Introduction

Bangladesh Railway, is a Government owned and Government managed organization. It is the

principle transport agency of the country and it covers a length of 2,877.10 route kilometers
employing a total of 25,083 regular employees. As railway is a very important mode of inland
transport, linking the entire length and breadth of the country, its healthy grow naturally
contributes to the economic development of the country (Bangladesh Railway, 2014).
Railway operation in today's Bangladesh began on 15 November 1862 and Bangladesh Railway
authority (BRA) formed in 1995 as it activities got separated from the Ministry. Bangladesh
Railway also has Railway Training Academy to ensure safety of Railway transportation. And
Ministry of Communications to inspect different works of BR (Bangladesh Railway, 2014).

Vision, Mission, and Slogan of Bangladesh Railway

Vision:
 To provide safe, reliable, cost effective and time efficient rail transport service in the
country through modernizing, expanding & maintaining rail system in a manner
which supports government strategies for economic, social & environmental
development (Bangladesh Railway, 2014).

Mission:

Tracks and Modernize Land

Capacity Technology Managment

Government Improed
Upgrade Trains Transportation Financial
Policy Management

Modern Signal Safety and

Systems Efficiency

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  Develop & maintain railway tracks & station infrastructures throughout the country.
 Maintain & upgrade locomotives, coaches & other rolling stocks.
 Maintain & modernize signaling & interlocking system & Telecon system of
Bangladesh Railway.
 Ensure safe, speedy & efficient train operation.
 Implement Government transport policy in rail sector.
 Procure modern technology related rolling stocks, Track materials & signaling
systems suitable for Bangladesh Railway.
 Manage land asset of Bangladesh Railway.
 Ensure optimum utilization of Development Budget & Revenue Budget of
Bangladesh Railway (Bangladesh Railway, 2014).

Companies Philosophy:
The government’s overarching development objective is to achieve poverty reduction, for which
Poverty Reduction Strategy-PRS, Millennium Development Goals-MDGs, Sixth Five Year Plan-
SYP have been adopted. While these provide broad policy frameworks, Integrated Multimodal
Transport Policy-IMTP would provide a sector specific policy/strategy for transport interventions
targeted at economic growth and poverty reduction (Rail Master Plan, 2013).

The strategy for this poverty reduction are:

Growth Strategy:

 Export-led
 Development of export processing zones for manufacturing
 Provide cost effective, safe and reliable transportation of passengers and freight (Rail
Master Plan, 2013).

Transport Strategy:

1. Access to ports, EPZs, markets, etc.

 Access to port and export port can be achieved by the construction of Padma
Bridge at Mawa – Jajira will open up new opportunities for Bangladesh

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 Railway for linking Dhaka directly with Jessore and Mongla Port as well as
southern part of Bangladesh.
2. Improvement of strategic transport corridors
 An analysis of railway traffic, the commodity carried, their volume and origin-
destination revealed that most passenger and freight movement takes place on
a limited number key of corridor.
 The lack of major connectivity throughout the country also considered though
future traffic volume there for new corridors need to accurately planned.
3. Passenger: Inter-city
 In formulating the Railway Master Plan, the corridor approach considered the
various infrastructural interventions that would be necessary to attract long-
distance passenger and freight traffic.
4. Freight: Container and selected commodities
 Historically, the railway enjoyed a monopoly as a carrier and used to carry
most of the principal commodities in the country, such as cement, coal,
fertilizer, raw jute etc. With gradual emergence of road transport, the railway
started losing its market of cement, coal, raw jute and sugar cane.
 It is found that the commodities which are being carried by rail are mostly sea
ports and land port based. Thus the proposed strategy includes the expansion
and development of new Inland Container Deports (ICD’s), as well as the
handing capacity at land ports to overcome the exiting transfer problems.
5. Capacity enhancement
 Considering both passenger and freight traffic carrying capacity, future national
and regional connectivity requirement, and taking into account the connectivity
issue of neighboring countries, Bangladesh Railway must convert its network into
Broad Gauge all over the country.
6. Enhance competitiveness of railway
 The Padma Bridge at Mawa – Jajira must have provision for a BG Main Line
Standard (BGML) rail track. After completion of this mega project BR will have
to establish a direct connection with Jessore and Khulna and beyond up to Mongla

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 Port. Freight traffic including to and from India (via Benapole and Darsana) will
find a much shorter route to Dhaka (Rail Master Plan, 2013).

