Welcome
Welcome to the
latest issue of Bringing Work to Life.
We explored
the following topics in the past twelve issues (all newsletters are
available at
www.elsdon.com/newsletters.htm):
o
Transforming a Human Resources (HR) career (First Quarter 2008)
o
Stewardship and governance (November/December 2007)
o
Finding the peaks (September/October 2007)
o
Career plateaus – what to do about them (July/August 2007)
o
Workforce planning (May/June 2007)
o
Assessing your organization (March/April 2007)
o
Individual change (January/February 2007)
o
Guiding organizational change (November/December 2006)
o
One to one (September/October 2006)
o
New horizons (July/August 2006)
o
Our greatest asset (May/June 2006)
o
Bringing development and performance home (March/April 2006)
In this issue
we address “Demystifying Workforce Metrics.”
Demystifying Workforce Metrics
“Well, we can see that supporting career
development benefits individuals, but what does it do for our
organization?” Such a question is not unusual when HR or another group
seeks to use resources for workforce development. In this case after
generating metrics that showed strong, tangible benefits from committing
resources to support people in their career development, the question
shifted rapidly to “what more can we do since this is bringing so much
value?” When the right metrics are available they illuminate the path
forward. However, sometimes defining those right metrics can feel
daunting. After all didn’t we come into HR to work with people rather
than numbers? Aren’t numbers the domain of the finance department?
I recall giving a talk to a group of both HR and
finance practitioners. Those in HR were surprised at how hard it was to
get resources. The finance group said “just give us a good basis for
your proposals and we’ll be happy to support them.” So this isn’t just
for the finance group. We saw in our last newsletter how effective HR
professionals must demonstrate the ability to be “credible activists.”
To advocate for positions. Doing this well means having the right
support information.
Sometimes myths shroud metrics, perhaps suggesting
that they are the domain of esoteric specialists with mysterious brews
of boiling metrics pots. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Metrics are readily accessible to all of us. They are simply things we
measure to know if we are on the right track. They are simple, natural
extensions of organizational processes based on logic and common sense.
They help guide decisions.
Here is an example of strong evidence linking
workforce capability and perspectives, with customer satisfaction and
organizational outcomes. This chart is from a Harvard Business Review
article (January-February 1998) describing a study at Sears:
It directly links employee attitude to customer
impression to financial performance. Not surprising perhaps, but
ignored in many organizations. With such a quantified linkage we can
makes informed decisions about investing in workforce development.
A core principle is at work here, namely the value
of demonstrating a direct link between workforce metrics and key
organizational outcomes. In this for-profit example the outcome
measures are revenue growth, operating margin and return on assets. If
this were a non-profit or public sector organization relevant measures
would likely be program outcomes.
A second core principle is the recognition that we
can, and should, look both backward and forward in time. When we look
back we see and describe what has happened. Many of today’s common
metrics such as attrition rates or financial performance fit here.
Looking back can be interesting; it becomes useful when we do something
with it. Here’s where looking forward comes in. We move from the
descriptive past view to a predictive view of the future. For example,
how much should we invest in human resources or how should we allocate
our development resources? What is an optimum attrition rate for our
organization? Examples using modeling techniques to help guide such
prescriptive decisions about the future are described in Affiliation in
the Workplace (Ron Elsdon, Praeger, 2003) and in the September/October
2007 issue of Bringing Work to Life.
A third core principle is the importance of
tailoring workforce metrics to the needs of the intended audiences.
Supervisors in an organization may need detailed information about the
development paths of their direct reports so they can be supportive.
External constituencies, such as investors, have no such need, but may
need to know about the scale and evolving skill capability of the
workforce.
How do we get our hands around metrics so they can
help us? A good starting point is deciding on an organizing principle,
so the metrics aren’t like books in a library with no index. What might
this look like? One example was framed by Kirkpatrick, and extended by
Phillips, and Elsdon and Iyer (see Affiliation in the Workplace and the
November/December 2004 issue of Bringing Work to Life). This organizing
principle describes an approach to metrics that works well in assessing
the results of development activities. It consists of the following six
levels used to assess the contribution of a particular workforce
development activity such as a learning module or coaching engagement:
This grid then becomes a framework
for developing and prioritizing overall workforce metrics. For example
in the Selection/Hiring and Individual Perspectives box we might insert
a survey to gather feedback from those new to the organization about the
hiring process. In the Development and Growth and Workforce
Capabilities box we might insert measured changes in key competencies
such as communication effectiveness or conflict management, aggregated
across the organization. The specific metrics to include can best be
identified by a team that represents key groups in the organization.
