Improving human talent in Guatemala

By Mayora IP

On April 10, 2019, the Chamber of Industry of Guatemala organized its First Human Talent Forum, with the aim of promoting innovation and improvement in human capital management (HCM) and discuss new trends in the integral development of employees and productivity.

"The issue is vital, since formal jobs are the ones that allow Guatemalans to have a better quality of life, with salaries and legal benefits that come with a forma job”, said Otto Becker, member of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Industry. “Our duty as businessmen is to continue creating more and better job opportunities”, he added.

In its World Development Report (WDR) 2019, the World Bank studies the changing nature of work and how it is changing as a result of advances in technology today. Amid fears that robots will take away jobs from people, the report finds that on balance this appears to be unfounded as work is constantly reshaped by technological progress. 

Such matter was brought up during the forum, with speakers calling Guatemalan companies to prepare to integrate new work modalities that include a different mindset from new generations, labor mobility and tech trends that are shaping the present and future of human capital, with modalities like outsourcing, freelance and temporary positions currently more a norm that an exception.

According to the World Bank, thanks to prudent macroeconomic management, Guatemala has been one of the strongest economic performers in Latin America in recent years, with economy growing by 2.8 percent in 2017, 3.0 percent in 2018 and expected to grow by 3.3 percent in 2019. Nevertheless, the World Bank states that “boosting growth will depend upon continued reforms to mobilize increased private investment and revenue to fund important pro-growth investments in infrastructure and human capital”.