The Human Element of Asset Management

Author Michael Russell

A professional level of management is key to all assets. Generally people think of asset management as relating to investments. People are assets and should be professionally managed too.

Everyone learns in college or at motivational seminars that employees are an asset, an organization's most valuable asset. Nothing is more true. Businesses and other organizations need a plan to be successful. Actually they need more than one plan. The business plan providing the overall direction for the organization and strategic plans to ensure the goals of the organization are met. The organization employs asset management to stay on course with the plans. Human asset management is typically called human resource management (HRM) and is certainly critical to maintaining a healthy organization.

To answer what the role of HRM is in a business, all the stakeholders need to be educated as to exactly what HR is, a human asset management entity and why it isn't just a personnel department. In the past, organizational supervisors simply instructed workers what tasks to perform in exchange for their pay and benefits. A personnel department would deal with wages and benefits and that was, in a nut shell, the limits of the personnel department's responsibility. HRM goes well beyond that limited scope. Organizations that have true HRM in their structure benefit all around. Managers and supervisors of organizations that have human asset management are forced to make clear what the goals are to all of the stakeholders of the organization. HRM compels the organization to provide all of the resources necessary to efficiently complete their tasks.

The textbook requirements for a person performing human asset management in an HR department are they must be a strategic business partner, they must also be a change agent. They function as an employee champion. They act as an arm of administration. In short, they are an interface between administration and the employee.

True human asset management by the organization's HR department includes numerous functions necessary to achieve the previously stated requirements and help to meet the organizational goals. The most common functions are:

1. Organizational planning a. HRM staff assume an active role in all forms of organizational planning b. HRM's contribution is to make sure the human assets are considered in the planning and that planning includes providing the resources for people to function within the plan

2. Recruitment of employees best suited for the organization a. HRM researches the best ways to recruit given the demands of the organization b. HRM determines where and how to recruit to get the quality and skilled people necessary to the organization

3. The selection process a. The elements of the selection process, such as testing, are designed by the HRM b. HRM 4 administers the elements of the selection process.

Managing the skills of all organizational members a. HRM determines the skill levels of individual members

5. Enhancing personnel skills a. HRM consults with members about how to enhance their skills b. HRM assists members in arranging for skill enhancement programs (classes)

6. Overseeing training a. HRM identifies what forms of training are required or otherwise in the best interest of the organization b. HRM arranges for training programs to be conducted c. HRM evaluates the training programs to insure the training is of sufficient value to the organization

7. Facilitating employee education a. Like a school councilor, HRM helps members who are interested in furthering their education

8. Traditional personnel administration

9. Administering employee wages and benefits

10. Time management a. HRM studies the level of efficiency of the use of time within the organization b. HRM designs and submits time management enhancement solutions

11. Employee cost management a. HRM would look into alternatives in all forms of employee costs in an attempt to redu

Source: Ezine Articles

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