Aim of IES report was not simplistic “holy grail” search

For Nicholas Higgins (25 March 2008), self-appointed HCM school ‘Dean’, and self-opinionated consultant Paul Kearns (11 March 2008) to criticise the recent authoritative report People and the Bottom Line for being self-interested and lacking in practical relevance demonstrates that neither can have properly read nor understood this comprehensive document. 

Nearly 3,000 employers took part in the research carried out by these long-standing, respected and independent research organisations including Institute for Employment Studies and the Work Foundation.  And as Kirsty Yates, head of research at Investors in People points out, the aim was not to seek the simplistic “holy grail” of HR practices driving profits, but to develop and test some “practical scorecard measures” which could help to show progress in, and added value by effective HR management.

I would urge your readers to access and read the document themselves and the vast majority will see that they have succeeded in doing this and derive practical benefit from the report. 

Far more organisations should be using these types of measurement if HR is to have a viable future.  As the chairman of Standard Chartered Bank Mervyn Davies, a leader in the field of human capital measurement, pointed out last month, HR managers who are not feeding this type of information into their boardroom risk extinction, for themselves and their organisations.

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yours,

Duncan Brown, director, PricewaterhouseCoopers