Course ID: MBA 509.
Course Name: Human Resources Management.
Topic: Research Report on “Chaldal”
Submitted to: Dr. Nazmul Amin Majumdar.
Submitted by: Syed Muhammad Nadeem Kadery.
ID: 2130604
Date of submission: 5th December 2022.
Table of Contents
Letter of Transmittal .................................................................................................................................... 1
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3
History and present position of e-commerce industry ....................................................................... 3
History and present position of Chaldal .............................................................................................. 4
Products and services of Chaldal ......................................................................................................... 4
Competitors of Chaldal and Market Share of Chaldal ........................................................................ 5
Objectives of the report ....................................................................................................................... 6
Body of Report ............................................................................................................................................. 7
Objective 1: What are the HRM problems and issues facing Chaldal / E-commerce industry? ........ 7
Objective 2: What sort of HRM approaches need to be taken to ensure ongoing strategic
competitive advantage?..................................................................................................................... 12
Objective 3: What HRM challenges will Chaldal / Ecommerce industry face in the 21st century?
Critically discuss. ................................................................................................................................ 16
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 21
Recommendation ....................................................................................................................................... 22
Implementation.......................................................................................................................................... 23
References .................................................................................................................................................. 24
Letter of Transmittal
Page 1 of 26
Executive Summary
Page 2 of 28
Introduction
History and present position of e-commerce industry
Munshiji is the first e-commerce in Bangladesh that Munshiji Technology Limited started in 1999
to export handicrafts, silk, jute products, tea, leather, and leather goods. In April 2005, another ecommerce platform ClickBD.com was launched. Initially, users could use this website to sell any
product. Besides having a marketplace, the platform later added online stores. Finally, in 2006,
country’s first free classified ad website Cell Bazaar was launched. Later, in 2014 the platform
was renamed ekhanei.com (Kazi Waliul Islam, 2022).
Bangladesh’s first full-fledged e-commerce company, akhoni.com, was founded in 2011 and later
in
2016,
was
re-branded
as
bagdoom.com.
Also,
another
online
shopping
platform ajkerdeal.com was launched in 2011. Meanwhile, in 2012 with the introduction of 3G
internet technology in Bangladesh, internet penetration increased, and e-commerce operating in
the country also started getting much-needed traction. In the same year, an online bookselling
platform rokomari.com was launched following the strategy of global e-commerce giant
Amazon.com (Islam, 2022).
E-commerce business in the Asia-Pacific overall
is blasting with 71 percent of APAC buyers
making an online buy. Bangladesh is a
noteworthy player in this region. Starting in 2016,
a sum of $50 million was invested in this sector.
Of the total, $10 million came as Foreign Direct
Investment. Be that as it may, the sum would be a
lot higher as Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba
had recently acquired leading online marketplace
Daraz. The Retail E-commerce is developing
at 72 percent a month in Bangladesh. Currently, 35,000 individuals and 25,000 little and medium
enterprises (SMEs) are included with this division. The quantities of e-commerce business sites
and E-commerce pages are 2,500 and 150,000 respectively. The quantity of delivery is assessed
at 15,000 to 20,000 at the retail level every day (Brain Station 23, n.d.).
Page 3 of 28
History and present position of Chaldal
Chaldal was founded in 2013 by Waseem Alim, Zia Ashraf, and Tejas Viswanath. It was the early
days of ecommerce in Bangladesh and online grocery shopping was a relatively new thing in
Dhaka. It took Chaldal a while to educate the market. Back in 2013, in the early days, the startup
was delivering 5 orders a day. Today, it delivers over 2000 orders per day. From a tiny team of
five people in 2013, it has grown to a team of over 600 people (Future Startup, 2021).
Now the company, has 27 warehouses located in four cities (Dhaka, Naryanganj, Chattogram and
Jashore). It will expand to 15 new cities and plans to open 50 warehouses by the end of this year.
In addition to its flagship grocery deliveries, Chaldal will expand GoGo Bangla, its on-demand
logistics service for small e-commerce businesses, and the Chaldal Vegetable Network, which
connects farmers directly to retailers. It also has plans to launch a direct-to-consumer pharmacy.
Chaldal claims that it has generated $40 million in revenue and performed 2.5 million orders over
the past 12 months, growing about 120% year over year. It currently sells about 8,500 kinds of
products and wants to expand that to 30,000 SKUs by December (Catherine Shu, 2021).
