Human resource

Focusing only on physical resources investment superior production facilities or product does normally guarantee an edge over competitors. Maintaining an advantage normally arises from combining best human skills, knowledge base and other strengths and capabilities results to more yields in terms of gaining competitive advantage  and hence profitability. There is a need to recognize the importance of possessing superior human resources.  Organizations must have a stable highly skilled and knowledgeable workforce because employee turnover prevent them from getting the appropriate coordination and organizational learning that brings about high quality quick response, high quality products and services (Mello & Mello, 2014).  Investing in employee training and development translates into personal fulfillment and prospects of further career growth make lead to job satisfaction. Moreover, human resource systems and practices have a considerable effect on the various objective measures of an organization including return on assets or investments, productivity, quality and overall shareholders returns (Mello & Mello, 2014).

The current organizations can be said to see employees as valuable assets when they cannot retain them due to competition. In most organizations, especially the ones having no strategic human resource management, the investment value of an employee is not considered (Forbes Leadership Forum, 2013). In a public organization such as Southbridge City where there is little understanding of strategy, the employees are seen as convenient machines for processing payment and filling vacant positions. This is despite the concern that human resource departments can be large and involving high costs. However, companies that have had their brightest and most productive employees have learnt the hard way to consider their workforce as very valuable assets. Replacing such an employee would involve lots of resources; in addition to the cultural and psychological effects the loss can have the organization (Forbes Leadership Forum, 2013).

References

Mello, J. A., & Mello, J. A. (2014). Strategic human resource management.28-30

Forbes Leadership Forum. (2013). Nine Ways to Keep Your Company's Most Valuable Asset -- Its Employees. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2013/08/20/nine-ways-to-keep-your-companys-most-valuable-asset-its-employees/#706b88844390