An Analysis of Mobilink’s Performance Appraisal System

A Career Planning & Management Project

Contents

Mission Statement...............................................................................................................................3

Vision...................................................................................................................................................3

History of Company.............................................................................................................................3

Values..................................................................................................................................................4

Products of Mobilink............................................................................................................................4

Services offered...................................................................................................................................4

Major Clients/Customers.....................................................................................................................5

Number of Customers..........................................................................................................................5

Competition.........................................................................................................................................5

Major Departments.............................................................................................................................6

Human Resource Management Department........................................................................................7

Mission Statement...........................................................................................................................7

Sections...........................................................................................................................................8

Strategies.........................................................................................................................................8

HR Practices...................................................................................................................................10

Performance Appraisal...................................................................................................................11

Objectives of Performance Appraisals.........................................................................................11

Appraisal Policy..........................................................................................................................11

Performance Review...................................................................................................................11

Appraisal categories...................................................................................................................12

Sources of Performance Appraisal..............................................................................................13

Feedback....................................................................................................................................13

Training and Development..........................................................................................................13

Training Methods.......................................................................................................................14

Types of Training in Mobilink......................................................................................................14

Performance Measurement System............................................................................................16

Career Planning & Development.................................................................................................16

Promotion Policies......................................................................................................................17

Bonuses......................................................................................................................................18

Reward System...........................................................................................................................18

Conclusion.........................................................................................................................................19

Recommendations.............................................................................................................................20

References................................................................................................................................................23

Mission Statement

“To be the unmatchable mobile system of communications in Pakistan this provides the best value to its customers,

employees, business partners and shareholders.” Vision

“To be the leading telecommunication services provider in Pakistan by offering innovative communication solutions of

our customers while exceeding shareholder value and employee expectations”

History of Company Mobilink is a subsidiary of Orascom telecom. Orascom telecom is headed by Egyptian based

chairman Mr. Naguib Sawiris. It was founded to achieve a fundamental target to build one

unique telecommunications entity of Arab identity. In its effort to fulfill its regional strategy,

Orascom Telecom now has 20 operating licenses; 5 in Arab countries (Egypt, Jordan. Syria,

Yemen and recently Algeria) one in Pakistan and 15 in central and sub-Saharan African

countries (cote D’ Ivory, Zimbabwe, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Zambia, Uganda, The central

African republic, DRC, Togo, Benin, Chad, Gabon, Burundi and Niger). It adopted Mobilink in

June 2000, since then it has seen a dynamic and full throttled speed of development and

prosperity.

PMCL (Pakistan Mobile Communication (Pvt.) Limited) was set up in 1994 with its head quarters

in Lahore. PMCL is a joint venture between Motorola incorporated and Saif Media Group.

Mobilink first launched its services in Lahore in August of 1994. Since then the network has

grown and now Mobilink covers thirty-nine cities.

Mobilink uses Motorola’s infrastructure and upgrades through technological support and

advancement. Seeing that Motorola is the world’s largest manufacturer of cellular phones and

the second largest company in cellular infrastructure, it is the cornerstone of the Mobilink

structure. It has already achieved the 6- sigma level of quality i.e. three defects per million

parts.

Values Trust and integrity

Commitment to total customer satisfaction

Team work and respect for people

Passion or business excellence

Responsible corporate citizen

Products of Mobilink

Mobilink have two products

Jazz

Indigo

Services offered MOBILINK GSM has always been the market leader when it comes to introducing state-of-the-

art communication solutions for its customers. We are continuously adding up to the range of

our Value Added Services, all for your convenience.

Following are the major services

Caller time identification

Call waiting

Call holding

Call forwarding

Short messaging services

Fax and data services

International rooming

News information services

Mobilink(GSM)G mail

Superior security in billing

Mobile TV

Entertainment & many more

Major Clients/CustomersMobilink has about 53% market share.

Number of CustomersTotal numbers of subscribers are about 12 Million. The major customers are from jazz package.

