The Dynamics of Human Resources

Microeconomics describes human resources as ‘firm-specific human capital’. HR has been in existence since man took his first step towards civilization. The modern concept of HR gained shape in the early 1900s, and it gave rise to a raging debate over equating human capital and human resources. I remind my colleagues that national capital is not the same as national resources! You use your resources to improve and expand your capital. But how could you ethically relate humans to commodities? The discipline of human resources is what allows businesses to distinguish humans as commodities from humans as individuals with unlimited potential. This is why I love HR: • I believe the growth of any company or organization is directly proportional to the integrated growth of the individual. You cannot separate them • Strategic human resource management is not a corporate rhetoric, but a human reality. • The constant expansions, contractions, and reinventions of businesses and markets make HR dynamic. • Constant development and compliance make HR management psychologically stimulating. • HR gives you an opportunity to interact with such a wide range of people that the process enables you to become a better human being. • Above all, it is a platform that defines and appreciates diversity without discrimination. This book is not an academic presentation of HR theory and practices. I am sure you can find better books in the market written by HR gurus. This book is an individual account by someone who is smitten by the concept of HR. Although many worthy and well-known HR professionals have been generous enough to share their experiences with me, you will not find any dirty laundry aired in these pages. For me, the complex variables inherent in HR are exciting and inspiring, and that is what I hope to share with you throughout this book. I believe in the old saying ‘go by your feelings’, and I have applied those feelings successfully since I began as a trainer in a petroleum company, until I am now the HR and Development executive in a leading reinsurance company in the Middle East and North Africa region. Your feelings will help you identify the best way to maintain and improve service quality and productivity by offering your employees necessary input, feedback, and guidance. You achieve your best results when your positive instincts permeate the organization around you. Through your personalized touch, organizational development, performance management, training programs, talent management, and re-engineering will achieve the goals of your entire operation. And this is what makes HR so special! Many business people believe HR is a battlefield. Even I thought this when I first worked in HR. I have grown to believe HR is the point at which the organizational requirements of the company converge with the interests of the company’s employees; co-operation, not conflict, is the most efficient strategy to achieve operational excellence. My rewarding career in HR offered me several valuable perspectives that I will explore in this book: • Do not adhere to lifeless management theories. Create your own methods through genuine dialogue and understanding. • Make an effort to know your employees personally. This will make them feel valued and yield rich dividends. • Call for a corporate culture that considers every employee an indispensable part of the organization. Throughout the book, I will provide you with all necessary details required for a successful HR Department. I have tried to make HR appear the way it should: not preachy and monotonous, but a prospect that feels good and exciting so you, too, will say, “I love HR”.