HUMAN RESOURCES IN THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ERA SHOULD RETURN TO THE TRUE VALUE

In order to make a successful digital transformation, business enterprises need to focus on training the True quality of their human resources and not based on certifications.

Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Dang Minh

Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Dang Minh, Chairman of the Consultancy Council of the GKM Lean Institute (Vietnam GKM Company), a scientist, a senior lecturer at the University of Economics and Business (Vietnam National University) stated that the digital transformation in Vietnam can be achieved in three fundamental technologies: technical technology, manage technology and education technology. The main purpose is to create valuable Made in Vietnam, Made by Vietnam products and services, step by step replace imports for exports, and make practical contributions to the country’s sustainable development. People (people’s true capacities) play an important role in the entire transformation process. Assoc. Dr. Nguyen Dang Minh discussed various human resources issues in the context of the gradual digital transformation in Vietnam.

In the context of the Covid-19 epidemic, how is the human resource management field, and what should be added, sir?

If a developing country wants to develop sustainably and overcome the middle-income trap and the crisis, it must first produce many products and provide services with national brands, and it must be able to replace import products and export products and services to the world. In other words, the country’s sustainable revenue must be higher than its expenditure. In order to achieve a higher revenue, imported products must be replaced, and there must be Made in Vietnam, Made by Vietnam products and services with true values.

In order to achieve this, the most important thing to consider is human resources, not only during the Covid-19 pandemic but the big picture from the earlier times until now. In the manufacturing sector, human resources should be considered at all levels: senior, middle and employee levels (located at the factory, production site). People at all levels must have technical capacity and managing capacity to complete their tasks well.

There must be a straightforward acknowledgement and a radical solution to the quality of human resources, not simply at the college and university level, but also from kindergarten to primary, secondary, and high school levels. These levels are the foundation of vocationally educational level and higher educational level

Those who study at the university level or higher must work in the creative sector, i.e. product research & development, and technology innovation & development. Currently, we have very little market for people who study at the university level or higher. These people graduate and work in the processing area or do routine management tasks on the production site. We can only solve the problem of labor having paid jobs but we have not achieved many things such as transferring, improving, creating premium Made in Vietnam, Made by Vietnam products and technology. This is the trap that poor countries are falling into. In order to overcome this, we must do it ourselves, be self-aware and determined to make a true change in human resources training and development with the ultimate goal of making true products and services.

The labor force in our country is very abundant. However, there is a lack of human resources with deep expertise, understanding of different technologies, and lack of research and development skills, leading to a situation of both excess and shortage situations. Those who lack expertise will easily lose their jobs. Could you please give some comments and suggest solutions?

In order to work productively and efficiently, people need to have technical technology and management technology. People must accumulate both these technologies in the process of learning and practicing. So far in Vietnam, people in technical universities and vocational schools usually lack managing capacity, and those who learn about management or social science areas have weak technical capacity. This is also one of the main reasons leading to both excess and shortage situations.

High capacity human resources means making (participating in the making) products, creating value to sell to the world, for the world to recognize. We must be “true” according to the standards, exceeding the international standards of products and services. Enterprises must be supported to re-train human resources who have not yet met practical needs. Not only going to school, people can learn anywhere, anytime to improve their skills.

Labor productivity is affected significantly by management technology. Why is that? With management technology, people need to be able to manage themselves, manage work at different levels to promote professional capacity. For instance, workers must be able to manage themselves and their tasks; middle-level leaders must be able to manage themselves, middle-level tasks and their subordinates; and the same goes for senior leaders, thereby increasing productivity sustainably.

According to the research conducted by the GKM Lean Institute (GKM Co.Ltd), there are more than 300 managers in manufacturing enterprises, having same problem of  seriously lacking of labors working in product research and development (R&D), technology improvement, or creation of new valuable products and services… Meanwhile, there is a surplus of passive labor who lack initiative and active thinking for doing the true thing.

In order to improve the quality of human resources, I think this is a story of the whole nation’s efforts. We must first be aware that education and training must come from these main areas: family, school, business, and society. The society also needs propaganda and education activities through movies and books in the direction of creating human resources with passion, passion and a thinking mind of doing the true thing.

The GKM Lean Institute has investigated and discovered various diseases that have existed for a long time in human resource management thinking and methods. Since then, we have researched and invented treatment regimens, and created the Made in Vietnam Education Gene, Made in Vietnam Management Gene, Made in Vietnam Technology Innovation Gene with the aspiration that more and more Vietnamese products and services will be exported to the world, replacing imported goods for domestic consumption.

