Question: How to Optimize WordPress Database & Troubleshooting
Answer: (1) Your database is very bloated. The options table is at 25MB (I’d expect no more than 4MB) (2) The autoloaded dats is over 1MB (I’d expect about 600KB).
Question: How can I optimize a database of wordpress?
Answer: You can optimize under cPanel>>phpmyadmin>>select the database>>select all tables>>optmize.
2. Optimize WordPress Database with Plugins
Advanced Database Cleaner Plugin Features
Clean Database: WordPress database accumulates a lot of extra data such as spam comments, revisions, trashed comments, etc.
Optimizing database will reclaim unused space in tables, which will reduce storage space & improve efficiency when accessing tables. It does not run any code that break down site or delete posts, pages, comments, etc
Revision: WordPress record called “revision” of each saved draft or published item. It allows to see what changes were made in each post & page over time. It consumes a lot of space. SQP query to clean all revisions is: DELETE FROM posts WHERE post_type = ‘revision’
Auto Draft: WordPress saves your post/page when you are editing it before publish called an auto-draft. The sql query used by the plugin to clean all auto-drafts is: DELETE FROM posts WHERE post_status = ‘auto-draft’
Pending Comments: Pending comments are published by users & waiting for your. SQL to clean all pending comments is: DELETE FROM comments WHERE comment_approved = ‘0’
Spam Comments: It is a comment that marked as spam. SQL to clean all spam comments is: DELETE FROM comments WHERE comment_approved = ‘spam’
Trash comment: A trash comment that you have deleted from your WordPress & have been moved to the trash. SQL to clean all trash comments is: DELETE FROM comments WHERE comment_approved = ‘trash’
Trackbacks: Trackbacks allows you to notify other websites have linked to their article on your website. These trackbacks is used to send huge amounts of spam. That is why they should be cleaned if you do not use them. The sql query used by the plugin to clean trackbacks is: DELETE FROM comments WHERE comment_type = ‘trackback’
Pingbacks: Pingbacks allow you to notify other websites owners that you have linked to their article on your website. Trackback is basically the same things as a pingback. These pingbacks can be used to send huge amounts of spam. SQL to clean pingbacks is: DELETE FROM comments WHERE comment_type = ‘pingback’
Orphan post meta: The post meta data includes the author of the post, when it was posted. Sometimes post meta data information becomes orphan & does not belong to any post called “orphan postmeta” & should be cleaned since they are not useful. SQL to clean all orphan postmeta is: DELETE pm FROM postmeta pm LEFT JOIN posts wp ON wp.ID = pm.post_id WHERE wp.ID IS NULL
Orphan comment meta: Orphan comment meta concern comments & not posts. SQL to clean all orphan comment meta is: DELETE FROM commentmeta WHERE comment_id NOT IN (SELECT comment_id FROM comments)
Orphan user meta: The user meta data is the information provide to viewers about each user. This information usually includes additional data that is not stored in the users table. Sometimes user meta data information becomes orphaned are called “orphaned usermeta” . SQL to clean all orphan comment meta is: DELETE FROM usermeta WHERE user_id NOT IN (SELECT ID FROM users)
Orphan user meta: It includes additional data that is not stored in the terms table and sometimes meta data information becomes orphaned. SQL to clean all orphan comment meta is: DELETE FROM termmeta WHERE term_id NOT IN (SELECT term_id FROM terms)
Orphan Relationships: Sometimes the wp_term_relationships table becomes bloated with many orphaned relationships. This happens particularly often if you’re using your site not as a blog but as some other type of content site where posts are deleted periodically. Over time, you could get thousand of term relationships for posts that no longer exist which consumes a lot of database space. SQL to clean all orphan relationships is: DELETE FROM term_relationships WHERE term_taxonomy_id=1 & object_id NOT IN (SELECT id FROM posts)
Expired Transients: A way of storing cached data in DB temporarily by giving it a name. Expired transients are expired & still exist in the database.
