Einstein : Not everything that can be counted counts. And not everything that counts can be counted.

Thursday 5 July 2007

Investing in people,again.

Investing in People ?

Now what's all that about then ?

An organisation that values all their staff and their abilities they bring to the organisation.

Organisation.............sounds like another 'good' word. Much like 'cascade'.

Back to investing in people.

Sounds like another trendy in-phrase that gets bandied about and is great in practice but is ignored in reality. Reality is where a lot of us of seem to spend our time.

Perhaps you've never been shafted by the management and you think itis a good thing.

Perhaps, then again, you have been shafted and the phrase 'investing in people' leaves a particularly nasty taste in your mouth.

I'll help you search for the mouthwash.

8 comments:

Metcountymounty said...

Have any forces ever got the investors in People awards?? I was under the impression that they had to give a qualification for every aspect of training that people go to, in which case I'm owed a few NVQ's at the least and certainly more than 1% payrise!!

Mousie said...

Our place "invests in people".

Considerably less than it invests in equipment, cleaning, supplies, recruitment, security, staff retention, decent food, training or building maintenance by the look of it. But we all feel so valued that none of that matters.

And they charge us a frickin' fortune for car parking.

Bastards.

Minty said...

My former employer "invested" in people.... made me have a warm glow. Then they shafted half the workforce.

Falco said...

For too many years I felt trapped in corporate middle management for a large retailer. People were referred to as the company's most valuable resource.

However, Mousie said it pretty well. Except ... *But we all feel so valued that none of that matters.* Yeah, whatever.

Then I saw the company rid itself of many of those valuable resources just like a plastic surgeon would excise an ugly keloid.

Anonymous said...

Working for the NHS we are in no doubt that senior management pay lip service to IEP etc etc. Our latest course offering is 'my customer' (I'm not making this up, honest!). They ought to spend a bit of money on ensuring safe conditions, safe staffing levels and adequate wages for the job. That must surely go for your job too?

Whichendbites said...

Aaahhhh, nursemary, I have friends within the health service, as well as education, they too speak of similar things. What appears to drive these services are not welfare or service as they claim to do but the auditers and statiticians who dance to the tune of pressures from elsewhere. These only seem to state how much money in enormously large figures (in real terms) they are pumping into the chosen area, at the same time without having the same care in what resources get this windfall. More effort and resource goes into counting and accounting for this counting to justify their position and use it as a stick to beat the masses who actually provide and deliver the service. Not the managers and administrators as they like to think. A lot of them seem to confuse importance and status with the responsibility of their roles. Thanks for the comment.

Anonymous said...

Our force is an "Investor" (West Mercia), it has always been a surprise to me because i have never felt particularly invested in and nobody has ever had the decency to bloody ask me. One thing i know for sure is that some where in the vast country estate that we call HQ (where you acn never find a parking space for a Police vehicle and get in the shit for having the temerity to park it outside the reception for a second)there is an entire department of well paid civies whos entire reason for existence is to ensure that we retain the IIP tag!!!!!

Pill taken rant over. Jingo

Whichendbites said...

Jingo, you cynic. I think you will find, according to the official party line, that all these well paid civilian support staff are there to support the front line troops in what they do. Without this support it would be nigh on impossible for front line troops to perform their vital role. After all, everyone in there to support the officer on the street. Sounds good, don't you agree ? But then I woke up and saw that this valhalla was in fact, a bad dream and it wasn't like that at all.