by Brian E. Becker, Mark A. Huselid, Dave Ulrich
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Product Description
Introduces a new way of measuring and thinking about the contributions of individuals to business success. Makes the case that the role of Human Resources is increasingly important, as company assets become more intangible and reliant on intellectual capital. It provides a framework that focuses on identifying where Human Resources issues are performance drivers - or impediments - to strategy implementation. It develops a measurement system that provides valid, reliable indicators of Human Resources' contribution to the success of strategy implementation, and ultimately to firm performance. It includes recommendations supported by clear and persuasive examples, as well as the authors' unique survey of 2,800 firms.
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Average Customer Review:
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
 How to determine the ROI of your organization's human capital, 2006-10-31
I recently re-read this book and have even higher regard for it now than I did I when I first read it soon after it was published in 2001. Becker and Huselid later co-authored The Workforce Scorecard with Richard W. Beatty. With rigor and eloquence, they examine three separate but related challenges: Perspective (with an emphasis on differentiation), Metrics (and their relationship to strategy execution), and Execution (which holds senior executives and line managers accountable for workforce success). They suggest that all organizations which successfully meet these three challenges (i.e. those which "do it right") have these six characteristics in common:
1. HR professionals spend less time on employee performance than they did five years ago
2. The relationship between workforce success and strategy implementation defines the ROI of new HR initiatives.
3. Creating a shared mind-set is not taken for granted.
4. The HR function has a staffing structure that effectively balances the tension between being a strategic partner and delivering efficient and effective HR services.
5. Strategic workforce measures are "owned" and coordinated by a single individual or task force.
6. Senior executives, line managers, and HR professionals consider the results of the measurement system worth the implementation effort.
Although it may seem to some who read this brief commentary that will be of substantial value only to large organizations, I hasten to reassure them that, after appropriate modifications, what Huselid, Becker, and Beatty recommend in The Workforce Scorecard can help any organization (regardless of size or nature) to improve the quality of their strategy execution by developing the right perspective on the contributions of its workforce to its success, and, by developing the right execution strategy to ensure that its managers are ready, willing, and able to use workforce metrics to drive business success.
It is important to keep these points in mind when reading The HR Scorecard and I strongly recommend that, if possible, The Workforce Scorecard be read in combination with it, preferably but not necessarily afterward.
Robert Kaplan and David Norton wrote three articles for Harvard Business Review ("The Balanced Scorecard," "Putting the Scorecard to Work," and "Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System") which led to a series of books in which their insights were developed in even greater depth. According to Norton who wrote the introduction to The HR Scorecard, in the New Economy, human capital is the foundation of value creation and that up to 85% of an organization's value is based on intangible assets. "This presents an interesting dilemma: The asset which is most important is the least understood, least prone to measurement, and, hence least susceptible to management." He goes on to commend the co-authors of The HR Scorecard for three specific contributions: their development of causal models which illustrate the relationship of HR value drivers with business outcomes and thereby take the Balanced Scorecard to the next level of sophistication; their research on the drivers of high-performance organizations to provide a framework to decision-makers with which to formulate and implement strategies for human capital growth; and finally, their insights into the competencies required by HR professionals, competencies which can enabler an organization to deliver on the promise of its measurement system.
In essence, the co-authors of The HR Scorecard identify and explain linkages - indeed the interdependence -- between and among people, strategy, and performance. Only by understanding these linkages and their independence can decision-makers in any organization (regardless of size or nature) accurately measure the nature, value, and impact of human capital on the bottom line.
Moreover, decision-makers can then make much more accurate measurement of each individual in terms of the value she or he adds to the organization and, more importantly, to those on whom that organization depends for revenue. Customers who purchase products, of course, and clients who purchase services but also members who purchase members and benefactors to contribute donations.
Here are two other substantial benefits of establishing and then maintaining a HR scorecard:
1. It can guide and inform hiring decisions which ensure that an organization increases its human capital with those to add new value
2. It can also guide and inform decisions concerning the allocation of tangible resources, especially when there are unexpected major developments (either threatening or promising) in the given organization's competitive marketplace.
When concluding their brilliant volume, the authors observe that while much of the work of an HR scorecard is technical, the delivery of the Scorecard is personal. "It requires that HR professionals design to make a difference, align their work to business strategy, apply the science of research to the art of HR, and commit to learning from constant experimentation. When you create the HR Scorecard, using the approach we describe, you are actually [begin italics] linking HR to firm performance [end italics]. But you will also develop a new perspective on your HR function, practices, and professional development. In measurement terms, the benefits will far outweigh the costs."
