By John Hollon
I don’t know about you, but I get awfully tired of hearing executives prattle on about how “people are our most important resource.” Wouldn’t you love, once and for all, to hear someone say it and actually show that they mean it?
That’s the resolution I think organizations should adopt in 2010: to push out of this recession by leveraging their most important asset and actually investing in their people.
Given how workers have been beaten down over this past year with an endless cycle of layoffs and buyouts, pay cuts and furloughs, it’s important for business leaders to send a positive signal that they still believe in the importance of investing in their people and their long-term growth.
Investing doesn’t necessarily mean paying them more or rolling back the furlough days (although that would be a nice gesture, too), but rather, it means doing things to help workers grow professionally—like letting them take on a special project, or helping them to upgrade their skills.
In other words, businesses everywhere need to truly engage workers and help them get past the bad feelings that so many have about their organizations and their jobs. With a possible economic recovery on the horizon, it is time for America’s business leaders to step up and start helping America’s workforce out of its funk. Investing in the workforce, if it truly is the organization’s “most important resource,” is a smart resolution not only for this New Year, but a smart investment for years to come.
Follow the series 10 Talent Resolutions for 2010.
John Hollon is the editor of Workforce Management, a Crain Communications’ publication based in Irvine, California. He directs all editorial staff and content for the monthly print magazine, 10 monthly newsletters (including Workforce Week, Workforce Recruiting, and Workforce Benefits), and Workforce.com, the web site of Workforce Management. He also writes an award-winning magazine column, The Last Word, and an award-winning online blog, The Business of Management.
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