Introduction to HR Measurement
The importance to HR of being able to demonstrate the value to the business, using measures that assess the delivery of essential services to business units and alignment with strategic business goals. An outline of the kinds of measures that meet these criteria and their role in informing decision making. (5174 words)

How RBS turns human capital into business value
Greig Aitken, Head of Human Capital Strategy, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, discusses the bank’s market-leading work on establishing a measurable link between investment in people and performance and how it applies its pioneering frameworks and tools.

Novo Nordisk case study
Headquartered in Denmark, Novo Nordisk is a pharmaceutical company with a strong commitment to the environment, staff and community. How it developed a balanced scorecard to enhance its success in these and other people-related areas of its business. (1668 words)

Measuring Human Capital
The principles of human capital measurement - the recruitment and retention of key professionals, the acquisition of key transferable skills, the way in which the performance of these skills are enhanced through the individual's commitment and engagement - and how these measures can be linked to overall business goals. (3503 words)

Measuring Commitment
Significant changes in the relationship between employer and employee have created new challenges for companies. How companies can measure commitment and deploy employee survey frameworks that support strategic concepts of readiness, resilience and operational risk management are covered here. (3433 words)

Deutsche Bank case study
This case study shows how employee surveys have been made to become central to the Bank's success - they are now used to feed and inform management decisions. Its new approach to measuring performance is closely tied in with its goal of maximizing the contribution of staff. (2949 words)

Measuring Engagement
Engagement is now seen as an essential link in the employee-customer-profit chain. New surveying methods that can be used to assess levels of engagement as well as the 'take-up' of new tools or concepts in the workplace are described along with examples from Reuters, Royal Bank of Scotland and other companies. (3662 words)

Central Norfolk Health and Social Care Economy case study
How the Central Norfolk Health and Social Care Economy - or Central Norfolk NHS - developed a long-term Performance Improvement and Transformation Programme and measures to improve local diagnosis and better home-based care. (5275 words)

Measuring Innovation
A comparatively new and evolving discipline, HR-oriented research into the causes and inhibitors of innovation is starting to provide pointers to help organisations track and manage this core capability. The latest HR frameworks and techniques that can help businesses to enhance their grip on innovation. (4494 words)

Nortel case study
A winner of US Baldrige and European EFQM awards, Nortel developed its own model, the Nortel Business Value Cycle, to explicitly link resources (people, financial, knowledge, etc) with customer satisfaction and shareholder value. (1150 words)

Measuring Strategic Capabilities
The importance of gaining control of strategic capabilities that influence corporate success. Frameworks and techniques - including the balanced scorecard - that enable organizations to measure capabilities such as talent, speed, shared mindset and customer connectivity across functions and against industry norms. (1933 words)

Yorkshire Water Services case study
Yorkshire Water Services has created an HR scorecard to ensure that people strategies are robust and aligned to business strategies. How the HR scorecard was created and the benefits, to both the business and HR, that have been achieved. (2332 words)

Reporting and Benchmarking Human Capital
The latest thinking on how human capital can be reported externally to satisfy the interests of investors and other stakeholders, including staff and potential recruits. Problems with developing a common index of norms that are universally applicable, issues of transparency and effective benchmarking are covered here along with the value of human capital reporting as a means of improving corporate management. (4022 words)

Developing a Strategic HR Measurement Capability
How to define and develop a strategic HR measurement capability as part of this challenge including gathering and collating the data, identifying the right tools and methodologies with the aim of building a comprehensive human capital model that reflects the unique people management capabilities of the organization and provides a means of benchmarking with competitors and exemplars of good practice. (2966 words)

The Pathway to Strategic HR Measurement Excellence
What to measure to ensure that HR is aligned with corporate priorities and needs in a climate of continuing uncertainty and change where business resilience, strategic readiness and operational risk management are increasingly important. A top-level description of measures including those for tracking talent management, engagement, leadership and other high-profile people issues. (2458 words)

The Case for HR Measurement
Performance measurement has become a critical issue for human resource (HR) professionals, and is set to grow in importance. This is the result of HR departments increasingly being asked to demonstrate the value they deliver to the organizations they serve. The evidence of the value of measuring HR performance and the role of the HR Scorecard is covered in this briefing. (5857 words)

Borealis case study
Borealis has created an HR scorecard that supports the corporate strategy and is focused on performance improvement against best-in-class benchmarks. Within HR itself, HR teams have created their own scorecards. These support both the higher-level HR scorecard and local business unit scorecards. This case study describes why and how the HR scorecards were created and how their development benefited from six years of wider scorecard experience within the Borealis organization. (3104 words)

HR Measurement Survey - Trends & Practices
Over 200 respondents completed the 'Measuring and Evaluating the Performance of the HR Function' survey, most of whom were at HR manager or director level. The findings show how HR departments measure their performance, their use of financial and non-financial measures, the focus on effectiveness as well as efficiency. Among other topics, the survey reports on the use of benchmarking, performance management frameworks, including the balanced scorecard and the challenge of demonstrating HR's strategic contribution to the organization. (7420 words)

Union Fenosa case study
The HR function has been transformed from an administrative department into a fully-fledged strategic partner in Union Fenosa. Among other things, HR objectives focus on supporting the organization in its global expansion, success of a Corporate University and the development of an intellectual capital framework. (2599 words)

