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Special
Report
Globalization
changes and technological advancements affect and work as a driving
force for each other and in the process leads to innovation, new
forms of work organization, changes in the nature of work and new
occupational categories.
With these changes,
human resource (HR) development takes the position of significance.
In Pakistan we are still striving hard to generate a vision for
HR which is very important for our national path to progress to
face the global challenges.
According to
the World Bank, there are three main components of economic growth,
they are as follows:
*Human capital
64 per cent
*Physical capital
16 per cent
*Natural capital
20 per cent
It is a hardcore
fact that economic growths are possible only to the extent that
human resources are competent to meet the developmental requirements.
The economic growth, if not properly managed, can be jobless, voiceless,
ruthless, rootless and futureless, and thus detrimental to human
resources development.
The links between
economic growth and human resources development must be deliberately
forged and regularly fortified by skilful and intelligent policy
management. It identifies employment as critical for translating
the benefits of economic growth into the lives of people. But for
this to happen, new patterns of growth will need to be developed
and sustained well into the 21st century - and new mechanisms must
be developed to integrate the weak and the vulnerable into the expanding
global economy.
We must consider
it as an essential investment on HR community and not as an expenditure.
This investment is far more important than building roads, bridges
or power-houses. We must first build our people. It is imperative
that they (policy makers) direct their attention and energies towards
HR development and improvements in order to achieve sustained economic
growth and social development in the 21st century. Human resources
are of great importance for a poor country like Pakistan. The increasing
globalization and the forces driving it are posing serious challenges
to organizations throughout the world, particularly to the third
world countries. One of the very important aspects of human resources
development is the support of business houses at the national and
international levels. Only those organizations, which understand
the new environment and growing complex competition and have the
ability to provide appropriate responses to the challenges will
survive and grow. The following is the level of per-capital investment
in human capital development in various developing countries of
the world:
Country Investment
in HRD
*Pakistan $10
*India $31
*Indonesia $54
*Malaysia $150
*South Korea
$160
The most valuable
and the most perishable, resource in any organization is, in fact,
the human resources. Unfortunately, there are not many organizations
in Pakistan that uses this resource optimally. Most of them abuse,
misallocate and misdirect this resource to an incredible degree.
All organizations, whether national, multinational or international,
have to deal with this resource, which is limited in the environments
it operates. Organizations strive to use these limited or scarce
resources efficiently and effectively in order to achieve their
goals and objectives. The most important elements for the today's
organizational success are work-force skills, product quality and
customer service. All the three elements are heavily dependent upon
human resources the education, training and motivation embodied
in people. In present day dynamic business world, change is the
only factor, which will remain constant: changes in technology,
consumer demand, demographic composition of work-force and global
competition will have impact on the role of human resource professionals.
With time, organizations are becoming increasingly aware of HR contribution
to the progress and growth of their businesses.
In this millennium,
slowly but surely all countries are becoming safer and more attractive
for investments. More and more socialist and centrally planned closed
economies are opening up for trade and investment opportunities.
Countries are opting for free-market economies, private ownership
is being encouraged, the importance of the consumers is being realized
and generally they are also becoming more democratic. At the same
time, new institutions are emerging to reduce non-commercial risk
of multinational ventures. These developments in the world market
have significant impact on the future of HR practitioners in terms
of research and professional practice.
Human resource
in any country is the primary factor for setting up the direction
and pace of the socio-economic development. For achieving a substantial
part of our industrial vision, there is a need to create and nurture
a well-developed human capital base, with skills and work ethics
of highest quality. The nation's capacity to face the challenges
of industrialization and globalization of business towards the 21st
century depends heavily on its human resources. Out of capital,
technology and human resources, it is the human resources that will
help organizations to face the challenges of business globalization.
Capital can be generated, technology can be developed, but the rightly
and appropriately encouraged and motivated human resource is required
to propel the organization and the nation through the coming challenges.
