"Measuring More Than Efficiency"
Stephen Gates
Conference Board, January 2005
According to this Conference Board survey of 104 human resources professionals, 84 percent predict that their firms will increasingly track and use human capital measures over the next three years. Only 12 percent, however, report that they are using tracking these measures to a significant degree.
The study underscores the difficulty HR faces in becoming recognized as a strategic resource for their organizations. Human resources practitioners must choose from hundreds of metrics covering any number of performance and people measures, making it difficult to choose which measurement best serves the strategic purposes of their firms. Exacerbating this problem is the fact that only 31 percent of the respondents reported that their HR practitioners had a strong understanding of strategic key performance indicators. Many respondents have reported teaming with other departments such as finance (54 percent) or strategy (45 percent) in order to secure buy-in for increased use of people measurements in strategic planning.
The report concludes that people measures can have a positive impact if used to “evaluate the effectiveness and impact of people investments and HR activities.” Some key benefits include illuminating the value of human capital and improved HR decision-making.
