Top 10 Wananavu HR trends in Fiji

Ni sa bula! - a customary Fijian greeting that might as well earn you a few extra smiles. A lively country in the South Pacific Ocean, Fiji is known for its Melanesian culture that is defined by a tropical climate, laid-back lifestyle and the most recent HR trends in Fiji.

With over 300 islands, Fiji’s culture is largely influenced by indigenous values and customs. Guests and tourists visiting the islands will certainly experience a particular Fijian flavor in the food, warm greetings, festivals, music, and traditional arts.

The Fijian employee experience serves as an important reminder to map out strategic initiatives to maximize your human resources capacities. The possibility of HRM attaining more of a strategic role than mainstream management continues to be a focus in the country.

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Top 10 HR trends in Fiji 2023

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1. No jabs, no job

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The most popular, among the HR trends in Fiji, is related to the recurrent onset of COVID cases that has given a sharp blow to the business euphoria in Fiji. While it faces a galloping epidemic of the Delta strain, Fiji has announced the intent to make the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory for all employees, with the leaders giving a stark message - "no jabs, no job."

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2. Work-life integration

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“Work-life integration is a connection between work and life, whereas work-life balance is a separation of your professional and personal lives” notes Karen Fong, the managing director of a creative agency in Fij.

Ms. Fong explained that when their business was established, they wanted to make sure that they practiced work-life integration rather than just work-life balance. She further added that one of the ways the Suva-based firm attempted to do this was by enabling employees to bring their children to work, supposedly after school or so forth.

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3. Engaged employees is the goal

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Employee engagement in the workplace is evident by how the Fijians perceive their jobs and management. Its importance is shown by the capacity to assess employee excitement and dedication towards the work.

Along with the other HR trends in Fiji, the focus is now aimed at building an inclusive work environment that encourages engagement activities, which sets the tone for job involvement.

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4. Preference to youth and millennials

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The idea here is to offer resources for long-term training of the youth, and to improve their competence to replace individuals who are departing Fiji's workforce (as a result of emigration.)

By employing millennials, we need to understand how they work and how to get 100 per cent out of them, but at the same time inspire them to want to come to work.

– Karen Fong, Managing Director, The GreenHouse Studio

Education, training, and skills development entities are working in unity to strengthen employer participation in youth training programs. This calls for coordinating activities between employers and training institutions to keep universities and young workforce aligned to the organization’s needs.

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5. Priority to learning and development

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By ensuring the learning and assessment quality, one encourages job seekers to move effectively from training sectors into the job market. Among the other HR trends in Fiji, the goals are set to promote strategic pathways and flexible routes for learning programs. Other initiatives include identifying basic employment needs of workers, as well as resources for short-term training to solve the problem of emigration.

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6. Collection of data

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Up-to-date data on your HR activities is a must for a successful human resource planning; since it estimates the growth levels and alignment of organizational needs. The plan, according to National Human Resource Planning of Fiji, is to improve data gathering on productivity gains and other business accomplishments.

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7. Rise of employee productivity

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One of the goals of the Labour Reform is to promote positive work atmosphere for employee relations and long-term productivity with the modern HR practices. The need to enhance employee efforts to increase productivity appears to be gaining attention among the Fijian work culture.

The authorities are reviewing compensation schemes as a means of increasing compensation for increased workplace productivity. HRM practices are now being fully realized to establish a culture of productivity.

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8. Effective grievance resolution

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Fiji's employment grievance resolution systems, on the whole, offer employees beneficial opportunities to air their issues. These primarily deal with concerns of human rights, individual disputes, and employment contracts.

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9. Job satisfaction and motivation

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The degree of motivation is tied closely to the level of workforce commitment. The culture highly influences the concept of satisfaction among Fijians.

Employee motivation as a people management tool drives better efficiency. It tries to play a vital role in utilizing human resources for better employment in the Fijian work environment.

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10. Work culture of benevolence

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Benevolence entails focusing on the well-being of others. The key business players steer decisions, emerge and engage in a structured network of interactions. These have resulted in the emergence of a benevolent Fijian work culture.

A few studies such as that by Laurett Cappelletti et al encourage a benevolent strategy that focuses on how businesses can listen to employees and try to come up with strategies that are aligned with individual and organizational goals. As a result, incorporation of employee motivation strategies influences the company culture of a developing workforce.

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Conclusion

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HRM practices, as per the HR trends in Fiji, demonstrate that while general management principles are relevant, it is the adaptation and application of these principles that is revealing.

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About peopleHum

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As an end-to-end HCM solution, peopleHum, the winner of San Francisco Codie Awards 2019, offers a one-view integration with its Al-driven tools like employee engagement, recruitment, performance management, HR analytics, learning and development (L&D), core HR, among the others.

Keeping in mind the change management and the recent HR trends in Fiji, peopleHum may benefits its users by offering ease of use, multi-device support, tools to motivate and engage employees on regular basis, while also creating a learning culture with clear metrics for individual and team progress.

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