NHRD Journal - National HRD Network

dictated by the "fires of the moment". The most
daunting challenge seems to be one regarding
Talent retention. This seems to have therefore
triggered a series of response around making
employees happy in their current company. The
provision of pick up and drop, frequent social
gatherings, birthday celebrations, gift vouchers
and dinner coupons etc. are targeted at keeping
the employee contended and not think of a
change. This is in many ways similar to the
efforts to keep them away from unions.
Reflecting on the past we know that, however
creative one may be, these activities provide
only a short term solution to the challenge.
Understanding this, a number of HR
professionals have focussed on value adding
training programs which has a slightly longer
term benefit both to the employee and the
organization. A few of the enlightened HR
leaders have adopted a comprehensive
approach and their response reflects a deep
understanding of the HR functions evolution
in the traditional sectors. They are not just
responding to the immediate demand but
initiating efforts which are more broad-based
in nature and addressing longer-term needs.
Unlike other professions like accounting and
medicine where the professional regulatory
bodies are keeping track of the learnings from
recent developments and insisting that their
professional members comply with emerging
standards, there is no mandatory adoption of
new frameworks and practices in HR. It is
usually left to the initiative of the practitioners
to update themselves and follow what they
deem appropriate. This is a pity, for many HR
professionals are failing to see the opportunities
and lessons.
Beware of employee backlash if you do not
listen to their intrinsic professional aspirations.
The way in which they will assert themselves
may not necessarily be through trade unions
but maybe through heightened attrition and
blog campaigns. This could be more lethal than
the historical "gherao" or strike.
A study of history often helps one to prepare
for the future, for there is no doubt that history
repeats itself. However, it is in your hands to
write the history of tomorrow by doing things
ahead of its time and hence address some of
the needs before they become a Herculean
challenge. For example, you can work on
leadership development and organization
culture even as you grapple with the talent
attraction / retention challenge and this will
help your business unit skip a few of the
evolutionary (and painful) steps and catapult
into the realm of outstanding business
performance.
Of course in keeping with the times we need to
update ourselves with the possibility of
technology leverage for various HR
deliverables. The novel initiatives of job fairs,
campus presentations and employee referrals
have started gaining wider currency. With
global knowledge being accessible more easily
we need to adopt/adapt various experiences
in the area of people performance. The
balanced score-card approach and the strategy
into action model are accessible to all for
improved business alignment. The use of online
surveys and instruments has made our
feedback information, people and team
assessment easier and more robust. These
should enable us to address the issues in a
faster and better way.
Thankfully HR is an evolved function and we
must recognise that. We need to learn from the
experiences of the past and incorporate it into
our functional knowledge base so that we
perform as an improved version of our
functional forefathers. Failing to capitalise on
that is purely our loss and we will be painfully
driving our organizations to learn through first
hand struggle. In today's' highly competitive
environment it is unforgivable fool-hardiness.
No doubt the future will bring with it newer
challenges and opportunities which will
demand and provide for further evolution of
the HR professional.
94
November 2007 NHRD Journal