Products and services of Chaldal
Page 4 of 28
Chaldal.com is an online shop available in Dhaka, Chattogram, Jashore, Khulna, Sylhet, Gazipur,
Rajshahi and Narayanganj. Chaldal believes time is valuable to its fellow residents, and that they
should not have to waste hours in traffic, brave bad weather and wait in line just to buy basic
necessities like eggs! This is why Chaldal delivers everything customers need right at your
doorstep and at no additional cost. Chaldal offers a wide range of products, through its website
and mobile app, from fruits and vegetables, meat and fish, cooking, beverages, baby care products
etc (Chaldal, n.d.). Chaldal, the leader in online grocery space in Dhaka, quietly launched a
logistics spin-off early this year. The concern, named Go Go Bangla, offers logistics services to
small and medium ecommerce companies in Dhaka (Mohammad Ruhul Kader, 2016).
Chaldal.com, Bangladesh’s leading groceries platform, and Cookups, Bangladesh’s leading
platform for homemade food announced a partnership that heralds a stunning comeback for
Cookups after a month-long hiatus. Catering to the fast-paced, modern 21st-century lifestyles both Chaldal.com and Cookups are pioneers in the food tech industry in Bangladesh. This
integration between the two companies promises an exciting way forward, empowering farmers
and enabling many homemakers to earn from home while getting hassle-free groceries delivered
to their doorsteps (The Daily Star, 2019). Founded in 2017, BanglaMeds is one of the earliest
players in the vertical. The company was fully acquired by Chaldal in 2021, Bangladesh’s largest
online grocery startup, in a cash and stock deal (Future Startup, 2022).
Thus, it is quite clear that Chaldal is now on an expansion mode acquiring companies vertically
and horizontally and trying to satisfy customers accordingly.
Competitors of Chaldal and Market Share of Chaldal
According to Similarweb data of monthly visits, chaldal.com’s top competitor in October 2022 is
foodpanda.com.bd with 864.2K visits. chaldal.com 2nd most similar site is meenaclick.com, with
43.2K visits in October 2022, and closing off the top 3 is startech.com.bd with 2.4M.
Ryanscomputers.com ranks as the 4th most similar website to chaldal.com and techlandbd.com
ranks fifth. ryanscomputers.com and techlandbd.com received 993.9K visits and 707.4K visits in
October October 2022, respectively. The other five competitors in the top 10 list are daraz.com.bd
(12.2M visits in October 2022), sindabad.com (36.0K visits in October 2022), ubuy.com.bd
(106.1K visits in October 2022), gsmarena.com (69.4M visits in October 2022), and 1337x.to
(62.8M visits in October 2022) (Similarweb, n.d.). Chaldal’s various verticals are seeing steady
Page 5 of 28
growth. For example, its smallest business Go Go Bangla now deals with some 600-700 orders per
day. The number is not that big, but it is growing consistently. Go-Go Bangla market share is
probably around 2% but it can grow far larger in the coming years. On the online grocery end,
Chaldal’s market share is almost 90%. In the Vegetable Network, Chaldal is the only player doing
it (Mohammad Ruhul Kader, 2020).
Objectives of the report
The objective of the essay is preparing a research report on “Chaldal” and to find the answer to the
following questions:
1. Identifying and analyzing the HRM problems and issues facing e-commerce industry?
2. What are some of the HR approaches can be taken to ensure ongoing strategic
competitive advantage?
3. What are some of the HR challenges that the e-commerce industry might face in the 21st
century? Critically discuss.
Page 6 of 28
Body of Report
Objective 1: What are the HRM problems and issues facing Chaldal / E-commerce industry?
The organization is the place where a certain group of people carry out a series of activities in a
coordinated manner and in accordance with a certain hierarchical structure to achieve objectives
(Zakirova and Gimadiev, 2019). In a company, a series of resources (human and material) are used
in an organized and structured way to achieve results (produce goods or provide services). The
creation of the organizational structure of the company requires identifying what are the tasks that
must be developed to achieve the product or service offered and coordinate them properly to
achieve the desired result (Bagheri, 2016). Human resource management is defined as a system of
activities and strategies that focus on successfully managing employees at all levels of an
organization to achieve organizational goals (Byars & Rue, 2006). The role of human resource
management is that of a partnership between the human resources (HR) department and
management regardless of the organizational type. Most HR departments have similar
responsibilities. The HR and management partnership is unique in the healthcare industry because
many healthcare organizations have a dual administrative structure of clinical managers and health
services managers that supervise two distinct groups of employees with different responsibilities
and different training needs. For example, clinical managers have training or experience in a
specific clinical area and, accordingly, have more specific responsibilities than do generalists or
health services managers. For example, directors of physical therapy are experienced physical
therapists, nurse managers have nursing degrees, but most health service managers have a
bachelor’s degree or master’s degree in health services (BLS, 2011). Converse to the process based
HRM, Human Resource Development (HRD) is a series of activities that support behavioral
change and learning opportunities for employees (Haslinda, 2009). HRD activities aim to develop
employee skills and resilience to the current and future demands of the organization. The overall
objective of HRD activities is to achieve high performance (Haslinda, 2009). Haslinda (2009)
provides for specific examples of development activities to include training and development,
feedback and appraisal, career planning and development, and change management.
