Introduction
Performance management is the process of creating a work environment or setting in which
people are enabled to perform to the best of their abilities. Performance management is a whole
work system that begins when a job is defined as needed. It ends when an employee leaves your
organization. It includes performance appraisal, training and development and other benefits.
Origin
The purpose of this project was to find out how an organization manages it all employees to have
better productivity to contribute to the business success.
Objective
As we chose ACI limited for our project, we tried to delve into the performance management
system of the organization to know how they are managing the vast employees successfully.
Scope
While doing this project, we understood practically how important the employees are for the
success of any organization. And why it is important for any organization to mange an effective
performance management system.
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Methodology
The information used in this report was collected by consulting the HR executive and some
employees of ACI. Besides, some information was collected from net.
Limitations
It was not possible to interview all the employees of ACI since they have more than 6500
employees. Some of the information was not available due to their company confidentiality.
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Organization Background
Advanced Chemical Industries (ACI) Limited is one of the leading companies in Bangladesh,
with a multinational heritage.
ACI was established as the subsidiary of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in the then East
Pakistan in 1968. After independence the company has been incorporated in Bangladesh on the
24th of January 1973 as ICI Bangladesh Manufacturers Limited and also as Public Limited
Company. This Company also obtained listing with Dhaka Stock Exchange on 28 December,
1976 and its first trading of shares took place on 9 March, 1994. Later on 5 May, 1992, ICI plc
divested 70% of its shareholding to local management. Subsequently the company was registered
in the name of Advanced Chemical Industries Limited. Listing with Chittagong Stock Exchange
was made on 22 October 1995. Subsequently the company was registered in the name of
Advanced Chemical Industries Limited (ACI)
The trading subsidiary of ACI represents in Bangladesh principals like ici, exxon-mobile, bayer,
stahl and ici uniquema. Strategic business unit:

Pharmaceuticals

Consumer Brands

Agri Business

Crop Care & Public Health

Animal Health
ACI has the following subsidiaries:

ACI Formulations Ltd.
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
ACI Trading Ltd.

Apex Leather Craft Limited

ACI Salt Limited

ACI Foods Limited

ACI Pure Flour Limited
Mission Statement of ACI
‘ACI’s mission is to enrich the quality of life of people through responsible application of
knowledge, skills and technology. ACI is committed to the pursuit of excellence through
world-class products, innovative processes and empowered employees to provide the highest
level of satisfaction to its customers.’
Values of ACI

