Human Resource Consulting industry transpired from management consulting to address concerns in HR management. In the Philippines, HR Consulting,  whether external (Executive Search partners) or internal (HR team), needs to focus on the challenges with respect to People Management, Globalization, Market Growth Trends, and Government Regulations.

When discussing HR Consulting or HR management, the first thing that comes to mind is people or talent management. This entails the creation of strategies pertaining to selection/recruitment, development, retention, and recognition/reward of employees. Talent or human capital should not be seen as an expense but as an investment. Talent Management Strategies plays an essential part in the overall success of any business strategy.

•  Workforce Diversity

Talent management, specifically recruitment initiatives promote diversity in the workplace and should be one of the key priorities as this may lead to increase in productivity. The challenge for organizations is to manage employees from different age groups, gender preference, religious beliefs, and race, and to have them work cohesively and productively. Mentoring programs, team building sessions, and feedback systems can help address workplace diversity. While an increase in workforce diversity is quite evident with most multinational and global companies, locally in the Philippine market, there are still biases when it comes to these preferences.

• Skills Enhancement

People management should also highlight developmental initiatives by engaging their team in different trainings that would enhance skills and possibly, hone potential leaders in the company. However, it’s not only in skills enhancement that management should focus on. It should be on the wholistic development of each individual on a professional and personal level. Most of the time, employees who feel cared for by the employers have a sense of security making them stay and work productively in their respective companies. On the other hand, those who feel that their needs are neglected are likely to resign and seek new opportunities elsewhere. To address these situations, management should keep an open and transparent line of communication between them and their employees.

• Employee Retention

With the intention of keeping up with the global trends in the expansion of businesses, executives need to prioritize how to keep their valuable and high performing employees while keeping their expenses low. This is where retention strategies would come into play. Some companies look into expanded benefits, incentives, and succession planning as retention strategies. However, each of these can be costly especially for those who are affected by the global crisis. For these companies, they end up resorting to outsourcing talents for specific functions while ensuring that critical employees remain in-house.

These challenges in human resource management will continue in the coming years with the ever-changing market. Addressing these situations now will yield a better outcome for businesses. Management needs to remember that talent or employees, whether internal or external, play an important role in achieving overall business goals.

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