MINISTER of Labour and Social Security Derrick Kellier has underscored the need for the leadership of organisations to recognise the importance of human resource management to the success of the entity.

Failure to do so, he warns, will result in private and public sector organisations increasingly discovering a “disturbing disconnect” in the management of their enterprises.

Speaking at the opening of Make Your Mark Consultants’ (MYMC) middle managers conference at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston on Monday, Kellier said there is a direct relationship between a company’s financial success and its commitment to treating employees as assets.

Evidence of this, he noted, is borne out in the ministry’s observations of companies’ growth trends, hiring practices and needs, and tendency to resort to the national industrial relations machinery to settle labour and management disputes.

The minister said studies indicate that companies whose human resource management procedures encourage and facilitate high commitment, involvement, learning and organisational competence benefit from dividends ranging between 30 and 50 per cent.

“Given the current delicate state of our national economy and the need to significantly boost national employment, revenue intake, lower the threshold of our national debt, and significantly increase productivity, many private sector companies growing reliance on downsizing, which diminishes the connections and strategic alliance between people and organisation, cannot result in a committed workforce and, hence, increase profitability and success or necessarily spur an upward trend in the economy,” he argued.

Kellier contended that within the context of a dynamic global economy, strategic thinking and change implementation “are no longer simply the purview of the chief executive officer, senior or middle manager team.”

Rather, he said, people throughout the organisation must be able to understand the myriad of changing elements emanating from the external business environment and translate these into collaborative, coordinated solutions.

“For in any truly dynamic enterprise, it is people, rather than the existing organisational structure, that guide the strategic choices made. People have a much larger role to play in integrating shifting and diverse inputs, in making strategic decisions, and in coordinating these,” the minister argued.

Additionally, he contended that: “people are needed because dynamism requires choice, imagination and courage. In this, they need to be able to collaborate with others, to develop team and work group strategies that align with the strategies of other teams and larger enterprises. Just as important, they need to know how to turn these strategies into real performance and coordinated action.”

The two-day conference was held under the theme: ‘The People at the Centre of Strategy’, and was designed to highlight the role of managers and team leaders in adding value to enterprises.

Delivering the opening presentation, MYMC Managing Director Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd said tthe focus of the conference was on personal and professional development in the areas of leadership, human resource development; sales and services; managing money; productivity improvement; and business development.

— JIS