ASSIGNMENT NO-2

ON

“HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT”

(PGPM – 12)

SUBMITTED TO:

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CONTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

& RESEARCH (NICMAR) PUNE.

SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION (SODE)

By

Mrs. Minal A. Dongaonkar

(PGDPM)

Reg.no.-216-12-31-50810-2182

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Table of Contents

ASSIGNMENT:...............................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION:-.........................................................................................................................3

UNDERSTANDING THE WORKING CONDITIONS AT THE SITE:-.......................................3

THE MAIN PROBLEMS:-.............................................................................................................5

POSSIBLE REASONS OF VARIOUS PROBLEMS:-...................................................................5

NEEDS AND FULFILLMENT ON SITE:-....................................................................................6

1. Lack of manpower management and planning-....................................................................6

2. Unhygenic surroundings and insufficient and temporary accommodation..........................8

3. Lack of medication...............................................................................................................9

4. Consumption of alcohol........................................................................................................9

5. Shortage of material and equipments.................................................................................10

6. Lack of motivation..............................................................................................................11

CONCLUSION:-...........................................................................................................................13

BIBLIOGRAPHY / READINGS..................................................................................................15

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ASSIGNMENT:

You are a Project Manager on site where work for 3K.m. long Tunnel has been undertaken. The

site is remote and takes about 2 days travel to nearest town. Supervisors, Technicians & Skilled

Workers are engaged in dangerous / hazardous work. Absenteeism due to sickness, quarrels,

drinking are adding to less output of work and chances of accidents on site are increasing.

Management has urged to do something so that time targets can be achieved. Discuss how will

you tackle the problem and increase the output of the work.

INTRODUCTION:-

Remote projects have their unique problems that are caused mainly by the remoteness of the

project itself thus the loose control over communications and management. This is due to a

number of reasons such as lack of management skills, human resources and basic

infrastructure.As a result of this the project will loose both time and quality.

UNDERSTANDING THE WORKING CONDITIONS AT THE SITE:-

 The site suggested in this assignment is supposed to be far away from any developed area

and it takes about two days travel to nearest town.

 The site is in remote locations with rough terrain such as mountains and operate in

undeveloped and environmentally sensitive regions.

 The site may be far from the supervision team office, the contractor's office, and major urban

concentrations. During construction, all project parties experience countless difficulties and

cumbersome management problems.

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 These potential problems negatively affect project quality and cause substantial delays and

increases in costs.

 Both workforce and management slowly become tired with a life of work and no source of

entertainment, social gathering etc.

 It leads to frustration among people working in remote areas.

 Working in remote communities not only means being away from family and friends for

weeks, but also after a day’s hard physical work, often in harsh conditions, very few creature

comforts are available to rest and relax with: the usual camp set up is caravans with noisy reverse

cycle air-conditioning, and little privacy or mostly the temporary sheds of tin or plastic sheets or

locally available material.

 The isolation and long transport distances have a compounding effect on all other logistics

issues, thereby increasing normal risk.

 Unpredictable Weather conditions, particularly heavy rain, strong winds or storms can

render the even well-maintained dirt roads impassable and also affect adversely on the living

conditions of the workers.

 Because of the remoteness of the site it is difficult to provide mechanical support to the

workers which exert the unnecessary physical burden on the workforce.

 The workers working at theses type of sites has to face many health problems arising

because of unhygienic living and eating conditions, excessive physical work because of less

mechanical support etc. and also it is not possible to provide the basic medical aid because of the

distance from the hospitals.

 The workers cannot bring their families with them because of all these adverse conditions on

the site and due to lack of social life and peace which is very important for a human being there

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are lots of quarrels in between the workers and workers get attracted towards the alcoholism

also.

Because of all above mentioned practical conditions on site if we summarize the problems which

have to face by the project manager are as follows:-

THE MAIN PROBLEMS:-

 Absenteeism due to sickness.

 Absentism due to quarrels and drinking.

 Accidents at site

 Adverse weathering conditions.

 Technical Problems

POSSIBLE REASONS OF VARIOUS PROBLEMS:-

 Lack of manpower management /planning.

 Unhygenic surroundings and insufficient and temporary accommodation

 Lack of medication

 Lack of family life.

 Consumption of alcohol

 Availability of alcohol

 Shortage of material and equipments.