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Emerging HR Problems
1. Employee Selection
Employee selection is an important process for any organization, but particularly for small
business that can be challenged to compete with larger employees. Small business needs capable
and competent employees to help them develop and deliver high quality products and services.
Not only these difficulties but there are some other factors which influence the employee selection.
Thus, a HR manager need to consider all these factors while selecting the best suitable employee
for his organization. Some of the factors which affect the employee selection are as follows:
 External factors:
 Recommendations
Existing employees may recommend their relatives or friends to fill the vacancies, if the
person who recommended may be good or may not be.
 Political influence
Some candidates may arrive to the interview with the influence of politicians who may be
familiar to the HR manager and have good relationship with company in those case we may have
to select those candidates.
 Personal bias
 Bribing
Some candidates may offer bribe to make section
 Internal factors:
 Cost of recruitment
Cost incurred for the process of recruitment may also affect the selection process.
 Job analysis
 Human resource planning
Page 8 of 28
Before selection of the employees there may be already a plan for employee selection and
a HR manger may in need of following that plan itself, he may not be in the position to take his
own decisions beyond plans already made.
2. Training and Development
“Training is expensive. Without training it is more expensive.” –Nehru
Training is about knowing where you are in the present and after sometimes where you will reach
with your abilities. By training, people can learn new information, new methodology and refresh
their existing knowledge and skills due to this there is many improvements and adds up the
effectiveness at work. The motive behind giving the training is to create an impact that lasts beyond
the end time of the training itself and employees get updated with the new phenomenon. Training
can be offered as skill development for individuals and groups. Organizational Development is a
process that “strives to build the capacity to achieve and sustain a new desire state that benefits the
organization or community and the world around them.” The human resource department faces
many challenges in a workforce’s training and development, from ensuring the stability of the high
performing individuals who drive the company coaxing success from untapped potential
employees and under achievers alike. Investing in the training and development of lower-level
employees is another common HR problem. Some businesses have trouble finding the resources
to do so. Employees on the front lines are some hardest workers and may not have the time to take
a training course.
3. Retaining employee
 Globalization has given freedom to working professionals to work anywhere in the world
 Now that they have endless lucrative opportunities to work, hiring and retaining the best industry
talents is no joke
 Providing excellent work environment and offering more remuneration and perks than your
competitors can retain and motivate them
Page 9 of 28
4. Conflict Managing
There is no organization without conflict situations. It is known that 80% of conflict situation occur
independently of human will. Its causes are people’s individual characteristics, as well as structure
of the organization, conditioned by the culture established in the organization. Work-Life-conflict
is a clear and present danger to organizations and denial of this fact would be at the peril of
accepting suboptimal employee performance. HR managers should know how to handle
employee-employer and employee-employee conflicts without hurting their feelings. Although it
is almost impossible to avoid conflicts among people still handing them tactfully can help HR
managers to resolve the issues. They should be able to listen to each party, decide and communicate
to them in a convincing manner to avoid future conflicts (Thimmanna G Bhat, 2016).
The most significant barrier to the growth of the e-commerce industry remains the unstable internet
connection, particularly in rural areas. Even in some urban areas, the internet quality required to
attract people to e-commerce is lacking. The second impediment afflicting this industry is decaying
public confidence. There has been a widespread complains about various e-commerce platforms
failing to deliver products on time even after receiving payment. On top of that, some of the most
popular e-commerce platforms were discovered to be involved in money laundering and violations
of fair-trade policy in 2021. It will take nothing short of a miraculous effort on the part of all
stakeholders in the e-commerce industry to regain the trust of the public, which is currently at rock
bottom. The road to recovery will undoubtedly be long as well. Another major impediment is the
lack of digital access and literacy of a large section of the population, especially those living in
rural areas. In fact, according to a survey conducted in 2019 by BRAC Institute of Governance
and Development, three-quarters of the surveyed households had no to low digital access, while
77% of rural households were found to have no to low digital skills. Finally, there is a lack of a
strong delivery channel. Only a few traditional courier delivery services exist, and in recent years,
modern app-based delivery service providers have been able to facilitate same-day or quick
delivery, but these services are mostly not available in areas other than Dhaka and some other
cities (Arafat Reza, 2022).