Advanced Database Cleaner Plugin Benifits
Remove old Revisions of posts & pages: WordPress stores a record called revision of each saved draft or published update. This system allows you to see what changes were made in each post and page over time
Remove old Auto drafts : WordPress automatically saves your post / page while you are editing it. This is called WordPress auto draft. If you don’t hit the publish/update button, then the post/page will be saved as auto-draft and any modification to your post/page will not be visible in your public site. Over time, you could have multiple auto-drafts that you will never publish and hence you can clean them.
Remove trash posts
Remove pending comments
Remove spam comments
Remove trash comments
Remove pingbacks
Remove trackbacks
Remove orphan post metadata
Remove orphan comment metadata
Remove orphan user metadata
Remove orphan term metadata
Remove orphan relationships
Remove expired transients
Display & view orphaned information before making a database clean-up so you can be sure about what you are going to clean-up
Schedule database clean up to run automatically
Display database tables information such as the number of rows, table size, etc.
Optimize database tables
Repair corrupted database tables or damaged ones
Schedule database optimization &/or reparation to run automatically & specify what tables should be optimized &/or repaired
Empty database tables rows
Clean & Remove database tables
Display options list
Display options information such as option name, option value, option size, option autoload
Clean & Remove options
Set options autoload
Clean & Remove scheduled tasks
Plugins Garbage Collector (Database Cleanup)
Some plugins create & use its own database tables. Those tables are left in your database after plugin deletion.
Database Management (Managed WordPress)
Question: What is the user name and password of phpmyadmin
Answer: You can get that information from the panel > WordPress > managed WordPress > manage > show credentials under “manage database”
Question: How to get login credential to upload files?
Answer: You can get that information from the panel > WordPress > managed WordPress > manage > show credentials under “manage database”
Question: My site is very slow and It is difficult to work so can u check?
Answer: Cache is not working currently, ttbx3_options | 26 MB | The optionts able earlier was at 26MB, which is very big. I cleaned it up so it is now 4MB. No, you would need to continually optimize / clean up. The possible plugins that may cache to go down -woodmart-core, woo-order-export-lite, wp-hide-security-enhancer, google-captcha. The possible plugins that may cache to go down.
Would it be okay to toggle these plugins for testing?
Database Management (Shared Hosting)
Question: Currently My Database size is large which is 800 Mb. As far I know my I am able to download upto 500 Mb data from server in my current hosting plan. Since it exceed upto 800 Mb, please help me to download it in File Manager. When download will complete I will download it from File Manager
Question: Today I have copy a database and folder of halal.hadisquran.com to make another sub domain named as boi.hadisquran.com.
At first I rename all url inside of autogar1_halaldp from halal.hadisquran.com to boi.hadisquran.com
After that I configured everything excluding htaccess file. Instead that My newly created subdomain boi.hadisquran.com is not working
Answer: Yes . Also, I’ll be very happy if I can help you with Safeguarding your account from Hackers, malwares etc. We actually have a service where our team of experts help customers all day safeguarding their accounts. The service is called Sitelock, where our specialists will recommend you the exact plan as per your requirements for the website security. So, Could you please let me know your Phone Number and Timezone so that I can ask our Experts to contact you?
Question: Who will be admin on Dedicated and VPS server?
Answer: The Dedicated server is self managed server, so once you purchase it you will be owner of it and you have all access to manage the server (b)
WordPress SQL
Change Username: UPDATE wp_users SET user_login = ‘mashiur’ WHERE user_login = ‘admiin’;
Email Marketing for WordPress with Jetpack CRM, Contact and Subscriber Form
Contact Form (WordPress)
You can use the form block. Click the + sign, search for form and add the form block. You can read more about it here: wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/form-block/.
Subscribe Form (WordPress)
Just to confirm, the contact form is specifically our own form block? This is typically used to send you messages through your site, but you could possibly add the email addresses of people who contact you, to your subscribers list: en.support.wordpress.com/import-subscribers-to-a-newsletter/
We have spam protection through Akismet which is a built-in plugin on your website. Akismet is a dedicated plugin only to protect from Spam. So it not just protects from spam form submissions but also spam comments. Other plugins like contact7, wpform etc they do not have a built-in mechanism to protect from spam. They give you DNS records to add for spam protection and its not 100% fool proof.
