Managing industry needs of human capital

Aside from teaching, my work at De La Salle University (DLSU) involves creating and managing avenues for our industry partners to meet our new graduates and for the former to prefer them over their cohorts from other schools. This is a big challenge indeed as industry has its own character shaped by its raison d’être, and competing universities have their marketing strategies aimed at industry players. Gone are the days when the university name automatically provided a competitive advantage to the graduates.

Nowadays, Human Resources Managers armed with specific roles and functions hunt for the most qualified: those with technical know-how, communication facility, collaborative and critical thinking skills, and proficiency in analysis and problem solving. Added to these is the preference for quick learners with ingrained work ethics. They demand the best and the brightest.

But we cannot give all industry partners only the cream of the crop.

All graduates want to get good, productive jobs, exciting careers, and engaging workplaces. They comprise the “human capital” that will directly increase productivity when the employers raise their productive potential. As cited in HM Treasury (2000, pp. 26, 32), “improving skills of human capital is important in promoting growth, both as an input to production and aid in technological progress. This has been recognized both in endogenous growth theory and also in empirical studies comparing growth in different countries.”

How, then, do we keep professional relationships with industry partners wanting only the best? Certain principles guide us.

First, we try to know the partners well. We spend time with them in meetings, corporate functions, school visits, and other occasions. These encounters produce better, stronger linkages as mutual knowledge and understanding underscore the relationship without either party needing to sacrifice institutional policies.

Second, we use inclusive language of partnership: atin, tayo (ours, us). Most often than not, we can be exclusive in our language with our unconscious use of kami (we) and amin (mine, collective). Kegan and Lahey (2006) emphasize the use of languages of transformation such as the language of commitment, personal responsibility, ongoing regard, and public agreement in creating mental models in dealing with partners. The more inclusive our language is, the more engaged our partners become.

Third, we give clear and ethical communication signals.

The industry must understand that the University deals only with companies that have high regard for the rights of employees and promote human resource development in their business practices. From the onset of partnership, each party knows that the playing field is fair for all. What we give to one, we must give to all.

Fourth, we engage our partners in University programs and projects. Industry practitioners are invited to be key informants in research endeavors, facilitators in career education seminars, and career specialists in confluence lunches and events of student organizations. The contributions of industry in connecting student life with workplace demands and realities through internships and professional encounters at school usher in a near-seamless transition to the world of work.

By continuing partnerships with the “influential” in industry, feedback on graduates comes in handy. From various industries such as accounting, electronics, engineering, marketing, semi-conductors, IT consulting, fast-moving consumer goods, executive search, transportation, real estate, research and development, schools, telecoms, and power generation and utility, feedback is gathered regularly.

Based on feedback we have received, the competitive advantages of our graduates are competence, possessing technical know-how and the ability to communicate and translate these into concrete work roles and functions, oozing self-confidence and compassionate character, creative problem-solving skills, and a high level of professionalism. Industry partners also observe our graduates as being honest, ethical, disciplined, and possessing strong people skills. They work confidently in teams, act with a high sense of integrity, work well under pressure, and can be depended upon. These observed skills and characteristics cut across different years of data-gathering from our industry partners.

On the other hand, our graduates need to tone down their overconfidence, high sense of entitlement, extreme assertion, their tendency to stay only for a short time in a company, and high salary expectations. When asked whether these areas of improvement are present only in Lasallian graduates, the industry partners cited that these are also found in the graduates of the other two top-tier schools in Metro Manila.

As DLSU has identified the expected graduate attributes and incorporated them in the various syllabi and in the teaching and learning activities in the classroom, we hope that the negative observed demeanor of graduates will improve. This may take some time, but we will surely get there. –Ma. Paquita D. Bonnet, Businessworld

maria.paquita.diongon-bonnet@dlsu.edu.ph