Historical Background of Bangladesh Railway

Year History
1862 Bangladesh Railway operation began on 15 November 1862 when 53.11
kilometres broad gauge line were opened for traffic between Dorshona
of Chuadanga District and Jogotee of Kushtia District.
1885 14.98 km metre gauge line was opened for traffic on 4 January 1885.
1891 In 1891, the construction of then Bengal Assam Railway was taken up by
the British Government assistance but that was later on taken over by the Bengal
Assam Railway Company.
1895 On 1 July 1895, two sections of meter gauge lines were opened
between Chittagong and Comilla, a length of 149.89 kilometers and
between Laksam Upazila and Chandpur District, a length of 50.89 kilometers.
1947 At time of the partition of India in 1947, Bengal-Assam Railway was split up
and the portion of the system, about 2,603.92 kilometers fell within the
boundary of then East Pakistan and control remained with the central
Government of Pakistan.
1961 In 1 February 1961, Eastern Bengal Railway was renamed as Pakistan Eastern
Railway.
1962-63 Then in 1962, the control of Pakistan Eastern Railway was transferred from the
Central Government to the Government of East Pakistan and placed under the
management of a Railway Board with the effect from the financial year 1962–63
by the presidential Order of 9 June 1962
2005 As of 2005, the total length of railroad is 2,855 kilometres. Of that, 660 km
are broad gauge tracks, 1,830 km are meter gauge tracks and 365 km are gauge
tracks.
2007-08 On March 2008, the broad gauge reached Dhaka, the nation’s capital.
2012-13 Railway master plan to remove poverty through improving growth and
transportation strategy
2014 Construction of double line between Tongi & Bhairab Bazar with signaling
system. Introduction of Dhaka-Chittagong railway development project.
2015-16 Construction of new railway line from Ishurdi to Dhalarchar via Pabna and

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 rehabilitation of Laskham-Chandpur section
Source: (Bangladesh Railway Website and Railway Gazette International, 2007)

Bangladesh Railway Organogram

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Bangladesh Railway Trend
Analysis

Average distance travelled:

The average distance travelled by a

passenger increased from less than 46km
(in 1970) to more than 99km (in 2005).
This is mainly because more passengers
are now using long haul Inter City (IC)
trains. The bar chart below shows how
Bangladesh compares with other countries
regarding average lead if passage traffic.

Source: World Bank Railway Database, 2005

Growth in Traffic:

Analysis further revealed that overall passenger traffic

in BR has grown only very slightly over last 10 years
( an average of 0.65% per year).The growth has been
slow mostly because of the decline in local and branch
line passengers over the last ten years. But compared to
this, the Inter-City passenger traffic has grown at 3% per
year. The loss of passenger traffic along branch lines has
been partly due to reduced railway services and closure
of many branch lines as well as stiff competition from

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road transport over short distances, where frequent bus services are available now. (Rail Master
Plan, 2013)

SWOT Analysis of
Bangladesh Railway
The Railway department
Strength Weakness
Hire people from any academic background.
No human resource department.
Own training institute. Ministerial Involvement.
Government supported. Rigid quota in recruitment.
Infrastructure and resources

can hire from any

academic background
starting from SSC to
graduation except for
Opportunity Threat
technical posts. After Wide score for establishment of skilled
The lack
employees.
of transparency in recruitment producer
recruitment they are sent Introduce reward system. Highly bureaucratic limitations
Self-governance. Unlawful political recruitment.
to the Bangladesh Railway
training academy for a two
years course. The ministry
receives a wealthy amount
of money every fiscal
year. Bangladesh Railway has enough amount of land allocated for them from the government
which can be used to establish a good infrastructure for the future. The organization does not
have any particular human resource department, they have administration department for
recruitment and selection procedure. The administration department cannot hire without the
authority from the ministry. They have quota system from government which needs to be strictly
followed.
The organization has both on and off the job training program which can be used to make skill
workforce. They can establish performance based reward system which can motivate employees.
The organization can be established as a self-governed organization to be more competitive. The
lack of transparency in the recruitment and selection procedure and having bureaucracy in all
aspects possess a big threat for hiring person fit for the job. Recruitments are being made
following the procedure of giving advertisement to the print media but, at the end of the day
recruitments are being made by the referral from the ministry and top level executives.

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Bangladesh Railway Marketing and Finance Strategy

Marketing Strategy:

1. E-ticketing Procedure- via this procedure Bangladesh Railway has grabbed the attention
of higher class people. Now using internet people can book and cancel their tickets.
2. SMS-Ticketing- This marketing strategy has been developed for increasing customer
convenience. People don’t need internet for booking the ticket it can be done easily from
the cell phone.
3. Rail-tracking- For the ease of passengers BR has introduced sms tracking of the train now
with a sms we can locate the exact position of a train.
4. Feedback- BR has introduced passenger feedback system in their website this particular
marketing strategy it used to take actions on passenger complaints. (Bangladesh Railway,
2013)

Financial Strategy:

Bangladesh railway has embarked upon a comprehensive Railway Recovery Program (RRP) in
order to improve its financial performance through increased efficiency and cost reduction. The
key elements of RRP are:

1. Improving labor productivity primarily by reducing surplus employees.

2. Reducing loss on different services by closing a number of money losing branch lines,
stations, sheds, depots etc.
3. Improving operational efficiency through optimizing the use of assets.
4. Making the railway more responsive to market needs through organizational reform
incorporating structural changes and sound business practices.
5. Exploiting commercially surplus lands and other capacities of railway. (Hasan, 2009)

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Current HRM Practices at Bangladesh Railway

The company has certain HRM practices in order to carry out day to day operations. In terms of
training. Each driver goes through more than ten years on the job training as assistant to the
driver in order to gather and develop skills to become train driver. Since there is no theoretical
course available to gather comprehensive knowledge, on the job training is the best learning tool
for such highly technical role. For other staff of the Bangladesh Railways, the training and
development department provides regular training to its employees. Initiated by former British
administration, practices of running refreshment course for highly technical roles is still carried
out today. Such practices are highly effective at maintaining stronghold of technical knowledge.
Unfortunately training programs or refreshment programs are not followed up by written
examination thus it is impossible to evaluate the effectiveness of such programs.

