GENERAL HR ACTIVITIES OF

BLUE PLANET FASHION WEAR

LTD DURING COVID-19
PANDAMIC
IUBAT - International University of Business Agriculture
and Technology

Course Code: HRM 301

Course Name: Human Resource Management
Section: A

Report Topic
General HR Activities of Blue Planet Fashion Wear Ltd
during COVID-19 Pandemic

Prepared for
Hasanuzzaman Tushar
Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the BBA Program
Department of CBA

Prepared by
Group: Nemesis

Serial No Name ID Program

06 Humayra Deehan Mona 19102088 BBA
08 Faysal Ahmed Prince 19102123 BBA
09 Sadia Towrin 19302015 BBA
30 Tanvir Hossain 21102060 BBA
48 Md. Sazid Hasan 22102106 BBA

Date of Submission: April 5th, 2023

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 Peer Evaluation Chart
of
Group Nemesis

NAME of GROUP A: Attendance at B: Completion of C: Quality of Overall evaluation

MEMBERS group meetings assigned tasks contribution (/100) (=(A+B+C)/3)
(/100) (/100

Faysal Ahmed Prince

(Group Leader)
Humayra Deehan Mona 100 100 90 96.7
Sadia Towrin 100 100 90 96.7
Tanvir Hossain 85 85 80 83.33
Md. Sazid Hasan 100 100 90 96.7

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Abstract

COVID-19 has greatly impacted all the organizations by creating a complex and
challenging situation for the mangers and HR practitioners. They had to focus on creating
solutions that can keep the company running and to help their employees to deal with the
crisis. The pandemic has forced HR professionals to rethink and redefine their role as the
organizations started adjusting to enforced social distancing and a new working
environment. In this report, we aim to find out how the general HR activities were
conducted during the pandemic. The report was made based on conducting interview
with an HR personnel and by analyzing the peer reviewed articles published in different
websites. We mainly focused on the safety measures, training, compensation and
benefits.

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Introduction

Covid-19 crisis started with a massive disaster in Bangladesh. “This crisis has started first
in the city of Wuhan (China), which has witnessed in December 2019 the outbreak of
severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that has known a fast
spread propelling its status to a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, by the World Health
Organization” (WHO, 2020). “Lockdown measures have been imposed; people were
quarantined; schools, universities, nonessential businesses, and non-governmental
organizations have been temporarily closed; travels were restricted; flights were
canceled; and mass public gathering as well as social events have been prohibited.”
(Brodeur, Gray, Islam, & Bhuiyan, 2021)

COVID-19 affected the world economy. The virus was a huge threat for a country like
Bangladesh, because we almost depend on other large countries businesses. Based on the
recent business record our country did a massive level business over the world in
garments industry. Almost all over the world mainly know our country for the garments
sector. But the Covid-19 had broken all the records of business and more and more
people were losing their jobs and works. Because the garments industries were losing
orders because of supply chain issues and the owners were unable to afford the
employees. That is why they needed to let them quit their jobs. Not only that, the
business owners also had to stop their business and lose everything. “According to the
Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE), Around 90 thousand
workers lost their jobs as a result of order cancellation or delayed payment; among them
43,049 workers (in 117 factories) have lost their jobs due to factory shutdown, 23,560
workers have been terminated from 75 factories, and 23,523 workers of 26 factories have
been laid off. “ (DIFE Labour Inspection Report 2019-2020)

Therefore, this pandemic has obviously led to the emergence of a complex and
challenging environment for managers and human resource management (HRM)
practitioners who needed to find ingenious solutions to sustain their company’s business
and to help their employees to cope with the challenges of this unprecedented situation.
“In this context, there are very few studies on the impact of COVID-19 on HRM, its
challenges, and its potential opportunities for HRM in organizations, whereas managers

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and HRM practitioners need relevant information that will help them to go through this
crisis effectively and efficiently, to be able to support their employees and to sustain their
company’s business. “ (Hamouche, 2021)

Objectives of the Study

Broad Objective:

The purpose of this study is to understand how the general HR activities were conducted
by Blue Planet Fashionwear LTD during the COVID-19 crisis.

Specific Objectives:

Followings are the specific objectives of the report:

1. To comprehend how the HR department dealt with the situation

2. To know about the training that was given during the crisis.
3. To understand how the compensation and benefits were provided

Context of the Study

“Blue Planet Fashionwear LTD is an international luxury lingerie manufacturer in

Bangladesh with a modern eco-friendly factory with in-house design to develop products
for women. They create styles that sustainably meet global standards of excellence. This
organization was established in 2017 in Sreepur, Mauna in Gazipur. The vision of the
company is to become a sustainable apparel manufacturing brand in Bangladesh by
ensure happy face of the workers and environment. The unit covers an area of 50,000
square feet with high quality machines. They have nearly 2000 workers. Blue Planet
Fashionwear Ltd is a subsidiary company under Blue Planet Group. Their mission is to
uphold an integrated balance among the company's environmental, economic and social
performance.” (Blue Planet Group, n.d.)

