Human capital is a special economic category, the main problem of research of which is the specific nature of human capital, determined by the totality of a person’s physical and mental abilities that determine his ability to work.

The most common definition of the concept of human capital is:

Human capital is a set of knowledge, skills and abilities used to meet the diverse needs of an individual and society as a whole.

This approach reflects the main components of human capital, which are intelligence, health, knowledge, high-quality and productive work and quality of life.

It can be interpreted as special capital in the form of intellectual abilities and practical skills acquired in the process of education and practical activities of a person. This interpretation points to the fact that the presence of human capital means the ability of people to participate in production.

Specific features of the concept of human capital are presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1 – Concept of human capital

The ability of people to participate in production determines the interest in the concept of human capital on the part of enterprises, since the effective use of human capital ensures economic growth, i.e. an increase in the volume of created utilities, therefore, the level of economic activity of the enterprise increases.

The concept of human capital is defined within the framework of several concepts, including economic theory, personnel management, which in turn distinguishes between human resource management and human capital management. Thus, human capital manifests itself directly as capital and as a special resource. From the point of view of the essential content of the nature of human capital, this concept affects a wide range of categories of the science of people management.

The difference in terminology is due to the inclusion in the concepts of “people management” and “personnel management” of two interrelated concepts of human capital and human resources. The philosophy and applied aspects of personnel management are decisive for both human capital and human resources, while the managerial impact in the theory of people management is aimed at building systems for managing human resources and human capital.

The relationship between these aspects is presented in Figure 2.

Figure 2 – Relationship between aspects of people management

The theory of human capital was developed by economists, among whom the greatest contribution to the development was made by T. Schultz and his follower G. Becker. They laid the methodological foundations and basic elements of the theory of human capital.

The table shows several definitions of the concept of human capital by foreign authors.

The concept of human capital

		Definition of "human capital"
		All human resources and abilities are either innate or acquired. Each person is born with an individual set of genes that determines his innate human potential. We call the valuable qualities acquired by a person, which can be strengthened by appropriate investments, human capital. View all human abilities as either innate or acquired. Attributes that are valuable and can be developed with appropriate investments will be human capital.
		Human capital represents the human factor in an organization; it is the combined intelligence, skills and specialized knowledge that give the organization its distinctive character.
	Scarborough and Elias	The concept of human capital is most often viewed as a bridging concept, that is, the connection between human resource practices and the quality of a company's performance in terms of assets rather than business processes. Human capital is a non-standardized, tacit, dynamic, context-specific and unique resource embodied in people.
	Davenport	Human capital is the knowledge, skills and abilities of people who create value. People have innate abilities, behavior and personal energy, and these elements form human capital. The owners of human capital are workers, not their employers.
		Human capital creates the added value that people provide to an organization. Therefore, human capital is a condition for competitive advantage.

Schultz argued that “the well-being of men does not depend on land, technology, or their efforts, but rather on knowledge.” It was this qualitative aspect of the economy that he defined as “human capital.” Its foreign apologists adhered to a similar approach, gradually expanding the interpretation of human capital.

In general, human capital is the main factor in the formation and development of the innovative economy and the knowledge economy as the next stage of socio-economic development.

Human capital is the result of various types of human activity: education, upbringing, labor skills. The costs of acquiring knowledge are regarded as investments that form capital, which will subsequently bring regular profits to its owner in the form of higher earnings, prestigious and interesting work, increased social status, etc.

The role of human capital is manifested through social institutions, which makes it possible to analyze not only social parameters, but also to study the influence of social factors on a market economy.

Human capital theory

Human capital theory emphasizes the added value that people can create for an organization. She views people as a valuable asset and emphasizes that an organization's investment in people generates returns that are worth the cost. Sustainable competitive advantage can only be achieved when a firm has a stock of human resources that its competitors cannot imitate or duplicate by hiring workers with competitively valuable knowledge and skills, many of which are difficult to articulate.

For an employer, investing in personnel training and development is a means of attracting and retaining human capital, as well as a way to obtain higher returns from these investments. These gains are expected to result from improved performance, flexibility and the ability to innovate as a result of increased knowledge and competence. Thus, the theory of human capital allows us to objectively state the following:

Knowledge, skills and abilities are key factors determining the success of an individual company and the country's economy as a whole.

At the same time, there is a point of view that rejects the approach to human capital as a kind of asset, by analogy with financial and fixed capital. Michael Armstrong in his book "The Politics of Human Resource Management" pointed out the following aspect. “Employees, especially qualified ones, consider themselves independent agents who have the right to choose how to manage their talents, time and energy. In this regard, companies cannot manage, let alone own, human capital. However, companies have certain opportunities to effectively use human capital using organizational and economic methods."

The essence of the theory of human capital is that the main form of wealth is the knowledge materialized in a person and his ability to work effectively.

Human capital theory puts the following into this concept:

• a person’s acquired set of skills, abilities and possession of certain knowledge in various fields;
• income growth leads to a person’s interest in further investments in human capital;
• the feasibility of using human knowledge in various types of activities in order to increase labor productivity and production efficiency;
• the use of human capital leads to an increase in a person’s income due to his labor earnings in the future by abandoning some current needs;
• all abilities, knowledge, skills and abilities are an inseparable part of the person himself;
• a necessary condition for the formation, accumulation and use of human capital is human motivation.

The main tenet of the theory of human capital is the statement that the ability of an employee or group of employees to achieve better results leads to an increase in their wages. To accumulate and use human capital, expenditures are required on health care, education, vocational and technical training and other activities that help improve productivity and quality of labor.

G. Becker introduced the term “special human capital”. Special capital refers to only certain skills that a person can use in a specific activity. In particular, special capital includes all professional skills of a person. Thus, “special or specific human capital is knowledge, skills, abilities that can only be used in a specific workplace, only in a specific company.” This implies the need for special professional training, i.e. obtaining knowledge, acquiring skills and abilities that increase special human capital.

According to the theory of human capital, the process of its reproduction has three stages:

Stages of human capital reproduction

		Description
	Formation	At the first stage, a person receives an education. This is the basic stage for human capital, during which knowledge, skills and abilities are acquired. The future type of activity, place in society and level of income of a person will depend on this. Education is the main investment in human capital, since there is a high correlation between the cost of education received and the value of human capital.
	Accumulation	Further accumulation of human capital occurs in the process of work, enriching a person with professional skills and abilities that will help improve the efficiency of his work activity and increase income. At this stage, special human capital grows.
	Usage	The use of human capital is expressed through human participation in production, for which he receives compensation in the form of wages. At the same time, the size of human capital directly affects the level of income.

The theory of human capital indicates that this process is continuous and with the reward received a person can make additional investments in his capital through further professional training, improving his qualifications, etc. This will increase the level of income, which is the main incentive for the constant increase in human capital.

The structure of human capital depends on the nature of a person’s activity, his specialization, including industry, the dynamics of labor income, etc. It should be noted that the structure of human capital of a particular person may undergo changes over time. This happens depending on the actions a person takes, expanding his knowledge and skills, or, conversely, specializing in one area.

The value of human capital is defined as the present value of all future labor earnings of a person, including income that will be paid by pension funds. “The value of human capital is influenced by the age (work horizon) of a person, his income, possible variability of income, taxes, the rate of indexation of wages for inflation, the size of upcoming pension payments, as well as the discount rate of income, which is partly determined by the type of human capital (or rather, related with him risks)".

Thus, in the theory of human capital, this concept acts as a product of production, represents knowledge, skills, abilities that a person acquires in the process of training and work, and like any other type of capital, has the ability to accumulate.

As a rule, the process of accumulation of human capital is longer than the process of accumulation of physical capital. These are processes: training at school, university, at work, advanced training, self-education, that is, continuous processes. If the accumulation of physical capital lasts, as a rule, 1–5 years, then the process of accumulation into human capital lasts 12–20 years.

The accumulation of scientific and educational potential, which underlies human capital, has significant differences from the accumulation of material resources. At the initial stage, human capital, due to the gradual accumulation of production experience, has a low value, which does not decrease, but accumulates (unlike physical capital). The process of increasing the value of intellectual capital is the opposite of the process of depreciating physical capital.

Human capital concept

Considering the nature of the economic activities of modern companies, it can be noted that for them human capital is of particular importance, since it is through its use that companies can carry out innovative activities, in whatever form. Production, commercial, management and general economic projects lead to the creation and implementation of organizational and economic advantages that the company already has.

It is based on the position that human capital is a fundamentally significant asset for enterprises, since the development and implementation of innovations without its presence is not possible in modern socio-economic conditions. Taken together, human capital seems to be a key asset of an organization, without which it cannot exist in the conditions of modern development of the national economic system.

Thus, according to the concept of human capital, for a modern company this asset is of particular importance, since it allows one to effectively implement innovations in practice, introduce them into production, commercial, and management activities, as well as create organizational and economic advantages.

Human capital reflects the potential available to ensure growth in the intensity, efficiency and rationalization of human professional activity. The presence of human capital presupposes the ability of people to participate in production.

Human capital concept considers this phenomenon as a special economic category, which is a set of intellectual abilities, acquired knowledge, professional skills, abilities that a person receives as a result of training, experience and practical activity.

