Australian HR Courses Better: Batiweti
Australian human resource courses should be the avenue to follow for formal human resource qualification. This was highlighted by the Fiji Human Resources Institute president Kameli Batiweti said during a CEOs Breakfast Briefing at The Fiji Orchid in Saweni, Lautoka on Wednesday.
“Australian qualifications are the way to go in terms of human resource as they have set a standard,” Mr Batiweti said.
“I cannot comment on how the universities in Fiji are providing their degrees in human resources but I think Australian qualifications are the way to go.”
He said the FHRI managed to attain courses for local human resource personnel which would have seen them pass with Australian standard certification.
“We started off with change management but this was being pulled back a bit because it is a bit expensive.
“The other was HR Matrix which included collecting, analysing and interpreting the data for business decisions.
“There are eight modules altogether for the training but we got stopped by the Fiji Higher Education Commission.” He said the reason for this was that FHRI was not a registered training institution.
“It has taken us a couple of years to convince the FHEC to come onboard.” Mr Batiweti said most workers do not have medical insurance or any type of insurance. He said this could have an impact on any employee especially when it comes to major health issues.
“Workers should strive to get health insurance as this would see them perform better in the workplace.
“It costs around $50,000 to have a kidney transplant in India with a 94 per cent success rate. I can’t afford to pay $50,000 from my pocket if I needed to have that operation. “But thanks to insurance I have peace of mind and can focus on my work as an employee of the company.” Human resource positions best suited women because it was regarded as a soft skill job. FMF Foods CEO Ram Bajekal made the comments at the event.
“Most of them would not want to get into areas like engineering.
“You will find most of them gravitating towards basic humanities and that is one of the reasons why women chose HR work.” Mr Bajekal then related how one of their former HR managers who started work and carried out a climate survey of all the company’s factories.
“In a few days she assessed the climate of the organisations.
“The people were so comfortable with her sharing the exact organisational climate.” Meanwhile, he said organisations who poached workers from FMF Foods should know they do not have to go beyond the first offer.
“In our company we do two things, if somebody comes to me with an offer, we never ever make a counter offer to keep that person. “All we do is wish them well.”
Mr Bajekal said the second that FMF Foods did not do was take someone, who had left the organisation to join another company, back immediately.
“We tell them this is not a bus shelter. “But if that person comes back three or four years later with more skills for a higher position, I will welcome you with a red carpet.”