HR Practices in Rural Micro Enterprises - An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

Micro enterprises provide a large economic and employment generation platform which makes them unavoidable in any economy. The number of employees associated with micro enterprises in most countries will be a much higher figure than small and medium enterprises. This reflects the relevance of the study about HR Practices in micro enterprises. Employment to the lower layer in the economy is usually provided by the microenterprises. It is the hub where unskilled, illiterate and lower income category prefers for a job. In the survey result of fourth all India censes of MSME, rural enterprises occupy 55.34% of the total MSME’s (MSME Annual Report 2016-17). Knowledge about the HR practices prevailing in this area will be highly beneficial for the academic sector for framing much finer practices through which the rural micro entrepreneurs can increase their productivity. The government will be able to design policies and frame rules and regulations in order to protect and utilize the larger sector of employment generation for building up the economy. In this paper the importance of rural micro enterprises in the economy, recruitment sources, selection process, training methods, working hours, employee benefits, health and safety measures, wages provided, Performance appraisal, employee retention and termination of an employee is discussed in detail with the help of an empirical investigation of 35 rural micro entrepreneurs. This will provide a better platform for a further detailed research among the HR practices in rural microenterprises.

Keywords: Rural Micro Entrepreneurs, Micro Enterprises, HR Practices

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