TRADITIONAL HR metrics are more akin to navel gazing because they typically measure the efficiency of HR functions, and metrics need to take a broader view of how people are managed and developed across organisations, according to a visiting HR metrics expert
TRADITIONAL HR metrics are more akin to navel gazing because they typically measure the efficiency of HR functions, and metrics need to take a broader view of how people are managed and developed across organisations, according to a visiting HR metrics expert.
“Developing better measurement systems and being able to quantify the connection between the development and management of people and business results and profitability is a key thing for the HR profession to be working on,” said Laurie Bassi, CEO of workforce strategy and benchmarking firm McBassi & Company.
“This is very different from traditional HR metrics, and as long as they focus on the HR function then HR professionals are never going to really get a foothold in the business.”
Bassi, who was trained as an economist and has been developing strategic HR metrics for almost a decade, said that metrics need to take into account the overall development and management of people inside an organisation.
“HR does not do this. They facilitate and enable this, but ultimately it’s line managers who either do it or don’t do it,” she said.
“That’s why we choose to talk about human capital metrics – it’s more than just a semantic shift. It helps us to get beyond looking at ourselves in the HR function.”
After conducting a number of talks around Australia, Bassi said the local practice of HR seemed every bit as strategic as that in the US.
“I don’t see a great deal of difference in terms of function of thinking,” she said.
“Maybe people have their eyes a little wider open here than in the US. They’re not always right up on the edge of things because they can think that things are working pretty well.”
She also said that the trend of HR executives coming increasingly from the line and going back to the line would continue, both in Australia and the US.
“It will be less of a lifelong career path. HR will increasingly become intimately involved in the business, which means that a good way for people to come into HR is from the business, and ultimately go back to the business.”
Bassi acknowledged that many view the term ‘human capital’ as somewhat demeaning, comparing people to intangible assets, but thought there was room for a better term.
“We somewhat reluctantly use the term human capital because we think it’s better than the alternatives,”she said.
“I don’t think it’s a perfect term, but I do think it’s better than human resources and somehow the term ‘people power’ doesn’t quite cut it.”