CompetitionThe Company is facing competition from all operators in telecom including SGM (Global System

of mobile) operators, CDMA operators and LDI operators and land line operators. All these

telecom companies are mobilizing their Human Resource Departments to ensure a constant

supply of new and efficient employees. Therefore, there is stiff competition in the telecom

market for Mobilink. Major competitors include,

Telenor

Ufone

Warid

Zong

Major Departments

Finance Department

Credit and collection

Procurement imports

Revenue assurance

Customer Services Department

Customer services operations

Customer services system

Commercial Department

Marketing

Direct sales

Indirect sales

Technical Department

Switching

Operations / operation support

Logistics

Infrastructure

Systems planning

Information Technology Department

Billing

IT

Human resources

Administration and legal affairs & government relation department

Internal audit department

Customer services

Human Resource Management Department

Mission Statement

“To lead the organization in enhancing its human capital and create a winning environment

where everyone enjoys contributing to the best of one’s ability.”

Mobilink plans to achieve this by:

Inspiring and motivating its people.

Developing its people to strive for higher standards.

Driving an open minded and enterprising corporate culture where people through

leadership at all levels dare to dream, dare to try, dare to fail and dare to succeed.

Attracting and recruiting the best talent

Mobilink has a very defined and well structured department and its various policies of keeping

each employee productive part of the organization are intoned with the corporate world’s

requirement.

Employees in the company are largely committed to their organization and have shown

progress in the company. Employees are satisfied with the HR department of Mobilink GSM

Company.

Humans are the basic tool for having competitive edge in the market for most of the

organizations and Mobilink is one of these. Mobilink has one of the best HR systems in Pakistan

that gives it an edge over its competitors.

Sections

HR department of Mobilink has three sections. Employee Services

Payroll information Leave and medical record

Final settlements and provident fund Policies and procedures Employees record and recreation

OD & Effectiveness Training plan Talent management Performance management Employees retention Orientation employee communication

Staffing and Compensation Staffing plan and HR budgeting Management trainee and internship program Interviewing and selection Headhunters Compensation, benefits and incentive

Strategies

Human resource department is putting its efforts towards nurturing a winning corporate

culture and building organizational capabilities by ensuring that its people at all levels are both

able and willing to perform at consistently exceptional levels. At MOBILINK the people have

been empowered to a large degree by minimizing out dated rules /regulations and plan to

further eliminate the bureaucratic barriers to capitalize on their ingenuity and talent.

HR strategy refers to the specific human resource management course of actions that a

company pursues to achieve its objectives. But how these strategies/policies/practices are

formulated and implemented at Mobilink. There is a whole process behind this.

The top team continues to play its role in providing the guidance and support to people at all

levels. The HR (people’s) function ensures that it leads the transformational change by

nurturing a climate, which would help in converting the huge potential at disposal of the

company into world-class performance.

The active and effective role played by HR in people development at different levels

organizational, departmental and individual is considered in MOBILINK to be one of the most

critical factors leading to the development of a winning corporate culture. The effort continues

Mobilink’s Competitive Environment

Economic, Political, Demographic, Competitive and

Technological Trends

Company’s Strategic Situation

Company’s Internal Strengths and Weaknesses

Organizational Performance

Company’s Strategic Plan

Company’s HR strategies

Formulation of HR policies Formulation of HR practices

to be directed towards developing the skills of the shop floor employees, improving

competencies of Business Support Officers (BSOs), and enhancing the leadership qualities of

managers.

Like most big organizations, the development of HR Strategies is also done in accordance with

company’s mission. First, Strategic planners analyze what actually is the prevalent culture of the

organization, what are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT analysis) of

business and its market, and on the basis of all the above analysis, company’s strategic plan is

established. In the end

Based on these HR strategies, HR policies and practices are also formed and implemented. Any

abrupt change in the market requires the organization to follow this analysis in order to be

successful. That why organizations continuously keeps on updating their strategies and policies.

