Sustainability of Human Resources: A Heuristic Approach

Abstract

Introduction: Companies increasingly recognize the effects of socially and environmentally responsible decisions and investment in the sustainability of their businesses. Skilled and well-trained employees (human resources) are like valuable and scares resources and should be managed in sustainable manners. Ergonomics and Human Factors (E/HF) field can help management identify potential problem areas and improve the working conditions to minimize waste such as turnover, injury, absenteeism, etc. The employees’ performance can be used as an indicator of sustainability. Objective: To develop a heuristic model to assess the sustainability of human resources by utilizing micro-, meso, and macro-ergonomics factors, which can be used as diagnostic tool for improvement.Method: A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed among two different organization (a hospital and a manufacturing company). Three different indices of E/HF were calculated as well as performance index. The correlation between indices were studied and three-dimensional plots were created to evaluate the validity of the heuristic model.Finding: There were insignificant correlation between the E/HF indices and performance index in both organization, however, the responses from the manufacturing company matched the heuristic model better than hospital. Conclusion: The heuristic model developed in this study appeared to be viable to assess the sustainability of human resources. Additional work or different methods need to be implemented to validate the results. It seems that the survey should be custom designed for different industry since different factors and elements can affect the sustainability of human resources in each industry.

Keywords: Human Resources, Performacne, Ergonomics, Human Factors, Sustainability

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1001576