Inefficiency in the Recruitment Process:

 The authorities at Bangladesh Railways describes the organization as “state within state’.
This is because the company now hold 900 different type of ranks within the company.
The nature and complexity of such system can result in inefficiency and thus burden the
company’s recruitment and selection procedure. The company still holds posts such as
“call man” which used to be a conventional role during British rule before developed
telecommunication was available. The duty of the call man was to run to residences of
railway staff and engineers to inform them of any rising emergencies. Although the post is
now obsolete, however it still remains within the company.
Quota for Selection and Recruitment

 For selection and recruitment, the government has predetermined quota for each
department. The government requires each department within Bangladesh Railway to hire

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 specific number of individuals from each district. There are also quotas regarding number
of freedom fighters, individuals with physical disabilities, women etc. Often abiding by
the quota system results in unqualified individuals being hired to different posts. In
addition, the selection procedure is faulty as well.

Irregularities of Selection Process

 In recent times there have been allegation of irregularities in selection process including
an incident where a railway employee has been jailed for recruitment related corruption
(The Daily Star, 2015). Most jobs do not have formal job description, with minimal
academic qualification required to be selected for each post. Key weakness in the hiring
systems is that most selection is done solely based on verbal interview, and thus the
management is free from accountability regarding any hiring. In addition, due to the
government influence on the company many recruits are made due to illicit external
influences.

Lack of Merit Base Bonus

 The company currently does not hold any form of bonus/compensation package.
Therefore, there is little or no incentive amongst majority of employees to perform well.
In addition, promotions are done in accordance to seniority, therefore there is even less
incentive to thrive for performance.

Poor Performance Review Method

 In regards to performance review, there is only one-way assessment (from superior to

immediate subordinate) in order to evaluate performance. The method of performance
review is poorly implement and can be subject to individual bias. The company also hold
minimal ability to enforce punishment for poor behavior or performance. For e.g. in cases
where employees are identified with poor behavior, the management might find it difficult
to prohibit yearly increment for such individuals due to the limited authority of the
governing body. All promotion within the company is done in accordance to seniority.
Poor Customer Service

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  The company does not carry a culture of meeting customer demand. Customer is treated
as mere passengers, and no effort is made to improve the customer experience. However,
the company holds special quotas for members of the government. On each carriage the
railway

authority reserves certain number of sit for high up government official for about four to six
hour before departure, while another set of seats remain reserved for about one hour
before departure for members of the parliament on each route. Such practices result in
inefficient usage of the company’s resources and amount to worsening of satisfaction for
regular clients.

Weak Governing Body

 The company’s governing body has limitations in making progressive decision. Currently
there are about 100 idle stations, due to lack of station masters. Although post for station
master is vacant, but since the railway authority needs to take approval form different
branches of the government for reinitiating services, the process is unnecessarily
complicated. Nevertheless, many unprofitable routes have been initiated in order to meet
political agenda.

Bangladesh Railway Overall Performance

Bangladesh Railway, at present, is in poor condition and inefficiently managed. Since the
partition of India in 1947, there was hardly any expansion of the railway in East Pakistan, while
the road network expanded tremendously. Since the birth of Bangladesh in 1971, instead of
constructing new railways lines, some of the branch line railway sections were declared
redundant and subsequently closed and no proper attention to maintain the existing asset was
given. Now Bangladesh Railway is facing two major threats to its long term survival: progressive
withdrawal of government funding which has been necessary in the past to sustain railway
infrastructure and services, and the relentless increase in competition from other transport modes,

especially from road transport (Faridul, 1981) (ABD, 2000).

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Critical analysis of the efficiency of BR
points up the dramatically worsening
operating ratio over the last decades. The
pessimism as to whether BR can, in fact,
turn itself around is based on a number of
considerations. The three critical ones
appear to be:

 The ongoing decline in BR’s

Summary of Financial
Statement operating
performance.
 BR’s failure to meet its action plan commitments on reform processes; and
 BR’s ability to get the political attention to resolve its problem. (Rahman, 2005)
 Current poor performance is usually a reflection of poor operating performance due to
lower productivities of both physical and human capital cause Source: Government
of Bangladesh Report, 2013
By development resource, and institutional policy constraint. This in turn adversely affects
the financial performance of BR. The Director General of Bangladesh Railway Authority
(BRA) holds control over different activities especially related to planning and policy
formulation. (Rahman, 2005)
This creates operational as well as planning and development problems. For this reason
reconstructing of Bangladesh Railway that is organizational reform is very much
necessary to develop efficient and active management system (Hasan, 2009).