Quality

Customer Focus

Fairness

Transparency

Continuous Improvements

Innovation
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Human Resource Department of ACI
ACI HR works with a vision for creating a work-environment to foster creativity, innovation and
productivity for achieving business excellence through dynamic and dedicated people.
They believe that Human Resources are the most important asset of the organization. They
identify the training needs and provide trainings accordingly to develop the knowledge and skills
of their human resources. Thought Leadership and Team Building meetings are conducted on a
regular basis. They provide an enabling working environment to unleash the full potential of the
employees and a performance based career progression.
ACI has more than 6500 employees working in this organization. Their mission is to achieve
business excellence through quality by understanding, accepting, meeting and exceeding
customer expectations. They practice modern HR Policies and procedures for Recruitment &
Selection, Manpower Planning and succession planning.
The HR department is run by Director Corporate Affair is Shima Abed Rahman. Under her
supervision Shamim Ferdous manages all employees.
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Analysis
While conducting the report we got to know the motivation techniques of ACI, their motivation
and development programs and their salaries & bonus systems which motivate their employees.
Our analysis on these topics is extended in this section.
ACI’s Motivation Techniques
Performance appraisal is the process of identifying and evaluating employee performance to
make sure they contribute to the organizational goals. ACI’s appraisal techniques are-
Paired Comparison:
It helps to make the ranking method more precise. According to this technique employees will
be listed in all possible pairs for each trait (e.g. how much products are sold in one week) and it
helps to indicate which is better of each pair. This is practiced only for the sales people.
Performance Appraisal Form:
Each employee is given a form which is filled in consultation with the supervisor to identify
what are the needs of the employee to develop his skill further not only to perform his
responsibility better but also for taking future responsibility.
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Weekly Meetings:
The organization arranges meetings for employees every week to review their performance
throughout the week.
The employees share their problems and ideas about work and other job related factors and the
supervisors can have updates about how things are going on in each sector of the organization.
SWOT analysis:
Besides the management committee the employees also try to find out their strengths and
weaknesses within the organization and the external opportunities and threats they may face.
Scanning External Environment:
ACI often scans the external environment for comparing similar industry practices. ACI revise
the remuneration and compensation schemes of them by comparing the job facilities provided by
the competing firms. ACI practices it to increase employee satisfaction and decrease employee
turnover rate. This is mainly used to decide the salaries of employees.
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Employee Consultancy:
Consultants talk with employees individually to know about their ongoing work- whether they
are facing any problems or anything.
The consultants try to figure out if an employee is facing problem in working with co-workers or
having problem in adapting any new company policy.
The consultants also try to point out if a particular employee is satisfied with his or her job
responsibilities and performance.
Brainstorming:
Employees arrange brainstorming sessions to share their ideas and knowledge about their
upcoming works. They also discuss about their experience and problems of their current works
with each other.
In these sessions the employees are given a problem and each employee comes up with different
types of solutions of the problem and from all these solutions the most feasible solution is taken
up and employees all together start to work on that.
Balanced Score Cards:
ACI uses BSC for its all business units except the agro base sector to measure their employee
performance.
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Executives & Managers Appraisal:
MD, Directors and subordinates do this. This is a bottom-top approach of appraisal technique. In
this appraisal technique subordinates’ performance affect managers’ performance appraisal e.g.
if a sales manager is given a target of selling ten thousand pharmaceutical products in one week
then he would assign his sales executives to accomplish this job and in such case the manager’s
performance would depend on how successfully the sales executives perform their jobs.
Survey for diversified workforce:
ACI is an equal opportunity employer and it follows the principle of diversity in recruitment,
training and giving opportunity to its employees for career progression and growth.
The company has a mixed workforce from all parts of the country from different religious
background. The employee benefits package of the company was developed with the intention
for the entire employee to have access to his right as part of the ACI family. Regular survey is
conducted to find out whether diversified workforce is working as one single team.
Graphic rating scale:
This appraisal technique is to find out employees’ performance level. Employee who is the
highest or lowest on the characteristics are being measured. Each employee is rated in the scale
of 1-9.
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Succession Planning:
This technique is conducted to fill executive positions. The employees who show promising
performance are selected and given adequate training and provided with appropriate
development sessions to improve their level of skill and be eligible for the future executives.
ACI prefer in succession planning rather than recruiting executives from outside because of its
cost effectiveness and it takes less time to grip the job responsibilities for current employees.
The succession planning is also helpful to develop morale among the employees and they
become more dedicated towards their work.
Monthly employee Meeting:
The organization held meetings between supervisors and subordinates to review their
performance throughout the month.
These sessions are very effective appraisal technique for the employees as these make flow of
information and experience throughout the organization and help the employees to enrich their
knowledge.
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Individual Department Survey:
These surveys are conducted at the end of every month. Mainly sales department of every sector
and inventory management department of chemical, pharmaceuticals and agro based business of
ACI need frequent review.
MBO:
This appraisal technique is used primarily for the farmers under the agro-based unit and sales
people.
In this case the employees are given some specific task e.g. selling a particular product,
measurable e.g. selling ten thousand products, achievable, realistic and within a time frame e.g.
selling ten thousand product within a week for a very skilled group of sales executives, to
accomplish.
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ACI’s Performance Training and Development Programs
The term training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of
the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful
competencies. In another word training is he process of providing employees with the
knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to successfully perform their job.
At ACI when a training program is run, an evaluation takes place not only after the training but
also prior to the training to find the learning that the person got from the training. All training
needs which are identified in the review are included in the training plan of the company to the
development and growth of the employee. They can train 300-400 employees at a time.
ACI recognizes the responsibility to enhance the employee’s opportunity to develop competence
level for ensuring satisfactory performance. The training program includes some of the following
as mentioned below:

Training Need Assessment & Performance Development Planning

Training Plan

Training Design & Development

Training Evaluation
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
Management Development Plan