At the same time, human capital, being a factor in the development of a person’s existing potential, leads to a direct and indirect increase in labor productivity at existing enterprises, as well as an increase in the efficiency of their activities through the use of existing human capital. In fact, human capital is a priority factor in the innovative type of economic development, since enterprises are able to achieve great success in their economic activities, developing it through the use of human capital.

In the holistic concept of human capital, approaches to its assessment are based on various organizational and managerial models that use qualitative and quantitative parameters for assessment. At the same time, the capabilities of an enterprise assessing human capital are usually limited by its ability to create an assessment system that would make it possible to objectively determine the available human capital; in addition, assessment needs may differ among different enterprises. It should be noted that the most formalized approaches are those based on quantitative parameters and cost indicators for assessing human capital, while purely management models do not allow an enterprise to evaluate it accurately enough, since they operate only with qualitative or natural characteristics. Hence, human capital concept operates with the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of a given asset.

Factors of human capital development

Human capital development factors include the following combinations of individual and production activities:

1. The combination of natural abilities and physical energy acquired as a result of training and life with their demand in production with subsequent optimal costs.
2. The combination of knowledge and experience used by man in the field of social reproduction with increased labor productivity and increased production efficiency.
3. The stock of knowledge, abilities and skills accumulates in the process of an appropriate combination of production activities and appropriate motivation of the employee.
4. An increase in individual income is combined with the reproduction of human capital in a broad sense (additional education and professional retraining are reinvested in production activities).

A circular process occurs: human capital itself contributes to production efficiency, efficient production invests in the development of human capital. Consequently, the factors of human capital development and their actual influence on the development of capital have the nature of a cyclically repeating process. This process is endless, since the desire to increase individual and national wealth has no upper limit.

Factors in the development of human capital determine the algorithm on which the development of human capital is based; this algorithm is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 – Development of human capital

The process of human capital development is organizationally complex in nature. Renewal of human capital is accompanied by the development of the individual's capabilities and abilities with their subsequent implementation. Therefore, the motives influencing this process can be both material and spiritual.

It can be rightly stated that the main motives for the development of human capital are the following:

• physiological motives,
• security motives,
• social motives,
• motives of respect,
• motives of self-esteem.

Due to the increase in individual incomes of the owners of human capital, economic growth of the country's economy occurs - this is how one can characterize the influence of human capital on economic growth.

The individual skills and experience that an individual is endowed with can lead him to make informed human rights decisions - such is the impact of security needs on human capital development. Reasonable rational decisions of the majority of people create an atmosphere of safety in society.

By increasing individual labor productivity, a person is able to perform work that has great social value - this is how social motives influence the development of human capital.

New ideas and scientific developments introduced into practice increase respect for the people who proposed and implemented them - such is the influence of the motive of respect on the development of human capital.

The development of intelligence and the generation of new technical and technological ideas lead a person to self-esteem.

The role of human capital for economic growth and enterprise development

The value of capital invested in material resources is reduced. The efficiency of agriculture and the food industry is less and less determined by material assets: the size of land ownership, industrial buildings, machinery, equipment; To a greater extent, the value of enterprises is formed by “intangible resources” - ideas, entrepreneurship and creativity of staff, strategic and intellectual association of partners, etc. The main thing that resources are spent on is generating ideas, searching for information, processing it, and quickly applying it in practice to produce products and make profits.

Indeed, in order to realize the desire to accelerate economic growth, eliminate poverty and move to an innovative type of development, it is necessary today to begin creating a system that would stimulate investment in human capital. The accumulation of human capital and its subsequent use will make it possible to solve the problems of economic growth at the level of the national economic system.

Among the features of accumulation and financial injections into human capital in Russia, it is necessary to note the positive trends towards an increase in the number of workers increasing their human capital through advanced training and the acquisition of new professional skills. This is definitely a plus. At the same time, the general low culture among workers and employers regarding the refinancing of human capital is a limiting condition for intensive economic growth. In modern conditions, human capital in Russia is the main factor in intensifying economic growth.

Human capital, which itself is a factor in the development of enterprises (Figure 4), can act as an integrative basis for the growth of enterprises in modern conditions.

Figure 4 – Human capital as a factor in the growth and development of enterprises

Thus, a system of interconnected elements can be traced: the development of the economy and social factors in society makes it possible to “involve” factors in the development of human capital, leading to an increase in labor productivity in enterprises, an increase in the efficiency of enterprises through the introduction of new technologies and investment in personnel. Consequently, the importance of human capital for an enterprise is manifested in its ability to ensure economic development. An economic entity achieves success by developing its production and commercial activities taking into account human capital.

Among the typical problems associated with the use of human capital in enterprises are the following:

Firstly, the low level of development of the human capital assessment system, which is often limited to the traditional approach.

Secondly, the low degree of use of the enterprise’s human capital leads to a decrease in the efficiency and productivity of labor and the use of working time.

Thirdly, there is often an insufficiently thought-out policy for the use of labor resources and human capital in general, or this policy is absent altogether.

Consequently, in modern conditions it is necessary to implement measures at enterprises aimed at eliminating typical problems and shortcomings and forming objective approaches to the system of assessment, development and use of human capital.

conclusions

Human capital is a combination of the following factors:

1. qualities that a person brings to his work: intelligence, energy, positivity, reliability, dedication;
2. a person’s ability to learn: talent, imagination, creative personality, ingenuity (“how to do things”);
3. encouraging a person to share information and knowledge: team spirit and goal orientation.

Despite the fact that knowledge has always been one of the most important conditions for the development of production, the uniqueness of the modern stage lies precisely in the accumulation by humanity of knowledge in such quantities that it has transformed into a new quality, becoming the main factor of production.

Literature

1. Schultz T. Investments in human capital. – M.: HSE Publishing House, 2003.
2. Becker G. Human behavior: an economic approach. – M.: HSE Publishing House, 2003.
3. Management / ed. V.E. Lankin. – Taganrog: TRTU, 2006.
4. Avdulova T.P. Management. – M.: GEOTAR-Media, 2013.
5. Alaverdov A.A. Organizational human resource management. – M.: Synergy, 2012.
6. Bazarov T.Yu. Personnel Management. – M.: Yurayt, 2014.
7. Vesnin V.R. Human resource management. – M.: Prospekt, 2014.
8. Golovanova E.N. Investments in the human capital of the enterprise. – M.: Infra-M, 2011.
9. Gruzkov I.V. Reproduction of human capital in the conditions of formation of the innovative economy of Russia. Theory, methodology, management. – M.: Economics, 2013.
10. Mau V.A. Development of human capital. – M.: Delo, 2013.
11. Hugheslid M. How to manage human capital to implement a strategy. – St. Petersburg: Peter, 2012.

Currently, in the theory and practice of human capital (HC), a distinction is made between individual, corporate and national human capital.

Individual human capital is the accumulated stock of special and specialized knowledge and professional skills of an individual, allowing him to receive additional income and other benefits compared to a person without it.

Corporate human capital- special and special individual human capital accumulated by the company in comparison with its competitors, know-how, intellectual capital, special management and intellectual technologies, including computer and information technologies that increase the competitiveness of the company.

- this is part of the innovative (creative) labor resources, leading specialists, accumulated knowledge, the accumulated innovative and high-tech share of national wealth, the innovation system, intellectual capital, social capital, as well as the quality of life, which together ensure the development and competitiveness of the innovative part of the economy of the country and state in world markets in conditions of globalization and competition /1-4/.

Narrow and broad definition of human capital

There are several definitions of human capital: narrow (educational), expanded and broad /1-8/. As already noted, the socio-economic category “human capital” was formed gradually. And at the first stage, HC included only investments in special education (a narrow definition of HC). Sometimes human capital in a narrow definition is called educational HC.

At the second stage, HC (expanded definition) gradually included (this was done, among other things, by World Bank experts when assessing HC and the national wealth of countries around the world) investments in upbringing, education, science, human health, information services, and culture and art.

At the third stage of development of the socio-economic category HC, investments were added in components that ensure the safety of people (separated from the quality of life of the population due to its particular importance, especially for Russia and other developing countries). In the preparation of an effective elite, in the formation and development of civil society (CS). In improving the efficiency of institutional services for HC, as well as investing in improving the quality of life and in the influx of capital from outside into a given country.

In a broad definition, national human capital is culture, knowledge, health, professionalism, law-abidingness and innovative creativity of specialists, their social capital, as well as high quality of life and work.

The basic component of HC is the mentality of the people /1,2/, including traditions and culture, attitude towards work, family, and law-abidingness. They have been historically significantly influenced by religions. The determinants of HC are upbringing, education, health, accumulated knowledge, science, quality of life, competition and economic freedom, the rule of law and justice, security, mobility and creativity of business and citizens.

HC is a synthetic and complex socio-economic category at the intersection of various disciplines and sciences: economics, psychology, sociology, computer science, history, medicine, pedagogy, philosophy, political science and others.

The core of the national HC consists of the best and globally competitive specialists who determine the growth and efficiency of the use of knowledge and innovation, the efficiency of entrepreneurial resources, the size and efficiency of the innovation sector of the economy.

For the integral efficiency of HC, all its components are important. Low quality of any of them reduces the overall quality of the HC. In this case, there are negative synergistic and multiplicative effects of weakening the effectiveness of HC while reducing the efficiency or quality of any component, as is currently the case in Russia.

