What is an asset? It is a useful and desirable thing or quality that one wishes to have of which in this case, the organisation. More and more companies are realising the vital role that their employees play in ensuring their company survives in the tough world of business. Through the years, the awareness of employee importance has taken great effect in companies throughout and a high level of emphasis has been put in place into the importance of the human resource department to keep their valued assets and put an edge over the rest of the companies.
Just take Singapore for example, a country with virtually no natural resources. Singapore depends heavily on her people. The quality and quantity of the citizens as this organisation’s human resource has pushed her into first world status. The efficiency of which Singapore grew has inspired even china, who in 1978 decided to overhaul her centuries-old economy and reformed in a way that was influenced by Singapore, much after Deng Xiaoping’s visit to Singapore whose dream was to “ plant a thousand Singapore in China” (Ghesquiere, 2007). As the economy grows, so does the need for more people.
With the fertility rate dropping, you can see the struggle of a country trying to increase its pool of people. With the Government understanding the dire consequences of a failing birth rate, introduced new population policies through the infamous “ The White Paper”. It’s a population route plan which proposes a 6. 9 million population by 2030 with a significant percentage of it, immigrants, aiming to build a sustainable population to support a good living condition and social cohesion while maintaining Singapore’s economic vitality as described by the National Population and Talent Division.
Such of which shows how vital the role people play in a country as an organisation. Google Inc. is a multinational corporation specialising in various internet related services, computer software and telecommunication equipments and is very well-known for having an informal corporate culture. Google is seen by many potential employees as one of the most ideal place to be working at. It was also ranked highly in several surveys like in Fortune’s survey’s best ompany to work for and was even “ nominated in 2010 to be the world’s most attractive employer to graduating students in the Universum Communications talent attraction index” as reported in Wikipedia. Google has a unique corporate philosophy which aims to motivate workers to excel at work. Google introduced a system whereby the company encourages the workers to set aside 20 percent off their busy work schedule and work on a project that sparks interest on a personal level that will benefit the company in any way (Bharatta, 2007).
Some of Google’s most successful products have come from this unorthodox method as the company understands the importance of new ideas that comes from the workers and a way to motivate people to work on something they are passionate about instead of the normal conventional way. This innovative method of self motivation has inspired some other major companies and small ones to follow in Google’s footstep. These companies are always in the race to find new innovative ideas of motivating the employees to excel in their own way as they understand the need of new fresh ideas to work upon and succeed in the harsh working world.
Such emphasis on human resource shows how crucial the role workers play in companies to ensure the success and survival especially in technological companies. It is not just important to motivate workers, it is important to keep them as well. In the coming times, company has seen a new trend in the rise of their employee’s turnover rate. Depending on the economic situation, employees quit or switch jobs for various reasons. As suggested by Jacobs (2012: 3), ‘ the worker’s turnover rate is highly influenced by the satisfaction worker’s feel at work. Workers tend to look for new jobs when they feel dissatisfied or unhappy at work. To the company, a high turnover rate is highly undesirable. It costs the company a lot of money as they are required to find and hire new employees to replace the ones that have quit. Big Companies like SIA have recruitment exercises almost at a monthly basis because of their high turnover rate. Companies are realising the importance to retain their valued assets and not letting them run to other competitors. Without workers working, organisations would crumble.
The balance between the employer’s needs and employee’s need must be at a balance in order for the organisation to function. When workers feel threatened and that their needs are not being taken care of, they may decide not to continue working. Such of the effects have seen companies literally going to a complete stop. For example, the London tube strikes which saw hundreds of workers from the London underground tube walk out from their posts. This was in protest over plans by the company to axe 800 jobs to cope with the pressure of a lowered funding settlement in the organisation. Weaver , 2010). Jones (2010) called his article “ Tube strike causes commuter chaos across London” in description over the planned strikes by the union which spanned across several days. The transport company suffered much losses and damages due to the cease of productivity. Not only did they suffer, so did the commuters who depended on the subway to commute every day. Only 40% of the train were up and running as millions of tube passengers had to take alternative routes and transport to get to their destination. (Weaver et ale, 2010).
Such is the vitality that the roles of employees play to keep companies up and running. Resources, environment, structure, open communication, quality management, dedicated employees, creativity and continuous innovation are some of the many factors that contribute to an organisation’s success. To some, these factors are plays an important role but i do believe that people are the ones that make an organisation. Quality people with suitable skills doing suitable jobs are needed to be employed to make an organisation grow. Thus, i strongly believe that human resource is the most important asset of any organisation.
