Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dissertation Report
On
Putting HR on Balanced Scorecard
(A Case Study of Verizon)
(SUBMITTED TOWARDS PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF POST
GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN MANAGEMENT)
ACADEMIC SESSION
(2008-10)
College Address
PREFACE
There is a famous saying The theory without practical is lame and practical
without theory is blind.
Alignment of the Human Resource with the overall strategy of the company is a
very big and toughest challenge for the company.
Our institution has come forward with the opportunity to bridge the gap by
imparting modern scientific management principle underlying the concept of
the future prospective managers.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is not possible to prepare a project report without the assistance &
encouragement of other people. This one is certainly no exception.
On the very outset of this report, I would like to extend my sincere & heartfelt
obligation towards all the personages who have helped me in this endeavor.
Without their active guidance, help, cooperation & encouragement, I would not
have made headway in the project.
At last but not least gratitude goes to all of my friends who directly or indirectly
helped me to complete this project report.
Any omission in this brief acknowledgement does not mean lack of gratitude.
Thanking You
Your Name
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
4. HUMAN RESOURCES AS A STRATEGIC PARTNER THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE
TABLE OF FIGURES
FIGURE 1: HR ARCHITECTURE STRATEGIC COMPONENTS
FIGURE 3:- THE MAIN FRAMEWORK OF BALANCED SCORECARD
FIGURE 4:- MODEL FOR IMPLEMENTING HRS STRATEGIC ROLE
FIGURE 5: A HIGH PERFORMANCE WORK SYSTEM
FIGURE 6: SIMPLE STRATEGY MAP
FIGURE 7:- INITIAL MODEL USED TO ALIGN HR STRATEGY TO BUSINESS
STRATEGY
FIGURE 8:- THE PEOPLE REQUIREMENT AND BUSINESS DRIVER DETERMINATION
PROCESS
FIGURE 9:- THE HR SCORECARD STRATEGY MAP
FIGURE 10: HR SCORECARD IMPLEMENTATION ARCHITECTURE
1. INTRODUCTION
The new economic paradigm is characterised by speed, innovation, quality and customer
satisfaction. The essence of the competitive advantage has shifted from tangible assets to
intangible ones. The focus is now on human capital and its effective alignment with the
overall strategy of organisations. This is a new age for Human Resources. The entire system
of measuring HRs contribution to the organisations success as well as the architecture of the
HR system needs to change to reflect the demands of succeeding in the new economy. The
HR scorecard is a measurement as well as an evaluation system for redefining the role of HR
as a strategic partner. It is based on the Balanced Scorecard framework developed by Kaplan
and Norton and is set to revolutionise the way business perceives HR.
Based on various studies, it can be concluded that firms with more effective HR management
systems consistently outperform the competition. However, evidence that HR can contribute
to a firms success doesnt mean it is now effectively contributing to success in business. It is
a challenge for managers to make HR a strategic asset. The HR scorecard is a lever that
enables them to do so. Implementing effective measurement systems for intangible assets is a
very difficult task and demands the existence of a unified framework to guide the HR
managers. It is this difficulty that has been the prime reason why managers tend to avoid
dealing with intangible assets as far as possible. In the process firms under-invest in their
people and at times invest in the wrong ways. Another difficulty is, managers cannot foresee
the consequences of their investments in intangible human assets in a well-defined
measurable manner and they are not willing to take the risk. Thus, the most effective way to
change this mindset is obvious to build a framework just like the balanced scorecard, which
has sound measurement strategies and is able to link HR functions, activity and investment
with the overall business strategy. The HR scorecard framework was specifically designed for
these purposes.
2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1.Research Objectives
3. To find out how Balanced Scorecard is useful for developing the Human Resource as
a strategic partner.
2.3. Data sources: The research is based on secondary data and the data is
collected from various websites, Journals, Magazines, Articles and Research Paper.
2.4. Data Analysis: The research is divided into the six sections. The First
section deals with the overall introduction of the research and the Second section
highlights the Human Resource as a strategic partner and the traditional human
resource and the human resource in present and the future of the human resource.
Third section explains in detail the HR Architecture as a strategic asset which
contains the hr function, hr system and the employee behavior. Fourth section
explains the background and the concept of balanced scorecard, need of the balanced
scorecard in todays competitive environment, and defines the balanced scorecard as
a measurement tool. Fifth section explains how balanced scorecard can be
implemented into the human resource to develop the HR as a strategic partner. Sixth
section contains the case study of Verizon and explains how Verizon has
implemented the balanced scorecard to human resource to generate the value through
the intangible asset.
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Is the balanced scorecard HR's ticket to the board? Nelson, Paul. Personnel
Today, 3/5/2002.
The first part of this article gives numbers on the popularity of BCs throughout industry.
From the article: According to a recent survey by the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative and
the Society for Human Resource Management, about one-fourth of HR organizations have
adopted the Balanced Scorecard approach. However, virtually all of the 1,300 respondents
have explored the possibility. The rest of the article has no relation to balanced scorecards.
A synopsis of three scholars (Jac Fitz-enz, David Norton, and Helen Drinanwork) in the field
of HR metrics and analysis, by way of selling the authors upcoming Net Conference.
2. Norton developed the "Human Capital Readiness Report," which provides a snapshot
of an organization's human capital relative to its strategic requirements. It documents
the strategic requirements, then shows, through its measures and programs, how
human capital is being developed.
So what is the profile of outstanding HR leaders? Among other things, they derive their
agendas from enterprise business objectives; they stay in touch with the workforce; think
"customer focus," not "customer service"; and concentrate on a few strategic priorities.
4. A Balanced Scorecard Changes HR Mgmt From Art to Science. Human
Resource Department Management Report. January, 2003. Issue 1-03, p. 1.
Objective:- Reasons for and application of using the BSC as a way to measure HR
productivity and effectiveness.
Biggest reason: a move to measuring tangible assets, and a need to turn the intangibility of
HR into something more measurable. Case: Alterra Health Care in Milwaukee, which used
HR as the centerpiece of a larger strategic transformation that targeted the firms 145%
turnover rate.
3. The HR Scorecard must make visible the link from what staff does to strategic
outcomes. Cascading goals, which may be done through the ten-step process, is one
element of successfully creating the link.