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The major problems faced by Bangladesh Railway are

a) Lack of manpower
Bangladesh Railway administrative officials aren’t able to hire new employees due to
lack of proper selection process example: several stations are closed due to lack of
station masters.
b) Lack of qualified manpower
Due to quota system of Bangladesh the organization sometimes have to hire disable
people or people lacking adequate skills. At the same time due to pressure from
different political leaders BR hires unqualified employees.
c) Lack of coordination
Bangladesh Railway is full bureaucratic organization, therefore even though the
higher authority is wrong the subordinates have to follow them, they don’t have
any saying.
d) Lack of government funding
Due loss incurred by government in Rail sector, the funding provided by government
isn’t enough to carry out Bangladesh-India rail project. At the same time
government is prioritizing road communication, hence providing road
communication higher funds.
e) Lack of Modernization & Development
Bangladesh Railway must switch to broad gauge all over the country even though
this conversion will require a huge amount of investment for replacing the track,
rolling stocks and ancillary facilities, but phase wise conversion will be feasible
(Rail Master Plan, 2013).

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 Lack of Government attention
1. Maintaining train time schedule

Most of the time the trains are aren’t on schedule due line breakage, a poor infrastructure
this actually hampered passengers reliance on the Railway.

2. Increase number of train accidents

During 2009-10 the number of accidents were 439 and day by day the number of
accidents on railway is increasing due lack development and modernization as well as
overcrowding the train effects the balance of the train.

3. Proper utilization of resources

To strengthen the efficiency of BR, proper attention should be given to the utilization of
the resources, the overall cost will be minimized and the management will be more
efficient if resources are properly utilized.

4. Failing Service Standards

Bangladesh Railway d not maintain quality of service f this reason the train do not work
due to its’ technical problem. The maintenance team is busy with corruption rather than
maintaining the rail.

 Corruption
1. Misuse of pass tickets

Higher authority are misusing their pass tickets and normal passage do not get ticket after
standing in the line for hours. Higher authority takes the hold of ticket till the last 6 hours
of the journey.

2. Black tickets

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 Some people are always buying tickets earlier and selling them later at higher price this is
actually job of these people and the authority isn’t doing anything to control this kind of
corruption.

3. Lack of train maintenance

Railway service is getting worse day by day due lack of maintenance the windows are
broken and sits and torn apart, and people who are responsible for maintenance use
government fund for personal benefit (Rashed, 2012) (Development of Bangladesh
Railway, 2015).

The Progress made by Bangladesh Railway

1. The Bangladesh Railway Reform Project supports implementation of sector reform and
institutional strengthening actions agreed with the Government and Bangladesh Railway
(BR). It encompasses (i) restructuring BR into an lines of business (LOB) structure; (ii)
preparing an asset register for BR; (iii) improving financial governance, management, and
accounting systems; (iv) improving human resource governance and utilization; and (v)
transforming BR ultimately into a government-owned corporate entity, while enhancing
the rail safety regulatory framework. (Bangladesh Railway Progress Report, n.d)

2. The Bangladesh Railway Sector Investment Program MFF is structured such that the
reform project will provide continuous support to implement the agreed reform agenda,
whilst the investment program will be supported by a series of four tranches. The reform
and the investment projects are integrated as approval of subsequent tranches for
investment subprojects is dependent on the implementation of specific reform actions
agreed upon in the railway reform action plan in the FFA. (Bangladesh Railway Progress
Report, n.d)

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 3. Loan 2317 for the Reform Project finances (i) consulting services to implement the
reform actions; (ii) procurement of computer hardware and software needed to implement
the financial management, accounting, and human resource management systems for
enhancing financial and human resource governance; (iii) equipment to improve rail
safety; and (iv) consulting services for performance and procurement audits. Bangladesh
Railway Progress Report, n.d).

Tools and Technique for High Performance at Bangladesh Railway

As a part of our project we have identified key poor performing elements within the company. In
this section we will discuss complete overhaul measures necessary to transform Bangladesh
Railway into a high performing organization.

HR Refashioning at Bangladesh Railway:

Corporate Culture

Bangladesh Rail believes in a corporate culture based on values of mutual trust and respect,
honestly, non-stop innovation, safety and non-stop ambition for continuous improvement.

Company Philosophy

BR aims to strictly prohibit scopes of favoritism, maintain strict disciple among its workforce,
empathies and reward good attendance of employees and control discrimination.

Mission

To build a timely, cost efficient public transpiration to resolve transportation requirement for all
class of individuals. The company aims to build a state of the art infrastructure, with a highly
motivated work force to support its continuous operations. Over the years, the company needs to
alight its performance to meet the industry’s top safety and schedule standards.

Vision:

16
Expand rail transport to all parts of Bangladesh with easy access for all customers, to transform
Bangladesh rail into a key part of the country’s communication infrastructure, and to transform
Bangladesh Railways into a world class transportation service. This concept ensure leaders are
there to serve the interest of other are a key priority, which is contrary to the culture at BR. The
following characteristic should be incorporated for all leadership practices at BR.

Brining new form of leadership to Bangladesh Railway: Servant Leadership

Leadership is critical to success of BR. One of the suggest form of leadership at Bangladesh
Railway should be “servant leadership”. In this form of leadership, leaders at all levels of the
company should develop new perspective of leading, where emphasis is greatly on what leaders
can contribute to the company.

