There has been a yawning gap between what is known to the general public, its expectations about the Armed Forces of the country and their HR practices. While it is reasonable to expect sensitive defence and security related issues to be kept out of public glare, subjecting the issues at large and challenges the Armed Forces face in their HR domain to academic debate would be mutually beneficial. Certain important HR issues and challenges like selection and recruitment, training and development, performance management, stress management and post-separation HRM are discussed and insights thereof provided.

It has been a well-established convention, albeit by default, to keep matters of defense outside the purview of any academic discussions. The consequences are two fold, the academia loses out on the benefit of some time tested management practices of the armed forces and the forces lose out on the advantage of cutting edge research that has gone on in the academic world, especially in the field of human resources.

With its 1.1 million strong human resources, the Indian Army is a virtual treasure trove of HR issues, challenges and best practices. The intensity of large scale counter insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir for the last two decades has thrown up many an issue and challenge to the Indian Army. That a study of salient HR issues and challenges in the Indian Army would be both interesting and instructive is a foregone conclusion.

The requirement of human resources for the Indian Army can be broadly categorized as resource for officers and for Personnel Below Officer Rank (PBOR). While the requirement of intake for PBOR is by and large met satisfactorily, it is the intake for officers, which is a matter of concern. Only the challenges faced in attracting talent for the officer cadre are discussed here. Till the onset of economic reforms, career in the armed forces was looked up to be as attractive, adventurous and prestigious.

HRM Review Magazine, HR Issues and Challenges, Performance Management, Stress Management, Human Resource Management, HRM, Economic Reforms, Business Environment, Globalized Economy, Organizational Strategies, HR Strategies, Strategic Planning, Indian Ordinance Factories Service, IOFS, Indian Defence Audit Service.