Executive Reporting
Don’t look back—start with current data.
Don’t overwhelm people with data—a single, simple-to-read page is best.
Once you start reporting, make sure you don’t stop—keep it on time, every time.
Answer questions before they’re asked; if the data raises a question, answer it with the report.
Let people draw their own conclusions.
The development of Human Resources metrics relates to the direct correlation between individual performance and the company’s performance as a whole. However, the degree and number of employees varies. If you find it difficult to measure human capital, defined by Margaret M. Blair, co-author of the Brookings Institution study, “Understanding Intangible Sources of Value,” as “part of a set of intangibles that a company simply cannot control: the way employees work together, not just the sum of what an individual knows” (Workforce Management 2001) blueprinting may be the solution you are looking for. Undoubtedly, Human Resources professionals throughout the past several decades experienced frustration when trying to measure human capital. Then, as now, leaders are always looking for the solution to issues that arise as a result of differing personalities.
As is often the case today, this solution addressed one aspect of human capital. After force was no longer effective or permissible, managers often responded by replacing people. Now many also tend to focus on a single solution such as a selection program or management practice. Most improvements provide some benefit, but inevitably problems reappear in one form or another.
While fixing problems as they occur may seem to save long hours of evaluating and planning, a more proactive approach is the most effective one. Individuals are too complex and teams and organizations are correspondingly more so. For example, in the mid-seventies, a U.S. government task force researched selection, training, and management for special operations units. One of the outcomes that they discovered was a multifaceted template that connected elements of the work, the operating unit, and individuals. The task force recognized not just the connectivity and complexity of human performance but also that a holistic approach offered the best basis for making decisions about people.
Measuring intangible human capital has caused countless headaches for Human Resources professionals throughout the years. According to Workforce Management, experts in the field are beginning to “ask the right questions,” evaluating, according to Blair, “how to value the productivity and future benefit additions to human capital: the skills, talents and capabilities that are really embedded in people.” (Workforce Management 2001) Again, it all goes back to the mission and objectives. Staffing expert Nick Burkholder recommends the five following steps toward creating an effective framework for measuring human capital. The more clarity is around the first two steps, the easier the strategy will be to identify. And the more aligned the objectives are with the organizational mission, the more beneficial the strategy will be to the organization.
Determine the mission.
Identify specific goals and objectives.
Develop the strategy to attain those goals and objectives.
Design the process, organization, and structure to execute the strategy.
Measure and report.
Every department mission should support the mission of the organization.
There can be no HR mission without an organization mission.
Generals are responsible for establishing military objectives—not colonels, not majors, not captains, and certainly not lieutenants.
The objectives are important and they require time and effort.
The ability to establish the right objectives is the most important leadership responsibility.
Organization’s mission questions:
| • | Does it make sense?
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| • | Will it still be valid?
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HR mission questions:
| • | Does it completely support the organization’s mission? |
| • | Does it make sense? Does it say the same thing to management, employees, and even external constituencies? |
| • | Will it stand the test of time? |