Application of Lean concept to day to day activities

Self
Sort Simplify Sweep Standardize
Discipline

Lean management would significantly escalate any attempts to improve the company’s overall
performance. Under the five lean aspect sort, simplicity, sweep, standardize, and set discipline
following recommendations can be made:

 Sort: eliminate unproductive routes, and employee posting that are no longer required

17
  Simplify: a complete blue print of all resources available need to be made. Inventories
need to be digitalizes for easy access and monitoring
 Sweep: trains needs to be clean and hygiene must be a key factor at all times. Offices
needs to remain clean as well. Routine check on maintenance needs to be implemented
 Standardize: there needs to be visual check for maintenance staff. Routines and
procedures must be kept in companywide standardizes format.
 Self-Discipline: employee needs to be trained in areas of organizational discipline and
house keeping

Bringing the above changes would transform Bangladesh Railways into a more desirable
employee friendly place to work it. This should boost staff moral and customer satisfaction.

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 Proposed model 10 traits of Servant Leaders

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u wn de ertr tsaotlaernre tdcn oec vso sen rco fef rr oan lm
sl aa hcn atdizvai isrtsdi ueo seu.s s f sa ict ue da t ib oy n es .m p l o y e e s
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Slogan 1: Customer first!

Slogan 2: Amader Janbahon (Our Ride)

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Slogan 3: Safest Way to the City

Developing the High Performance Working model

Recruitmen and Selection

Performance Management
and Compensation
Employee Relationship Job Daesign

Training and Development

A high performance working system would enable to lift employee morale and thus
organizational performance. Creating a high performance work system would essentially mean
aligning five cores aspects of HR principles including employee relations, job design, recruiting
and selection, training and development, performance management and compensation. From our
research we can suggest specific areas of concern in each area that needs to be revised in order to
transform BR into a functional high performance organization.

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 Employee Relations – Power gap between employees needs to be reduced. This
effectively limits communication opportunities that can serve to benefit the organization.
The only means to gain promotion in the company is through recommendations from your
immediate superiors or through seniority. This creates an environment where subordinates
work in order to gain approval from their superior, and not in the interest of the
organization. On the other hand, other extreme cases are also apparent within the
organization. There are several recruitments done within the company through political
recommendations. Due to external influences these recruits practice illicit influence on the
management, and are often considered harmful for the organization. In order to overcome
the scenario, the organization should look to develop an egalitarian work environment
which eliminates all status and power barriers. This can truly create an environment
where each employee serves in the best interest of the organization.

 Job design – most jobs within the company have little or no job design (besides highly
technical roles). This means often unqualified individuals are able to take up certain jobs,
which creates poor job output.

 Recruiting and Selection – is seems to be the prevailing factor behind the company’s
mishaps. As previously mentioned all recruitment is done based on quota system, without
assessing the company’s needs. This leads to a situation where underqualified individuals
are prioritized over those more suitable for the job. In addition, the company currently
holds several vacant posts that needs to be urgently filled. However, since many of these
recruiting requires permission from different government bodies, urgent recruitment
might often take years. Selection is done based on political influences. The hiring process
is also subject to further scrutiny. Since selection procedure on most occasions is done
based on verbal examination, the management may potentially make substandard recruits.
Therefore, written examination based on true nature of jobs needs to be implemented in
order to develop a free and fair recruitment process.

 Training and development – currently the company owns a well-equipped and wells
staffed training facilities. Engineers are offered refreshment courses every three years.

21
 However, there is no formal assessment to determine learning outcome form these
training sessions. The deputy secretary suggested, like our neighboring country India,
formal assessment on training needs to me incorporated. This would ensure results from
training programs are not futile.

 Performance management and compensation – the management at Bangladesh

Railway does not have reward/compensation package. In the instance of outstanding
performance, the management’s only means of compensation is giving formal recognition
to any outstanding on duty service. However, in order to encourage good performance,
financial incentive or promotion based compensation is necessary. Within the
organization’s current organizational framework, there is no provision for such practices.
The company needs to develop a mechanism of connecting employee’s performance to
with reward. This should inherently promote high performance driven behavior.

360 Degree Waste Minimization techniques (10 Critical Areas)

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 Complexity

Transportatin Labour

Safety Hazard Overproduction

Time Space

Idle Material Rework

Energy

360 Waste Minimization Model

One of the far-fetched concepts Bangladesh Railways eventually needs to develop is Lean
Resource Management. The concept related to creating greater value for the company’s
customers by using lesser amount of resources. This simultaneously leads to cost cutting and
superior level of services. As in the case of most government run organizations in Bangladesh
waste elimination needs to be a top priority. We have identified areas of waste elimination and
discussed them briefly.

 Complexity – the organization suffers from high level of complexity in terms of hiring,
training and day to day administrative tasks. Decision making is made in vertical manner
with high degree of bureaucratic and administrative complications arising at each level.
Thus development oriented decisions are lengthy or unrewarding, and thus provides little
incentive for management to engage in such initiatives.

