Score Your Human Resource Investments

 

A new standard developed by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) gives employers a guide to showing clearly how they are managing their investments in human resources. This is not just an "FYI" for you, though. You can use the factors that are measured in the standard as a gauge for your own management of human resources. You can make an informal scorecard for your organization or your project.

These are questions to ask for a quick check, but you may be able to think of more.

Factor 1:  Spending on Human Capital

• Does your org track this in any way?
• What does this tell you about investments in human resources?
• If such spending is tracked, how has it been improved recently?

Factor 2:  Ability to Retain Talent

• What is the employee turnover rate in your IT organization?
• Has this measure improved recently?
• Is it even tracked?
• Have costs to replace workers been calculated?

Factor 3:  Leadership Depth

• Does your organization have a plan to replace leaders?
• Is your organization following such a plan?
• Is there already good candidates ready to replace leaders?

Factor 4:  Leadership Quality

• Do you have standards for leadership quality?
• Do you test leaders in any way on leadership skills?
• Is there training for leaders on managing the workforce?

Factor 5:  Employee Engagement (This is an important one!)

• Do you have measures for employee engagement?
• How has this improved over time?
• If nothing official on employee engagement, are there any surveys to discover employee satisfaction? Or employee needs?
• Do you involve workers in determining if they are engaged and how they want to be engaged?

Factor 6:  Human-capital Discussion and Analysis

• Are analyses conducted of human capital in the organization?
• Are their surveys conducted to determine what skills are needed for the future and to determine what training is necessary to meet those needs
• Is there workforce planning?
• Is social media used for wide interactive discussions on employee satisfaction or needs?

If there is not much done in most of the areas above, then your project and your organization may be at risk for high turnover and low satisfaction leading to poor performance. "At risk" may even be an understatement. If poor performance is obstructing your projects, then start with the categories above and do what you can to influence improvements. Unfortunately, SHRM does not have Engagement Magicians.