Professor Francois Railliet.
Doha: The field of Human Resources Management has evolved across the globe in recent decades. It has transformed from serving as a personnel administration mechanism, assisting companies and governments in basic human resources management tasks such as payroll and personnel administration, into a more strategic role.
This still includes Personnel Administration but extends well beyond to focus on elements such as Employee Motivation and Engagement, Talent Management and Development, Performance Management and Total Rewards, Organizational Culture or Change Management. More recent additions include Digitalization of HR & organizations, as well as managing new generations and innovation in the workplace.
The same approach applies in this region and since I have been visiting Qatar to lecture and advise participants of the HEC Paris executive degree programs, it is apparent that Human Resources (HR) Management is truly considered as strategic by most participants of these programs and a subject of both operational and research interest. Furthermore, Qatarization is given specific attention as part of strategic Human Resources Management in the country.
Overall, given the right attention and focus, a strategic Human Resources Management approach is needed to attract, retain and develop engaged employees in an organization, and to connect such development with the strategies of an organization.
As a result, the role of the HR function is evolving from administrative and transactional duties to become a business leadership role, which requires expertise in people and organization.
Based on my interactions with degree participants or Qatari Executives sharing their organizational experience and testimony, I have noticed the same evolution in Qatar, primarily in private and semi-governmental sectors, but also in government.
It is noticeable that more and more professionals are focusing on leadership and human resources when continuing their learning journeys. As part of HEC Paris in Qatar Specialized Master’s curriculum, we are witnessing a sustained increase in the number of submissions focusing on leadership and HR-related topics and the areas of interest reflect the current interests and concerns in Qatar, which will bring significant benefit to the country’s research development.
One of those key areas of interest is Qatarization. There are both challenges and opportunities for Qatarization. The challenges include attracting, retaining and engaging the right talent for specific roles.
However, the numerous opportunities range for accelerating time to leadership positions, developing international experience for Qataris and the capacity to gain a deep understanding of leadership requirements while still at university or in the early stages of a career.
Those HR professionals who are able to adopt the best practices in this complex area are sure to succeed both professionally and in their contribution to the country’s development.
Similarly, the topic of Women in the Workforce presents challenges and opportunities and adopting a strategic HR approach to developing women, in particular Qatari women, as leaders, and addressing gender pay gaps, support for working mothers, or developing women as entrepreneurs.
Effective attraction and retention strategies have always been important but are becoming increasingly more important in today’s competitive marketplace. Having the ability to identify modern-day retention drivers, such as work environment and rewards, and the techniques for the management of Millennials are now critical to successful strategic HR management.
Furthermore, other key element of modern-day successful HR management are Employee satisfaction, motivation, engagement, and work-life balance, namely the assessment of links between those human factors, and how they contribute to performance and value creation, in particular in the areas of customer satisfaction and the profitability of an organization.
In this region, the capability to oversee a healthy organizational culture is vital, given the multicultural demographics. How to manage and motivate a multicultural workforce while overseeing innovation and digitization and links behind work culture and employee engagement is a key area of interest and participant studies in this field will enhance HR capability in Qatar.
A new topic of interest that has emerged in this region and one that requires education and expertise is the Management of an organization in a downturn, restructuring and downsizing. This requires a significant focus on employee morale, communication and engagement, as well as best practices and a leader’s role in these situations.
The aforementioned topics are popular among HEC Paris Specialized Master’s participants and HEC Paris is currently planning to publish excerpts of the best research studies, in conjunction with selected SBUM participants.
This publication, in form of a book, is aimed at contributing to the development of Leadership and Human Resources in Qatar, and at reaching the government, business and academic community in Qatar and beyond.
In view of the increasing interest in the field of Strategic Human Resources Management, critical for the future of the country, HEC Paris in Qatar launched the Human Resources (HR) Management track in the Specialized Master’s program. The HR Management track is composed of three modules and offers flexibility in how participants can leverage them in their academic and professional curricula.
The HR Management track is aimed at business and HR professionals who are interested in enhancing their competence in this field. This track, which runs for 10 seminar days, can be taken separately as an Executive Certificate.
With this new and innovative track, HEC Paris in Qatar expects to enhance its contribution to the continued development of the HR capability needed for the country’s continued development and the Qatar National Vision 2030.
Francois Railliet, an Adjunct Professor at HEC Paris and a Consultant in Management and Human Resources, has been visiting Qatar on a regular basis since 2013 where he provides teaching and advising to HEC Paris in Qatar Executive Programs participants. He is the Course Leader of the HR track of the HEC Paris Specialized Master in SBUM.
