Tuesday, November 17, 2009

human capital morgue

It’s a localized case study for business students and certainly a personal saga for those who await their exit from Sprint’s human capital account. The “sprint connection” blog is a good place to watch the saga unfold. Today, one can celebrate the stock’s 6% climb. But the looming layoffs explain the perceived vitality of the company’s image, such as it is.

Publically shared businesses need to increase shareholder value. It is a basic rule. In this lean economy of ours, every move, every decision appears to have higher risk. Human capital is but one dimension of a company’s resources to balance.

The antiseptic language of management can ring hollow. While we track numbers of layoffs on the business pages, plot graphs, and analyze data points, it’s fitting once in a while to add some humanity to the discussion. It’s also fitting for young people to take note about the realities of corporate employment, to peer above their textbooks and take note of this current case study.

Don’t feel threatened. Be realistic. Know that your talents while important, your hard work while commendable, and your personal dedication are not enough for job security. There are many attitudes for you to adopt as an employee. Take some time in the future to speak with workers, friends and family, to learn their attitudes about employment, how they view their relationship to their company.

Even when the economy bounces back to wherever it bounces, these periodic resource decisions to trim and instill confidence in shareholders will continue. It must be done. One billion invested here, but come from somewhere. Lost customers there, equates to lost revenue numbers here. In balancing the bubbles, remember that human capital, while very human, is one of those measurables.

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