NICMAR

CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

INDEX INTRODUCTION OF SITE CONDITIONS INTRODUCTION OF MAIN PROBLEM FACTORS WHICH AFFECTING OUTPUT THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF ABSENTEEISM AND QUITS SUGGESTED FACTOR FOR HYGIENE FACTOR AND MOTIVATIONAL FACTOR BIBLIOGRAPHY 3 4 6 12 14 18

Assignment No. 1

NICMAR

CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

Introduction of Site Conditions:

Construction of a 3km long tunnel, the site located is in a remote area & the nearest town to the construction site is very far. The only available mode of transport from Site to city is by road. Although the distance between the two places is less but it takes approximately 2 days because of extremely poor road condition and hilly terrain. The atmospheric condition at the site is also extremely cold and foggy. Supervisors, Technicians and skill workers are involved in dangerous and hazardous work, which need to be looked upon seriously. Significant number of workers engaged in the project has been tested drug alcohol positive. The output of the workers is less due which on time completion of the project may be delayed if not attended.

Assignment No. 1

NICMAR

CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

Introduction of Key problems (Problem study):

There is no doubt that construction is a key activity within any economy, it influences and is influenced by, the nation's gross domestic product (GDP), in India construction industry is the second largest industry after agriculture. It makes a significant contribution to the national economy and provides employment to large number of people but from past so many years construction has been the only industry with a consistently negative productivity growth not only in India in other countries also and it has been a major source of the declining growth rate of the total economy in most of the countries.

LABOR PRODUCTIVTYOF INDUSTRIAL ECONOMY

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NICMAR

CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

The industry has to overcome a number of challenges to achieve the productivity. Productivity can classify into two main groups: technological factors and administrative factors. The technological factors encompass those related mostly to the design of the project, the administrative group factors relate to the management and construction of the project. Technological factors comprise sub-groups such as design factors, material factors and location factors. Administrative factors comprise sub-groups, such as construction methods and procedural factors, equipment factors, labour factors, and social factors. Classified factors influencing construction productivity into two categories: external and internal, representing those outside the control of the firm's management, and those originating within the firm. External factors included the nature of the industry, construction client knowledge of construction procedure, weather, and level of economic development. Internal factors included management, technology, labour, and labour unions. The factors affecting construction productivity are rarely constant, and may vary from country to country, from project to project, and even within the same project its depending on circumstances. organization, Productivity= output Resources used Improving productivity is a major concern for any profit-oriented

Assignment No. 1

NICMAR

CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

These factors affecting the output can classify into a few groups:
Manpower Leadership Motivation Time Materials/ tools Supervision Project group Safety group Quality group External group

Manpower group: The factor negatively affecting the productivity in this group is lack of labour experience, followed by labour disloyalty, labour dissatisfaction,

misunderstanding among labour, lack of competition, increase in labourer age, labour absenteeism, and labour personal problems. Experience of workforce affects job site productivity. This result is justified, as experience improves both the intellectual and physical abilities of labour which consequently increase labour productivity. Disloyalty of labour is also negatively affecting labour productivity.

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NICMAR

CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

Misunderstanding among labours creates disagreement among labours about job responsibility and work bond of each labourer which leads to a lot of mistakes in work and consequently decreases in labour productivity.

Lack of competition is giving an average effect on labour productivity. Age of the workforce can affect the job site productivity like labour speed, agility and strength decline overtime and cause to a lower productivity.

Absenteeism of two types one is innocent absenteeism in which labour is absent from work due to genuine reason it may be due to illness or personal family problem another is culpable absenteeism in which labour is absent from work without any valuable reason which is harm for productivity. Personal problems cause only mental distraction for labour, and mental distraction affects labour safety more than labour productivity.

Leadership group: The factor negatively affecting the productivity in this group is lack of labour surveillance, misunderstanding between labour and supervisor lastly lack of periodic meeting with labours. Lack of labour surveillance increases labour mistake at work as well as delaying corrective action for these mistakes. Misunderstanding between labour and supervisors creates bad relations between them. Such misunderstandings have adverse effects on labour mood, and consequently decrease productivity.

Assignment No. 1

NICMAR

CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

Lack of periodic meetings with labour is considered to be instrumental on labour productivity Motivation group: The factors in this group is payment delay, lack of financial motivation system, lack of labour recognition programs, non-provision of transportation and lack of training sessions. Payment delay has a very bad effect on labour mood, and consequently decreases its productivity.

Lack of financial motivation system has greater negative impact on labour productivity Lack of labour recognition programs will make less impact on productivity than lack of financial motivation as per contractors belief. Non-provision of transport means lack places for eating and relaxation Lack of training sessions will affect productivity in some extent mostly labour can be trained more effectively on site by working closely with experienced workers.

Time group: working for 7 days per week without holiday is first, misuse of time schedule is ranked second, method of employment (using direct work system) is ranked third, increasing workforce to accelerate work is ranked fourth and work overtime is ranked fifth.

Working additional days and hours creates an adverse effect on the enthusiasm and physical strength of labour, thus decreasing their productivity.

