I remember a French movie called "Human Resources", in which the management of personnel by a company was harshly criticized; Specifically, I remember at the end of this a dialogue in which one of the characters comments that human resources are anything but resources.
Obviously it is a metaphor but it leads us to the need to realize that the collaborators of a company They should not be treated as another resource, that is, as material resources or production resources that are normally associated with the productive part.
Importance of Human Resources
Today in a society so economically competitive And in a world in which markets are rapidly disappearing, companies must ask themselves what human resources mean in them.
Our economy is mainly services and with increasing frequency and volume, production will be entrusted to machines and robots; This should make us realize that the component of people and their knowledge will be key in determining the difference between one company and another.
One could put two companies with a similar structure, with quite the same processes and products, using similar technologies and even sharing the same street or in neighboring buildings.
However, after about five years we could see that one of those companies stood out and achieved its market shares and the successes that it set out to achieve in a strategic planning while the other could have stayed, lost its relevance and be on the verge of bankruptcy.
What makes the difference, then? If the processes, the technologies, the structures, are the same, the difference was definitely made by the people and collaborators who are, as Rosabeth Moss-Kanter said, those who constitute the true heart of the organizations.
This is a point that many managers in past decades seemed to understand; We can cite as an example the case of Jack Welch, the great manager of General Electric who took his company to the top of the business. Once when a journalist asked him what he dedicated his time to, he said that the 70% spent it seeing how people were doing and talking to them in the organization and the other 30% dedicated it to making decisions with them.
With this answer he was undoubtedly showing his peculiar interest in people. Retiring as one of the greatest corporate managers in the history of management this was undoubtedly a trait that enabled his great achievements.
Service season
In a service season in which people have to personally attend to clients and in which the attitude towards them can define the success of a business and in which the knowledge, decision making and managerial and directive skills of people constitute key capital , it is understood that giving strategic importance to human resources management is more necessary than ever.
But what does it mean to give importance to the company's human resources? Well, we could point out some key actions: Have a selection process in which we emphasize the qualities of people and their abilities to relate to people; give them training in which we point out the importance of their work and the company's assessment of them, train them as leaders within their organization, so that they learn to work as a team and, finally, always evaluate them as people with skills and not as simple resources.
This will turn your company's human resources into a strategic theme or, as we indicated at the beginning of the article, in much more than resources.
He Master in Financial Management will enable you to be the CFO of the new economy capable of carrying out comprehensive management within companies and addressing issues such as the one described above.
