Over the decades, human resource (HR) management has evolved to become one of the keys to maximising both employee productivity and company profits. For small businesses and large corporate houses alike, human resources management can be helpful for much more than simply processing pay checks or the listing of vacant positions. Human resource management plays an essential role in developing a company’s strategy as well as handling the employee-centred activities of any organisation. Today, HR works as a resource multiplier of any company by channelling its focus on its greatest resource—its employees. Without good employees, after all, business plans and ideas are bound to fail.

With Nepal now moving in step with the rest of the world, HR has become a buzz word among local businesses as well. If once HR departments were few and far in between, they are now a mainstay in most big organisations and slowly expanding to medium-scale or smaller businesses. With the scope and demand for HR growing in the country, like-minded

HR professionals banded together to form the Human Resources Society Nepal (HRSN) in 2013 in order to create a forum where professionals could share ideas, knowledge, experiences, issues and cooperate with each other to strengthen the HR profession and practices in the country.

Along with promoting awareness about the significance of HR management in the Nepali context and assisting HR professional to enhance their competence, HRSN also hosts an annual conference that brings together HR professionals from various Nepali organisations. This year the fifth iteration of the National HR Conference is set to held at the Hyatt Regency on August 28. With both home-grown and international speakers, the event will feature Prithvi Shergill, chief human resources officer of HCL Technologies in India, Tshering Lama, country director of Child Reach Nepal, Bina Rana, HR head at Standard Chartered Bank, Shekhar Golchha, the executive director of HH Bajaj and Rupak Mohammed Zaidi, member of the HR Society Bangladesh as panellists and speakers. To discuss the upcoming HR conference, six members of the HR Society Nepal—Kumar Joshi, Mohan Ojha, Shailendra Raj Giri, Tanka Bhattarai, Madhu Paudel and Amit Sharma came together for a panel discussion regarding this year’s theme for the conference—‘Employee Care.’

Speaking during the discussion, Kumar Joshi, President of the HR Society Nepal informed, “This is the fifth iteration of conference and for the past four years, the HR scenario has been on the gradual upswing.” He added, “HR is still very new concept in our country and till date not many organisations have a HR department—many organisations who attended previous conferences didn’t even realise why HR management mattered or existed.” Adding to the conversation, Tanka Bhattarai mentioned, “HR issues can no longer be ignored. In fact, it has become essential to bring proper rules and regulations in the country for the welfare of all employees.” According to Bhattarai, it is the organisation’s duty to ensure that employees have a healthy work-life balance.

“The reason we have chosen both home-grown and international speakers is we want Nepali organisations to learn real-life experiences from these experts,” Mohan Ojha, one of the vice

presidents of the HR Society informed. According to him, the speakers will be speaking on the various facets of employee care—like appraisal, flexible timings, social problems, health insurance and leaves.  

“Last year, we Nepalis had a difficult time during the earthquake and it was near to impossible to help all employees at once—this left a huge imprint on HR professionals and it gave birth to the notion that all organisations need to have proper protocols for disaster management. That was the theme of our last conference and I am glad that it was a good beginning to work on something we had never thought of before,” said Shailendra Raj Giri, vice president of the society. “This year we want to shift the focus to taking care of employees in the best way possible and with international HR speakers in the panel, it is for sure that the attendees at the conference will have something help resources to take away at the end of the day,” Giri added.

“As an employer it is extremely important to take care of the needs of employees because nowadays salary and perks doesn’t matter, it’s about the employee’s state of mind and their satisfaction level that needs to be given more importance,” Amit Sharma asserted. “Its mind over matter—an employee needs to feel safe and protected by their employers.”

“Honestly speaking, these days there are so many organisations looking for a perfect candidate and at times it becomes a challenge to find such talented people because of the high retention rates. HR department has to cater to the needs of every employee and understand the psychological state of mind. While adapting to global practices, it is essential for every HR professional to understand that ‘Employees comes first and then the customers’,” Madhu Paudel said during the discussion. He further added that if organisations don’t prioritise employees first then they can never satisfy their customers.

All panellists expressed their excitement over the forthcoming conference and hope that in the end it will be conferences and the collaborations between HR professional that will really help foster the sector in Nepal. If you or your organisation is interested in being part of the conference, you can register at the society’s website or the event page on Facebook. The event will be held on Aug 28 at the Hyatt Regency in Boudha.