HUMAN RESOURCE

MANAGEMENT
Hiring Process At Sui Southern Gas Company

SUBMITTED BY:

WARDA SOOMRO
SUMERA SHAIKH
NIMRA NAZ
MAHUM SHAIKH
NOSHEEN ASHRAF

BBA-5G
Table of Contents

Acknowledgement: ....................................................................................................................................... 2
Executive summary: ...................................................................................................................................... 3
1. Company Overview: .............................................................................................................................. 4
2. Hiring process Overview: ...................................................................................................................... 7
2.1 Executive hiring: .................................................................................................................................. 8
2.2 Staff Hiring: ......................................................................................................................................... 9
3. Identifying Vacancy and evaluating needs: ........................................................................................ 10
4. Internal and External Candidates:....................................................................................................... 11
5. Job analysis: ........................................................................................................................................ 12
5.1 Pattern of Job Analysis: ..................................................................................................................... 12
5.2 Data collection method: ................................................................................................................... 13
5.2.1 Interview: ................................................................................................................................... 13
5.2.2 Observation:............................................................................................................................... 13
6. Recruitment: ....................................................................................................................................... 13
7. Testing and selection process: ............................................................................................................ 14
8. Interview: ............................................................................................................................................ 16
9. Background check: .............................................................................................................................. 17
10. Post-Hiring: ................................................................................................................................... 18
11. Diverse workforce: .......................................................................................................................... 19
12. Inadequacies and Recommendations: ............................................................................................ 20
13. References: ..................................................................................................................................... 21

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 Acknowledgement:

This report wouldn’t have been possible without the support and

encouragement of many individuals and Organization. We would like to

extend our profound gratitude to all of them.

We are grateful to our Human Resource Management Professor, Mr.

Muhammad Akram, who imparted us with considerable knowledge

regarding the subject and proffered valuable suggestions.

We extend our gratitude to the employees of SSGC, particularly Mr. Imran

Ahmed, who took valuable time out of his busy schedule to accommodate

us with our report.

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Executive summary:

The report discusses the hiring process of Sui Southern Gas Company

(SSGC). SSGC is a public sector company and it’s the only corporation that

supplies Sindh and Balochistan Provinces of Pakistan with Sui Gas.

There are two types of hiring process in the SSGC organization. One is for

staff workers and other is for executives. The hiring process is different for

both type of hiring.

Executives are management trainee, engineers, accountants and other

managerial job holders. Staff are known as subordinates, who hold clerical

and mechanical positions in SSGC. 70% of employees at SSGC hold staff

positions.

The hiring process has certain Standard of Procedures:

 Reviewing job application

 Aptitude test.

 Training

 Interview selected candidate.

 Select the candidate best fit for the job.

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  Perform background check.

1. Company Overview:

Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) was found in 1954, but

officially it was formed in March 30,1989. It is the leading gas supplying

company in Pakistan. From Sui, Balochistan to Karachi, Sindh consisting of

more than of 3500 KM of high pressure pipeline which ranges from 12 to 24

in diameter. These pipelines cover a huge number of towns that is more

than 1200 towns of Sindh and Balochistan. It is recorded that around

362,510 million cubic feet has been supplied in a year from 2014-2015 to the

population of about 2.7 million to the industrial, commercial and

residential/domestic consumers. The company owns the only gas meter

production plant of which the production capacity has been recorded up to

600,000 meters per year.

The authorized capital of SSGCL is said to be equal to Rs.10 billions in

which Rs.6.7 billion are fully paid.

SSGC’s 98.8% of the consumers are domestic consumers, while 0.2%

represent industrial consumers and 1% represents commercial consumers.

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The Managing director/ Chief Executive is nominated by the Government

of Pakistan and is delegated powers by the board of directors, who are

currently 14, to ensure the effective workings of SSGC.1

SSGC is listed in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore stock exchange. The

majority of the shares of SSGC with the percentage of 70% of the total

shares are in the direct ownership of the government of Pakistan. Hence,

the company has to be in line with public sector, public welfare and

absolutely comply with the government. This also involves the HR

department of SSGC, which has to align its functional strategies with the

organizational strategies that is public oriented.2

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 2. Hiring process Overview:

The hiring process must be effective and efficient as it is cardinal to the

success of any business.