Evaluating The Strategic Contribution of HR
This briefing shows what the HR function must do to become a full strategic partner within an organization. It provides an explanation of the key components of the balanced scorecard and the implications of the scorecard - in particular, its learning and growth perspective - for the role of HR professionals. Key components of other performance measurement frameworks are outlined, notably the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model and the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Model and human capital models. (9005 words)

Measuring and Demonstrating The 'Customer Value' of HR Services
This briefing shows why HR must develop 'hard' measures of the value it delivers to the business that demonstrate how HR interventions are helping the business drive forward towards its goals. It includes an overview of the HR auditing process that helps HR to identify the performance levels it should be delivering, assess performance against best practice standards and identify continuous improvement opportunities. (8131 words)

Scotiabank case study
Scotiabank has created a performance management and measurement framework for human resources that consists of five key focus areas and ten strategic measures (two for each area). Pat Krajewski, vice president employee communication and leadership at Scotiabank, explains how the framework was built and the importance of ensuring the system was business focused. She also stresses the importance of securing buy-in from the senior HR executive team. (4187 words)

Measuring, Comparing and Improving HR Process Efficiency
Drawing on practitioner and adviser input, this briefing looks at how the HR function can measure the 'efficiency' of its performance. It shows how a balanced scorecard can blend efficiency and effectiveness measures to provide a comprehensive view of the function's performance. The briefing includes reviews of  a performance measurement matrix devised by leading HR thinkers Jac Fitz-enz and Jack Phillips. (7314 words)

Creating & Measuring Shared Service Centers & Outsourcing Arrangements
This briefing argues that both HR outsourcing and the creation of HR shared services centres are agenda items for senior management. Both approaches have become key focus areas as organizations increasingly set out to  cut costs; improve service delivery;  focus on their core competencies and  free up the time of HR professionals to focus on more 'mission-critical' work. (8162 words)

Nextel Communications case study
Nextel Communications' training organization is implementing a Training Scorecard to demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) of its training programmes. Comprising five levels, from participant reaction to a programme through to the actual ROI calculation, the Training Scorecard is proving a powerful tool for ensuring that the training organization is focused on meeting business needs. (3250 words)

Creating The HR Scorecard - A practical template
The creation of an HR scorecard, advisers and practitioners repeatedly stress, is the best way for HR leaders to demonstrate the value they deliver to their organizations. This briefing explains how to build and deploy an HR scorecard. Among other things, the briefing shows how leading organizations cascade the scorecard beyond the highest HR functional level while a case report on the US-based financial services organization Prudential shows how one organization tackled this task. (7928 words)

Verizon Communications case study
Verizon Communications is recognized as an exemplary exponent of the HR scorecard methodology. It serves as a best-practice role model for other HR functions taking the scorecard route. In this case study, Verizon's senior HR manager Garrett Walker explains the process by which the HR scorecard was built and implemented. He explains how 17 key questions were articulated to focus scorecard creation onto compelling and strategically critical business imperatives. (4253 words)

First Union case study
Financial services provider First Union Corporation has created an HR scorecard that sets out to show how the function is answering 12 critical questions about its performance. HR measurement co-ordinator Paul Lockamy explains that successfully building an HR scorecard was a two-phase project. Lessons that were learned in Phase 1 helped to shape the scorecard creation process for Phase 2. (3427 words)

Evaluating Talent Management
This briefing examines how talent management is evaluated using five themes - the imperative of evaluation, using strategic frameworks, measuring talent interventions, considering evolving approaches and the challenges faced in this aspect of talent management. The organizations featured are BASF UK, BC Hydro Transmission and Distribution, Carter Holt Harvey, Humax Corporation, Sears Roebuck & Company, South African Breweries and Strategic Dimensions Ltd. (11017 words)

Tracking Progress
This briefing covers the measurement issues associated with demonstrating the effectiveness of HR to the business, including the achievement of business goals. Only around a third of the sample overall have found that HR has made a positive contribution to the business as a result of a formal evaluation, whereas all of those who enjoy a high level of confidence from the business can demonstrate this achievement. (5050 words)

Measuring The Impact of Internal Communication
Why internal communication practitioners must find a way to measure the impact of internal communication on the bottom line to prove their value to the organisation. It shows that while internal communication teams use tactical measurements extensively, only about half of internal communication teams assess their work against business objectives. The briefing includes details of the most widely used measures. (4370 words)

Intellectual Capital Measurement Models
How IC models categorize intellectual capital into different components such as human capital, structural capital and relationship capital. The briefing explains why human capital accounting - treating people as assets rather than costs in company accounts - did not take off, while there has been growing use of scorecards and similar instruments to assess human capital. Examples explored include the Human Capital Readiness scorecard and the Human Capital Monitor. (26775 words)

Practical Considerations - Developing an IC System
There is a growing body of experience of developing IC measurement and reporting systems. How to use your organization's strategic objectives, business priorities and critical success factors as the starting point for determining the categories of measure and high-level company-wide indicators. Criteria for choosing an appropriate set of IC indicators and why the overall process of IC measurement and reporting should be viewed as a learning exercise and a catalyst for dialogue. (25015 words)

Assessing Progress With Knowledge Management Programmes
Every assessment of a KM programme requires a coherent model or framework against which to develop measures. Most frameworks are developed from critical success factors and incorporate enablers, foundations and core KM activities. A review of a wide range of assessment methods, ranging from quick assessments of KM maturity, to systematic assessments of a KM programme, through to detailed assessments of specific KM activities. (15142 words)