6. Secrets to Success with Balanced Scorecards. HR Focus. October, 2001 Vol. 78,
no. 10, p. S3.
Summarizes the 10 Commandments of Performance Management from a book by William
Abernathy: Managing Without Supervising: Creating an Organization- Wide Performance
System. Some of these commandments:
1. No one should design his or her own incentive plan
There is one reason for all of this. Human capital is an intangible asset and HRs influence on
firm performance is difficult to measure. The standard elements of a firms resource
architecture that are measured include total compensation, employee turnover, cost per hire,
percentage of employees that undergo performance appraisals and percentage employee
satisfaction. The question to be asked is: Are these the measures crucial to implementing the
firms strategy? This is clearly not the case. Interesting attributes would include a committed
workforce, competency development programs, etc. But, it is very difficult to imagine
measures for these quantities. Hence, in the current state of HR there is a clear rift between
what is measured and what needs to be measured.
As mentioned in the introduction, the role of HR is no more just administrative. It has a much
broader, connected and strategic role to play. But, these statements must be substantiated. The
reasons why HR must be considered as a strategic asset must be highlighted. A strategic asset
is something difficult to trade or imitate. They are normally a set of scarce, special or even
exotic resources and capabilities that bestow a firm its competitive advantage. An unlikely
paradox is that the very intangibility of human capital that makes it so difficult to measure
and evaluate, also proves to be the one quality that makes it a strategic asset. Consider the
difference between being able to align employee efforts with the companys strategic goals
and instead having innovative policies of performance appraisals. The latter is a policy. It is
visible to competitors and can be easily copied. The former on the other hand is a strategic
move. It is not easy to imitate since it is a very circumstantial effort, which depends on the
specific firm, its goals and its people. This proves to be a strategic asset i.e. something that
competitors cannot see but that can be utilised to gain a competitive advantage. It is thus
important to align the HR strategy to the overall business strategy signifying a top-down
approach as opposed to a bottom-up approach where each division such as marketing, HR
etc. performs its standard individual roles without a clear outlook towards the firms strategy.
Many firms have realised this and have made efforts to measure HRs influence on the firms
performance. However, most of these approaches seem to focus on the individual, as it is
believed that if one can achieve an improvement in individual employee performance, it
would automatically enhance the performance of the organisation. The point that is missed is
the fact that organizational units, be it individuals or teams, do not function in isolation. The
stress is on streamlining and cooperatively working towards a common goal.
2. Develop strategies that provide timely and effective support for the skills demanded
by the firms overall strategy implementation.
3. Enact compensation and performance management policies that attract, retain and
motivate high-performance employees.
Basically, the firm needs to structure all the elements of its HR system in a way that supports
a high-performance workforce. However, systemic thinking implies stress on the
interrelationships of the HR system components and the link between HR and the larger
strategy of the firm. The laws of system thinking imply the following:
1. Problems of today are most likely due to past decisions. It is thus important to look at
the causal nature of past solutions and current problems.
2. One should think twice before taking the easy way out or deciding to go with standard
solutions to any problem as this will most likely lead to a crop of new problems in the
future.
3. Cause and effect are not closely related in time. There is a lag between cause and
effect and HRs influence on firm performance is normally much less direct than that
of other performance drivers. This can make it hard to measure as well as be
misleading. It is thus important to look at the leading indicators and not just the
lagging indicators. Typical financial performance measures are lagging indicators and
in an attempt to solve financial problems, the first step is normally to cut costs. It is
more important to actually pinpoint the cause of the problem and look to long-term
benefits than short term ones.
4. The best strategies are often unobvious. Small changes in how HR drivers are
managed can slowly gather momentum and work their way through the strategy
implementation process.
5. It is important never to dissect the system and view each of its parts independently.
One must look at the system as a whole and the connections between the individual
parts is normally the vital place to look at for a solution to any of the problems.
Firms with high performance work systems tend to devote considerably more resources to
recruiting and selection. There is a strong emphasis on training and performance management
and compensation is tied to performance. Teamwork is encouraged, there is generally less
unionization and they have a large and effective HR team. It is important to note, that all
these factors in tandem, not in isolation, lead to better performance, once again showing the
systemic nature of HRs role in performance enhancement. The effects of these measures are
lower employee turnover, more retention, greater sales per employee and a greater market
value for the firm.
It is also important for the HR system to constantly check for alignment of all its parts i.e.
how much they reinforce or conflict with each other. An example of misalignment is a policy
that encourages teamwork but rewards individual contributions.
In the service sector, the employee-customer relationship is very obvious and visible and so
the impact of value creation is unmistakable. But, in many firms, the value is derived from
the operational processes and quality of work that the employees generate. This is less
obvious to competitors and it cannot be imitated. It is especially in these kinds of firms that
the alignment of HR strategy and policy with the overall strategy of the firm matters the
most.
The alignment process begins with a clear understanding of what kind of value the
organisation is supposed to generate and how it should be generated. In the Balanced
Scorecard, this is referred to as the strategy map that stresses the relationship between the
ultimate goals and the key success factors at the four important levels of customers, internal
operations, people and systems. Once the firm has a clear understanding of the value-creation
process, it can then design an implementation model that specifies needed skills and
competencies and employee behaviours throughout the firm. The HR management section
can then be directed towards generating these necessary competencies and behaviours. The
stress is not just on the creation of sound HR policies and strategies. How these are
implemented is also very important. There has to be a strong alignment with the firms
competitive strategy.
A high performance HR system will also tend be unique. This is because it depends on the
particular organisation, its goals, people and strategy. Hence, it proves to be a strategic asset.
5.3.Employee Behaviours
As mentioned above the final results of the strategies are mapped to required employee
behaviours. It is important that each employee be trained not just to do his or her job but also
to have a substantially clear understanding of where he or she stands in the big picture of the
overall strategy of the firm. Strategic behaviours are productive behaviours that directly serve
to implement the firms strategy. There are two basic categories. Core behaviours are
behaviours that are considered fundamental to the success of the firm, across all business
units and levels. Situation-specific behaviours on the other hand, are more circumstantial
behaviours. These are not required all the time but are absolutely necessary in certain
scenarios.
