Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Stop the accountants driving human capital

by Personnel Today 20 May 2003
by Personnel Today 20 May 2003

Consultation
documents may come and go, but the latest from the Government’s Accounting for
People Task Force is probably one of the most important you will ever see.

Get
a copy of the consultation paper, take time to study it and make sure you give
a response in the next six weeks. It is asking for opinions on crucial issues,
which directly affect you in your job and could determine the destiny of the HR
profession. Don’t waste this opportunity to get involved.

It’s
surprising that a DTI Task Force called Accounting for People only includes one
HR specialist and no representative from the CIPD. Instead, it is made up of
eight academics, consultants, civil servants and business leaders whose job it
is to create best practice guidance and a framework for organisations on how
they can meaningfully account for their people. Eventually, this group will
make recommendations on how you should reflect human capital assets in annual
reports and accounts.

The
Government is marching ahead with its own agenda encouraging business to
demonstrate good corporate governance. It argues that investors need this
detail to determine the long-term strength and sustainability of business and
that employees should have it to increase motivation and assist with managing
their careers.

But
whatever way you look at it, human capital management is never going to be a
piece of cake. People are unpredictable, and are not passive assets that can be
easily and reliably counted on a uniform and comparative scale across all
industries.

The
current leaders in this such as HR directors at Jaguar, Nationwide, Tesco and
B&Q are doing a grand job in sharing their experiences to improve our
understanding of the human capital challenge. Their message is clear: what is
not measured is not properly valued and cannot be effectively managed.

But
too many employers have not made a systematic leap into this arena and even
fewer are reporting externally. Whatever stage you are at, make sure your
opinions inform the process because HR should be pivotal to the collation of
this information.

If
you have not already got the metrics bug, you need to act swiftly. HR risks
being out manoeuvred if it does not start measuring and others, including the
accountants, marketers and IT specialists, will take over this role. By
engaging with this consultation process, you will be doing yourself and HR a
great service. There is good news for HR jobseekers this week. The popular
Career Coach column has been revived and on personneltoday.com you can send in
your own questions to a panel of experts. Personnel Today has also rebranded
its entire recruitment service. Jobs of the week will be highlighted in the
magazine and by keying in personneltodayjobs.com, you can now go straight to
the recruitment section of our website where there are hundreds of HR vacancies
and a CV database.  

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
Staff recruitment levels improve
next post
People metrics boost for training

You may also like

The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls

24 May 2022

Grants scheme set up to support women’s health...

16 May 2022

How music can help to ease anxiety at...

9 May 2022

OH will be key to navigating ‘second pandemic’...

14 Apr 2022

OH urged to be aware of abortion consultations...

8 Apr 2022

How coached eCBT is returning the workplace to...

8 Apr 2022

Why now is the time to plug the...

7 Apr 2022

Two-thirds of shift workers feel health affected by...

18 Mar 2022

TUC warns of April Covid risk assessment ‘confusion’

14 Mar 2022

Consultation on new NHS cancer standards, as waits...

11 Mar 2022
  • The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls PROMOTED | The Great Resignation continues unabated...Read more
  • Navigating the widening “Skills Confidence Gap” in 2022, and beyond PROMOTED | Cornerstone OnDemand conducted a global study...Read more
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+