When an organization is hiring an employee, they need to ensure that they

hire the right person for the right job at the right time. Hiring process is

multifaceted and has several steps which need to be closely scrutinized in

order to keep business ahead under any disruption.3

SSGC involves oil, gas and energy. Their whole operations are based on

exploration and engineering processes. Therefore, they mostly hire people

with engineering or management capabilities. They have minimal

contribution in sales or marketing department as SSGC is the leading and

only gas industry in the two provinces, so they hardly need to market their

services. So there is minimal amount of corporate and sales hiring.

In SSGC, HR department is divided into three divisions. (1) Operational,

(2) Industrial relations, and (3) Organizational training and development.

Operational deals with the executive body, Industrial deals with

subordinate cadre and Organizational deals with HR planning and

development.4

Main functions of SSGC HR Department are:

Organizational Development

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 Leave Management
Enquiry and Discipline
Recruitment
Grievance Management
Contracts Management
Industrial Relations
Human Resource Information System (HRIS)
Transfers and Postings5

There are two types of hiring process in the SSGC organization. One is for

staff workers and other is for executives. The hiring process is different for

both type of hiring.

2.1 Executive hiring:

Executives are management trainee, engineers, accountants and other

managerial job holders.

For executive hiring, there is a team in which members are selected by HR

manager to do the hiring.

The hiring process has certain Standard of Procedures:

 Reviewing job application

 Aptitude test.
 Training
 Interview selected candidate.
 Select the candidate best fit for the job.
 Perform background check.

It also involves certain terms and conditions. The executives have to take

National Testing Service (NTS), then undergo a contractual training for a

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year, afterwards they have to take NTS test again, and if succeeded, they

are finally recruited

They focus on skills, education and most importantly, experience. When all

job applications are reviewed they finalized the list of candidates according

to their minimum requirements. They test candidates, then they shortlist

the candidates for interview who pass the test. The interview process is

time consuming as in interview; interviewer has to focus each and every

thing of the candidate such as: confidence, communication skills, style,

gestures, postures and way of entering the room, etc. After the interviews

have been conducted, the team decides which candidate will be offered the

job and the rank order. The team will make a note which includes

application detail and interview detail of the candidates and make the

decision.6 As SSGC is public oriented, the process is declared to be

transparent and there can’t be any public and private hiring.7

2.2 Staff Hiring:

Staff are known as subordinates, who hold clerical and mechanical

positions in SSGC. 70% of employees at SSGC hold staff positions.

For hiring staff, there is a worker’s representative known as People’s labor

Union (CBA: Collective bargaining agent. They decide the ways of

appointing staff workers. Because of that there is ban on hiring external

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candidates for staff positions. CBA demands SSGC to hire one child of each

worker, who has retired or has died.

3. Identifying Vacancy and evaluating needs:

HR department identifies the number of employees, who are going to retire

and from which grade. Then before the three months following retirement,

they start looking for the alternatives or new candidates. SSGC does hiring

sporadically in a year i.e. 3 to 4 times a year. Also they don’t have a fixed

number of employees that need to be hired; in a year, their number of hires

range from 5 to 50.

As it’s a public sector company, they have a defined and specific structure

of hierarchy. If any of the position vacates, there is a disruption in the

hierarchy thus, making the need for process charts redundant as they

patently find replacements for the vacant position in form of promotions or

other alternatives.

However, they do make succession plans for top positions of the company.

Potential successors are professionally assessed and trained for the

prospective position, experience and appraisals are also kept in

consideration. These components are concocted to make succession plans.

SSGC’s hiring plan has quite a short term as it spans from 6 months to 1

year instead of a 5 year hiring plan. The plan is short-term because in every

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3 years they appoint new CEO, and every CEO brings in new mission, so

they don’t keep long-term plans. However, their project plans remain long-

term.

4. Internal and External Candidates:

Normally, SSGC provides its employees with full and secure career and as

employees rarely resign, the number of employees leaving the company

that year is predictable and it’s easy to replace the vacant positions with

current employees. If there is still no appropriate replacement, they go

looking for outside candidates.

SSGC is going into new projects related to LNG terminal. Where they need

new pool of skills thus, they’re recruiting outside candidates.

They don’t have a specific quota for hiring the number of internal and

external candidates. They try to replace positions with internal candidates

through job postings as it is cost effective and favorable. Internal

candidates are treated the same way as externals as they’ve to go through

the same steps of hiring i.e. NTS test, interview, etc. But hiring them is cost

effective in a way, that they won’t have to pay for hiring cost, they are just

going to step-up the employees position and provide him or her with 20%

to 30% raise.

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If they look for outside candidates, it gets tediously convoluted to get

through the red tape, as they’ve to ask for permission from the

government, advertise, then administer NTS test and so on.

