This document is a report of a fieldwork (business visits) to a real company. In our case, the company studied was COEDICIONES LTDA, which, although it does not have a large personnel department, is interested in the well-being of the human resource, recognizing its importance within the organization's structure at all levels, both operational and productive., strategic, etc.
The company had the opportunity to appreciate interesting things, such as the tasks that an ordinary personnel department would perform, are shared by employees at the strategic level, as well as the importance of the operational level within the organization (sales force), on which rests the stability of the signature.
It was also observed how, despite all the limitations regarding the administration of human resources, the company has had considerable growth, taking into account the short operating time it has.
The specific objectives, contemplated in the questionnaire provided by the Professor (performance evaluation, job analysis, salary structures, etc.), were studied in their entirety, of course, they could not be fully specified due to the inconveniences the company has in the personnel area.
For its presentation, the work is basically divided into the points of the business questionnaire, given at the beginning of the semester, some conclusions and certain recommendations that we believed pertinent are included at the end.
I. IDENTIFICATION OF THE COMPANY
1.1 The company under study is COORDINADORA COMERCIAL DE EDICIONES LTDA. (COEDICIONES LTDA), with NIT 08001188923.
1. 2 The corporate purpose of the company is the representations and distributions of national and foreign publishing companies in all branches of commerce, especially publishing and teaching or didactic material.
The firm may also: produce and edit all kinds of bibliographic or didactic material, distribute equipment for education or commerce within the territory of the Republic of Colombia.
In development of its corporate purpose, the company may acquire, guide, tax or transfer, give or receive money in mutual; celebrate all kinds of acts or contracts necessary for the development of its main purpose; receive or give in mortgages or pledges, the movable or immovable property of the company in guarantee of the operations it carries out; negotiate all kinds of securities, grant them, endorse them, pay them, download them, among others; and in general all kinds of commercial or financial operations that are carried out directly with the corporate purpose.
1.2.1 The mission of the company since its creation is to consolidate the company, as one of the leaders in the country's publishing market in 2005.
1.2.2 COEDICIONES LTDA provides the services of diffusion, distribution, commercialization and sale of all kinds of encyclopedias and editorial works of general interest.
1.3 The company is domiciled at Calle 48 # 19 - 53 in Santafe de Bogotá DC
1.4 The company currently has, in general terms, 90 people working in its different departments.
In relation to the number of employees per level, we have:
- STRATEGIC LEVEL: Within this segment we can find three people, namely:
Rodrigo Loaiza Alvarez, President-Owner. Jairo Vargas, General Manager. Nora Valencia, Management assistance.
- EXECUTIVE LEVEL (Administrative): At this business level we find nine employees. OPERATIONAL LEVEL: In this section of the company there are 78 employees.
Company Levels
1.5 The economic sector in which the firm operates is the commercial sector, this sector which in recent years has evolved substantially, due to the fact that Colombia entered the opening and globalization of the markets. Within the publishing sector (printing, books, brochures and the like) are large companies, both national and foreign, including: FESA, CARGRAPHICS, IMPREPAK, THOMAS GREG & SONS, CIRCULO DE LECTORES, ZAMORA EDITORES, CARVAJAL, PUBLICAR, EDINORMA, PLANETA, EDITORIAL TEMIS and THIRD WORLD EDITORS, among the most important.
This sector last year had sales of around $ 900,000 million pesos and reported an average profit for companies of 26.8%, which shows the importance of this portion of the market within the commercial sector, and also shows that it is a high-end business. utility that gives the opportunity for rapid growth.
1.6 Regarding the legal nature of the firm we have that it is a Limited Company.
1.7 The company started operations on February 1, 1991 and has been a little more than six and a half years of operations.
II. BRIEF HISTORICAL REVIEW
COEDICIONES LTDA began its commercial activities in 1991, with the contribution of two capitalist partners, Cesar Augusto Jiménez and Rodrigo de Jesús Loaiza Alvarez, who started with a 30% and 70% stake, respectively.
Mr. Cesar Jiménez, at the beginning of the company, served as General Manager of the company, quickly placing it in a period of great growth, in just six months. But unfortunately Mr. Jiménez passed away; When this misfortune arose, the company entered a period of economic and administrative crisis, so its shares were transferred by the heirs to Mr. Rodrigo Loaiza, and he became the sole owner of the company. Later, Mr. Jairo Vargas entered as General Manager, who made a restructuring and managed to stabilize the company.