In the modern economy, the creative part of the labor force (creative class) constitutes the core of the accumulated national human capital (HC).

It also includes a qualified part of the labor resources that ensures the effective functioning of the HC, the environment for its functioning and the tools of intellectual work. HC performance is significantly determined by culture and its associated work and entrepreneurial ethics.

From the point of view of the innovation economy, development processes and GDP, human capital can be defined as follows:

Human capital - this is part of the creative labor resources (creative class), their high-quality material support, accumulated high-quality knowledge, intellectual and high technologies, which annually create a share of innovative and knowledge-intensive products in GDP that is competitive in world markets.

The value of accumulated HC is calculated in this case by summing the shares of innovative products, services and high-tech products in GDP over the average working life of a generation (30 years for Russia).

Human capital in value terms is the share of the innovative economy and its support in the overall economy of the country.

This approach makes it possible to quantify national human capital through the use of integrated country-specific international indicators, which, on the one hand, simplifies the calculations, and on the other, makes them more reliable.

At all levels of human capital - individual, corporate and national, it is based on special, specific knowledge, skills and technologies that determine the competitive advantages of human capital at the corresponding level.

At all levels of human capital, its composition also includes additional qualified labor resources, quality of life, tools and technologies that ensure the implementation of the competitive advantages of the national human capital, the effective functioning of the human capital as an intensive factor in innovation, intellectual work and development.

National human capital

The composition of national human capital includes, in addition to national components, corporate and individual human capital, as well as household human capital /1-4/.

National human capital is formed through investments in upbringing, education, culture, public health, and in improving professionalism, the level and quality of life of the population. In science, knowledge and intellectual capital, in social capital, in entrepreneurial ability, in information support and the safety of citizens. Into economic freedom in its international definition, into the tools of intellectual labor, into the environment of functioning of human capital as a factor in the development of the economy and society.

In this case, social capital refers to connections, relationships and support from other people of a specialist that contribute to increasing the efficiency of his intellectual work activity.

Human capital as a stock of knowledge, abilities, skills, experience, high, managerial and intellectual technologies, software flows of information in the form of knowledge, material support for a high quality of life and work activity can not only accumulate in the investment process, but also materially and morally wear out.

That is, in a simplified sense, the concept of “depreciation” is applicable to HC.

Human capital is an intensive factor of development and is not subject to the law of diminishing returns if the development strategy of HC, economy, statehood and civil defense is correctly chosen.

In the composition of the national wealth of developed countries, HC prevails in terms of its share (value).

Human capital - is an intensive synthetic and complex productive factor in the development of the economy and society, including creative labor resources, an innovation system, highly productive accumulated knowledge, systems for providing professional information, tools for intellectual and organizational work, quality of life, living environment and intellectual activity, ensuring the effective functioning of HC and its high performance.

Briefly: Human capital is creative professionals, intelligence, knowledge, high-quality and highly productive work and a high quality of life.

The dominance of corruption and crime devalues ​​knowledge, suppresses creativity and creative energy of people, reduces the quality, efficiency and accumulated value of HC. Turns synergy into a negative factor in development, into a brake.

In a criminalized and corrupt country, HC cannot function effectively by definition. Even if it is “imported” external high-quality human capital, provided through its influx. It either degrades, getting involved in corruption and other counterproductive schemes, or “works” ineffectively.

Finland, based on the theory and practice of human capital, in a historically short period of time, managed to move from a primarily resource-based economy to an innovative economy. And create your own competitive high technologies, without giving up the deepest processing of your main natural resource - forests. Finland has managed to take the leading positions in the world in terms of the competitiveness of the economy as a whole. Moreover, it was with the income from processing forests into goods with high added value that the Finns created their innovative technologies and products. They did not keep their income as a dead weight in the form of reserves in US and European banks in reserve, but invested it in their people, improving their health, education, increasing their creativity and quality of work. We invested in infrastructure, improving the quality of life, in HC and the economy, in new high technologies.

All this took place not because the theory and practice of HC realized some kind of magic wand, but because it became the response of economic theory and practice to the challenges of the time, to the challenges of the knowledge economy emerging in the depths of the post-industrial economy in the second half of the twentieth century.

The development of science and the formation of the information society have brought knowledge, education, health, quality of life of the population and the leading specialists themselves, who determine the creativity and innovativeness of national economies, to the forefront as components of a complex intensive development factor - human capital.

Countries with accumulated high-quality human capital have enormous advantages in creating stable conditions for increasing the quality of life, creating and developing a knowledge economy, information society, and developing civil society.

That is, countries with an educated, healthy and optimistic population, competitive world-class professionals in all types of economic activity, in education, science, management and other areas.

The choice of HC as the main development factor for a developing country literally dictates a systematic and integrated approach in developing the concept and strategies of both human capital itself and a new paradigm, concept and strategy for the country's development. Requires coordination with them of all other strategic planning documents.

This dictate follows from the essence of the national Cheka as a synthetic and complex factor of development. Moreover, this dictate particularly emphasizes the high quality and productivity of labor, the high quality of life, work and tools of specialists that determine the creativity and creative energy of HC.

Analysis of the processes of scientific and technological development shows that HC, its growth and development cycles are the main factors and drivers of the generation of innovative waves of development and cyclical development of the world economy and society.

Knowledge gradually accumulated. Education and science developed on their basis. A layer of highly professional scientific, technical, managerial and generally intellectual elite was formed, under whose leadership the next breakthrough in the development of the country was made.

Moreover, the level and quality of HC determine the upper bar in the development of science and economics. And without raising the quality of the national HC to the level of quality and work ethics required by the innovation economy, it is impossible to jump into the innovation economy of the corresponding TUE and, even more so, into the knowledge economy.

At the same time, the share of unskilled labor in the GDP of developed and developing countries is becoming ever smaller, and in technologically advanced countries it is already vanishingly small. Any work now in a civilized country requires education and knowledge.

The driver for the development of HC and the innovative economy is competition in all types of activities.

Competition creates and selects the best specialists, effective management, and improves the quality of HC.

Competition stimulates entrepreneurs and management to create innovative products and services. Free competition, economic freedom in its international definition are the main stimulants and drivers of growth in the quality and competitiveness of the national HC, growth in the production of knowledge, generation of innovations and the creation of effective innovative products.

Human capital is divided into universal (general) and specific. Specific human capital refers to knowledge and skills that increase the efficiency of an individual when working in a specific company, but lose their value when losing a job or when moving to another company. In turn, the accumulation of universal human capital ensures an increase in the efficiency of an individual’s economic activity when working in any of the companies operating in a certain industry.
Industrial training, as understood by human capital theorists, covers both formal training within firms and the accumulation of experience directly in the course of work. The distinction introduced by G. Becker between special and general investments in people was of great theoretical importance. Special training provides workers with knowledge and skills that are of interest only to the company where they were acquired. During general training, the employee acquires knowledge and skills that can be used in many other companies. General training is indirectly paid for by the workers themselves when, in an effort to improve their skills, they accept lower wages during the training period; they also receive income from the total investment. On the contrary, special training is financed for the most part by the firms themselves, which receive the main income from it. The concept of specialized human capital has helped explain why long-term employees have lower turnover rates and why vacancies in firms are filled primarily through internal promotions rather than external hires.
An in-depth analysis of the problems of industrial training was given in the works of J. Mintzer. He estimates that investment in on-the-job training is comparable to investment in formal education. The rates of return are also not inferior to the rates of return of formal education.
Thanks to the theory of human capital, investments in people began to be considered as a source of economic growth, no less important than “ordinary” investments. T. Schultz, E. Denison, J. Kendrick and others quantified the contribution of education to economic growth. It was found that throughout the 20th century, the accumulation of human capital outpaced the rate of accumulation of physical capital. According to E. Denison's calculations, the increase in per capita income in the United States during the post-war period was 15-30% due to an increase in the educational level of the labor force.
Another area where the contribution of human capital theory has been particularly powerful is in the analysis of problems of economic inequality. G. Becker formulated a universal model for the distribution of personal income. The unequal location of demand curves for investment in human capital reflects inequality in the natural abilities of students, while the unequal location of supply curves reflects inequality in their families’ access to financial resources. The structure of the distribution of human capital, and, therefore, earnings, will be the more uneven, the greater the spread in individual curves. Particularly deep inequality arises when people from rich families also endowed with higher abilities.
The return on investment in people is on average higher than on investment in physical capital. However, in the case of human capital, it decreases with an increase in the volume of investment, while in the case of other assets (real estate, securities, etc.) it decreases little or does not change at all. Therefore, the strategy of rational families is as follows: invest first in the human capital of children, since the return from it is relatively higher, and then, when, as it decreases, it is compared with the rate of return of other assets, switch to investing in them in order to subsequently transfer these assets to the children. From this, Becker concluded that families leaving inheritances make optimal investments in their children’s human capital, while families that do not leave inheritances most often underinvest in their education.

The development of human capital is perhaps the most important task of the company. Moreover, this question has recently been raised on the scale of an entire country as an indispensable condition for its development and prosperity on the world economic arena.