Now if an analysis is to be made from the above-mentioned points, then it is quite clear that the
challenges the e-commerce industry in Bangladesh is facing, seems political, economic, social,
technological, and legal. However, at the root of all the problems are the HR challenges of the ePage 10 of 28
commerce industry, not being able to place the right person on the right sector who will work
miracles in a barren land. Internet connection remains a problem in the e-commerce industry thus
it a reflection of the lack of training provided to the employees in the e-commerce industry. This
is because without sufficient training the employees believe they know all and are not taking
sufficient steps to solve the problems. For example if enough leadership training was provided to
the employees, 100 hours of calendar training to the employees in the e-commerce industry, these
employees would have taken initiatives to arrange meeting with the big telco companies such as
Grameenphone and Banglalink and worked with them to improve the quality of internet in rural
areas as once the quality is improved and the e-commerce industry being able to penetrate the rural
areas the telco companies will only earn premium as the population will increase the data
consumption earning more revenue for the telco companies. Moreover, when the e-commerce
industries are hiring employees, it might rely on recommendation and political influence missing
out the cream pie of the market who, if were present in the industry would have been able to turn
the game around.
Moving on the to the second problem which is stated as decaying public confidence. Public
confidence is decreasing because the company is not being able to deliver properly and if the
question is to be asked why the company is not being able to deliver properly then there might be
several HR issues associated. However, two of them are of most concern. Firstly, companies are
failing to retain the key employees who are being offered better jobs at different companies and
are moving on for a better life and comfort. Well, how is this connected to HR? HR is failing to
build a culture in the company that gives the employees a sense of accomplishment that they are
not solely working but changing the scenario of Bangladesh. Failing to instill a strong sense of
commitment, values, and culture the industry is facing a shortage of skilled executives and labors
who are transitioning to other industries. Moreover, failing to instill a sense of culture also raises
the numbers of conflict management in a company which might increase hatred, violence and rage
among employees who are now more focused to fill their pockets with the company’s money rather
trying to hold the company’s image and branding resulting in a lot of e-commerce companies in
Bangladesh involved in money laundering.
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Objective 2: What sort of HRM approaches need to be taken to ensure ongoing strategic
competitive advantage?
Organizations are ubiquitous and none of them can perform optimally without efficient human
resources hence the need for human resources planning cannot be underestimated. The principal
purpose of acquiring human resources in any organization is therefore to aid in the actualization
of the organizational objectives. In any ideal organization, human resource planning (HRP) is
usually the first step in the human resource management processes and strategic business. Then
suffice it to say that “the focus of HRP is to ensure that the organization has got the right number
of human resources, with the right capabilities, at the right times, and in the right places (Vineeth,
2019:1).” To this end, the logic is that maximum organizational performance would be guaranteed
where the organization has got the right number of human resources, with the right capabilities, at
the right times, and in the right places (Stephen 2020).
Recruitment is the process of discovering or selecting and hiring or best qualified candidate from
inside or outside of organization for a job opportunity. The recruitment process includes examining
the necessities of work, drawing employee to that occupation, screening and selecting candidates,
contracting, and coordinating the new employee to the association. Also, HR department
responsible to choose the right person or best qualified candidate for the post for organization
needs (Abdullah & Othman, 2019). Recruitment process includes a systematic procedure from
sourcing the candidates to orchestrating and leading the interviews and requires numerous
resources and time. The methods and procedures used to acquire an understanding about jobs are
called job analysis. There are mainly two sources of recruitment: internal and external (Gardi et
al. 2020). Selection is a process of evaluating and interviewing candidates for a particular job and
selecting the right person for the right position. Selection is a process of hiring suitable people for
job who can successfully perform the job (Prabhu et al. 2020). When there is vacant position in an
organization Human resource Management take a responsibility for finding and selecting the right
person for this vacant position. Right man for right job is the main goal of selection (Anwar &
Shukur, 2015). Selecting process includes a progression of steps to be taken after for picking the
suitable employee for the empty position. This procedure begins after recruitment and partitions
the competitors in two sections the individuals who will be offered work and those won't be. There
is a need of all around composed determination process because at exactly that point right kind of
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applicant can be chosen and unsatisfactory candidates are rejected (Sultan et al. 2020) (Hamza,
2021).
