Public sector urged to target talented human resources
Scientific Association for Human Resource Development vice chairman Le Van Cuong spoke to the newspaper Dai doan ket (Great Unity) on how to attract talent to key positions.
Many workshops have been held on human resource development, yet there remains a gap between supply and demand. Why?
It's true. Though the workshops have not brought about a big change in the training of high quality human resources, they have helped raise awareness of the need to improve human resource development in our country. Also, youths benefit from information released after the workshops.
However, what we want is far from what we get, despite our efforts to encourage learning to create good human resources.
There are various reasons, including the lack of due attention from senior policy makers. Many important or strategic decisions are developed by experts and then forwarded to their bosses and finally to the vice minister or minister for approval. However, for human resource development, we have to treat it in a special way. Up to now we have only identified good staff working in government offices while many talented people working outside are ignored. It is time for us to adopt a policy on "head hunting".
Have we adopted policies and mechanisms to attract or foster talented people?
Yes, but how do they work in reality. We can't treat them as we do other people. For example, the salary of professors in our country is very low – not really enough for them to live on. However, the quality of professors and PhDs in our country needs further discussion. What must be done now is to revise the salaries for people who have been awarded noble titles or people who have special talents.
The "brain drain" has caused problems for many government offices. Do you think talent is being properly acknowledged?
Most people who leave government offices are engineers, architects or people with high skills. They leave for different reasons, salary is only one of them. The reason of most concern is conflict with the boss.
What should we do to attract talented people?
We are not short of money to invest in human resource development. The most important thing is what areas we should we invest in to meet the needs of society. Senior officials should adopt the practice of active listening. They should listen to what the scientists and people say before making any decisions regarding investments. This is a national policy of great importance. — VNS