5. Job analysis:

SSGC do job analysis 3 months before the retirement of the employees.

They often lightly do the job analysis of most of their positions as their job

positions are of bureaucratic nature and are hardly ever modified. But they

do perform the job analyses of the key positions that are soon to be

vacated, they mainly focus on that. In SSGC, job description is only for the

position and Job description structure is defined by the board like 1 MD, 2

TMD, 4SGM and 35 GM. If one position is vacated, the position is still there

for filling; that position’s responsibilities are defined but they don’t need to

do job description.

5.1 Pattern of Job Analysis:

They are in growth mode and expanding their business, so Job analysis is

done when they have to start new projects; they collect data about the jobs

performed in an organization by performance management system, they

prepare job descriptions according to the new project and measure the key

performance of the employees. And find out where they need new

employees.

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5.2 Data collection method:

SSGC is using following methods:

5.2.1 Interview:

Employees about a particular job are interviewed about specific activities

that the job comprises. This interview is done by the supervisor and chief

in charge at the subordinate level. While executive level and officer level

employees are interviewed by chief and head of department sometimes

depending upon the nature of the job. SSGC ‘s Managers may conduct

individual, group interview. This is a quick way to gather the information.

SSGC conducts both structured and unstructured interview.

5.2.2 Observation:

This method is adopted for blue collar employees like welder, meter reader

and pipe filter etc. This observation of work is done by immediate

supervisor to evaluate the working capacity and technique of workers.

Managers use observation and interview together. 8

6. Recruitment:

After they identify the need for hiring, they recruit candidates from the

inside, if they fail to find a suitable candidate, they go for external

recruiting. They recruit through advertisement. Also, they’ve hired 3 to 4

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renowned third party HR firms and headhunters like HRS global, Fulcrum

and ESW.

As SSGC is a public sector company, they’ve to be fully compliant with

governmental regulations. Often times, government bans recruitment,

sometimes transfers and postings. Despite transparency, there are often

private and personal hiring.

At subordinate level, only current worker’s family can be recruited and no

other outside candidate can be recruited. Every 3 or 4 years, CBA is elected

and it usually sets the ground rules for hiring, they always bargain in the

best interests of the subordinate workers. Demand SSGC to hire the

maximum numbers of new staff. SSGC’s management and CBA are usually

in a tussle as they’ve opposing views. The party with the strong backing

from powerful entities wins.

7. Testing and selection process:

After reviewing the job applications, the next step is to select the candidate

best fit for the job. This includes the knowledge, skills and abilities etc.

There are three most important reasons for selecting right employee for the

organization.

 Hire the employee with right skills needed for the job performance.
 Hiring process should be effective because it’s costly to recruit and
hire employee.
 Hire an inept person for the organization has legal consequences.
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The manager of hiring team understand several concepts of testing either

they are administering test or making decision based on test result.

Reliability gives consistent result while validity is the degree of measuring

what it is supposed to measures. 9

Not long ago, SSGC used to call the candidates for the job interview on

basis of their Resume only. But, several years ago they began administering

test of the candidates after evaluating their CVs and then summoning the

candidates for job interviews who qualified the test.

There are various types of test available to test the candidates. Some of

them are personality test, intelligent test, physical abilities and achievement

test, etc. But SSGC uses National aptitude test (NTS) to test the candidates.

This test was suggested by their board of directors. NTS was first

announced by Governor of Punjab, Khalid Maqbool in 2007. This test is

playing a vital role in all types of hiring. 10

SSGC outsource their NTS test design from a company. The test help assess

the job related knowledge and general knowledge of the candidates.

National aptitude test is based on multiple choice questions. There are

almost 100 multiple choice questions related to conceptual basis and the

time duration is two-hours. There is no need to check reliability or validity

of the test as the test is used almost everywhere in Pakistan for hiring in

Public Sector. They check reliability and validity of the test for the potential

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test in promotion. They select and shortlist candidate on the basis of the

score. Basically testing is formality for the organization because they judge

candidate in the interview. They believe that you can judge person only

when you talk to them. Through communication you are able to know

about the person’s skills, attitude and confidence.

As for staff, testing is just a formality as the management has to hire them

regardless of their skill, experience, education, health, and etc.

8. Interview:

They do all sorts of interviews like structured, unstructured, panel, phone

and even on Skype. Basically it all depends upon the time and situation

that what interview they prefer at that time and at the consent of the

department head, division head and G.M.