In the dawn of the century, Frederick W. Taylor established the very concepts of resource
allocation in his Principles of ScientJlc Management. In 1920-ics it went around assembly
line and motion studies as the first experience from systematic mass production had given
theorists quite a lot of materials to be analysed from the point of view of using traditional
blue-collar employees more efficiently. In the I 930-ies, the main topic was motivation of
employees, as it turned out that human nature does not enable to work long hours on a
repetitive tasks without frustration level getting so high enough to diminish productivity. In
the l940-ics and 1950-ies, the first statistical and linear methods were introduced in trying to
measure logistics of the operations management and its implications to overall company
success in financial-analysis side. In the beginning of 1980-ics, partly because of introduction
of electronic data processing equipment and quick development of computers, the whole
array of management techniques were initiated. The particular reasons for the vast
development of the new theories were catalyzed mainly by ever growing competition
generated through more systematic use of computers, and of course also by rapid growth of
the importance of human capital.
The emergence of the information era, however, in the last decades of the 2O century, has
made obsolete many of the fundamental assumptions of industrial age competition. The
information age environment for both manufacturing and service organisations requires new
capabilities for competitive success. The ability of a company to mobilise and exploit its
intangible assets has become far more decisive than investing and managing tangible,
physical assets.
Industrial age companies created a sharp distinction between two groups of employees. The
intellectual elite managers and engineers used their analytical skills to design products
and processes, select and manage customers, and supervise day-to-day operations. The
second group was composed of the people who actually produced the products and delivered
the services. This direct labour work force was a principal factor of production, which
performed its tasks under supervision of the first group. Today automation and productivity
have increased the number of people performing analytic functions: engineering, marketing,
management and administration. Therefore, the people are more viewed as problem solvers,
not as variable costs. In other words, information age has brought about the concept of
knowledge management.
1. Just-in-time
3. Lean enterprise,
5. Time-based competition,
6. Customer-focused organization,
8. Employee empowerment,
Some of those programmes have meant in practice real breakthrough and improvement,
others have proven to be in the best case just a short-time disturbance, but in the worst cases
total failures resulting in disarray or even bankruptcy of a particular company. The main
reason for that lies in five main implementation problems:
As for today, superior financial performance and efficiency in production are just not enough
to gain sufficient competitive advantage, but more and more attention needs to be paid to
intangible sides of business.
For at least 15 years, the leading management journals have published articles about how to
build up a mechanism that would enable to control all the aspects of a companys
performance. One of the most versatile tools for that purpose is Balanced Scorecard.
The long-term success of any organization is determined by the capabilities and the
competencies it has developed. Todays businesses require a better understanding of their
customers (both existing and potential ) and their needs, better streamlined processes and
highly skilled people for ensuring future survival and sustainable growth.
This innovative tool Balanced Scorecard developed by Robert S Kaplan and David P
Norton in 1992 is unique in two ways compared to the traditional performance measurement
tools. They are:-
1. It considers the financial indices as well the non-financial ones in determining the
corporate performance level and
The aim of the Balanced Scorecard is to direct, help manage and change in support of the
longer-term strategy in order to manage performance. The scorecard reflects what the
company and the strategies are all about. It acts as a catalyst for bringing in the change
element within the organization
Balanced Scorecard uses a balanced measurement system that comprises of the old
financial side and four new perspectives of:
4. Learning and Growth Perspective - Can we continue to improve and create value?
Hence, from the above lines we can say that this tool has considered not only the financial
results to be important but also those factors which actually drive an organization towards
future successes as mentioned earlier. The tool has given stress on the other areas which are
required to balance the financial perspective in order to get a total view about the
organizational performance and improve the same.
The Balanced Scorecard emphasises the importance of measuring business performance from
the perspective of strategic implementation, rather than relying solely on financial results.
Senior managers tend to pay far too much attention to the financial dimensions of
performance and not enough attention to the driving forces behind those results. Financial
measures are lagging indicators i.e. backward looking. They are designed to rectify or change
past results. Performance drivers on the other hand are within the control of the management
in the present and the Balanced Scorecard methodology encourages management to look at
these leading indicators as well. By specifying the important process measures, assessing
them, and communicating the firms performance based on these criteria to the employees,
the managers can ensure that the entire organisation participates actively in the strategy
implementation process. It is a unifying tool in strategy implementation.
The next important step is communication. The top management that has done the above
analysis must communicate their findings and decisions to the middle and front-line
managers, who in turn must communicate it to the other employees. In this way, everyone in
the organisation is made aware and can participate in the strategy implementation process.
This also helps allocate resources intelligently and guides employees decisions. The
Balanced Scorecard model recognises the importance of both tangible and intangible assets
and of financial and non-financial measures. It focuses on the complex connections among
the firms customers, operations, employees and technology and places an important role for
HR. The BSC framework highlights the differences between leading and lagging indicators.
Lagging indicators include financial metrics, which typically reflect only what has happened
in the past. Such metrics accurately measure impacts of past decisions but dont help in
making current decisions or guaranteeing future outcomes. The leading indicators are the
unique indicators for each firm. They include process cycle time, customer satisfaction or
employee strategic focus. These indicators assess the status of key success factors that drive
the implementation of the firms strategy and hence emphasise the future rather than the past.
6.2. Defining Critical Success Factors and Measures
Four Perspectives
From all the measurement perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard, the financial perspective
needs to be introduced the least as the main financial measurement systems have been
analysed during the past years very thoroughly
The particular financial performance measures for any Balanced Scorecard should define
long-run financial objectives for the organisation. While most of the organisations would
emphasise profitability objectives, other possibilities may also be considered. Businesses with
many products in the early stage of their life cycle can stress rapid growth objectives, and
mature businesses may emphasise maximising cash flow.
Norton and Kaplan recommend to simplify the financial perspective measurement selection
pool to identify first the organisations stage, which would mainly be one of the three:
I. rapid growth organisations - are at the early stages of their life cycle. They may
have to make considerable investments to develop and enhance new products and
serviccs, to construct and expand production facilities, to build operating capabilities,
to invest in systems, infra-structure, and distribution networks that will support
relationships, and to nurture and develop customer relationships.
II. sustain organisations organisations that still attract investment and
reinvestment, but are required to cam excellent returns on their invested capital. These
businesses are expected to maintain their existing market share and perhaps grow it
somewhat. Investment projects will be more directed to relieving bottlenecks,
expanding capacity, and enhancing continuous improvement.
