EMPLOYEES AS BUSINESS EDGE

The general saying that ‘people are the most valuable assets of any business’ is fast becoming a cliché. The reason is not far-fetched. Organisations today most especially privately owned organisations and some publicly quoted companies are in the habit of relegating people to the back sit. They treat employees with disdain. Threatening them with sack, retrenchment and redundancy. Relying on the long-time injunction that a willing employee could not be forced on an unwilling employer. This is really unfair!

The HR department is not so lucky in some organisations. The unit is often seen as doing little or nothing to add value to the bottom line. Some are even thinking of outsourcing their entire HR functions, pretending they are interested in focusing on their core business areas. It’s hard to value your people when you hardly value the unit charged with the responsibility for attracting, developing and retaining people.

Organisations should be concerned about communicating their expectations to HR as a unit. Top management should also work closely with their HR team so that company’s vision, mission and strategy can be properly aligned with HR strategy for optimal result. The reality in any business organisation is the fact that people make things happen. Cleaners, Security personnel, Secretaries and Personal assistants no matter how one may think they are of little value and could be done away with at will; could sometimes make or mar a business. Everybody counts in an organisation.

Management team should understand the importance of everybody in an organisation; the fact that some people are more relevant by virtue of their positions cannot be overemphasised, but the effective functioning of these key people is dependent on the support of the so called less important member of an organisation. Everybody should be respected and valued.

To truly demonstrate that people are the most valuable assets in an organisation, the top management should demonstrate to their employees that they truly care about them, they must build employees confidence in the company. Employee welfare should be given priority. Merit and fairness should take priority in performance rating and promotion efforts. A great deal of investment should be devoted to the training and retraining of existing staff, rather than relying on sourcing the needed skills from the marketplace via headhunting. Promotion from within should be embraced. Employees must be managed in such a way that they are certain of their future in the organisation.

Organisations should do the following to clearly demonstrate that their people are their edge.

o Emphasise merit in recruitment, selection and promotion.
o Due process and recourse to company’s condition of service in all disciplinary matters.
o Constant training and retraining of staff.
o Existing employees to be given opportunity to compete with outsiders in order to fill vacant positions.
o Several options should be considered where there is need for restructuring that may involve staff layoff and this must be done openly without sentiment.
o HR unit must be allowed to take key peoples decisions without undue interference.

The time for organisations to prove that employees are their most valuable assets is now. Action should speak louder than voice in this respect. Until this is done, the popular saying that ‘people are the most valued assets of an organisation’ will remain on the part of the employees, a mere cliché.