HR Metrics & Thinking Like the CEO
HR has had difficulty getting approval to spend money on HR technology. One of the biggest obstacles has been their inability to justify an investment by putting together a proper business case for what they want to purchase. One component in putting together a proper business case is measuring performance by capturing appropriate metrics. So, now the question is, “Are we currently measuring anything?” and if not, “What should we measure?”
Apparently, this is not as simple a question as one might expect. Many organizations are capturing certain metrics, but there is disagreement as to whether these are the correct metrics to measure. Lance Haun recently wrote a blog post, in which he cited a survey conducted by Focus that asked HR folks, “What are the most important Metrics you use to measure HR’s value in the organization?” The top two cited were Retention/Turnover rates and Employee Satisfaction. Lance then goes on to question whether the findings of the survey are correct.
I think that Lance is correct, and furthermore, the survey results highlight that HR still isn’t thinking like the CEO. The survey question clearly asks for the metric for the organization, not HR. Yet, the survey respondents were answering what was important to HR, not the organization. Until HR can start thinking like the CEO, they will continue to struggle to capture the right metrics, and to more easily justify the HR technology investments they are seeking.
Until Next Time,
Stephen
