What is knowledge based economy and how can we benefit from its coming?

It has been a long time since the coming of knowledge-based economy was announced. The major change that is said to turn a society upside down is upon us now. But what does knowledge-based economy really mean?

Definition

Knowledge based economy is a kind of economy based solely on the production, distribution and the use of knowledge. In short, it means that the most important thing in the coming economy model will be knowledge and skills, not the material products.

What’s the difference?

At first it may seem that there is only little difference between a normal economy model and a knowledge based one. In both we just create, buy and sell the products, and their nature seems to be exactly the same. But as we take a closer look, things change. There are a few reasons for that:

1. Knowledge is easily copied. If you’ve had a good idea, everyone will quickly adopt it unless you do something to prevent it.

2. Knowledge comes through the borders easier than material products. While Chinese are dangerous only to a few sectors of the US economy, knowledge-based economy model calls for moving most of jobs away from US to those countries that have skilled workforce, but are much cheaper than US (India, and eastern part of EU are the good examples of such places).

3. The knowledge is quickly becoming obsolete. You need to be prepared for constant creation of knowledge if you hope to keep up with your competitors.

How to cope with knowledge problems in your company and benefit rather than suffer from the incoming changes?

In short, knowledge based economy will create a lot of problems for small and large companies alike. Counterfeits and violation of your copyrights will eat your profits, most of your contractors will move their orders abroad and the situation in your company (and the whole economy) will change at the speed of light.

However instead of fighting the inevitable we can profit from that. The coming of a new economy model will create as many new possibilities as problems.

1. You will be able to use outsourcing to minimize your cost. In the effect you will be able to offer lower prices while still having an upper hand because of running a business in US.

2. Instead of preventing everyone from using your ideas, go for paid Internet-sharing and let everyone profit from your concepts. Or leave it altogether, offer your ideas for free and profit from the advertisements and high traffic on your website.

3. With coming of knowledge based economy business management has become easier than before. Internet and cell phones make contacting anyone anywhere anytime possible. Use it!

John Rowes makes it easy to understand role of intelligence in business. Learn essential skills in this important area on John’s http://www.acintelligence.com business intelligence site

Introduction: As we have moved from Old Economy to New Economy and from 20th Century to 21st Centuryin the era when we are try to outsource most of the functionsin some of the organizations even the total HR-Functions are outsourcedwhat are the various roles that an HR-Professional can look up to. I have spoken to many recruitment consultants but somehow they failed to give the clarity of role that they are “Head Hunting” for. People with in the organizationat times are just overlapping the various functions. In this write-upI am just trying to explain the various roles that HR Professionals can play in New Economyalong with the traits required for each function.

Recruitment Team (Sourcing, Hiring, Staffing, Talent Acquisition Etc)

Lets start with Recruitment Team. This team is also known as Sourcing or Hiring or Staffing or Talent Acquisition team in various organizations. They are “Sales People” within HR Department. Their main role is to get “Best of the Talent” available in the market. Hence, they need to know what exactly they are looking for. Their role starts with “Talent Requisition” raised by the respective departmentand ends only with Induction of the New Hire. In between, he needs to prepare the Job Description, Identify the Competencies required, Identify the source for hiring, Interview the candidate, Coordinate the interview with the respective department and complete the documentation.

The various competencies that one must have to be a part of the Recruitment Team are as follows:

1) Should have excellent knowledge about the Business of the Organization.

2) Should also be aware of the competitors in the same industry.

3) Need to identify the various resources for hiring and select the best one based on “Cost Effectiveness” and “Urgency”.

4) Should have clarity of competencies that he is looking for and also have clarity on the role a new hire is expected to play.

I am sureif we take care of the above-mentioned competencies in Recruitment Teamthe others (missed out) competencies will take care of themselves. Clarity of concept is important. I have seen recruitment managers who are working as Zonal Managers and are not even aware of the distinction between headhunting and sourcing. The responsibility of the recruitment teamactually ends on the day of Induction and from there onwards”Employee Relation” and “HR-Generalist (Operations)” Team takes over.

HR-Generalist (Operations) Team

This team is actually a backbone of the HR-Department. The job-responsibility of this team starts on the day of Induction with Joining Formalities. The various roles that they are expected to perform are:

1. Joining Formalities

2. Handling Employee Database (Both in Soft Form and Files Management)

3. Leaves and Attendance Management

4. Handling the payroll

5. Managing advance Salary, Ad Hoc Bonuses, Loans

6. Confirmations, Performance Appraisals, Performance Management

7. Liaison with various government organizations for Employee Provident Funds, ESI and other Retirement Benefits

8. Exit-Interviews

9. Full and Final Settlement

Competencies Required

1) Attention to details is a must have quality

2) Self-Motivated

3) Should have updated and accurate databaseon any hour of the day.