Whole system for development of HR strategies/policies/practices is as below:

HR Practices

Some basic HR practices being carried out at Mobilink are,

Planning

Recruitment

Selection

Performance Appraisal System

Compensation

Training & Development

Career Planning and Development

Occupational Health and Safety measures

Research and Development

Reward Management

Employee Relations

Performance Appraisal

Reviewing performance and taking positive steps to develop employees further is a key

function of management and is a major component in ensuring the success of the company

through effective employee performance. Although the appraisal process is conducted at each

department by their own supervisors through interviews or written forms, the screening

process is carried out by the HR department itself.

However, due to certain policies of the management, the confidentiality of the system is very

high. Though we did manage to gather some information regarding the system and how it leads

to the development of the employee, we were not able to attain the complete system with

supporting data.

A review is about ensuring people know what levels of performance are expected of them and

then taking action to ensure they are trained and developed to perform effectively.

Objectives of Performance Appraisals To measure the work performance To motivate and assist employees in improving their performance And achieving their professional goals To identify employees with high potentials for advancements

To identify employees training and development needs To provide a solid path for career planning for each individual

Appraisal PolicyThe intent of these appraisals is to review current job performance and responsibilities, set

goals and discuss further opportunities with reference to past performance at Mobilink.

Performance ReviewAt MOBILINK a review is intended to be an open and frank discussion between an employee

and their Team Leader/Manager. Generally there are two elements:

First is the element in which discussion takes place over the strengths and areas which need to

be developed as displayed by the job holder over the past 12 months. The performance is of

course judged comparing the performance against the core indicators of Job.

The second element is concerned with discussing the training needs/inputs activities that are

considered to be appropriate to help the jobholder overcome some of development areas

discussed in the review and also those activities that are deemed appropriate to build upon

their current strengths.

Appraisal categories

Appraisal category Definition of category

% Of total numbers of employees which can be rated in this category

1. ExpertIndicates exceptional

performance15%

2. Very Good

Indicate performance that consistently meets the

requirements of the position,” very good” indicates the individual is on track for

advancements

10%

3. Good

Indicated performance that requires improvement (i.e. meet requirements without initiative

or advancement)

8%

4. BasicPerformance to be improved (hardly meets requirements)

5%

Sources of Performance AppraisalAt Mobilink the primary sources of performance appraisal are the managers and secondary

sources are employees themselves. Though the peers also give their opinion but it usually does

not have any consideration unless a conflict arises between the manager and the employee.

Feedback

Workers at MOBILINK are informed of their performance and given the opportunity to express

their opinion over their own level of performance against each competence. This serves the

following two main purposes:

It enables the reviewer to redefine whether the initial assessment was correct, as

circumstances may exist that the reviewer is unaware of.

By asking the worker what he sees to be his own strengths and development areas often

help to reduce negative responses and makes planning training needs/inputs activities

easier if the person is able to express for himself the areas in which he feels he can improve.

Training and Development

The second step of the appraisal process after reviewing is the training and development of the

employee. Now Mobilink focuses keenly on the weaknesses of its employees in order to

identify and eradicate them.

Training is a planned effort to facilitate employees learning of job-related competencies and

overcoming their weak points. These include knowledge, skills or behaviors that are critical for

the successful job performance.

At MOBILINK, there is a continuous assessment of the technical and managerial skills. For the

further enhancement of these skills formal training programs are offered at all levels. The

employees are provided with opportunities to put these skills into practice, in preparation for

the move to a managerial role.

Training is viewed at MOBILINK as a way of creating intellectual capital. Employees are

expected to acquire new skills and knowledge, apply them on job and share this information

with other employees. The training is cross-functional for sharing of skills.

The employee are trained periodically either locally or abroad according to preplanned

schedules. The objective of such training is to upgrade the capabilities of employees.

If an employee attends an overseas training then he/she has to serve the company for a certain

period after the date of completion of training subject to the cost and duration of training itself.

In case an employee leaves the company during this period he/she will have to pay the amount

specified at that point in time.

