Human resource development (HRD) practices in local vs foreign companies in South Africa: is there a difference?

Abstract

People have become the most critical competitive asset of companies. With a growing scarcity of talent worldwide, companies are struggling to fill posts with suitably qualified employees. A key component is the development of employees through human resource development (HRD) interventions. The purpose of this study was to determine whether differences in this area exists between local and foreign companies operating in South Africa, as companies in developed countries appear to be more successful in this regard. Survey responses were gathered from 61 local and 57 foreign companies with more than 200 employees. From the findings it appears that foreign companies are more involved in having a written mission statement, business and HRM strategy, while numerous career development practices and performance appraisal data are used when employee career moves are considered. Foreign companies also use specific techniques to evaluate their training effort, and appear to have a lower staff turnover, while the percentage of their operating costs, accounted for by labour costs on average, appears to be much lower than for local companies.