I presume to add two concluding suggestions of my own. First, that HR professionals use the Scorecard initially to measure their own performance so they can determine how, as individual executives, they can add greater value to their organization. Next, that all others in senior management also read this book as well as The Workplace Scorecard to increase their own understanding of (a) how and why to link people, strategy, and performance enterprise-wide and (b) how to manage human capital much more effectively (also enterprise-wide) when executing strategy.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
A Wealth of Ideas, 2006-05-27
If you're in HR and need to establish measures for the value you add, this book contains a huge array of options for measurement. As a resource for "brainstorming" it's unparalleled.
Where the book breaks down is focus. As Jerry McAdams says, measure many things but reward a few. If HR were honestly to establish and maintain 100 measurements, how could even an airline pilot monitor that many gauges on the the dashboard?
It would have been much better if the authors had said, "These are the half-dozen key, even 'universal' measures of HR value-added." As it is, the reader has to wade through the enormous number of options furnished and hope that they've gotten it right.
Worse yet: with all these measures, HR takes "the easy way out" and suboptimizes, picking only those measures which make HR look good. If measures of self-aggrandizement is all we've accomplished, we've not helped our businesses at all.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
We All need it, 2006-05-16
This book should be read by all HR Professionals.
I wont waste your time in reading the review, just order it, and do not hesitate.
I read it twice
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
This book is rapidly becoming an industry best practice framework, 2006-02-27
It has always been difficult to capture the impact of Human Resources on the company's performance. Unfortunately, most of the measures in use currently do not capture the HR contributions to a company's success. The authors argue that anew approach is necessary. One that captures the vital role that HR plays along with providing real measures that can show what contributions HR is making to the company's success.
This new approach involves reversing the traditional bottom-up method with a more comprehensive top-down approach. The implementation of strategy is the key. The authors submit that a company must develop an assessment system that measures HR contribution to the company's strategies and profitability. The authors developed a seven-step approach to implementing HR's strategic role:
Step 1: Clearly define business strategy
Step 2: Build a business case for HR as a strategic asset
Step 3: Create a strategy map
Step 4: Identify HR deliverables within the strategy map
Step 5: Align HR architecture with HR deliverables
Step 6: Design the strategic HR measurement system
Step 7: Implement management by measurement
In order to create the HR scorecard a company must measure: HR: deliverables, policies, processes, practices, system alignment, and efficiency. This represents one-part of the HR scorecard. Developing the scorecard is one part, implementing the scorecard is the other part. The authors recommend seven guidelines for implementing a scorecard:
· Lead Change
· Create a shared need
· Shape a vision
· Mobilize commitment
· Build enabling systems
· Monitor and demonstrate progress
· Make it last
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Workforce Score card, 2006-02-14
The book has built on the key philosophy underlying the earlier book, The HR Scorecard: Linking People, Strategy, and Performance by Brian Becker, Mark Huselid, and Dave Ulrich, which was written with a view to align human resource activities with business strategy. The present book is a follow up of that one. In nutshell, it seeks to introduce a metric system that deals with behaviours, competencies and mindsets and culture necessary for workforce success, as also the way it influences the organizational performance.
The book helps differentiate workforce into various categories which necessitates reliable standards and measures. Developing these will help employees know as to what is expected of them.
The book is undoubtedly a fine contribution towards improving the effectiveness of operations and other managers; it will provide them potent ideas for better delivery of results. It even has the potential of raising the stature of the discipline of strategic HRM. It is well known that HR is presently in an hour of crisis as it has been subjected to tremendous pressure for outsourcing of its activities. The book's hallmark lies in its practical utility to managers. It offers specific guidelines for ensuring that effective measures are identified, accepted and used. The HR managers are bound to give regards for the metrics that have been suggested in this book. It will become one of the widely-read, used and referenced books in the time to come. The book is free from any jargon; yet its conceptualization is powerful. The central line of reasoning flows very well throughout the text. The illustrations and tables are extremely interesting. The book should be an essential reading for line as well as HR managers as they are jointly responsible for executing strategy. All those who are striving to build high-performance organizations must read this book.
Debi S. Saini
MDI, Gurgaon, India
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