Materials/Tools group: The factors which affecting on this group is material shortages, and unsuitability of materials storage location.
Assignment No. 1

NICMAR

CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

Material shortage is the most important of all factors negatively affecting labour productivity. materials storage location have a significant impact on masonry productivity and labour needs more time to fetch required materials from unsuitable storage locations, which negatively affects productivity. Supervision group: All supervision factors have a high impact on productivity the factors which affect in this group is drawings and specifications alteration during execution, inspection delay, rework and supervisors' absenteeism

Project group: Its all about sequence of work as like steel fixers will have to wait until carpenters finished formwork.

Safety group: In this group we can include accidents, violation of safety precautions, insufficient lighting etc Accidents got a high impact on labour productivity

Quality group: there are two factors under the quality factors group that is inefficiency of equipment and poor quality of raw materials Productivity rate of inefficient equipment is low, modern equipment can give high productivity than old equipment and using materials of poor quality leads to poor quality work which may reject while inspection

External group: Factors in this group is weather changes and augmentation of government regulations

Assignment No. 1

NICMAR

CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

Weather changes can make average impact on labour productivity country like India but in Middle East weather changes giving a major impact on productivity If we can take care on above said factors company can achieve good productivity from site

However, in above said site condition absenteeism and turnover contribute significant role in negative productivity, the main problems of absenteeism and turnover are difficult to deal with in isolation. Absenteeism and turnover affect the productivity radically. Productivity in construction frequently suffers as a result of high levels of absenteeism and worker turnover. Thus there is a common concern of owners, contractors, and workers in resolving this problem. Absenteeism is a serious workplace problem and an expensive occurrence for both employers and labours some causes of absenteeism are uncontrollable. The major causes, however, are controllable. Work absenteeism occurs for many reasons. Its causes are generally personal or workplace related, personal reason like age, seniority, personal attitude, travel distance, personal illness etc and workplace reason like job stress, daily job routine, job satisfaction etc Statistics reveals that the workers tested positive for drugs and alcohol have higher level of absenteeism and had used sick leave to a much greater extent than others and probability of accident increasing. Also the productivity level of these workers is 30 to 50 percent lower than the persons who test negative. More over drug or alcohol addiction leads to quarrel on site.

Assignment No. 1

NICMAR

CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

The absenteeism can be minimized if managed properly. The need is to have a wellplanned, safe jobsites where an effort is made to recognize workers individual skills and utilize employees accordingly will have less absenteeism and inherently enjoy a gain in productivity. Workers turnover is also a serious problem in the present scenario of the project and warrant attentions.

Causes of labour turnover

A high level of labour turnover could be caused by many factors: Inadequate wage levels leading to employees moving to competitors Poor morale and low levels of motivation within the workforce Recruiting and selecting the wrong employees in the first place, meaning they leave to seek more suitable employment A buoyant local labour market offering more (and perhaps more attractive) opportunities to employees From the past experience conservative estimate of the direct cost effects of absenteeism and turnover, based only on clearly identifiable costs, indicates that a 12% reduction in project labour costs is attainable on a typical job. In some cases the potential savings are much greater. This is ample incentive to apply the management attention needed to achieve them.

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NICMAR

CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

The economic impact of absenteeism and quits

Gauging precisely the cost impact of absenteeism and turnover is difficult. The following are effects of high levels of absenteeism and turnover: Increased manpower complement to meet staffing needs Loss of revenues from not meeting project schedules. Administrative cost to recruit process and train new employees. Lost efficiency in work crews with new or inexperienced members Underutilization of capital investments (tools, equipment). Interruptions of work flow and task accomplishment Misallocation of skills and talents of employees Increased demand for administrative time and resources for planning and rescheduling Increased overtime and employee fatigue Lower morale

The cost impact of many of these items will vary, depending on circumstances and managements ability to recognize the problems and to deal with them effectively. The wasted man-hours from certain direct effects, however, can be more readily estimated. In making a conservative estimate of the cost improvement incentive, only these direct, more easily quantifiable effects were considered.

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CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

The main direct impacts of absenteeism on productivity are: Time spent by crew members (others) waiting for replacements. Time spent moving replacements to and from other work locations. Lost time by supervisory personnel in reassignment of work activities and locating replacements. For turnover, the principal cost effects are: All of the absentee-costs plus: Payroll and clerical (administrative) costs associated with terminating and hiring. Workers non-productive time (portions of the first and last day). Disruption of other workers on the job site The evidence indicates that there are steps available to contractors and owner management to substantially reduce the levels of absenteeism and turnover in construction. If one assumes that an absentee rate of 10% and an annual turnover rate of 250% can each be cut in half a reasonable assumption the computations presented above indicate there would be a savings of about 9% in direct labor costs with the lions share attainable by improving worker attendance. Many indirect effects not considered here would further increase the potential savings.

