SAMEEHA ASLAM

Human Resource Management

The Challenges and Opportunities of Business Education: A

Reference to HRM practices
The changing external environmental forces are having an increasingly important effect on the
performances of organizations. Whether it be globalization, competition, technological
innovations, the changing nature of work and workforce demographics or the economic
challenges and trends; these factors are forcing organizations today to not only attract effective
employees but to retain them and motivate them enough for high performance. Now the question
arrives of why do we emphasize on the human resources? And the answer is that the human
resources of an organization are the most important drivers of high productivity. Therefore it is
imperative to establish the modern practices of HRM .In order to do so we need even more HR
graduates and professionals in this nation and this paper attempts to analyze the challenges and
opportunities that HR graduates and HR personnel in general face at present ( Dessler &
Varkkey, 2011).
Firstly it is important to understand that the concept of HRM is new to Bangladesh and it has
been only in the last decade or so that companies have started organizing a separate HR
department. A recent study strives to analyze the job market for fresh HR graduates. It compares
the graduates of HR, marketing and Finance. According to the study, HR graduates (87 days)
take longer than finance (56 days) and marketing (38 days) graduates to find their first job
(Mahmud, Tarannum & Chowdhury, 2014, p. 34). This basically happens because as mentioned
the HR departments themselves are new concerns so they have a flatter hierarchy and also
because most people dont advertise for entry and mid level HR jobs. Most firms dont advertise
online or in papers for HR positions and the ones that do require at least 1 to 2 years experience.
However once they get the job, it is very easy for them to switch to another job after a few years
experience because there is a lack of experienced HR people at the mid-level (Mahmud,
Tarannum & Chowdhury, 2014).
Perhaps the most disappointing factor is that of getting promotions because it seems as if HR
people need to work for 3 or more years before they get one promotion whereas marketing
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people generally have to work for 2 or less years. However 70% of HR professionals are fully
satisfied with their current job compared to 44 % in marketing and 25% in Finance (Mahmud,
Tarannum & Chowdhury, 2014, pg 35). Finally the study said that HR personnel get a moderate
amount of training and the starting salary is quite high however salary growth is quite low
compared to that of marketing and finance because it is very hard to get promotions and move up
the ladder. The study concluded by saying that HR graduates are better off applying to the
service sector rather than the manufacturing sector because they employ for HR personnel since
they require more qualified people capable of providing quality service rather than the
manufacturing sector where they emphasis is on marketing. (Mahmud, Tarannum & Chowdhury,
2014).
Organizations need to understand that in order to remain competitive in the liberalized
environment; they have to invest heavily in HRM practice. Bangladesh has a population of about
160 million and a huge work force but these workers are better termed as humans and not human
resources. So how does one develop a nations human resources? They start by investing in the
education, training and nutrition of the workforce (Hasan, 2014).
Investment in the heath sector is important issue. We need to look at the infant mortality etc
rates to ensure that we have a healthy workforce because it is the human resources which fuels
economic growth. Some like Beximco have started recognizing the importance of proper
nutrition to an effective work force. They have their own farms and orchards from where they
feed their workers the best quality food and make sure that the working environment is
beautifully set up with gardens etc.
As people have said health is wealth so after ensuring a healthy population, the next step is to
invest properly in the education sector. In Bangladesh there has a meteoric increase in the
number of universities but the question remains about whether they are effective educational
institutions. Bangladesh is perhaps on the right track because among the LDS, Bangladesh has
distinguished itself by promoting high levels of primary and secondary education by ensuring
gender balance. However the issue still remains at the tertiary level. Managers feels that
business graduates and especially HR graduates just have textbook knowledge hence we need to
revise the curriculum of the business programs. Hence the challenge now is to link the business
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education with the business world. Institutions need to incorporate leadership, globalization,
communication skills, critical analysis and self awareness in the business education (Garwin &
Datar, 2008).
Also we have a large number of unemployed graduates. This is happening because there needs
to be more structured and planned career development seminars and better cooperation between
university and industries. The HR departments need to seriously coordinate with the educational
institutions to set up an wider and more efficient network of alumnus so that issues such as
searching for jobs and networking becomes easier. They also need to communicate to the
universities about the gaps that they see in the performance of the graduates so that the
institutions can give the graduates competency based technical skills courses. This is only
possible once the HR departments themselves have been formally established because at present
their recruitment and selection process is very inefficient. So this means that most of the times
the companies end up attracting and hiring the wrong workers. At times the training needs are
not considered when planning training programs or the references are checked informally, and
there is a lack of long term incentives to retain employees. Organizations dont have any proper
employee reward and recognition programs and that performance appraisals are conducted using
the cheap MBO method but is still rated using functional and not behavioral metrics. Further
issues of nepotism, bribery etc shows us that the Bangladeshi institutions are yet to fully
incorporate and understand the importance of sound HR practices which would of course begin
with having properly trained managers (HR practices pick up: study, 2014).
One would think that as a developed nation USA economy depends on technical and
manufactured good but instead USA has one the strongest service sectors which is of course run
by its human resources. So both Bangladesh and USA export labor intensive goods so why is
their GDP per capita so different? This is because USA invests in its people to turn them into
highly skilled workers while Bangladeshi workers are less skilled and educated so their products
are not of that high value.
We need to consider that most of the workers are young and we have a lot of female workers.
Gender discrimination and sexual harassment are things that any female worker has to contend
with while working which significantly lowers their job performance. I have even been advised
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to flirt with them in order to be heard (Hassan, 2014). This shows that now it is important for all
to champion diversity in the workplace. At the same time we have a lot of Generation Y workers
who have different values compared to the older generation so they need to be motivated in
different ways.
According to the MD of ACI Ltd, the workers need to understand the purpose and the values of
the organization so that they are more passionate towards working and understand the the
organizations goals. He further states that, when we come to empowerment, you have to
understand the relative achievement of your team and you will have to do it based on their
performance, initiatives and compliance (Invest in human resource: analysts, 2014). Hence
developing human resources in an investment and not expenditure because companies that dont
invest in HR wont be successful in the long run. However the challenge remains about how we
can build a corporate culture if our present HR is not skilled. The answer is that most top
executives have to be hired from abroad and then they develop and educate the human resources.
Therefore the private sector has to play a greater role in educating and training the human
resources because the governments of developing nations need to invest mostly on peoples
needs first.
However Bangladesh is on the right track. This is shown by the fact that most organizations
now a have a separate HR department while about 67% of firms now provide in-house and
external training to their employees according to the Study on HR practices and Trends Survey
2014. The survey also found that, 75% of respondents said their organizations have structured
mechanisms in place to manage employee grievances and obtain feedback (HR practices pick up:
study, 2014). Now the selection process is also considering not just the technical but also the
emotional quotient of prospective employees.
Also Bangladesh has a lot of opportunities when it comes to its HR practices. Most workers
are young and ambitious and they would like to perform and develop careers as HR professionals
but the challenge is that firms are still to provide the understanding, competencies and self
confidence among HR professionals to involve themselves in the core business as an important
business partner for the line function (Mastering Management: Experts guide for Bangladesh,
2011). According to this article, Bangladesh generally has a young and ambitious but they are
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very impatient so they need proper counseling and leadership to help them concentrate first on
improving their performance and honing their competencies. Also proper work environment and
excellent leadership is also required to attract and retain employees. The main challenge is that
businesses fail to link HR practices with business success (Mastering Management: Experts
guide for Bangladesh, 2011).
Due to the effects of different external forces the emphasis now is to build human capital
which is the knowledge, education, skills and expertise of a firms employees (Dessler &
Varkkey ,2011,p. 27). Now HR managers dont just need education required to hire and fire
people, they also need the education and skill set required to look at the big picture so that they
can help in the strategic planning of the business. Hence they also need to develop new
proficiencies because in order to understand the other functional areas like finance, marketing
etc. HR graduates and personnel must understand IT and IS to develop new ways to do
transactional activities through HRIS. These will help them use evidence based HR so that they
can justify investing in HR to the board.
There are of course a lot of challenges but the area of HR is new and flourishing. Hence there
are ample opportunities for graduates to excel in this field in the future. This would require
proper planning and investment by not only the top management but the government as well. The
government itself doesnt have a ministry for HR. This needs to change to motivate even more
firms to give requisite importance to the HR practices. HR personnel should be seen as strategic
planners, should be empowered and should be given proper compensation. The other factors that
require structural changes are education, training and nutrition services. HRM education at
present is mostly text book driven and based on industrial management. The HR professionals
themselves need to take measures to upgrade themselves and have to be able to demonstrate the
bottom line benefits of modern HR practices (Mahmud, Tarannum & Chowdhury, 2014). Within
the next decade the job prospects of HR graduates will be bright as Bangladesh further enters the
global market which will force Bangladeshi firms to invest in and adopt modern HR practices.