You will learn:

• What is the basis for the formation and development of human capital.
• What kind of investments can be made in the development of human capital.
• How human capital can influence the innovative development of an enterprise.
• Why manage human capital development.
• How to assess the level of human capital development in an organization.
• What problems does the development of human capital have in Russia?

How companies can properly develop human capital

The more mental baggage a company has, the higher its competitive advantages, the better and more efficiently it can organize its production process, ensuring the optimal transformation of intangible resources into tangible capital.

Highly qualified specialists can increase the attractiveness of a brand and influence the profitability of an organization. To a large extent, the value of an enterprise is determined by innovation; it can be easily increased by financially motivating employees.

Today, more and more companies are coming to the realization that not only financial capital determines the actual value of a business. Intellectual capital is the main strategic element of industry. In the figure you can see the relationship between intellectual capital and the actual value of the organization:

Financial capital of the organization- This is not only cash, but also shares and other securities.

Intellectual capital of the organization– this is the mental baggage of the staff. Knowledge is the basis of an enterprise’s wealth, intangible assets that improve the quality of production processes. They are the ones who create added value for the enterprise.

Improving business with the help of intellectual capital is not theoretical research, but actual practice. Through this asset, you can successfully manage profits, create new products and attract customers.

Intellectual capital should be understood as all those information resources that are at the disposal of the company. Intellectual capital is a combination of human, structural and relational capital. Intellectual capital also includes information capital, intellectual property, customer capital, brand awareness and learning capital.

The knowledge that forms intellectual capital can be explicit or implicit, but it always has a useful function.

Human capital of the organization arises due to the presence of personnel. It is formed through the knowledge, talents, abilities and competence of employees. This process is long-term and goes through several stages.

• Initially, there is a search and selection of candidates who will later form human capital, then the relationship is formalized.
• In the future, the employer interests and motivates employees to work more actively and productively.
• In the process of cooperation, investments are made in human capital through the development and training of employees.
• And finally, a merger and/or acquisition occurs.

In general, a company’s human capital consists of several elements that can be reflected in the form of formula (1):

The share of influence of human capital on the value of a business ranges from 30 to 80%, depending on the sector of the economy. But one way or another, the contribution of people to the profitability of the organization is the determining factor. Human capital improves competitiveness. And capital is directly formed from the skills and abilities of employees, through whose efforts goods and services are produced.

Some people confuse the concepts of human capital and human potential. The main difference between these interchangeable terms is that capital creates the market value of a company through employee participation in building success. This is a very important factor in the development of an organization. It is the employees who create the added value of the enterprise.

What does the formation and development of human capital depend on?

Due to the fact that the development and economic prosperity of the country directly depends on the specialists who inhabit it, the priority concern of the state can be called ensuring the improvement of the capabilities of citizens (intellectual, physical and spiritual). This task is being solved within the framework of achieving the goal of human capital development, which will inevitably lead to an increase in the potential of the entire society, as well as an increase in the resource of the country as a whole. High opportunities for society depend on the dynamics of economic growth. So, the development of human capital is one of the key tasks of our time. What is needed to solve it?

• First of all, to develop the abilities of each member of society and company employee, the most favorable environment should be created, which is practically unattainable without improving living conditions in general.
• Secondly, it is necessary to increase the competitiveness of not only human capital itself, but also those sectors of the economy that provide it socially.

Specialists who work to solve the problem of improving human resources are sociologists, economists and psychologists. Their tasks include developing issues of human capital development at three levels:

• development of the individual (micro level);
• development of the state as a whole (macro level);
• development of enterprises, commercial companies (meso level).

At the state level, human capital is collected through the efforts of all members of society and is a national wealth and asset. Within each region, its own similar resource is formed, and then it is combined throughout the country.

In order to ensure the development of human capital at the regional level, the economic activities of economic entities in a given area should be improved. Next, the human resource is summarized based on the results of each enterprise in the region. Accumulated human capital ultimately determines the level of socio-economic development of the territory.

To measure human capital, adding up the number of employees is not enough. It is necessary to calculate all their abilities, knowledge, and the amount of available information. After all, it is this potential that activates production at one level or another and determines the degree of performance of the company.

Each person has personal capital; within a social group, all individual achievements are collected into subsystems with a hierarchical structure. By connecting with each other, personal capital forms social capital. If human capital for one individual plays an important role in terms of opportunities to achieve a certain quality of life, then across an entire region or country as a whole, this resource can serve as a means of achieving more global goals.

A person exists in the labor market with his own abilities, skills, and abilities. He brings income to his family and the enterprise where he works. But within the whole region it also acts as a social link. It can be called the building block of the economy of the region and the country as a whole.

An individual worker gives his abilities to the commercial or state enterprise (municipal) where he works. And such an enterprise, together with many others, creates a social or economic basis for the life of society.

Those talents and abilities that a person has are partly innate and partly acquired by him throughout his life. The task of the enterprise is to create for its employees such socio-economic conditions in which it will be easiest to increase human capital. Ultimately, all acquired knowledge will be spent for the benefit of society and will be released into the environment where the highest quality of life and the most comfortable conditions for work, development and intellectual activity are achieved.

The development of human capital is a long-term process; it can take many different forms and types, passing through all stages of the life cycle and being influenced by various social circumstances. All these factors can be divided into groups: economic, production, demographic, as well as socio-demographic, socio-economic, environmental and many others.

Human capital is formed and improved in the process of social production. The optimal environment for its development is comfortable living conditions. If a person has an increase in income, has affordable and high-quality medical and educational services at his disposal, an excellent cultural environment and comfortable living conditions, then the development of human capital will occur in the best possible way. Such conditions can be achieved with the help of appropriate state policies in the field of education, culture, healthcare, improvement, infrastructure, etc.

The numerical expression of the common resource can be viewed in the indicators of the human capital development index. These values ​​are directly related to the level of education, access to quality food, and healthcare. They reflect:

• percentage of the population deprived of adequate food;
• percentage of child mortality (under 5 years of age);
• percentage of children completing secondary education;
• percentage of literacy among adult citizens.

To ensure the formation and development of human capital, the state must take measures to:

• increasing the affordability of housing, creating favorable conditions for mortgage lending, and using such financial instruments that will contribute to the development of the housing market;
• increasing the accessibility of the consumer lending sector, increasing information openness;
• increasing opportunities for citizens to use educational loans;
• ensuring a high level of well-being of citizens, personal security, development of life and property insurance programs;
• improving the conditions of additional pension insurance.

A person achieves his highest potential by overcoming a long continuous process of formation and development of human capital, which involves factors such as education, employment, and the presence of favorable conditions for improving skills and becoming an individual.

On average, the period of human capital development takes from 15 to 25 years. We take the zero level as the initial level. Each member of society begins to develop their knowledge, skills, and abilities from scratch.

The process of human capital development begins in childhood, at the age of three or four. The child is provided with information with which he gets the opportunity to develop his talents, improve and increase his knowledge and skills. How successfully he studies will determine his future self-determination and the opportunity to realize himself and find application for his abilities in the employment market. But the potential given to a person from birth still plays a huge role.

The most significant period in the process of human capital development is the teenage period (13–23 years). It is impossible to form and develop human capital without regularly replenishing the arsenal of skills and abilities. If a person is not engaged in vocational training, if he has not devoted time and effort to his education, there is no need to talk about the development of human capital. The higher the level of knowledge a person has, the more he can improve the life of society. It turns out to be a continuous process. Highly qualified professionals create comfortable living conditions for humanity, contribute to the growth of production and economic advancement, enrich the national culture, thereby creating the prerequisites for the formation of even more highly developed individuals.

The development of human capital is a task that directly contributes to the growth of investments, the introduction of new technologies and increases the rate of return of employees from such investments.

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A practitioner tells

Creating conditions for staff self-development is a strong foundation for the formation of the organization’s human capital

Marat Nagumanov,

Director of the research and production company "Packer", Oktyabrsky (Bashkortostan)

We have set ourselves the goal of achieving a leading position in the sector of self-learning companies. My firm position is that without developing a production culture and creating comfortable conditions for people to work, it is impossible to demand self-improvement from them. And comfort at work means not only the presence of comfortable furniture, a modern computer, the creation of a sufficient level of lighting, and the provision of clean and comfortable uniforms. For favorable working conditions, it is important to achieve a number of other factors.

We need a leader whose example will captivate employees. In order for the employee to receive more, the return on capital must be increased. It's not just about salary. Total income also includes social payments. In our case, these are paid sessions in the pool, fitness classes, trips to a sanatorium, lunches at the expense of the company, and high-quality medical services on the job. The more comfortable the employer creates conditions in the workplace, the more willingly people give their strength, capabilities, and abilities for the benefit of the enterprise. Moreover, they strive to improve their level in order to become more indispensable and in demand at their job. But here the figure of the leader is also of great importance. The most visible and respectable employee in the team is an example and incentive for colleagues. I won’t lie, I try to be that kind of leader myself. Employees see my determination: I often attend various lectures and conferences, thematic events, trying to improve my own competence. Following me, many employees express a desire to participate in seminars and study modern equipment in different cities and countries.