23
 Labor – the workforce is hired using out of date quota system. The system mandates the
company to hire certain number of individuals for each district. It also maintains
disability, freedom fighter, female worker quota. Often hiring through such rigid
guidelines lead to disparity between worker and job requirements. However, through
further research into the matter we discovered prior to the quota system being enforced,
estimated 80% of the workforce at BR (Bangladesh Railway) were Noakhali residents.
Such disproportion amount of individuals coming from one particular location was due to
unethical hiring practices. To solve the issue, hiring should be made through strict written
examination that genuinely verifies the skill and capabilities required for each job.

 Overproduction – is of major concern at Bangladesh Railway. As already mentioned

more than 100 stations are idle due to bureaucratic complexities in hiring proper
workforce required for initiation of services. Many of these idle points might potentially
bring financial incentive if brought back to service, thus depriving the company of
valuable revenue. On the other hand, many stations have been put back to services in
order to fulfill political agenda, regardless of the fact such routes often fail to attract
sufficient number of passengers and carry further loses.

 Space – management can play a vital role in improving services. Trains and stations are
often filled with unauthorized street vendors and retailer taking up valuable space and
crowding up the company infrastructure.

 Energy – with rising global energy prices it is important that the company uses
technology that are cost saving and environmentally friendly. Most of the company’s
trains are outdated and are subject to poor fuel consumption. Not only are these harmful
for the environment, but cost the company addition energy prices which further burdens
it existing finances.

 Rework – poor maintenance causes delay and often trains remain out of service due to
faulty carriages or endangered fish plates. This result in customer dissatisfaction, and loss

24
 of the profit as it is unable to function at peak capacity. BR needs to installed state of the
art maintenance service to ensure trains are running at all times.

 Idle material – due to poor planning there are several stations which are out of service.
In addition, poor planning has also resulted in introduction of root where carriage
capacity utilization is low.

 Time – delays are frequent and little have been done to address it. Since much of the
railways tracks are single lines, often trains are delayed in operation to ensure passenger
safety.

 Safety Hazards – strikes and political agitation often result in BR tracks being
vandalized. This has reported in several accidents over the year. In addition, operations
within Dhaka metropolitan is particular hazardous due to frequent intersection of
railways and motorways.

 Transportation- much of the signaling technology are still in analogue form.

Digitalizing the signal system would make transportation of trains more efficient.

Total quality management at Bangladesh Railway (BR)

Involvement

Job Design Selection and Promotion

25

PERFORMANCE CAREER
 TRAINING

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Communication

Above are guideline and recommendations for enforcing TMQ concept at different levels within
the organization. Such would ensure the company produced top quality services for its customers.

26
 Revise Job
Description

27
 Cross functional training needs to be introduced.Training should be
skills oriented with follow up examination that can genuinely test
Training employee progress. Broad range of skills, and safety and performance
parameters needs to be empathized at training stage.

Quality measures should be incorporated in performance

measurement. Customer satisfaction should be a key part of it as well.
Performance Confidential and private systems of taking customer feedback needs to
Measurement be incorporated. Poor behavior and performance needs to be strictly
penalized.

Good performance needs to be rewarded with promotion and financial

Reward incentives. Contrary bad behavior needs to be followed strict
punishment. Rewards packages should also be able to recognized team
and group successes. Reward and performance should be related.

Safety should be first concern. Stand by teams should be ready to deal

Health and with emergency. Each emergency situation should be reviewed by
Safety independent teams, so that steps can be taken to prevent future
occurrences. Group insurance should be introduced.

Selection and Promotion by seniority needs to be eliminated. Peer to peer review and
group review should be considered in case of promotion. Selection
Promotion should be done through strict examination based on required skills. Any
form of verbal interview needs to be documented by video.

Career Company needs to be actively involved in career development for

employees. Guidelines and milestones needs to be set by company so
Development that employees can have clear picture of what is needed to be achieved
in order to progress.

Communication must be both ways, with reduced power gap between

Communication employees. The organizational span needs to be made wide to reduce
distance between top of the organization and employees at the bottom.
Bottom up communication should also be incorporated.

Aspect of “shared leadership” must be introduced. In such case decision

Involvement making can be moved to lower level, and low level manager can feel
that their input is valuable to the company. Quality circles need to be
built to share responsibility.

Wide control span should be allowed to managers. This would increase

Job Design their effectively and cut short chain of command. Quality control should
be make key priority, regardless of level of job. Design should provide
flexibility, and should leave room for empowerment.

