HR Management System and Design Specific Intervention

Job Description

1. Background specific to this assignment

The government of Ethiopia is establishing industrial parks in different parts of the country in order to boost the Ethiopian textile, apparel-manufacturing sector, and create an attractive investment propositions for foreign direct investment. A major retail brand has attracted 13 of its principal venders to the Hawassa Industrial Park (HIP). The brand and its manufacturers have established an Investors’ Association (IA) to drive their common interests.

The tenants of the HIP have indicated that they will require 30,000 factory workers within three years. Since 2016, EP, the IA, Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute (ETIDI) and the Southern regional government have been working together to avail sufficient, factory ready work force to meet the labour demand of the tenants over a period of two years and six month.

However, factories that have started operations are already reporting high rates of staff absenteeism, turnover and signs of worker discontents primarily attributed to declining workers’ satisfaction with their salary and the working environment overall. This is causing disruptions to production planning, line and machine efficiency and investors are already reporting declining interest of developing their workers skills creating a strong likelihood that workers will remain with low skill level and low productivity. In light of these circumstances, ensuring that factories human resource management policies and practices are not only best practice but is tailored to local contexts and is reflective of the needs of both factories and its workers, has become highly crucial.

2. PURPOSE

The purpose of this assignment is to assess the Human Resource management and development system of factories to identify strength and gaps. Additionally, identify specific challenges faced by factories and works as it relates to worker retention, satisfaction, engagement and productivity. The consultant will then rely on the output of the assessment, international best practices and local contexts to prioritize and design specific areas of interventions that will support factories with improving workers’ satisfaction and engagement, reducing incidents of staff tardiness, absenteeism, turn over and improving factory’s ability to ramp up operation in an efficient, productive, short time.

3. SPECIFIC TASKS

The STTA is expected to bring his/her international experience, judgement and best industry knowledge to identify gap in current factories’ HR management and development system and devise concrete recommendations and implementation plan. The consultant will carry out the following activities.

• Review all relevant national laws and policies as it relates to human resource management and development.
• Define international HR practices as it relates to managing garment industry labour relations and improving worker retention and productivity i.e., process of recruitment, on boarding, training and development, career progression, retention based compensation and benefits, communication systems, avoidance and resolution of conflict etc.
• Review the HR policies and regulations of all factories in HIP, assess how it compares against the law of the nation, international best practice and local cultural context. Identify strength areas and areas for development as it relates to creating a conducive working environment that nurtures worker satisfaction and engagement.
• Interview the CEO, HR staffs and minimum of 2 supervisors of each factories in Hawassa Industrial Park to ensure an in-depth understanding of their working culture, preferences and styles. Uncover the root causes of the worker related difficulties that the factories are facing (e.g., absenteeism, turnover, low productivity, disputes etc.) and measure the impacts on their day-to-day company operations.
• Interview a minimum of 5 workers per factory to have an in-depth understanding of their needs, challenges and their level of satisfaction and engagement with their working environment. Additionally, assess if and how outside-factory-factors influence their performance and engagement inside factories.
• Based on the assessments conducted define the strength and weakness of current factories’ Human Resource Management system as it relates to ensuring workers satisfaction, engagement and retention level. Additionally, summarize the learning from the interviews from factories and workers.
• Based on the output of activity above, prioritize area of support for both factories and workers and design a coherent, clear set of interventions that the factories’ can use to improve workers satisfaction and engagement, reduce turnover, absenteeism, disputes etc. Compile international best practice and case studies to support recommendations.
• Host a workshop to present and validate the output of assessment and recommended interventions. All relevant actors must be in attendance i.e., all factories, Investor Association, Enterprise Partners, Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC), Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute, and other major stakeholders). In the workshop, reach an alignment with stakeholders on which interventions will be taken forward and design and co-develop a clear implementation plan.
• Submit to EP a final report covering all the activities above and that is validated and accepted by factories and all other relevant parties.

4. DELIVERABLES AND TIMEFRAME

The assignment will last for 6 weeks, from 17 July 2017 to 25 August 2017.

1. Submit Technical and Financial Proposal (July 3 - 7, 2017)

2. Finalize Partnership Agreement with Selected Consultant (July 2017)

3. Preparation to Undertake Assessment (July 18 - 21, 2017)

4. Conduct HR gap Assessment (July 24 - August 11, 2017)

5. Develop an Inception Report Outlines (August 14- 16, 2017)

- Learnings from the interview with factories and workers

- Gap Assessment of current factories HR systems

- Clear set of best practice recommendations to address them.

- International best practice and case studies to support recommendations

6. A workshop to disseminate result and recommendations, prioritize and agree on the set of recommendations to be taken forward. Define practical implementation plans on how to take the agreed recommendations forward (August 17-18, 2017)

7. Final report submitted to EP with all activities above included (August 21- 25, 2017)

5. CONSULTANTS REQUIRED

An international consultant with a minimum of twenty years of human resource management experience in the Ready Made Garment (RMG) sector.

• Minimum of twenty years of human resource management experience in the Ready Made Garment (RMG) sector
• Experience with Human Resource development in at least two of the listed countries (China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka) is required
• Private sector or entrepreneurial experience is an advantage
• Practical work experience with market systems (M4P) development approaches
• Team leadership or senior management experience required

For local experts, minimum of five to ten years of proven, firm level, human resource management experience in RMG or similar manufacturing industries.

• Minimum of ten years of experience in Human Resource management in Ethiopia; experience in Ready Made Garment sector and or similar manufacturing sector is an advantage;
• Factory background experience are desirable
• Team leadership or senior management experience required;

6. WORKING ARRANGEMENTS

• The international consultant must form a partnership with local HR consultants/firm of her/his choosing to undertake the assignment; EP can provide a list of local HR consultant if the international consultant requires assistance (Please reach out to Hilina_Getachew@enterprisepartners.org)
• The EP focal persons for this assignment to whom the consultant will be reporting to is the CTA intervention Manager and CTA Sector Lead.
• For the international consultant- 20 days based in Addis, 10 days remote (specific dates can be discussed based on EP need and consultant’s availability)

About the Organization

BACKGROUND

DAI Europe, together with consortium partners First Consult; Enclude; and ITAD, is managing the UKaid-funded Enterprise Partners (EP) and Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Programme (WEDP) which aim to support and transform the private sector and Ethiopia’s continued economic growth over the next 6 years with a total project budget of almost £70 million.

EP is utilising the Making Markets Work for the Poor approach (M4P) and has two main pillars to achieve the goal of integrating the poor, and especially women, in sustainable economic enterprises that create jobs and improve incomes. The planned impact is to create 45,000 jobs (75% of which will be held by women) and increase the incomes of 65,000 households by at least 20%.

The EP pillars are:

• The Finance Group is expected to achieve the outcome of increasing investment levels in the Ethiopian economy, particularly for growth-oriented small and medium enterprise. This will include funding of green technologies where appropriate and develop funding for green growth investment.
• The Agro-Industrial Group is expected to achieve the outcome of increasing returns on investment (productivity) and investment levels in the identified sectors of cotton/textiles, livestock/leather and horticulture, in order to achieve the impact of creating jobs and raising household incomes. Additionally this pillar will incorporate the promotion of climate change awareness and addressing women’s economic empowerment.

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