REFERENCES
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Dessler, G. & Varkkey, B. ( 2011).Human Resource Management (12th Edition). India: Dorling
Kindersley licenses Pearson.
Garwin, D.A. & Datar, S.M. (2008). Business Education in the 21st Century. Retrieved
November 20, 2014, from http://www.hbs.edu/centennial/businesssummit/businesssociety/business-education-in-the-21st-century-2.html
Hasan, M.J. (2014, November 1). Transforming humans into human resources. The Financial
Express. Retrieved from http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2014/11/01/63829.
Hassan, O. (2014, March 6). Women in the Workplace: Gender -specific challenges in the
corporate world. Message posted to
https://olindahassan.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/published-women-in-the-workplace-genderspecific-challenges-in-the-corporate-world-daily-star/
HR practices pick up: study. (2014, February 2). Star Business Report. Retrieved from
http://www.thedailystar.net/hr-practices-pick-up-study-9507
Invest in human resources: analysts. (2014, February 2). Star Business Report. Retrieved from
http://www.thedailystar.net/invest-in-human-resources-analysts-9509
Mahmud, K., Tarannum, T. & Chowdhury, S.M.R (2014). Career Prospect of HRM in Least
Developed Countries: Bangladesh Perspective. International Journal of Managerial Studies
and Research (IJMSR). 2(8).30-40. Retrieved November 20, 2014, from
http://www.arcjournals.org/pdfs/ijmsr/v2-i8/5.pdf
Mastering Management: Experts guide for Bangladesh. (2011, June 20). The Daily Star.
Retrieved from http://archive.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=190670