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Continuous Performance Development Model(Training)

Skill Assessment

Theoretical Training Identify Skill Gap

Standardized
Written Examination

On the Job Training

Continuous
Monitoring and
Performance Development
Evaluation

Feedback

Towards Self Governance

Bangladesh Railway currently does not maintain any form organizational practices to ensure high
performance oriented behavior. From our study of the organization, we have identified a number
of areas in which different techniques and framework might be adapted in order implement long
term changes to allow the company to face competitive market forces, as well has increase
welfare of all parties including the company itself, staff, government and most importantly its
customers. Primary concern regarding the company’s poor health and performance, roots back to
the nature of its governing system. While interviewing the Mohammad Zakaria, deputy secretary

29
of the company suggested key overhaul of Bangladesh Railway might only be made possible
through self-governance. Bureaucratic complexities through means of government ownership are
primarily

More autonomy would allow the company to benefit from reduced organizational complexities.
Based on our interview information, the company currently has more than one hundred idle
stations, due to vacant post of stations master. Regardless the government has provisional
allocation for more than one thousand posts to be utilized, however immediate appointment is
nevertheless likely due to the prolonged nature of bureaucratic routes. For the appointment of
each station master, the company requires approval from two ministries as well as different
branches of the government. Therefore, recruitment is of particular concern within the
organization. Altering the form of governance to self-governed would allow a functional HR
department within the company to carry out more efficient recruiting and hiring services. In
regards to other areas of performance management including training, compensation, bonus,
performance appraisal and customer satisfaction rigid outline set out by regulatory bodies
prohibits an internal HR department from operating on these grounds. Therefore, before any
meaningful performance related enhancement can be made it is important for Bangladesh
Railways to be able to change its form of incorporation.

Employee Learning Tools: Core Employee Competency Model

Stewardship

Personal Mastery

Creativity

Customer Service

30
While observing the nature of the staff both at Komlapur Railway station and Bangladesh
Railway Administration Building it was apparent the level of competencies within the functional
body were insignificant of the “The 8 core competencies model” we have identified five
particular elements with wide scope for development.

 Stewardship can ensure that employees are able to comprehend their significance within
the company and thus are motivated to deliver optimum performance. This would also
develop employee attitude which attributes to caring both for clients and co-workers.

 Skills and Master This should consist of continuous personal development and profound
knowledge to carry out necessary duties, thus leading to superior performance.

 Creativity: might seem as drastic overhaul of the company, considering its current culture,
however the company in the medium run must develop provision for employees to fully
utilize their creativity. This should encourage inflow of innovative ideas, that would
support overall organizational progress and output.

 Customer service. Key observations from visiting Bangladesh Rail was the company over
the years have developed a perception where customers are only considered as
passengers. For any organization such mindset is likely to be symptom of a deeper
internal failure. Where in Japanese management philosophy emphasizes the importance of
customer as top priority, drives the success of modern Japanese firms, in Bangladesh
Railway such motivation seems like a distant dream. Prioritizing customer service would
mean understanding customer demand, where possible exceed customer demand and
continuously use effective customer feedback mechanism. The issue regarding customer
satisfaction should be a vital focus in developing customer satisfaction.

Proposed Performance Appraisal Form for BR

Administrative and Professional Performance Appraisal Form

31
 Employee Appraisal Hire
Name Date Date
Organization Department Time in

Name Position

Position Title Supervisor’s

Signature

Next Level Manager’ Employee’s

Signature Signature

1. PERFORMANCE REVIEW-

A. Major Responsibility Area:

Expected Level of Performance:

Actual Performance Results:

How does this support the Organization and/or Development goals?

Performance Performance

Rating: Weighting:

B. Major Responsibility Area:

Expected Level of Performance:

Actual Performance Resuls:

32
How does this support the organization and/ or Department goals?

Performance Performance

Rating: Weighting:

2. SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENT/ UNUSUAL OBSTRACLES:

NAME: _________________________________________________

3. SKILLS ANALYSIS/MODE OF PERFORMSNCE:

APPRAISAL CODE
(This section is used to examine HOW the employee achieved
+ a strong point
his/her end results. Accordingly, consider the degree to which
S fully satisfactory
each of the following skills contributes to the employee’s
- needs improvement
effectiveness. Please indicate the appropriate “Appraisal Code”
o not observed
within each box and illustrate with pertinent job-related

examples.)

33
Professional/ Technical Written Analytical Initiative

Knowledge Communication

Organizational Client Adaptability/ Team

Planning Relationships Flexibility Effort

Decision Making

Comments:

For positions with supervisory accountabilities in addition to the preceding:

Leadership Goal Setting/ Progress toward

Evaluation Affirmative Action Goals

Decisiveness Development of Staff

34
Comments:

NAME: _________________________________________________

Proposed PDCA Cycle for managing better performance at BR

Plan Do
BR plans to be again one BR needs remove the
of the major transport buereacratic
selection for all upper,
middle, and lower class management system
people by improving and shift to a 360
efficiency of their degree feedback
managament system

Action
Check
After the
Checking the efficency
implementation of this
of the performance can
new PCDA cycle BR
be done over the intranet
can go for feedback and
of the BR, where higher
improve this cycle or
level authority could us
start another PDCA
merit base apprailsal for
cycle for other
motivaton
improvment

35
Proposed HR Value Chain Model for BR

Employee Organization Human Capital

Outcomes al Outcomes Measures
Financial
Attitudes There is no Outcomes Market
specific based
Measured in Expenses,
measuring outcomes
terms of how Revenue, and
positive they criteria for
Profitability is BR of
productivity
Proposed
are towardsModel for Measuring Human Capital ofmeasured
BR but doesn’t have
work. and quality it is
BR works for a stock price
measured in
fulfillment of system in
Behavior terms of
public the market.
achievement of
Mostly necessity.
work within the
behavior with
specified time
higher
authority
HR expense factor Turnover Rate

Good Poor Permanent

Higher
Performance Performance Job
Flexibility

Better Faster Training and 360

Training Promotion degree feedback

Proposed Step by Step Performance Review Model

Like in any modern organization Bangladesh Railways should follow the SMART (specific, measureable,
achievable, realistic, time confined) model for performance reviewing.

