Abstract:
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The objectives of this research were toidentify the expected and perceived employability of contract employees in the public and private sectors in Thailand and o analyze and compare the differences of a set of HRD practices that influence the employability of contract employeesin the public and private sectors. Based on the objectives of the study, atheoretical linkage between employability and HRD, which consists of training, organization development interventions (OD), and career development interventions (CD), were explored. The research methodology was mainly based on quantitative analysis, where Ordinary Least Squares Regressionwas mainly used for analyzing the impacts of HRD interventions on employability. The primary data were mainly based on the crosssectional data collected from the public and private organizations investigated. As for the publicsector, the units consistedof 127 departments and 60 organizations atthe departmental level. Forthe private sector, the units consistedof 441 listed companies on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The representation of each organization was a person whose position was director of ahuman resource management/development unit. Furthermore, in-depth interviews were carried out with scholars in public management and HR professionals n order to gain deeper information pertaining to shortterm employment, HRD interventions, and employability. The research findings showedthat the highest score of expected employability in both the public and private sectors was responsibility(personal qualifications). The second highest score in both sectors was teamwork and interpersonal skills (peoplerelated skills). The findings further indicated that the public and private sectors had an averagehigh score on expected employability but an averagelow score on perceived employability. This means there were the gaps between the expected and perceived employabilityin both the public and private sectors, especially gaps in fundamental skills and conceptual thinking skills. The results further showedthat among the HRD factors, training and OD had a positive and significant effect on employability in both the public and private sectors. When including the control variables (total number of workforce, total number of contractemployees, education and experienceof the contract employees), OD had a greater effect on employability in both sectors. Surprisingly, the study found that the CD in both public and private sectors had no effect on employability at all. Based on the research findings, both the public and private sectors were recommended to pay attention to the gaps in employabilityin terms of personal attributes and people-related skills. Integrating the common goal of personal and organizational learning into OD and informal training was also recommended as an appropriate interventionforboth sectors.As for the fundamental skill gaps, both sectors should cooperate with educational institutions in order to fill the gaps.
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