Human Resource Challenges in Context of Nepal
Introduction
Human resource HR challenges in Nepal are the most critical and important thing to deal with. The success of every organization lies in the hand of the Human Resource. It possesses handling human resources challenges, it deals with. A one-man army cannot, by himself or herself, lead an organization to its vision or goal. In order to back them up, a group of expertise in various areas is needed. To create the group that aligns in achieving vision of any organization HRM plays a vital role.
To better understand HRM and what HRM does to minimize the human resource challenges. Then, it is a function in an organization designed to maximize the performance of the employees. In order to achieve specific strategic objectives through managing people. And abiding by the policy of the system. So, every organization requires skilled manpower to develop. Development of an organization means the development of the country by contributing to the economy. Thus, management of the human resource HR challenges is very important for the development of countries like Nepal.
Human Resource Management HRM
In this article, we will be discussing on the Human Resource HR Management challenges in light with the context of Nepal. Nepalese people have the propensity to follow management ideas from the developed countries. Regardless of its practicability to the situation. Replicating those management ideas in Nepalese organizations might not be the right thing to do. As the situation, people, culture, systems and practices here are different.
It is very crucial for Nepal to undertake the original research on the way businesses are managed here. This helps people to understand the concept how Nepalese management ideas vary from that of the develop countries. Coming up with original ideas helps us to tackle the situation in the real life scenario.
Need to move forward
Nepal may not be in the pace with other developing countries in terms of its human resource HR challenges management. But has definitely come a long way. Recently, the human resource department in many organizations around the world have been set up. But very few are evolving as an independent unit. Earlier human resource department was combined with the administrative branch of the office. With the role of human resource departments being limited to carrying out routine activities. Only such as record keeping, updating the payroll and maintaining relations with employees.
Majority of organizations do not involve their HR heads in the formulation of strategy, decision making and business planning process. Vital decisions related to employees are taken by executives without consulting HR managers.
Importance
Due to the limited understanding and knowledge regarding the significance of human resources management. Most HR heads are person who does not even have the basics of human resource. Or well-educated but very junior staff with no relevant experience. Lack of proper knowledge on the HR management is a challenge for the independent functioning of department.
Organizations irrespective of their sizes have a human resource department. And apart from that there are many independent human resource consultancies that offer great services to organizations. It is a very popular subject amongst the youngsters especially the female population. Also very impressively most human resource departments head are women. Nepal on its journey towards development requires effective management of its resources and policies. But first it requires acceptance of human resource as the greatest form of asset.
Considerations
Every business houses seek diversity in their workforce for the attainment of various skills and knowledge. Hiring right people for the right job at the right time is the main focus of every human resource department. Being a topper or a high scorer academically doesn’t necessarily fulfill the criteria for any job. What matters is the ability and skills of a person to match with the Job Description of any position. Along with it, the attitude and the behavior of workers is also decisive to look at while hiring any people for the job. It is important to be aware what outlook he or she has towards the job.
Human Resource Department have a hard time in providing /finding the right candidate for a position in Nepal because Nepalese people have the tendency to go abroad in search of better job opportunities. Due to the political instability and the lack of efforts towards the betterment of the educational system, even though we have a large number of graduate products in the market, finding a candidate who inherit all the knowledge and skills an organization look for is hard to get.
Whereas, the people who look for opportunities within the country are not stable at their job, as they are not clear on which area they want to pursue their career. People join in order to gain experience but in the name of experience they apply for any kind of job. Even the job holders are in a constant hunt for better perks without any consideration on the company’s brand name or the emotional attachment towards the company. Gaining a long term commitment from the employees has been a challenge.
Investement on HRM
Management of organizations are not willing to invest much on the department, regardless of the want for a diversified workforce. According to Richard Branson (English business magnate, investor, and philanthropist.), “if the person who works at your company is not appreciated, they are not going to do things with a smile. By not treating employees well, companies risk losing customers over bad service”. Thus, every organization should prioritize employees first, customers second, and shareholders third.
Even by practicing the employees first rule, a huge challenge exists in the Nepalese context. Industrial relation situation in Nepal has undergone a lot of change owing to the internal and external factors within and outside the industries. In the initial phase, the understanding of industrial relation was relatively low, but the latter phase saw a gradual improvement in the industrial relations scenario. The labor or employees’ union existing in the Nepalese Industries have been increasingly practicing collective bargaining with the management.
Commitment and Drawbacks in HR
Regular process of collective bargaining between the management and the employees’ union has benefited the employees with significant amount of facilities and perks from the company. In addition, the percentage of benefit and perks are much higher for the employees working in large industries. This has made the employees to be more committed to their job which has resulted in almost zero employee turnovers in these companies. Whereas, from the perspective of the companies, it has caused difficulties in change management practices as employees are not willing to take higher responsibilities and challenging task.
This is a huge drawback in most of the government offices and multinational companies. The employees are in satisfaction with their current roles. But, taking more responsibility seems to be a burdensome activity to them. To overcome such situation, the companies have initiated Voluntary Retirement Scheme program. It allows to let go off their senior staff and bring young energetic employees. But very few of the employees tend to accept the plans and program. This way the process of collective bargaining has caused most benefit to employees without much impact on growth and performance of the company.
Conclusion
With responsibilities challenges tag along, Human Resource Department being the most important department of any organization also have many challenges to face in the practicality of its principles. Above mentioned thoughts were the few challenges our Human Resource Department have faced till date. For, future smoothing of the operations our team have been finding various ways to overcome them and come up strong!
