Human Capital Reporting—Action Examples

In yesterday’s Advisor, we featured consultant David Creelman’s advice on human capital reporting; today, more of his tips, plus some sample reports.

Creelman, CEO of Creelman Research, offered his tips at a recent BLR® webinar sponsored by Halogen Software. He was joined by Halogen’s Director of Marketing Communications Connie Costigan.

The Best Way to Start

For those new to human capital reporting, Creelman recommends the following:

• Do something internal now, so you are ready to do something external when asked.
• Do something relevant, concise, and easy for stakeholders to understand.
• Pick three strategic business initiatives, then, tell the story of how human capital investments support those initiatives.
• Make sure you have some metrics to support your story.
• Frame the “so what?” in terms of risk management.
• Later on, add in any other metrics stakeholders expect.

For example:

• Issue: Rapid growth in China; can’t recruit fast enough.
• Human capital investment: New software to speed recruitment.
• Story: Explain what the issue is and why it is a risk.
• Metrics: Provide metrics, e.g., Number of hires, Time to fill (in China), Quality of hire (in China).
• Risk: Describe the risk: Insufficient recruitment would put revenue targets at risk.

Costigan offered the following as examples of the kind of metrics and reports that HR software systems can provide:

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Recommendations

Creelman offers the following basic recommendations:

• Learn the basics of your business and industry, and talk to leadership about “human capital reporting” in whatever context it will capture their interest.
• Pilot an HR report to work through the process.
• Create a road map to build needed systems and processes.
• Ask to be involved.

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• Privacy. The director of information services can override any individual password and, therefore, has access to all e-mail messages in order to ensure compliance with company policy. This means that employees do not have an expectation of privacy in their company e-mail or any other information stored or accessed on company computers.
• E-mail review. All e-mail is subject to review by management. Your use of the e-mail system grants consent to the review of any of the messages to or from you in the system in printed form or in any other medium.

Solicitation. In line with our general policy, e-mail must not be used to solicit for outside business ventures, personal parties, social meetings, charities, membership in any organization, political causes, religious causes, or other matters not connected to the company’s business.

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