UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business ------------------------------ Nguyen Trong Huu THE SOLUTION TO ENHANCE TIME MANAGEMENT SKILL AT EXPEDITORS VIETNAM CO., LTD CASE OF OCEAN EXPORT DEPARTMENT MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2018 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business ------------------------------ Nguyen Trong Huu THE SOLUTION TO ENHANCE TIME MANAGEMENT SKILL AT EXPEDITORS VIETNAM CO., LTD CASE OF OCEAN EXPORT DEPARTMENT MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SUPERVISOR: Dr. LE NHAT HANH Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2018 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Tab of content Acknowledgments Executive Summary List of Figures List of Tables List of Abbreviations Chapter 1. Background of problems. An overview to working time in Vietnam.
An overview to working time at Expeditors Vietnam. An overview to working time symptom in Ocean Export department. Justify existing problem. Justify the importance of the problem.
25 Chapter 2: Alternative Solution analysis. Solution 1: Distinguish between Urgent and Important. Solution 2: Planning by setting goal. Solution 3: Setting expectation and To-do list to follow.
39 In-depth Interviews. 69 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Acknowledgments First of all, I would like to sincere gratitude to all who have made this thesis possible and an unforgettable experience of mind, especially, my gracious research supervisor – Dr. Le Nhat Hanh. Her professionalism and patience provided me the power to overcome any challenges to finish this thesis.
Besides that, I would like to thank all my friends, family and colleagues at Expeditors Vietnam Co. – Ho Chi Minh Branch for their great support for me. Also, I would take this opportunity to say thank to Mr. Manh Hoang Tuan – my manager at the company.
Everyone was so generous that they provided endless help to make this thesis project a dream come true. Once again, thank you and wish you all the best! Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Nguyen Trong Huu TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Executive Summary Each organization has its own problems and it is very important to determine the right problem. Once the real problem is defined, the organization then is able to propose the right solutions with the right time investment. Mistakes in determining the real problem may lead to wastes of resources.
This research study was designed to accesses the real cause of high working time of the company and ineffective time management skill was defined is one of main problem while time management is significant problem for many organizations. After finding various symptoms such as excessive working hours, low health of employee, and turnover rate, the author managed to identify the central problem by applying root cause analysis method. Then, based on literature reviews, surveys and face to face interview, it was recognized that high working time is the central problem in this organization. The question is “Can people be productive after 10, 11, 12 or even 16 hours of working a day?” The 40 hours workweek has run off into the sunset, and overtime working has become a reality for millions of employees.
It is the time to get a change of value corporate should place on encouraging better balance between work and family with thoughtful leadership, good skill assessment and learn tools to support people in the way of management. Therefore, this study focused on a specific of a department to have a deep looks of the problem and propose appropriate solutions. The findings revealed that the time management skill tends to play a significant role in working time management of employees. Hence, “The solution to enhance time management skill at Expeditors Vietnam Co.
– Case of Ocean Export Department” aims to identify the root cause and improve this skill. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com List of Figures Figure 1: Expeditors’ Location Worldwide Figure 2: EIVN’s structure Figure 3: Vietnamese Overtime Compensation Figure 4: Maximum overtime of an employee in one month between countries in region Figure 5: Percentage of overtime working claimed per year Figure 6: Overtime hours per staff from 2015 – 2017 Figure 7: Revenue contribution of products in 2017 Figure 8: Local Ocean Export structure Figure 9: Overtime per staff in Ocean Export Figure 10: Initial cause – effect map Figure 11: Time management questionnaires Figure 12: Turnover rate in EIVN Figure 13: Updated Cause – Effect map Figure 14: Final Cause – Effect map Figure 15: The Eisenhower Box Figure 16: S.T goals List of Tables Table 1: Company’s information Table 2: Possible causes Table 3: Action Plan TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com List of Abbreviations EIVN: Expeditors Vietnam EPE: Employee Personal Evaluation PDC: Personal Development Center HR: Human Resource CHQ: Corporate Headquarter SOP: Standard Operational Procedure Hrs/hr: Hours TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Company overview Expeditors was established 38 years ago from the initial idea of integrated services with the combination of transportation services and customs brokerage. It is one of the world’s largest logistics corporations at the present.
Starting with just the Seattle office in 1979, the corporation now has 331 locations in 109 countries. Figure 1: Expeditors’ Location Worldwide (Source: Internal) Expeditors Vietnam Company Limited is a branch of Expeditors and it belongs to Expeditors community in Asia where the company spends serious efforts in expanding their business for more success. In 1993, the company started their first business through co-operated with Saigon Freight Forwarding Company Limited. After 7 years of operating in the Vietnam market, Expeditors saw a big potential there and they did not waste the good chance.
The first branch was established in Ho Chi 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Minh in the year 2000. Their first location was located at E. Town Buildings, 364 Cong Hoa, Ward 13, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City. Currently, it is located on the 8th floor of Flemington Buildings, 182 Le Dai Hanh Street, which is more convenient for business transactions.
