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The launch of the Accounting for People Taskforce (AfP)
“On the whole, the standard of people management in this country is very lacking. Companies typically say that people are their greatest asset, but then do nothing about managing this asset in an appropriate way.”
Denise Kingsmill, Personnel Today, 20 May 2003
Responses to the AfP consultation June/July 2003
“Companies should in future be required to explain in the OFR their strategy for harnessing human capital so as to generate added value, and provide the information to enable readers of their report and accounts to assess how well they are carrying out this strategy.”
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
“The inclusion of human capital management into the Operating and Financial Review is one Unifi would welcome, further there should be an element of measurability within the OFR to enable comparisons to be made.”
Financial services union Unifi
The recommendations from the taskforce
Directors of companies producing OFRs, and all public and other bodies that produce OFRs or reports with similar aims, should include within them information on human capital management (HCM) or explain why it is not material. OFRs are designed to convey the board’s understanding of the factors that are most material to the organisation’s performance.
Response to the recommendations
Annual reports will soon have to include detailed data about HR’s efforts to measure people... and link these to the bottom line. The move, recommended by the Accounting for People taskforce, will provide HR with an opportunity to embed itself further into business and create a more strategic niche.
Personnel Today, 4 November 2003
“This is the moment HCM takes its place in the boardroom. Directors need to transform the airy cliché about people being their greatest asset into a guiding principle of business strategy.”
Denise Kingsmill
“I am delighted to be able to respond positively to the recommendations in Denise’s report. Her group’s work will help companies ensure their OFRs reflect how the management and development of their people impacts on the performance of their business.
Patricia Hewitt, secretary of state for trade and industry, May 2004
