Concluding her series for AMBITION, Jane Sunley offers a 10-point plan for making the most of The People Formula
The trouble with business books is that while you’re reading them, you’re inspired, have loads of great ideas and even greater intentions.
Then you close the book, go back into the day-to-day running of your business and nothing really changes at all. However, if you didn’t feel the ‘people stuff’ in your organisation could do with a little help, you wouldn’t have bothered to read this in the first place. So, here’s a final piece of ‘ammunition’ for you.
Human capital measures
Investors have finally begun to embrace, and place importance on, human capital measures. This means that if you get them in place you’ll be ahead of the curve. Go in there and show them before they ask!
Before you rush off and go into potential ‘analysis paralysis’, remember that simple is better because it gets done. Look at the things you already measure and the stuff you’d like to measure. Temper this with the ease of doing it over a long period of time.
Investors don’t really care about your KPIs, they want hard business metrics. There‘s no point going on about your five-point drop in labour turnover if you don’t explain what this means in direct business terms. You have to think like investor, CEO and CFO rolled into one (as well as doing your day job).
Sadly, some HR is still a little on the back foot when it comes to being business-savvy, so be prepared for the tough questions and to talk investors’ language for example .
You’ll need to know the numbers around things such as the make-up of your workforce, how stable it is, capabilities, succession plans, engagement metrics, productivity…and how all of this relates to turnover and profitability.
All of this says it’s time to make a start on implementing the people formula…
A quick note about analytics
The discussion about measuring the effects of HR is nothing new, though with the advent of big data, people are beginning to do it. Put simply, it’s important to measure what you do in order to prove the value of various investments to the organisation.
And it’s really important to be able to access information that will allow you to predict trends in order make key strategic and other decisions.
Many people are worrying about how all this is going to happen and it goes without saying that investing in technology is the way to go. However, a word of caution: resist the urge to measure anything and everything. You simply won’t have time to think it all through. Instead, decide on a few critical measures and, as with so much in this book, start small and simple.
For example, you could kick off by tracking employee engagement scores and then map them against key business results such as profitability and productivity.
The important thing is to start putting this in place now…
A 10-point plan for using The People Formula:
- Familiarise yourself with the introductory sections, so the ‘WHY’ is first and foremost in your mind.
- Assess your organisation against each of the steps.
- Put them in priority order – what requires the most attention?
- Work out likely cost-benefit analysis for each.
- Reprioritise by fastest results for lowest investment.
- Try some of the simpler stuff for which you won’t need to find much budget. Monitor the results.
- Work on your master plan – this is a journey with many milestones.
- Remember that some steps naturally support others, so think of practical examples and likely scenarios.
- Work out the who, what, when and how you’ll measure it.
- Embark upon your journey.
