be given for the same in various Medias

Applications received through post.

On the basis of factors like experience And basic educational requirement, Certain are rejected.

A fixed date and time is given and are reminded by phone calls.

DIAGRAM (contd.)

To get a feel of the employees SWOT

This the final stage when He either rejects or selects

As per his ultimate discretionary powers

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Primary Scanning of applications on the basis of requirement and other factors

All the scanned and selected applications are called for the interview.

1st Interview taken by respective Department heads concerned.

2nd interview taken by HR manager

3rd interview taken by Managing Director who makes the final decision.

Selected employees then meets the HR manager to know the joining date and finish off the formalities.

THE ENTIRE PROCESS OF REQUISITION IN A NUTSHELL

1. Vacancies created due to termination, promotion, expansion, additional work load, new

product introduction.

2. The concerned department sends a requisition to the HRM department along with job

description and specifications.

3. HRM accordingly prepares application for the advertisements in a few local and national

level newspapers.

4. Applications received are scanned primarily and rejected on the basis of basic

educational; requisites.

5. Eligible candidates are called for interview sessions on fixed date and time. They are

reminded by phone calls after the official letters posted.

6. 1st interview is taken by concerned Department head that made the requisition of

employee. The

interview is mostly a technical session.

7. 2nd interview is taken by the HR manager to get a feel of the employee’s SWOT.

8. 3rd and final interview is taken by supreme- MANAGING DIRECTOR, who makes the

final say on whether the employee is suitable.

9. If selected the employee finishes off the formalities with HR manager.

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TRAINING

(A) TRAINING FOR NEW RECRUITS

- CORPORATE RECRUITS

1). AT THE ADMIN DEPT.

1 st Day : -

The training for the new recruits starts with a rather informal meetings and visits at company

premises to get a feel of the place where they are supposed to put in long hours of work. They

observe the working system and conditions. The flow of work and other minute details employee

can observe and get acquainted with the entire place.

2 nd Day : - (Product training)

-The recruits are called upon by the Department head and HR manager in the conference room

for imparting the entire product knowledge.

-The detailed handouts of company’s products is given to the employee and are expected to have

a fair knowledge of the entire product range of company.

-Handout regarding the RULES AND REGULATIONS AT THE COMPANY is given to them.

-Recruits are expected to learn about products and company’s strategies for them, as home work.

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3 rd Day : -

-Then an informal cross–checking is carried out as to what the employee has absorbed in a short

period.

-Inter-department responsibilities are delegated to them to limited extent to enable them to get

feel of the real job.

- This entire process goes on for a week, after which they are taken to site of manufacturing-

WORKS.

2). AT THE WORKS. (SITE)

-After a week’s training at the Administration Office, the new recruits are in for a weeks training

at the PLANT’S site.

- The employees are taken to company’s plant site at SANTEJ, where various products section

like

PLATE MILL

ROLL MILL

FLAT MILL

QUALITY CONTROL

STAKE MILL

CAPRI POWER PLANT

SLAB CASTER

CONE CASTER

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Along with the CRM and HRM departments

- An overview of the entire process right from procurement of raw materials to sales is

given to recruits along with knowledge of wide range of products that SHAH ALLOYS

don the honors for.

- They are also arranging meetings with department heads and other seniors with the new

recruits.

- The company feels, all this will help the employee to learn to build interpersonal

relationships.

Thus an exhaustive training period of at least 15 days even to the employees of

corporate office ensures that they are fully aware of the company as a whole, they are

working for. This also helps to build the image of the organization as each and every

employee of the company has a considerable knowledge of its products and processes.

RECRUITS AT WORKS

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-As the employees at WORKS basically deal with the technicalities of the production, their

training sessions largely differs from the recruits at corporate office.

-The training sessions from day 1 are purely technical, including every minute detail from

specification of raw materials to large furnaces.

-A group of 10 recruits undergo a training of 1 month under the mentorship of an experienced

employee at a senior position.

-The training sessions mainly concentrates on the various specifications and settings of the large

appliances such as heating furnaces and others such as

Billet-Bloom Caster- 6/11 meter radius bow type billet - bloom casting machine, capable of

casting 100mm Square to 160mm square section (fully closed)

Slab Caster-7 Meter radius slab caster. The widest in India for stainless steel slab caster from

200mm to 1800mm wide and in 140mm thickness to 160mm thickness

-Due to very high costs involved in these giant appliances and large production batches, a very

small mistake in the using or setting them up, can cause huge financial losses.