The motivation system should be aimed at improving qualifications. It is very important to create a holistic remuneration mechanism that will be transparent to the entire team. If employees understand how they can increase their salaries, they are more likely to work in this direction. At the moment, our company is planning to introduce job descriptions, which will include information about the scope of issues for which the employee is responsible, about the skills that he should have and that he should develop, and about the projects in which the employee should take part , and about the indicators that should be achieved by him as a result of his work. Each instruction will be valid for a year. The increase in the employee’s salary will directly depend on compliance with its points. For example, according to an employment contract, a person has a salary of 10 thousand rubles. To increase it, you will have to acquire new skills, which will be listed in detail in the instructions. At the end of the year, management will check the level of achievement of new knowledge and skills. If the outcome is positive, the employee’s salary will be increased.

But managers should remember that any innovation brings results after a certain period of time. We are currently building a new system, but we expect results no earlier than after a year of putting it into operation. We can feel the initial dynamics already at the start. Thus, we see that an employee’s efficiency directly depends on his level of satisfaction with working conditions.

Investments in human capital development

The development of human capital, like any other asset, requires investment. Investments made for the development of human capital are certain actions carried out with one goal - to increase labor productivity. We can include the following events:

• organizing ways to maintain health;
• incurring expenses associated with obtaining education;
• organization of vocational training in production;
• costs of finding a job, collecting information on prices and wages;
• expenses associated with migration, as well as with the birth and upbringing of children.

All investments in the development of human capital are usually divided by specialists into:

• investments in education (special or vocational training, on-the-job retraining, self-education);
• investments in health care measures, including disease prevention, special nutrition, improving living and working conditions, as well as improving the quality of medical care;
• investments in the migration of workers to places with more favorable working conditions.

Investments in education can be divided into formal and informal. The first type involves various types of educational services offered by the state or organizations with the issuance of final documents confirming completion of training. This includes secondary school education, special education, higher education, including a second higher education, postgraduate studies, doctoral studies, on-the-job training, as well as advanced training courses.

Informal learning is training that does not have supporting documents, but is also capable of enriching a person with knowledge and increasing human capital. This includes reading literature, independently mastering any sciences, playing sports and art.

Equally important to improving productivity are health-related costs. By reducing the number of diseases and mortality, we increase the duration of the working period, the working life of a person. In this way we prolong the validity of human capital.

Each of us understands that it is possible to improve health to a certain extent, but its quality largely depends on hereditary characteristics. It is very important for an individual, as well as for society as a whole, to invest in acquiring health throughout life. Human health is an asset that is subject to wear and tear. Investing in health can slow down the process of aging and decline.

Features of investments in human capital development are as follows:

• Their effectiveness is directly related to the lifespan of the wearer. The more investments, the longer the working period of a person’s life. And the sooner investments begin, the sooner the return will be visible.
• The ability to multiply and accumulate, despite the gradual tendency towards moral and physical wear and tear.
• As human capital accumulates, it brings more and more profit, but the limit of profitability is still limited by the end of working age. As soon as a person retires or stops working for other reasons, the effectiveness of his human capital drops sharply.
• Not all investments in increasing human well-being can be recognized as expenses for the development of human capital. For example, if costs are associated with criminal and illegal activities, it is difficult to attribute them to investments in the development of human capital due to their social harmfulness and even danger.
• The nature of investments is determined by the characteristics of the culture, nationality and historical development of the society in which they are made.
• If we compare investments in the development of human capital with other types of investments, it turns out that the former are more profitable both for the carriers of capital themselves and for society as a whole.

Sources that can carry out investment activities may be:

• state;
• foundations of state and non-state importance, public organizations;
• regional associations;
• organizations, legal entities;
• individual entrepreneurs;
• supranational organizations and foundations;
• educational institutions, etc.

The state plays the most significant role among all types of sources.

But do not underestimate the importance of individual companies, organizations, and entrepreneurs. It is enterprises that are employers who have all the opportunities and conditions to engage in personnel training and development. Moreover, organizations have an information base that allows them to gain a clear understanding of the most promising areas for investment in education and training. An important factor in investing in enterprises is the net income that this type of investment brings. Once there is no profit, funding will also stop.

Ultimately, what is all this investment in personnel for? To strengthen the company's competitiveness. Consequently, the employer strives to use working time and human capital in general in the most rational way.

A practitioner tells

Self-training of personnel as a contribution to the development of human capital of the organization

Sergey Kapustin,

General Director and co-owner of the STA Logistic group of companies, Moscow

From my own experience, I know that allowing subordinates to independently control their work is simply unacceptable. Each of them, knowing that no one is checking their work, will try to rest more and work less. Many people have the same attitude towards learning: if management doesn’t force you to study, it’s better to save your energy.

As the ancient Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu said: “Hold with harm, move with gain.” In other words, I must interest the employee so that he actively engages in self-training.

Of course, employee education comes with additional costs. The company only spends the first two months of training on scholarships equal to the salary. Following the example of successful enterprises in other countries, we draw up employment contracts with a clause that allows us to demand reimbursement of training costs from an employee who fails the pre-employment test. This approach creates in people a sense of the value of education; we get employees who are interested in self-development. Already at the initial stage, it is easy for us to determine who is most responsible for learning.

Newly hired employees are required to undergo basic training. The learning process is not based on printed lecture material. We decided that it would be much more interesting to organize the preparation in the form of watching video lectures. In total, we have about 20 courses posted on our portal. Training involves initiation into the company’s values, explanation of work technology, document flow rules, and familiarization with regulations. The courses are divided into basic, suitable for everyone, and special - for individual specialists (accountants, marketers, etc.). Each newcomer studies from 10 to 15 courses over a month and a half. Upon completion of training, the employee takes an exam in electronic form. This exam is similar to the one accepted by the traffic police.

Human Capital Development Management

We are observing a number of unfavorable factors that make us more sensitive to the issue of human capital development. These factors are:

• reduction in the number of workers due to mortality in working age;
• an increase in the number of diseases due to an unhealthy lifestyle (drug addiction, smoking, alcoholism, gambling addiction);
• progressive rates of disability;
• loss of moral values ​​and ethical standards in labor relations;
• the declining role of education or its obsolescence;
• lack of opportunity to receive a modern education (lack of funds, time and effort, declining quality of education, etc.).

Human capital development is important for solving many organizational problems. Human capital needs to be managed, but it itself subsequently acts as a means of managing business profitability. With its help, you can stimulate the scientific and technological progress of an enterprise, the use of new technologies, and increased efficiency. The main approaches to the use of human capital today are competent motivation systems, leadership, the right style of management, organization of activities and prioritization. When using such approaches, human capital turns into a real tool for influencing socio-economic processes.

The possibility of chaotic formation of human capital cannot be denied. But if we expect this phenomenon to develop all its positive characteristics, then the process of formation and development of human capital must be managed consciously. All over the world, there is a shift away from the personnel management paradigm; more and more enterprises are moving directly to the administration of human capital development.

Prioritization is a key point in human capital management (Schemes 1, 2). Despite the fact that the desire to maximize human life is bearing fruit, it has not yet become a priority in management. But the formation of human capital is based precisely on this desire. In order for the priority to be realized, knowledge of people's interests, the construction of a value system, the establishment of social responsibility and the availability of appropriate resources are needed. It is important to pay enough attention to working with personnel. Look at how job search advertisements are most often formulated today: “employees with experience are required” or “qualified specialists, responsible and communicative, are required.” The set of requirements is very limited. Of course, experience is important, but to reveal all the benefits of human capital, it is not enough to accumulate experience alone.

Scheme 1. The art of management.

Scheme 2. Typological characteristics of personality in integration intelligence.

Many HR professionals now use psychological tests when hiring. They are also very helpful in personnel research. But tests do not always serve their purpose. They are not able to properly influence the formation and development of human capital.

For example, a large bank uses a 60-question test to find an employee. Vacant position – assistant. And the questions allow you to assess your general erudition and partially your knowledge of accounting. Such a test does not reveal the ability of an applicant for a position to summarize materials, nor does it even make it possible to determine the type of thinking and independence of decision-making in complex and contradictory situations. Consequently, tests are not capable of fulfilling the tasks of forming and developing human capital.

The creation of this asset occurs not only during the selection of personnel; even in the normal daily work of a manager, this process also takes place. The effectiveness of formation is determined by the correct choice of means and methods used by the employer.

Scheme 3. Human capital management mechanism.

The most important means of forming and developing human capital:

1. investment;
2. stimulating the disclosure of human qualities that contribute to the increase in human capital; they are associated with obtaining an education, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and developing intellectual potential;
3. creation of a motivating remuneration system, which involves setting wages in accordance with experience and length of service;
4. establishing values ​​implemented in management processes;
5. assignment of qualifications in accordance with the level of professionalism and ability to perform effectively;
6. manifestation of human capital in the information environment; the competence factor directly depends on the provision of information, the functional content of the activity, as well as directly on the education of the employee;
7. development of all levels of culture: general, organizational, corporate and others;
8. proper organization of activities that contributes to the implementation of a creative approach, stimulation of educational activities, and encouragement of self-development.

What indicators exist for assessing the development of human capital in an organization?

The factors that we examined in this article affect the development of human capital as a whole. They are all interconnected and form a single system. The process of formation and development of human capital can be facilitated by organizing a monitoring system for this asset, which is created in accordance with management priorities used in the enterprise, as well as employee evaluation methods.