Having created a draft metrics
grid, we can then assess its effectiveness using criteria such as the
following for each of the metrics items (from the book “Why the Bottom
Line Isn’t” by Ulrich and others):
4
Important
4
Complete
4
Timely
4
Visible
4
Controllable
4
Cost-effective
4
Interpretable
Having defined and verified metrics
then it is possible to move to the step of developing a protocol for
accessing the metrics, communicating them, such as through a dashboard,
and equipping the organization with the knowledge to use them well.
This process of clarifying the
organizational needs for metrics, then focusing on discrete projects, or
characterizing overall workforce effectiveness, as appropriate, provides
tools that equip HR to be credible activists for workforce development
and organizational success so benefiting the organization and those in
it.
Healthcare Revisited
It was while volunteering at a makeshift shelter
for homeless people recently that I was reminded about the sad state of
our healthcare. Here was an articulate African American grandmother
missing her front teeth. Somehow healthcare did not include front
teeth. When we dig a little deeper we find many other challenges.
Let’s looks at some of those ways from recent work by Cathy Schoen of
the Commonwealth Fund.
Our infant mortality rate is much higher than in
other developed countries:
Our life expectancy is shorter than in most other
developed countries:
We experience higher error rates in medication or
lab tests:
We wait longer to see a doctor than most:
We are less able to get care on nights, weekends
and holidays:
Costs limit our access to healthcare
disproportionately:
We are subjected to more duplicate tests than
most:
We are forced to use an E.R. more frequently than
most:
And amazingly our costs for this sub-standard care
are much higher than in other developed countries. They have also been
escalating far more than in those other countries, which provide
superior health care coverage for their entire population, not just a
select group as in the U.S.:
We have seen previously (Bringing Work to Life,
November/December 2007) how inefficiencies in our healthcare insurance
system drive much of this cost escalation and excess. It is further
illustrated in the following figure:
Our ineffective, costly healthcare insurance system
is creating a crisis for our country and putting many in harm’s way.
There are readily available solutions such as California’s bill SB-840
that would provide single payer, universal health care in the State, and
on a national level HR 676 recently reintroduced into the House. We
have a responsibility to pursue the implementation of such solutions
that entirely revamp healthcare insurance practices, eliminating the
current ineffective system, and replacing it with a single payer
approach. It is an obligation for our generation and to those
generations that follow.
Quote
“We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds …
We have been drenched by many storms …
We have learned the art of equivocation and
pretense …
Experience has made us suspicious of others,
And kept us from being truthful and open …”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, After Ten Years, A letter to
the family and conspirators, 1942
Elsdon Organizational Renewal (EOR) Recent Mentions
·
Reviews of
“Affiliation in the Workplace: Value Creation in the New
Organization.” Ron Elsdon. Praeger, Westport, CT (2003)
o
Harvard
Business School
·
HBS Working Knowledge: Organizations
o
Global Diversity Institute
·
Global Diversity Institute - The Journal of Diversity Praxis
o
Journal of Asian Economics
·
ScienceDirect - Journal of Asian Economics : Ron Elsdon, Affiliation in
the Workplace: Value Creation in the New Organization, Praeger
Publishers, Westport, CT (2003) 280 pp. (hardcover), ISBN 1-56720-436-8,
$49.95.
o
Greenwood Publishing Group
·
Affiliation in the Workplace — www.greenwood.com
·
Chapter titled
“How Can You Grow Your Practice with Purpose?” in National Career
Development Association Monograph, “Starting and Growing a Business in
the New Economy” Edited by Sally Gelardin, 2007
·
Recorded
Webinar for Project Management Institute
o
“Becoming Career Fit in Turbulent Times”
·
http://pmi-issig.org/Default.aspx?tabid=319
·
“Building a
Strong Workforce Through Affiliation.” Chapter 26 in “On Staffing:
Advice and Perspectives from HR Leaders.” Eds. Nicholas Burkholder et
al, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken NJ (2004)
o
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471410691,descCd-tableOfContents.html
·
“The Growing
Divide Calls for Advocacy.”
