Managing human capital can never be a walk in the park. It is one of the most demanding tasks in any establishment. There is no store or mall stocked with ‘angels’ where any company or organization could easily shop for the best workforce ever. Human capital is as diverse as humans shall ever be.
Today you are apprehensive of the genius who maintains your computer systems but has little or no reverence for his seniors. Tomorrow, it is that God-fearing, holier-than-thou secretary who still lives in the 19th century and cannot appreciate why the hell you want her to use that desk-top computer that she totally knows nothing about. If that was easy to handle, wait until you meet a graduate whose sentence construction throws your imagination into the validity of his degree certificate. The worst you will ever come across is that member of staff with a don’t-care attitude, the one who would tell you off, even when least expected! Nevertheless, the job must be done.
On rationalization, the private sector has performed relatively much better than government. The private sector is all about business, results, gains or profits. It is the epitome of capitalism, you either live or die. The industry must not only be profit generating but most importantly self-sustaining. Nothing is left to chance. Hardly are there charities out there staying the course of funding private enterprises. Private sector employees must therefore be carefully chosen in the most endearing process and only the cream de la cream are picked.
The ideals of the public service are not less similar to those of the private sector. However, public service differs from one country to the other depending on the culture of the people and the values they treasure or ignore most. In Kenya for instance, public service is worst hit by nepotism, corruption, poor office ethics and a failed education system that gives no regard to quality but the profits it generates. Pray very hard that someday our public service will be rid of these ills.
Rationalization does not denote the review of remuneration in a way adversarial to the employee. Local and international labour laws prohibit this depravity as it is only detrimental to the employee. Employment contracts being legal and binding cannot be reviewed unilaterally to the disadvantage of one party. Pay cuts can only be justified under exceptional circumstances, during economic downturns and even so with the consent of the employee otherwise the alternatives are resignations followed by claims for compensation.
A successful institution must always monitor and evaluate its employees to inform a rationalization exercise aimed at merging competencies with placements. The following observable and/or verifiable factors listed in order of priority, shall prove worthy to Human Resource Practitioners in public and private institutions.
Performance
This is the most important of any rationalization criteria. An institution will always hire an employee with the propensity of exemplary performance. Indeed at the point of hiring the employer can only be optimistic. However, the employer can also be confident if the employee has previously demonstrated ability in other establishments or better still at the same institution. Exemplary performance is recipe for promotion or placement in more challenging environments. It supersedes academic and professional certifications.
Knowledge of duties and responsibilities
It is not surprising to bump into a public servant with the slightest idea of his duties and responsibilities. A mastery of these is the basic requirement for any successful employee. Poor knowledge of duties will always land the employee on the wrong side of the institution with negligence and omission being his or her greatest crimes!
Academic and Professional Certification
Academic and professional certification is the only way of asserting the qualifications of an employee. This however locks out employees who have learnt on the job whose only prove is through performance. Certification has of late seen proliferation of institutions of higher learning which channel out thousands of graduates every year flooding the market with all manner of certificates. Employers must therefore exercise due diligence when basing rationalization on these certificates.
Ability to learn
The present day modern work place has become dynamic. Every new day presents different variables that demand a change of tactic in addressing our day to day problems. Conservative employees have always found themselves redundant at the modern day workplace and henceforth unwanted. On the other hand, employees with ability to learn on new developments have always found their way up the organizational ladder.
Work Experience
It is common knowledge that experience is the best teacher. To have a pragmatic experience on any job gives one the much needed confidence and improves the accuracy in the job results. Experience also minimizes blunders as the employee must have learnt from his past undertakings. However, experience must be weighed against its relative worth. It must also be validated by other attributes and not just by the number of years or months.
Employee Discipline
Institutions require employees to ascribe to a certain minimum code of conduct. This code of conduct is meant to promote best interpersonal relations between colleague employees, juniors and seniors at the workplace and the people they serve. This code of conduct serves to curtail all forms of conflict at the workplace and accomplish what the French call ‘esprit de corps’.
Work Environment
Availability of facilitative resources and equipment at the workplace cannot be undermined as a factor in rationalization. A security guard that has no gadgets cannot be subjected to a level playing field to one that is heavily equipped. Similarly, an employee who has sufficient resources at his disposal but fails to perform is a symptom of inability and incompetence.
Third Party factors
These include but not limited to the health of the employee and police records. It cannot be fair to measure the performance of an employee during a period when one’s health was at its lowest. Police records could also offer vital information about a person’s civil or criminal record.
The writer is a Scholar in Public Administration and Political Science (twitter - @gauogilbert).
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| Article By: Gilbert Onduko |