Furthermore, Expeditors went on to establish their settle office in Da Nang and one office in Ha Noi in 2005. This decision helped the company complete their network in the three most important areas in Vietnam: North, Centre and South. Fifteen years after their establishment, Expeditors Vietnam is classified as one of the top logistics companies in Vietnam. For years, the development of international trade and new model of transports lead to the expansion of forwarding service.
Nowadays, forwarders are not only performing customs clearance, but also providing all-in transportation services. Expeditors’ core services are consolidating and forwarding of air or ocean freight, custom brokerage, vendor management, cargo consolidation, cargo insurance, time-definite transportation, order management, warehousing, distribution and customized logistics solutions. Table 1: Company’s information INFORMATION OF EXPEDITORS COMPANY LIMITED - SGN English name Expeditors Vietnam Company Limited Vietnamese name CÔNG TY TNHH EXPEDITORS VIỆT NAM Address 8th Floor, The Flemington Tower, 182 Le Dai Hanh, Ward 15, District 11, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Phone (84-28) 39621868 Fax (84-28) 39621988 Website www.com Type of Company Private Limited Company Director Michael Joseph Mooney Capital 500 million VND Tax code 0312545104 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Company’s structure Figure 2: EIVN’s structure - At Expeditors Vietnam, we can separate into two big teams: Product team and Service team.
o The product team is the team who makes the profit for the company directly by handling shipments, such as: Order Management, Ocean (Export and Import), Air (Export and Import), Transcon, Distribution, and Customs Brokerage. 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com o The service team includes Accounting, Human Resource, Sales, Account Management, Project Cargo and Information Systems. Background of problems 1. An overview to working time in Vietnam It is important for all companies to follow the law and regulations of Vietnam, especially the Labor Law, which governs the regulations regarding minimum wages and working time.
One of the great benefits of Vietnam is that wages are low in comparison to the rest of the regions. The Vietnamese’s government enumerates all of these regulations under the Labor Law of 2012 (Law No. 10/2012/QH13), Decree No. 05/2015/ND-CP, and Circular No.
Understanding how these laws and guidance shape costs is of utmost importance for investors seeking to maximize Vietnam’s potential as a low cost destination when doing business. Overtime triggering: this is first consideration that the employer must ensure a thorough understanding of when overtime is applied. This threshold will allow organization for the optimization of production targets to optimize cost and time constraints. Pursuant to the regulations mentioned above, regular working hours cannot exceed 8 hours a day, or 48 hours a week.
For employees who are working in heavy or hazardous conditions, the maximum regular working time is 6 hours a day. If an employee is required to work beyond these limits, overtime compensation will be applied. Overtime compensation may be triggered and influenced by the time and date that employees are engaged. Key triggers of overtime beyond hours worked include: weekends, public holidays, and night hours – defined as between 22:00hr and 6:00hr 4 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Overtime compensation: In the event that a company triggers overtime, organization will be obligated to compensate employees beyond the wages that are outlined in their contract.
This is applicable to all employees regardless of the wages that are offered. The following are the percentages in excess of standard that are to be applied in the event that certain work-related thresholds are crossed. Figure 3: Vietnamese Overtime Compensation (Source: http://www.com/news/overtime-vietnam.html/) There are limitations on the number of overtime hours an employee is allowed to work. Overtime hours cannot exceed 30 hours per month and 200 hours per year.
In special cases regulated by the government, yearly maximum can be increased to 300 hours per year. In addition, firms have proposed to remove the monthly overtime limit (currently no more than 30 hours a month) because this regulation is rigid, not flexible, and not suitable with the actual production cycle business of the business. Especially, enterprises depend on export orders, depending on the season of business such as: processing goods for export, processing seafood for exporting. The proposal to ensure that the standard working hours of employees is no more than 12 hours a day and the 5 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com total overtime hours do not exceed 400 hours a year is still under consideration.
This is because the maximum number of working hours per month of Viet Nam is lowest in comparison to other countries in the region. (Figure 4) Extra working time in one month Figure 4: Maximum overtime of an employee in one month between countries in region (Source: https://news.vn/tang-so-gio-lam-them-cua-nguoi-lao-dong-len-400-gio-mot-nam-post741456. An overview to working time at Expeditors Vietnam Based on the overtime working report from Human Resource, we can see that product team is the group that has the biggest overtime ratio in the company in which the biggest ratio belongs to Ocean Export team, its showing the number increases from 33% in 2015, 34% in 2016 and up to 50% in 2017. 6 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL HOURS OF OVERTIME PER YEAR 60% 50% 50% 40% 30% 2015 29% 29% 2016 20% 34% 33% 31% 20% 2017 29% 10% 17% 11% 8% 7% 7% 4% 8% 0% 0% 0% 3% 4% 8% 0% 0% 0% 6% 5% 5% 0% 0% 2% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% Figure 5: Percentage of overtime working claimed per year (Source: HR) From figure 6, in term of overtime hours for each staff per year, Ocean Export holds the first position with 311 hours in 2016 and increased up to 406 hours in 2017.
Accounting reached out 339 hours in 2017, this is due to the change from E.I Freight Forwarding to Expeditors Vietnam Co. It was reasonable as the process took a lot of time to work on document transition.