[Excerpt] If you ask hospitality executives and managers, “What keeps you up at night?” one of the most common responses is “human resources.” Indeed, there’s no question that you have to pay close attention to your workforce. We often use the term human capital to refer to employees, so when we talk about maximizing human capital, we are simply saying that you should make a focused effort to support and encourage your employees to do their best possible work. Since knowledge of how you and your firm can get the most from your employees has expanded greatly in recent years, we discuss ways to make the most of human capital. It wasn’t so long ago that managing human resources (HR) was primarily an administrative function. Today, however, the effective management of human capital requires more complex and sophisticated policies, programs, and systems that have a direct impact on your hospitality.