HR transformation a must for national development
The 5th BSHRM-Metlife International HR Conference took place on Friday, March 11, 2016 at the Bangabandhu International Convention. The theme for this year's conference was “HR Transformation for National Development”. Business leaders from Bangladesh and CEOs of leading local and multinational companies came together to discuss a wide range of current HR practices and change processes. HR professionals from various levels attended the day-long conference.
In the words of Md. Mushrarrof Hossain, President of Bangladesh Society for Human Resource Management (BSHRM) and Asia Pacific Federation of Human Resource Management (APFHRM), "The concept of people management has significantly changed due to global competition in business. Change is occurring every day in the organisation to meet customer demands and growth of the organisation and it is only possible by the competent people in the organisation." Transforming HR is one of the major challenges facing all countries when technology and IT is changing so rapidly.
The conference took off with the Address of Welcome by Conference Chair Md. Mashequr Rahman Khan, Life Fellow & Treasurer at BSHRM. This was followed by speeches by the Special Guest, Md. Nurul Islam, Regional Senior Vice President of MetLife; the Secretary General of APFHRM and CEO of the Australian HR Institute, Lyn Goodear; Md. Musharrof Hossain; and the Chief Guest, H. E. Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat, U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh.
Md. Musharrof Hossain and Lyn Goodear initiated the sessions with their keynote presentation on the national and global perspectives of HR transformation for national development. This was followed by the first panel discussion of the day on Industry-Academia Collaboration for HR Transformation in Bangladesh, chaired by Professor Dr. A. K. M. Saiful Majid, Director, IBA, University of Dhaka.
The second panel discussion was on the subject of Sharing Global Best Practices for HR Transformation. Chaired by Zahirul Alam, Chief News Editor of NTV, the panel was composed of members of the foreign delegations of Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Thailand. The third and final session of the day was a knowledge sharing session led by Lyanne Nathaniel, Product Head, Retail & Client Services of Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) India.
The conference came to an end with the introduction and launch of the SHRM-Certified Professional (CP) and SHRM-Senior Certified Professional (SCP) certifications in Bangladesh, and the Vote of Thanks by Razia Sultana Luna, Vice President of BSHRM.