People are your most important asset? Then prove it!

InfoBasis is challenging organisations to abandon the corporate rhetoric, and finally demonstrate that people are their greatest asset.

Research by the skills management expert shows that 36 per cent of FTSE 100 companies claim that people are their most important asset. Despite this, few are putting into practice any measures to ensure that individuals are invested in appropriately, according to their needs and skills. InfoBasis is calling on organisations to back up their claims, and at the same seize the opportunity to optimize this asset in line with business needs.

ìIt has become one of the most used business clichs,î said Ashley Wheaton, CEO of InfoBasis. ìSome organisations simply use it to rubber-stamp their mission statements with HCM credentials. Others genuinely believe that they are treating their people as their most important asset, based upon superficial criteria such as the number of training days delivered, regardless of the quality or relevance of the training. Few are actually doing anything which demonstrates the claim is taken seriously, and therefore have only a highly limited view of what this asset can do.î

ìEmployees can be utilised so much more appropriately, which is better for the individual, and for the company,î added Wheaton. ìHowever, currently it appears that organisations are cheating themselves as well as their employees; any other valuable asset left unaccounted for, or under utilised would be seen as a major waste. Every board should insist on Human Capital Excellence as part of their core business principles, and assign someone to be responsible for it. The challenge weíre issuing is - if you really value your people: prove it.î