Literature Review

“HRM is about how people are employed, managed and developed in organizations”
(Armstrong, 2020). It has greatly impacted the managers and the HR practitioners.

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“Different methods were implemented to regulate the HRM activities. Such as staffing,
performance management, training and development, compensation management, safety
and health management and employee’s relations. Strategic HRM refers to the vertical
connection between HRM functions and the organizational strategy as well as the
horizontal consistency between HRM functions” (Wright & McMahan, 1992). “In order
to ensure the achievement of the organizational goals in a time of crisis, strategic agility
is required. Organizations need to be able to prepare and allocate their resources; to
coordinate the needed mechanism; and to properly use the organizational resources and
knowledge. ” (Liu, Lee, & Lee, 2020). “COVID-19 has led to a grand career shock.
Based on the analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on career outcomes and aspiration
among a panel of 3,821 employees, showed that due to the COVID-19 crisis, employees
were afraid of losing their job in the near future.” (Akkermans, Richardson, & Kraimer,
2020). In addition, some of them expected to miss out on a promotion that they should
have received if this crisis has not happened. “Short-time compensation, also known as
part-time jobs, has also been adopted to sustain the economy while protecting business
and employee’s jobs. It consists of offering employees a temporary reduction in the
number of their working hours which will help organizations that are experiencing a
decrease in the level of demand, to retain their employees and to avoid layoffs.” (Landais
& Giupponi, 1)

Methodology

This is qualitative research since we want to understand how the HR department of BPFL
dealt with the situation. For this report, we collected data through primary and secondary
sources. The primary sources data were collected by visiting the BPFL factory. There we
conducted interview with Monir Hossain, Senior Executive of HR, Admin and
Compliance Department with sets of questions that was prepared before the visit. For the
secondary data, we searched for articles in Google Scholars, Research Gate and other
websites about the relationship between COVID-19 and HRM. In addition, we searched
for articles about the impact of this pandemic specifically on different HRM function and
practices such as staffing (recruitment), compensation and occupational safety. Lastly, we

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looked for the papers about RMG industry of Bangladesh and other countries and how
COVID-19 affected the RMG industry. We searched for articles that were published
between December 2019 and December 2021. The articles that were analyzed in this
report are cited in “References” section.

Findings and Discussion of the study

Findings

The findings that we got from the interview with Monir Hossain during COVID-19 crisis
are described below:

✓ Human Resource Compliance

✓ Employee Payroll and Compensation
✓ Employee Training and Development

Around 2000 people work at Blue Planet Fashionwear Ltd where there are 16 people
working in the HR, Admin and Compliance Department. During the COVID-19 crisis,
the problems they faced were less manpower, increased costs, production and operations
management because raw materials were hard to find.

Human Resource Compliance: The HR Department had to spread awareness among the
employees about the COVID-19. If the people who are working in this factory are not
aware then it would be risky for all. Side by side, they had to provide them with mask,
gloves, hand sanitizer and thermal scanning. Most importantly, to maintain social
distancing while working in the factory. Also, visited homes of different workers to see
how they are following the COVID-19 safety protocols. During the pandemic there was
no recruitment of any employee or worker.

Employee Payroll and Compensation: According to the Bangladesh Labor Act (BLA),
lay-off means the failure, refusal or inability of an employer to employ any worker due to
shortage of coal, power or raw materials or accumulation of stock or the breakdown or
malfunction of machinery. Since the World Health Organization (WHO) has already
declared COVID-19 as “pandemic”, it can easily be termed as an “epidemic” to satisfy

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the provisions of BLA. When Bangladesh Government announced lockdown from 27th of
March, 2020.The factory was on layoff period for 33 days. During this layoff period,
most of workers went to their hometown and some stayed nearby the factory area. After
33days the factory was open and started its work with around 1000 workers those were
living in the neighboring area of the factory. 65% of their basic salary was paid in the
month of May, June and July. The working hour was same before covid, it was 8 hours.
From the month of August, the salary was provided 100% to the workers as the orders
from different countries were coming.

