Human Resources

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 21 nov 2013

Digital revolution facilitated by advancement in technologies in almost all fields of human life's existence is creating a new evolved society. Some works of the past have totally been taken over by technology enabled systems. Human resources is finding a different meaning. Jobs are being transformed and there are visible shifts in the 21st century job functions compared to earlier ones. Article explores the various aspects of technology and its economic impact on societal structures. Author quotes the new book 'Race Against The Machine' by MIT professors, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee - "Those jobs that are complementary to computers such as data scientists and computer programmers will be in demand, as well as those jobs that require empathy, relationships and sensory perception". Read on...

Deseret News: John Florez - Technology disrupting our way of life
Author: John Florez

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 07 nov 2013

There is a direct relationship between education system and industry. What is taught in classrooms is often translated and reflected into the workplace environment. Over the years education has been designed to provide students the skills and competencies based on what the world of work required. Industrial-age mindset had a strong imprint on education design process. This might not be totally relevant in the present times. The education system must evolve together with the current work environment. The recent Gallup survey of 18-35 year olds in US found a direct relationship between the 21st century skills imparted in schools and the quality of work (twice as likely as their peers). This higher quality of work further translates into higher level of work satisfaction. Education systems across the world should understand and evaluate the latest skills required to survive in the present work environment and plan and implement policies that align and adapt to these changes. Then only there would be a high quality, productive, efficient and satisfied workforce. Read on...

BD Live: Workplace skills are learnt in classrooms
Author: Arthur Goldstuck

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 06 nov 2013

With increased pace of change, global reach and advance communication technologies it becomes imperative for businesses to align and adapt their processes to this changing reality. Although the basics of business like cost reduction, profitability and customer focus don't change but the way businesses achieve their goals continues to change. Business Process Management (BPM) as a concept and practice have been there with trends like 'work simplification', 'workflow automation', 'business process reengineering' etc being part of it and revolutionizing the way its stakeholders (owners, managers, workers) think about business organization. BPM suite offered by software and IT solution vendors that is used to simplify and streamline business processes should be capable of adapting to the changing demands of the business environment. Human resource department with various administrative tasks requires BPM suite that can align with the changing demand and workforce requirement like freelancers, part-time workers, telecommunters etc, that the standard off the shelve HR solution might not be efficiently able to address. BPM suite gives HR flexibility to customize and individualize the processes with changing expectations. Read on...

Firmology: Is Your BPM Solution Responsive Enough to Keep Up?
Author: Maricel Rivera

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 31 oct 2013

PASET (Partnership in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology) is created by World Bank to facilitate and promote collaboration, covering the whole spectrum of education (higher education, technical and vocational education and training (TVET), research and innovation in applied sciences), between Sub-Saharan African countries, emerging nations (China, Korea, India and Brazil) and Japan. Recently a workshop was held in Adis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, to formulate the nature of engagements between the partnering countries. Most emerging economies have already made investments in Africa and they are also assisting in the development and betterment of the local human resources. The workshop was intended to identify and formalize the engagement roadmap based on the expertise of the partner nations. The engagements proposed by African countries include following areas - faculty development; agricultural training and research; university-industry linkages; use of ICT; TVET instructors; infrastructural development. While the partner's side include expertise in the following specific fields - development in agriculture and training of TVET instructors from China; use of ICT education by Korea; institutional and industry collaboration by India; postgraduate training and research by Brazil. This World Bank facilitated partnership is expected to create unique mutually beneficial relationships between African and partner countries for better future. Read on...

University World News: PASET - A World Bank initiative for skills development
Author: Goolam Mohamedbhai

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 oct 2013

With advancements in analytics technologies and availability of big data, marketers have valuable tools and information on various aspects of customer interaction with their businesses. This information can be used to get insights and generate ideas for delivering better products and services. Moreover it can provide an opportunity to experiment and validate ideas at faster pace (accelerated business innovation). All this is creating new principles and dynamics of market behavior and giving rise to a new science, 'Customer Science'. To better observe, analyze and understand customer behavior and apply it for the benefit of businesses and customers, requires talented and skilled pool of 'Customer Scientists'. These scientists may not all come from the traditional marketing fields and would need to be diverse in skills - analytical, cumputer literate, digital natives, creative and thoughtful at the same time factual and pragmatic. Moreover knowledge of all the principles and methods of the past for analyzing and understanding customers and obtaining learning lessons like outcome driven innovation, balanced scorecard, GOAL, Six Sigma etc are now being utilized by enterprises to obtain insights from customer data and this will finally evolve into a mature field of customer science in future. Read on...