III. harvest organisations - have reached a mature phase of their life cycle, where the
company wants to harvest the investments made in the earlier to stages. These
businesses no longer warrant significant investment only enough to maintain
equipment and capabilities, not to expand or build new capabilities. Any investment
project will have to have very short and definite payback periods. The main goal is to
maximise cash flow back to the organisation.
The financial objectives for businesses in each of these three stages are quite different.
Financial objectives in the growth stage will emphasise sales growth; sales in new markets
and to new customers; sales from new products and services; maintaining adequate spending
levels for product and process development, systems, employee capabilities; and
establishment of new marketing, sales, and distribution channels. Financial objectives in the
sustain stage will emphasise traditional financial measurements, such as return on capital
employed, operating income, and gross margin.
Objectives Measures
Survive Cash Flow
The customer perspective addresses the question of how the firm is viewed by its customers
and how well the firm is serving its targeted customers in order to meet the financial
objectives. Generally, customers view the firm in terms of time, quality, performance, and
cost. Most customer objectives fall into one of those four categories.
In the customer perspective of the Balanced Scorecard, managers identify the customer and
market segments in which the business unit will compete and the measures of the business
units performance in these targeted segments.
The customer perspective typically includes several generic measures of the successful
outcomes from a well-formulated and implemented strategy. The genetic outcome measures
include customer satisfaction, customer retention, new customer acquisition, customer
profitability, and market and account share in targeted segments. While these measures may
appear to be generic across all types of organisations, they should be customised to the
targeted customer groups from whom the business unit expects its greatest growth and
profitability to be derived.
Market share, especially for targeted customer segments, reveals how well a company
is penetrating a desired market. For example, a company may temporarily be meeting
sales growth objectives by retaining customers in non-targeted segments, but not
increasing its share in targeted segments. The measure of market share with targeted
customers would balance a pure financial signal (sales) to indicate whether an
intended strategy is yielding expected results.
When companies have targeted particular customers or market segments, they can
also use a second market-share type measure: the account share of those customers
business (some refer to this as the share of the customers wallet). The overall
market share measure based on business with these companies could be affected by
the total amount of business these companies are offering in a given period. That is,
the share of business with these targeted customers could be decreasing because these
customers are offering less business to all their suppliers. Companies can measure-
customer by customer or segment by segment-how much of the customers and
market segments business they are receiving. Such a measure provides a strong focus
to the company when trying to dominate its targeted customers purchases of products
or services in categories that it offers.
Companies seeking to grow their business will generally have an objective to increase
their customer base in targeted segments. The customer acquisition measure tracks, in
absolute or relative terms, the rate at which a business unit attracts or wins new
customers or business. Customer acquisition could be measured by either the number
of new customers or the total sales to new customers in these segments. Companies
such as those in the credit and charge card business, magazine subscriptions, cellular
telephone service, cable television, and banking and other financial services solicit
new customers through broad, often expensive, marketing efforts. These companies
could examine the number of customer responses to solicitations and the conversion
rate- number of actual new customers divided by number of prospective inquiries.
They could measure solicitation cost per new customer acquired, and the ratio of new
customer revenues per sales call or per dollar of solicitation expense.
Both customer retention and customer acquisition are driven from meeting customers
needs. Customer satisfaction measures provide feedback on how well the company is
doing. The importance of customer satisfaction probably cannot be over-emphasised.
Recent research has indicated that just scoring adequately on customer satisfaction is
not sufficient for achieving high degrees of loyalty, retention, and profitability. Only
when customers rate their buying experience as completely or extremely satisfying
can the company count on their repeat purchasing behaviour.
V. Customer Profitability
While value propositions vary across industries, and across different market segments
within industries, Kaplan and Norton have observed a common set of attributes that
organises the value propositions in all of the industries where we have constructed
scorecards. These attributes are organised into three categories.
Product/Service Attributes
Customer Relationship
Product and service attributes encompass the functionality of the product/service, its
price, and its quality. The image and reputation dimension enables a company to pro-
actively define itself for its customers. The customer relationship dimension includes
the delivery of the product/service to the customer, including the response and
delivery time dimension, and how the customer feels about the experience of
purchasing from the company.
In summary, the customer perspective enables business unit managers to articulate their
unique customer and market-based strategy that will deliver superior future financial returns.
Objectives Measures
In the internal business process perspective, executives identify the critical internal processes
in which the organisation must excel. The critical internal business processes enable the
business unit to deliver on the value propositions of customers in targeted market segments,
and satisfy shareholder expectations of excellent financial returns. The measures should be
focused on the internal processes that will have the greatest impact on customer satisfaction
and achieving the organisations financial objectives.
The internal business process perspective reveals two fundamental differences between
traditional and the Balanced Scorecard approaches to performance measurement. Traditional
approaches attempt to monitor and improve existing business processes.
They may go beyond just financial measures of performance by incorporating quality and
time-based metrics. But they still focus on improving existing processes. The Balanced
Scorecard approach, however, will usually identify entirely new processes at which the
organisation must excel to meet customer and financial objectives. The internal business
process objectives highlight the processes most critical for the organisations strategy to
succeed.
The second departure of the Balanced Scorecard approach is to incorporate innovation
processes into the internal business process perspective. Traditional performance
measurement systems focus on the processes of delivering todays products and services to
todays customers. They attempt to control and improve existing operations - the short wave
of value creation. But the drivers of long-term financial success may require the organisation
to create entirely new products and services that will meet the emerging needs of current and
future customers. The innovation process-the long-wave of value creations, for many
companies, is a more powerful driver of future financial performance than the short-term
operating cycle. But managers do not have to choose between these two vital internal
processes. The internal business process perspective of the Balanced Scorecard incorporates
objectives and measures for both the long-wave innovation cycle as well as the short-wave
operations cycle.
Learning and growth metrics address the question of how the firm must learn, improve, and
innovate in order to meet its objectives. Much of this perspective is employee- centered.
The fourth Balanced Scorecard perspective, Learning and growth, identifies the infrastructure
that the organisation must build to create long-term growth and improvement. The customer
and internal business process perspectives identify the factors most critical for current and
future success. Businesses are unlikely to be able to meet their long-term targets for
customers and internal processes using todays technologies and capabilities. Also, intense
global competition requires that companies continually improve their capabilities for
delivering value to customers and shareholders.