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NICMAR

CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

Suggested method for hygiene factor and motivational factor:

The controllable reasons for absenteeism and turnover involve the ingredients of the environment of a construction site. In addition, each ingredient is important in its own right, quite apart from its effect on absenteeism and turnover. Careful attention to planning, safety, interpersonal relationships, and other management fundamentals will not only reduce absenteeism and turnover, but will have other positive effects on job costs and schedules. A relatively small portion of the work force is causing most of the absenteeism and turnover. This reinforces a conclusion that prompt management action with respect to chronic offenders can be very effective. Statistics reveals that the workers tested positive for drugs and alcohol have higher level of absenteeism and had used sick leave to a much greater extent than others. Theses workers are found to have unfriendly relationship with other co-workers and generally get involve in quarrels with others. The persons who test positively for the presence of drugs or alcohol from a category of individuals and that being in this category is ground for labeling them as problematic. This type of absenteeism should be dealt seriously and strict actions should be taken against such workers. Distance from a workers home to the jobsite seemed to have an effect on turnover and absenteeism at a range of 50 to 100 miles. Though distance is uncontrollable, the only way for this category of workers is to arrange for transport or provide them accommodation near the site if found feasible. Non-financial benefits such as transport, meals, and uniforms have a high effect on labour productivity

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NICMAR

CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

Excessive absenteeism is an indicator of future turnover problems. Older and more experienced workers exhibited lower turnover, but higher absenteeism. This leads to interesting deductions that jobs that do not challenge or provide satisfaction for a highly skilled, experienced craftsman will produce absenteeism, and that younger, less experienced workers seem to change jobs rather than cope with unpleasant situations. Union workers reported lower turnover and higher absenteeism rates. A variety of steps need to be taken in decreasing absenteeism and turnover. Serious consideration of following action is recommended Screen the applicants. Examine work histories. Reject those who are poorly skilled or who have a history of job-hopping. Also increasing the workforce on a construction site causes overcrowding of labour and interference between labour and gangs, which consequently reduces labour productivity Keep attendance record for all employees, Monitor to identify trouble spots. Establish a clear policy of firing chronic absentees, and communicate this to all the employees when they are hired.

Recommendation to management

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(Most of the labour desire to work by unit rate system to earn more money. Therefore labour works too hard to finish the greatest volume of work when working by the unit rate system thus to get work done fast implementation of this system will be very helpful. Since money is the most effective motivating tool for workers, declaration of award for the best worker may help increasing productivity to some extent and another main factor need for production is tools and equipment. Workers need the right tools in order to do their jobs, if there is lack of tools and equipment, output will decrease but labours need minimum number of tools and equipment to work effectively and these tools/equipments are often expensive here all project Incharge need the help from management)

Other things to increase output are maintaining good communication with workers. Sense workers mood, understand their concern, provide feed back from management, and prompt action where appropriate to show that worker concern are heard. Bulletin boards, newsletters, toolbox meetings, and suggestion box are helpful, but face-toface communication on the job by top contractor supervision is indispensable. Use the latest behavioral science techniques for organizational effectiveness, including Train supervisors in motivation and personal skills, create small work group with as much autonomy as possible, and communicate goals for the organization and for each work unit. (Including attendance goal)

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CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

Safety also have a main concern on productivity, Assure safety on site for supervisors, technician and skilled workers those who are engaged in dangerous/hazardous work and to decrease accident rate on site, assure appropriate safety training for all site staff on specific hazards they may encounter, assure all work force and site staff are wearing and using the required clothing, equipment and protective devices and being free from drugs and alcohol. Motivation is essential to labour, as it gives site workers satisfaction such as achievement, sense of responsibility and pleasure of the work itself. Keep craftsmen informed of how their accomplishment compares with the jobs goals: Be creative in developing incentives for employees to stay with the job and have good attendance. Emphasize attendance rather than absenteeism. Bumper sticker, job poster, and helmet decals can be used to stimulate interest. Awards to each individual after periods of perfect attendance by an entire crew can develop peer pressure to improve attendance. Bonuses to people who remain until job completion may be helpful in reducing turnover during the critical final stage. Periodic reports on absenteeism and turnover should be maintained. Mutually develop goals for improvement and actions to achieve them. Encourage and support innovative efforts by contractors in communicating with and motivating the workforce.

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CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

Mutually with contractors, identify and alleviate irritants (dissatisfiers) within the control of owners that may contribute to absenteeism and turnover among contractor employees. Examples: parking lots in disrepair or unreasonably located, undue limitations on smoking, unnecessary limitations on contractors starting and quitting times, inadequate areas for eating lunch, and insufficient facilities for checking in and out. Recognize to workers that active involvement in discouraging absenteeism and turnover is in their self-interest. Worker union has to be convinced that activity involved in discouraging absenteeism and turnover is in their self-interest. Modify referral procedures to discourage absenteeism and turnover. Example: For a predetermined period (say, 30 days) prohibit referral to another job of any worker who has quit a job without good cause or who was fired for excessive absenteeism. The survey suggests that most workers would support such action so long as it is administered fairly and equitably.

Bibliography Text books provided by NICMAR

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NICMAR

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Guide lines obtained from seniors. Personal site experience

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