4) Should be good in coordination.

5) Should be promptand fast enough in his actions.

Employee Relations Team

This team is like a “Spokesperson” of the HR-Team. They are the bridge between HR and Employees. They are the “Policy and Strategy interpreters”. An effective “Employee Relations Team” can actually control the Attrition Rate of the organization. This team is expected to play following roles:

1) Handling all the queries of the employees. Be it related to Salary, Leaves, Attendance, and Transfer etc.

2) They are also expected to explain the various policies, strategies and benefits to employees.

3) They are expected to stop all type of rumours and misleading communications.

4) They should motivate the employees on day-to-day basis.

5) They are also expected to give constructive inputs to Training and Development and OD Team.

6) They play an important role in “Employee Engagement” winning the trust of the employee and hence can help the organization in controlling the attrition rate.

7) It is for this team to ensure that the employees in the organization should not leave the organization for reasons other than salary.

Competencies Required

1) Highly Matured

2) Level Headed

3) Should be well versed with the business of the organization and its policies.

4) Assertive but not aggressive.

5) Should be empathetic but not emotional.

6) Highly Motivated.

7) Should be highly professionalin the sense, that if this team is activeemployees will be sharing all type of doubtsconcernsinformation with this teamthey are not expected to misuse the information. Should not play politicsby sharing their information with others.

Should be crisis manager.

Compensation and Benefits Team

This is fairly new role for HR-Professionals. The role of this teamchanges, with the growth of the company. His main role is to ensure that the employees of the organizations take maximum salary and befits to their home and lose less to Income Tax.

He is the personwho decides how much to pay to the person; what all benefits to entitle himbased on the market ratekeeping the competitive edge in the industry. He is the personwho actually announces the annual increment for an organization.

This team is expected to perform following roles:

1. Job Analysis

2. Job Evaluation

3. Grading

4. Competency Mapping

5. Salary Surveys

6. Benefits Survey

7. Benchmarking

Competencies Required

1) Should have excellent Business and Industry knowledge

2) Should be aware of competitorsand their Compensation and Benefit Programs

3) Should be good with labour laws.

4) Should also be good in Income Tax Provisionsrelated to Salary and benefits and also Economics.

5) Should be excellent in Statistics and Cost Accounting.

Organization Development - Training and Development Team

As a Country is known by its peoplean organization is known by its employees and hence it is the responsibility of this team to “Develop the Employees” of the organization. If there is any gap in “Competency Mapping” in terms of knowledge and skills required for a particular positionit is for this team to bridge those gaps.

So, it can be training for soft-skillsother skillsnew technology or it is development of Personalityleadership developmentor high-education. Hence, the development of the company in particular and that of its employees in generalis responsibility of this team.

If you are good in speakingdoes not qualify you for being a trainer. You may be excellent as a Public Speaker and worse in training. Being a good speaker is just one of the “Must Have” traits for trainers but not the only trait required. There is something a trainer is expected to do before the delivery(Training Need Identification) and there is something he is expected to do after delivery(Measuring the Training Effectiveness).

Competencies Required

1. A deep and thorough understanding of Human Behaviour

2. Positive in thoughts, approach and personality

3. Should be very good in communication. Should be rich in vocabulary.

4. Should be empathetic.

5. Clarity of thoughts is must.

6. Should be good in linguistics

7. Should have positive body language.

You need to take out Tonnes of Sand to get few Grams of Goldhence the role of a trainer is to get Gold.

You need to dive into the ocean to get a Shell with a Pearlhence he is expected to be to that diver.

HR Coach and HR Mentor

This is one of the roles, which is an outcome of New Economy. Though being a “Mentor” is not a full time job”Coaching” can be. We can place HR-Coach above HR-Director but below HR-President. Just like a Cricket Coach, whose role is not only to improve the batting or bowlingbut also fielding, physical fitness, mental toughness and overall involvement of the each playerthe role of HR Coach is to increase the overall productivity of all the above-mentioned sub-functions of HR Department. Hence, he cannot afford to say that I don’t know about Recruitment or Compensation & Benefits etc. He is the centre of the HR-Department and all functions revolve around him. His role is not very sophisticated one but very tactical.

Competencies Required

1) Experience. This is the one role whereprior experience is must.

