Top management of the country should see human resources department as a strategic business partner to attain sustainable growth, experts said at a seminar in Dhaka yesterday.
Human resources experts at the international seminar also put forward a set of recommendations for organisations to help them attain excellence in business.
They stressed attracting and developing talents, treating HR as frontline operation and branding the HR functions.
Bangladesh Society for Human Resources Management organised the daylong ‘C-suite HR Summit 2011’ in collaboration with Bangladesh Brand Forum at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel.
More than 500 people from corporates, academia and NGO took part in the biggest event on HR in Bangladesh.
Four international speakers shared the cotemporary people management issues. Two panel discussions were also held.
As a keynote speaker, Rashmi Sharma, director for HR of American Express Banking Corporation in India, talked on talent development and management issues.
She said: “The war for talent is now on because the corporate sector faces a huge talent shortage with the changes of time.”
Sharma suggested the business organisations focus on building talent as well as buying talents.
Biplob Banerjee, an Indian consultant, asked entrepreneurs or promoters to spend more time with HR professionals to get great result from them. “Spend time with HR department like other departments to attain the best result.”
Arnfinn Groven, chief people officer of Grameenphone, stressed organisational change or transformational issue.
He said the best time for transformation of an organisation is at its good time. “Our change is always directed to its (the company’s) values.”
David Weller, a strategic HR consultant from New Zealand, called for promoting the HR manager as business manager strategically.
He said: “A modern HR department will have communication, organisation development, remuneration and reward, as well as more traditional areas such as union relations, employee administration and staff welfare.”
The role of HR has transformed significantly over the years, said M Zulfiquar Hussain, chief executive officer of Grow n Excel, a leading human resources and management consultation organisation in Bangladesh.
“There is an old saying that the main function of HR is to hire, fire and retire people,” he said.
But, HR professionals are now performing more strategic issues of an organisation like attracting, attaining and retaining the talents pools, said Hussain.
So, corporate Bangladesh should treat the human resources operations into its core business strategy, he added.
“HR is a part of our executive committee in our organisation because we treat human resources as a key element for success,” said Khalid Hasan, managing director of The Nielsen Company Bangladesh.
He said, “We value the role of HR as they are the supplier of talents.”
K Mahmood Sattar, managing director of The City Bank, said: “Human resources are a very core part of strategic management because all line managers have to work as the HR managers to run the daily operations of an organisation effectively.”
The HR department generally works as the biggest change agent of an organisation and adds value to the business process through arranging necessary training and engaging the workforce, said Sattar.
So, the top management should consider chief people officer as important as chief financial officer, he added.
Tapas Kumar Mondal, country manager of International Beverages Pvt Ltd (Coca Cola), said: “We should see HR functions as frontline function as they are the builder of an organisation.”
-With The Daily Star input