Organisational learning and growth come from three principal sources: people, systems, and
organisational procedures. The financial, customer, and internal business process objectives
on the Balanced Scorecard will typically reveal large gaps between existing capabilities of
people, systems, and procedures and what will be required to achieve targets for breakthrough
performance. To close these gaps, businesses will have to invest in re-skilling employees,
enhancing information technology and systems, and aligning organisational procedures and
routines. These objectives arc articulated in the learning and growth perspective of the
Balanced Scorecard. As in the customer perspective, employee-based measures include a
mixture of generic outcome measures- employee satisfaction, employee retention, employee
training, and employee skills- along with specific drivers of these generic measures, such as
detailed indexes of specific skills required for the new competitive environment. Information
systems capabilities can be measured by real-time availability of accurate customer and
internal process information to front-line employees. Organisational procedures can examine
alignment of employee incentives with overall organisational success factors, and measured
rates of improvement in critical customer-based and internal processes.
Objectives Measures
Technology Leadership Time to develop new product
Manufacturing Learning Time to new process maturity
Product Focus % of product representing 80% of sales
4. The appropriate strategies and the action plans that arc to be taken in the various
activities should be decided so that it is clear as to how the organization has decided
to pursue the pre-decided goals. Because of this reason, the Balanced Scorecard is
often referred to as a blueprint of the company strategies.
Figure 3:- The Main framework of Balanced Scorecard
Imagine entering the cockpit of a modern jet airplane and seeing only a single instrument
there. How would you feel about boarding the plane after the following conversation with the
pilot?
Q: I am surprised to see you operating the plane with only a single instrument. What does
it measure?
A: Airspeed. I am really working on airspeed this flight.
Q: That good. Airspeed certainly seems important. But what about altitude? Would an
altimeter be helpful?
A: I worked on altitude for the last few flights and Ive gotten pretty good on it. Now I have
to concentrate on proper airspeed.
Q: But I notice you do not even have a fuel gauge. Wouldnt that be useful?
A: You are right; fuel is significant, but I cannot concentrate on doing too many things well at
the same time. So on this flight Im focusing on airspeed. Once I get to be excellent at
airspeed, as well as altitude, I intend to concentrate on fuel consumption in the next set of
flights.
We suspect that you would not board the plane after this discussion. Even if the pilot did an
exceptional job on airspeed, you would be worried about colliding with tall mountains or
running low on fuel. Clearly, such a conversation is a fantasy since no pilot would dream of
guiding a complex vehicle like a jet airplane through crowded air spaces with only a single
instrument. Skilled pilots are able to process information from a large number of indicators to
navigate their aircraft. Yet navigating todays organisations through complex competitive
environments is at least as complicated as flying a jet. Why should we believe that executives
need anything less than a full battery of instrumentation for guiding their companies?
Managers, like pilots, need instrumentation about many aspects of their environment and
performance to monitor the journey toward excellent future outcomes.
HR enablers:
Ulrich et al. discuss a seven step model for formalising the strategic role of HR. They are
summarised below:
Figure 4:- Model for implementing HRs Strategic Role
HR managers should focus on implementation of strategy. By doing so, they can facilitate
discussion about how to communicate the firms goals throughout the organisation. When
strategic goals are not developed with an eye towards the implementation detail, they tend to
be too generic and abstract. These vague goals will tend to confuse employees and they
would not know how exactly to implement the strategies. The important thing for HR
managers is to state the goals in such a way that the employees understand what exactly their
role in the organisation is and thus the organisation knows how to measure success in
achieving these goals.
Once a firm clarifies its strategy, HR professionals need to build a clear case for the strategic
role of HR. In concrete terms, they must be able to explain how and why HR can support the
strategy. It is important to look at as much of case histories and internal as well as external
research while going through this phase. Although it is not wise to imitate others, one can
learn a lot by looking through past experiences of others. Basically, the direct impact on the
HR systems high performance characteristics is non-linearly related to the increase in market
value. This is because in the lower ranges of performance, increase in market value is
basically because HR stops making mistakes it used to make in the past. It is almost like it is
getting out of the way and avoids blunders and wrong practices that worsen the situation. In
the middle range of performance, HR starts consolidating its efforts. It is learning from its
mistakes and in the process does not actually add much to the market value of the employees
and the company, but once a certain threshold is crossed indicating that the firm has adopted
the appropriate HR practices and implemented them effectively, the market value soars
exponentially. This is mainly because the HR system starts getting integrated into the overall
strategic system of the firm. Basically, the firms must consolidate the appropriate HR policies
and practices into an internally coherent system that is directly aligned with business
priorities and strategies that are most likely to create economic value. This can lead to
significant financial returns to the company. It is this plan that must be made concrete and
shown as a strong case to make senior management believe in HRs potential.
The first two steps clarify the firms strategy. This paves the way for the implementation
process. But, before this is done, the firm must get a clear understanding of its value chain.
The value chain is the complex cumulative set of interactions and combinatorial effects that
create the customer value in the products and services of the firm. It is important that the
firms performance management system must account for each of the links and dependencies
in the value chain. The Balanced scorecard framework refers to this process and creating a
strategy map. These are basically diagrams that show the links in the value chain. It shows
how different components in different layers interact. It is what provides managers and
employees the big picture of how their tasks affect the other elements in the firm and how it
affects overall strategy. This process should involve managers from all over the organisation,
not just HR. The broad participation is required to improve the quality of the strategy map. It
also allows each member of the team who is an expert in his or her domain to provide his or
her own insights into what is accomplishable.
Internal/Business
Processes
Customer
Financial
3. Think about how one can measure progress towards these goals.
5. Recognise the employee behaviours needed to ensure that the company achieves
its goals.
These basic questions generate a wealth of information about how well a firms HR has been
contributing to the success of the organisation. Along with these discussions, it is useful for
the company to conduct surveys within the organisation to identify the extent to which each
employee understands the organisational goals. Once the whole picture of the firms value
chain is highlighted, the firm can then translate the information into a conceptual model using
language and graphics that make sense to the members of the organisation. The model should
then be tested for understanding and acceptance amongst the leaders and the employees.
The strategy map essentially contains predictions about which organisational processes drive
firm performance. The company can validate these hypotheses only after achieving the goals
set for each of the performance drivers and then measuring their impact on overall firm
performance. The graphical nature of the strategy map helps the senior management as well
as the employees have more confidence in the strategy implementation plan.
