Ultimate Performance: Measuring Human Resources at Work

Conclusion

Though this section brings the book to a close, the story of metrics is far from over; before anyone can discuss new and better metrics, it is essential to take the lessons from this book and apply them to your organization. As with our analogy on the development of measuring longitude, HR metrics are essential to the success of an organization. Thus, it is important to understand the dynamics of metrics, which this book has broken down and examined. While we would like to stress the significance of every point this book makes, there are several key points that, at the very least, can serve as a starting point in your quest to develop and implement metrics within your organization.

Business strategies must be considered when building metrics; however, they are not the ultimate arbitrator. It is imperative that the human capital deliverables have a concrete impact on the business strategy. Nevertheless, when developing metrics for your organization, they should be aligned with the objectives, not the strategy. Anybody can design a strategy; the real challenge lies in creating objectives. Once objectives are in place, developing strategy not only becomes easier, it becomes more focused.

It is especially important for HR to be able to incorporate and align itself with the organization-wide mission and objectives. This is because most C-level executives do not believe that HR is currently aligned, particularly when compared with other departments such as accounting. What ...