‘Workers more than just resources’

Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations Colin Jordan is advising Human Resource (HR) professionals to see employees as more than mere resources to the company’s bottom line, but rather as human beings.

His comments came as he delivered welcome remarks at a function for Disrupt HR Barbados 1.0 on Wednesday at the Regne Lounge.

Disrupt HR Barbados is the local arm of the international DisruptHR initiative, which seeks to bring HR professionals, public speakers and other industry professionals under one roof, and in five minutes present ideas to influence a different way of thinking when it comes to teamwork in a workplace setting.

Minister Jordan said that for him, the terms labour and human resources are archaic in nature and do not fully cover the needs of the modern workforce.

“Labour as a factor of production, human resources as used by many of you people development professionals, give the idea that a person comes to a workplace to do something. That person is part of the resource base of the organisation. That person comes to work with land, equipment, technology, to transform something into something else – goods or services. I’m of the view that [this] kind of thinking does not recognise – and I have to say, does not respect – the fact that those workers are human beings,” he explained.

Jordan cautioned the industry professionals to remember that all workers within their companies have roles and responsibilities outside of their work hours.

“When a person leaves home to go to a workplace, they are not able to leave behind the fact that a child is ill, they are not able to leave behind the reality of the diagnosis of an illness that has taken them by surprise, they are not able to leave behind at the door or at home the fact that they have received a letter from the bank saying that because of COVID-19 and them not being able to work and pay their mortgage, they will lose their home. Human beings do not operate that way.

“The worker cannot be separated from the whole person. Human beings are constructs of their physical, emotional, physiological, spiritual and mental facets that make them up. So when we try to separate what people do from that fact that they are total human beings, then we sell them short and we reduce the possibility for the productivity that we expect from those persons,” Jordan stated.

“Your role is not to demonstrate to senior management that you are tougher and rougher that they are; your role is not to demonstrate to senior management that in an effort to show that you add value to the firm; your role is not to be the company’s executioner. Your role is not to be seen primarily as the enforcer of a disciplinary code. You are to be the people who workers feel comfortable coming to, who they feel comfortable talking to [and] sharing with. You are to be the ones who demonstrate that you care about people and that you care about the human beings who work in your organisations.” (SB)