Maldivian HR: Is HR bumpy in the flattest country

Sundays are considered as working days in Maldives. But that isn't one of the existing HR challenges in Maldives.

The blue ocean pictures itself in your mind, every time you hear the country's name. Maldives, like no other region, has gathered cultural influences - from places all over the world, creating a cultural identity of their very own.

How vibrant must Maldivian workplaces look? What must be the enduring challenges that these workplaces face?

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Top HR challenges in Maldives

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1. Struggles of workforce management

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Even today, some organizations do not have functional HR processes for day-to-day people management, leave and absenteeism, or even clearly defined HR reporting. Effective workforce management is achieved when you manage your employee's schedules and performed tasks in a streamline manner.

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Time and attendance management

The core problems concerning time & attendance management (in any organization) generally arise from paper-based tracking. Instead of having your HR staff manually calculate and update attendance, your attendance management system must track and display the records, making past and current records visible to both the employees and upper management.

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Leave management

The mainstay of traditional, out-dated leave management process was either email or spreadsheets. When you asses an employee's leave request, you are inclined to look for the no. of previous leaves, or availability of other team members. Without structured past leave reports, your leave policy may grow inefficient.

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2. High employee turnover

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The difficulty lies not so much in hiring new employees but in retaining the old ones. The reason we often hear negatively about an employee turnover is because it comes with a price. Let's face it, it is much cheaper to retain your employees than to train new ones. A high turnover rate also suggests low engagement and motivation.

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3. Shortage of skilled workforce

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A growing demand for skilled employees contrasts with a decreasing number of trainees. With the surge of retiring (experienced) employees, millennials will account for 75% of the global workforce by 2025. To address the lost expertise, many companies provide in-house training, learning and development sessions to their existing employees. This turns out as a great way for companies to increase their value without spending much time and money.

4. Recruiting the best candidates

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Sourcing candidates

Until your employer brand has enormous global reach, your job openings may not be on the radar of top candidates. 76% of HR managers admit that attracting and engaging top talent is their biggest recruitment challenge as per Glassdoor's Research Report 2020.

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Scanning through multiple resumes

On one hand, there's much trouble in finding qualified candidates. On the other, sorting the stockpiles of resumes & applications and selecting the best talent is an add-on. In such cases, ATS or application tracking systems are best-suited to automate resume-parsing, letting you filter out the qualified ones in rather seconds.

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5. Managing performance evaluation and reviews

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Among the other HR challenges in Maldives, setting the right performance metrics is the initial milestone that requires correct performance models. Much of your time and energy is required to set the right goals and measures to evaluate employee performance. With a streamlined system for performance evaluation, one may carry out timely feedback on how well the team members use their respective skills to achieve the goals and tasks.

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6. Blurred strategic vision

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Strategic HR role calls for taking a closer look at the bigger picture of your organization’s growth. The idea is to carry out practices that contribute directly to the long-term organizational goals. Some of the core areas needs to be focused to:

• Set and maintain competitive salaries and benefits.
• Improve recruiting strategies and retain skilled employees.
• Performance management and design of recognition system that motivates employees.
• Training and learning & development management.

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About peopleHum

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Many HR challenges in Maldives are much similar to those globally faced by every organization today. The idea is to implement the strategic HR initiatives that can be greatly optimized by automating administrative functions. The brighter side of it lies in gaining actionable insights and analytics on the core HR functions.

The winner of Global Codie Awards 2019, peopleHum, is a one-view integrated HR software that takes care of your organization's needs from Hire to Retire. Benefit from smart insights and analytics on your recruitment, people and performance management, and so much more.