Today most of the companies are investing a lot of money on the training and development of
employees in order to remain competitive and successful part of the organization. The importance
of training for employees is rapidly growing and organizations are using this tool to compete with
their competitors in the market. Training and development refer to educational activities within a
company created to enhance the knowledge and skills of employees while providing information
and instruction on how to better perform specific tasks. Training is a short-term reactive process
meant for operatives and process while development is designed continuous pro-active process
meant for executives. In training employees' aim is to develop additional skills and in development,
it is to develop a total personality. In training, the initiative is taken by the management with the
objective of meeting the present need of an employee. In development, initiative is taken by the
individual with the objective to meet the future need of an employee (Naga and Yedama, 2021).
Performance appraisal (PA) plays a central role in managing human resources in organizations
(e.g., Boswell and Boudreau, 2002; Cardy and Dobbins, 1994; Judge and Ferris, 1993). The term
performance appraisal (or performance evaluation) refers to the methods and processes used by
organizations to assess the level of performance of their employees. This process usually includes
measuring employees’ performance and providing them with feedback regarding the level and
quality of their performance (DeNisi and Pritchard, 2006). The main goal of the PA in
organizations is to improve employee performance (DeNisi and Pritchard, 2006; Murphy and
Cleveland, 1991). This goal could be achieved through three possible mechanisms: (1) the
information provided by the PA can be used for administrative decisions linking the evaluated
performance to organizational rewards or punishments such as a pay raise, promotion, or discharge
(Cleveland et al., 1989; Landy and Farr, 1980; Raynes, Gerhart, & Parks, 2005); (2) the PA process
involves providing performance feedback (i.e., information regarding the level of performance) to
the employees who were evaluated, allowing them to adjust their performance strategies to match
the desired performance (e.g., Erez, 1977; Kluger and DeNisi, 1996; Locke and Latham, 2002);
and (3) the PA is a process that raises employee awareness to the fact that they are being measured.
As has been shown since the Hawthtorne studies (Roethlisberger and Dickson, 1939) and is
expressed in the aphorism “what gets measured gets done,” the mere fact of knowing that one is
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being observed or measured increases performance and fosters cooperative behavior (Bateson et
al., 2006; Haley and Fessler, 2005; Keller and Pfattheicher, 2011) (Dina, 2015).
As mentioned earlier Chaldal has a market share of 100%, as there are no other competitors in the
market and the market size is also relatively small. However, this doesn’t ensure that Chaldal will
continue to rule the market in the days to come because any fine morning, a better organization
with proper planning and execution can enter the market and disrupt not only the business
operation of Chaldal but the entire e-commerce industry of Bangladesh. Thus, now I am going to
provide a list of HRM approaches, that need to be taken to ensure ongoing strategic competitive
advantage:
1. Human Resource Planning (HRP)
As cited above HRP is ensuring that the organization has got the right number of resources, with
right capabilities, at the right times and in the right place. If Chaldal wants to maintain its market
share of 100% and grow the market size to millions of people, then Chaldal must expand its
business in terms of customers, in the existing category, and in different categories. And this can
only be systematically done by proper HRP. Chaldal must set a limit that by how much they would
want to grow in the next 10 years, and accordingly break the vision into smaller missions of 1 year.
In this part the HR manager of the company is going to predict how many employees will they
need in each sector of the operations to expand according to the goal. Maybe they might need 5
HR executives, 3 finance executive, 10 marketing executives each year to grow at the desired level.
Along with that they might also need 200 riders, 100 drivers for transporting their goods and
services to all over Bangladesh. Once this planning has been done the HR manager now has a clear
picture of how many employees it needs in the coming years to grow at the level they want to grow
and then design the according job analysis to recruit the desired people to grow the organization.
2. Recruitment and Selection
Recruitment is going to be of vital importance because Chaldal would want to have the best people
in the market working for the organization. This can be conducted through internal recruiting,
maybe shifting the operations head of Chaldal to a new position of operations head of Chaldal
International, a venture that is to be launched for global markets because Chaldal wants to expand
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internationally. Or maybe, Chaldal wants to hire a new business strategist from outside the
organization because there is no one fit for the job within the organization. In this case Chaldal
would have to use external sources, maybe posting the job on LinkedIn, or hire though third-party
agencies and select the best candidate from the pool of candidates examining through different
tests such as cognitive tests, personality traits, honesty tests etc. Recruitment and selection is a key
step in the list of approaches because if the right person is chosen then just like the right key opens
up the lock, the employee can go on to work miracles for Chaldal. However, if the wrong candidate
is chosen no matter how much effort is provided the combination will never match resulting in
breakdowns.
