Need govt support to reach smaller cities: SHRM India

Official says education and certification are important areas where govt can support

Calling for urgent reforms in labour policies and other aspects of job market, the Indian unit of US-based Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) says it needs support and active participation of the government to help create jobs for masses in remote areas.

"We cannot reach out to one billion people on our own. To reach them, we need to collaborate with local HR associations and the government needs to support the effort," Achal Khanna CEO, SHRM India, told PTI.

When asked what SHRM India can do to support the Indian government, Khanna said: "Leveraging our global experience, we can work with the Ministry of HRD to share our knowledge and experience with them in regard to labour policy, the correct HR policy for public sector companies and for the reforms..."

Talking about measures required to help the industry grow, she said: "Help from the government is needed in many areas to promote HR. Education and certification are the important areas where government can support.

"Certification with proper accreditation is important for this sector and the government can provide sops to help get world class certification for HR professionals in India."

There are not many high quality formal HR institutes in the country, while there is a huge need for top quality education in HR, said Khanna, who was here for the recently held Annual Conference of SHRM.

She further said there is a general perception that if an employee is not very good they should be put in HR department.

"This perception needs to be changed as HR plays a very critical role in an organisation and therefore should be manned with the best talent," Khanna said.

Stressing the need for companies to improve their HR department, the SHRM India head said, firms need to invest in HR because if that is weak then the company will lose out.

HR plays a very important role in the success of an organisation as it is responsible for hiring, retaining and developing the talent. Hence, it is HR which needs to have a key voice on the table, she said.

"All successful India and global companies have strong HR. Mostly small and medium size companies are struggling and we need to help these SME's develop sound HR departments to help them grow," Khanna noted.

When asked how can SHRM help Indian companies, she said SHRM supports local companies through certification, professional development programmes, forums, HR conferences in India, advisory support among others.

SHRM India works closely with some of the best HR talent in the country and leverages SHRM's global knowledge and competence to provide cutting edge support in HR to the domestic companies both in private and in public sector.

"We spend around $40-50 million (a year) on the back- end research of HR to understand what is best for the sector," she said.