Individual Development Plan
Coaching:
Coaching is an ongoing training process that is especially designed to promote work efficiency
and makes the new employees familiar with the working condition of the organization. Actually
it is a programme that makes the fresh recruits employees of ACI limited. Actually it is a training
method that is organized by almost all the standard organizations. The specialty of this process in
ACI is that it is an on-the-job training that takes place in the usual working condition. It is very
effective in a sense that this method instills a sense of familiarity with the new environment in
the minds of the new employees which is a must for the organization.
Monthly Seminars:
As the name suggests, monthly seminar is held once a month. It is a way of judge the continued
functions of ACI with that of its competitors. At present this business organization is running
three business units: Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Brands and Agro Business. Furthermore, it has
twelve subsidiaries and joint ventures. In the seminars, numerous data of ACI and its competitors
continuing business is presented before the employees. Later on analysis and comparison among
various data is done to figure out the do’s and don’t’s of ACI’s future business. Apart from
future business planning, in the seminars, evaluating past performances and finding out the faults
are also highly prioritized.
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Job Rotation:
This particular method is an inter-organization process that is directed towards the prospective
executives. First, the higher authority of ACI limited selects some potential executives who have
the qualities to lead ACI in future from the front line. To make these future managers well
acquainted with the different facets of ACI, the higher authority rotates them to different
departments on a frequent basis- sometimes on weekly and sometimes on daily basis. This
technique gives the probable executives better understanding about the diversified businesses
ACI is running.
Skill Diversity:
Although it has a different name, skill diversity is another form of job rotation that takes place in
almost all the levels. To diversify the employers’ experience, rotation from one department to
another related department takes place within the arena of the organization. Rotating an
employee from accounts to treasury department is one of the most common practices that can be
categorized under skill diversity. Monotony is an outcome of any regular work. When an
employee has to go through a specific work plan over and over again he or she may not find the
job interesting. Through skill diversity this clumsiness in the work environment can largely be
solved.
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Inside Training:
It is specially designed to figure out the lacking of the existing employees and what sorts of
measures are needed to develop their skills. This is mostly done by people from different private
universities who are specialists in the respective field. Sometimes, experts from abroad also
conduct this in-house training on performance measures.
This training helps the employees to identify their weaknesses in their day to day job and grow
extensively in their work. Besides, it assists them in learning the contemporary methods and
thoughts regarding their job responsibility and team work which enables them to become more
efficient and motivated.
Outside Training:
This form of training takes place in organizations similar to ACI or where the work
environment and job responsibility are almost same. At first, the organization decides whether
the training is relevant and valuable for the employees or not. After evaluating, if the training is
found to be up to the mark, employees are chosen for the training. Other organizations also
practice this routine in terms of AC.
Training of this kind provides innovativeness and builds more efficiency as the training takes
place in a new environment. Employees can learn some new strategies which are not
implemented in their organization and afterwards, if fruitful, they can use them in their work. In
addition, ACI also do not have to go through the hazards of organizing the training.
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Farmer training: practical training
Since ACI puts a lot of emphasis on its agro products, it conducts a third form of training
focusing on its agro-based consumers, farmers. It usually takes place nationwide, close to the
farmers but occasionally, held inside the organization. During the training period, farmers learn
firsthand how to maximize the utility of seed, fertilizers and what time of the year is appropriate
for planting. There is a special group of employees devoted to this cause only who train and
teach the farmers all these. ACI has a practical setup to simulate this process.
This training enables the farmer to gain knowledge about scientific ways of cultivation and helps
them enhance their productivity.
Strategic Learning Roadmap:
The in-house session sometimes also design a roadmap for some short- term goals which creates
a path for the employee future development. For example, the trainers may set a goal which the
employees have to achieve may be within two or three months. Once it is done, then another
roadmap may be set for another period of time in next session.
Leadership Skill:
Special trainings are given to all the employee as per the job requirements and also to enhance
their leadership skills for future developments. This is extremely necessary as ACI wants its
employees to develop themselves as the future leaders of the organization.
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Informal training for diversity:
This is done frequently without any prefix date or schedule. Employees themselves conduct this
training session among themselves where they talk about their strength and weaknesses and
share there their experiences and views on how to overcome the drawbacks. Another benefit of it
is that it strengthens the bond among the employees and helps bringing a friendly work
environment.
ACI’s Salaries, Bonus and Other Benefits
Salary:
The salaries of the different levels of the organizational hierarchy are decided through external
environmental scanning and industry standards. By this method the company decides its position
as an employer among other companies – whether it wants to pay more or less than another.
Leave Fair Assistance Bonus:
Employees are given a special 5 days leave bonus as a sign of goodwill by the company, giving
the employees a few days off to spend some quality time with their loved ones at home. The
company encourages employees to take consecutively 5 days leave. Because working through
the whole month and year creates pressure on them which makes the employees dissatisfied. But
ACI want happy employees. That is why they give this bonus to have happy and productive
workforce.
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The Best Employee Award:
ACI never overlooks employees’ contribution to the company. Their efforts are rewarded and
well appreciated by the company. These employees are used be set as examples to others
working in the organization. The employees are evaluated through 360 degree scale rating
system consisting of a total of 9 points. The highest rated ones are given the award.
Performance Bonus:
Performance bonus and sales bonus are given to the employees, calculated by special formulas.
These bonuses are decided by comparison of their target given to them at the beginning of the
month and compared to their achievements to those targets by the end of the month. This bonus
is a greater significant part of the income mainly for the sales people.
Festival Bonus:
Festival bonuses are offered to the employees on Eid. This is usually a percentage bonus that is
added to their salaries. Festival bonus does not include yearend bonus which is actually a case of
profit sharing that I will discuss later in the presentation.
Regular Sales Bonus:
By the end of the year, employees get a percentage of their annual achievement that gets added
to their salaries. This initiative unifies the employee’s individual goals to the company’s. Thus
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having them to work harder to get more profits by the end of the year because they will earn
more.
Gratuity Scheme:
A gratuity is paid to employees at the end of a fixed term contract and is often based on their
remuneration and length of the contract. By setting up and participating in a Gratuity Scheme,
ACI can prepare and plan for their contract gratuity obligations by building up a special fund that
is managed and looked after by investment professionals.
Provident Fund:
Employees' Provident Fund Scheme means an employee who having been a member of the fund
has withdraw the full amount of accumulation in the fund on retirement from service after
attaining the age of 55 years. At ACI it mainly deals with retirement.
Medical Rules for all Permanent Management Staff:
ACI is giving 10% of their basic salary as medical treatment to the employees. In any
emergency, they are getting a large sum amount from the employee fund.
Annual Payments to Management Staff:
This company is giving various types of compensations to the workers at the end of the year.
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Telephone at Residence:
ACI is giving land phones to the residence of the employees especially the higher ranked
officers for immediate contacting to them and for their personal service at home.
Policy on Mobile Phone:
In modern age cell phone is necessary to maintain communication with the employees who are
working at outside or mobile workers and to contact the officers especially marketing and sales
officers who are outside the office often for official purpose. They are getting a fixed charge of
cell phone bill based on their salary.
Procedure for Staff Canteen:
They are supplying foods at canteen for only for their employees at a very cheap rate where
foods are made inside the canteen and made by a clean process for a better health.
Scholarship Scheme:
The children of employees who have extra merit are getting scholarship from the company so the
employees get motivated in their works and they can feel pure loyalty for the company.
The performance of the organization’s people is what actually generates money for the company
to work on. It is necessary that they be kept well and their needs be looked upon carefully and
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fairly. Periodical audits are done by the Human Resources department to ensure that all these
techniques are rightly implemented and monitored at all levels to boost the performances of their
employees. This keeps the company well aligned and robust.
Findings
After all these analysis we have found some information which are the key to the success of ACI
limited. They are
ACI consider its workforce the most valuable asset to the organization

