In every possible occasion, many of us acknowledge the importance of Human factor in today’s business. It is true that HR is the main differentiating factor between average and successful companies. In today’s world, capacity, technology and infrastructure, important ingredient of success, can be managed easily. What bothers me is the mismanagement of the most vital cog – Human Resource.
In complex business environment, the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization largely depends of the human factor. A motivated team can produce much better results even with limited technology and capacity compared to a depressed team with class-leading technology. I have seen this happening in my own career.
Let us see how we mismanage this – the gap between what we “actually do” and “should do” could be a quick measure of the current status.
- Human resource management & development is not a responsibility of Human Resource Department (HRD) alone. Everyone in the organization manages human resource in our daily life in one-way or other. It is important to be aware of this fact and impact positively. In real life situation, it is left to the HRD.
- Human resource is to be managed and developed in on-going manner. Most of us limit ourselves to a great extent to believe this. It is not an annual or bi-annual activity like conducting performance reviews.
- Managing small activities (shift scheduling, accounting attendance & leaves, salary calculations etc.) occupy organizations’ time and energy. Nothing is left for value added stuff. How many of us are involved in Competency mapping, Gap analysis, succession and development plans?
- We always say – “Recruit a person based on his attitude because skills can always be imparted” but do exactly opposite, time and again. Most often, the only question asked outside the work related area, is “Tell me something about yourself”. And almost in all cases, this is just for making the candidate comfortable.
- How many occasions the organization offers the employee a “career” not a “job”? I am surprised to realize that in most of the cases the organization does not have a plan in place for a new recruit beyond one year or the current project in which a person is inducted. What happens if a person decides to work with the same organization for his legitimate career span? Can the organization provide him with a challenging and satisfying career? I leave this to HR fraternity to answer.
- Lower the organizational level you are in, smaller the attention you get from the HRD. But logically speaking, the lower rungs need more attention and development. These are the levels in the organizational pyramid, which directly involved in generating the output. More motivated they are more prosperous & responsive is the organization.
- Money is the least motivating factor – the most is challenging assignments. Almost all organization increases the remuneration as a retention strategy and invariably fails in the process. In every annual review, salary increase has become a norm (considering inflation, it is a must), but who cares about enrichment of job content? In my career, I have seen many leaving job after getting a promotion. I have also done once. The fact is – with promotion, salary increase but in most of the cases, the job content remains the same.
In complex business environment, the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization largely depends of the human factor. A motivated team can produce much better results even with limited technology and capacity compared to a depressed team with class-leading technology. I have seen this happening in my own career.
Let us see how we mismanage this – the gap between what we “actually do” and “should do” could be a quick measure of the current status.
- Human resource management & development is not a responsibility of Human Resource Department (HRD) alone. Everyone in the organization manages human resource in our daily life in one-way or other. It is important to be aware of this fact and impact positively. In real life situation, it is left to the HRD.
- Human resource is to be managed and developed in on-going manner. Most of us limit ourselves to a great extent to believe this. It is not an annual or bi-annual activity like conducting performance reviews.
- Managing small activities (shift scheduling, accounting attendance & leaves, salary calculations etc.) occupy organizations’ time and energy. Nothing is left for value added stuff. How many of us are involved in Competency mapping, Gap analysis, succession and development plans?
- We always say – “Recruit a person based on his attitude because skills can always be imparted” but do exactly opposite, time and again. Most often, the only question asked outside the work related area, is “Tell me something about yourself”. And almost in all cases, this is just for making the candidate comfortable.
- How many occasions the organization offers the employee a “career” not a “job”? I am surprised to realize that in most of the cases the organization does not have a plan in place for a new recruit beyond one year or the current project in which a person is inducted. What happens if a person decides to work with the same organization for his legitimate career span? Can the organization provide him with a challenging and satisfying career? I leave this to HR fraternity to answer.
- Lower the organizational level you are in, smaller the attention you get from the HRD. But logically speaking, the lower rungs need more attention and development. These are the levels in the organizational pyramid, which directly involved in generating the output. More motivated they are more prosperous & responsive is the organization.
- Money is the least motivating factor – the most is challenging assignments. Almost all organization increases the remuneration as a retention strategy and invariably fails in the process. In every annual review, salary increase has become a norm (considering inflation, it is a must), but who cares about enrichment of job content? In my career, I have seen many leaving job after getting a promotion. I have also done once. The fact is – with promotion, salary increase but in most of the cases, the job content remains the same.
- Every employee is generally categorized based on his or her expertise. In an organization, we all are compartmentalized based on our expertise and growth becomes limited automatically. HRD conveniently forgets that new expertise can be acquired. Lateral shifts are very important for individuals for gathering a holistic view of the business arena. With increased job satisfaction, it generates better outputs.
1 comment:
True. It is sad that we identify human beings as just another factor. It is a factor with so many dimensions and axis that the word 'mircale' can be coined when results get produced which were technically unfeasable.
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