Human Capital Is the Greatest Crisis
As the end of the COVID-19 crisis began to emerge, many of us believed—or quietly hoped—that things would return to the way they were before. We were reluctant to acknowledge the obvious signals and the wave of energy and economic crisis that was about to hit us.
But does the “new normal” also mean living in constant crisis?
No. The new normal implies agility, creativity, and courage—along with a sincere hope that reason will prevail in the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and that it will come to an end as soon as possible.
In alphabetical order: agility is the ability of a system to respond quickly to change by adapting its initial stable configuration; creativity is the act of creating something new by generating ideas or combining existing concepts with a specific purpose; and courage is the effort to step out of a given state in order to achieve the freedom for the system to function.
If a system is made up of people, then the starting point for every organization in the new normal must be a focus on human capital. I know how complex it is to think this way. I am a business owner myself and face the same challenges—rising prices and costs, declining revenues and profits. At times, I feel as if I am in free fall, without a compass.
So why do we speak—and act—so little when it comes to our greatest crisis: human capital? It seems as though we fail to take seriously the public data from the latest census, which shows that we have lost 9.2% of the population over a 20-year period, or the findings of the Westminster research, where 58% of young people stated that they would consider leaving North Macedonia.
Is human capital truly the greatest crisis?
These facts clearly confirm the human capital crisis our country has been facing for far too long—a crisis that directly affects the efficiency of operational processes, productivity, and competitiveness of organizations, as well as consumer spending, which is the fundamental driver of the economy.
Stuck where we are, burdened by additional global influences—deep down below, high up above.
If one of the core roles of a leader is to do what is right for the people in their team, then we have both a responsibility and an opportunity to contribute not only within our organizations, but also to encourage social responsibility—to give back to and support the community.
Quite simply, we must care for the well-being of people within our teams and organizations; help them grow and develop; ensure competitive salary and benefits systems; listen to their needs and ideas; support their mental health; create training and development programs; and boldly encourage creativity.
We must encourage people to be agile—because agility is the path to building agile organizations capable of adapting to the “new normal,” where people open new horizons for themselves and for the business.
Stone by stone, this creates a mosaic of a community better equipped to face the challenges ahead.
That is why global challenges must be addressed first and foremost through our most fundamental one: how we respond to the human capital crisis. We must invest—we ourselves—in creating and retaining agile, creative, courageous, skilled, and motivated people who will drive both business and the community forward.
At Thrivity, for the past two years we have been investing in this mission together with the Career Center of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University. We are committed to developing future professionals, delivering training through the Thrivity–Career Center, encouraging young interns to take entrepreneurial steps, and continuously developing ourselves—because we firmly believe this is the only path toward more positive human capital indicators for our country.
We invite you to join us—because it is always better together.
