22nd March 2004
Friday, July 30th, 2010
Experts in common sense
Human Resource (HR) management is no longer a novelty in this country.
At this Thursday's first-ever international HR conference in Warsaw, its practitioners will be looking to celebrate their achievements to date and to cement the reputation they have won within the business community.
"What gets measured, gets done," goes a saying popular among management gurus, and HR specialists woke up to this reality long ago. The difficulty in measuring the effect that investments in human capital have on the bottom line is in fact a fundamental obstacle to the appreciation of the importance of the 'soft' human side to business. That is why one of the most important points to be discussed at the conference is the availability of a variety of tools to measure the effectiveness of such investments.
"IT tools have been increasingly important in HR," says Marzena Mielecka, project manager at the Management Institute, which co-organizes the conference. "They make it possible to dispel the notion that investing in people does not bring specific benefits," she continues. The issue will be addressed by Samir de Chadeverian, the head of human capital services at Deloitte Consulting in Italy, who will look to Italian banking groups for an illustration of the possible approaches to quantification in HR.
Another illustration of the interaction between HR and IT specialists, who operate in seemingly widely different fields, is the issue of knowledge management. While the information technology aspect of knowledge management is perhaps better known, the conference will look at the human side of the issue.
"Many employees are unwilling to share their knowledge, fearing they will thus become dispensable," Mielecka says. "That is an issue of corporate culture, something that only HR managers can address." And, while HR is commonly thought to be relevant to large corporations alone, Mielecka adds that the issues of knowledge management are equally pertinent to small, and, in particular, midsized companies. It is, however, to those companies that the long-term nature of investments in human capital and changes to corporate culture can be a particular problem.
But even as the awareness of the relevance of HR becomes more widespread and its benefits easier to measure, its practitioners are in danger of falling victim to their own success.
"Many HR specialists feel threatened by IT systems in this field, quite simply because they can lead to a reduction of jobs in HR departments," she says. Moreover, the newly emerging quantification techniques allow for outsourcing of HR functions. Training, consulting and payroll services are increasingly handled by outside firms, leading to the speculation that an internal HR department may soon become a relic of the past.
Mielecka suggests, however, that there are functions that require close involvement with employees. "In any company, there will be people unhappy with their standing within the firm," Mielecka says. "Their complaints need to be handled sensitively and no outsiders can ever do quite that." What it takes, she adds, is common sense. That is why HR will always remain useful for companies. That is also the conclusion that the participants at the conference will reach.
From Warsaw Business Journal
Advertisement
Corporate Finance/M&A Corner
How a private equity investor chooses acquisition targets
BY Les Nemethy
How a private equity investor chooses acquisition targets
BY Les Nemethy
My last article discussed how strategic investors typically choose acquisition targets; this article does the same for private equity investors.
Private ... READ MORE
The idea of having organizations which, in a series of summits, allow informal meetings between heads of state or governments ... READ MORE
back
Go to topOur partners
