Archive for the ‘ROI in Human Capital’ Category

Of all the Talent Management gurus that give us advice, tell us how we’ll be better if we just did this, Dr. Laurie Bassi is the one I admire most. A couple of things about her: She owns her own talent strategy firm called McBassi and Company (maybe she liked McDonalds growing up) She is one of Success Factors’ valuable research resources. I think she best connects the dots between the value of people and company performance. One of the main things HR struggles with is how to sell people related projects to the executive team.

Dr. Bassi authored one of the most unique white papers on ROI for Human Capital Management. In one of her cases she looks at a South Carolina school district that had plenty of funding but poor test results. Those schools that had better Human Capital practices always scored better. Why is this study more relevant to performance than in the business world? You simply have to develop a student. You can’t hire them. You can’t fire them. And you can’t pay them. I haven’t seen another study come close to this. This truly proves the value of development.

The most telling sign that Dr. Bassi’s research is spot on? She created a Human Capital Stock Index for companies that exhibit best practices in Talent Management. And guess what? Those companies had better returns for their shareholders. If you look at a company and what it is worth, the value of intangible assets dominate that balance sheet. What do you think a firm like Deloitte Consulting is worth? They truly represent Human Capital Value Add. How much value does a consultant with a weekly billable goal add to its organization?