Mailpoet Email Campaign
It somewhat depends what you need! Should these email campaigns be separate from blog posts? While our “new post” notification emails can possibly work as a newsletter, there’s a sibling product called Mailpoet which may be useful for you to check out: mailpoet.com. Mailpoet are a separate product from WordPress.com, but in the same family! It’s also a service which stores the email addresses of your subscribers locally on your site; so they’re not being moved to a separate server.
Features
HOSTING Self Hosted Stand Alone CRM SIMPLE TO USE Welcome Wizard Welcome Page Modularised Features CUSTOMERS Default Fields (Name, Address, etc) Add Custom Fields Customer Tags Customer Search Standalone CRM Customers Add/Edit Statuses (Lead, Customer, etc) Delete Default Fields Attach Files Segment Contacts Sync with PayPal, Stripe, WorldPay & More QUOTES (PROPOSALS) Quotes for Customers Quote Templates Online Quote Acceptance Quote to Invoice INVOICES Itemised Invoices Download Invoice as PDF Email Invoice as HTML Partial Payment Invoice Templates Power Tools (Export) Pay online with PayPal Pay online with Stripe Recurring Invoices Additional Payment Gateways CLIENT PORTAL Allow clients to access their own area Accept Quotes via Client Portal Pay Invoices via Client Portal Share files with clients TRANSACTIONS Assign Transaction to Invoices Log Incoming Transactions Transaction Tags Log Outgoing Transactions DATA TOOLS Import CSV Export CSV TEAM CRM Overall Admin Custom Team Roles Custom Roles for Customers B2B SALES Enable B2B Mode Create Companies Assign Contacts to Companies Assign Transactions to Companies LEAD GENERATION AND MANAGEMENT Lead Generation Forms Conversion rate tracking Gravity Forms Integration Contact Form 7 Integration Lead Automations REPORTING Individual Customer Activity Log Summary Dashboard Sales Reports Growth Reports Average Revenue Per Customer New Customers Per Period EMAIL OPTIONS Email a contact directly Send Targeted Emails Send Group Emails (Mail Campaigns) Emails sent individually (not bulk ‘to’) Setup Custom SMTP Delivery Routes Customisable Email Templates Enable/Disable System Emails Automatic Open Tracking API & DEVELOPER SUPPORT Connect other services to the CRM API Connector Plugin GitHub/Code Examples INTEGRATIONS Zapier Integration (connect hundreds of apps) PayPal Integration Stripe Integration WooCommerce Integration MOBILE READY Responsive iPhone App Android App MULTI-LANGUAGE, TRANSLATIONS, & LOCALISED Use the CRM in your own language
04:23:33 35468 [Note] InnoDB: Initializing buffer pool, size = 128.0M InnoDB: mmap(137363456 bytes) failed; errno 12 04:23:33 35468 [ERROR] InnoDB: Cannot allocate memory for the buffer pool 04:23:33 35468 [ERROR] Plugin ‘InnoDB’ init function returned error. 04:23:33 35468 [ERROR] Plugin ‘InnoDB’ registration as a STORAGE ENGINE failed. 04:23:33 35468 [ERROR] Unknown/unsupported storage engine: InnoDB 04:23:33 35468 [ERROR] Aborting
View Memory Usage
root@server [~]# free -m total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 1995 776 375 106 844 955 Swap: 0 0 0
How to input SSH Terminal
There are different types of tools which is used to access in SSH mode. Putty is most popular among them. To use it follow below steps
First download Putty.
Then install it.
Then run it.
Enter your Server IP in Host Name
Set Port : 22
Click Open
Input user Name
Input Password
Now Ready to input SSH Command according to your requirement
Useful SSH Commands on Putty
free : It shows free and occupied memory in your server in kb
free -m : It shows free and occupied memory in your server
free -h : It shows free and occupied memory in your server in Mb
sar -r : To see previous memory log
swapon -s : To see swap devices and sizes (where swapon is installed)
top -c : Command to check the sever load and CPU usage
mysqldump database_name > new_filename.sql : For backup
backupdb aertgar1_hefgynp 162.221.233.112 : Blue host backup database
exit : To close putty
clear : To clear screen
ls -l : details of the files, e.g. size, modified date and time, the owner, and the permissions
ls -a : shows hidden files & directories.