-Thus this kind of complications is widely covered up in the training sessions.

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-ROLLING MILL

(B) TRAINING FOR EXISTING EMPLOYEES ( ON THE JOB TRAINING)

-On the job training for existing employees is carried out every month for one or two days.

- HRM department communicates each month the details of the training sessions to be held.

- The batch size of this training program does not cross 35.

-On the basis of the contents of training program to be held, the respective heads of each

department decide which employees of his department are in need of this training and

accordingly authorize them for the purpose.

-A maximum of 2-3 employees from each department are scheduled to be trained each month.

- Professional and experts from various departments are being called to deliver technical and

motivational lectures in such training sessions.

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- Such training involves a cost of above Rs. 10000 per day.

BENEFITS AND SERVICES AT SHAH ALLOYS LTD

INSURANCE:-

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-Group life insurance of all the employees, regardless of the health or physical conditions

is undertaken by the company. The company pays the 100% of the base premium. The

amount of life insurance is of employee’s 2 year salary.

EMPLOYEE SAFETY AND HEALTH:-

-To ensure total safety at the work place, various measures are taken at SHAH ALLOYS

LTD.

-A full body protective suit along with a helmet is a prerequisite before entering the

WORKS

( Plant site).

-Proper glasses to protect the eyes and face from fire are provided.

-Due to immense heat at the site huge fans run round the clock to ensure relief to the

employees.

-A fully equipped paramedical staff in case of emergency (considering the risk from fire)

is always kept ready round the clock at the doorstep of WORKS

.

-There is a well equipped dispensary with expert doctors and support staff to ensure quick

treatment.

-A staff of firefighter with latest fire fighting tools are employed at the site considering

high danger from fire.

WORK PLACE RESTRICTIONS:-

-Alcoholism at work place is strict no at the SHAH ALLOY PREMISES.

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-Violence at work place to settle scores are strongly prohibited and strict disciplinary

actions are taken against them those do.

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

-At SHAH ALLOYS LTD. the PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL quite simple and straight

forward.

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- Any employee’s performance appraisal is carried out by his respective department head in a

specific manner.

- The performance appraisal is carried out only for the employees who have completed minimum

one year at the company.

- The Graphic Rating Scale Method is used for performance appraisal.

- Each employee is being evaluated each year through this method by his Department Head.

- A minimum score is pre-determined for any kind of promotion.

- Apart from this, rater’s discretion also has a great role to play, which depends on the type of

image of the employee that has been created in mind of the doctor.

- PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS interviews are also taken. To check the level of confidence

that the employees possess interview is best way of gauging.

UNIQUE HR PRACTICES AT SHAH ALLOYS LTD

-In most of the organizations, development needs are identified as a part of performance appraisal. In that

case an employee is more bothered about the assessment grade he would get and the superior would focus

more on the assessment message he would be required to give. Focus on rewards from both the sides

generally dilutes the focus on development need identification.

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-Every year in the month of January, employee & HOD meet for 2 hours away from workplace.

-In the meeting the employee is encouraged to share his developmental needs, the support he wants from

the organization, from his superior and the type of support he will generate himself.

-After that the HOD provides the feed back to the employee on the plan of development.

-After the meeting HOD provides the data of developmental needs of the employees to HRD department.

-Based on these inputs, HRD department prepares development calendar for the complete year. As a part

of this unique practice each individual employee is given commitment letter.

Your Development Is My Concern - A unique practice at Shah Alloys Ltd. where appraisal and

development needs are separated.

In most of the organizations, development needs are identified as a part of performance appraisal. In that

case an employee is more bothered about the assessment grade he would get and the superior would focus

more on the assessment message he would be required to give. Focus on rewards from both the sides

generally dilutes the focus on development need identification.

At Shah Alloys Ltd, they have separated out these two major exercises. i.e. performance assessment and

development need identification.

