Hanoi (VNA) -The retail sector faces a high rate of employee turnover, hampering firms’long-term development, argues a recent report by Navigos Group, the country’sleading human resources recruiter.

According to the report by Navigos Group, 28 percent of retail industry hirerssaid that their employees did not make long-term commitments and 49 percentsaid that their employees often changed jobs. In addition, candidates in theindustry often leave their positions when rival companies in the industryinvite them to work.

Sixty percent of respondents said that the average employee works at theircompany for only two or three years.

Nguyen Phuong Mai, managing director of Navigos Search under Navigos Group,said that companies seeking to build an effective culture must identify thecore values of the business and build from there. Ensuring company-wideawareness of values, however, can be difficult if employees are transient.

“In order to minimise the job shift rate, companies need to focus on twofactors: developing a leadership team with human management skills andregularly providing training courses to develop human resources,” she added.

According to Diep Dung, chairman of the management board of the Saigon Union ofTrading Cooperatives (Saigon Co.op), the company’s development strategy for thenext few years seeks to maintain its role as one of the leading domesticretailers while it expands into new markets. The company says its employeeswill play a critical role in implementing the strategy.

“To achieve this goal, Saigon Co.op will focus on five solutions based on oneof the fundamental foundations, which is management teams and human resources,”he said.

Saigon Co.op has diversified its organisation and focused on training anddeveloping its management teams and human resources, viewing this as a way topromote business performance and stable development.

Not only the retail sector, but many other industries and sectors in Vietnam alsoface difficulties in human resource management in the digital age, according toBui Thy Huong, human resources director at Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) Vietnam.

As technology develops rapidly, the traditional hiring processes may no longerbe sufficient to help companies identify future leaders.

“Therefore, human resource management strategies must be flexible to takeadvantage of technological change,” Huong said.

Debanjan Sen, human resources director at Deloitte Singapore, stressed thatthose applying high technology to human resources management have low rates ofjob resignations.

For example, while HP Inc’s rate of job resignation was 10 percent, the ratewas 20 percent in other companies in the same industry, said Debanjan Sen.-VNA