cd home/TestDirectory/AnotherDirectory : To switch directory
cd ../.. : To access home directory
mkdir myfolder : To create a folder
touch myfile.txt. : To create a file.
rm myfile.txt : Remove a file
rm -r home/hostinger/myfolder : Remove all files
history : for SSH history
free -m Command Explanation
Category
total
used
free
shared
buff/cache
available
Mem:
1995
776
375
106
844
955
-/+ buffers/cache
Swap:
5119
348
4771
total (Mem)= 1995 : It means you have 2Gb physical RAM. (excluding small bit reserve by kernel in startup)
used (Mem)= 776 : It means OS using 776Mb RAM
free (Mem)= 375 : It means not in use physical memory 375Mb RAM
shared (Mem)= 106 : It means shared by server kernel system/ specific purposes 106Mb RAM. It is include in used
buff/cache (Mem)= 844 : It means memory used by kernel buffers & memory used by the page cache and slabs 844Mb RAM. It is include in used
available (Mem)= 955: It means estimate of how much memory is available for starting new applications, without swapping
total = used + free = 776+375 = 1151Mb
The second line gives first line values adjusted. It gives the original value for usedminus the sum buffers+cached and the original value for freeplus the sum buffers+cached, hence its title. These new values are often more meaningful than those of first line.
The last line (Swap:) gives information about swap space usage (i.e. memory contents that have been temporarily moved to disk).
total (Swap): this is the total amount of disk space reserved for swap. used (Swap): the amount of swap disk space that is currently being used. free (Swap): the amount of swap disk space that is currently not being used
How to Backup Database & Host
Step1 : Connect to your server via SSH. Step2 : In the command line enter the following code: mysqldump -u dbusername -p databasename > nameofdbbackup.sql
mysqldump -p -u autogar1 autoga_hqrnp > nesfile.sql Be sure to replace: dbusername = with the database username for the database you want to export. databasename = with the name of the database you want to export. nameofdbbackup = enter a name for the exported database. Step3: Hit the Enter key and it will ask you for your password. Type your password and hit the Enter key again, it will begin exporting, this may take some time to complete, depending how large your database is. Your SSH client will take you to a new line when this process completes.The database will now be available for download in your home directory
WordPress Managed Backup
Q: So how can I get backup in Managed WP at your server?
A. Billing and account > back up account > back me up
Q. So how can I download it in my pc
A. Just click on both files, will download automatically
WordPress > manage WordPress menu
where is my WordPress files
panel > domains > manage domains > webFTP
Restoring your database from your backup on the server
If you need to restore you database from the backup you have made using the instructions above, make sure yo are in the root of your website and enter the below command again making sure to change the strings to match your information. Again, you will be asked for the database user password, so make sure you have it ready.
mysql -u username -p tablename < backupfilename.sql.
Backup all files and directories
Obviously you will need to take a backup of for files as well as the databases from your site To make a backup of all of the files and directories, connect via SSH and cd to the root of your website. Once there you can run the below command, make sure to swap out the red string with your prefered backup name.
tar -vcf backup-name.tar .
TIP: When moving around into different directories via SSH, you can print out all of the files and directories in the current directory you are in so you can be sure you are in the right place. To do this simply type ls
Mail Server Configuration
Problem: I migrated hosting server 1 month ago. Everything works fine except email send and receive. My webmail is ok. Problem is in WordPress application. I have 200 WordPress users where users can not change their password themselves. I have install project management plugin. When I assign task and check on notification, expected users dont get notifications.
Solutions:
However, I could see that the email services of xyz.com is still pointing to old shared server
Please access the link for more information: https://dnschecker.org/#MX/xyz.com
I would humbly request you to set the MX record of the domain as “mail.xyz.com”
Login to the Cpanel of xyz.com. Search for the option, “Zone editor”
There you can update the MX record of the domain
Set priority as : 0
Destination: mail.xyz.com
Propagation time can vary depending on the geographical location. Normally, the domain DNS takes 0-8 hours and is known to take up to 48 hours maximum to completely propagate.