In most cases, enterprises use the method of calculating direct personnel costs. Direct costs include wages, taxes on employees, costs of labor protection and improvement of its conditions, as well as costs of advanced training and training of workers. It is easy to guess that the sum of all these costs is not an indicator of the accumulated amount of human capital, because, in addition to all the above activities, capital carriers themselves can form capital through self-education and creativity.

Another method used is competitive assessment. The company creates optimal conditions for employees. People should strive to work for a company that offers more amenities and benefits to employees than all other competing organizations. With this technique, it is important to assess the costs and expected damage to the company when an employee leaves. It is undesirable for such investments to have turnover. It is especially important that people remain at the enterprise during a crisis, because a way out of a difficult situation is possible with the presence of human capital and even its increase, which does not at all mean recruiting new employees.

A number of enterprises use the method of prospective assessment of the value of human capital. Its essence is that the dynamics of value over a period of five, ten or even twenty years is taken into account. The method is quite effective, especially suitable for long-term large projects related to innovation. As development progresses, the value of individual employees changes. Sometimes people achieve particularly high results, and sometimes they quit, which results in major losses for the organization. These factors also need to be taken into account.

Strategic human resource management:

• SWOT analysis;
• action plan to realize opportunities and neutralize threats to business;
• personnel policy;
• personnel management models;
• personnel indicators in the balanced scorecard.

SWOT analysis of human resources: an example

Strengths	Weak sides
Opportunities for career growth for employees due to company development. Employees' desire for development. Positive image of the company in the market.	High turnover of basic personnel. Lack of uniform policies, procedures and rules in the field of personnel management. Weak communications in the company between brands; brands and management companies.
Possibilities	Threats
Attracting highly qualified personnel. Work with educational institutions (business schools, universities, colleges). Formation of uniform policies, procedures and rules in the field of personnel management. Reducing staff turnover through the introduction of adaptation systems, mentoring, apprenticeships, and prevention of layoffs. Creation of a training center and the foundations of a self-learning organization.	An increase in the number of potential employers means an outflow of qualified personnel (including to competitors). Increased demand and limited supply in the market for qualified personnel (demographic situation). An increase in market wages means an increase in personnel costs.

How effectively an organization uses human resources can be judged by the following key indicators:

1. the employee’s contribution to the organization’s performance (to making a profit per employee, to achieving a certain share of sales, the level of gross margin);
2. employee expenses; for assessment, the ratio of human resource costs to total costs, as well as costs per employee, is calculated;
3. the state of human resources (level of education, competence, as well as the level of staff turnover, etc.);
4. staff involvement (it reflects the degree of employee satisfaction with the conditions provided).

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Problems of human capital development in Russia

If we consider human capital in general, we can consider it the engine of the economy, a factor in the development of the institution of family and society as a whole. It consists of able-bodied people with education, as well as tools of intellectual and managerial work located in a certain habitat and performing a labor function. If there is human capital, a country can maintain a certain level in the global economy, ensuring competitiveness in the markets. This is of particular importance in the context of globalization, and is also an indicator of the activities of government authorities.

Human capital has value in itself, but its quality becomes increasingly important in a competitive environment. How to evaluate quality? To do this, it is necessary to determine the level of literacy and education, as well as life expectancy of the population, standard of living and the state of medical care. To this it is worth adding the GDP per capita indicator. All these elements are combined into a formula for calculating the Human Capital Development Index (HDI). About 25 years ago, out of 187 countries in the world, Russia ranked 23rd on the list, and according to the results of a 2013 study, our country was in 55th place. This is an inevitable regression, which can be explained by a decrease in investment in such areas as education, culture, science and human health.

It is important not only to develop the professional qualities of specialists. In the development of human capital, it is necessary to engage in the formation of a new culture of behavior of citizens, and this process should begin from a very early age. The development of culture continues throughout life, no matter where a person works - in the civil service or in the private sector of the economy. These tasks were formulated for themselves by the participants of the Open Government session “Human capital is the main asset of the economy”, held as part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The Minister of the Russian Federation for Open Government, Mikhail Abyzov, said that today in our country there is no system of personal development that meets modern requirements, and without it it is impossible to talk about more or less high positions in the list of economically successful states. The Soviet Union had such a system, but it no longer corresponds to reality. We need to look to the future and develop new mechanisms. Nowadays, everything is not as successful with school education as we would like; children do not develop the qualities of leaders. According to statistics, 70% of schools in the Russian Federation are rural, more than 40% of teachers work in them and at least 25% of them do not have higher education. But we simply don’t have the tools to develop leadership.

Chaotic development of human capital does not imply quality results. This system requires configuration and management so that a person's skills are adequate to the requirements of the modern world. In our country, the ability to organize the development of human capital has been lost. If we previously had a planned economy, it had its own principles of adjustment - they were based on a system of priorities for economic growth. Man was seen as a means for economic development. But in the new reality the system does not exist at all.

Instead of developing human capital, there is an increase in ambition. What do we see these days? People with higher education work in unskilled positions (salespeople, secretaries). More and more young professionals are experiencing problems finding a job. Moving to other regions is also difficult.

It is planned to develop an electronic system that will allow an employer to select a graduate of an educational institution who meets the parameters necessary to occupy a specific position. You will not have to select based on your resume; you will only need to evaluate the student’s academic performance and his scientific and social activities.

In human capital development, basic education is important, but it is neither rare nor in short supply now. Nowadays, it is much more important that a person has leadership qualities. It is not ordinary performers, but leaders who help the company achieve success. That is why the main focus now is on developing leaders. In particular, the Open Government conducts training seminars for members of the Government of the Russian Federation at the Sberbank Corporate University.

The development of science and technology shows that the main engine of the economy is human capital. GDP growth should be invested precisely in human development, in improving the quality of his life, in caring for health, and then we can hope for a transition to an innovative economy and a knowledge economy.

Let us recall the words of Nobel Prize laureate in economics Simon Kuznets, written in 1934: “For a scientific and technological breakthrough in the country, the necessary starting human capital must be created (accumulated). Otherwise, a false start occurs.”

State funds should be directed not only to the fight against corruption, but also to finance science, healthcare, education, as well as the protection of motherhood and childhood.

Table 1. Age structure of the population and dependency load

Age groups of the population, thousand people.	2002 (census)	2007	2010	2020***	2030***
Younger than able-bodied
In able-bodied
Older than able-bodied
Whole population
Younger than able-bodied
In able-bodied
Older than able-bodied
Whole population

*Men aged 16–59 years + women aged 16–54 years

**For every 1000 people of working age there are disabled people (children + pensioners)

*** 2020 and 2030 – Rosstat forecast.

Information about the experts

Marat Nagumanov, director of the research and production company "Packer", Oktyabrsky (Bashkortostan). NPF Packer LLC. Scope of activity: design, production and maintenance of packer-anchor equipment and well assemblies for operation, intensification and overhaul of oil and gas wells. Territory: head office – in Oktyabrsky (Bashkortostan); service centers and representative offices - in Muravlenko (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug), Nizhnevartovsk and Nyagan (KhMAO - Yugra), Ufa, Buzuluk (Orenburg Region), Almetyevsk and Leninogorsk (Tatarstan), Izhevsk. Number of staff: more than 700. Subscriber to the General Director magazine: since 2007.

Sergey Kapustin Graduated from the Belarusian Polytechnic Institute (now – Belarusian National Technical University). Since 1995 - co-owner and general director of the logistics company AsstrA. Since 2003 - in current position. GC "STA Logistics" Field of activity: transport logistics. Territory: Russian head office - in Moscow, branch - in St. Petersburg; representative offices in Minsk and Vilnius. Number of employees: 165. Annual turnover: 32 million euros (in 2012).

10.1 The emergence and development of the theory of human capital

10.2 Concept of human capital

10.3 Human capital assessment

10.4 Motivation and its impact on the formation of human capital

10.1 The emergence and development of the theory of human capital

Elements of the theory of human capital have existed since ancient times, when the first knowledge and education system were formed. The first attempt to evaluate human capital was made by one of the founders of Western political economy, U. Petit, in his work “Political Arithmetic” (1690). He noted that the wealth of society depends on the nature of people's occupations, distinguishing between useless activities and activities that improve people's skills and dispose them to one or another type of activity, which in itself is of great importance. V. Petty also saw great benefits in public education. His point of view was that “schools and universities should be so organized as to prevent the ambitions of privileged parents from swamping these institutions with dullards, and so that the truly able may be selected as pupils.

A. Smith, in his “Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” (1776), considered the productive qualities of a worker as the main engine of economic progress. A. Smith wrote that increasing the productivity of useful labor depends entirely on increasing the dexterity and skill of the worker, and then on improving the machines and tools with which he worked. A. Smith believed that fixed capital consists of machines and other instruments of labor, buildings, land, and the acquired and useful abilities of all residents and members of society. He drew attention to the fact that the acquisition of such abilities, including also the maintenance of their owner during his upbringing, training or apprenticeship, always requires real costs, which represent fixed capital, as if realized in his personality. The main idea of ​​his research, which is one of the key ones in the theory of human capital, is that costs associated with productive investments in people contribute to increased productivity and are recovered along with profits.

