We just hosted our 7th seminar at the Myanmar Chamber of Commerce and the topic this round was on employment contracts and Human Resource management. Many businesses that have ventured into Myanmar (as well as the ones that are already in Myanmar) will agree that scarcity of human capital in Myanmar pose of the greatest operation challenges.
Talent is hard to find, but it's even harder to keep. That's true of talent-retention anywhere but this phenomenon is even more acute in Myanmar.
With the exploding choices of employment opportunities (resulting from a high influx of foreign investments) and increasing salaries (owing to the high competition for a small talent pool), the turnover figures has been high. Ironically/strangely, HR is one of the job functions with the highest attrition rates (the rate of people leaving an organization over a fixed period of time, generally over a year).
How are organizations to develop and implement staff-retention strategies when the very caretakers of this function are not being retained?
Surprisingly, however, the survey results highlighted by one of the presenters show that Myanmar has one of the lowest attrition rates in the region. This, I believe is because organizations in Myanmar are undergoing rapid growth. When an organization is constantly increasing its headcount, the number of people leaving becomes less significant in comparison.
Yet, a lower attrition does not necessarily mean higher productivity. In the scenario highlighted above where resignations are surpassed by sign-ons, it creates a larger strain on the organization in terms of HRM, because new people need time and resources to get onboard, be orientated and the more new hires there are, the higher the cost on the organization.
On the level of organizations, high turnovers are counterproductive. On the national level? Perhaps such competition in the employment market will increase the earning power of Myanmar residents, and raise to a higher level --to one that people deserve --when the salaries finally reach an equilibrium/stabilization.
Talent is hard to find, but it's even harder to keep. That's true of talent-retention anywhere but this phenomenon is even more acute in Myanmar.
With the exploding choices of employment opportunities (resulting from a high influx of foreign investments) and increasing salaries (owing to the high competition for a small talent pool), the turnover figures has been high. Ironically/strangely, HR is one of the job functions with the highest attrition rates (the rate of people leaving an organization over a fixed period of time, generally over a year).
How are organizations to develop and implement staff-retention strategies when the very caretakers of this function are not being retained?
Surprisingly, however, the survey results highlighted by one of the presenters show that Myanmar has one of the lowest attrition rates in the region. This, I believe is because organizations in Myanmar are undergoing rapid growth. When an organization is constantly increasing its headcount, the number of people leaving becomes less significant in comparison.
Yet, a lower attrition does not necessarily mean higher productivity. In the scenario highlighted above where resignations are surpassed by sign-ons, it creates a larger strain on the organization in terms of HRM, because new people need time and resources to get onboard, be orientated and the more new hires there are, the higher the cost on the organization.
On the level of organizations, high turnovers are counterproductive. On the national level? Perhaps such competition in the employment market will increase the earning power of Myanmar residents, and raise to a higher level --to one that people deserve --when the salaries finally reach an equilibrium/stabilization.
