We firmly believe in serving our employees, we also celebrate their birthdays every month and in the same ceremony we confer awards to succeeding employees like honesty award etc. We hold an annual dinner for our employees’ families.
22 MANAGER TODAY | October - November 2009
Please share with us the mission statement of your organization? Our mission is to be the hotel recognized as the leader in the industry in any aspect. We are committed to train and develop all our staff members allowing them to grow in their careers and provide services and standards which exceed guest expectations. Where does HR stand in today’s scenario? Human resource is undoubtedly the most important asset of any organization and the presence of a HR department advocates it. Developing employees’ skills and retaining them for longer period is one of the core responsibilities of HR departments. Developed countries have integrated it in their systems in a true sense. Take a look at Japan; the laid off ratio and job switch-over are very low there as they believe in advocacy and implementation of HR management and development in all fields of life. How do you see the HRM practices in Pakistan? Human Resource Management is a recent phenomenon in Pakistan. Since the advent of multinational companies, its importance has got recognition here. Earlier, there was a culture of personnel management that was less popular among the employees. The introduction of HR concept has shown a gradual shift in the mindsets of the top management towards the acknowledgement of HR management and development in Pakistan’s corporate sector. When I went to Japan on scholarship to study this field, people back here used to ask me about it in wonderment. I used to answer them: just let 10 years pass by and you would see its significance in Pakistan’s corporate sector. The current HRM practices in Pakistan vary from one organization to another according to their modes of utilization of human resource. How do you see the future of fresh HR graduates in Pakistan? There’s always room for talented people in every field but here is a problem with our education system that’s not in line with the requirements of the practi-
cal field. There are countless educational institutions imparting HR studies. Hundreds of HR graduates are being passed out every year from these institutions but there is not enough space in market to engage them. Here we need to understand that a HR department can be run efficiently with a few employees. For instance, to manage the workforce of about 1500 employees, five to six member HR staff is sufficient for an organization. So the number of HR graduates being produced should be in line with the capacity of the workforce. I also foresee outsourcing of HR function within next five to six years in Pakistan. What is the role of top management in reshaping an organizational culture? Culture always drives from top to bottom. So if one wants change in her/his organization, top management will have to apply it first thus it’ll create a trickle down effect. It’s just like sweeping of stairs which always starts from the top Could you please tell us about HR practices in Pearl Continental? As we belong to hotel industry, here the role of HRM, HRD becomes very challenging and it requires diligent trainings, check and balance and wellbeing of the employees. I make it sure that our staff and services remain on top so for that reason, we keep holding various training sessions every other day in the hotel’s premises. There is an English language learning class for those who are poor in spoken English, training on how to receive the guest, how to handle the luggage at the security check point etc. We also hold a monthly campaign in accordance with the hottest issue of the month. For instance, the very next day after attacks on Taj hotel in Mumbai, I arranged a training session for our employees on how to handle such situations. As we firmly believe in serving our employees, we also celebrate their birthdays every month and in the same ceremony we confer awards to succeeding employees like honesty award etc. We hold an annual dinner for our employees’ families. We encourage them to grow and excel in their relevant area of service.