HR creates much of its value at the points of intersection between the HR system and the
overall strategy implementation system of the organisation. Thus, to leverage this to the
maximum possible extent it is important that there is a clear understanding of both sides of
this intersection.
In the past, HR managers lacked the required amounts of knowledge about the business side
and general managers did not fully understand the HR side. It is HRs responsibility to depict
HR deliverables including performance drivers as well as HR enablers in the strategy map of
the firm. Performance drivers such as employee competence, motivation and availability are
very fundamental and so it might be difficult to locate these precisely on the strategy map. It
is important to identify those HR deliverables that support the firm-level performance drivers
on the strategy map. The focus should be on the kind of strategic behaviours that depend on
competencies, rewards and work organisation. E.g. Employee stability improves R&D cycle
time, the latter being a firm-level performance driver. Thus, employee stability becomes an
important HR enabler. Once this enabler has been identified, the firm can design policies such
as bonus schemes etc. that would encourage R&D staff to continue working for the firm.
The above-mentioned steps encourage the top-down thinking approach, whereby strategy
decides what HR deliverables the firm needs to focus on. It is also important to consider how
the HR system made up of the rewards, competencies; work organisation etc. needs to be
structured to provide the deliverables that are identified in the strategy map. This step
enhances the value creation aspect of the firm by aligning the HR system with the firms
larger strategy implementation system. For this, internal alignment and external alignment are
important. Internal alignment refers to the aligning components within the HR system.
External alignment refers to the alignment of the HR system with the other elements in the
firms value creation process. These two are not isolated processes. They are closely related.
Internal alignment is necessary but not sufficient in itself for external alignment to occur.
Basically, highly cohesive HR strategies will work as long as they are aligned well with the
overall strategy of the company. It will fail if it is not periodically reshaped so as to align it
with the overall strategy.
However, for a particular fixed overall strategy, all firms need an internally aligned HR
strategy in order to achieve the overall goals. Misalignment between the HR system and the
strategy implementation system can destroy value. In fact, the wrong measurement system
can have the exact opposite effect than intended.
The above steps guide the development of the HR architecture and lay the groundwork
necessary to measure the performance relationship between HR and the firms strategy. The
next step is to design the measurement system itself. This requires a new, modern perspective
on measuring HR performance. It also requires HR to resolve several new technical issues
that it might not be familiar with. To accurately measure the HR-firm performance
relationship, it is imperative that the firm develops valid measures of HR deliverables.
Firstly, HR has to be confident that they have chosen the correct HR deliverables.
This requires that HR have a clear understanding of the causality in the value chain
for effective strategy implementation.
Secondly, HR must choose the correct measures for those deliverables. During this
process of developing the HR scorecard, the firm might go through several stages of
increasing sophistication.
The first stage is normally the traditional category of measures. These mainly include
operational measures such as cost per hire, activity counts etc. These are not exactly strategic
measures. In the second stage, HR measures have a strategic importance but they dont help
much in making a case for HR as a strategic asset. Firms may declare several people
measures such as employee satisfaction as strategic measures and these might be included
directly into the reward systems.
In this stage, there tends to be a balance between financial and non-financial measures but
there is less of an agreement on how exactly they combine together to implement the strategy.
These are normally hasty decisions and the firms might have not gone through all the
previous steps mentioned above.
The next stage represents a transition point whereby the firm includes non-financial measures
such as HR measures into its strategic performance measurement system. The links between
the various measures are also identified i.e. they are placed appropriately in the strategy map.
The HR measures now actually track HRs contribution to strategy implementation.
In the final stages, the HR measurement system will enable the firm to estimate impacts of
HR policies on firm performance. If the value chain is short and the strategy map is relatively
simple, the complete impact of HR on the overall performance can be measured. For more
complex value chains, the impact can be more accurately measured on local segments or
sectors of the strategy map. These local impacts can then be assimilated to give a good
measure of the total impact on the firms performance. Thus, each level of sophistication of
the measurement system adds value to the non-financial measures and forces in the firm and
enables a better performance appraisal.
The previous step completes the HR scorecard development process. The next step is to use
this powerful new management tool in the right way. This tool not only helps the firm
measure HRs impact on firm performance, but also helps HR professionals have new
insights into what steps must be taken to maintain HR as a strategic asset. It helps the HR
professionals dig deeper into the causes of success and failure and helps them promote the
former and avoid the latter. Implementing the strategy using the HR scorecard requires
change and flexibility as well as constant monitoring and re-thinking. The process is not a
one-time event. HR professionals must regularly review the measures and their impacts. They
must review the HR deliverables identified as important and see to it that the drivers and
enablers and internally as well as externally aligned. Special reviews of the HR enablers must
be conducted as these have the maximum direct impact on specific business objectives.
Enablers that do not tend to play a positive role should be replaced.
8. BENEFITS OF THE DEVELOPING HR SCORECARD
We see talent as the emerging single sustainable competitive advantage in the future. To
capitalize on this opportunity, HR must evolve from a Business Partner to a critical asset
manager for human capital within the business. The HR scorecard is designed to translate
business strategy directly to HR objectives and actions. We communicate strategic intent
while motivating and tracking performance against HR and business goals. This allows each
HR employee to be aligned with business strategy and link everyday actions with business
outcomes.
While management tends to make decisions about how to invest in human capital, few
companies have an effective process to measure the value created by this most valuable asset.
In Verizon, they believed that HR could effectively manage the value created by thorough
investments in employees. Managers knew was how much was paid to reward, hire, train,
develop, and provide benefits to employees. What managers needed to know, however, was
where the investments were most effective and valuable. Some of the questions that did not
have answers at that time were:
5. HR Capability:
develop core HR competencies
identify key talent for growth and development
invest in technology
invest in employee self-service
better understand the relationship of HR actions to business outcomes
The biggest problem was communicating and reinforcing the linkage between HR actions and
business results. The business had a clear strategy and targeted business results. The HR
Strategy was directly linked to the needs of the business and expressed in terms of HR
strategic thrusts. The prime objective was to effectively communicate and execute on
strategic intent, motivate and track performance against organisation and business goals, and
to align HR actions with business results.