3. Training and Development
The world we live in today is seen to update every second. What was once known as great might
become ordinary tomorrow because there is someone else doing the same thing with a but of an
update. Once the automobile industry was ruled by mammoths like Toyota, Nissan, Ford, GM, and
other names. While this companies are still ruling today, Tesla has penetrated the market and is
now the industry leader for electric cars. Setting up Giga Factories for Lithium-ion batteries for its
own use in Tesla cars, it would be impossible to claim that it is a one man show and that Elon
musk is the creator of all such great ideas. It is the employees of Tesla who have been trained and
developed for years who each one produces a drop of water together forming an ocean. Similarly,
if Chaldal wants to sustain itself in the market then it must continuously train and develop its
employees. Training can be provided to the riders and drivers to ensure that efficiency is being
achieved in every order delivered. Maybe a training in the warehouse for the employees who are
dealing with goods can be provided a training on how easily they can transfer goods from one belt
to another. This way employees can develop additional skills and the present need of the employee
is met. On the other hand, development of certain better performing employees for meeting future
needs such as developing finance executives to be financial analysts, sending management
executives for overseas training so that they can takeover the COO post is all part of developmental
programs in the company that is undertaken by the management to build competent people who
will develop the company in the coming days.
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4. Performance Appraisal
Just like a teacher deducts mark for a wrong answer and provides mark for a right answer, an
employee must also be evaluated based on how much they are working meeting the company goals
and where are they failing to do so. The performance of an employee must be assessed as this will
help the employee to understand better what they are doing right and where they need to be right.
In case of Chaldal it can measure the performance of its riders by how much satisfied the customers
are with the service of the delivery man ranging from: Very Satisfied – Dissatisfied. Moreover,
whether the quality of goods that customer receive is satisfying or not is an important issue as it
tends to point to repeat purchase. If the quality of goods of groceries is satisfying the customers,
then the sourcing manager, of grocery, is doing a good job, however if the medicines received by
customers are of not premium quality, then maybe the sourcing manager of medicine, should be
evaluated and advised to upgrade the level of medicine or else they might have to lose the segment
within time. Performance appraisal can be used as a source whether which employees should be
promoted or discharged because it reveals the true performance of the employees, and the
performance of the employee indicates the satisfaction level of customers. It can also be used as a
tool for making good employees great and then making the good organization greater. Finally,
success depends on awareness and performance appraisal is the awareness that the employees must
have which will help them to build themselves in a way that they can manage any critical incident
and save the face of the company.
If certain steps are taken and, in such order, then we can hope that Chaldal can ensure strategic
competitive advantage and can sustain itself in the market irrespective of competition and new
entrants.
Objective 3: What HRM challenges will Chaldal / Ecommerce industry face in the 21st century?
Critically discuss.
Emerging HR challenges in the 21st Century:
1. Globalization in HRM
The term Globalization has invaded the mind of every successful businessman and the concept of
Global Village is common issue in modern business world. Globalization is a process that is
drawing people together from all nations of the world into a single community linked by the vast
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network of communication technologies. This aspect of globalization has also affected in the
business world of today. HR Manager today need not rely in small limited market to find the right
employees needed to meet global challenges, but today they can recruit the employees from around
the world.
2. Balance with work life
Balancing work and life assume relevance when both husband and wife are employed. In India,
working women now account for 15% of the total urban female population of 150million. Any
organization that strives to be reckoned as ‘a great place to work’ needs to pay special attention to
minimize and facilitate resolution work life conflict of their employees. The challenge however is
in knowing and doing things that facilitate and support work life balance without intruding into
the personal lives of employees. The HR department of such organization is often stretched for
creative solutions that are practical to implement yet are effective in impact. Successful
organizations in this space have taken work-life-balance to even higher levels by not merely
restricting themselves to addressing domestic pressures on their employees but facilitating self actualization of these individuals.
3. Compliance with Laws and Regulation
Keeping up with changing employment laws is a struggle for business owners. Many choose to
ignore employment laws, believing they don’t apply to their business. But doing so could mean
audits, lawsuits, and possible even the demise of a company. As HR manger will be responsible in
hiring employees it is his duty to care of laws and regulations regarding employment, thus it will
be very challenging to him to select an employee with taking into consideration of all laws and
regulations. He must get updated himself about the changing rules and regulations regarding
employment.
