Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Are People Truly Your Greatest Asset?

“People are our Greatest Asset” is a motto that is as heavily overused in the corporate world in China as around the world. After all, the "people's agenda” is still not the number one priority on many CEO’s list of strategic priorities. Metrics can be used to help the HR department shift the CEO's priorities to PEOPLE. For example, “Amount of time the CEO spends face-to-face with employees from different management levels”, “Hours per week the CEO spends with the HR Head”, “Number of people initiatives that are owned by the CEO”, and “Employees’ engagement score”.

Additionally, to test and demonstrate that substance exists behind this slogan, organizations should consider adopting the following steps:
• Implementing metrics and targets for the organization's people agenda (Workforce Scorecard).
• Making it really hard for excellent talent to leave (Career Planning and Benefits Planning that surpasses the competition).
• Outlining clearly which behaviors are desirable and which are unacceptable (Employee Handbook).
• Creating policies and practices that reflect workforce trends and show genuine care (Periodic HR and People audits and revisions of policies and practices).
• Promoting common sense and a positive “Yes, I can” approach among policy Administrators so that they do not just follow policies blindly but also think about and understand when policies simply do not apply. In this respect, policy Administrators must be empowered to grant an exception on the spot if the situation requires.
• Showing people a "human touch" and respect at all times.

Lastly, companies preaching “People are our Greatest Asset” should also reevaluate their approach to temporary staff such as Freelancers and Interns.

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