The ManicaPost
Simbarashe Musara
Post Correspondent
At the heart of any organisation is people and they are referred to as human capital in business terminology.
This human capital is equally important as the financial capital that would have been put into the organisation.
For the financial capital to make profit, the key drivers of production are the people.
This means that without people, there is no organisation.
You can have much capital but without human beings, the capital won’t bear much.
In addition, the various departments in an organisation cannot run themselves, even in this age of Artificial Intelligence which also requires people to program it.
In Zig Ziglers’ words, “you don’t build a business, you build people, then people build businesses”.
Maya Angelou once said: “l have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget what you made them feel”.
This implies that how you treat people can trigger feelings in them.
It can be positive feelings or negative feelings.
The output of productivity and commitment is determined by the feelings of a person.
If employees feel they are not valued, their commitment to the organisation cannot be one hundred percent.
An organisation can have certain targets but if the focus is more on the targets and not on the people tasked to reach those targets, it becomes a serious problem.
A focus on how best to equip the human capital, growth opportunities, mentoring, the people’s health, the people’s well-being and communication will certainly increase the productivity of the workforce to enable them to reach targets.
The workplace has to be humanised for it to be fully functional.
Human beings have positive actions that help them to get through life and can also help in the workplace.
Humans crave for tolerance and if given in the workplace, it gives them flexibility, which in turn triggers creativity.
Human beings also crave for compassion and in the workplace, vulnerabilities can be dealt with in a positive way.
There is also a focus on the potential of people and this can be used in the workplace to promote learning, mentoring and growth, which will increase productivity.
Being loved and showing love is part of human nature, thus in the workplace if the employees are shown love, they will feel happy.
It is crucial to take care for the well-being and health of employees. Human beings crave for positive energy and keeping the human capital motivated is key to productivity.
Again, Zig Zigler says, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well neither does bathing, that is why we recommend it every day.”
This is a clear indication that people need to be constantly motivated in order to be productive.
The sports block in the world is a classic example of people centric institutions.
In the game of football, a coach is given players that they have to train in well-equipped facilities so that they can give their best output during the game and win.
Huge investments are made in the psychological department so that players always have the right state of mind.
The coach has to make sure the players reach their potential.
This also applies in business. lf you are not people centric, you can never get the best out of the human capital.
Therefore, making the workplace as conducive as possible is a critical factor in the success of any organisation.
The environment that let human beings be human beings has the potential to promote productivity.
The focus is on enhancing and developing the high valued asset – which is human capital – and bring the best out of them, which in turn has a direct impact on the productivity.
The human capital is full of potential but this potential has to be realised and tapped into.
Abraham Maslow backs this up with his hierarchy of needs theory by stating that human beings’ basic needs must be met before they become motivated to achieve higher level needs.
This now becomes a framework for business leaders to work with in their quest to satisfy the needs of their team members and get the best out of them.
