Aug 29, 2017
While companies are renowned for meticulously managing their financial assets and resources, securing manpower for the sake of micro-management and think-tanks for investment policies to keep themselves afloat, most firms today fail to adequately nurture their greatest resource - employees.
Although the welcome rise of trends such as office cultures that have successfully managed to bind firms the world over into harmonious units of production continues, more traditionalistic, and indeed those constrained in their interaction due size, fail to adapt.
But there are merits to a human-oriented approach, some of which even enable greater monetary savings, the first such advantage coming from the initial recruitment process itself. It comes as no surprise that a majority of firms, with their overtly finance-driven objectives, often require exorbitant qualifications in the forms of education or extensive experience for vying candidates to join their companies, disqualifying younger applicants.
This allows for the company to filter out those they feel possess adequate training and understanding of their business from the rest, training for whom could potentially cost a fortune and require the mobilization of an entire human resource department. But, while the initial investment in the latter might sound less than tempting, it's in the long-term where this strategy rakes in the benefits. For one, while experience suited to a particular financial sector is valuable, an employee whose very training has molded them to serve a particular firm is of even greater importance. Moreover, fostering loyalty within workers has become a task of priority for firms today, something that can be achieved without too much additional effort if one does choose to develop inexperienced candidates.
Recent studies have also proven that although hiring a seasoned applicant might seem a better idea, the cost attached to achieving the same too comes at a premium, and considering how no firm can obviously stop at one or two hires, the total expenditure can often come toe-to-toe with that of the above stated procedure. Furthermore, according to the Society of Human Resource Management, an employee who salary comes in at $60,000 could cost their company upwards of $45,000 to replace them, and even more if the knack for hiring only experienced candidates is taken into account.
Of course, money is an asset meant to be managed and manipulated, while its very nature demands little else of the one handling it. Humans on the other hand, come with a set of emotions that can be, at times, so vastly contradictory of each other it's hard to believe they belong within a singular psyche.
But not unlike money, there are also professionals who expertise in handling this asset - and what comes along with it.
21st century firms have taken toward psychology and banishing the social stigma attached to handling mental health problems in a big way, with companies handling experts in droves and each one boasting of their personal therapist available at all times for the sake of work or career-oriented concerns that employees may be harbouring.
But a company's role doesn't end at securing professional help to alleviate their employees' mental woes, for their job is to identify why they exist in the first place. The American Institute of Stress acknowledges that almost 46% of the American population's stress stems directly from their workload, while 20% feel their job renders their ability to effectively communicate with their loved ones useless due the workload upon their shoulders, and another 6% are consistently paranoid of losing their job, an ode to companies not assuring even the most efficient employees of job security.
Panoply of studies can attest to the existence of positivity linked efficiency at the workplace, boosted by recreational activities that, in turn, reduce stress for employees, all of which can be brought about by the company only if greater emphasis is placed upon human management. Meanwhile, loyalty, as mentioned before, too has been proven time and again to motivate employees to emerge over their daily tasks and contribute toward the company's overall growth, while ensuring that their chances of abandoning are kept to a minimum and thus saving costs.
Therefore, the merits of taking the approach contained within this article are aplenty and are consistent with most company's greater objectives, which they can fail to comprehend due their lack of investment in employees. But, if it were to be adopted around the world, companies could be assured of not only more impressive balance sheets, but exponentially more productive workers, too.