Investing in people is best

When the employees know the strategic targets of the company, they clearly understand what they need to do and what to long for, and thus the non-productive expenses are cut, while they reach success faster and with greater confidence. However, practical realization of these seemingly well-known truths is not so easy, especially in times of economic difficulty.

David Dale, director of International Quality Center in Great Britain, which is an exclusive exporter of “Investors in People” standard to the international markets, shared secrets regarding the promotion of team building that would be able to do more for the company. He was invited to Kyiv by the Ukrainian National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce to promote the operation of the standard in Ukraine.

Several enterprises are already working according to the “Investors in People” standard. Dale says that one of the companies that have used the standard for the last five years has doubled its profit. He calls the corporate spirit the key link to success and provides the example of National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the USA (NASA): “Thus, in NASA in an answer to the question ‘What do you do?’ even a cleaning person will answer that he helps people to go to the Moon… It is an example, how everybody focuses on the company’s aim.”

The experience of successful organizations in the world has proved that the most effective of investments are those made in experts’ professional level development. Such investments guarantee high dividends, says Volodymyr Mykhailov, general secretary of ICC Ukraine. “Ukraine’s membership in the World Trade Organization foresees market reform stimulation, consolidation of equal conditions for national and foreign investors, and so on… In order to realize these priority tasks, ICC Ukraine initiated the implementation of socioeconomic project “Investments in people, standard of modern business,” notes Mykhailov.

Nowadays the topic of business improvement through people’s potential development becomes more relevant, according to Olha Revina, vice president of ICC Ukraine for international integration and partner of “Investors in People” in Ukraine. She says that many companies finally understand that their main value is the staff. And in order to work profitably and be competitive, it is worthwhile to build an effective model of collaboration in society. “The main difference of the standard is that it builds, first of all, effective work of people in the company,” she emphasizes.

Investing in people is relevant for both private and state companies, Revina remarks. “It is a formula of interaction between the employer and employee for the more effective attainment of the set goals,” she explains and tells about the practice of standard implementation in officials’ cabinets: “There is an illustrative example of Sweden. There this standard was first introduced in municipal structures and then offered to commercial ones. Thus, in Sweden they built a formula of social partnership between the government officials and the companies according to which all are playing by common rules.”

The experts do not give a specific recipe for how exactly Ukrainian business can increase the potential of employees. According to them, each company is unique, so the standard conditions are implemented in different ways. The following recommendations can be singled out: from the general advice remember that every employee is a unique personality, and any problems in the team are not actually problems but “sectors for development.” Investments should be made, in fact, in the development of these sectors. The most important areas for development in Ukrainian companies, as Revin noted to The Day, include more effective mid-level management and system performance evaluation of the staff.