Tag Archive for: Construction Solutions

How Rensol Saved a Construction Site from a Recruitment Agency Deploying Undocumented Workers: A Case Study

Case Study - Oil Company

Client Problem: Construction Company in Kuwait Found to Employ Filipino Workers with No Pertinent Legal Documents

  • Client lately found that most of his newly-hired foreign construction workers were deployed by former partner agency with no pertinent legal documents.
  • The principal has little idea of the process and the management was afraid of probable legal repercussions of their recruitment.
  • Repatriation of workers will impair their operation on current projects.

Rensol’s Solution: Report the Incident to POEA; Repatriate Illegal Workers; Fast Track Deployment of Legally-Documented Construction Workers

  • Rensol advised to disconnect with their former partner recruitment agency and assisted with the revocation process as the deployment of workers with poor documents is a serious violation of the Revised Rules and Regulations on overseas recruitment imposed by POEA and was already considered as illegal recruitment.
  • Rensol reported the incident to the POEA to assist in the proper legal processes and prior repatriation of undocumented workers.
  • Alongside, Rensol’s facilitated legal processing of the client’s accreditation and recruitment of new batch of workers in the most efficient and legal way possible.

Thousands of Filipino skilled workers returned to the Philippines because of working in a foreign country as illegal, undocumented workers. These poor workers, as well as those foreign companies where they were deployed, were victims of recruitment agencies which happen to illegally deploy workers abroad without following the proper legal processes which include legally-binding accreditation of foreign principal and ethical recruitment of workers.

These recruitment agencies promise faster processes and cheaper cost, yet this enticing offer skips a lot of those legal and crucial processes. These seemingly ‘better’ offer significantly put workers’ safety and client’s reputation at great risk.

Case in Point: Talk About Illegal Recruitment

Upon consulting a lawyer, a construction project manager discovered that their newly-hired bulk of construction workers from the Philippines were undocumented and were illegally recruited to work in Kuwait.

The recruitment agency they formerly partnered with took advantage of their ignorance prior to entering the Philippine market.

Apparently, they dealt with an agency which had promised cheaper and faster process on deployment. It so happened that the company needed urgent hiring for a huge project that is soon to start. They initially turned down other recruitment agencies with a more complicated, lengthy, and costly process for the ‘too-good-to-be-true’ offer of the unlicensed agency.

Hiring illegal workers posed a major legal risk to their company, as per their lawyer. Workers sent to them might also face detention and deportation.

The bulk of undocumented workers is an impairment of the timeline set for their current projects. Their repatriation might affect their ongoing operation. However, keeping undocumented workers may seriously harm their production as well as their reputation as a company.

Rensol To the Rescue

The client contacted Rensol being one of the top established ethical recruitment agency in the Philippines.

It was found that the recruitment agency that the construction company they engaged with was not even licensed by POEA. Rensol assisted in reporting the incident to the government agency. Repatriation of undocumented workers was facilitated by the government to avoid further legal consequences with the existing law in Kuwait.

Rensol, on their part, assisted the construction company to pursue accreditation as a legal foreign employer to overseas Filipino workers and an ethical process of recruitment and documentation of workers. Rensol also promised a ‘quicker than usual’ process yet, abided with the current rules and regulations set by the POEA being an ethical and licensed agency.

ABOUT THE COMPANY: Rensol Recruitment and Consulting, Inc. is the fastest growing recruitment agency in The Philippines. A career consultant that aims to go above and beyond the level of expectations of both the aspirations of the candidates and the dream team standards of employers through providing exceptional opportunities and unparalleled quality-driven recruitment services.

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How Rensol Stepped in and Solved a Conflict between an OFW and a Local Worker: A Case Study

Case Study - Oil Company

Client Problem: A worker deployed by Rensol and a Local Worker gets into Physical Altercation

  • Filipino worker catches into an altercation with a local worker after an alleged maltreatment by the latter.
  • Employer sends incident report to Rensol and requests for help to defuse the situation.

Rensol’s Solution: Detailed Investigation, Proper Communication and Fact Driven Claims

  • Rensol dives in deeply into the investigation about the incident.
  • Rensol sends findings and recommendations to client company.

Misunderstandings and altercations are not rare things in the working community, RENSOL and with our above and beyond service as a Philippine recruitment agency guarantees to resolve such kind of incident if it involves our deployed employees fairly. While workplace violence is something intolerable yet manageable, it is a special form of bullying and harassment that could inflict damaging effect to productivity and reputation of a company.

Case on Point: Easing Up the Air in the Construction Site

A physical altercation between a Filipino worker and a local employee resulted to minor injuries to the latter. Being a serious incident, this was quickly addressed by the employer’s administration by sanctioning both parties. The Filipino worker claimed that he was treated unfairly by his co-workers and was only forced to get into a physical quarrel.

After Rensol Recruitment came into knowledge about the confrontation, the agency intervened and helped the client to come up with fair and unbiased decision.

Based on a separate investigation conducted by Rensol, with key eye witnesses from the construction site where one-third of workers were Filipinos, it was found that the deployed employee experienced bullying and discrimination in the workplace. The clash started when a group of local workers staged a prank to make fool of him. The OFW, who has already lost his cool, fought back out of too much embarrassment.

These findings were submitted to the client along with prior recommendation on how to resolve the bigger problem in their construction site, bullying and discrimination. Local workers involved in the prank were suspended as disciplinary action while the Filipino worker was given protection against site’s bullies.