In other words, only premium Vietnamese products and services can contribute to the sustainable development of the country, overcome the consequences of war and environmental consequences, and make people’s life more humane. Since then, we can be proud to be Vietnamese for the sustainability of Vietnam.

Many businesses do not focus on improving labor capacities. There are also many businesses that are investing unscientifically, leading to waste and inefficiencies. Do you have any advice for human resources in the era of digital transformation ?

Enterprises who want to improve and export products to foreign countries must first train their labor to have a good thinking mind (Tam The), management and technology capabilities. These labor will participate in the process of technological innovation and development, transforming development strategies, business strategies, and applying information technology in both technical and managing technologies to improve better productivity, better quality, and be more humane.

This transformation model can be called Made in Vietnam Digital Transformation. In my opinion, it is necessary to integrate education and training, management technology, and technical technology for everyone at the same time for all levels of the enterprises. Transforming these three factors is a prerequisite for successful digital transformation in Vietnamese enterprises and organizations.

Mentioning digital transformation, it is a term that appeared in the 4th industrial revolution. Before discussing digital transformation, we must go back to the origin and analyze the advantages and disadvantages of previous industrial revolutions. As we all know, previous industrial revolutions all started with technological change and from there, everything changed. However, the revolutions starting from technology, especially the 2nd and 3rd industrial revolution, have had a negative side and resulted in exponential depletion of resources and serious destruction of habitats. We are all well aware that the phenomena of climate change, natural disasters, epidemics that have taken place around the world in recent years are all caused by humans.

In my opinion, the industrial revolution 4.0, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, can hardly follow the principle of the previous three industrial revolutions, which is to prioritize technology development. We must reconsider and re-understand the purpose of the industrial revolutions to make the society better, solve existing problems, and find a solution to the overall problem that the previous industrial revolution has not achieved. It is not creating many technologies, machineries, equipment, and material goods to continue to consume and destroy environmental resources, creating many negative aspects of society, families, and individuals. affecting the good life and affecting the sustainable ecosystem, losing the good human nature that has existed for thousands of years.

First, we (enterprises, organizations) must identify and solve management problems and technology problems in practice. We need to develop sustainably, transform the numbers (GDP, productivity, quality, health, education, environment, rate of smog, air pollution…) in a more positive direction (It can be referred to the 17 sustainable development goals according to the United Nations, SDG).

Humans are not machines, and the society must maintain true good values ​​of human beings, live compassionately with each other, and connect with each other. Humans need to truely connect with people, before the connection between people and robots, machines and machines.

true human intelligence needs to be created and promoted on a large scale, thereby promoting artificial intelligence. It is important to note that spreading too much technology may cause people to rely on technology, machines, lose the ability to think deeply, love nature, reduce adaptability, true creativity – these limitations should be carefully considered.

We need to return to our true values ​​and find out what we want, what we have been trapped by the legacy of the previous industrial revolution, to correct the negatives and promote the positives, avoid and not fall in the footsteps of the negative points of previous industrial revolutions.

Enterprises must look for transformational solutions, much better methods to fix and create true products and services for a good life, including both spiritual and material values. This is the true destination of humanity’s fourth industrial revolution, the destination of digital transformation.

The Ministry of Information and Communications is proposing that by 2025, Vietnam will have 1,000 digital transformation experts. To achieve this target, the human factor is the main deciding factor. So, in your opinion, what should we focus on developing?

We should focus on fundamental solutions in education, management technology, technical technology (Information technology is just a tool, methods). These solutions are integrated with each other, and must be put on the foundation of Tam The, the spirit, wisdom of Vietnam. This is the foundation of the Made in Vietnam digital transformation theory and technology. Human resources for sustainable digital transformation must also develop based on this foundation. If human resources only know about information technology and some digital transformation knowledge following the inertia of the previous industrial revolution, we cannot solve the true problem of the country.

In my opinion, it is first necessary to change the deep perception of the destination of digital transformation as described above, then come up with a Made in Vietnam digital transformation model and build a model and program to create foundational capacities of this digital transformation human resource. We can completely clone 1,000 or 2,000, 3,000 and more. All can only be cloned when returning to the true value and starting to develop from the true value.

In order to prepare qualified human resources for digital technology, the Ministry of Education and Training said that it will be developed for students from elementary school. What do you think about this?

