Business

Samar Enayeh

With high unemployment, shortage of business skills and an antiquated education system, Syria is falling short of churning out talent. The type of talent that multi-nationals grab straight out of universities, not due to their grades but to their potential to deliver quality work over time if the organization invest in them. The quagmire of today’s Syrian businesses is inding qualiied people to ill vacant positions, yet high unemploy-ment is resounded by government even though many positions in the private sector are left unilled. On this level, where families are shrink-ing, money is tight and private education is expensive, you would think that Syrian businesses would invest in their most important asset: their people. In developed countries, and over time, public and private businesses alike have arrived at the realization that it is one thing and one thing only that provides you with a competitive advantage in a highly competitive and ever changing marketplace. That is your labor force. The composition of the people you em-ploy and their readiness during tumultu-ous times is the factor that deines the strong from the weak. After all, we have never heard of companies that have gone under because of the failure of their mar-keting strategies or due to their poor in-ternal manufacturing process. In reality, it is people who devise and drive mar-keting strategies and people who outline manufacturing processes, not machines and math equations. People are the as-sets of organizations. So what should Syrian businesses do when these people do not exist at the numbers required? In today’s global marketplace, talent management represents one of the great-est challenges for HR leaders. Research shows that an organization’s success is directly linked to the talent it can access and utilize effectively, and therefore, finding, developing and retaining highly talented and skilled people is a priority in today’s competitive business environment. If this talent does not exist then invest in it. To effectively build and develop human capital, a number of talent management initiatives go hand-in-hand with the overall human resource management process. One of the basic ones is training existing staff, or hiring people who lack the complete profile for your job description but have the ability and the willingness to learn. Tom Peters, a management guru said that “if your organization is doing well, double your training budget, if it is flailing quadruple it”. An investment in your people is an investment in your business. But under no circumstances do I support allocating thousands or millions of dollars on training and development without at least measuring your internal capabilities and requirements. In order for your investment to pay off it must be invested in the right areas and it must be invested in the right people. So first, before you go committing to overall organizational training and development plans, you need to have a map in place. An organizational map will chart out your goals which are derived from your vision and mission and objectives to your present state of readiness in achieving those goals. Re-member the old adage, “If you continued doing what you have always done, you will get what you have always got-ten”. If you want to be able to compete and survive and eventually thrive in an evolutionary economic state then you must measure, gauge and change the status quo. The present state of “business as usual” will not launch you to the top of your earnings for the year nor will it help solidify you as a viable competitor in an evolving marketplace. If you are lucky, it will simply maintain your present status, and this will depend greatly on the type of industry you operate in. The more technical and knowledge-driven the more likely the failure. Organizations that rely heavily on knowledge and skilled workers are those which need to change faster than change itself. The reason was introduced at the onset of this article; the lack of skilled workforce is magnifying and with it creating an abyss of short-ages for skilled workers. Schools and universities are churning out graduates strong on theoretical knowledge but weak on practice. Today’s evolving global marketplace requires skills not taught in schools. According to an article in the Economist Jan. 21st 2006 “CENTRAL to much thinking about how organizations should be restructured for the 21st century is the idea that innovation and growth will depend more and more on so-called knowledge workers, the sort of people who find them-selves “Thinking for a Living”. In light of this sighting, it was identified that knowledge workers need to have a relevant academic degree, computer skills, English language skills and business skills. The top business skills are not gained through academic institutions nor are they in most cases inherent in people’s character, they are learned behaviors. Some of the top business skills identified are: communication, team-work, leadership, problem solving, decision making, creativity, innovation, self management and initiative. Although we all have some of these skills to some degree, how we use them and to what degree we use them effectively is the issue at heart. These skills or competencies are critical to organizational well being and effectiveness and these are the skills we need to identify, train in and eventually embody in our culture. How do we go about dispensing these competencies to our staff? First and foremost, you need to identify the technical, behavioral and core competencies required in your establishment to achieve your goals. Then you need to identify which positions require which competency (ies). This process is tedious and long, but once established it will be the foundation to base all your human resource management programs on, especially your training and development plans. This will ensure that your investment will be money well spent and that the people in your organization get the suitable training required and that your investment bears fruit. Once you have undergone the data gathering and fact finding mission of identifying your competencies and anchoring them to your organizational mast, then begin your investment in your human capital by empowering them with the knowledge required to achieve personal success which in turn will translate into your organizational success. Remember, this is not a one time shot, this is an on-going process that needs to be nurtured and supported. It does not end with the end of the training session. In reality, it begins when the training ends. The role of the organization to espouse the employees newly acquired skills and behavior is to ensure these values are encompassed in the culture and adopted. This will reinforce the behavior and solidify it among all staff members as the norm. Another important aspect of ensuring that training knowledge is adopted by the employees is to reward the application of these skills on the job. Acquisition of new competencies or development of existing ones are easy, it is the application of those competencies that need to be entrenched and reinforced. A relevant reward system that is linked to the outcome will buttress your efforts. So now, go ahead Syrian businesses and invest in your talent, but ensure that your organization has embodied these competencies as part of their internal culture and values and is willing to reward the application of them or else, your talent will one day become your competitor’s champions.

After observing society as a whole, Adam Smith noted that there was an «invisible hand» turning the wheels of the economy: a market force that keeps the economy functioning. Since all of our resources are limited in comparison to our needs and wants, individuals make decisions regarding what they consume and what they must forgo. Because of scarcity, people must make decisions over how to allocate their resources. Economics, in turn, aims to study why we make these decisions and how we allocate our resources most efficiently.