Business 2 Community: Birth of the Customer Scientist
Author: Ian Tomlin

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 oct 2013

One of the most important attribute of the organizational leadership is to build and manage its culture. Since organizations and their environment are continuously changing and evolving, it is necessary that members of the organization embrace change and adapt to it. John Kispert, CEO of Spansion, provides guiding principles to manage change by making innovation an inherent part of the corporate culture - Be accountable to each other; Promote open communication and trust; Be decisive and take risks. Read on...

Bloomberg: Want to Innovate? It Starts With Your Corporate Culture
Author: John Kispert

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 oct 2013

Telecommuting (Working from home or other convenient location without coming to office) is an important aspect of the work dynamics in many industries particularly those that have intensive use of computers and connected devices to accomplish work responsibilites by their employees who mostly work individually. Although advances in collaborative technologies have even facilitated team-work where employees working from different location can work together to complete projects. But recent work policy initiatives by Hewlett-Packard and Yahoo, that are intended to discourage work-from-home, have brought telecommuting to the forefront of the human resources debate. Their argument is that telecommuting is affecting the corporate culture and making team work difficult. Author suggests that to understand and estimate the effects of telecommuting on their organization's culture, business leaders should ask themselves these questions - (1) What kind of culture is to be created? (2) What are the needs of the organization? (3) How to plan to make sure that work-from-home policy does not compromise communication? (4) How often is it necessary for employees to collaborate? (5) How will a work-from-home policy affect productivity? (6) How will the work-from-home productivity is to be measured? Read on...

Reuters: How to Protect Corporate Culture in a Telecommuting World
Author: NA

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 24 oct 2013

Leader's ability to plan and execute strategy is one of the most critical aspect of an organization that gives it direction and provides sense of purpose. It motivates people to work towards a common goal in the best possible way. Author shares the best what the senior leaders do while formulating and executing strategy - Clear understanding of the difference between strategy and tactics; Create a line of sight between vision and action; Don't allow means to overtake ends; Maintain a strong sense of customer or end user focus; Don't think outside the box, but destroy the box; Communicate strategy with oomph to make the powerful impact. Read on...

Forbes: How Strategic Are You?
Author: Scott Edinger

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 20 oct 2013

Organizations are a conceptual and social entities with a common purpose and a connection to their surrounding environment. They are defined by their culture and their interactions with the external environment. Organizations achieve lasting permanent behavioral change (learning) when the lessons taught become inherent part of the culture of the organization. People not only learn or are made to learn individually but actually share and disseminate their learning and the success that results from it. Essential element of organizational learning is exploring, learning and sharing with each other. And only by working together for a common goal they can serve the true purpose of the organization. Read on...

Henrietta Post: What is organizational learning?
Author: Stephen Balzac

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 09 oct 2013

'Side-project entrepreneurship' is not a new concept but with spread of internet based technologies like social media etc it has the potential to transform the work dynamics of individuals. Side-project entrepreneurs pursue their personal projects and ventures alongside their full-time jobs. Balancing the work-load and been able to do justice to both responsibilities can be challenging. Article shares a side-project entrepreneur's views and experiences and how pursuing a start-up with a day job is a good proposition for those with entrepreneurial mind. He suggests - Experiment and act on the idea in free time; Explore your abilities and learn your limits; Build your autonomy in decision making; Enhance your creativity by involving yourself in innovative pursuits that will also be beneficial for the full-time work. Read on...

Geek Wire: The side-project entrepreneur: 4 reasons to try a startup without quitting your day job
Author: Chet Kittleson

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