HR’s Role in Transitioning Countries (Guest Post)

Today’s guest post comes to us from Edita Isufi a future HR Leader and a student in Steve Boese’s HR Technology Class.

I came to the United States all the way from Kosovo, the youngest European country that is still struggling to find its identity in Europe.  Right after its independence, three years ago, it was referred to as the “United State’s 53rd state” because of the close political relationship we had built with them during the war.

Now, three years later, Kosovo still lacks economic stability and social welfare as well as employment opportunities. If you really think of these sensitive issues that are essential for national development you get lost within them and forget about HR and human capital that directly contribute to the problem.

So, before coming to United States I came across an article that talked about how HR professionals must become strategic partners in organizational decision making.  For a second I remember asking myself: Ok, but what about HR? Do we really have one?

I was so isolated hearing about all those political and economic problems that I couldn’t really find the logic behind the role of HR in all this. Hence, I wanted to explore and learn more about what HR can do to develop talent and how the right talent that meets organizational goals can be found.
This is exactly one of the reasons why I decided to pursue my master’s degree In Human Resource Development in the United States.

Before I go further, here are a couple of “reasons” why organizations ignore the importance of HR in Kosovo:

• High unemployment rate (around 60%) make organizations consider the right talent for granted because there is always more demand for jobs than supply.
• HR does nothing else except for hiring, firing and payroll so why spend money for an HR department when we can have the management itself do that function when there is a need for talent.
• We still have to focus on issue like economic instability and inflation hence HR is not a priority.

There are many organizations in Kosovo that believe in HR and its future as strategic partner. However, few of them have sort of a general idea of what a strategic partner really means; yet few know about the selection, development and retention programs without even mentioning succession planning. I have to admit, succession planning was a totally new term for me too. ☺
And I know it sounds like I am making a comparison between United States and Kosovo and it would be stupid if I did. However, I know that that’s what the organizations worldwide are striving for and it’s all about human capital. Well, guess what, Kosovo will have to start thinking about it too because nothing and none is going to wait or care if it can make it to compete globally or not.

At the end of this year, I will be leaving United States for good and I know that I am transferring valuable knowledge with me. What really frightens me, if that’s the right word to use, is if I can apply what I have learned about HR to my workplace too.  As far as I know, there are few or no HR professionals back there and if you don’t have people to work on HR development then it will be tough to go on this journey alone.

So, where do I start? Where do all people like me start? Can social media make a change in the way people think about HR? Do we have to send more students abroad to learn about HR? How do I get to convince organizations that HR really matters and that after all it’s the human capital that leads to economic growth?