9.3.The Team
A newly formed HR Planning, Measurement, and Analysis team was created to design and
implement a tool that would quantify HRs contribution to the business. The Balanced
Scorecard model, which was at the time a leading edge corporate performance assessment
tool, was selected as the framework to adapt and build an HR Measurement model. J. Randall
MacDonald served as the senior executive for the HR measurement initiative. This role was
critical to the success of the project. Randy MacDonald actively influenced his senior
leadership team within HR to secure their buy-in and to hold them accountable for supporting
the project. The newly formed Planning, Measurement, and Analysis team included a director
and four employees solely dedicated to the design, development, implementation, and
operation of the HR Measurement System. An HR Measurement core team included eight
subject matter experts representing each of the functions within HR and the business units.
The core team members were instrumental in assuring alignment of the measurement model
and communicating and training HR departments on the applications and uses of the HR
Scorecard. The Balanced scorecard model complements financial measures of past
performance with measures of drivers of future performance. Unlike other accounting
models, the Balanced Scorecard incorporates valuation of organisations intangible and
intellectual assets such as high-quality products and services, motivated and skilled
employees, responsive internal processes and innovation and productivity. The HR Scorecard
approach used slightly modified the initial Balanced Scorecard model, which at the time was
most commonly used at the corporate level. The approach, however, remained focused on
long-term strategies and clear connections to business outcomes.
1. Strategic Perspective
Measures success in achieving the five strategic thrusts. Since the basis for the HR
Balanced Scorecard is achieving business goals, the aligned HR Strategic objectives
are the drivers for the entire model.
2. Operations Perspective
Measures HRs success in operational excellence. The focus was primarily in three
areas: staffing, technology, and HR processes and transactions.
3. Customer Perspective
Includes measures of how HR is viewed by the key customer segments. Survey results
were used to track customer perceptions of service as well as assess overall employee
engagement, competitive capability, and links to productivity.
4. Financial Perspective
Addresses how HR adds measurable financial value to the organisation,including
measures of ROI in training, technology, staffing, risk management, and cost of
service delivery.
9.4.The Process
A deliberate approach to the project was clearly defined and communicated to each member
of the team and to the HR organisation. The project was established and organised into four
major components: Planning and Alignment, Assessment, Development, and Implementation.
1. Planning and Alignment set the foundation for the project. Project plan objectives, and
milestones were established. Team education and training was imparted on business
performance management, the balanced scorecard methodology, and its application to
HR measurement.
2. Assessment focused on understanding what was used at that time as measure to
evaluate HR performance and to assess the relative value to the business.
3. Development began the actual process of designing the HR measurement model.
Defining the measurement criteria and scorecard measures, establishing targets,
defining the process for collecting and tracking results, and creating the
communications strategy were the key deliverables in this phase.
4. Implementation operationalised the HR Scorecard from the drawing board to a
management tool for HR to assess performance and value added to the business. Data
collection, results reporting, evaluation, and analysis all came together as the
scorecard was implemented. Communications and training were delivered to the HR
organisation as the HR Scorecard rolls out. Once the team was selected, and the
mission and objectives were established and communicated, the work to link Business
Strategy to HR Strategy began. Fig.7 illustrates the initial model used to align
Business Strategy to HR Strategy and Actions and lists the specific outputs within
each step.
The people requirements defined the HR Strategy that then translated into specific HR
initiatives that should directly support the attainment of HR Strategy. Having this alignment
allowed Verizon to develop a strategy map, which illustrated the cause and effect linkage
between HR Strategy and business objectives. Using the strategy map as the guide, they were
then able to evaluate the strategic objectives in terms of measures and outcomes (Fig 9.).
They could then further refine these into lagging measures (which tell how well a company
has already done) and leading measures (which are indicators of future performance).
Figure 8:- The People Requirement and Business Driver Determination Process
In addition to aligning the scorecard measures to the business objectives, they developed
causal links between the objectives and the measures. For example, one of the financial
objectives, Minimise HR Cost, was expected to be an outcome of the HR Strategy. To create
a clear line of sight across the perspectives, they linked Minimise HR Cost back to objectives
in the Customer, Operations, and Strategic Perspectives that were performance drivers for
these outcomes. This cause and effect relationship described that if HR integrated the
organisation, implemented technology enablers and optimised service delivery through
streamlined processes the costs for service delivery would decrease and reduce overall HR
expense.
Financial
Operations
Strategic
As the measurement model was being developed to support the businesss people
requirements, the objectives became clearer. HR recognised that the employees would need to
expand their skills and increase their productivity to provide the new products and services
that business would provide.
2. The customer service representatives also would need ready access to customer
account information and be trained to quickly recognise possible customer needs and
to communicate optimal mixes of products, services, and price plans to customers.
3. New incentive systems were needed to encourage the new behaviour and skill
acquisition as well as retention plans for critical skill employees.
Providing workforce solutions and ensuring alignment and a strategy-focused workforce all
contributed to a more capable and skilled employee population. Historically, HR had a
difficult time communicating to the business and maintaining their focus on the investments
and initiatives designed to build employee capability. Strategic skill development, leadership
development, and employee development programs were all discussed with business leaders
and generally accepted as valuable. When financial pressure was applied, however, these
types of programs usually were the first to go. Now with measures, which linked leadership
development with competitive capability, people could see the relationship between investing
in these programs and achievement of long-term business goals.
9.5.Early Results
An early benefit of the HR Scorecard work was that it provided a process for the senior HR
team to focus on a clear and common objective: to establish a common strategy for HR in
support of business objectives. The high level strategy was for everyone to be a partner to the
business. Rarely, however, did all of the HR leadership agree on how to implement the
strategy because each person had a different opinion about what being business partner really
meant and whom exactly the customer was. Taking strategy and translating it into a
measurement and management model gave specific and operational definitions for being a
business partner and targeted business customers.
9.6.Communicating the HR Scorecard
Communicating the HR Scorecard across the HR organisation and the business is a critical
aspect of successful implementation. The development process increased learning and
understanding but was only visible to the top leaders within HR and the business. To use the
HR Scorecard to drive change throughout the organisation, the Planning, Measurement, and
Analysis team developed a phased approach to communicate and train the managers and their
departments on this new management tool. The emphasis on the scorecard was on the value
the tool provided in communicating strategy and alignment to the business. It also served as a
tool that provided proactive solutions to employee issues or deterrents before a negative
impact could occur to the bottom line. Performance measurement was also an essential
component, and all in the HR organisation had their incentive compensation tied to the results
of the HR Scorecard.
