Human Resource Development Strategy in Seychelles
Introduction
In any business in the world to be successful, human resource is a crucial element and Seychelles is not an exception. The human resource is essential in an organization and constitutes various essential functions that help maintain proper functioning and running of a different organization. This department is useful in job analysis and design where it studies the operation, duties and organizational aspects of the job in order to derive specifications (Khan and Jahur, 2016). It also plays a key role in the recruitment and selection of employees in the organization where it aims at searching for prospective employees and inspires them to apply for jobs in the organization. This body is also mandated to train its employees and equip them with necessary skills, and this enables efficient performance in the organization among many other functions of the body. This essay will explain the development strategies that Seychelles should implement in the human resource department.
Discussion
Human resource development in Seychelles has been applied in various fields including, professional, academic and also in the government sectors (Marie, 2012). Human resource development has been widely used in business fields and has been of great importance in the economic field of the country. This department plays key roles in any organization, and despite its importance, it has also faced major challenges and these challenges have led to the implementation of the human resource development strategy in the country. In Seychelles, HRD has been used to develop skills and competencies through planned learning activities that have enabled individuals in an organization to perform current and even future jobs that help support the economy of the country. HRD has faced various challenges in the country, like a limited workforce and skills shortages in some key sectors. It has also faced a challenge in depending highly on expatriate labour, and this has caused brain drain, limited motivation among the employees. Growing levels of non-participation of youth in the labour market, the limited status of TVET and lack of responsiveness of the HRD to the changing needs of the LM influenced the implementation of HDR strategy in the country.
Lack of effective linkages and limited intelligence to inform decisions among others, also greatly influenced implementation of the development strategies. Unfavourable position and growing level of non-participation of youths in the labour market as a challenge proved that many youths are unemployed and had become a social problem, and this threatened the country’s human capital. To curb this challenge, the government should come up with new programs and also build upon the existing programs that will help deal with the problem of unemployment among the youths. The government should also include initiatives for the youth in the HRD. Skills development Program should be implemented by the employment department of the ministry of employment, and this will help provide young unskilled and inexperienced individuals with an opportunity to be allocated to a workplace, and this will greatly empower the youths, and the challenge facing HRD in the country will have been addressed.
Lack of responsiveness of HRD in the changing needs of the labour market has been a block towards the implementation of the human resource development strategy. In curbing this problem and developing the strategy, the country should create more windows and broaden access to the available training funds. This can be achieved by the corporate social responsibility providing financial support where the funds can be used to run scholarship schemes for their students. The government should also engage itself more in industry training activities, especially the private sectors, where they offer both education and training. It can also achieve the HRD strategy by supporting mid-level occupations. The government should enhance life-long learning, productivity and workforce development, and this will help prevent the problem that HRD in the country has been facing the lack of commitment to life-long learning. To achieve this, the government should promote a life-long culture where education and training should be articulated between institutions and learning pathways made clear. It can attain this by learning to retain its staff where the retaining staff was indicated as a major problem facing HRD in the country. Retaining the staff for long will help the organization improve its practices in both the public and private sectors.
The government should also develop public-private partnerships that will help these sectors work harmoniously towards a common goal of sharing risks, responsibilities and also competencies. These factors will help the country have long-life productivity, and this will improve the economy of the country. Development of institutions and improving research would be of great help in developing the HDR strategy. To achieve this, the government should develop more institutions like finance, trade and economic planning, which would help identify the needs of the sector. Capacity building of the ANHRD by the government would also play a key role in developing the strategy where it will establish sector bodies, their management and also their governance. According to Confait (2014), the government should also expand and strengthen technical and vocational education and training (TVET). To ensure this, the government should create a more flexible system for the development of technical and technological skills and this will provide many learning opportunities, and this will maximize HRD. To improve these skills, the government should allow credit allocation, especially on short courses, among others. TVET teacher training program should also be implemented to help the government expand and strengthen the TVET (Oketch. 2007).