Training Methods

On Job Training

Special Training Sessions

Team Building

Problem Based

Refresher Courses

Types of Training in Mobilink

On a general basis the training done in Mobilink can be divided into two categories:

• Soft skill training

• Technical Training

Soft Skill Training

Helping your employees develop a stronger base of knowledge on topics that affect their

personal lives can make them more productive and less distracted in their jobs. Soft skill

development courses in areas like personal finance and childcare can help your team better

manage the most important areas in their personal lives.

This may include the following things for e.g.

• Conflict management training

• People management training

• Communication skills

• Anger management

• Time management training

• Teamwork training etc

Technical Training

This type of training has direct effect on the job of the employee. Specific skills are focused and

developed accordingly. The engineering trainings of Mobilink are also included with this along

with

• Customer Services training

• Sales related training

• Marketing and technology training etc.

All these types of training are done to enhance the employee’s job skills at the level he is at.

Training programs leads to:

Leadership

Influencing

Creative Problem Solving

Performance Measurement System

Strengths: Though the management claims that their Performance Measures are congruent to

strategies, reliable and acceptable but they emphasized that the main strengths of their

systems are the validity and specificity.

Validity: The performance measurement systems used at PMCL are valid. As stated by the

management, the core job areas extensively. They are not only aligned with the company’s

strategic objectives but are also free from deficiency. Contamination is acceptable as a few

things extra from the actual job requirements are expected.

Specificity: The performance measure used at PMCL has a very high specificity because it

guides the employees as to where they lack and how can they improve.

Career Planning & Development

Mobilink faces much competition in the telecom industry so now they are focusing on career

Management of their employees in which they enable the employees to better understand and

develop their career skills and interests and to use these skills and interests most effectively

both within the company and after they leave the firm. Career planning is the deliberate

process through which someone becomes aware of personal skills, interests knowledge,

motivation, and other characteristics; acquires information about other opportunities and

choices; identifies career related goals and establishes action plans to attain specific goals.

Career development is the lifelong series of activities (such as workshops) that contributes to a

person career exploration, establishment, and success.

Mobilink gives promotion to their employees on the performance basis. The Mobilink HR

department develops the employee’s career development plans in which the HR department

predicts the next logical step for their employees within five years.

Importance of Career planning in today’s competitive world is as important as any other HR

function. Retaining your valuable Human resource today is one of the biggest challenges that

organizations are facing. So, HR needs to come up with new strategies. Career planning and

development is one of the basic tool and strategy organizations are using for retaining their

employees. This function actually makes employees feel that they are important to the

organization and Mobilink wants them to be at the top in their careers.

However, at Mobilink this function is not fully performed or we should say this function is not

performed satisfactorily. There are some policies on these but those are not recognized that

well. One point of policy is found along with the compensation other with the recruitment.

There should have been separate head for these policies.

As far as the practices are concerned, all the employees were reluctant to talk about this during

our interview. However, what we analyzed is that career development is practiced but not that

openly. Specially, in case if some employee is considering of joining the competitor’s firm. If

such is a case then organization has discipline policies for that even.

Promotion Policies

The new company structure is in five layers, comprising associates, specialists, managers,

directors and chief officers; in that order starting from the bottom and working towards the top

rung of the ladder.

Until approved otherwise, it would be mandatory for the employees to spend the following

maximum period at each level before a promotion to the next level depending upon availability

of a slot:

Associate 3-4 years

Specialist 3-4 years

Manager 2-3 years

Director According to the president decision

Chiefs According to the president decision

However, employees who may not get a chance of promotion due to the non availability of an

existing slot will be compensated by being “moved over” within the new salary range specified

by the company.

Promotions are also reward management technique to motivate employees. In MOBILINK

promotions are based on the merit and seniority (experience) basis. The one who performs well

consistently over time gets reward in the form of promotion.

Bonuses

The employee may receive 1 to 3 month bonus subject to evaluation of accomplished

objectives.

In Mobilink the reward system is based on the individual performance and individual employee

performance is judged for the reward. The manager of respective departments recommends a

candidate from his section for the reward purpose to HR.

Reward System

Mobilink considers its employees not just as a cost but also as a resource in which the company

has invested from which it expects valuable returns. Pay policies and programs are one of the

most important human resource tools for encouraging desired employee behaviors. The

advantage of paying above the market average is the ability to attract and retain the top talent

available, which can translate into highly effective and productive work force.

