Human capital is the knowledge that each individual possesses. As the individual increases her knowledge, her human capital will grow. It is not necessary to be linked to an organization, in fact the company Yo SA, is a good business for those who choose to sell their knowledge and experiences to companies eager for what you know. They are aware that their future depends on mental strength and not on muscular strength.
Attitudes are based on all human capital. They see the behaviors of people and as all behavior can be modified, this others say that it is the most difficult task to modify, since the internal world of human resources comes to play an important role.
People's attitude is part of the internal world of the subjects. The external world is a faithful reflection of what happens in our internal world, therefore, if we want to modify the external world, we must first modify the internal world. For this reason, people's attitudes have a lot of internal aspects and that is why we place them at the base of the human capital pyramid.
The correct attitude is the first step. The employees with the highest performance and promotion in companies achieve this not only because they have unique and indispensable knowledge (high human capital), but that is the result of having adopted and had a correct attitude towards the environment. In an article published by the CIO magazine, Megan Santosus, believes that since it is difficult not only to find the person, but to keep them, companies cannot promote employees to managerial roles and keep them in a frezzer. In particular, companies must provide newcomers with "soft" skills, interpersonal communication, teamwork, and the other attitudes necessary to be successful in their new roles. "
Attitudes are soft, that is to say soft, untouchable and intangible, but they are still imperceptible, otherwise they would not matter. We cannot touch an employee's proactivity, but if he constantly takes the initiative, we perceive that he is proactive. The desire of a Human Resources manager to transmit to his subordinates all the knowledge possible, the ardent desire of a warehouse employee to learn new skills permanently and the predisposition of public service employees to serve customers well are attitudes that make the difference.
The desire, the desire, the predisposition, etc., are inherent competences to people and shape our way of acting in front of work, it is for this reason that we place them at the base of human capital. It will be useless to instill new skills in employees if they do not have the right attitude (they are not predisposed from their internal world to take them), much less generate a commitment to knowledge management. Because as much as they know how to operate a system or operate the computer, if they do not have a positive attitude, they cannot be expected to deposit their knowledge on the company's intranet.
In a consultancy job, after having worked with management, I met with the managers of the twenty-two branches to discuss the results that had been obtained as a result of the analysis carried out. The results that were being obtained were not encouraging due to a lack of skills. It had been a long time since they updated their knowledge and that was one of the reasons why they were losing market in relation to the competition. The solution: Training for all.
When we finished with the training, there was no response, nor modifications in the balance sheets, the closings, the numbers, the sales, the intellectual capital; nothing at all, it was like nothing had been done. I met with everyone again to get feedback and found that everyone valued the knowledge gained from the training, in fact they found it very useful and interesting.
If the knowledge obtained during the training was important and did not put it into action, the fault was on another plane. At the level of attitudes it was the place where there was an obstacle, that is, they had the skills, but they lacked the most important thing, the attitude to put the skills into action.
The lack of attitudes was an important obstacle that we had to overcome to be closer to applying knowledge management as a corporate practice, so we decided to give full participation to each and every employee so that they were the ones who designed the way in which who wanted to show off their knowledge.
The commitment of the employees as the project progressed was expanded as they felt the work model as their own and agreed to put the best knowledge of themselves. The change of attitude was the entrance door for later applying a knowledge management policy, but in a house the entrance door is not everything.
At the second step of the human capital pyramid are skills. Skills are composed for the most part of skills, techniques, and other knowledge that are explicitly or tacitly demonstrated by individuals.
The importance of skills seems to be clear in McDonell Douglas Helicopters, a general payment plan is replacing an automatic payment increase system with one in which the increase in payment depends on employees constantly learning and showing their new skills. The company defined 30 job families within which the same employees defined the skill-based salary system. Under this new system, employees receive increased wages only when they have demonstrated proficiency in a given skill block. Which may include one or more important skills for the job in question.
In the skills, the techniques and skills of the people are evident, as any other skill can be improved, refined, evolved, updated, developed and enhanced, so that if the human resources have the correct attitude, but they do not have the necessary aptitude, they can incorporate it through the acquisition of knowledge. If it were the other way around, no matter how much we develop skills in people, if people do not have the correct attitude, it is like pouring water into a punctured glass.
In the first instance, the person must have the desire to obtain, give or share knowledge (attitude), then the task is to decide which knowledge and through which process those learned skills (aptitudes) will be developed.
At seminars and conferences, I suggest that attendees describe the skills of the ideal employee without any induction or pre-framing. When they reach the tenth competition, I ask them to divide them into attitudes and skills. The result is that in all cases, attitudinal-type powers represent between 70% and 80% (seven or eight powers out of ten) of the elections.
The altitude that human capital can reach is a consequence of the two previous steps. In other words, it is attitudes, with added aptitudes, that determine the altitude of human capital. Based on experience, he encouraged me to say that human capital is made up of 60% by attitudes, 30% by skills and altitude is a logical consequence of the previous two factors with 10%.
Just as in the age of fireplaces, machines had to be maintained so that they do not spoil, in the age of knowledge of human capital, it must also be cared for and maintained, since it is a factor of production in today's economy. The end of the human capital process does not end with achieving altitude, because the difficult thing is not to get there, but to stay.
The relationship of human capital to the market is one way of keeping it high. The closer the relationship, the less distance there will be. Today companies are giving significant value to the relationship of employees with the market, it is evident with business reorganizations where there has been a turn in the hierarchical pyramid giving importance to people who are in contact with the client who is really the boss.
© Pablo L. Belly All rights reserved. This article may be redistributed, forwarded, copied, printed, or quoted as long as it does not modify its content and does not use it for commercial purposes. You must include this note, as well as the name of the company Belly Knowledge Management International and its author: Pablo L. Belly, the email [email protected] and the address www.bellykm.com
