The New Human Capital Strategy: Improving the Value of Your Most Important Investment—Year after Year

The New Human Capital Strategy: Improving the Value of Your Most Important Investment—Year after Year

by Ph.D. Bradley W. Hall,
Released January 2008
Publisher(s): AMACOM
ISBN: None

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

It is often said that the only true source of sustained competitive advantage is people. But what does that mean and how can this be measured and managed? How many organizations know whether their human capital outperforms their competitors’, or even whether it improves year-over-year? And what is the strategy for continually improving that performance?

The New Human Capital Strategy is a roadmap for delivering measurable business results by systematically improving the performance of those in roles most important to customers and shareholders. Proposing a radical shift in the way organizations measure and manage their people, the book asserts that competitive advantage is a function of four areas of strength:

* effective executive teams

* leaders who deliver results

* outperforming competitors in key positions

* workforce performance

Using examples, research, and metrics, this essential guide provides readers with a system for ensuring that their people are more valuable this year than the last.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. Praise for The New Human Capital Strategy
  3. Foreword
  4. Introduction: A Systematic Approach to Growing Your Human Capital
    1. Time for a New Approach
    2. Today’s Approach to Human Capital Management
      1. No One Is Accountable
      2. Systems, Not Programs
      3. A Misaligned Model
    3. Shifting to a New Approach
    4. Why This Book Was Written
    5. Notes
  5. One. Designing the Blueprint
    1. One. A New Source of Competitive Advantage
      1. Maintaining Competitive Advantage
      2. Competing on Human Capital: What’s It Worth?
      3. The Need for a New Paradigm
      4. Human Capital Management
        1. The Critical HCM Components
          1. HCS Component 2: Leaders Who Deliver Results
          2. HCS Component 3: Key Position Excellence
          3. HCS Component 4: Workforce Performance
      5. Executing the Human Capital Strategy
        1. Organizational Capabilities to Deliver the Strategy
        2. Results-Based Definition of Success
        3. Integrated Improvement Process
        4. Disciplined Measurement and Management
      6. The Outcomes of HCS
        1. Outcome #1: Systematic Human Capital Improvement
        2. Outcome #2: Progressively Better Human Capital Decisions
      7. Conclusion
      8. Notes
    2. Two. The New Human Capital Strategy
      1. The Current State of HR Strategies
      2. Building a Human Capital Blueprint
      3. The Human Capital Theory
      4. The Human Capital Vision
      5. Setting the Human Capital Vision
      6. Strategic Human Capital Components
        1. Effective Executive Teams
        2. Leaders Who Deliver Results
        3. Key Position Excellence
        4. Workforce Performance
          1. Simple and Compelling Vision
          2. Aligned Organization
          3. Performance Culture
          4. Appraisal and Rewards
      7. Plans That Deliver Business Results
        1. What Is a Top-Down Plan?
        2. What Is a Comprehensive Plan?
        3. What Is an Integrated Plan?
        4. What Is a Disciplined Plan?
        5. Comprehensive, Integrated, and Disciplined: An Example
      8. Determining the Optimal Blueprint for Your Organization
        1. The Human Capital Lagging Indicator
        2. Human Capital Leading Indicators
      9. Conclusion
      10. Notes
    3. Three. Creating Capabilities to Execute the Blueprint
      1. Today’s Human Resources Function
      2. Today’s Performance Gap
        1. A View from Outside the Profession
        2. A View from Inside the Profession
        3. Why Is there a Performance Gap?
      3. Aligning the HR Structure
        1. Strategic and Administrative Work Remains Tangled
          1. The HR Administrator
          2. The Fixer
          3. The Strategic Partner
        2. HR Is Structured to Produce Programs and Policies Rather than Business Results
        3. Realigning HR to Deliver Business Results
          1. Split the HR Administrator, Fixer, and Strategic Partner Roles
          2. Align the Human Capital Organization to Deliver the Four Strategic Objectives
      4. Fixing HR Systems
        1. Today’s Measurement Systems Measure Activities, not Results
        2. Measuring and Managing Human Capital Like Financial Capital
      5. Shifting Values from the Internal to the External
        1. Internal Versus External Customer
        2. “I Can’t Own It; They Don’t Report to Me.”
        3. Activities versus Results
        4. The Customer in the New Human Capital Strategy
        5. Start at the Top and Work Down
        6. Insist on Results
        7. Take Out Those Who Do Not Add Business Value
        8. Codify a New Set of Values
      6. Using HR Skills to Provide Change Leadership
        1. Replace Training with One-on-One Coaching
        2. Outsource Strategic Roles
        3. Teach Newly Appointed Strategic HR Partners “What to Do” Rather than “Who to Be.”
      7. Conclusion
      8. Notes
  6. Two. Building the System
    1. Four. Effective Executive Teams
      1. Why Are Executive Teams Important?
      2. Building the Executive Team
      3. Executive Team Design
        1. Performance Outcomes
        2. Key Results
          1. Key Results and Trust
          2. Key Results and Backward-Looking Management
          3. Key Results and Team Learning
        3. What Kind of a Team?
          1. Real Teams and Working Groups