VPS Hosting Management
Questions: What is the meaning of VPS Hosting:
Answer: In a VPS hosting arrangement, a single server is partitioned as multiple servers, each of which can be independently rebooted
Question: What is the meaning by 1 IP address in VPS/Dedicated HOSTING?
Answer: 1 IP address is the main IP address of the account.
Question: What is the meaning by 2 IP address in VPS HOSTING?
Answer: In VPS Hosting having 2 IP address you can two different cPanel
Question: For example, I am running 10 website in your shared hosting. Now I am going to upgrade my service into VPS. Science VPS hosting which have 1 Chanel, then how can I run other 9 websites into one VPS account.
Answer: You can create separate subcPanel account for the domain in VPS/dedicated account, so that you can manage each domain cPanel account separately (b)
Question: What is the meaning by 2 Core in VPS HOSTING?
Answer: Cores of VPS are the number of Virtual Central Processing Cores you will receive , with the services you are purchasing. Each core operates in conjunction with other circuits such as cache, memory management, and input/output Operators. (s)
Question: Should we get Physical server under VPS Hosting?
Answer: Yes, you will get server for one user. (b)
Question: Should we get Physical server under Dedicate Hosting?
Answer: Yes, you will get. (b)
Question: If I purchase dedicated server from you, and if I change password to all admin user account, can you access there ?
Answer: Yes, we have access to the account to check if there is any issue with the account (b)
Question: What is the meaning of 1 TB Bandwidth? I mean how many Visitor = 1 TB Bandwidth?
Answer: It depends on website build, However 1 Tb is usually more than enough to handle more than 500,000 visitors per month. (b)
Answer:There is no option to convert them, because we are unable to provide the exact amount of bandwidth will be used by each vistiors. (s)
Question: Normally How many visitor can access at time with 2 Gb RAM?
Question: What is SiteLock Security? Please explain elaborately which services are included in SiteLock Security?
Answer: SiteLock Security is a Open source software, such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal, can be vulnerable to attacks by hackers. While keeping software up-to-date is a good defense, services that also monitor and protect your website is a more effective approach. SiteLock offers a range of products to ensure your website is always safe from malware and other malicious attacks. It provides daily scanning, automatic malware removal, web app firewall, etc.
Question: What is Codeguard Basic? How long backup will take by you.
Answer: Codeguard is a one-click website backup and restore solution that is integrated into your hosting account for ultimate efficiency and peace of mind. For basic plan Up to 5 websites, 1GB of storage. In codeguard basic the backup can be stored in daily, weekly and monthly basis. In codeguard you can search for the last six month if there is any. (b)
Question: Would we get cPanel/WHM feature in VPS hosting?
Question: Are you offering basic codegurard with VPS?
Answer: Yes that is the basic plan price for the codeguard. The next plans of the codeguard are Professional Up to 10 websites, 5GB of storage, Premium Up to 25 websites, 10GB of storage, Enterprise Up to 100 websites, 25GB of storage (b)
Question: Would we get free CDN feature in VPS hosting?
Answer: Yes you get free CDN feature in VPS hosting.
Question: If I purchase VPS hosting, with the configuration of 1 IP, 2 core, 2 GB RAM and 1 TB Bandwidth, So how many visitor can access at a time?
There is no limitation on the visitors on the website. However, you can increase the max user connection value on the server to higher numbers so there won’t be issue with users. You can have 5000 users
Question: If I purchase VPS hosting, with the configuration of 1 IP, 2 core, 2 GB RAM and 1 TB Bandwidth, So how many visitor can access per montth?
I do understand your concern. There is no average since everyone’s sites are so unique and it is difficult to estimate how many visitors your site can handle, Simply too many variables, there is just no way to know how your site will run until it is on the server, It depends on what you upload to your site each thing consumes resources, Plugins, Themes, Databases, Scripts etc.. It is more up to the developer to determine the resources they need based on the content.
Question: My question, If I upgrade into VPS, who will manager my server and issues ?
Answer: We provide fully managed VPS services and we do not provide support with unmanaged services. However, since you will have the root access to the VPS, it needs to be managed from your end . We do provide assist with the server upgrades only. We do provide support with the VPS server issues if nay (s)
Question: Would you help to install additions software like anti malware , security service etc in VPS?
