There are fundamental shifts taking place in Human Resources management.
It’s no surprise that technology-enabled analytics has permeated every area of the business process. Using sophisticated techniques, operating, marketing, sales and financial professionals have been able to optimize their processes to improve efficiencies and positively impact bottom line financial performance.
The most recent function to benefit from the rigor of data analytics is the human capital function. A recent article in HR Executive Magazine reported that 60% of the Fortune 100 companies had people analytics professionals on staff. What makes data analytics more complex in the HC area is that individuals are unpredictable, and therefore their behavior (and predictions about their behavior) is hard to forecast with reliability. What we can measure, though, is how the collective of all employees and the costs associated with employees and employee programs impact financial performance. Given that HC costs are typically a company’s largest line item expense, applying an analytics approach should be a high priority.
Recently, the SEC determined that human capital should be viewed as an intangible asset rather than an expense to the organization. Although we will continue to see HC expenses on P&Ls and cannot expect soon to see HC as an asset on the balance sheet– we will begin to see organizations acting on the recognition that human capital is an intangible asset and certain expenses ought to be reclassified as investments for planning, accounting and tax purposes. We’ll write more on the accounting and tax aspects of the distinction in another post.
This also opens the door to using more advanced approaches to prioritize and inform investment decision-making related to HC. Utility analysis is a method to understand the cost/benefit impact of any business investment, typically one in physical assets, R&D and the like. We suggest that the same analysis can be applied to Human Capital decisions as well, applying the same level of rigor and resource allocation analysis as one would to an investment in any other asset.
Thinking of Human Capital as an asset to be invested in can facilitate HC-related spending decisions. The challenge is determining, with reliability and validity, the measures of cost and “value” (or benefit) derived from each activity/investment undertaken by the firm.
A REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
Conclusion:
Almost every Human Capital process and human resources program can be evaluated using the bottom-line-focused rigor of utility analysis – to inform investment decisions. Future employee-focused programs and processes should be viewed through this “utility” filter and offer insight by focusing on the success of a specific program against its stated goals (benefits, training, recruitment, bonuses, and more) and contribution to economic value creation.
Dr. Solange Charas is a senior-level human resources expert with 30+ years of experience as a consultant, practice leader, top corporate executive, and board director across all industry sectors. She was the Chief Human Resources officer at Havas Worldwide, Benfield and Praetorian Financial Services Group and held senior-level positions at Ernst & Young and Arthur Andersen. She serves of the boards of 2 public companies, a non-profit organization and a higher-education institution. She is the Founder and CEO of HC Moneyball – an analytics platform company founded to provide support for enhanced decision making about spend on people in any organization.
Solange earned a PhD in Management from Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management, an MBA in Accounting and Finance from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, and a BA in International Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. She has authored numerous articles, including “The Art and Science of Valuing People” in HR Director, “6 Ways to Coach Your Company’s Teams to Be Champions” in Entrepreneur Magazine and “Why Men Have More Help Getting to the C-Suite” in Harvard Business Review.
