HR Philosophy - A Perspective

“As long as the human animal is lord
And a dense nether screens the soul…
An incurable littleness pursues his days” *

Governments have gotten together trying formulating strategies; each with their very own political interest.

Financial Institutions are crashing like nine pins. Today, even if they have the funds, they are not lending money to corporations. There is lack of trust and faith in the business plans presented to them. The money market has just gone crazy! The domino effect is disastrous. Patients are avoiding hospitals. Drop-outs from schools are rising. The social service organizations are cash strapped.

Political parties have their own agenda, trying to focus on popular sentiments. The cacophony of the leaders’ speeches does not make sense to the man on the streets.

The common man is looking woefully in desperation to tide over these hard times. Each family has their own tale to tell. As pockets go empty and savings dwindle, the hearts bleeds as unemployment rises.

It was as if:
“An act was passed to chastise happiness;
Laughter and pleasure were banned as deadly sins:
…Death came but neither respite gave nor end;” *

Is this an economic crisis?
Or is this a case of governance in nescience?
Is this an issue of war?
Or, have we got our ideologies all mixed up?

Theories are being written, workshops conducted and debates held. The knives are out and the blame game is at its best. Wise words are heard:
“Innovate and install efficient processes.”
“Be more vigilant”.
“Let us put our heads together and think.”
“Let more heads be rolled”

These may be the right moves and one can only hope that things take a turn for the better.

Irrespective of the various efforts, at the heart of all this is ‘people’. Be it any organization: a government enterprise, a financial institute, a manufacturing unit an outsourced IT firm, a hospital or even an NGO, at the core is people. This is where the HR perspective comes and the role of HR becomes compelling as never before.

HR philosophy is to be based on the idea that every single employee is a ‘sacred being’, central to the prosperity of its business. If this were the philosophy, then the chief aim of Human Resources Development would be to inculcate holistically, the spirit of humanness in the organization and align it to the business objective.

Some might say that such statements are ‘politically’ right; it is like playing to the galleries. However they would add that these thoughts are utopian. Ultimately, the business of business is business and top lines and the bottom lines should be the objectives.

Let us agree for a while, that these arguments have substance. The revenues or the profits are like the air we breathe. Without breathing we would die. But, is the aim of our life, only breathing? It is with this perspective, it is reiterated that every employee is central to the prosperity or the success of the organization. At the same time, it is to be remembered, that the customers continue to be the king.

There has to be a grand balance between the employees and the customer; or let us say people and business.

To begin; let us first look within
And dream along the highway of stars.
The answers are bound to come,
So that we could walk the sunlit path.

The next few articles in this series would delve on the human aspect of the business which would be followed by ‘the focus on customers’ from an HR angle.
______________________________________
*Sri Aurobindo, Savitri