To develop an HDR strategy, the government should reduce rigidity by putting up policies that will help the organizations train a large pool of people since they are covered by employment contracts. This will bring about market efficiency and will lead to improved productivity in the country by retaining talent of their employees and reducing the firing and increasing the hiring practices. The government should also add value to the existing HRD activities and identify the areas of reform, and this will help the country develop and improve the weaker areas. The government should also reduce the disparity that occurs between foreign and local workers. It was noted that the foreign workers in the country are paid higher wages despite carrying out smaller tasks, thus discouraging locals from entering certain occupations. The government should set up ways that help reduce the recruitment challenge that is faced by the HDR in employing people. New methods of recruitment should be put into place since the old methods have now become ineffective. The government should also ensure an organizational culture which will help improve performance metrics which will lead to productivity, attendance and also help deliver customer satisfaction. This organizational culture will help lower rates of employee turnover and also protect top talent from being recruited by their competitors. This retaining of the talent will help the company continue developing innovative products, and this will also help attract new employees once they discover that the company has an attractive corporate culture.
The HRD should also develop compensation and benefits for the employees where this strategy aligns the performance of the organization with how it rewards its people. This will help provide the motivation required for the organization to deliver its goals. To develop an HRD strategy, the government should ensure organization development that involves a team that will decide on the changes needed to be made on the current workforce. These responses occur in three levels between the organization, team and individual with the aim of achieving high levels of organizational performance. The government should ensure strategic resourcing by identifying a number of critical components which involves determining resourcing needs, processes to attract the right people and also ensure processes for assessing and selecting the right people. The government should ensure high commitment management in the human development resource department which aims at eliciting commitment so that behaviour is self- regulated rather than controlled by sanctions and pressures external to the individual and relations in the organization are based on high levels of trust (Appelbaum and Hare,1996).
High-involvement management should be implemented where high-involvement work practices that focus on employee decision making, power, access to information training and incentives (Dalton and Druker, 2012). This will increase employee involvement with the company since they are given the opportunity to control and understand their work. This can be achieved by treating employees as partners in the organization and respecting their interests and are given a voice on matters that concern them. This aspect is mostly concerned with communication and involvement which aims at creating an environment where a continuing conversation between managers and members of their team takes place in order to define expectations and share information on the organization’s mission. The government should set up a mission and vision for the HRD department, and this will help gear the organization towards achieving its goal. This will help the organization remain on toes and will help the organization work hard so as to fulfil its dreams stipulated in the mission and vision of the company or the organization. To develop a good HRD strategy, proper analysis of the industry should be done, which comprise of what the industry produces since different industries produce different products. It should also consider the value chain of the industry in providing a good HRD strategy. Recognition of key processes and identifying key people will help the country develop the best strategies for the HRD in an organization.
Conclusion
Human resource development is an important aspect both in economic, political and also in social fields. This department plays key roles in the training and development of skills among the employees. This department faces many challenges in different organizations and to help curb this problem; human resource development strategies should be put in place to help build a better workforce and provision of software to keep employees happy and comfortable. Youth empowerment activities should be employed since they will play a very important role in HRD strategy where the youths are provided with skills to help them fit in many job opportunities, and this helps reduce the high number of unemployment between the youths. Expansion and strengthening of TVET is an important strategy in the development of HRD, which creates a more flexible system for the development of technical skills. Making human resource development more responsive to the labour market and also government priorities is a key pillar and also a strategy in the development of HRD and government achieves this through broadening access for funding windows among others. Institutions should also be developed, and research improved, and this will help present the needs of human resource development. HDR is key to an organization, and its implementation will play key roles in organizational development.
References
Appelbaum, S.H. and Hare, A., 1996. Self‐efficacy as a mediator of goal setting and performance. Journal of Managerial Psychology.
Confait, S.P., 2014. A Seychelles case of beginning teachers’ perspectives of support and challenges in their pursuit of effective teaching practices.
Dalton, K. and Druker, J., 2012. Transferring HR concepts and practices within multi-national corporations in Romania: The management experience. European management journal, 30(6), pp.588-602.
Khan, M.A. and Jahur, S., 2016. Human resource development practices in some selected business enterprises in Bangladesh: an explanatory study. Indonesian Management and Accounting Research, 6(1), pp.16-32.
Marie, S., 2012. Induction of newly qualified teachers in Seychelles: Professional and Organizational Dimensions (Doctoral dissertation, University of Warwick).
Oketch, M.O., 2007. To vocationalise or not to vocationalise? Perspectives on current trends and issues in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Africa. International Journal of Educational Development, 27(2), pp.220-234.
World Health Organization, 2018. Joint external evaluation of IHR core capacities of the Republic of Seychelles: mission report: 5-9 March 2018 (No. WHO/WHE/CPI/REP/2018.21). World Health Organization.