At the end of the XIX – XX centuries. such economists as J. McCulloch, J.B. Say, J. Mill, N. Senior, believed that the ability to work acquired by a person should be considered as capital in its “human” form. Thus, back in 1870, J.R. McCulloch clearly defined man as capital. In his opinion, instead of capital being understood as a part of the production of industry, unnatural to man, which could be made useful to support it and contribute to production, there does not seem to be any justifiable reason why man himself should not be considered as such, and there are many reasons why it can be considered as a formable part of the national wealth.

An important contribution to understanding this problem was made by Zh.B. Say. He argued that professional skills and abilities acquired through expenditure lead to increased productivity and can therefore be considered capital. Assuming that human abilities can accumulate, Zh.B. Say called them capital.

John Stuart Mill wrote: “Man himself... I do not regard as wealth. But his acquired abilities, which exist only as a means and are generated by labor, with good reason, I believe, fall into this category. And further: “The skill, energy and perseverance of the workers of a country are considered as much its wealth as their tools and machines.”

The founder of the neoclassical direction in economic theory, A. Marshall (1842-1924), in his scientific work “Principles of Economic Science” (1890), drew attention to the fact that “the motives that encourage a person to accumulate personal capital in the form of investments in education are similar to those that encourage the accumulation of material capital.”

At the end of the 30s. XX century Nassau Senior assumed that a person could be successfully treated as capital. In most of his discussions on this topic, he took skill and acquired abilities in this capacity, but not the person himself. Nevertheless, he treated the person himself as capital with maintenance costs invested in the person with the expectation of receiving benefits in the future. Apart from the terminology used by the author, his reasoning very closely echoes the theory of the reproduction of labor force by K. Marx. The key component of the definition of the concept of “labor power” for Marx and the theorists of human capital is the same component - human abilities. K. Marx repeatedly spoke about their development and overall effectiveness, emphasizing the need for the development of the “individual”.

Scientific research by the classics of world economic thought and the development of the practice of market economy allowed the theory of human capital to form into an independent section of economic analysis at the turn of the 50-60s of the 20th century.

Prerequisites for the emergence of the theory of human capital (Human Capital)

The growing importance of the human factor in production, modern conditions of globalization of the world economy, informatization of production processes in the conditions of the scientific and technological revolution contributed to the emergence and expansion at the turn of the 60s of the twentieth century. theories of human capital. The theory of human capital is a theory that unites different views, ideas, provisions on the process of formation, use of knowledge, skills, and abilities of a person as a source of future income and appropriation of economic benefits. The theory of human capital is based on the achievements of institutional theory, neoclassical theory, neo-Keynesianism and other particular economic theories.

The emergence of this theory in the late 1950s - early 1960s. was associated with the need to provide an adequate understanding of the nature of the unusually high growth of the economies of developed countries of the world, which is not explained by the quantitative increase in the factors of production used - labor and capital, as well as with the impossibility of offering a universal interpretation of the phenomenon of income inequality, relying on the use of the existing conceptual apparatus. Analysis of the real processes of development and growth in modern conditions led to the approval of human capital as the main productive and social factor in the development of the modern economy and society.

The very birth of the theory occurred in October 1962, when the Journal of Political Economy published an additional issue entitled “Investing in People.”

Founders of the theory of human capital

The theory of human capital was developed by American economists Theodore Schultz and Gary Becker, supporters of free competition and pricing in Western political economy. For creating the foundations of the theory of human capital, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics - Theodore Schultz in 1979, Gary Becker in 1992. Among the researchers who made the greatest contribution to the development of the theory of human capital are also M. Blaug, M. Grossman, J. Mintzer, M. Pearlman, L. Thurow, F. Welch, B. Chiswick, J. Kendrick, R. Solow, R. Lucas, C. Griliches, S. Fabricant, I. Fisher, E. Denison, etc. economists, sociologists and historians. A native of Russia, Simon (Semyon) Kuznets, who received the Nobel Prize in Economics for 1971, also made a significant contribution to the creation of the theory. Among modern domestic researchers of human capital problems, one can note S.A. Dyatlova, R.I. Kapelyushnikov, M.M. Kritsky, S.A. Kurgansky and others.

The concept of “human capital” is based on two independent theories:

1) The theory of “investment in people” was the first of Western economists' ideas about the reproduction of human productive abilities. Its authors are F. Machlup (Princeton University), B. Weisbrod (University of Wisconsin), R. Wikstra (University of Colorado), S. Bowles (Harvard University), M. Blaug (University of London), B. Fleischer (Ohio State University ), R. Campbell and B. Siegel (University of Oregon), etc. Economists of this movement proceed from the Keynesian postulate of the omnipotence of investment. The subject of research of the concept under consideration is both the internal structure of “human capital” itself and the specific processes of its formation and development.

M. Blaug believed that human capital is the present value of past investments in people's skills, and not the value of people themselves. From W. Bowen's point of view, human capital consists of the acquired knowledge, skills, motivations and energy that human beings are endowed with and which can be used over a certain period of time to produce goods and services. F. Makhlup wrote that unimproved labor can differ from improved labor, which has become more productive due to investments that increase a person’s physical and mental abilities. Such improvements constitute human capital.

2) By the authorstheory of “human capital production” are Theodore Schultz and Yorem Ben-Poret (University of Chicago), Gary Becker and Jacob Mintzer (Columbia University), L. Turow (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Richard Palmman (University of Wisconsin), Zvi Griliches (Harvard University), and others. This theory considered fundamental to Western economic thought.

Theodore William Schultz (1902-1998) - American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (1979). Born near Arlington (South Dakota, USA). He studied at college and graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, where in 1930 he received a doctorate in agricultural economics. He began his teaching career at Iowa State College. Four years later he headed the department of economic sociology. Since 1943 and for almost forty years, he has been a professor of economics at the University of Chicago. The teacher's activities were combined with active research work. In 1945, he prepared a collection of materials from the “Food for the World” conference, in which special attention is paid to food supply factors, issues of structure and migration of agricultural labor, professional qualifications of farmers, agricultural production technology and the direction of investment in farming. In Agriculture in an Unstable Economy (1945), he argued against poor land use because it led to soil erosion and other negative consequences for the agricultural economy.

In 1949-1967 T.-V. Schultz is a member of the board of directors of the US National Bureau of Economic Research, then an economic consultant to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and several government departments and organizations.

Among his most famous works are "Production and well-being of agriculture", "Transformation of traditional agriculture" (1964), "Investing in people: the economics of population quality" (1981) and etc.

The American Economic Association awarded T.-V. Schultz medal named after F. Volker. He is professor emeritus of the University of Chicago; he has been awarded honorary degrees by the Universities of Illinois, Wisconsin, Dijon, Michigan, North Carolina and the Universidad Católica de Chile.

According to the theory of human capital, two factors interact in production - physical capital (means of production) and human capital (acquired knowledge, skills, energy that can be used in the production of goods and services). People spend money not only on fleeting pleasures, but also on monetary and non-monetary income in the future. Investments are made in human capital. These are the costs of maintaining health, getting an education, costs associated with finding a job, obtaining the necessary information, migration, and professional training in production. The value of human capital is assessed by the potential income that it can provide.

T.-V. Schultz argued thathuman capital is a form of capital because it serves as a source of future earnings or future satisfaction, or both. And he becomes human because he is an integral part of man.

According to the scientist, human resources are similar, on the one hand, to natural resources, and on the other, to material capital. Immediately after birth, a person, like natural resources, does not produce any effect. Only after appropriate “processing” does a person acquire the qualities of capital. That is, with increasing costs for improving the quality of the labor force, labor as a primary factor is gradually transformed into human capital. T.-V. Schultz is convinced that, given the contribution of labor to output, human productive capabilities are greater than all other forms of wealth combined. The peculiarity of this capital, according to the scientist, is that regardless of the sources of formation (own, public or private), its use is controlled by the owners themselves.

The microeconomic foundation of the theory of human capital was laid by G.-S. Becker.

Becker Harry-Stanley (born 1930) is an American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (1992). Born in Pottsville (Pennsylvania, USA). In 1948 he studied at the G. Madison High School in New York. In 1951 he graduated from Princeton University. His scientific career is connected with Columbia (1957-1969) and the University of Chicago. In 1957 he defended his doctoral dissertation and became a professor.

Since 1970 G.-S. Becker served as chair of the department of social sciences and sociology at the University of Chicago. He taught at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Collaborated with the weekly magazine Business Week.

He is an active supporter of market economics. His legacy includes many works: “The Economic Theory of Discrimination” (1957), “Treatise on the Family” (1985), “The Theory of Rational Expectations” (1988), “Human Capital” (1990), “Rational Expectations and the Effect of Consumption Prices” ( 1991), “Fertility and the Economy” (1992), “Training, Labor, Labor Quality and the Economy” (1992), etc.

The overarching idea of ​​the scientist’s works is that when making decisions in his daily life, a person is guided by economic reasoning, although he is not always aware of it. He argues that the market of ideas and motives functions according to the same laws as the market of goods: supply and demand, competition. This also applies to issues such as getting married, starting a family, studying, and choosing a profession. In his opinion, many psychological phenomena are also amenable to economic assessment and measurement, such as satisfaction and dissatisfaction with one’s financial situation, the manifestation of envy, altruism, selfishness, etc.