In case of Bangladesh Railway this approach needs to be implement from three different perspectives.

 Industry Benchmarking
Performance is compared to other in the industry in similar posts.
 Internal Target
Performance is measures against targets set by the company management.
 Time Series Development

36
 Employee’s his or her own performance is compared to a past period.

Measurable Achievable Realistic Time

Goals aims Specified

Specific
Targets

Benchmarking Internal Target Time Series

In the above model each employee is set performance goals based

on the five criteria. Specific refers to employees must be informed exact nature of task of duty he
or she is expected to perform, the expectations set must be measureable in some form, employee
performance should also be achievement within his or her given skills set, performance targets
should be realistic and must be time specified (must be fulfilled within given amount of time).

Peer Review and Personal

37
Employee Performance Evaluation

Compensation Model (Establishing Formal pay rates at Bangladesh Railway)

Survey private
Transportation
Determine local Sector
Wage Rate
Survey
government
sector Jobs

Identify Specific Assign certain Based on number

Evaluate Skill
Compensable number of points of point assign
Requirement of
Based on wage and group Skill to each each job into
Each Job
survey and setsFactors compensable about 7 to ten
number of classes
compensable
factors assign pay
scale to each job

Finalize Pay Rate within each

grade, by looking *All annual increases in wages in each category should take into
considering employee account annual inflation level and company growth.
performance evaluation and
the critical nature of job
38
performed.
Employee Benefits and Services

39
 For all employees regardless of the amount o time with the company
Group Insurance

Low interest home loan credit facilities shoudl be provied to those who have
been with the company for mroe than ten year
Credit Facilities

For employees to be able to confidencially infrom any mal parctices of

Confidenctial misconduct
Employe Helpline

Those who have shown trememdous honeslty and been loyal servant to the
company shoud be given financial reward
Loyal Reward

Guarenteed pension for those who have remained within the company for
more than 30 years(unless they have been subject to criminal offense)
Pension

Health insurance for every employee

Health Benefit

Make a table how compensation is given to different levels of employees

Make a KPI model

Concluding Remarks
40
 At the very heart of our analysis it is
apparent performance related concern
are inherently due to the form of
government owned administrative
regulation that controls the company.
Self-governance is the key to
transforming the company into a high
performing organization. One may
find the idea of introducing e ticketing
and online carriage tracking as
significant milestone in the company’s
inclination towards achieving success,
however such measure is only a one
off success factor. In order for rapid improvement, the company needs to develop a
comprehensive framework with clearly identified vision of renovating to a fully functional high
performance organization. At the forefront of every measure, customer orientated behavior
should be made a key priory. In addition, introducing corporate culture of eliminating
unnecessary waste, using recourses more efficiently, continuous knowledge building and a well-
established performance reward package should be incorporated.

Employees are a key steak holder in any organization. Therefore, strict recruiting and selection
procedure needs to be maintained to ensure appropriate workforce is hired. Currently the
company faces a situation where many of the employees does not match the required job
specifications, while at other post there are abundant number of idle individuals. The company
should also take initiative to boost employee morale in order to successfully implement the
transformation process. The rail sector has immense potential for growth, and can be a major
contributing factor to the country infrastructure and economy. Fully functional railways system
can be a key contributor to lifting up the overall standards and efficiently of the country
transportation system. However, all of the analysis and changes identified in this report are a

41
result of deeply embedded corruption within the company, thus the process of transformation to a
high performance organization is likely to be slow and painstaking.

References

1. Bangladesh Railway. (2014). Retrieved 3rd and 20th March 2016

http://www.railway.gov.bd/

2. Rail Master Plan. (2013). Retrieved 3rd, 20th, and 21st March 2016
http://mor.portal.gov.bd/sites/default/files/files/mor.portal.gov.bd/page/9a1ba160_209b_4d9
4_9077_3befdc9e2ef3/7.%20Strategy%26%20Approaches%20to%20achieve%20the
%20vision.pdf

3. FAQ Bangladesh Railway. (2014). Retrieved 3rd and 20th March 2016
http://www.railway.gov.bd/

4. Bangladesh upgrade loan. (2007)  Railway Gazette International

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/bangladesh-upgrade-loan.html

5. S. Hasan (2009), A case study on Bangladesh Railway

http://www.slideshare.net/sohagmal/a-case-study-of-bangladesh-railway-33311962

6. S.Rahamn (2005). RE-ORIENTATION OF BANGLADESH RAILWAY: A MARKET

INTEGRATION STUDY
http://sr-milan.tripod.com/MBA-Thesis.pdf

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