THE ROLE OF HUMAN CAPITAL IN ENSURING THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ENTERPRISE

Abstract

The article examines the role of human capital in ensuring enterprise development under the conditions of deepening economic intellectualization, digitalization, and the increasing importance of knowledge as a key production resource. It is substantiated that in the modern economy human capital acquires the status of a crucial strategic resource of an enterprise, as it ensures knowledge generation, formation of innovative potential, improvement of resource efficiency, and achievement of long-term competitive advantages. It is determined that the transformation of the economic environment leads to changes in approaches to enterprise development management, within which human capital is considered not only as a production factor but also as an integrated asset capable of determining the quality of economic growth. Scientific approaches to the interpretation of the essence of human capital and enterprise development are generalized, which made it possible to define it as a multidimensional system of knowledge, competencies, experience, intellectual and social characteristics of employees that ensure the enterprise’s ability for innovation renewal and adaptation to changes in the external environment. The current state and trends in the development of human capital are analyzed, which allowed identifying a significant gap between its potential and the level of its effective utilization in enterprise activities. It is proved that key constraints include demographic and migration processes, educational losses, transformation of the employment structure, as well as the insufficient integration of human capital into the system of strategic enterprise management. These factors lead to a decrease in labor productivity, limit innovation activity, and restrain enterprise development. As a result of the study, an author’s model of the impact of human capital on enterprise development is proposed, which reflects a step-by-step process of transforming human potential into performance outcomes through a system of managerial, organizational, and innovation mechanisms. The distinctive feature of the model is the consideration of the interconnection between the formation of human capital, the mechanisms of its implementation, the achievement of intermediate results, and the provision of strategic enterprise development, as well as the presence of feedback ensuring the continuity of the development process.