 Lack of motivation

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NEEDS AND FULFILLMENT ON SITE:-

1. Lack of manpower management and planning-

For proper manpower planning and management the project manager should understand the

project in all respect and should get all the details about the project like-

 Site conditions

 Conditions mentioned and agreed in contract.

 Technical specifications mentioned in contract as well as other specifications.

 Construction techniques.

 Time frame.

After understanding the all these conditions the project manager should work out the labour

component in various parameters of the project by using constants to workout tlabour

requirement.

The project manager should classify and categorize labour requirement and various jobs

according to required skills,responsibilities,nature of work etc.

 Prepare a proper schedule of the project and assign resources to each task i.e. each

constructional activity. Assigning resources means identify manpower required for each

task and what the availability is the availability of manpower and how much work is to be

done.Type of manpower required i.e. skilled or unskilled.

 If manpower is inadequate try to get more manpower or try to use the available

manpower fully so that maximum amount of work to complete and try to complete the

urgent work so that it does not affect the project duration ,reschedule the project and

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 inform updated schedule to the headoffice and also inform the head office the weekly

work progress they can help you to overcome the manpower problem or

 Try to motivate the available manpower by giving extra benefits if they complete the

project in time or

 If manpower is very less than required then immediately I nform the head office so that

they can send some more manpower so that the project can run smoothly

 If the manpower is less than what is required then try to use proper machineries so that

the work will done with faster speed and will required less manpower.

After understanding the factors stated above, following principles should be applied:-

 Care and skill should be exercised in the selection of employees.

 Introduction to the job should be friendly, skillful and adequate.

 Each employee should be made to feel that his efforts are really appreciated.

 Consideration should be given to the effect that each rule and instruction may have on the

feelings of employees.

 Employees should have apart in planning those things that affect their working

conditions.

Management should be absolutely fair in every policy and every practice.

 Each employee should have a feeling of pride in the importance of his work and his place

in the company

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 2. Unhygenic surroundings and insufficient and temporary accommodation

Before starting the actual working of the project, the management should give due attention

towards the accommodation arrangements of the workers as the project is of long duration and

the manpower involved in it Will be more and for the long duration. And as we all know shelter

is the preliminary need of a man.

Following points should be taken ionto consideration at the time of planning

 No.of workers need for the complete project

 Different Categories of workers

 Time required for the all workers to be on the site

 Basic hygienic conditions required for the mankind.

 Can we provide the dwellings for the workers which can accommodate their families also

Solutions for the problem of unhygienic conditions and accommodation of the workers:-

 Provide proper dwellings for the workers of the each category with hygienic

surroundings.

 Make the proper arrangements of the sanitation and waste disposal to maintain the

hygienic conditions on and around the site.

 If possible then provide the shelters for the workers where their families can also

accommodate so that the workers can live a peaceful family life after their very

exhausting and rigorous physical work on the site.

 Provide the shelters for the workers which can sustain in adverse weathering conditions

of such type sites in remote areas.

 Management can provide prefabricated houses for the workers which can dismental an

can reuse on the another site after using on the one site.It will also [prove to be

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 economical for the management also and also the management can provide different sizes

of dwellings according to the categories of workers.

 Also make the workers and their family members aware of how to maintain the hygienic

conditions around themselves.

 Make a proper provision of clean and hygienic water supply for all the workers.

3. Lack of medication

Management should send a medical team to site and they should stay there till complrtion of

site.They should be supplied necessary equipments and medical kits so that they can manage any

Hazardous situations.e.g.in case of any sudden accidents they can handle the situation,if any

epidemic occurred then they can overcome the situation.Because of this the management can

overcome the problem of absentism due to sickness.Workers who are seek will be taken care by

medical team can recovered quickly and can returned to the work and the man power problem

can be solved at max.extend.

4. Consumption of alcohol

This is the major problem with labors. But the management should understand the reason behind

the consumption of alcohol so that can provide the remedies for the problem.Following are some

reasons why labours consume so much of alcohol

 Very laborious and physical hard work throughout the day resulting in the body pain.

 Lack of comfort after such type of hard physical work because of improper dwellings

conditions.

 Feeling of loneliness if families are not staying with them

 Lack of knowledge about the bad effects of alcohol on the body.

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 Solutions for the problem of consumption of alcohol:-

 As we discussed earlier make the arrangements for the family members also so that the

feeling of loneliness can be reduced which is one of the mejor reason behind the

alcoholism

 Provide a proper shelter which is enough comfortable to relax after such a laborious job

so that the labors will less attracted towards the alcohol.

