Human Resource

policies in Colombia
Human resource policy practices in Colombian businesses is are quite diverse,
depending on the size and type of business represented.
Only 5% of the working population is unionized, despite government efforts to
empower employees.

GLOBE study in Colombia

In terms of values, the GLOBE study found high degrees
of collectivism oriented to family and small primary
groups, low uncertainty avoidance, and rejection of
prevalent elitism. Despite this, there are great social
inequalities in Colombia, along with an exclusively
centralized power structure politically.

Labor reforms
A labor reform in 1992 was oriented toward greater flexibility and transparency in
labor relations, and expected to increase overall levels of employment. The most
important changes were: (a) more flexible payments to workers; (b) severance
payments of one months salary per year worked, paid annually to a special fund in
each workers name and (c) private administrative funds for pension and severance
payments were created.
- This reform, however, made labor too expensive for many companies, leading to
layoffs.
The workers that got laid off started associated work organizations (OTAs),
cooperative groups organized by laid-off employees with the support of their
previous employers.
This way they could work without the regulations imposed by the government.
Whereas 80% of employees were permanently hired in 1992 when the reform came
out, only 60% were permanent years later due to too stiff regulations.

Compensation
Compensation in Colombian companies presents a fairly
complex panorama with notorious inequities and
disparities. It is common to find differences of 50 to 100
times between the maximum and the minimum salaries
in the same organization, with compensation at the
worker level set to the legal minimum salary, whilst
medium and high organizational levels have
personalized compensation to a great degree.
Many companies offer payment in kind, which has no
tax implications, and goes directly to addressing
families basic economic needs.

Gender discrimination
There is a clear gender discrimination in terms of salary
and hierarchical levels in Colombia. More men
participate in higher positions in organizations, while
women are positioned in support roles.
These imbalances have increased, but are more
frequent in the private sector than the public sector.

Board of directors of Ecopetrol,

Colombias biggest company all
men

Main characteristics of HR policies in

Colombia
There is a huge difference between the large,
multinational or governmental organizations in
Colombia and the small, medium-sized or family
businesses.
The former have rational and bureaucratic rules and
regulations in place.
The small, medium-sized and family businesses see a
lot of paternalism, and there is very little long term
vision when hiring new employees, all the way from
recruiting to training (Colombia scores only 13 on the
Long Term Orientation aspect of Hofstede, among the
lowest in the world).