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No poverty
Management measure
Increasing employment levels and encouraging people to become self-employed.
Preserving and developing human capital in the context of war and digital transformation — through a project-based, human-centered approach to managing people.
Explore the studyThe article focuses on the issue of preserving and developing human capital in the context of war and digital transformation, substantiating the necessity of a project-based approach to human resource management in order to achieve the sustainable development goals under the influence of digitalization and the spread of behavioral economics trends.
Flexibility, phased implementation, transparency, adaptability to change and human-centeredness — applied beyond IT.
Competencies, knowledge, skills and intangibles such as creativity, initiative and leadership — a resource and a means.
A new paradigm where people make near-instant decisions via digital technologies, often on impulse and under risk.
Goals across the ecological, social, economic and educational contexts — the destination of human capital management.
Human capital is a necessary resource and a means for achieving the sustainable development goals.
Human capital management occurs at two levels — public management and administration (the whole population), and management of economic entities (the human resource of organizations).
It is advisable to focus on the needs and interests of people; the motives of human behavior, primarily economic, can be used as a means of human capital management.
Combining digital and behavioral economics forms an effective strategy whose goals are set by people's economic needs and achieved through digital tools and technologies.
The realities of Ukrainian business survival in wartime are closely related to the rapid loss of human capital. The need to replace people who left has caused a personnel shortage that company management must address through the effective management of available human resources.
The vast majority of migrants to EU and other distant countries are people of working age — a human resource critically needed for the functioning of enterprises, institutions and organizations.
A significant part of those abroad are highly qualified specialists capable of creating competitive advantages and ensuring prospects for the strategic development of the national economy.
Strategies and tactics of employee management must be reoriented toward preventing a new wave of layoffs and maintaining the will to perform job duties and pursue professional development.
These intentions are becoming passive among personnel living under constant stress, uncertainty and risk, as well as economic and political instability.
Project management is gaining popularity for its flexibility in decision-making, the ability to change target benchmarks mid-implementation, easy response to innovation, the desire for information transparency, and the ability to unite the team around a single goal. Its principles can be applied to human capital management to raise people-centeredness.
Rapid response to updates, innovations and changing conditions while moving toward the goal.
Constant, continuous communication informs personnel about the conditions and risks of their work.
A focus on achieving specific, pre-defined results within an available resource budget.
Interim results fixed by stages allow excess or deficit of human capital to be identified.
Cross-functional implementation of tasks combines organically with human capital development.
Manifestations of empathy and emotional intelligence place people at the center of management.
Conflict-free overcoming of resistance to change as conditions transform.
Transparent, multilateral information exchange among customers, performers and stakeholders.
Gradual measurement of progress toward the goal enables timely assessment and adjustment of decisions.
The emergence and spread of project management are closely related to the digitalization of various economic and social spheres. The innovativeness and effectiveness of the Agile toolkit, compared to classical management, led to its adoption in mechanisms for managing finances, risks and innovations — and, this study argues, human resources.
A comparative analysis by Rusanova, Korochkin and Achilov assessed popular project management systems across a wide range of functional parameters, demonstrating how high visualization, task detailing and continuous communication let team leaders track behavior, respect performers' interests, avoid overspending and recognize achievement.
Each human capital management measure is matched to a priority Sustainable Development Goal it helps achieve — developed by the authors based on expert opinions.
Increasing employment levels and encouraging people to become self-employed.
Redistribution of human capital in different regions from the perspective of food security.
Review of working hours and work-life balance requirements.
Development of scientific and educational elite, recruitment of specialists from abroad.
Gender-neutral management, supporting the DEI principle.
People-centered management in business and public administration.
Control of the level of wages, fixing maximum values in relation to minimums defined by law.
Meeting the human resource needs of the regions through social and educational programs.
Encouraging and creating conditions for people's economic behavior aimed at resource conservation.
In 2022, a survey of young people's economic moods was conducted. 105 young people were selected for the focus group and asked about their level of economic security, access to economic education, willingness to save, and the main sources of income and expenses. Their patterns will shape the Ukrainian economy over the next ten years.