o
Article in March, 2007, NCDA Career Convergence magazine
·
http://209.235.208.145/cgi-bin/WebSuite/tcsAssnWebSuite.pl?Action=DisplayNewsDetails&RecordID=947&Sections=&IncludeDropped=1&AssnID=NCDA&DBCode=130285
·
“Reaching for
Our Deep Gladness”
o
Article in May, 2005, NCDA Career Convergence magazine
·
http://209.235.208.145/cgi-bin/WebSuite/tcsAssnWebSuite.pl?Action=DisplayNewsDetails&RecordID=625&Sections=6&IncludeDropped=&AssnID=NCDA&DBCode=130285
·
Mention in
article on cost of turnover
o
East
Bay Business Times, April 2005
·
Turnover costs exceed employers' estimates - 2005-04-25
·
“Worklife
Survival: Finding a Fit”
o
Article for HR West, February 2005 (Northern California Human Resource
Association)
·
http://www.nchra.org/StaticContent/Download/EXT0205007.pdf
·
Interview in
the education field “Affiliation as a Unifying Principle in Education”
o
Career Pro News
·
Affiliation and Education
·
MBTI Step II
workshop
o
CCDA News, April 2005
·
Local Chapter News
·
Review of ICDC
Global Issues Forum
o
CCDA, January 2005
·
ICDC Global Issues Forum
About EOR: Our Value Contribution
We enhance
your workforce, leadership and organization by:
·
Using
proprietary approaches to understand workforce and leadership challenges
·
Creating
tailored action plans and solutions to strengthen workforce and
leadership practices
·
Building
individual capabilities and contributions
We enable you
to focus on external results and building value, confident that your
organization and leadership are operating at peak effectiveness.
Our Mission
To support
your organization by enhancing performance, productivity and
effectiveness through revitalized workforce relationships and leadership
practices.
Our Approach and Values
We tailor our engagements to the needs of each organization with a
process designed to surface critical issues, identify root causes, build
effective solutions, monitor progress and implement.
With a scope that ranges from system and organizational interventions to
work with individuals, our focus is on the heart of the relationship
among the individual, the organization and the community. We believe
that organizational and community prosperity are built on enabling each
person to fulfill his or her potential.
Our Services
We work with
individuals and groups in your organization to drive performance and
development for both the short and long term. As a result people will
choose to work in your organization and will prosper there.
We bring
solutions when you need to:
·
Reverse
declining revenues and performance
·
Revitalize
your workforce
·
Stem the loss
of key talent
·
Redirect your
organization to new areas
·
Stop losing
customers or market share
·
Penetrate new
markets
·
Combat
aggressive competitors
·
Handle major
change
·
Break down
communication barriers
·
Energize your
leadership team
·
Successfully
build on an acquisition or merger
Our
proprietary services include:
·
State-of-the-art tools to take the pulse of your organization and then
move to action
o
Web enabled systems
o
Experts to gather and analyze information, moving your organization to
action
·
Individual
leadership coaching to give you world class leadership capabilities
o
Leaders who know themselves and their aspirations, build their
capabilities and become catalysts developing others
·
Workshops to
build interpersonal skills in your organization so that:
o
Communication is timely, concise, accurate and personal
o
People listen to each other
o
Negotiations are quick and effective
o
Differences create rather than destroy value
o
Teams move forward, get results and quickly commercialize new products
and services
o
People understand and link their motivations to your organizational
needs
o
Your teams understand what it takes to create a committed, energized
workforce
o
People use their time well
·
Systems that
make it easy to drive performance and build capabilities by:
o
Linking objectives throughout the organization
o
Strengthening key competencies
o
Making sure you have the bench strength where and when you need it
o
Giving people tools to take charge of their own careers and development
and have a major long term influence on your organization
·
Proprietary
simulation and modeling techniques that let you explore how to maximize
the value of your workforce
o
Move from guessing what might happen to looking in depth at the
financial impact of different approaches