Employee Training and Development: During the pandemic, there were training on
how to take safety measures. They made sure that everyone is following the safety
protocols correctly. Before the workers enter the factory, they were checked via thermal
scanners and made sure they were wearing facial mask. There were basins at the front
gate to wash hands and sanitizers to clean themselves. While working in the factory, there
were random temperature checks if someone shows any kind of symptoms. There was
strict social distancing. Machineries were also set in such a way so that the social distance
is maintained. If any of the workers showed any symptom, they were immediately sent
off to the factory clinic for checkup.

Discussion

The answer to the findings provided us the concept about how they dealt with the crisis.
These factors are mandatory to be followed by an HR Manager not only in any pandemic
but also in other emergency situations. BPFL took effective measures during the
pandemic. They provided the monthly salary on time to both the workers who were
working and who were unable to come to the factory due to lockdown. But those who
were working in the factory were provided with extra benefits like overtime salary,
attendance bonus and transportation cost. No many companies were able to provide this
type of benefits. Additionally, the safety protocols were properly maintained by taking
the necessary actions to keep the workers safe. Everyone strictly had to maintain 3 feet
social distancing, wear mask, wash hands and to use hand sanitizer. Also, ensured that the
workers were keeping themselves safe at their home. Another important part to be
discussed that is there was no selection and recruitment during that time. As there were

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no vacancies. Also, no workers were excluded from the job. BPFL tried to be provide as
much as in their ability. As there were many factories were forced to shut down due to
lack of revenue. In that case, BPFL was in better position. Their main focus was to keep
the organization running and provide the workers on time.

Recommendation and Conclusion

From the above discussion, we can clearly state that there is nothing to recommend.
Because the HR Department had good crisis management. They took the measures as per
the government’s instructions. COVID-19 still exists. For this reason, the safety is still
maintained in BPFL. The experience gained during the COVID-19 crisis created a
change in management. Covid had a significant impact on the livelihoods and well-being
of ready-made garment workers and their families. Therefore, new and improvised
measures were taken to deal with any kind of future crisis.

To conclude, the objective of this study was to understand the general activities of HR
Department during COVID-19 of BPFL. We have obtained all the specific objectives that
were provided during the crisis. Only limitation was lack of time. The interview that we
conducted with Mr. Monir Islam was not long enough. Though, we are thankful to him
for giving us his valuable time.

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References
Akkermans, J., Richardson, J., & Kraimer, M. L. (2020, June). The Covid-19 crisis as a
career shock. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1-6.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103434

Armstrong, M. (2020). Armstrong's Handbook of Strategic Human Resource Management

(7th ed.). Kogan Page.

Blue Planet Group. (n.d.). Blue Planet Fashion Wear Ltd. Retrieved April 5, 2023, from
Blue Planet Group Web site: http://blueplanetgroup.com/bpfl.html

Brodeur, A., Gray, D., Islam, A., & Bhuiyan, S. J. (2021, April 18). A Literature Review
of the Economics of COVID-19. Journal of Economic Surveys, 35(4), 1007-1044.
Retrieved April 5, 2023, from
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/joes.12423

DIFE Labour Inspection Report 2019-2020. (n.d.). Labour Inspection Report 2019-2020.
Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments. Dhaka: Ministry of
Labor and Employment. Retrieved April 5, 2023

Hamouche, S. (2021, April 19). Human resource management and the COVID-19 crisis.
Journal of Management & Organization, 1-16.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2021.15

Landais, C., & Giupponi, G. (1, April 2020). CERP Policy Portal. Retrieved April 5, 2023,
from VoxEU: https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/building-effective-short-time-work-
schemes-covid-19-crisis

Liu, Y., Lee, J. M., & Lee, C. (2020, May 12). The challenges and opportunities of a global
health crisis. Asian Business & Management(19), 277-297.

WHO. (2020, March 11). World Health Organization. Retrieved April 5, 2023, from WHO
Website: https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-
general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020

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Wright, P. M., & McMahan, G. C. (1992, June). Theoretical perspectives for strategic
human resource management. Journal of Management, 18(2), 295-320. Retrieved
April 5, 2023

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Appendix-1

The questions that were asked during the interview with Monir Hossain, Senior Executive
of HR Department are given below:

1. Approximately how many people work in your organization?

2. How many people are employed in the HR department?
3. What sort of issue faced by your organization amid COVID-19?
4. What measures has the HR department taken during the pandemic?
5. How was the selection and hiring process done during the pandemic?
6. How has the salary been adjusted?
7. What type of training was provided during the crisis?
8. How was the occupational safety guaranteed?
9. Approximately how many people were COVID positive?
10. How have the employees and workers dealt with the post-covid effect?

Appendix-2

Figure 1: Group Photo with Senior Executive of HR, Mr. Monir Hossain

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Figure 2: Photo of the Group Members at BPFL Factory

Figure 3: Assembly Line inside the BPFL Factory

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