VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese businesses must develop long-term strategies for developing their human resources in order to compete in the international market, speakers at a seminar held in HCM City said on Sunday.

Trainees learn how to operate industrial knitting machines at Ha Noi City's Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Department. Developing human resources to compete in the global market is a strategy that businesses have been advised to follow. (Photo: VNS)

Viet Nam's workforce still has many limitations including a largely unqualified workforce and continued labour shortage.

"High-quality human resources is one of the decisive factors affecting the country's socio-economic development, and Viet Nam must learn about proper training in the near future in order to achieve essential breakthroughs," Hang said.

Co-organised by the Viet Nam Education Consultancy (EduViet), the Viet Nam Youth Entrepreneurs' Association, HrLink.vn and the Chief People's Officer Club, the seminar was part of Viet Nam Human Resources Day 2011.

Economists, researchers and human resource managers attended the seminar, which aimed to raise awareness about the lack of high-quality human resources in Vietnamese businesses.

Le Phuoc Vu, chairman of Hoa Sen Corporation, also agreed that severe competition from the market and other rivals required that companies have a high- quality workforce to increase their competitiveness.

Lu Thanh Long, chairman of MISA Software Company, said human resource policies should be changed frequently depending on the business environment.

Managers need to offer favourable policies to their staff, especially in an economic crisis, to help them improve and be more productive.

Companies should build an internal training system to retrain human resources so they can meet job requirements quickly.

On the other hand, employees should be aware of the skills that are needed in certain jobs.

Van Duc Muoi, chairman of Vissan Group, said: "Business-system restructuring must be based on human-resource restructuring, and the company had to ensure there was no manpower shortage and organise training a high-quality workforce.

Many participants suggested ways of solving the shortage of high-quality human resources by improving training at schools and universities, and promoting the involvement of businesses.

They said it was necessary to devise a transparent policy on salaries and bonuses to attract the best talent.

The participants also suggested that businesses improve the working environment to include competent managers, transparent human resources, competitive remuneration and more opportunities for promotion.

They should also create a fair working environment to allow employees to be creative in their work.

Represenatives of Unilever Viet Nam and Traphaco Pharmaceutical Co said employees needed uninterrupted training during various periods to adapt to the international market, as the world was changing every day.

Traphaco has spent billions of dong to train staff every year in order to follow industry trends, the chairman of the company Vu Thi Thuan said.

Although Vietnamese workers are acknowledged to be hard-working and trainable, many businesses are still not pleased with the training quality of education units in Viet Nam.

As a result of poor training, enterprises have to spend money retraining their employees.

However, workers often move to another job if possible, taking skills and investment from the former business. This situation discourages company from investment in retraining prog-rammes.

Le Quan, chairman of EduViet Corporation, said the link between schools and businesses was too weak.

Only 3 per cent of businesses co-operate on training programmes with Vietnamese universities, according to a survey on the quality of human resources, jointly conducted by EduViet Corporation, the Viet Nam Young Business Association and VinaTest, an independent test organisation.

"Schools are still not good at focusing on practical career paths, and giving students the skills they need for their future. High marks do not necessarily mean that a student is ready for the workforce," he said.

The results of the survey also suggested that low salaries in Viet Nam had led to low productivity from the Vietnamese workforce.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News