4. Handling multicultural/Diverse Workforce
A multicultural workforce is one made up of men and women from a variety of different cultural
and racial backgrounds. The labor force any country reflects the population from which it is drawn,
despite some distortions that may be caused by discrimination or cultural bias in hiring. Dealing
with people from different ‘age’, ‘gender’, ‘race’, ‘educational background’, ‘location, income’,
‘parental status’, ‘religious beliefs’, ‘marital statuses and ‘ancestry’ and ‘work experience’ can be
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a challenging task for HR managers. Cultural differences may often lead to difficulties with
communications and a rise in the friction that can develop as people with different expectations
and habits interact. As a result, workforce diversity is increasing. Managing these people with
different religious, cultural, moral background is challenging task for HR Manager. Thus, it is
important for a HR manager to create an environment in which the positives of diversity are
harnessed, and the negatives are minimized as much as possible (Thimmanna G Bhat, 2016).
The world today is the most connected world in the history of civilization. We have the access of
a smartphone which in true sense is not a phone but the entire world. Social media sites such as
Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram connect the entire world like we are all sitting aside and so
does connects all the businesses in the world. Gone are the days when an organization could claim
that it is the king in its home country and is now trying to be the king in other countries. If we want
to take a moment for understanding the demise of eBay, it was one of the largest tech companies
in the world in the lates 1990s. By successfully establishing a brand name it then was in the route
of overtaking China, the then undigitized nation. But Alibaba, a company founded by an English
teacher, not only drove eBay out of China but became immensely successful in establishing a
global brand name. And Jack Ma could do this because, the founder, understood the HRM
challenges of the late 1990s and acted accordingly, giving stock options to employees, looking
after employees’ entertainment, and getting employees wedded through company funds to ensure
employee loyalty. Thus, now we are going to analyze the HRM challenges that Chaldal or the
Ecommerce industry, collectively will face in the 21st century.
1. Going Global
Chaldal now must focus on expanding its market to overseas. This is because as we saw above, if
Chaldal doesn’t expand internationally, then tomorrow maybe Amazon might enter the market and
disrupt the entire E-commerce industry some of the companies and providing such greater services
to customers that the other companies will bleed and automatically be driven out of the
competition. Chaldal can start to offer its products / special products of Bangladesh under a
different brand name to China, India and Nepal for the time being to understand the regulations of
the countries and the market segmentation and the different tastes of different nations. It must train
its employees and send them to different locations providing housing, transport, medical
allowance, entertainment, and education of children so that these employees are motivated to go
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overseas and work for the company. This will give the employees a sense of satisfaction and
motivation that they too are a part of a global company and not a local company only working in
Bangladesh. Otherwise, a foreign company will now enter the market, hire the already best minds
working in these companies and mixing their experience with their more professional executives
and disrupt the entire e-commerce industry of Bangladesh.
2. Responding to the market
A classic marketing example is offers great understanding here. A company is too focused on
developing a mousetrap for its customer whereas a different company has invented a n aerosol for
trapping mouse. Similarly, if Chaldal is too busy trying to push its services to the market and not
considering the customer needs and wants then soon enough a foreign company will invade and
make a brand of itself in the e-commerce industry of Bangladesh. Therefore, it is extremely
important, that Chaldal first understand what products and services the customers are demanding
or might be demanding. For example: customers maybe demanding products such as Bashundhara
Tissue Paper while the organization is busy pushing Fresh Tissue Papers, because Fresh provides
Chaldal a discount on bulk purchases, then customers might feel frustrated and chose a different
website to shop. Similarly, while responding to the market Chaldal also needs to respond to the
growing demands of employees and on behalf of them maintain a work life balance. For example:
if Chaldal wants to get boarded the best Operations head in the company and is paying him/her
merely peasant then this operations head will either work for a different company or apply abroad
and work outside the country living the e-commerce industry deprived of great talents and the
continuation of brain drain in our country.
3. Fiscal and financial risk
The e-commerce industry in Bangladesh is still in its infancy stage and is surely going to
experience a lot of challenges. The legal personnel of any company, of the e-commerce industry,
shall always be updated with the updated labor laws. Because if proper attention is not paid to the
employment laws, then soon the company may find itself in lawsuits which can ultimately led to
the demise of the company. A slightly relevant example in this section is Evaly the largest
Bangladeshi E-commerce platform, the company not complying with government laws and
regulations and because of which the company was totally shutdown and the founder being sent to
jail. Such incidents not only hurt the image of a specific industry locally but also globally reducing
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the prospects of local companies expanding internationally and doing business. Moreover,
companies should also pay attention to the employees they are hiring because if certain employees
have criminal activities in the past then the company can be at a threat from within or also be
threatened by government for shutdown if certain employees are involved in terrorist activities.
