Human Resources Committee
Company value in an intellectual economy
The Human Resources Committee held a briefing entitled “Determining company value in an intellectual economy” at the Four Seasons Nile Plaza Hotel on May 21 with guest speaker Simon Varley, regional director UK and Egypt for Innermetrix, a company specialized in helping firms identify, understand and maximize all of their tangible and intangible assets to “drive greater value and create more wealth.”
Varley’s presentation provided an overview of company assets in an economy focused increasingly on intellectual property. He explained that the economy is shifting its focus from goods to knowledge, and companies must adapt by evaluating and investing in their non-tangible assets, namely human capital.
In the industrial economy of the past, people were an intangible asset that sat on the periphery of businesses and were not incorporated into how the company was managed. In the new intellectual economy, however, people are at the center of the organization, and are considered a key, strategic asset to develop.
Varley provided case studies of companies that had successfully leveraged human capital practices to improve operations and increase market value.
Apart from human resources, he explained, companies possess a number of other intangible assets that can be developed to increase overall value, including external identity, internal identity and intellectual identity. External identity is comprised of brand equity, customer and supplier attitudes about the company and market message. Internal identity includes organization structure, systems, processes, ethics, values, dissemination of knowledge, communications, leadership, strategy and team identity. Intellectual identity is made up of talent capacities, competencies, education, experience and skill sets.
In closing, Varley presented a summary of the Asset Identification and Maximization (AIM) assessment tool that Innermetrix offers to help companies quantify such assets. The assessment includes a quantification of a company’s adjusted risk, an evaluation of returns on equity, assets and investment, an appraisal of value drivers as well as recommendations.
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Communication key to strike resolution, say panellists
AmCham’s Human Resources Committee organized a special panel at the Conrad Cairo Hotel on March 6 to discuss the recent wave of wildcat strikes. Held under the theme “From strike to tango,” the panel was comprised of guest speakers Ahmed Al Borai, professor of law at Cairo University; Khaled Mostafa, HR general manager for Banque Misr; Mohammed Talaat, partner for Helmy, Hamza & Partners (Baker & McKenzie); and moderator Khaled Habib, regional HR manager for Pfizer.
In her opening remarks, Mushira Al Bardai, chair of the HR committee, provided a brief background on the labor unrest that has been sweeping across public sector industries. Workers in the textile, cement, steel and other sectors have staged an unprecedented number of strikes and sit-ins to protest unpaid bonuses, lay offs and low wages.
Mostafa, former HR vice president for Assiut Cement Co. (Cemex Egypt), shared the experience of Cemex in resolving labor issues. He explained that when the company’s workers held a strike several years back, the firm’s management took resolute measures in an attempt to reach mutual understanding with the workers and the labor committees inside the company itself. According to Mostafa, the conflict was related to profit distribution, where the workers demanded an immediate distribution of the company’s profits while the management wanted to invest the profits in specific development areas before distributing them.
Cemex’s management focused on creating an effective direct rapport with the workers, explaining how investing the profits would result in a good return that would eventually help the workers themselves. In some cases, these profits were invested in projects that enhanced the working environment and worker safety, which indirectly helped to enhance employees’ well-being. By clearly explaining how the investment would benefit workers, Cemex convinced the local labor committee to revise its position on the issue and the conflict was settled, Mostafa said.
Ahmed Al Borai provided the relevant legal background concerning the formation of labor committees inside companies, as well as the rules that govern the operation of these committees when conflicts arise. He said the main reason behind a lot of disagreements between workers and labor unions on one hand, and companies’ management on the other, is that the rules and laws governing work relations in Egypt are inconsistent with the current economic trend and the shift to a free market economy. Egypt’s socialist laws have not been revised or amended in order to organize these relations and thus many of these conflicts arise due to gaps in the law itself.
Talaat concluded by remarking that one problem in common with all the strikes in the spinning industry during recent months was the lack of communication between the labor committees, labor unions and company management. As a result, conflict became inevitable, and necessitated the intervention of higher authorities. He stressed that according to the law, strikes should be the last resort when addressing a labor conflict.
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HR FAIR: Transforming HR using technology
On September 19, AmCham’s Human Resources Committee and the Egyptian Human Resource Management Association (EHRMA) organized a seminar and exhibition entitled “Transforming HR Using Technology” at the Nile Hilton hotel in Cairo.
The event’s main speaker, Ahmed Abdel Basset, Management and Information Advisor to the Minister of State for Administrative Development, gave a dynamic and engaging talk about the ways in which technology can help improve human resources. He stressed the importance of HR in the success and performance of a company, explaining: “fixed assets make things possible, human resources assets make things happen.”
The main focus of Basset’s talk was what he referred to as the “information pyramid”: a large and well-organized collection of data becomes meaningful information, which leads to improved knowledge, which in turn leads to better performance of a company. Good information systems are therefore paramount to the success of any business, he said.
Basset urged the members of the audience to make the use of technology a habit and second nature for their staff. This process would include training in basic skills such as touch typing, which greatly increases the speed and efficiency of work.
He ended his speech by explaining that the change implied by the extensive use of technology might initially be unsettling for staff, but is necessary for the growth and evolution of a business.
Following the speech, the various sponsors of the event had a chance to present their software products, demonstrating how the latter would make human resource management more effective. Firms such as Microtech, Business Connect, HITS, Moustafa Shawki & Co./Sage, and United Ofoq presented various HR products to approximately 130 guests.
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