Human Resources management has seen its stock rise exponentially in Nepali organisations in the past decade. From instilling professional working culture, catalysing productivity and playing a crucial role in employee retention, HR departments have evolved to become crucial cogs in most organisation today. While Nepali corporate houses continue to play catch up with global best practices, the HR Society Nepal has been working towards spreading awareness regarding the importance of having a strong HR department as the one of the foundations for success and productivity. One way the organisation has been doing this is through its annual HR conference, the sixth iteration of which was held in the Capital last week.

This edition of the HR Conference was themed, ‘HR for tomorrow trends and transformation’ and saw both international and national speakers delve into how the way human resource is managed in an organisation has been evolving and will continue to do so in the coming years.

The keynote speakers of the event were Colvyn Harris, founder of Harris-Mint, Sandeep Bidani, founder and partner of Cognitiv and Positive Momentum and Karmath Dangol, VP of Engineering at Cloud Factory.

Colvyn Harris, who spoke on the ‘Emerging Trends of Employer Branding’ in his keynote speech said, “Just as brands have the power to engage consumers and make them feel emotionally attached, so do the brands of employers work towards keeping employee engagement levels high. This will help retain employees and make the employer highly relevant and irreplaceable to them.”

Another keynote speaker Sandeep Bidani shared his experiences on how to address HR challenges to stay relevant in today’s evolving context. Earmarking innovation as the key to staying relevant, Bidani said, “Innovation cannot be fostered in an environment where there is fear or shame in failure.  If it creates insecurity or impacts people financially, they will stop trying new things. So in order to be creative, a company needs to remove the stigma of failure and realise that failure is an important stepping stone towards eventual successes.” 

Similarly, Karmath Dangol spoke about the working culture in Nepal and how it might evolve in the coming years.

One of the participants Sagar Prasai, project coordinator of Employment Creation for People with Disabilities, shared, “The event has offered us networking opportunities which we will utilise in exploring suitable jobs for people living with disabilities. Events like these are really helpful in helping those from the Nepali corporate sector to think out of the box and learn about the best practices from around the world. Of course, the networking opportunity is also a big plus.”

The event saw more than 250 participants representing different sectors such as I/NGOs, banks and policy advocates, among others partake in a day full of talks, workshops and networking clusters. The event was held at Soaltee Crowne Plaza, Kathmandu.