One of their missions is to achieve business excellence through quality by understanding,
accepting, meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

They are continuously identifying their employee needs and performance and according
to them developing plans to improve the efficiency of their employees.

All of their training, appraisal, and benefit packages are to maintain a happy, productive
and successful workforce.

ACI Limited is committed to provide a working and social environment in which the
rights and dignity of all its members are respected, and which is free from discrimination,
prejudice, intimidation and all forms of harassment.
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
ACI is an equal opportunity employer and it follows the principle of diversity in
recruitment, training and giving opportunity to its employees for career progression and
growth.
Conclusion of Analysis
After all these analysis, we have come to the idea that- even though ACI have a big workforce
with more than 6500 employees, it successfully run the training programs for them by
identifying their needs during appraisal session. Which results in very low employees turnover
rate and powerful workforce.
Recommendations
Our recommendations include Training on Ethical Behavior, Extra Medical facility and Safety
and Health bonus for workers under the pharmaceutical unit, and more training for diversified
workforce to reduce the differences.
It is very tough to recover a ruined image caused due to unethical practices done by employees.
Strict measures need to be taken to resolve that which may include supporting other employees
to state their complaints on unethical practices to the HR and Admin. Safety precautions are
needed where dangerous equipments are handled at the pharmaceutical unit. Some employees
are exposed to numerous chemicals which may pose threat to employees’ health. This may need
to be taken into deep consideration.
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There has also been a lot of cases where employees do not perform at the same level they are
suppose to in even some of the simplest of tasks. This is primarily attributed to the lack of
training given to the employees. The training and development of ACI for the employees should
be made more through and tougher in ways that makes all employees’ performance same across
the company. This would help keep performances measureable by the upper management which
is very important in planning.
Conclusion
Even though ACI face some problems like every other organization, it manages to deal with the
employee problems effectively which ensures the employees’ satisfaction and company’s
success and thus has made the organization one of the leading companies in our country.
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