As we know, the Covid-19 pandemic, natural disasters have been taking place, nature has warned humanity about the bad impacts of humans on the environment, and some technologies created by humans have destroyed the sustainability of the ecosystem. Therefore, the 4.0 revolution needs to be a revolution in education, management, and technology, which is essentially a revolution to improve human capacity to solve the problem of sustainable development. We must start with education and then choose which technology can repair the consequences and promote the achievements of the previous industrial revolutions. In education, some G7 countries have realized that we need teachers to teach students, and many classrooms have returned to using chalk to write on the board instead of using projectors.

I have been transferring Made in Vietnam Education technology to universities at some G, they asked me to use chalk and write on the board for training. That’s how people directly teach people and it is the most emotional, deepest, and most humane. Using machines to teach, or pre-recorded online lessons just to partially replace, or use in repetition training or to combine support with teachers in training. It certainly cannot replace a class of teachers and students with a class of 100% machine and students.

In my opinion, the digital transformation of education in Vietnam is about transforming educational science, educational content, and transforming the management method of educational organizations where teachers and students jointly create the true value that society and humanity aim for, create true quality human resources, participate in solving the country’s problems, create true products and services, and contribute to the sustainable development of the country.

If digital transformation only focuses too much on technology, using too many technical and technological solutions, will make people lose connection with each other and it is certainly not the true digital transformation in education that the country needs to aim for.

In order to have such high quality human resources, it is necessary to have a lot of modern equipment, synchronous application of new technology in management and training of employees… How should the government create favorable conditions to promote the above process to go more smoothly?

We are learning too much theory and doing very little. The ultimate goal of learning is to be able to do (participate in) what products and services have true value, so the actual practice time of all levels of education and training also needs to be increased. Therefore, it is necessary to train in practice habits, to make true products and services, this is a significant point in educational technology in Vietnam to be achieved. In addition, it is necessary to unify awareness and develop policies to support families, society, businesses, and educational institutions to follow the above-mentioned philosophy of education and training.

The government needs to promote businesses that can make truly valuable Made in Vietnam, Made by Vietnam products. It is necessary to clearly distinguish between value-creating enterprises and enterprises that only seek profits and ignore the sustainable development of society. There should be preferential policies for businesses that do true, have the spirit for the development of a prosperous, powerful and sustainable Vietnam.

Leaders must have long-term and continuous policies in human resource development, not encouraging unsustainable policies. Education policy should be developed and inherited continuously, not according to short-term thinking. Long-term policy must be built from practice and verified through the results of practice.

Where on the world map do you assess the source and quality of Vietnamese human resources?

Currently, we spend a lot of money and spend a lot of effort on investing in technical technology, machinery and equipment and get very little profit, or from processing products with cheap labor, export of raw resources and minerals. To know where we are, we have to compare our potential and productivity index with the world, with countries like Korea, Japan, China… It’s time for true human capacity not to be assessed by degrees and certifications, but must be assessed by the level of creation (participating in the creation) of true products, values, and goods. Where do we see Vietnamese goods and services standing on the world map? How many theories and methods have Vietnamese people participated in solving and contributing to the scholarly flow of mankind? Where these values ​​are, there are human resources. I think we need to look directly at the truth and need to try a lot more. The world is saying we are low average, so human resources are similar, relatively speaking.

Finally, I want to say that we need to learn true things, do true work, true capabilities, true products, everything is True (ToT, True of Things). I do hope our whole country needs to join hands to launch a national action program of creating Made in Vietnam, Made by Vietnam products and services that are truly valuable and classy, ​​affirming the intellectual bravery of Vietnamese people in the international arena, for a prosperous and powerful Vietnam.

“Solutions for human resources that are both redundant and lacking in the manufacturing industry” broadcast on VnExpress Online Newspaper and premiered on VnExpress fanpage at 2pm on Tuesday, August 3, is the second topic in the series of Vietnam Private Economic Talks 2021 (ViEF) by organized by VnExpress Online Newspaper, cooperated with Private Economic Development Research Board (Board IV). With the theme “Breakthrough for a prosperous Vietnam”, the Vietnam Economic Forum 2021 is a meeting and a national-scale public-private dialogue with breakthrough solutions for key industries, creating momentum for the growth recovery in the context that the Vietnamese and world economies still face many challenges after the epidemic. Under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister and with the participation of a large number of business communities, the Forum is a summons and gathering of both the public and private sectors to develop a competitive economy in the region and internationally, boosting production, business and investment to overcome difficulties caused by the epidemic, creating momentum for a new period.

Thanh Thu

Source Vnexpres: https://vnexpress.net/nhan-luc-trong-chuyen-doi-so-nen-quay-ve-gia-tri-that-4331332.html

 

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