Research has been released today by the Institute for Employment Studies providing a detailed guide to raising the HR function’s profile within organisations by closely aligning it with business strategy. The report provides a practical insight into how different organisations devise and use human capital measures

Dilys Robinson, Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies, said;

“Measuring the value people bring to a business can be tricky but is vital to monitoring the health of your organisation. HR plays a crucial role in making the links between things such as employee engagement, turnover and vacancy rates, and customer satisfaction, and measuring their impact.”

Human Capital Measurement (HCM) is one of the terms used to describe the practice of measuring employees’ contribution. However the Institute for Employment Studies’ research showed that this term is rarely used in practice within organisations. More common terms were ‘workforce data’ or ‘key people indicators’. The research, based on action learning workshops involving 14 of the UK’s top private and public sector organisations including the Royal Bank of Scotland, BBC, and the NHS, took place over the course of a year and showed robust people metrics can pay dividends, but organisations should beware of a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

The report can be found and downloaded here