“The human is not a tool anymore” says Prof. Jaroslaw Godyn

Hiring and firing people were the only functions of HR at one time. “That is changing,” says Prof. Godyn, and he says it faster than you can blink your eyes. So we sit back and listen. Because, in our opinion, for decades now there has been a lot of talk of the ‘innovative’ changes that HRM needs. “There really is no single approach in HR. Nor is there a single formula that you could follow to solve a particular problem. Because, what works for Peter may not work for Jane. HR management in today’s time is a multidisciplinary and multifunctional division that needs to be open and ready for changes 24/7,” he says.

The entire focus of HR is shifting. It is becoming more ‘human’ than a mere ‘resource’. Because humans have names, faces, ideas and dreams. They also have ambitions and these must be in sync with the company’s mission and vision.

Originally from an International Finance and Global Capital Market background, Godyn moved to HR because he became aware that Human Capital is the driving force behind a company’s success. “The human is not a ‘tool’ any more. They are real, unique people with aspirations. They are the ones that will help the company as a whole to win the corporate wars that exist in every market place,” Godyn says. Human capital is rapidly replacing the influence of hard money.

HR people need to ask themselves hard questions that sound simple. “We must always ask ourselves ‘what for?’ and ‘why?’ in order to try to find better ways which can lead us to create an innovation instead of acting like automatic machines.” His accent is different, but his words are strong. They make complete sense even to a non HR person.

This is not Godyn’s first visit to India. He has had that cultural exposure to earlier, and is therefore not as fascinated of it like a first time visitor would be. Even the food, a topic of animated conversation with other international visitors draws a mere accepting shrug. Instead, he talks about his IMT experience. “Generally speaking IMT’s students represent high quality standards compared to other B-Schools in India. I really appreciate the cooperation of the students and hope I gave them a new, different point of view, and a fresh and flexible approach to HR field of study,” Prof. Godyn is sincere, his commitment, obvious. “The key to win is to know how to manage diversity and varieties inside an enterprise. Be open and flexible,” he ends with succinct yet profound advice.