Losing Human Face of Human Resources Management

For any enterprise, its human resources are its most valued assets. Unlike other assets, this category of assets appreciates  in value through acquisition of skills and experience, which cannot be valued. However, there are solid reasons to believe that the human resources management at many Indian corporates is fast losing its human face.

Whenever the need for cost control or cost optimisation is felt, the first casualty is the human resources. The prevailing situation in a few telecom and software companies in India, wherein many very senior and committed human resources are made to exit the organisation as the pandemic impacted their fortunes, is a case in point. The news is not getting the public attention it deserves.

It is a fact that when an employee who is on the job of building a career in his/her organisation is made to exit all on a sudden for no fault of him / her, it causes a destabilisation in his / her finances, family and future of children in more ways than can be anticipated. In many cases, the employee's family gets virtually shattered and life becomes miserable for them, particularly in the present situation where getting an alternate job is a very tough task if not altogether  impossible.

Recruiting freshers and relatively junior personnel may give some immediate cost reduction for such organisations, but the eventual cost of training and moulding them and the negative impact of absence of seasoned and experienced personnel on efficiency, productivity and customer satisfaction are to be considered. In fact the company would be able to attain cost reduction without the above associated disadvantages by retaining the senior employees but with a reduction in their monetary compensation, instead of making these hapless persons jobless and leaving them in the lurch, without any regard to their dedicated service to the company spanning many years. Minimisation of other overheads should also be given top priority. From the angle of ethics also, such a move would be more befitting for corporates believing in sound business ethics.

Humanitarian consideration of work force should be the basis of business ethics. Without that the human face of any business would be lost. This is what is now happening across many organisations. And now this is what needs an immediate strategic correction in the corporate sector.