With the experience of Mr. Rodrigo Loaiza, who has been in the bibliographic business for more than thirty years and with the administrative capacity of Mr. Jairo Vargas, the company today has achieved great strength and has become a company with great participation of sales in the sector, and aims to be a competitor to companies of the stature of the CIRCLE OF READERS AND ZAMORA EDITORS.
III. CURRENT CHART
Organization chart
3.1 Regarding the location of the personnel department, we can say that in COEDICIONES, as in many national companies, it is at the level of general management, since said manager and his assistant, in addition to the sales manager and the collection manager, are in charge of this area.
Company personnel department
The reason for this is simple, since the main object of the organization is the distribution (sale) of books, and this area is the one to which a greater number of employees correspond, management has seen the need to assume the administration of said human resource, generating for example personnel policies, recruitment and selection techniques, etc.
Although the company breathes a good work environment, with a lot of solidarity and camaraderie. Parties and some integration events are held, especially promoted by the owner, who has realized how important it is for the company and the employees to live a healthy and cordial atmosphere. Their work is supported by the Employees Fund (FOEMCO).
3.2 The number of people in charge of the personnel department is currently five.
3.3 The positions that exist in the department, as we already mentioned, are:
- The chief of staff, who is initially referred to as the general manager of the company, the assistant manager, who closely collaborates with the general manager, the sales manager, who is in charge of managing all personnel in that area, the boss collection, who is currently in charge of portfolio collection staff. A secretary, who is especially in charge of this time slot.
IV. STAFF ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM
4.1 Regarding this point, it could be seen that in this type of company, personnel administration is carried out with a very simple mechanism or planning. The objective, basically, is to make the worker feel comfortable and satisfied with the work he is performing, identify with the company's objectives and feel an integral part of the gear, not only productive, but organizational.
4.2 As for the subsystems of the human resources department, a great approach is proposed in the company in what corresponds to recruitment and performance evaluation, with a view to reducing this high degree of turnover.
As for the selection techniques, as will be mentioned later, they are very traditional, but they seek to obtain good results, that is, to select the most suitable people.
4.3 All personnel policies are determined by the general manager, in team with his collaborators (assistant, sales manager and collection manager), the main ones are:
- Carry out motivational events, with a view to achieving the integration of the personnel among themselves and with the company. All personnel must achieve sufficient training and updating, in terms of what the company offers (permanent training). The profile of the new personnel in sales, it does not have to be that of an experienced advisor, but to look for the basic skills to be able to profile it within the company (Ease of expression, personal presentation, etc.). Minor staff can be recruited, provided they have the skills and complying with the necessary legal permits.
4.4 Regarding staff turnover rates,The company has great difficulties in maintaining its personnel, particularly in the sales force, since it is a highly volatile labor market. This is a typical problem in the sector, since almost all the people who enroll as book sellers do so as a last option, because they did not find another more stable job or simply to try their luck in this type of sales. Despite this, some of the advisers manage to identify with the job, with the freedom that is given to them and with the high income that they can obtain if they do their work diligently. In addition, the other companies in the sector are on the hunt for vendors offering higher commissions or basic wages, of course, in the end, wages are very similar in this type of activity.
With respect to the other areas of the company, at the administrative level and collections, job stability is very high, since the majority of people who are in these areas have worked there since the start of operations of the company.
4.5 In relation to the rate of absenteeism, as in the turnover of staff, absenteeism occurs in the sales area, due to the freedom of salespeople, who do not have a defined work schedule and go to the company many times only to take sales reports and training meetings, which are usually held on Monday or Friday mornings.
V. RECRUITMENT OF PERSONNEL
5.1 Some of the main recruiting characteristics that could be observed were: the recruitment process is permanent in the sales area, where, as mentioned above, the highest turnover of personnel occurs. In the other areas, recruitment is done gradually depending on the growth of the company; or when a vacancy occurs in any of the administrative positions, which occurs very infrequently or in the collection group, where you have a team of eventuals.
Given the special characteristics of the company that do not allow recourse to internal recruitment, except in the case of the District Heads, who started in the company as sales consultants and because of their seniority and performance were promoted, we always find as a source of recruitment the external labor market.
5.2 Regarding the phases of the recruitment process, the following structure can be seen:
Phases of the recruitment process
5.3 Regarding the sources of recruitment, there are basically two: by means of advertisements in the newspaper (employment section) or by endogenous sources (recommendations of company workers).
As we have already mentioned, the sources are mostly external, that is, the external labor market is used.