Every year in the month of January, employee & HOD meet for 2 hours away from workplace. In the

meeting the employee is encouraged to share his developmental needs, the support he wants from the

organization, from his superior and the type of support he will generate himself. After that the HOD

provides the feed back to the employee on the plan of development. After the meeting HOD provides the

data of developmental needs of the employees to HRD department. Based on these inputs, HRD

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department prepares development calendar for the complete year. As a part of this unique practice each

individual employee is given commitment letter communicating him about the date of his development

programs in advance.

The program has contributed substantially towards creating open, very warm and encouraging work

environment.

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ANALYSIS OF IMPLEMENTED STRATEGIES

Our project study on HR practices at SHAH ALLOYS LTD. has enabled us to look

beyond the text book concepts of HRM.

We also discovered as to which extent any corporate (such as SHAH ALLOYS LTD.)

follows the latest HR trends and practices.

While moving along our project we have tried to build a logical reasoning for each and

every activity that the HRM undertakes and how far they are successful for effective

management of human capital.

Thus we have tried to suggest some innovations in HR activities at SHAH ALLOYS

which might be helpful to further strengthen the HRM.

TRAINING:-

-The training procedures and methods undertaken at SHAH ALLOYS LTD. are quite

simple and logical.

-It is interesting to note that even though employees of corporate office not have much to

deal with site side, the training procedure takes care that they do undertake visits at sites

and get acquainted with heart of the company and its real people and products.

- Thus it not only ensures the employees’ knowledge about the company they are

working for but also enhances the prestige of the company when the details of the

company are the top of their employees’ mind.

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-In much similar situation in case of WORKS’ recruits are purely given the technical

training concerned to them which is to some extent, logical. But then still even those

employees need to have feel of the entire organization although may not be exhaustive as

in case of corporate office recruits.

- Thus we suggest some sort of informal meetings arranged for them with the corporate

employees at corporate premises, which not only enhance the interpersonal skills but

also inculcate a bonding among the all the employees of the company.

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

-The Performance Appraisal techniques seemed quite dull without proper leveraging.

- Graphic Rating Scale alone will be a less reliable tool for performance evaluation,

although interview will help to a certain extent.

- A viable and effective solution could be ‘CRITICAL INCIDENT METHOD’ which

would ensure that the person is judged on his actions at various time frames of his job.

- Critical Incident Method, rates the employee on the basis of his response (good or

poor ) to critical situation i.e. a contingency.

- Thus it also gives us an idea as to which employees and how much capable they are of

taking the responsibilities in absence of a leader or in a tight situation.

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ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMS

-The working environment is becomes quite boring due monotony of work at SHAH

ALLOYS premises. Some entertainment program such informal meeting in small parties

can be arranged to keep the employees afresh in spite of the work load and pressures.

- Further picnics on short trips can be arranged to develop a bond among the co-workers,

because its while enjoying that people come closer and that closeness can reap benefits

when they get back to serious work.

- It will also make the employees feel that life is much more than just working at office

like place.

THE ROLE OF HR IN QUALITY MANAGEMENT

-Quality programs rely so heavily on well-trained, committed employees that it’s hard to

separate the two.

-Thus at SHAH ALLOYS, the HR department has made it a point to stress heavily on

quality factors right from the beginning to all stages of training and even after that.

- Due to giant appliances used for the steel production which require utmost care while

setting them up for the production, as a minor fault can disastrous or might spoil an entire

lot of production, which could prove huge losses.

- Thus to make it very clear that even a very low margin of error is not acceptable, the

mistakes are heavily discouraged by monetary fines and even demotion or termination in

extreme cases.

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LEADERSHIP ASPECT

-At SHAH ALLOYS LTD. a very sound leadership technique is used wherein the

employees feel themselves to be very much a part of the organization.

- As each employee every year gets a chance to give feed back and suggestions

for his own as well the organization’s development, he is highly motivated to

work at an emotional level for the organization.

- The only recommendation that we could give that a gap of an year for providing

a feedback is too long a period. We suggest to carry on the same practice at

intervals of six months.

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CONCLUSION

-The branch of Human Resource Development or you may call it Human Resource

Management, includes a lot many things i.e. all the activities that an organization

undertakes are a part of HRM directly or indirectly.

- The theory of HRM speaks a whole range of activities that is supposed to performed

under HRM. But in reality, even in corporate scenario of India, it is still a very immature

concept.

- Application of HR in real sense has still a long way to go.

- But all this can never undermine the need and importance of an effective HR

department in any organization.

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