Economy

What is human capital? »Its definition and meaning

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The human capital is the most important within an organization and refers to the productivity of workers based on their training and work experience. In opportunities, the term human capital is used to indicate the resources that a company has, its competences that derive in a general improvement in production, this is due to the old concept that placed human capital as a factor of production and not emphasizing in the formation of it.

What is human capital

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It is a measure to economically value the professional skills that a certain person possesses. The factor of labor production is also taken into account in this capital, since these are no more than the hours that people dedicate to the production of services and goods. The human capital of a given subject is calculated according to the current value of all the benefits that person expects to receive for the work activities they perform until, finally, they decide to stop working. If this is added to financial capital, it represents the total wealth of a person.

But, being a future amount, the younger the person, the greater the human capital, this is because an elderly person may have saved, invested or spent their earnings, this makes them become financial capital and don't stay human. The amount of this capital is not maintained throughout life, in fact, it is more likely to decrease than to increase. This tends to increase only when there are investments. Importantly, an employee's education, experience, and skills all have economic value.

When you are in the world of investments, human capital is too important a concept and cannot be taken lightly, this is because, as part of the total wealth of a subject, it must be taken into consideration to establish one strategy of asset allocation appropriate (asset allocation). In addition to this, human capital planning generally tends to be taken into account as if it were assigned to a fixed income (example of feasible human capital, bonds), because benefits are periodic income and do not have as much risk as equities (Actions).

So if a person wants to allocate half of your money to an income variable and the other half to a fixed income, adding the factor of planning human capital should increase its financial capital to equities and decrease fixed income.

The knowledge obtained by the educational quality received in the population is decisive, since it is this training where the skills capable of influencing the efficiency of an economic agent or the total production of the company are developed. But it must be emphasized that this education should not be strictly formal, that is why various organizations take responsibility for the training of their human resources, an act that is considered as an investment that will pay off later.

Main authors

In 1960, the theory of what this capital was began to be strengthened, with neoclassical studies being the most special and taken into account by North Americans. The different authors who had knowledge on the subject, addressed part of what were the antecedents of capital and consolidation. The first authors managed to propose the odd theory of human capital focusing on investment in training, however, the authors who came after them coined the specific term of human capital development.

1. Adam Smith: he was the creator of the book " The Wealth of Nations ", where he speaks extensively about the administration of human capital and how it makes great nations increase their wealth. He also talks about human capital finance in an open way, thus managing to become the father of economics and main author of the theories about human capital. He also raises bonuses as an example of human capital within the benefits obtained from working for a certain amount of time.

2. Theodore W. Schultz: this author was in charge of elaborating “ the theory of human capital ” with special emphasis on education as an investment. This led to taking into account access to education and health, since it was decisive due to different income or capital. In addition, he managed to establish a branch in economics, which he called the economics of education.

3. Gary Becker: this author always had an interest in this topic, it was his passion, in fact, he himself defines this term as the set of productive capacities that an individual acquires by accumulating general or specific knowledge. Becker thought that the individual tends to incur educational expenses at the same time as the cost of developing human capital, all this due to having the opportunity to continue remaining in the economically inactive population and not receiving a current income.

But, in the future, that same training will give you the possibility of obtaining a higher salary, the detail is that the productivity of employees not only tends to depend on their aptitude and the investment that is made in them, either within or outside the position in which the person is working, but also the motivation they have and the intensity of their effort.

History of human capital

To understand this a bit, we must go back to the 18th century when economic experts such as Adam Smith raised a series of needs, among which he highlighted not only the technical but also human factors when establishing rules for the operation of the company. Therefore, human capital appeared as the great element to differentiate both situations and more importantly, since it is this that performs the tasks and skills of each economic area. Today many personnel training processes are carried out by companies in order to make the personnel much more competent and productive.

The economic growth is seen as an increase in the production of goods and services. Generally, economic growth is accompanied by a great and notable improvement in the conditions of human life, it is precisely for this reason that many economic policies are in charge of pursuing the economic growth of people or workers of a company or job..

This growth can be achieved by increasing the quantity of productive factors, that is, physical capital and labor, thus improving the quality of the aforementioned factors and increasing the efficiency with which they are mixed in each of the productive processes. The concept of human capital was outlined in the middle of the last century from the sociological study carried out by Theodore Schultz and Gary Becker.

Thanks to the research of these authors and other studies that were made some time later, it was discovered that a large part of the economic growth of Western societies could be explained by introducing a variable called human capital, which was correlated with the level of specialized training that had the individuals of a given society.

These works succeeded in introducing the notion of " investment in human capital " in economic policy, which also qualifies and guarantees a total improvement in the quality of the labor factor that in one way or another contributes to economic growth in two different ways that, Furthermore, they are interrelated: the first is by increasing the productivity of productive factors. The second is Driving technical progress, consequently improving the efficiency with which these people combine.