Answer: No, We do not provide support with the additional software installation, however, you may install the same from your end. Since the root access will be having the root access, you will have the access to install the modules, we do not provide support with the software installation or related issues (s)
Question: If I install a sofware , as a result a problem is occured . In this situation would you solve this issue
Answer: We can try providing the settings required for the installed software from server end (b)
Question: If I upgrade into VPS can I get this basic software and feature by default?
Answer: Unfortunately, on the VPS server, the softaculous feature is not installed and you need to purchase the feature separately (s)
Question: Can you tell me some software names thats are installed in our current shared server?
Answer: Softaculous is a software installation application, that is used by the customer across our platform. Using the sofatculous feature the accounts such as WordPress Drupal, Joomla,. Moodle etc are installed. Also, I am sorry for the incorrect information, the Softaculous will be installed on the VPS service as well, free of cost (s)
Question: Any other software is installed in our current shared hosing server except sofatculous ?
Answer: Softaculous is the main software installer, as a backup software installed quick install is also provided on the shared servers (s)
Dedicated Hosting Management
Question: What is the difference between VPS and Dedicated Hosting.
Answer: Users of VPS hosting have allocated resources just like Dedicated hosting users, however the amount of available resources on VPS servers may still not be what a website needs. For example, VPS servers often start at 2GB of RAM, whereas Dedicated servers often start with at least 4GB of RAM available. In short, Dedicated hosting allows for the same full customization and control of a VPS server, but with even more horsepower. (b)
Question: If I purchase VPS hosting now, Can we upgrade into Dedicated server anytime?
Change Log
Limit failed login attempts Make the root user inaccessible via SSH by editing the sshd_config file Don’t use a default port, edit the port line in your sshd_configfile Use Captcha Limit logins to a specified IP address or range Two factor authentication Unique login URLs Monitor server logs
===============
I have successfully updated “max_user_connections =20000” at /etc/my.cnf file.
Garment Industry – Among the basic elements of industrial production–man, machine and materials–managing human beings is the most complicated one. It is at the core of the matter. Unfortunately, in most of the cases, this core element does not get proper attention from the top rank in the hierarchy of a management. Like any other organisations, the activities of readymade garment factories can be divided into two key functions:
Line – those are directly involved with production, the key function of the industry and Staff – those who provide assistance to production. Read more about RMG in Bangladesh- A Study on Social Compliance
According to the wage grade (Bangladesh Gazettes in 2006, 2010, 2013 on Minimum Wage Board) employees of the readymade garments (RMG) industry are divided into two categories, a) workers – those are differentiated into seven grades (1-7) according to their skills and experiences and b) employees – who are not directly involved in production but they help in production, delivering their services, divided into four different grades (1-4). There are many other important functions which have been skipped in the wage grade.
Readymade garment is a labour-intensive industry. Proper labour management is very important for the industry as cost of wages and salaries is the single highest cost in the manufacturing process.
The aim of human resource department (HRD) in an organisation is to improve performance of the employees as well as the organisation. The main focuses of human resource department are the following:
l Selection of the right person in the right place at the right time. The HRD is to prepare job description and specification against each position and to identify the required number of employees in any particular job to avoid over staffing.
l Training and development – To provide the employees with knowledge and skills needed to do a particular task or job and to make them ready for future challenges, adapting attitude with changes.
l Organisational development – To increase effectiveness and efficiency of an organisation and well-being of its members through planned interventions applying behavioural science concepts.
l Career management – To help the individuals to make their career plans according to their skills, ability and potential.
In any discussion or in an article on the Bangladesh RMG industry without mentioning the Desh Garments Ltd (DGL), the very first factory designed for 100 per cent export, would be incomplete. The state of HRD during the last decades in our RMG industry and its status at the DGL back in 1979 can be reviewed to set a present-time benchmark for the HRD in the RMG industry. An organisation is known by its management and it performs as its members do. Organisational culture is the culture of its owners. The man behind the initiatives at the DGL then had a clear vision about the industry. Mr Noorul Quader (Khan), a valiant freedom fighter, who discarded his title ‘Khan’ in protest against the role of the Pakistani rulers during the liberation war of Bangladesh, started with a single garment factory which ultimately produced hundreds of future entrepreneurs in the industry. The standard that he engraved in the HRD in his factory back in 1979 can still be the cornerstone of the present RMG industry.