They usually do structured interviews also known as a

standardized interview or a researcher-administered survey that is a

quantitative research method commonly employed in survey research --

for Managerial Positions. It involves a checklist and a criterion regarding

what the interviewee should be capable of. The aim of this approach is to

ensure that each interviewee is presented with exactly the same questions

in the same order but the way they answer is evaluated.

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The interview usually involves a panel which comprises of an HR

manager, department head and the GM. The department head and division

head are checking their technical skills, and the G.M check their behavioral

attitude and personality.

The Unstructured interview is usually preferred for (low level) non-

managerial posts. Through random questions they are evaluated. They

usually give situations to solve in an interview.

Often times, they vary the types of questions they employ in their

interviews. It depends upon the job and the interviewee, as the interviewee

is qualified but nervous, so they use the appropriate tact reserved for the

situation.

They believe that the biasness, snap judgements and other interview

mistakes are almost always avoided because there is a panel of 3 to 4

people who are taking the interview. As everybody has different

perceptions and level of perspicacity, the afterwards discussions help avoid

making wrong decisions regarding the candidate.

9. Background check:

It is very important for every organization to check the background while

hiring the person for a job. Failure to perform pre-employment screening

could destroy everything a business owner or manager has worked hard to

build. Background checks are a must in today's business climate.

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It is your company's responsibility to know the employee. Employee fraud

and theft can weaken or destroy a business. An employee with a history of

violence, drug, or alcohol abuse could cause irreparable damage to a

company's reputation.

Based on the doctrine of "Negligent Hiring", employers may face liability

issues. The company may be liable for damages if the court determines

that the employer "knew or should have known" negative facts of an

employee's background that should have disqualified that employee from

having the job.

For example, an employee with a bad driving record should not be hired as

a delivery person and an employee with a sexual assault conviction should

not be sent into a customer's home. Background check is a catchall term

that is used to define any research that an employer does to find out more

about an employee or applicant.11

Background screening is conducted in-house through the company’s

Human Resources department. SSGC check its employee background

through contacting the listed employment references and schools to verify

the dates of employment or attendance. They verify the documents of the

candidates and check their medical records.

10. Post-Hiring:

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After the employee is hired, they train the employee for almost 1 year.

There is no rigid time span as some employees are quick learners while

others are not. They give appropriate time to the employee to adjust to the

company’s environment and culture. As for the employees who had been

stepped up from a former position in SSGC, they are provided appropriate

training for the job position, which is usually for a short span of time.

Unlike the new employee, they are immediately conferred all the

responsibilities of the new job position as they know that the employee is

fully capable of handling it.

11. Diverse workforce:

As it’s a public sector company, it has to strive for the implementation of

legislation and other methods for the attainment of the fundamental rights

for the disabled persons in Pakistan. The Government set the policy of

hiring the disabled up to 3 to 4 % so they follow that and give them work

according to their skills and capabilities and treat them as they are treating

the other employees.

As for female workforce, they don’t have a specific quota to hire them but

they are encouraged to apply at SSGC. Despite of that there are very few

female employees at SSGC.

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 12. Inadequacies and Recommendations:

After reviewing the hiring process, there are some inadequacies in the

process that needs to be addressed.

 SSGC needs to be independent from political influence as it has

suffered great losses by being compelled to hire unskilled,

uneducated, unfit and sometimes ungrateful subordinate employees

and is considerably overstaffed. Which results in withholding the

employment opportunity from enthusiastic and deserving workers.

 Should use new testing criterion, instead of NTS and check the

reliability and validity of those tests, to ensure that the test is

measuring what it needs to and hire an appropriate and competent

employee for the job.

 Should use better HRM software modules.

 Use process charts, as SSGC is a large corporation and deserving

employee might unintentionally get ignored when considering a

vacant job position.

 Welders and Mechanics, who are subordinate staff at SSGC, are not

permanently hired until after a period of 10 to 15 years. Initially,

when they’re hired, they’re given trade allowance after 2 to 3 years;

after 8 to 10 years for training, they are finally made a permanent

employee. This fear of job security may have a negative impact on the

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 company and its workers. They need to cut down this long drawn

out process as it precludes employees from obtaining job security.

