I have to admit, his questions took me off guard initially; but like all great questions, these really got me thinking. There are a lot of companies that treat their people like cattle and (at least in the short term) still make money. The idea is to churn and burn. In other words, squeeze every last ounce of energy from people and then, when they burn out, bring in the next set of people. One hundred people out the door, another 100 in! There are always people who need jobs. For these organizations, talent management, training, etc. means â??the floggings will continue until morale improves. â? Heck, if the company is making enough money I am sure there will be hundreds of consultants, academics and business writers touting that way of doing business as â??the future trend in organizational development,â? selling the â??X company wayâ? to hundreds of other businesses looking to make money. Donâ??t believe me? Go back and read how many articles around 2000 touted the â??Enron way. â? Remember the phrase â??re-engineeringâ?? All you had to do was tell 10 people to do the work of 30, and Voila! you were making more money. Letâ??s ship all the jobs to China! After all, we do not have to worry about such nuisances as decent wages, overtime pay, child labor laws or even environmental guidelines. One hundred people out, 100 in. If they donâ??t like it, they can try to find a job somewhere else. Itâ??s simply inputs and outputs. The Rumors of My Death Have Been Greatly ExaggeratedLetâ??s be honest, many companies that have moved their manufacturing operations to China have made money. Usually this is accompanied by a solemn-looking old guy sounding the death bell on Americaâ??s place in the â??new economyâ? (it is always a â??newâ? economy no matter how old). â??Americaâ??s days as the economic leader are over,â? they solemnly warn. â??A new day is dawning. The new economic superpower will be China/Asia/Eastern Europe/the Middle East/etc. Yet the new corporate giants such as RIM have come from countries that value people as assets and not liabilities. For instance, 90 percent of all biomedical technology comes from Israelâ??a place with a population of roughly 7 million people, which offers the highest average wage in the Middle East. Peopleâ??Our Long-term Competitive AdvantageDoug Wilwerding is the former CEO of Omnium Worldwide. Omnium is a debt collector that has between 800 and 1,000 employees who operate their call center and try to collect debts for Omnium clients. Debt collection is a very stressful job, with turnover running as high as 150 percent a year. When Wilwerding took over Omnium in 1997, human resources in the company was transactional and disengaged from business operations. In 2003, Wilwerding undertook a strategy change for the company. He created an internal brand, calling it the â??Oâ? factor or â??Be O,â? which became the new catchphrase. â??Being Oâ? implied a series of both results and ethics. It was something that people bought into and whose behavior was modeled at the top. The result? Turnover fell by more than one-third, the Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) was increased by 440 percent and the valuation of the company at the time of its sales increased by 400 percent from 2003. The Lifespan of a CompanyIn the book The Living Company, Arie de Geus examined the list of Fortune 500 companies in 1977, and in a 20 year span found that over 1/3 of them no longer existed. For instance, out of the 10 companies that founded the New York Stock Exchange, only one is currently still in existence (General Electric). Why do some companies last only a few years (remember Enron?) while others, such as GE, are around for over 100 years? He found that there are four common components to living companies that exist over a long-term period. They are:

What is interesting is that three of these four are directly related to a strategic human resources approach. The issues that we write about, learning and development, leadership branding, diversity, onboarding, and culture, are directly related to the success of an organization. â??Yes, by squeezing everything you can from your staff you can make money,â? comments Scott Fleming, President of Replacements Ltd. â??But it is a short-term strategy. Companies that are successful in the long haul understand that their greatest assets are the people who work for them. â?How to Make a DifferenceWe can make a difference. It is the difference between a strategic human resources department and a functional one. A functional human resources department that is focused on benefits, salaries, hiring and firing and is disconnected from the business will soon be a thing of the past. Why? Because legal can handle firings, finance can deal with payroll and benefits and managers can hire their own reports. A human resources department that helps to manage talent and build a culture that attracts and retains the best people and is central to the business will be vital for its success. Here are some ways that human resources can make a difference:

But those companies that have posted jobs to China? How can we compete with them when they are paying people a lot less than we pay here? The answer lies in the business world. Last year, for example, many products have been recalled to China to see the result in the use of color. Many consumers are now cautious when purchasing manufactured in China, which is not necessarily out of patriotism, but because many of them are made of toxic substances and break. We make no distinction between what the company will ultimately make a profit long term, the workplace is a positive, highly motivated people who use each of these V & # xF5, the wonders of his unique genius to build an organization.

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Article Source:China Sourcing Blog

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