The Hindu Business Line : New initiative to identify competencies for HR jobs

Training programme
Setting up development centre to position HR managers at four levels
Participants will get developmental plan to help improve competencies
People will get opportunity to move from other functions into HR

Bangalore May 27 The supply-demand gap in the HR industry is overwhelming. The country produces around 5,000 fresh HR professionals every year.

According to industry estimates, the economy is expected to generate 80 million jobs in the next five years. Assuming that the industry needs one HR manager for every 500 people (the ideal ratio being 1:200), there would be a shortfall of more than one lakh professionals in the area.

"We realised that this kind of demand would lead to dilution of talent. People from other functional areas would start moving into HR, without actually possessing the competencies required," says Dr Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Chief People Officer, Cambridge Solutions and the President of the National HRD Network, Bangalore.

To bridge the numbers and the competency gap among HR professionals, NHRD along with CII and XLRI has embarked on a unique initiative to identify competencies required for the profession and also help people develop them. NHRD and CII have worked on a framework of competencies required for a HR manager. They have now partnered with XLRI, Jamshedpur, to start a development centre based on the framework. HR professionals will be assessed based on four competency types: functional, behavioural, technical and generic.

"This is a unique initiative where a professional body, the industry and an academic institution have come together to find a solution to the talent problem," says Dr Bandyopadhyay.

The development centre will position HR managers at four levels: basic, competent, advanced and expert. The process, however, does not end with the assessment. Participants will also get an HR developmental plan to help improve their competencies. "We'll be able to map their career growth and tell them how to move up in the field," says Dr Bandyopadhyay.

This will give people an opportunity to move from other functions into HR, he adds, thus easing the pressure on demand for professionally qualified HR managers. The first batch of 12 assessors (senior HR managers) have been trained and certified by XLRI. "These 12 will now help in reaching out to about four more in each region and by next year we will have about 100 assessors who will go into the field and start certifying HR professionals across industries and sectors," says Dr Bandyopadhyay.

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