Human Capital Value - can investing in your high-value knowledge workers improve company performance?
Research over recent years has consistently shown that investing in your staff is one of the best ways of retaining them. In return, retaining your high-value knowledge workers means that you spend less time and money on recruitment and have less downtime whilst new recruits get up to speed, which, in turn, makes you more productive.
Rather than seeing education and training as a cost, perhaps we should consider it as an investment - in Human Capital Value. And, whilst this type of investment may appear to have only long-term consequences, it can also have short-term benefits.
When considered in this light, Human Capital Value becomes a key attribute of any high-value knowledge worker and a core consideration of both recruitment and employee retention. In pure human resources terms, it makes sense to ensure that your employees are not only as productive as possible for as much of the time as is practicable, but also that they are appropriately rewarded, appreciated and feel that they are developing in a way that suits their personal development objectives.
Meeting these objectives makes a tangible contribution to employee satisfaction, whilst also helping develop key staff for the roles of tomorrow. This helps eployees to see that they are valued not only for the difference they can make today but that they are a key part of the plan for tomorrow. Research from Harvard University shows that employee satisfaction alone improved financial performance by up to 42% simply by improving one point on a six point scale. (Maister, Harvard Business Review, January 1998)
How do we measure the value of Human Capital?
Traditionally, the value of key personnel is often thought of simply as how much they contribute to the bottom line in the short term. However, as one of the major (if not the primary) costs of many businesses, the recruitment, training, reward and retention of key personnel is, by definition a strategic process with long-term implications and significant ROI potential.
The assessment of Human Capital Value and its development and maximisation are key components of the approach thet NewAmbition takes to business development and growth. We believe that an engaged, motivated, educated and enthusiastic workforce is one of your most important assets and one that should be central to your business development strategy.
By ensuring that this key element of your strategy is not only considered, but is central to everything that you do and is properly implemented, we maximise the benefits to your business of your high-value knowledge workers, whilst also helping them secure the training, development and security that leads to their best performance.
|