Rensol Intervention

As a Philippine Partner Recruitment Agency which values ethical recruitment at the forefront, Rensol made it possible to positively impact both the employer and the employee in the most non-intrusive way possible. Investigation was conducted in a thorough and swift manner resulting in the confirmation of the worker’s claim to be true and factual.

Rensol made sure that the results were brought to the attention of the employer to assure that there will be no biases in their decisions and to defuse any chance of a legal battle between both parties.

After this incident, both Rensol Recruitment and the employer agreed to have stricter policies in their course of action towards these kinds of events, where the client agreed to keep a closer eye on their expats if they’re being treated unfairly by their co-workers.

Rensol Recruitment is unique compared to our industry counterparts in the Philippines as our terms of service does not end after deployment of our candidates, we go above and beyond the limits of our service agreement and make sure to keep an eye on them within the course of their work overseas.

ABOUT THE COMPANY: Rensol Recruitment and Consulting, Inc. is the fastest growing recruitment agency in The Philippines. A career consultant that aims to go above and beyond the level of expectations of both the aspirations of the candidates and the dream team standards of employers through providing exceptional opportunities and unparalleled quality-driven recruitment services.

 

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High Employee Turnover as a Silent Construction Manpower Crisis

Human capital is one of a company’s largest asset. Today, in order to succeed and achieve operational efficiency, overseas construction companies rely heavily on reliable, productive and competent labor force. These employees play a crucial role in the success of the company. As Alfred Marshall once said, “The most valuable of all capital is invested in human beings.”

Losing an employee may not hurt your business but losing a dozen more may cause your company to stumble. Furthermore, losing a bad employee can give way to a better one, however, not all loss of employee can bring back good to your company. You may find and hire new people to work for you, but are you willing to sacrifice your company’s delay in production?

Replacing your employees can be damaging to your company. According to an article written by Heather Boushey and Sarah Jane Glynn, HR experts of Center for American Progress, replacing your employees may hurt your business’ productivity for it all results to increasing direct costs and turnover costs.

Now, despite the unpopularity as a career choice, the construction industry is one of those labor markets struggling to get along with the continuously growing demand for output. Apart from skills shortage, the ADP Workforce Vitality Index 2017 reported that one of the major but unnoticed problems that affect construction companies and contractors is the high turnover among employees. Turnover refers to the rate at which workers voluntarily leave the company. This has a negative impact most especially in a specialized industry like the construction sector.  Turnovers pose risks from losing a skilled machine operator to a top engineer.

Finding and retaining the best employees is a competitive edge in the construction industry. However, addressing turnover has been not prioritized and was deemed normal by some human resource managers. Executives should be reminded that turnover is a sign of unhappiness in the workplace. It is beyond cancerous.

In a journal entitled “Investigating Employee Turnover in the Construction Industry: A Psychological Contract Perspective” published in 2016, authors identified what predicts employee’s turnover in the construction industry. Apparently, emotional exhaustion emerged as the top reason for the younger construction workers to suffer greater levels of exhaustion and who are more likely to exit the construction site.

Other causes of turnover included; conflict with management, toxic work environment, and job dissatisfaction. This problem constitutes unprofessional management, poor compensation, insufficient recognition, or even isolated cases like discrimination in the workplace and bullying among workers.

 

The Cost of Turnover

This industry long suffered from workers who keep on looking for better working environment, salary increases, and shorter working hours. Persistently high workers turnover affects operational efficiency and morale of employees. Without efforts to keep employees, a company may find it hard to establish a lasting culture within the organization if people continuously come and go.

High turnover hurts productivity and revenue due to constant hiring and training of new employees. This greatly affects continuity of services which is vital for a company to compete.

Based on a study of the Society for Human Resource Management, the cost of losing a salaried employee can cost as much as twice as their annual salary. This is a summation of the exit and separation costs; cost of recruiting a replacement; training and onboarding costs; lost expertise; administrative costs; and cost of lost productivity. This doesn’t include all the intangible and untracked costs prior to resignation and recruitment of vacated position.

Turnover may also push other employees to follow suit and leave you crippled with impaired human resources.

 

Effective Recruitment and Employee Retention

Managing employee turnover and exerting efforts toward employee retention is not just a tough job among contractors but among construction recruitment agencies as well where the burden of attracting skilled professional starts. Retaining employees and reducing employee turnover could be managed as early in the recruitment stage.

Turnovers, which may not be an issue within the workplace, might be an issue on recruitment when we initially hire the wrong person. Successful recruitment practice in construction should not just involve finding capable and qualified workers, but also those who can fit your work environment and could stay for a longer term.

Recruiters can easily spot job hoppers by simply looking at their resumes and by checking their references. During the recruitment stage, employees who are most likely be committed is easily detectable.

As soon as they landed on the job site, employers should find time to check out to their employees to pre-diagnose any chance of turnover. Establishing a comfortable environment and an ambiance of mutual respect among supervisors and workers could also cut issues that lead to turnover.

Finding a good employee is tough, and it will be more difficult if we have to lose the ones we already got. We can no longer extinguish the bills once it gets burned. We can no longer take them back once they walked out your door.

Seasoned recruiters will always have an eye for star performers. Learn more of our best practices in talent acquisition and let us collaborate to achieve your business goals.

ABOUT THE COMPANY: Rensol Recruitment and Consulting, Inc. is the fastest growing recruitment agency in The Philippines. A career consultant that aims to go above and beyond the level of expectations of both the aspirations of the candidates and the dream team standards of employers through providing exceptional opportunities and unparalleled quality-driven recruitment services.

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