Seeking Feedback on My First HR Consulting Questionnaire for a Real Estate Firm

Hi All, I am currently doing a freelancing assignment for a client who wants me to do HR consulting for his firm. This firm is a real estate firm with around 50+ employees. I thought of doing an assessment first by preparing an elaborate questionnaire to identify gaps in the processes. I have prepared the questionnaire. Could someone please look through it and suggest if I can add anything else?

Since this is my very first client, any tips to handle the consulting will be most welcome.

Thanks,
Shruti

Hi All, I have consulted the client using the attached questionnaire. I have observed that the management just keeps hiring people without any job analysis. They have some employees who are just on the job doing miscellaneous work. I tried to advise the manager that this practice is not correct; however, he says that the construction industry is very dynamic, hence they can't predict when there will be a surge in workload.

Suggested Actions for Manpower Planning

I have suggested the following actions to address the situation:
- Creating job descriptions for each level
- Establishing a hierarchy
- Engaging with Team Managers to understand the workload and team grievances

Could you please provide suggestions on additional steps I can take to handle manpower planning in a growing firm?

Thanks & Regards,
Shruti

Dear Shruti,

You have developed an exhaustive questionnaire, no doubt about it. Good work, well done. However, the following points or subjects are missing from your list:

- **Safety of Employees:** Anything and everything about the safety of the employees. Safety is a very important issue in the construction industry.

- **Employee Suggestion Scheme:** Nothing is mentioned about how innovation is encouraged.

- **Company Culture:** Nothing is mentioned about the culture of the company as such.

Frankly speaking, the construction industry or realty companies are still at a primitive stage in India. They are miles away from professionalism. Barring a few exceptions, there is still a "Thekedar-Munshiji" culture in most companies. The industry is driven by muscle-men who have political connections. The industry is heavily driven by the owners, and the MD's word is law.

Against this backdrop, how far your "HR Assessment Questionnaire" and all that will work remains to be seen. Lest you could be barking up the wrong tree. So be heedful of that.

Thanks,

Dinesh V Divekar

Thank you so much for your inputs. I will add the additional questions to my list. They have applied for ISO 9001:2008; hence, they have received formats from them to follow. From our meetings, I have realized that manpower planning is the major issue to tackle. I think once I prepare the job descriptions for each position and the job levels, I will be in a better position to explain it to the owners. I have scheduled a meeting with each team manager this week to understand how they function and what problems they are facing. From this conversation, my basic aim is to understand the responsibilities individual members of the team have, their training needs, and the owners' leadership styles.

Scope of Work

Hence, my scope of work here includes:

- Preparing job descriptions
- Refining the policy manual
- Devising job levels
- Refining the performance appraisal system
- Putting a promotion mechanism in place
- Conducting behavioral trainings for team managers and owners
- Preparing SOPs for each HR process

Can you tell me what the current fees are for HR outsourcing? From the scope mentioned above, can anyone suggest how much I should charge them?

Regards,
Shruti