SAW. STAFF PICK
6.1 With reference to the personnel selection process and its description, we have that the selection criteria are “traditional or informal”. In the sales area, practically, the people who present themselves to be part of the sales force are incorporated into the company, since this is the department that maintains the company. There is no thought in the organization that it is correct to use some complex test for selection, as this in a position such as that of Sales Advisor would create problems in incentivizing people in the position.
In choosing sales personnel, the following factors are mainly taken into account:
Factors for choosing sales staff
The experience is not taken into account (it is not essential), even minors are linked, at least 16 years prior to the required permits.
6.2 As noted in the previous paragraph, a specialized selection technique is not used (in the sales area), due to the difficulty that occurs in many cases to encourage people to work in sales.
In the selection of personnel for other areas, specific knowledge (accounting and secretarial areas) is taken into account or analyzed, if the position is that of sales or collection manager, priority is given to the candidate's experience in similar positions, taking into account it also counts the labor references.
As a clear personnel selection technique, the interview is used, where it is investigated whether or not the person has the aforementioned skills, especially the good presentation and ease of expression, necessary for this type of sales, where it seeks to make a first impression favorable to customers, but in general it seeks to engage people and measure their skills in the trial period.
6.3 The interviews for the administrative areas are carried out by the General Manager, Mr. Jairo Vargas or by the assistant manager, Mrs. Nora Valencia. If you are a seller or a collector, the interview is done by the manager of the corresponding section.
The interview is informal, it is not prepared based on the application or resume of the candidate, but if the candidate has some kind of experience, without being indispensable, then it is simply taken into account, then simply You are asked why you want to work as a seller or collector. In this section, an attempt is made to persuade them to decide to work as sellers, especially inexperienced applicants, that is, what it is about is creating the seller's profile, based on the induction and training of staff, the which until now has allowed to obtain very good results in some cases, however if in the trial period no positive results are obtained, the person is disregarded, before formalizing a contract.
Although formally this does not always happen, since many times in the trial period, the same seller, not having good results, is forced to withdraw since he does not earn a basic salary that allows him to continue, although this is not the idea of the company, is presented very frequently. If the relationship is formalized in a contract, the employee (operational level) is allowed to decide when to terminate it if it does not meet his financial expectations.
VII. DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF CHARGES
7.1 When the company started, the positions were: General manager, assistant manager, sales manager, collection manager, a part-time accountant, an accounting assistant, a secretary, twenty salesmen, five debt collectors, a warehouseman and a courier..
Over the years and growth of the company, management has seen the need to increase some positions and redeem others.
The number of sellers and collectors has increased, due to the sales boom; there is a full-time accountant with two assistants, the need to create the position of District Chief for sales was seen and the number of secretariats increased to four.
The foregoing indicates that the design of positions is not carried out by means of orthodox techniques, but rather is carried out based on the increase in sales and the need to have a large number of sellers.
Furthermore, it is evident that the firm does not implement specialized methods for the description and analysis of charges.
7.2 Regarding the criteria for the analysis of positions (requirements), we can say that in the higher areas (Management, assistant managers) requirements such as bone intellectual, professional training, studies carried out, etc., as well as the type of implicit responsibilities of the position, that is: scope of responsibility, dependency relationships, etc.
The president of the company is in charge of allocating the representations and obtaining the consignment lots.
The General Manager is in charge of carrying out the analysis of charges and is the one who establishes the requirements, he is also in charge of practically everything administrative and financial for the company, with the collaboration of his assistant.
In the accounting area (accountant and assistants), they are in charge of payroll settlement, and the fiscal part.
The Sales Manager is in charge of setting the periodic sales goals, as well as the motivation, selection and training of his team, the Collection Manager performs the same tasks but in relation to the collection.
For sales positions (district chief, vendors, collectors), the aspect of working conditions is mainly taken into account.
The District Chief coordinates and controls his group of vendors, motivating them to increase sales and meet the goals set.
Sales consultants are responsible for disseminating and selling the company's products, collectors must make portfolio collections.
For the wine cellar position, the physical requirement is mainly due to the duties of the position.
VIII. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
It is appreciated that the performance evaluation in the company is carried out based on the setting of periodic goals, according to the fulfillment or not of them, the personnel is qualified.
8.1 The main objectives of the performance evaluation are:
- Achieve the highest productivity and efficiency on the part of all company employees. Classification of employees in relation to the positions they occupy. Orientation for the training of personnel. Establish patterns for incentives and rewards. Measure initiative, the spirit of collaboration and the level of integration to the company.
