0ne of the key challenges that organisations face in today`s increasingly dynamic operational landscape is that of talent management and retention. Having access to a pool of highly skilled, knowledgeable employees is one of the major trump cards in driving competitiveness and ensuring organisational sustainability. Even large organisations including multinational companies continue to highlight talent management and retention as one of the major challenges that they continue to face in light of increasing global mobility and the emergence of a new generation employees who have a different expectations
from their careers compared to those of previous years.
For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), this problem is further exacerbated.
Unlike larger organisations that have the financial clout and organisational diversity to attract the best minds through a combination of financial incentives and career advancement opportunities, with SMEs there is need for deeper thinking on creating careers that would be both fulfilling to employees and yet does not affect business adversely.
Within the context of productivity, employees are an important element because they make up one of the resources being deployed to achieve an organisation`s desired outcome. | As a matter of fact, employees are probably one of the most resources within the productivity chain as they have the ability to make or break processes and affect the outcome of the of output through their actions, behaviour and attitude.
This is why the Malaysian Productivity Corporation Corporation (MPC) continues to call for a strong sense of belonging and security human-centric productivity because productivity is essentially driven by people unemploywho are able to achieve maximum potential to bring about competitiveness in organisations and this in turn leading to a better quality of life for society.
In this regard, I would like to stress on the link between productivity enhancement and employment. Indeed, it is no ticeable that there is a prevalent mindset among smaller organisations that think that embracing increased automation can actually lead to greater productivity gains and higher earnings from reducing the costs associated with employment.
It is true technology innovation can ease the more difficult and monotonous nature of some of the work done by employees but when a company embarks upon productivity enhancements via automation, the human impact of this move can be less than desirous. Among others it can cause | employees to fear losing their jobs and hesitate to be a part of productivity improvement that a company implements .This will in turn important affect the company`s drive to increase productivity.
It would do well for SMEs to recognise that people are the most crucial assets any organisation no matter what the size of earning capacity and the more produc tive employees are often those who feel a strong sense of belonging and security with their positions. It is important to recognise that job losses and unemploymentment does not embody the ultimate goal of productivity, whose goals include en hancing quality of life for society as a. whole. It is only when this happens that we would be able to have access to quality resources including people in order to drive business sustainability
As such, an appropriate response would be to approach productivity enhancements in ways that will not jeopardise the sense of security that employees feel. This could be through the creation of new jobs that could create higher value for the company for example, research and development activities and marketing and branding strategy among others. Employees may be required to undergo new skills training to adjust into their new roles but these should be looked upon as investment into expanding earnings capacity. Within the concept of human-centric productivity, management must realise
| that the productivity cycle is a process in which the value of output can be increased in line with the increased value of the input if the correct approaches are taken. It is crucial to take into account the bigger picture, ensuring that the impact of productivity enhancement does not affect the reliability of people resources. Only then you will be able to attract the best minds in your bid to attract and retain talented individuals who can contribute to organisational growth.
MPC will organise the Annual Productivity and Innovation Conference and Exposition 2012 from 14-17 October 2012 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. This conference is aimed at providing a platform for more insights and discussion into productivity enhancement and relevant tools and approaches for innovation among others. It will feature events such as the International Convention on Quality Control Circles, National Innovative Creative Circle Convention, Quality Environment Convention and Productivity Conference. For more information, please visit: http://www. mpc.gov.my. Dato` Mohd Razali Hussain is the Director General of Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC). Please send feedback to comment@ malaysiasme.com.my
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