According to IDEA, Farzin Fardis, CEO of Sarava, emphasizes the need for open and collaborative dialogue among organizations to address the challenges of quality and quantity of human resources. He believes that participating and collaborating in training between various entities and HR units can to some extent compensate for the weaknesses in university education for a skilled workforce.

Fardis, CEO of Sarava, sees one of the five main challenges in the ecosystem to be the quality and quantity of human resources.

By quality, he doesn’t mean the absence or presence of average quality. According to Fardis, it’s about a variety of skills possessed by human resources that are considered significant. It’s possible that individuals might have excellent technical skills but weak soft skills. Hence, it’s essential to seriously work on improving the quality, skills, and capabilities of the workforce.

He further discusses the issue of quantity: “We might have a large number of graduates, but compared to the development that companies aim for and the problem of human capital migration, we haven’t been able to train substitute workforce. Therefore, the shortage of human resources makes the selection process less optimal.”

Fardis continues: “We used to hope that universities could nurture human resources, but now we have come to the conclusion that the concerns of universities are not aligned with macroeconomic issues and specific industries. Universities can’t promptly meet these needs, and a transformation in the educational system is required. However, transformation in our country is a process we have less hope in.”

He also points to the diversity and accessibility of training courses: “We see that companies or guilds have taken actions for training their workforce. Sometimes we see managers from an organization sending their workforce to external training courses. Fortunately, diversity in training courses and their accessibility have increased in this area.”

Fardis believes it’s better to move towards a direction where organizations collaborate in training. Sometimes an organization on its own might lack the capacity to conduct training courses or train its human resources. In such cases, this organization teams up with other entities and designs or funds courses together. In essence, due to necessity, HR managers learn to solve their problems collectively and, while competing for talent, find a way to strengthen and empower their workforce collaboratively. From the perspective of Sarava’s CEO, these issues are sparks of hope that stand alongside universities’ disappointments and act as the main catalysts of education. They might be able to somewhat cover the deficiencies.

We are overly disheartened

 Fardis believes that if we look at the entire ecosystem from a higher perspective, we can say that we have become more disheartened than necessary. He points out that the situation is not good, and in some dimensions, it can even be deemed inappropriate, but more than the hardships we have faced, we should focus on the lesson.

He explains, ‘Even in the midst of a crisis, we must be able to manage. We currently have many problems and challenges in the ecosystem, but with relative optimism, I can say that we have not truly entered a crisis yet. If we do enter a crisis phase, we should manage it. Therefore, while excessive optimism might lead one astray, excessive pessimism and despair could also hinder us from our core work.

Let’s not overlook human connections

According to Fardis, despite all the troubles in this environment, we should make use of the available tools and work on strengthening the employer brand. Amidst the difficulties, we should strive to be more appealing and make better choices than others. Even though financial constraints might prevent us from compensating our colleagues commensurate with their efforts, or allow us to invest as much as we’d like in human resource development, businesses with a better employer brand could seriously consider this issue, make limited use of available tools, and establish key collaborations with other organizations. This way, they might be slightly ahead of others and hold a higher hand in attracting and retaining talents.

He elaborates, ‘The era we are in requires senior managers or entrepreneurs to spend more time with their teams. For instance, during the turbulence of the past autumn, there was an unfortunate state of discord among the HR resources of organizations. The bipolar atmosphere that had permeated society had also infiltrated companies. In such conditions, I saw a pivotal role for senior managers. In my opinion, they needed to converse with the workforce, show empathy, and instead of merely issuing directives, understand that people held diverse opinions. They should have allowed the flow of thoughts among individuals to take shape.’

Fardis concludes by emphasizing that we do not utilize human connections to their fullest extent. He believes that now, as society is pregnant with decisions, we are in dire need of candid and motivating conversations among ourselves. According to him, senior managers of organizations can arrange such conversations together.

The CEO of Sarava advises managers one layer above the HR resources to not think that since they have an HR unit, they are free from the worries of problems. Managers should stand alongside the HR team to improve the overall state of all employees. He also addresses HR units, telling them that in such situations, seeking assistance from other organizational units is not a flaw, but rather a sign of a certain stage of team maturity.