8.2 Those responsible for making the evaluation are, in the first place, the General Manager, who is the highest-ranking and most responsible position. He is in charge of setting minimum productivity standards for each position. Sales and collection managers continue to set their department's goals.
- The evaluation process can be observed like this:
Evaluation process
The evaluation process is done taking into account the objectives initially noted, as well as the goals set and those achieved. It is carried out in terms of efficiency (proposed goal / term reached), according to the results of the evaluation, economic incentives are given, taking into account minimum scales.
8.4 The methods used are individual first, since billboards are set with the levels of sales by agent, being placed in descending order, not only in number but in pesos, taking into account cash sales first and then sales to terms (depending on the number of terms).
There is also evaluation by work groups or sales teams, which leads to healthy competition, which stimulates the individual and collective performance of individuals.
Regarding the collections department, the evaluation is made in terms of the money collected in certain periods.
IX. ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
The valuation system of the company is hierarchical, it can be seen that the organizational structure is well defined, as well as the tasks of each employee.
It has as its base the company the Presidency and General Management, where important decisions are made and the necessary planning is made, next are the Sales Manager and the Collection Manager, who are in charge of their respective teams of employees.
Actually, the corporate purpose of the company, such as depending on its sales force, makes the job valuation system not very orthodox.
X. LABOR MARKET
10.1 One of the main sources of information is the inquiry to vendors who come from other companies, as well as the dialogue with the managers of other companies. In managerial positions the hierarchical level and seniority are taken into account, in low positions the minimum wage.
Although we must bear in mind that national companies with these same characteristics are abundant, we also know the Círculo de Lectores, as the most representative, and a large number of sellers are former employees of this company, which is why the company is well known. main company with which you want to compete.
In general, the aforementioned added to the relationships with managers of other similar companies, such as Zamora editores, has allowed us to conclude that the labor market is very limited, since although it is in a sector of relative growth, for a company like this it continues being a limitation that in Colombia there is not a high level of reading (partly cultural problem), which is aggravated by the high cost of books. This leads to sellers with some experience preferring to look for a job in a different sector and not in the sale of books.
10.2 The company does not carry out any type of salary survey, but it is known in a somewhat precise way, the level of wages of other companies, in which commissions similar to those of this company are offered, where there is no basic salary. and commissions on sales and collections much lower where if you have a basic salary.
10.3 The labor market is very influential, since, as stated in previous points, there is great pressure by companies in the sector to incorporate new and better agents to their sales force, offering higher commission percentages on sales or collections, adding basic salary, which becomes a strong hook to attract agents, this makes the company have the high existing turnover rate and forces many times to think about increasing commissions in response to the movements of the competition.
XI. WAGE STRUCTURE
In relation to this point, there is very little we can say, since there is no defined salary policy. It is observed that the criteria for setting wages and wage policies are market swings, wages and commissions are set following the leading companies; according to the financial conditions of the company, observing what kind of workers it is or is not possible to hire according to their salary aspiration; The minimum wage increase policies for annual increases are also followed.
It was observed that the company does not make salary curves.
Despite the limitations in this field, the firm's salary structure is reasonably balanced, which is highly constructive for employees and therefore for production.
CONCLUSIONS
- Evaluation of the human resources system:
- Among the conclusions it is worth mentioning that the company does not have a specific body as a Personnel Department, these tasks are carried out by different employees, at different levels.
For example, the selection of sales and collection personnel is made by the managers of these areas, the performance evaluation is carried out by the managers of each department. What should be noted is that the General Manager has to do with all these procedures.
- Although the evaluation of performance is not very orthodox, it has a good basis, which allows productivity to be increased every time (vendors and collectors).
- Recommendations:
- It could be recommended that a department specialized in human resources be opened, taking advantage of the rapid growth that the company is having, also because this action would contribute to achieving its long-term goals.
- There are deficiencies in terms of salary policies that attract good sellers, an aggressive plan should be implemented in this regard, not only to attract them but to maintain them for a long time.
- Regarding recruitment, it is very poor, sources such as job boards, specialized magazines, etc. should be used.
In general terms and observing all the existing deficiencies, the work environment of the company is healthy and encourages competition and better performance of employees, perhaps in these types of companies it is difficult to establish a personnel department, but it should be attempted, this would increase control and would increase productivity.
EN The 5000 companies. POWER & MONEY Magazine. No. 52, November 1997. Pages 230-231.
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