Forget the days of the Personnel Manager and his department. ‘’Human Resources’’ are the watchwords these days and have been for a while. Resources are a clue to how staff should be used in today’s companies. Identifying how best to use one of a company’s main resources – the employees – is very important to that company’s effectiveness. Personnel departments were little more than record keepers. The challenge of Human Resources is to do much more.
Department heads have a vested interest in retaining able staff because that helps to ensure efficiency. It is a factor in personal career advancement of the department head but not necessarily in the career advancement of the staff involved. That can have a negative effect on company performance beyond the short term.
‘’The Times They Are A’ Changin’’ sang Bob Dylan
In recent times, modern technology has been of enormous use to successful businesses. They have seen their markets become so much more accessible, and usually much larger as well. The problem lies in the fact that those advances are generally available to all the competition. That competition in many sectors is now worldwide.
The question of where to gain a competitive advantage is something that all CEOs ask themselves. One place that you may not have decided to look is within your workforce. Has HR tech in 2021 a role to play?
Who Takes the Lead?
Using AI and advanced computer techniques are skills that are available in today’s world. It can, to an extent, democratise the access to data sets and drawing conclusions from them. Skill is still necessary, but AI and machine learning technology will help make it easier. Tools like Talent marketplace are harnessing this new technology to enable leadership teams to better manage their staff within large organizations.
Management Information Boost
Good management information plays a critical role in successful companies. That information includes product and service details, competition, and the market, and of course finance and investment. Why shouldn’t it include a detailed analysis of the workforce and the possibilities of making better use of an existing resource? The answer could be out there!
Using Your Knowledge
Remember ‘’The Peter Principle’’, written in the late 60s by Laurence J. Peters. It advanced the theory that every hierarchy ultimately becomes incompetence as staff stagnates. It does involve workers reaching their peak but not then able to move on. The retention of able staff for selfish reasons can create similar stagnation.
Recruitment of quality staff these days is a sophisticated process. It involves knowing basic qualifications of applicants but much more. Things include an applicant’s character, ability to work in a team and so on. All that information becomes company ‘’property’’ and is available for future reference.
What if that ‘’property’’ could be analysed in such a way to find out an employee’s suitability for a new role within the organisation? It would mean there would be no reason to advertise and go through the process of outside recruitment.
In the end, it is down to a CEO to make the decision on looking more closely at the workforce. That could bear fruit if there are vacancies within the organisation that are suitable for currency employees.
