“The mother lode of wealth runs not through the executive corridors but through the vocational landscape of frontline employees.” From the book “Firms of Endearment: How World Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose” by Raj Sisodia, Jag Sheth and David Wolfe, those are the closing words of the chapter entitled “Employees: From Resource to Source.” As such they encapsulate pretty succinctly the theme of the chapter.  

First perhaps, though, it would help to clarify what the authors mean by describing employees as a “source.”  They spell this out by saying, “Here is a better way to think about people: a human being is not a resource but a source. A resource is like a lump of coal; once you use it, it’s gone, depleted and worn out. A source is like the sun – virtually inexhaustible and continually generating energy, light and warmth. There is no more powerful source of creative energy in the world than a turned-on, empowered human being.”

Now I am pretty sure you will not have considered your employees as a source (unless - perhaps like P&O Ferries appear to - it is as the source of all your headaches!) However, jests aside, I will wager that you did not answer my initial question by identifying your employees as being the key driver of your business success – as the motherlode to wealth in your business. Yet business is a human activity that is essential to human survival: delivered by people for people.   

Thus you can hardly deny it when the authors state, “Good people management is great business. Even as more activities become automated, the importance of human capital in the performance of an organisation continues to grow. Just as companies now track brand equity and customer equity, they should also track their employee equity.” And my Every Individual Matters Model offers you an ideal way to account for your employee equity.

You may consider it somewhat paradoxical to propose accounting for people as assets and recording and accounting for your employees as human capital. Nevertheless it offers a way better alternative to the present practice of accounting for them exclusively as a cost. That sets a completely negative attitude that encourages you to minimise your people and their contribution rather than appreciate and maximise them. As the authors say in the penultimate sentence to the chapter; “Companies owe it to their shareholders to elevate the working conditions of the men and women on their payrolls, materially, emotionally and experientially.”

The time has definitely come for you to rethink the way you account for, manage and treat your employees. So why not contact me and explore my Every Individual Matters Model and how it will enable you to open up the motherlode of your business and create the passion and purpose to enhance your wealth.