Research on human capital began with the questioning of why in Western societies workers obtained higher productivity. The answer was clear, it was due to different innovations at the technology level that were being carried out at that time. For previously mentioned authors, the automation originated as a result of these technological innovations in industrial production were going to end up causing the imminent increase in intellectual jobs.

The theory of human capital had its official genesis as an attempt to explain the part of income growth, as well as that product of national origin that could not be attributed in the calculations of the factors traditionally considered in previous years For example, fixed capital, new labor additions, and recently cultivated land.

The difference had to come from the new quality of work, but also from its higher productivity, and this should be attributed to new investments, which would be made in health work, experience, migration and, above all, education. If we talk directly about education, human capital gained too much importance within the economic literature, so much so that it was one of the most interesting aspects to study and analyze in different world conferences.

Importance of human capital

The importance of this capital lies in knowing how to recognize the key role that workers in a certain work area play in carrying out the tasks that correspond to them for the success of the company. This is important because, despite everything, the better capabilities the work team has, the better the quality of activities carried out in the company, thus guaranteeing efficiency in each activity, leaving an open gap to meet human objectives in the short term or medium term.

Human resources in a company are part of the labor importance, not only for the recruitment of a qualified team, but also for its adaptation and future training for the members of the company. The more trained workers are with the objectives or goals of the company, the better their job performance. It is precisely because of this issue that human resource management cannot simply be limited to administrative areas, it must also create totally enjoyable work climates, promote a sense of belonging and total commitment of all workers.

Human capital management

The management of human capital or, as it is also called, the administration of human capital, manages to transform business opportunities to increase work commitment, productivity and the value that each employee gives to their workplace, this, of course, It does it directly in the administrative functions linked to the human resources department, this implies the hiring of employees, their next training, the payroll, the compensation that these entail and, finally, performance management.

The management of human capital takes into account the workforce as something that goes beyond the cost that it deserves to develop in business activities. The workers are regarded as an extremely essential business asset, with a value with the comments and suggestions necessary, can be exploited or significantly maximized, all through a series of management strategies and investment, as is done with any other asset in a company.

An example of human capital to complement the previous approach is that management refers to business strategy and a series of modern technologies, all used to improve quality control, employee movement and profits in the company. Human resources, as well as the management system, present some important nuances that must be explained in order to broadly address the subject. The main nuance is the exponential increase in electronic commerce in a company, which makes it an extremely valuable labor and human capital management mechanism.

This nuance allows companies to have a human resources section, which gives it functions related to personnel control (hiring, positions, reporting and tax management). But it also has other sections, among them, human talent management, which refers to knowledge strategies, trades or jobs that are presented throughout people's lives. This includes the training of candidates (learning, development and performance), as well as their next hire.

This nuance also makes the rewards that the staff of a company should have are taken into account, of course, everything according to the activities that they have successfully completed and that is where the human resources section intervenes or plays a leading role, since they are the ones who supervise the activities of the personnel and administer the monetary rewards (salary, benefits and payroll) of the employees.

Another point to take into account in this matter is personnel management, which is under the direction of a company's human resources. This management encompasses working hours, the total number of absences and any other situation that arises and that may increase or make it impossible for the workers' activities. On the other hand, there are the management systems that human resources have and that are vitally important in the nuance of increases in trade in companies.

This systematic management refers to the applications and technologies that automate and fully support the human resources section within the period of time in which employees work in the company. At first glance, human capital management and human resource management systems might look the same and actually do have some similarities, but human capital management focuses on employee management strategies, with the aim of a better work environment and of keeping everything in perfect order.

To end this section, there are the human resources information systems. Originally, this had to do with the maintenance in the administrative records of the employees of a company, with its initials in English HRIS (Human resource information systems), however, this was replaced by a new term: “ HR management systems ". Actually, both terms are considered synonymous and are used without any problem in practice.

Human capital CDMX

In Mexico, there is a human capital administration and finance secretariat, it has a fairly complete web page through which you can explore all the services that a recent or experienced professional can access. In order to use the platform, a user must be created together with the password. The most common thing to do on the website is the downloading and printing of payment receipts.

How to download and print your payment receipt ?:

Usually, on the web the direct link of human capital cdmx payment receipts appears, but you still have to log in. So you will follow the following steps:

  • Once the account has been accessed, select the "payment receipt" option. In it, all the payment vouchers for each fortnight will be broken down.
  • You just have to select the receipt you want to download and then print, save it in PDF (the option is right next to the receipt) and that's it.
  • The receipt is saved in the download folder of the PC or in any other that you have chosen.
  • After that, you can print it anywhere.

Frequently Asked Questions about Human Capital

What does human capital mean for a company?

It is about the labor performed by the employees in the company.

How to manage human capital?

It is necessary to invest in technology, make introductory guides for employees and have the endorsement of the General Management and the directors of each area.

What is the function of human capital?

Develop the activities and productivity of a company.

What is the difference between human capital and human resources?

Human resources focus on managing employees. Capital is focused on the valuation of personnel and their skills.

How is human capital measured?

It is done through the gross domestic product.