 If possible then provide some social gatherings as well as some entertainment programs

for labours so that they can get relaxed mentally as well as physically without the

consumption of alcohol.

 Periodically arrange some awareness programs for workers which tell them about the bad

effects of alcohol on their bodies and how it affect badly on their work as well as their

family life.

 Don’t allow the sale of alcohol near the site.I t should be as far as possible from the site,

so that the alcohol will not get available easily to the workers.

 Good security system should be adopted to find out places where selling of alcoholic

product is being done and with the approval of management strong action shall be taken

to stop such activity.

5. Shortage of material and equipments.

Management should study the project very carefully and minutely and should understand the

need of materials and equipments, machineries etc in. Management should make the provision of

adequate and timely supply of required material as well as equipment otherwise it will

unnecessarily exert the excessive physical burden on the workers. e.g. if the proper provision of

pully or lift is not provided for the vertical carriage of the material then the workers have to carry

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the material manually which exert the unnecessary physical burden on the workers and also takes

more time to complete the task.

6. Lack of motivation.

Motivation is the driving force within individuals that drive them physiologically and

psychologically to pursue one or more goals to fulfill their needs or expectations. Motivators

may be intrinsic or extrinsic. An example of an intrinsic motivator is the self-fulfilment of a

worker as a result of performing a task well.

Construction labour can be motivated. This is important because dwindling productivity is a

major problem confronting construction today. Productivity has decreased every year for the past

decade, in part because of increasing design complexity, more rigorous federal and state

regulations and socio-economic changes affecting the work force. Our findings indicate that a

highly motivated workforce enhances productivity and project effectiveness. In construction, the

work itself— that is, the building of a structure for all to behold is a key motivator for all levels

of management and the work force.

Solutions for the problem of lack of motivation:-

The project manager can motivate the employees by providing:-

 A feeling of pride or satisfaction for one’s ego

 Security of opportunity.

 Security of approval.

 Security of advancement, if possible.

 Security of promotion, if possible.

 Security of recognition.

 A means for doing a better job, not a means to keep a job.

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Motivating employees so that they feel secure on the job is not easy,especially in case of such

projects at remote places and having infinite lifetime.Specific methods for producing security in

a project environment include:-

 Letting a people know why they are , where they are.

 Making the individuals feel that they belong where they are.

 Placing individuals in positions for which they are properly trained.

 Letting the employees know how their efforts fit into the big picture.

Since project managers can not motivate by promising material gains,they must appeal to each

person’s pride. The guidelines for proper motivation are:-

 Adopt a positive attitude

 Do not criticize management.

 Do not make promise that cannot be kept

 Circulate customer reports.

 Give each person the attention he requires.

There are several ways of motivating project personnel. Some effective ways include:-

 Giving assignments that provide challenges.

 Clearly defining performance expectations.

 Giving proper criticism as well as credit.

 Providing a good working atmosphere.

 Giving honest appraisal.

 Developing a team attitude.

 Providing a proper direction.

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CONCLUSION:-

Remote construction sites pose challenge to project management in the following ways among

others:

• The problem of location, which is long distance transportation to remote site.

• The issues of logistics or cash flow

• The problem of quality workmanship due to project location

• Technological set backs

• Environmental issues

• Time constraint in service delivery

• Communication gap etc

It was also discovered that the reliability and relevance of professionals and project managers in

remote construction delivery cannot be over emphasized. It was also discovered that it is easier

to manage projects in urban areas as compared to remote areas.

Project management could be very effective on a remote site if the right factors are put in place

and consideration is been given on the following.

• In executing construction project on remote sites, the right tendering process and contractual

arrangement should be in place.

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• The involvement of qualified professionals or project managers on remote site construction is

very paramount who can understand the physical as well as psychological needs of the workers

and will be able to deal properly with their problems and demands.

• All should be done to ensure that all the factors mentioned above that can hinder the success of

remote construction project should be made available at all time.

• The government should enhance good road networks for accessibility.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY / READINGS

 Management in organization by Knootz Odoneal,McGraw Hill Publication

 Course material of human recourse management provided by NICMAR

 Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science and Technology (JMEST)

ISSN: 3159-0040 Vol. 2 Issue 6, June – 2015

 Chinowsky, P., K. Molenaar, and A. Realph,Learning organizations

inconstruction. Journal ofManagement in Engineering, ASCE, 2007. 23(1):

p. 27-34.

 http: www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/publications/2006/P617.pdf.

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