Human Assets

A day or two back I was reading a report on Human Resources and one of the Minister of State addressing the conference mentioned that it is not proper to call manpower as Human Assets/Human Resources – in line with money or machine the other two M’s modern management. It is more appropriate to call it Skills enabled Manpower. How far we have come from the time when this most powerful asset was not even acknowledged as an asset. This is just the beginning and indicative of the maturity of economy and management process.

It will open up a lot of possibilities in the field of manpower - training, placement and management in general. In management parlance – there are various terms to describe this asset viz – Human Resources, Human Capital, Human Assets – with further divisions based on skill levels. Generally, the skill based divisions is restricted to workmen, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled. If we take an overall view the entire Human Resources are rated on skill only. Alternatively let us call it talent. Each individual has his on level of talent and if used properly, every one of us is productive. I’ve been saying time and again – we have a lot of un-employment despite the fact that finding “the right man for the right job” has always been a challenge. Now there are even more challenging tasks ahead – first finding, then training and further ahead retaining.

Every society or culture has a different set of mind set and value system in terms of employee – employer relationship. Japan probably is one of the best in terms of employee loyalty. USA on the other hand has the advantage of the best at all times because of the fast turn-over in the HR arena. In my opinion in long run a long term relationship is the most advantageous to an organization.

We have a long history of successful HR management. We only need to re-invent the practice. The typical “Munim” in a marwari organization of centuries is a good example. Generally, a munim was mostly understood to be an Accountant. Those of us who know the working of marwari organization well be able to appreciate – Munim was in fact much beyond an accountant. He was a manager, accountant, consultant, confederate and part of the family. The loyalty was not limited to person but generations. A similar example is a Deewan in a Monarchy. These two examples amply suggest we have centuries of history behind us in the HR management field. Only we have to go back to the drawing board and re-work.

At the start of my career – in the late seventies, it was Quota permit Raj and I remember my MD saying to me “It is not the Factory which makes money, it is the Head Office” – and thus the scant respect for Human Resources. I could never agree to it though. Now the times have changed but not much. We still have a high turn-over in the HR arena. We have a lot of confusion. We are neither Japan nor USA wrt HR. We have lost both the Munim and the Deewan. I personally advise my friends to change jobs every 2/3 years if they want to progress, as in the same organization after a period of 2/3 years you start to stagnate – “Ghar Kee Murgi Dal Brabar”.

With the pace of development we have today – Human Resources is going to be the most attractive and challenging occupations. At least for the short term, we are going to have a high turn-over in the field. A lot of training resources are also equally important, though this is a little neglected at the moment – especially specialized training wrt the job at hand. Placement agencies are already having a field day. Another area requiring immediate attention is Counseling/Support to induce Loyalty. Counseling/Support is also required at Campus level where a lot of activity has already started with the exponential growth of education awareness. I see a lot of confusion at the +2 level of school education when a child has to choose a stream, here also Counseling/Support is almost non existent and required immediately.

We have already started recognizing the importance of HR and there is definitely HOPE ahead.