There is a growing view that regarding staff as resource as in ‘Human Resource’ needs to be rethought. In the context of increased automation of processes, and the proliferation of Artifical Intelligence (AI) in the workspace, there needs to be more emphasis on ‘Human Relationships’, as ‘warm bodies’ become an increasingly expensive component of company operations.
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While this new paradigm might usher in a new dynamic to the employer/employee interface, it does place increasing pressures on employees as companies seek to build teams with multi-dimensional skills that emphasise traits such as empathy, emotional intelligence, and problem solving.
New entrants to the workforce need to ensure they are aligning their skills with this new paradigm by ensuring:
They obtain a broader foundation with more than one area of expertise
They practise and enhance their soft-skills
Actively follow a path of continuous learning
Flexibility and adaptability in their roles
Employers are also having to adapt their operational and management procedures by:
Adapting management styles to a more supportive ‘coaching’ method from an instructive ‘do as you are told’ one
Encouraging a more ‘bottom – up’ approach to goal setting that recognizes both individual and team goals
Redesigning reward and recognition programmes that are more specific and less generic to acknowledge the diversity of the teams.
The management of staff in the face of the Fourth Industrial Revolution characterised by rapid automation, hyper connectivity of devices and people is becoming an increasingly complex and fraught exercise.
After matriculating, Vijay Naidoo studied Economics in the UK. Upon his return, he joined the family construction business as MD for 10 years.
He subsequently joined his sister in their furniture manufacturing business as director for quality assurance and operations. He was responsible for all quality aspects of their products, and led the project to the business achieving an ISO 9000 quality accreditation. As an export focused business, this was important for our international competitiveness.
Mr Naidoo has an abiding interest in quality management and productivity improvement, particularly in manufacturing.
More recently, he has focused a lot of his time on giving back to the community by way of mentorship of small businesses and sitting on the executive of the South Coast Chamber of Commerce. He also sits on the Board of the Ugu South Coast Development Agency.
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