Human Resources? No, People

A Major Mistake We HR Make

Let’s be honest. We HR professionals often view the people who make up our company, the employees, as resources. After all, it’s in our job title: Human Resources Manager.

Today, let’s try to understand why this way of thinking is wrong.

We are not talking about the ethical or moral aspect here, which could be a topic for another post. We are talking about the practical side. When people feel perceived solely as resources or roles—just as someone who handles this task or that—it gradually reduces their desire to stay at the company, decreases creativity, and lowers productivity.

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Why Is Viewing People Only as Resources a Problem?

In traditional business contexts, people are often seen as resources useful for completing specific tasks and achieving short-term goals. This limited view leads to various issues, such as demotivation and reduced innovation. This tactical management approach focuses solely on assigning specific roles and tasks, addressing immediate problems but limiting the company's strategic capacity to leverage the hidden potential of its people. When individuals are not encouraged to express their unique skills and personal interests, the company loses valuable opportunities for innovation and continuous improvement.

Examples of Companies That Value Individual Talents

Some innovative companies have recognized the value of allowing people to do what they enjoy. This does not mean that employees suddenly work eight hours a day, five days a week, only on tasks they like, neglecting other duties. Instead, it means integrating a portion of their time and mental energy into projects that truly excite them—even creative, unconventional projects that are not strictly related to their hired role.

For instance, a sales representative might have excellent marketing writing skills, or a designer might excel in cold calling if given the chance.

A notable example is Google, which introduced the famous 20% policy in recent years. Google employees have 20% of their work time to focus on projects entirely unrelated to their job roles—things they enjoy, find interesting, or believe could be useful. This 20% is for maximum creativity, allowing them to create whatever they want without strictly adhering to company goals.

Of course, not all companies can afford this. 😓

What Can Standard Companies Do?

Even standard companies can understand not only what their employees are capable of but also what they deeply want to do. There are several listening and data collection techniques that can be extremely helpful:

• Annual Surveys: Tools for gathering structured feedback on a large scale.
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• Pulse Surveys: Short, frequent surveys to monitor employee sentiment in real time.
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• 1:1 Interviews: Personal conversations to understand individual aspirations and concerns.
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• Focus Group: Group discussions to explore specific topics in depth.
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• Town Halls: Company meetings to promote transparency and open communication.
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• Stay Interviews: Conversations with employees to understand what keeps them at the company and how to improve their experience.
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• Exit Interviews: Interviews with departing employees to gather feedback and identify improvement areas.

These techniques not only help better understand employees' needs and ambitions but also provide valuable data for developing more effective management strategies.

Personalized Development Programs

Once we realize it’s beneficial to let employees engage in what they want (at least for part of their time) and once we’ve listened to them and understood their actual desires, the next step is to develop personalized development programs.

This might mean asking them to draft a plan, take charge of an extra project of their choice, and report on what they’ve learned. It could also involve guiding them through a development pathway.

At Wibo, for example, we specialize in teaching fundamental leadership skills over a year, with very few hours per week, mainly for junior managers or those who will become managers in the future.

Monitoring

To ensure the success of these programs, it’s essential to use technological tools that allow tracking employees' preferences and work dispositions. Tools like HRIS and HR analytics software can help gather data on which tasks and projects employees find most rewarding and stimulating.

Defining key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the effectiveness of development initiatives and personnel management techniques is crucial. These KPIs can include:

• Employee Retention Rate: Monitoring if employees stay longer in the company due to development programs.
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• Employee Satisfaction: Using surveys to measure satisfaction and well-being.
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• Performance and Productivity: Evaluating whether employees' performance improves thanks to personalized programs.

Properly interpreting this data allows continuous adjustments, enhancing the HR approach dynamically and effectively.

By letting your employees do what they are inclined to do, what they love, and what they have always wanted to do, you gain a unique advantage: they will stay with you and won’t leave the company.

This will save a lot of money, resources, and time in 2024. More importantly, it will also boost productivity as employees will feel creative, valuable, and happy to go to work in the morning.

That’s all for this article. See you next time! 👋