2) Business and Industry Knowledge is Must.

3) Should be a Hub of Knowledge and should know HR in its totality.

4) Very influencing, inspirational and highly motivated personality.

5) A true leader.

6) Should be accountable, innovative, responsible and at the same timeshould not be emotionalshould not get tensed up and should not create panic. In Short, a level-headed person.

Conclusion

This is just an attempt to distinguish between various roles that an HR Professional can play in New Economy. There is a lot that a HR Professional can do.

Looking forward to your queries, feedback and comments.

Regards

Sanjeev Himachali

Blog: http://sanjeevhimachali.blogspot.com/

E-mail: ss_himachali@yahoo.com; sanjeev.himachali@gmail.com

You need to know that for every 10 people who could potentially make a decision to interview you or hire you, the odds say that 3 out of the 10 will like you, and it will have nothing to do with who you are or what you do.

They may simply like your smile, your handshake, the sound of your voice, or the way you do your hair.

Rest assured that 3 out of those same 10 people will not like you, and again it will have nothing to do with who you are or what you do.

They may simply not like your smile, your handshake, the sound of your voice, or the way you do your hair.

And when you are hired, 4 out of those same 10 people will learn to like you, or dislike you, as they develop a working relationship with you.

The odds say that those 4 in 10 will like you if you actually do your job and then some, you work at earning their respect, you honor their confidence, and you treat them as you would want to be treated.

Considering these numbers, you will potentially be able to develop a very good working relationship with about 70% of your fellow employees when you are hired and go to work.

The other 30% you can forget, and if you bend over backwards to cultivate their good will, you will usually find that they always have a reason to whine or complain about what is happening to them, and why the world and the people in it are not treating them right. They are, in a word, negative. Your best positive attitude will not likely overcome their negative attitude. So forget about them, or they may do mental harm to your psyche.

Why do people like or not like you based upon things that really have little to do with your skills and abilities?

The simple answer is that people are not always rational. People are filled up with prejudices, beliefs, foibles and idiosyncrasies. They will continually tell you that cat is spelled “kat” even when you lead them to a dictionary and show them that cat is spelled “cat”. They may see but choose not to recognize reality, or truth. A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. A woman convinced against her will is of the same opinion still.

Under the category of “people are not always rational” is also the phenomenon of “life is not always fair.”

For those of us who have been paying attention, life is not fair, and unfairness (or discrimination) is no respecter of race; no one is immune. People of any race are just as apt to be unfair to a person of their own race as they would to a person of another race, they are just less obvious about doing so.

A good example of this would be Karen, a woman who went to a job interview, had a fantastic experience at the interview, and came away feeling good about herself, and her prospects of being hired.

She knew that the company representatives liked her, and would offer her a job. She did not get the offer. Later she learned that everyone liked her, but the key decision-maker axed her hiring, even though he clearly liked her as a possible hire at the interview.

What Karen did not know was that the key decision-maker was going through a nasty divorce and child custody battle, and his ex-wife’s name was Karen. He simply did not want to come to work every day and have to smile at this Karen and say, “Good morning, Karen, how are you doing?” Such is life.

Power Secret Four: Be Careful About From Whom You Take Your Advice

Always remember that the cheapest commodity in the world is opinions. Everyone has one, and if you do not think so, just ask them, and he or she will tell you.

Ask a lot of questions and even solicit opinions, but be careful about from whom you take your advice.

Some displaced workers making $100,000 a year get pushed out the door during a merger, acquisition, restructuring or downsizing (all words for the same negative impact on the individual involved), head down to the local watering hole, ask some unemployed, broke person for advice on what to do next, and then actually listen as if the unemployed, broke person could tell them how to become financially successful in life.

The sources of advice are all around us: fellow employees, those who did not get axed, your friends, your relative who has never had a job, your pastor, and, if you are desperate enough, your dog Spot.

When you want advice, never go back down the success ladder, always climb higher until you reach someone more successful or accomplished than yourself in a certain area. Let someone with experience, expertise and success suggest meaningful actions that can actually produce potential results.

Always remember that when you take your advice from anyone, they are not going to hire you. Nor would you hire yourself.

Seek advice from those who are competent through their own experience and success to give it.

Ed Bagley is a Professional Writer and Personal Marketing Specialist; he helps high-end clients get jobs (those making $40,000 to $350,000 annually). He has helped 5,200+ clients get jobs during a 20-year career. Visit Ed Bagley at…
http://www.Internet-Marketing-NorthWest.com