CGF ARTICLES, OPINIONS & EDITORIALS
Managing Human Capital Matters (2011-06-20)
February 19,
2015 3630 3630 
In some organisations, lip service is given to the fact that employees are their biggest and most important asset.
Human capital, talent management and employee engagement are words used to describe this virtuous intent. But when it comes to the bottom line, only financial indicators are reported and there is usually scant regard for the employees who were responsible for the profits in the first place.
Most often, organisations attach value to that which is measured, and therefore will only manage the areas which are being measured. And by default, that which is measured becomes the organisation’s top priorities. Over time, this single-sided deficient practice of managing the so called ‘biggest asset’ becomes polluted, and then in a short space of time, it presents the biggest risk. Hence organisations ‘sugarcoat’ employee health care management practices with wellness days, health risk reports and campaigns that create temporary joy, and waste a lot of money and do nothing to sustain or promote optimal human functioning.
Moreover, some organisations may find their management are ‘negatively geared’; such where their management practices are dominated by a constant focus on problem behaviour patterns which highlight employee insufficiencies, instead of empowering employees and investing in their well-being. This antiquated management behaviour focuses on what is wrong, or out of line, and management who follow this practice are constantly focused on fixing problems. Understandably, if the only tool management has is a hammer, one may tend to “see every problem as a nail and every nail as a problem”.
Familiarity and practice influence our perceptions of leadership, and we tend to understand the world in ways that conform to our available means. When employee health care problems such as absenteeism or high medical aid expenses exceed our means, management strategies and leadership competencies begin to show their flaws and their ineffective ability to deal with these types of problems. And whilst an organisation may choose to ignore these mounting employee related challenges -- and consider them merely as tedious or ‘soft’ issues -- there is no doubt that the more informed stakeholder of the organisation will begin to question the true value attached not only to the financial performances, but indeed also to the manner in which the organisation protects its employees, as well as the environment in which they operate. In this regard, the tenants of sound governance -- as espoused in the recent King III Report on Governance 2009 (‘King III’) -- requires publically traded organisations to advise its stakeholders of the manner in which it governs its triple bottom line, and comprises the three essential components of people, planet and profit (PPP).