13. References:
1
http://ssgcl.blogspot.com
2
http://www.slideshare.net/muhammadhussayn110/human-resource-at-sui-southern-gas-company

3
(http://www.kellyservices.co.uk/uploadedFiles/ksdevektroncom/The%20Hiring%20Managers%20Report%20Final.
pdf
4
(same as 2)
5
(same as 1)
6
https://www.thebalance.com/steps-in-the-government-hiring-process-1669545
7
(Same as 2)
8
https://www.scribd.com/doc/33606211/Sui-Northern-Gas-Pipe-Lines-Limited
9
https://www.uni.edu/chfasoa/reliabilityandvalidity.htm)
10
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Testing_Service#cite_note-8

11
emhttp://www.lifescript.com/well-being/articles/p/pe-employment profile.net /backgroundchecks.htmployee.
http://www. employment_background_check_what_you_should_know.aspx?

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14. Appendix:

Questionnaire:

Identify vacancy and evaluate needs:

Q#1. How do you identify or forecast your firm’s hiring needs?

Q#2. Do your hiring needs arise due to skill shortage or is it mandatory for
your firm to hire employees after a particular period?
Q#3. Which techniques do you use to identify or forecast the firm’s staffing
needs?
Q#4. How often does your firm do the hiring?
Q#5. Is there any hiring plan for the next 5 years?

Internal or External candidates:

Q#6. Do you prefer to look for inside candidates whenever there is a job
vacancy? Or you directly go looking for outside candidates? Why?
Q#7. Do you’ve a specific percentage set for hiring inside and outside
candidates? Do the percentages differ for workers and executives?
Q#8. What techniques and method your company use to forecast the supply of
inside candidates? Do you keep replacement charts or computerized skills
inventories?
Q#9. How do you make succession plans for top positions of your firm?
Q#10. How do you replace the retiring workforce of your firm?
Q#11. When you hire employees internally or through a succession plan; does it
motivate the employees of the organization? How?

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Job Analysis:

Q#12. What is your process for analyzing the job and developing a job
description and job specification?
Q#13. Do you review organization’s charts?
Q#14. Do you review process charts?
Q#15. Do you conduct interviews, administer questionnaires, observe or
administer any other method for job analysis?
Q#16. Do you have a job analysis schedule?
Q#17. Does the job description prove to be of any help during the hiring
process?
Q#18. What does your job description usually entail? Explain by giving an
example.

Recruiting:

Q#19. How do you recruit your inside candidates? Job posting, rehiring, etc?
Q#20. How do you recruit outside candidates? Through advertising, internet,
referrals, employment agencies, on-demand recruiting, etc?
Q#21. Do you hire temporary workers or outsource jobs?

Hiring process:

Q#22. What is the hiring process for a secretary, employee, laborer and a
manager? Is there any different procedure for each of them?
Q#23. Which is the most important quality your organization looks in the
candidate?
Q#24. Is hiring a joint process on behalf of your whole HR department or there
are just selective people who do the hiring?
Q#25. As it is very difficult and time consuming to review each and every job
application so how do you manage that? Is there any procedure for this?
Q#26. After reviewing the job applications on what basis you select candidate for
an interview? (skills, experience, education). Give us examples.
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 Q#27. Which is the biggest challenge you face during the process of hiring?

Selection Process:

Q#28. What tests do you perform to test your candidates? Physical test, cognitive
ability test or personality test? Please specify and explain why?
Q#29. Do you check validity and reliability of the tests you administer?
Q#30. Is it important to test the personality and interests of the candidates? Do
you test those? How does this affect one’s performance at job?
Q#31. How do you select the candidate for the interview after administering the
test? Like on the basis of passing marks or the ability to answer the questions?
Q#32. What are some problems you face during the testing?

Interview:

Q#33. Which interview you prefer: structured, unstructured, panel or phone

interview? Why? Explain.
Q#34. What type of questions do you ask during the interview: situational,
behavioral or job related?
Q#35. For an effective interview what type of errors you try to avoid during the
interview?
Q#36. Do you administer work samples and simulations to test applicant’s
performance?

Background Investigation:

Q#37. Is it important to conduct pre-employment background investigation?

Q#38. Is there any specific procedure to conduct pre-employment background
investigation?
Q#39. What are some of the reasons you've rejected candidates so far?

Post-Hiring:

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 Q#40. If hired, what are the three most important things you’d like the employee
to accomplish in the first year? (Translation: What problem are you trying to
solve? What’s your pain point?)
Q#41. How long does it take for a fresh employee to learn the workings of your
organization?

Diverse workforce:

Q#42. Does SSGC emphasizes on hiring a diverse workforce? Like women,

disabled persons, etc? Is there any policy for that? Do you’ve a quota system
for hiring disabled people and omen?
Q#43. How would your company recruit a more diverse workforce like women,
single parents and disable people?

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