The incentive schemes and incentive objective have been clearly communicated to all

individuals and depends on their performance and appraisals. Intrinsic and Extrinsic rewards

include:

Smart/Quality work

Exceptional performance in a project

Targets achievements

Special assignments

Medical care

Life insurance

Vacations

Relocation

Credit advance policy provident policy/advance against provident fund and a capping of

gratuity

Recreation

Club Policy Travel

Education assistance policy

Mobile phone

Business mobile phone policy

Official Blackberry Policy

Life insurance

Medical entitlement

Conclusion

Mobilink exhibits a strong appraisal system. Although it is difficult to analyze and assess the

whole system on such less information, the extent of confidentiality is understandable owing to

the need of a competitive advantage. However, it can still be deduced that the system in place

is effective and yielding results as Mobilink is the market leader in the telecom sector in

Pakistan.

Recommendations

To establish core competence and to bring competitiveness, Mobilink should implement

numerous effective plans to improve the performance of its various departments. Supervisors

must manage employee performance well in order for Mobilink to accomplish its mission and

achieve its goals.

Following are some recommendations for Mobilink,

Effective Performance Management

Performance management is one of the most important parts of a Supervisor’s or team leader’s

job. Developing skills in performance Management is wise investments that will help Mobilink

achieve its Goals.

Managing employee performance includes:

Planning work and setting expectations

Monitoring and measuring performance

Developing the capacity to perform

Periodically rating performance in a summary fashion

Recognizing and rewarding good performance

Practicing good performance management requires proficiency in certain competencies.

Competencies are observable, measurable Patterns of skills, knowledge, abilities, behaviors and

other Characteristics that an individual needs to perform work roles or Occupational functions

successfully. Performance management Competencies that all supervisors (and team leaders)

at Mobilink Should develop and demonstrate include:

Communication

Establishing and maintaining effective communications with each Employee not only requires

good oral and written communications Skills, but it also includes the ability to establish good

working Relationships. To communicate effectively with employees, Supervisors must establish

an environment that promotes an open Door atmosphere, the sharing of ideas, and employee

involvement in decision making processes. This will help in better understanding of where the

employee is lacking and how the company can help him develop.

Setting Goals

Setting long and short-term goals with employees gives focus to Employee efforts. When goal

setting is done correctly, employees strive to accomplish those goals and feel confident in

achieving them. When goal setting is done poorly, work does not progress as desired. Knowing

how to set goals effectively is an important part of Performance management. To do this well,

supervisors need to be able to clarify expectations and to set realistic standards and targets.

Measuring Employee Performance

Credible measures of performance that employees understand and accept are critical for

achieving high level performance. Measuring employee accomplishments, using both

qualitative and quantitative measures, provides the information that supervisors and

employees need in order to monitor performance.

Giving Feed Back

Feedback should inform, enlighten, and suggest improvements to employees regarding their

performance. Supervisors should describe specific work related behavior or results they

observe as close to the event as possible.

Coaching & Developing

Using their coaching skills, supervisors evaluate and address the developmental needs of their

employees and help them select diverse experiences to gain necessary skills. Supervisors and

employees create development plans that might include training, new assignment, job

enrichment, self study or work details.

References

1. Mr. Syed Sohaib Hassan

Associate Organizational Development

Human Resource Department,

MOBILINK, F-8/3,

Islamabad.

2. Mr. Hasan Jahangir

MOBILINK,

F-8 Markaz, Islamabad.

3. Usman AhmadMOBILINK,

F-8 Markaz, Islamabad.

4. Searching for overview on Performance AppraisalSearched at:www.mobilinkgsm.com.Accessed on: 18th May 2009

5. Searching for Performance Appraisal SystemsSearched at:www.google.comAccessed on: 18th May 2009

6. Searching for history of Mobilink and its performance appraisal systemsSearched at:www.wikipedia.comAccessed on: 19th May 2009