4. Developing human capital
The most significant challenge in 21st century for the e-commerce industry in Bangladesh will be
dealing with a multicultural workforce and developing human capital as we are experiencing an
outburst of employees and graduates in the market and of different ages, genders, races,
educational background and so on. Understanding and reaching a decision of whom to choose for
a job and whom not to choose and then developing the employees with training and development
programs and retaining them in this overly competitive world is of a great concern. Moreover,
keeping in mind of this diverse workforce and tailoring to the individual needs of each employee
based on culture and religious views and of attending to their problems is a great challenge to the
companies, because if done correctly this can change the phase of the company however if not
then it can also lead to the demise of the company.
Finally managing this Generation Y workforce, who have already earned the title of kangaroo
hoppers, and providing them a healthy and vibrant environment to work along with balancing work
life and responding to the market tops the chart of challenges that the industry as a while will face
in the 21st century.
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Conclusion
Chaldal has come a long way. They have sustained in the market for a decade now and have gained
sufficient experience and knowledge to thrive. From delivering 5 orders a day the company is
delivering some around 600000 orders a month and has grown from a small team of less than 10
people to almost north of 700 employees. The company has also expanded into other sectors within
this short period of time. From launching a logistics company and adding categories of medicine
and ready meals to its business catalogue Chaldal is now equipped to serve a bigger market size
increasing revenue and enjoying higher profits.
However, challenges persist in the e-commerce industry of Bangladesh from lacking in training
and development of the employees in the sector, decaying public confidence for events such as the
demise of Evaly and little access to the internet in the rural areas of Bangladesh.
However, with proper steps and measures to be taken in the future such as human resource
planning, proper recruiting, and selection, training the employees, and developing according to the
need of the future trends and appraising the performance of the employees Chaldal can become a
household name for not only the people of Dhaka city but for the nation as a whole.
Finally with the world being a global village and companies looking for opportunities all around
the world if Chaldal doesn’t respond to the market through its offering of products and services
and by understanding the Generation Y mindset then however the company might face some
hardships in the days to come. On the other hand, if Chaldal can develop its human capital
forecasting the needs of the market and can retain its key employees then Chaldal can offer the
people of Bangladesh a world class service.
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Recommendation
The e-commerce industry of Bangladesh has grown over 100% in the last 4 years and is currently
valued at more than $2 billion. Thus, it is very much obvious that with the population becoming
more and more aware of the internet and spending much of their time on the internet for
entertainment to shopping, and planning tours to connecting with people, Chaldal should now
focus on increasing its market size by promoting itself in the market.
The company should also utilize the overflowed labor market to its advantages by promoting itself
as a trustworthy employer to the potential employees so that the newly joined labors of the labor
market, can develop trust among the minds of the employees.
The company should now focus on entering foreign markets and offering products and services
under different brand names, just like Lexus, the premium car segment, is offered by Toyota under
a different brand name, to understand the global market and initiate new projects which can then
be brought Bangladesh and experimented with that might produce significant growth for the
company.
Finally, Chaldal should also learn from international competitors such as Amazon and others on
how to strategize operations, marketing, and human resources so that the company can offer the
employees an international work experience so that employees feel part of a bigger and better
working environment compared to other potential competitors of Chaldal in the local market.
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Implementation
Chaldal should utilize the young generation of graduates of different reputed private industries by
organizing different competitions on Search engine optimization and digital marketing, because of
which Chaldal will be able to hire its next digital marketers for strongly building its digital presence
to market itself as a differential service offering differentiated service to the consumers in
Bangladesh. This will also act as a source of trust for the still enrolled university students who will
be motivated to apply at Chaldal for better jobs compared to its other e-commerce competitors
because of which Chaldal will automatically have the best minds working for itself.
Chaldal can start to operate in nearby countries such as India and Pakistan where the big
competitors are already doing business. Chaldal can start the venture and then slowly higher the
competitors big names with stock options and recognition who will want to be a big part of
something small rather than being a small part in a big company. Some are motivated to work for
impact, some for success and some for money. Similarly, Chaldal must identify these people and
bring them from the big corporates and slowly back to Bangladesh so that these big names can
make a big name for Chaldal. When working with foreigners the already present employees of
Chaldal will have this sense of being part of an international company and they will take pride in
saying it to everyone building a strong brand image of Chaldal int market in turn attracting better
employees resulting in greater customer satisfaction, higher revenues, increased profits and finally
being a household name for our country.
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