Restraint in economic decisions, fear of losing economic security, reluctance to save, and the link of behavior to pricing — all suggest which economic interests can deter young people from migration and slow, and ideally permanently stop, the loss of human capital. Every proposal below originates from, or is successfully used in, project management.
The current stage of economic development combines behavioral and digital economy trends into a new paradigm — the digital behavioral economy — in which a person makes decisions about access to economic goods almost instantly, sometimes on impulse and without sufficient information.
It is believed that in 1995 Don Tapscott first used the term «digital economy», later presented in The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence (1996; updated 2014). This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of a digital economic model of management at the micro- and macro-levels.
Timely informing the public about decisions of state authorities and changes in the political, security and economic situation.
Registration and receipt of necessary documents online with minimal security risks.
Financial services 24/7 from anywhere; saving time; free advisory services for personal and business inquiries.
Digital support of the full employment cycle — e-resume, online interview, sending documents by email, payment to a bank card.
Platforms and venues for starting a business in digital format — trading, consulting, mentoring, mediation, entertainment, and more.
Receiving educational services online, studying at a convenient time and at a comfortable pace.
How each feature of project management produces an effect for human capital management, the role of the digital behavioral economy, and the priority Sustainable Development Goals it can help achieve.
| Project-management feature | Effect for human capital management | Role of the digital behavioral economy | Priority SDGs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flexibility & rapid response to change | Human-centricity; taking needs and interests into account in new conditions; giving people the opportunity to influence government decisions. | Using opportunities and tools of digitalization to meet current needs. | Goal 4Goal 5Goal 8 |
| Specificity in achieving the goal | A person's understanding of the trajectory of their own life in accordance with goals, aspirations and existing limitations. | Understanding and focusing on core motivations and needs; using digital services to increase reach. | Goal 1Goal 3Goal 4Goal 5Goal 8 |
| Fixation of interim results by stages | Identification of excess or deficit of human capital; taking management measures or adjusting final goals. | Quickly changing economic sentiment in line with well-being; digital services accelerate information about changes. | All SDGs |
| Continuity of communication | Covering different age and gender groups with information. | Using digital information and communication channels to communicate needs and interests. | All SDGs |
| Parallel execution of several tasks | Opportunities for personal and professional development, cross-cultural interaction and control of working and personal time. | Using digital platforms to visualize and monitor progress toward personal and professional goals. | All SDGs |
| Clear distribution of team roles | A person's awareness of their current place in the social hierarchy and the actions needed to improve their situation. | Balancing the needs and interests of different categories of stakeholders using digital analytics. | Goal 1Goal 8Goal 12 |
| Fixation of deadlines & clear time limits | Formation of a time reserve for building human capital with the necessary parameters when moving between tasks. | Using digital timeframes and tools to streamline and optimize personal and corporate time management. | Goal 8Goal 11Goal 12 |
The feasibility of using the ideology and methods of project management in human capital management — in order to achieve the sustainable development goals in the realities of the digital behavioral economy — rests on the following argumentation.
Adaptation. The project approach lets businesses flexibly and accurately adapt management practices to new conditions and to innovative risks — new technologies, updated consumer behavior, changing labor-market trends.
Results within a budget. A focus on specific, pre-defined results within an available resource budget — combining economic, social, environmental, financial and time components — closely correlates with the goals of sustainable development.
People as the main resource. In project management, human capital is the main resource; selection, motivation and development receive significant attention, and understanding one's role stimulates people to stay in teams.
Digital by origin. Project management's IT origins explain expanding its use under digital transformation; it relies on digital technologies for information, large-data analysis, task management and KPI setting.
Human-centric teams. Team management is mostly human-centric — taking the interests and needs of employees into account when distributing tasks — which correlates with the behavioral approach in economics and management.
Measurable progress. Cross-functional cooperation combines with human capital development, and gradual measurement of progress allows timely assessment and prompt adjustment of management decisions.
Built on project management and aligned with the principles of sustainable development, behavioral economics and social justice, it is key to overcoming the demographic crisis, restoring the country's economy, and ensuring its strategic competitiveness on the global stage.
Specifying the forms of using project management in the personnel policies of Ukrainian companies and at the level of public management and administration, during efforts to preserve the personnel potential of civil service bodies.