‘Scarcity in plenty'

This chapter explores the nature of Vietnam's scarcity in plenty labour market phenomenon together with the roles, capacities and competencies of its human resource management (HRM) professionals to face the associated challenges by examining the findings of a recent empirical study through the prism of HRM competency theory. The latter findings are compared with HRM roles and competencies contained in the HRM Competency Framework. The chapter suggests that, despite some diversity in their implementation in different ownership types and sizes, very few claim to have adopted strategic business partner roles or possess the competencies required to proactively and effectively address the immense vocational and capability skills facing the Vietnamese economy into the future. It indicates the major HRM role in most types of organisations is that of a functional HRM specialist, including key functions such as HR policy development, HR planning, job design, recruitment and selection, learning and development, performance management and rewards systems.