Singapore Co Evaluates Orchid Jobs

The Singapore-based Hay Management Consultants Group has completed an across-the-board job evaluation exercise for cephalosphorins range manufacturer Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Orchid had recently commissioned Hay to do a complete revamp of the compensation packages of its employees.

The implementation of `Hay's Job Evaluation' concept is part of Orchid's latest initiative on the human resources accounting front. The objective of the exercise was to determine the compensation package of each employee, calculated from an index of the industry's compensation trends. Under this system, every job in the company had a detailed description, evaluation and a scientifically structured `score' based on a validated international system.

 

These scores, pegged in the backdrop of an index of the industry's compensation trends, determined the new compensation package for each employee.

"The study has been completed and the scores are being examined," an Orchid spokespersonsaid. "Wherever current pay scales fall below the level recommended by the Hay report, we will step up the compensation packages," he added.

In the past, Hay's valuation has been known to throw up `Red Circle Jobs' i.e., jobs for which employees are overpaid. Rather than lower the salaries of any such employees, Orchid proposes to give additional responsibilities to them. Another pharmaceutical company, Ranbaxy Laboratories, has already implemented the Hay's Job evaluation model. On the financial front, Orchid has also presented unaudited financial statements according to GAAP specifications for the year ended March, 1998 for the first time.

An Economic Value Added (EVA) statement prepared by the company and presented in its latest annual report has pegged its EVA at Rs 5.19 crore or 1.77 per cent of capital employed. The company has also received sanctions for foreign currency term loans aggregating $35 million from IDBI ($13 million), BoI ($12 million) and SBI ($10 million).

The forex borrowings will be utilised for the company's expansion and diversification programmes.