LEARN
Something Worth SharingNot Human Resources I recently read another superb piece of ‘to the point’ writing by Seth Godin. This particular piece has formed a real ‘learn’ that I wanted to share with you. Like so many, when I ran our #familybusiness we had an HR department - the human resources department. The people in this team were involved in the recruiting, onboarding, payroll, and disciplinary matters for our workforce. While I didn’t give the name of this team a conscious thought, I’ve always considered “human resources” to be at odds with me. When I recently read The Song Of Significance by Seth, I had a lightbulb moment. He talks about the earliest resources to humans being land. Not only could we grow crops to survive, but later to earn money which would allow us to buy more land. This, I get and understand. Next, the machines that worked the land became ‘resources’, as they increasingly did within the industrial revolution. Again, these ‘resources’ generated money which would allow for even more machines. Resources became the things that were required to generate wealth, and then buy more resources. Resources are what we sweat - get the most out of and provide a return on our investment. Eventually people fell into that same category - they became ‘resources’. This is where I have an issue. If an employer views their people as ‘resources’, it’s almost like they see them as cogs in a machine - something to sweat, automate and dictate to. However, if they see their people as creative and valuable humans, it changes the culture of a business. What does that mean for our HR departments? Great question, and one I’d love to hear your view on - but for now, I think I’ll consider it as being Human Value.
|