Opponents G.-S. Becker argues that by focusing on economic calculations, he downplays the importance of moral factors. However, the scientist has an answer to this: moral values ​​differ from person to person, and it will take a long time before they become the same, if such a thing is ever possible. A person of any morality and intellectual level strives to obtain personal economic benefit.

In 1987 G.-S. Becker was elected president of the American Economic Association. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Education, national and international societies, an editor of economic journals, and honorary doctorates from Stanford, the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, and the Hebrew University.

The starting point for G.-S. Becker had the idea that when investing in vocational training and education, students and their parents act rationally, taking into account all the benefits and costs. Like “ordinary” entrepreneurs, they compare the expected marginal rate of return from such investments with the return on alternative investments (interest on bank deposits, dividends from securities). Depending on what is more economically feasible, they make a decision: to continue education or stop it. Rates of return regulate the distribution of investments between different types and levels of education, as well as between the education system and the rest of the economy. High rates of return indicate underinvestment, low rates indicate overinvestment.

G.-S. Becker carried out a practical calculation of the economic efficiency of education. For example, income from higher education is defined as the difference in lifetime earnings between those who completed college and those who did not go beyond high school. Among the costs of training, the main element was considered to be “lost earnings,” that is, earnings lost by students during the years of study. (Essentially, lost earnings measure the value of students' time spent building their human capital.) A comparison of the benefits and costs of education made it possible to determine the return on investment in a person.

G.-S. Becker believed that a low-skilled worker does not become a capitalist due to the diffusion (dispersion) of ownership of corporate shares (although this point of view is popular). This happens through the acquisition of knowledge and qualifications that have economic value. The scientist was convinced thatLack of education is the most serious factor that holds back economic growth.

The scientist insists on the difference between special and general investments in humans (and more broadly, between general and specific resources in general). Special training gives the employee knowledge and skills that increase the future productivity of its recipient only in the company that trains him (various forms of rotation programs, familiarization of newcomers with the structure and internal routine of the enterprise). In the process of general training, the employee acquires knowledge and skills that increase the recipient's productivity, regardless of the company for which he works (personal computer training).

According to G.-S. Becker, investments in the education of citizens, in medical care, in particular in children’s care, in social programs aimed at retaining, supporting, and replenishing personnel, are equivalent to investing in the creation or acquisition of new equipment or technologies, which in the future is returned with the same profits. This means, according to his theory, support by entrepreneurs for schools and universities is not charity, but concern for the future of the state

According to G.-S. Becker, general training is paid for in a certain way by the employees themselves. In an effort to improve their qualifications, they accept lower wages during the training period and later have income from general training. After all, if companies financed training, then every time such workers were fired, they would get rid of their investments in them. Conversely, special training is paid for by firms, and they also receive income from it. In case of dismissal at the initiative of the company, the costs would be borne by the employees. As a result, general human capital, as a rule, is developed by special “firms” (schools, colleges), and special human capital is formed directly in the workplace.

The term “special human capital” helped to understand why workers with a long tenure in one place are less likely to change jobs, and why vacancies are filled in firms primarily through internal career moves rather than through hiring on the external market.

Having studied the problems of human capital, G.-S. Becker became one of the founders of new sections of economic theory - the economics of discrimination, the economics of external management, the economics of crime, etc. He built a “bridge” from economics to sociology, demography, criminology; was the first to introduce the principle of rational and optimal behavior in those industries where, as researchers previously believed, habits and irrationality dominated.

Criticism of human capital theory

Ukrainian scientist S. Mocherny considers the main shortcomings of the theory of human capital to be an amorphous interpretation of the essence of capital, which includes not only everything that surrounds a person, but also individual features of the person himself; ignoring the fact that the costs of developing education and acquiring qualifications form only the ability to work, a labor force of appropriate quality, and not the capital itself; the fallacy of the opinion that such capital is inseparable from the person himself; a number of provisions of the theory on the structure of human capital have not been weighed, in particular, it is not correct to classify the search for necessary information on the value of prices and income as elements of this category, since such a search is not always successful, as evidenced by significant unemployment in most countries; the position that in order to transform the acquired knowledge, experience, creative abilities and other elements of a human worker into future income and the appropriation of economic benefits, an employee must constantly work, which means that the source of such income is not the level of education and qualifications itself, but the labor of a person. The biggest drawback of the theory of human capital, according to opponents, is its ideological orientation.

Although the theory is better suited to analyze some aspects of the labor market than neoclassical economics, both are inherently based on the assumption that there is “ideal” information about the possibilities of investment in human capital, both at a given moment and in the future. The theory assumes that the individual correctly estimates investment costs and expected returns in the form of future earnings. This assumption does not take into account the many economic and even political factors that can affect the earning potential of certain skills and occupations.

Another issue concerns the empirical relevance of human capital theory. Some studies have shown that human capital investments such as education account for only a small portion of the variation in people's earnings. Failure to consider factors such as background and motivation may result in an overestimation of future payback when investing in human capital.

The pressing question is whether forms of investment such as education and training in particular can actually increase productivity. In this regard, it is interesting to note Michael Spence's remark that training does not improve a person's productivity, it only reveals his innate abilities and indicates his potential productivity to a potential employer

The importance of human capital theory

Despite the fact that for a long time many scientists and even supporters of the theory of human capital considered it as unsuitable for practical use, in recent years scientists and managers in many countries have been making attempts to implement its provisions. Several aspects contribute to this:

1.G.-S. Becker obtained quantitative estimates of the profitability of investments in people and compared them with the actual profitability of most US firms, which helped to clarify and expand the understanding of the economic efficiency of investments in human capital. The emergence of a large number of private educational institutions, the intensification of the activities of consulting firms conducting short-term seminars and specialized courses, indicate that the profitability in the private sector of educational activities is not lower than in other areas of business. For example, in the USA in the 60s of the twentieth century. the profitability of educational activities was 10-15 % higher than the profitability of other types of commercial activities.

2. The theory of human capital explained the structure of the distribution of personal income, the secular dynamics of earnings, and inequality in pay for male and female labor. Thanks to her, the attitude of politicians towards the costs of education has also changed. Educational investment has come to be seen as a source of economic growth, as important as “regular” investment.

The concept of national wealth acquires a broader interpretation. Today it covers, together with the material elements of capital (value assessments of land, buildings, structures, equipment, inventory items), financial assets and materialized knowledge and people’s abilities for productive work. Accumulated scientific knowledge, in particular, materialized in new technologies, investments in human health began to be taken into account in macroeconomic statistics as elements of national wealth that have an intangible form.

A new interpretation of “human” investments in ensuring socio-economic development and social progress has been recognized by international organizations. The situation in the fields of education, health care and other factors characterizing the level of development of human resources and the quality of life of the population have become the main objects of attention of international statistics. As integral indicators of social development of society and the state of human resources, in particular, the human potential development index (social development index) is used; index of intellectual potential of society; an indicator of the amount of human capital per capita; population vitality coefficient, etc.

Since 1995, human development reports have been prepared in Ukraine. Thus, reports for 1995-1999, published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), became the basis for justifying human development as a means and goal of national development. Based on these reports, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine reviewed and adopted the UNDP Human Development Index. Today, this index has become an important indicator of human development, monitored by the State Statistics Committee on a regular basis.

3.Theory G.-S. Becker justified the economic need for large investments (public and private) in the “human factor”. This approach is implemented in practice. In particular, the human capital index per capita (expresses the level of spending by the state, firms and citizens on education, health care and other sectors of the social sphere per capita), used by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, increased in the post-war years by 0.25 % in year. In the 60s, growth stopped, which was primarily due to the demographic characteristics of the period, and in the 80s it accelerated - by almost 0.5 % annually.

4. The theory of human capital proposed a unified analytical framework for explaining such seemingly different phenomena as the contribution of education to economic growth, the demand for educational and medical services, age-related dynamics of earnings, differences in pay for male and female labor, and the transmission of economic inequality from generation to generation. generation and much more.

5. The ideas embedded in the theory of human capital have had a serious impact on the economic policy of the state. Thanks to her, society’s attitude towards investing in people has changed. They have learned to see investments that provide a production effect that is long-term in nature. This provided the theoretical basis for the accelerated development of the education and training system in many countries around the world.

6. Under the influence of the theory of human capital, in which education is assigned the role of the “great equalizer,” a certain reorientation of social policy has occurred. In particular, training programs came to be seen as an effective tool in the fight against poverty, perhaps preferable to direct income redistribution.

7. Human capital theory created a unified analytical framework for studying the funds invested in education and training, and also explained the differences between countries in the structure of those employed in the economy. After all, differences in the supply of human capital in different countries are more significant than differences in the supply of real capital. Among the problems in solving which the theory of human capital may be appropriate, T.-V. Schultz called the phenomenon when countries rich in capital, in particular created material assets, export predominantly labor-intensive rather than capital-intensive products.

The main social conclusion of the theory of human capital is that in modern conditions, improving the quality of the labor force is more important than increasing the supply of labor resources. Control over production passes from the hands of owners of monopolies on material capital into the hands of those who possess knowledge. This theory opens up the possibility of assessing the contribution to economic growth of an educational fund (by analogy with assessing the contribution of fixed property funds), as well as the possibility of managing investment processes based on a comparison of the return on investments in property funds and an educational fund.

Figure - the influence of human capital on economic development