Matt Wade, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, reported that our collective welfare improved in 2015, according to the Herald / Lateral Economics Wellbeing Index. How we managed this improvement in societal wellbeing is off the back of greater collective ‘know how’ or human capital such as higher rates of people finishing year 12; attaining university degrees; and receiving technical training.

The author of the Index, Nicholas Gruen, stated, “It is worth remembering that investments in our human capital hit the tax reforms, now being debated, out of the park in terms of the impact on our future wellbeing.”

Education is the silver bullet for our economy, our society. In fact, 80% of future economic growth is dependent on the quality of education. As we have written previously, education is by far the most important lever our society can pull to ensure our future success.

The Sydney Morning Herald has also previously published, “Science directly contributes $145b to GDP” and it was reported that ‘new’ knowledge is “the dominant factor driving economic growth over the long term in developed countries.” The research also warned that, “without ongoing increases in human knowledge, including technical progress, any of the other factors driving economic growth will eventually encounter diminishing returns, and growth will slow.”

But it is not just the economy that benefits from increases in our human capital. As Tom Peters has found, the formula for organisational success is dependent on people. In fact, some 35% of an organisation’s success comes down to how capable its people are. For this reason, investment in employees is the number one mid-to-long-term growth strategy available to organisations.

Part of this investment should include helping managers and front-line supervisors communicate more effectively with staff, as poor communication contributes to workplace stress, demotivation and disengagement which are killers for performance. As Tom Peters has also found, some 30% or an organisation’s success come down to how aligned, engaged and passionate its employees are.

To really create a successful, prosperous and flourishing future, let’s start investing in our human capital … people.