          2. Real Teams and Working Groups: Two Case Studies
        4. Team Structure
          1. Clear Team Purpose
          2. Right Team Structure and Skills
          3. Committed and Confident Members
          4. Mutual Accountability
        5. Team Operations
          1. Decide When and Why the Team Will Meet
          2. Set Team Norms
          3. Create Meeting Protocols
      4. Improving Executive Team Performance: A Roadmap
        1. How to Define Performance Outcomes
        2. How to Define Key Results
          1. Model #1: Help a New Team Coalesce
          2. Model #2: Manage for In-Year Performance
          3. Model #3: Manage for Organizational Capability Growth
        3. How to Build a System for Effectively Measuring and Managing Key Results
      5. Conclusion
      6. Notes
    2. Five. Leaders Who Deliver Results
      1. Leadership Development: The Current State
        1. Leadership Performance
          1. Misuse #1: The Design of Competencies
          2. Misuse #2: Substituting Less Valid Predictors for More Valid Predictors
          3. Misuse #3: Mixing Competencies into Performance Appraisals
          4. Misuse #4: Using Competencies for Leadership Assessment
      2. Building Leadership Excellence: A Roadmap
        1. Organizational Capabilities for Improving Leadership Performance
          1. Segment Leadership Roles
          2. Build the Brand Management Infrastructure
        2. A Results-Based Definition of Leadership
        3. Creating Integrated Leadership Development Initiatives
          1. Building a Leadership Culture
          2. Improving In-Year Leadership Performance
          3. Filling the Leadership Pipeline
        4. Growing High Potentials
          1. Choosing Those with the Highest Potential
          2. Assigning High Potentials to the Best Managers
          3. Creating a Clear, Results-Based, Developmental Roadmap
          4. Assessing and Providing Feedback
          5. Managing Key Developmental Experiences with Discipline
        5. Measuring and Managing with Discipline
        6. Measuring and Managing for Leadership Performance Improvements
        7. Measuring and Managing Leadership Pipelines
      3. Conclusion
      4. Notes
    3. Six. Key Position Excellence
      1. Key Position Performance: The Current State
        1. Why Is There Dissatisfaction with Training?
          1. Reason #1: Performance Improvements Require a System
          2. Reason #2: Training Is Focused on Internal Customers
          3. Reason #3: Few Companies Have Data to Measure and Manage System Performance
        2. Improving Performance of Those in Key Positions: A Case Study
      2. Key Position Excellence: The Roadmap
        1. Building Capabilities to Drive Change
        2. Results-Based Definition of Success
          1. Step 1: Define Performance Outcomes
          2. Step 2: Identify Key Results That Must Be Delivered to Achieve Performance Outcomes
          3. An Effective Results-Based Definition of Success: A Case Study
        3. Comprehensive and Integrated Development
          1. Step 1: Assess Current Performance at the Individual/Team Level
          2. Step 2: Identify Performance Gaps and Root Causes
          3. Step 3: Create Plans to Close Gaps
          4. Step 4: Measure Changes and Redefine Approach
        4. Measure and Manage
          1. Measuring for Performance Improvements
          2. Managing for Performance Improvements
      3. Conclusion
      4. Notes
    4. Seven. Improving Workforce Performance
      1. Performance Improvement: The Current State
        1. “Putting Teeth” in Performance Management
        2. What’s Wrong with Today’s Appraisals?
          1. Problem #1: Appraisals Often Misalign the Company
          2. Problem #2: Appraisals Are Not Perceived as Valid
          3. Problem #3: Forced Distributions Ensure Demotivation and Lack of Cooperation
          4. Problem #4: Appraisals Create Manager-Employee Contention
          5. Problem #5: Appraisals May Systematically Reduce Performance Levels
      2. Building a High-Performance Organization: The Roadmap
        1. Strategy and Alignment
          1. Building the Strategy
          2. Creating Organizational Capabilities
          3. Cascading Strategic Objectives
        2. Organizational Culture
          1. What Is Culture?
          2. Defining the Ideal Culture
          3. Measuring the Culture
          4. Managing the Culture
        3. Appraisal and Rewards
          1. Let’s Make a Deal
        4. Manager as Coach, Not Judge
        5. Real-Time Feedback
      3. Conclusion
      4. Notes
    5. Eight. Putting It All Together
      1. Step 1: Create Capabilities to Drive Change
        1. General Manager
        2. Senior Leadership Team
        3. Top HR Leader
      2. Step 2: Define Success
        1. Set the Human Capital Theory and Lagging Indicator
        2. Set the Human Capital Strategy
      3. Step 3: Create an Integrated Improvement Process
        1. Align All Activities to a Business Strategy
          1. Clarify the Business Strategy
          2. Redesign the Organization
          3. Cascade Strategic Objectives and Critical Success Factors
          4. Set the Organizational Culture
        2. Improve Performance of Those in Critical Roles
          1. Identify Critical Roles
          2. Define Performance Results for Each Critical Role
          3. Create Governance Structure for Each Role
      4. Conclusion
      5. Note

Product information

  • Title: The New Human Capital Strategy: Improving the Value of Your Most Important Investment—Year after Year
  • Author(s): Ph.D. Bradley W. Hall,
  • Release date: January 2008
  • Publisher(s): AMACOM
  • ISBN: None