VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese enterprises, which have been bent with the high tax, capital shortage, high interest rate and market fluctuation burdens, now face a serious human resource crisis.

The workforce is profuse, but businesses still lack workers

The latest report by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) showed that by the end of 2011, Vietnam had had 623,000 businesses. Of this amount, more than 79,000 businesses have dissolved. In 2011 alone, 77,548 enterprises registered their business, while only 7611 businesses became operational. The figures showed that Vietnam’s national economy is now in a very difficult period.

Deputy Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs--Pham Minh Huan, commented at a recent workshop on human resource management that the resistance of the economy is poor because of the problems in the human resource.

Huan said that the workforce in Vietnam is now profuse, but Vietnamese enterprises do not know how to manage and use the labor force in the most effective way.

Tran Thi Yen, Head of the Personnel Division of CNC, a computing company, said that CNC is seriously lacking experienced engineers. Most of the candidates cannot satisfy the requirements of the company if they do not follow re-training courses.

Yen said that in each recruitment season, the company seeks 10 officers only, while it receives 2000 applications. Though the number of application is high, most of the candidates are new graduates who do not have much experience and cannot get adapted to the new job immediately.

“The workforce is profuse in Vietnam, but qualified workers are still lacking, which is the main reason behind the labor force crisis,” Yen noted.

Dinh Anh Huan, Director of The Gioi Di Dong Company, a high technology product distribution chain, complained that it is really very difficult to manage the human resource of the chain, especially when the company has offices in many provinces and cities.

He said that it is very difficult to find a person who has high qualification and experiences. Meanwhile, it is risky to recruit new graduates, because they still do not have working experience, while they may leave the company at any time.

Laying off workers is the choice of many enterprises in the current difficult conditions. 45 percent of the labor force at securities companies have been cut, while the figures are 31 percent in the construction sector and 22 percent in real estate.

Dismissing workers will help businesses ease difficulties?

Experts have pointed out that workers always are the crucial factor which decides the success of defeat of any businesses.

That explains why many enterprises cut down their workforce in the difficult conditions to save money; others try to employ more workers to improve their operation.

Japan is famous with the principle “job for life”. When the business declines, or enterprises use new labor-saving techniques or equipments, companies would retain long term workers, while firing temporary workers, reducing salaries and transferring workers to other divisions. This not only helps upgrade the quality of workers, but also helps maintain the production and business, and get ready to grab new business opportunities.

Ha Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of Thien Quang Fashion Company, said that the company has overcome the crisis by offering a series of solutions, including the attractive pay mechanism. Besides, the company organizes training courses and creates a good environment for workers to get promotion. Therefore, the company still can stand firmly in the crisis and effectively attract workers, while other companies are facing big challenges.

Bao Han