Dear Editor,
I refer to Mr Emile Mervin’s letter in Kaieteur News (January 30) re ‘Government sapping the spirit of entrepreneurship by “headhunting” private employees’ which was in connection with mine of the previous day on the topic of poaching versus competitive recruiting.
Mr Mervin’s long letter focused on government, under both the present and previous administrations, reportedly creating unfair playing fields by using taxpayers’ money to favour some investors, be they private or private-public entities. Mr Mervin might be pleased to know that I can also relate to these concerns and did in fact mention them in my aforementioned letter. However, although I did refer to them as “another can of worms” that was not the prime focus of my submission. I respectfully ask Mr Mervin and your readers to re-read my letter.
The focus of my humble letter was on the inalienable right of any employer to offer competitive compensation packages to prospective employees, providing such offers are not inconsistent with the laws of the land and are mindful of undue distortions or disregard of internal compensation relativities which can create morale issues and costly staff turnover among existing good and wanted employees for any such short-sighted employer. It is also wise to look at these issues from the employees’ perspective; they are the ones to decide if the offers being made via headhunting are sustainable over the long run and if the proverbial ‘bird in the hand’ is worth gambling with for the unknown, untested new employer. This is where the competence, smarts and pro-activity of the human resource professionals in the existing firms being poached must step in with appropriate counselling initiatives.
Headhunting is only one of many allowable recruitment practices; admittedly, it is relatively new, but it is being widely practised by employers throughout the free democratic world, often at great cost, especially with the advent of the concept of ‘knowledge workers’ who are more interested in career progression than the erstwhile ‘loyalty’ to the current employer, as well as headhunting firms since globalization facilitated extensive movement of skilled people across local and overseas firms.
Mr Mervin wondered about my “area of professional expertise.” At the risk of appearing boastful but in defence of my well-honed qualifications and competence on the matters on which I have been writing in the local media, I am pleased to underscore my Masters degree in Human Resource Management & Employee Relations from London University plus FCIPD (Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development of the UK). My professional work experience in Human Resource Management, Industrial Relations and Organization Development extend over 40 progressively responsible years in the private, public and international arenas in Guyana, Canada and United Nations in numerous countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and USA from Professional Officer, to Director and Consultant levels.
Yours faithfully,
Nowrang Persaud