Pakistan is
blessed with high quality of human resources, which is also industrious
and productive, but much less demanding than its counterpart in
developed world. The Pakistani nation is hard working and has always
stood up to expectations. The people are energetic and our workers
are dedicated. In fact, HR is the most important contributor to
the economic success of Pakistan over the past decades. Pakistanis
have proven to have the required quality, commitment, and a will
to succeed. Human resources are playing an important role in the
transformation of Pakistan from an underdeveloped country to a prosperous
nation. What is required is guidance and necessary assistance to
increase their capabilities and enhance the output. The government
has put in special efforts in developing and utilizing human resources.
In the present day tight labour market, the emphasis is on upgrading
the skills of the work-force, increasing employee productivity,
encouraging wage flexibility and attracting talents from overseas.
We know there
are many organizations in Pakistan, who still believe that the role
of human resource professionals do not apply to them. The same goes
for the recent work-force legislation. There are many larger organizations
that recognize their commitments to have the best practices in HR,
but unfortunately fail to deliver in it's implementation. How many
organizations can genuinely and honestly state that they practised
or even care about staff retention policy?
It is unfortunate
that in Pakistan our system of education is not oriented towards
producing educated youths, having occupational skills. Education
has had a disappointing relationship to future job prospects for
many students, with the result that frustration is high and emigration
of trained people is common. Ensuring the return home of Pakistanis
sent abroad for higher degrees is also a problem. Special incentives
in land and salaries have been provided to attract overseas Pakistanis
back to the country. Many companies have moved operations to places
with cheap, relatively poorly educated labour. What is crucial,
they say, is the dependability of a labour force and how well it
can be managed and trained not its general educational level, although
a small cadre of highly educated creative people are essential to
innovation and growth. Ending discrimination and changing values
are probably more important than reading in moving low-income families
into the middle class.
The current
training gaps that now exist have reached a critical stage. Public
sector programmes of training are grossly inadequate and government
incentives for private sector training do not seem to work. It is
quiet clear that much of the training required to mould our young
human resources has to be from the private sector. A bold and imaginative
thinking must go into generating such training facilities, capacities
and programmes in the private sector.
Pakistan's human
resource community is lagging behind in their understanding of globalization
requirements and the development of appropriate technologies to
deal with them. In an increasingly complex economy, Pakistan with
present approach will continue to lose competitive ground to foreign
nations unless the country switches to a strategy of better educated,
better trained employees with global orientation and with more productive
forms of work organization. Organizations should be developed that
are consumer driven, quality-focused and globally effective. In
this way, organizations will strive to restore a nation's competitiveness
and assist in ensuring its continued prosperity in the new millennium.
The time has come for an integrated effort to ensure that business
leaders will have the management and cross-cultural skills necessary
to compete on a global basis.
Pakistan's HR
community has evolutionary thinking approach. What is needed is
a revolutionary approach in convincing management that they can
deliver strategic results with positive attitude and multi-dimensional
approach. An approach that shifts emphasis from HR traditional focus
as expert administrators, toward developing a multi-skilled, multi-functional
department that add value to the organization as a whole. To gain
entree into the upper-echelons of business and get the ear of the
CEO and a seat at the boardroom table you've got to be able to speak
their language. It means cross-training to acquire new business
skills that will not only help reinvigorate HR, and make it more
visible in the corporate structure, but also encourage other managers
to recognize how leading-edge people management can benefit all
areas of business planning.
The government
of Pakistan has often expressed its desire to develop a group of
experienced human resource professionals who see the opportunity
to turn human capital strategy into a long-term competitive advantage.
This group of HR community must have sustained competence quality
and have a global HR vision. Competent human resource professionals
recognize the requirements of the profession and are willing to
invest in maintaining and improving their skills and knowledge during
rapidly changing times. In the face of the new complexity of HR,
where new executive buyers are demanding HR solutions with business
value, new ways must be found to bring professionals to high performance
levels. HR professionals must be armed with a broader and deeper
set of competencies, not just in HR skills but in general business
and interpersonal skills, and in technology.
Times have now
changed, but has our thinking changed? It is hoped that a sizable
budget share will go to the development of HR community in Pakistan
and a significant change will be visible in the near future and
the country will be launched on the road to progress and prosperity.
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