Through an advertisement in the national dailies, Mr. Quader then recruited a group of meritorious students from different disciplines from across the country. Some of the engineers whom he had recruited had overseas degrees and a few of them had overseas job experiences. A handsome remuneration package was offered at that time to attract the future entrepreneurs in the industries. Mr Quader arranged training for all his recruited staff in South Korea for six months under joint collaboration with the Daewoo Corporation. An orientation course was conducted at the ‘Institute of Business Administration’ (IBA), the University of Dhaka, the most prestigious academic institute in the country. This single example is more than enough to justify his HR approach. The DGL produced a number of successful RMG business leaders. Unfortunately many of them did not take any lesson from Mr Quader’s HR approach.
There were many favourable conditions, both national and international, behind the ‘hockey-stick growth’ of the industry. In 1984, the number of export-oriented readymade garments factories was 384 and within a decade in 1994, that number shot up to 2,182.
The dramatic decline of jute’s share in Bangladesh’s export earnings had a huge impact on the livelihoods of poor jute growers in the country. Uncertainty of regular works for the day labourers in agriculture sector had pushed them to urban areas where many alternative sources of employments were available. At the same time, growth of the RMG sector had pulled workers from rural areas to urban centres with a strong possibility for employment there. The supply of surplus workers from villages helped in the rapid growth of the RMG factories. All these had happened when ‘human side’ of the workers was hardly in consideration.
A chronological diagram can be drawn to explain the past and present status of the HRDs in readymade garments industry in the country.
The period from the beginning until 2000, was a heaven for the production manager and hell for the workers.
Though garment business is always positive in terms of profit, the perception of the society about the sector still remains negative on account of working environment, workers’ wage etc. Once the term ‘garment factory’ was perceived as a place where anything was possible in terms of mismanagement. Breaking all the norms, values and principles of labour rights, maximum utilisation of labour with minimum expenses/benefits was given top priority to ensure highest possible profit. Qualified and adequate number of staff used to be considered as a waste of money by the businesses. A tendency continued to run the business with minimum possible number of staffs offering them lower package, never considering their quality and hard work. It was accepted to the management if any staff engaged himself/herself in line function contributed directly to the production and helped earn some extra profits to the owner.
From the very initial stage of the industry until the compulsion of compliance, as a precondition of business, there was nothing about human resource development (HRD). To maintain the payroll, a job of time-keeper was created to record workers’ ‘in-and-out’ time and to keep record of over time (OT) work. This core activity, associated with payment, was being controlled by the production manager (PM) concerned, the then most powerful and unchallenged authority. In most of the cases, the PM and the FM (Factory Manager) was the same. Keeping behavioural approach, human psychology, legal rational demand etc aside, most of the owners were dependent on so-called managers. When dependency and authority go to the persons of less capability and capacity, abuse of power and position could appear as a regular phenomenon. Unfortunately, those incidents in our readymade garment industry gave a negative message on work environment of the industry. No restriction on workers’ age, no control of working hours, disregarding of norms and values on working condition etc took the upper hand in the industry till the year 2000. Sexual harassment, deduction of workers’ hard-earned over-time (OT) hours, marking them absent even for a five-minute late arrival as a punishment and using them as personal workers were the managers’ common weapons to control the factory administration. In many cases, workers were asked to pay a percentage of their earnings from extra overtime (EOT) duty to their bosses. Both management and workers thought that the EOT was the privilege for the workers to earn more, so those workers who maintained a good relation with their bosses only were allowed in the extra earning net. For the workers it was difficult, even three decades back, to meet very basic needs without OT work. From the selection process to duty assignment to wages determination, all the activities related to personnel management were the functions of the production manager. In the first decade of the industry, in most of the cases, the production manager himself or his trusted one was assigned to keep the record of workers’ daily attendance and working hours. So, the production manager, apart from production duties, used to control the personnel issues as well.
