Employees are not a human resource!!

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EMPLOYEES AS PARTNERS!!

Often in an annual meeting of a company or a corporate training seminar or motivational speeches, we find the top management people referring their employees as ‘assets’ for their company – “the most valuable asset in fact”, for sure they don’t mean a depreciable one also.  This simply means that the way we take care of our belongings and handle them nicely, the same must be the level of treatment for our employees; after all they are the asset of the company. Does that mean employer owns the employee, just like he does to any other asset? If so, why do the employees often leave the organization to be an ‘asset’ of another organization suddenly, without actually the same being purchased by the new employer by paying off the cost to old employer?

Perhaps, not asset.. Maybe ‘Human resource’ is the right terminology for the employees, which is yet another common phrase used in corporates. After all Human resource in a company is the only resource which (can) stand by the company, for the company and with the company in its peaks and valleys. But it is also said that the resources are meant to deplete, so does an employee deplete while doing his job? He may just get older with time or grow weaker due to lack of care for his health or so, but deplete? We humans have the hunger for appreciation and acceptance and as far as this need is being fulfilled by the company, human resources are not going to deplete, not in terms of their mindset at least.

So what’s the right term for them for the recognition and position they deserve?? Is this exercise of finding lucrative titles for the workforce just a matter of giving nice feeling to them? Well, if it is actually evident in the organization’s policies and operations, if they treat their employees with respect and care and create a favorable working culture within the organization, then whatever term one uses for the employees, has no significant impact.

In today’s competitive era, employee engagement has become a crucial part. Engaging workforce in the managerial activities and decision making process can bring a diversified and broader outlook towards work and work related issues.  Their involvement is what helps in growth of the company and eventually leads to their own growth. Their ownership for the company automatically makes them more productive at their job.  Can this be expected out of any single asset or resource, or even the employees who are merely treated as a robot doing their part of job?

An entrepreneur cannot manage the entire tasks single handedly, nor can he just keep overlooking the day to day tasks performed by each employee. Where will he get the time to do something new? That’s why he requires an efficient team who works for and with him, who helps plan the business prospects and also executes them, but most importantly, on whom he can trust and rely on. These ‘employees’ are the actual ‘partners’ of the company. Not by shareholding or by capital investment who become partners of the company in legal language, but because they (employees) are the ones who makes a company or spoils a company.

Before hiring a candidate for your team or with the existing team in hand, ask a question to yourself, ‘Can this individual help build and expand your empire if he was a partner?’ If the answer to this question is satisfactory, the employee surely deserves to be called ‘partner’, not just some asset or resource or anything on similar line.

If I stretch this further, in order to incorporate ‘partnership’ environment in an organization, a suitable Essential Employee Engagement Exercise (let’s call it ‘4E’) can be devised to keep the employees inspired and motivated, thus giving them the feeling that their presence in the management lobby counts, resulting in loyal and an honest workforce.  Such that, the decision making process of most of the routine as well as important tasks can be left on their shoulders, making the employer almost redundant in day to day activities.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]