Training and communication material was used extensively to reinforce understanding of the
new management tool. An interactive teaching tool was developed to train HR professionals
to use the HR Scorecard results in problem-solving workforce issues. Verizon realised that
measures do not manage, and simply tracking results was not the only intended use of the HR
Scorecard. The value was to use the information provided in the scorecard and take action to
influence and improve business performance. For example, one of the most important areas
to manage in terms of cost was employee turnover. Turnover, particularly within target front-
line workforce centres, was critical to productivity and expense control. High turnover results
in lower productivity, higher training, and staffing and occupational health costs. The impact
is across the board and affects business profitability.
Starting in 1998, with a new disciplined process using the HR Scorecard, HR professionals
tracked and analysed turnover statistics, determined reasons for turnover, calculated the
negative financial impact, prescribed solutions, tracked improvement rends, and showed
dramatic results. In partnership with the business leadership in targeted call centres (where
operators give minor technical assistance and forward problems to specialists), significant
costs were avoided by reducing the regretted turnover.
Linkages between business processes and value chains to human resource actions and
services were clearly defined as the HR Scorecard became a business tool understood and
used across the HR organisation. Not only are human capital initiatives needed to increase
employee value delivered to the business, they are vulnerable to business process changes
and the measures taken in isolation can be misleading. For example, in a regional call centre,
the external business measures of customer satisfaction were trending downward and
accelerating. When HR reviewed the call centre results from the HR Scorecard, there was no
single indicator that showed any direct relationship to the customer satisfaction issue;
however, the measures, together with input and analysis by HR professionals and line
management, pointed to both an issue and solution not readily apparent. The HR metrics
showed a very low cost per hire, a very quick cycle time to fill jobs, and an average employee
separation rate. On the surface nothing looked unusual. Ironically, the staffing metrics
showed a high efficiency and cost control. Drilling deeper showed a high cost of training, a
very high separation rate for short service employees, and declining employee satisfaction for
long service employees. Further analysis revealed that six months prior a significant expense
reduction effort had been put in place for this call centre. HR responded to the required
reduced expense by changing talent pools and reducing the investments in selection methods.
This action kept costs low while bringing in applicants who were ready to start quickly but
were harder to train and keep. It was a bad trade-off. It made sense to accept a longer cycle
time and more cost to ensure the right person was put in the right job.
The underlying technology supporting the virtual briefing book provides links to Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) systems (SAP and PeopleSoft) and a data-warehouse using a data-
mining tool to drill down below the HR Scorecard results to analyse and model cause and
effects. Predictive modelling to evaluate workforce decision impacts (positive and negative)
prior to execution is the primary objective of this investment in technology. Fig. 5 illustrates
the technology architecture. The Employee Data Warehouse provides the intelligence behind
the measures tracked by the HR Scorecard.
The HR professionals have access to a rich base of employee data integrated from 16
different HR systems including 20 years of history. Users have a suite of reporting tools that
enable them to perform sophisticated multidimensional workforce analysis and predictive
modelling. Hidden correlation between measures to prove or disprove what business
managers previously knew only through hunches could be determined.
Figure 10: HR Scorecard Implementation Architecture
The HR balanced scorecard served as a catalyst to pull together the two leadership teams
during the merger integration planning. The process of defining the role and strategy of HR in
the new company provided a common objective for integrating the HR leadership team.
Articulating a common strategy and business alignment for HR services provided a positive
perspectivea clear focus on the customer and a shared sense of the enormous potential to
deliver world-class programs. The newly merged company faces a highly competitive
environment where a competitive cost structure, consistent revenue growth, controlled
expense, and excellent investment management are critical to win in the market place. The
Verizon HR Scorecard continues to provide the forum for HR leaders to actively discuss
performance and future targets. HR leaders now have a tool, which supports a focus on
tactical excellence while ensuring alignment with business strategy.
2. The focus of the organizations is now on human capital and its effective alignment
with the overall strategy of organisations
3. Companies are required to look at all aspects of Human Resource architecture to find
out the Human Resources influence on the overall strategy of the company.
4. Companies face challenges in aligning the Human Resource with the overall strategy
of the company
5. To face these challenges, Balanced Scorecard is used to align Human Resource
functions, activity and investment with the overall business strategy.
6. Balanced Scorecard not only focus on the financial measures and but also on the non-
financial measures to measure the organizational performance.
7. To align the Human Resource with the overall strategy of the company, seven step
model is used which is formulated on the basis of the Balanced Scorecard.
1. The primary source could not be used to collect the data because Balanced Scorecard
concept is not popular among Indian companies.
2. The data is collected through the secondary source so the reliability depends only
upon the data availability.
We see talent as the emerging single sustainable competitive advantage in the future. To
capitalize on this opportunity, HR must evolve from a Business Partner to a critical asset
manager for human capital within the business. The HR scorecard is designed to translate
business strategy directly to HR objectives and actions. We communicate strategic intent
while motivating and tracking performance against HR and business goals. This allows each
HR employee to be aligned with business strategy and link everyday actions with business
outcomes. Garrett Walker, Director HR Strategic, Performance Measurement, GTE
Business environment and the objectives and strategies will continue to evolve, and HR
managers will continue to be flexible and creative in supporting the changes. The value of the
HR Scorecard as a tool is that it can get HR to the new goals and measures and through the
process ensure continued learning and change management.
HR Scorecard is not a only solution to align the human resource with the overall business
strategy. It cannot solve all the problems of HR.
HR scorecards are not panaceas. They will not cure a poorly run HR function. However,
they do provide a means by which you can collect rigorous, predictable and regular data that
will help direct your firms attention to the most important elements of the HR architecture.
Constructed thoughtfully, the HR scorecard will help your organization deliver increased
value to its employees, customers and investors.
To implement the Balanced Scorecard successfully to Human Resource, the following points
should be kept in mind:
1. Find a champion or key executive sponsor: Enlist the aid of a key executive, an
influential line manager and the head of HR to champion the implementation of the
HR scorecard.
2. Create a need: Either build up the potential of a business threat or focus on the great
opportunity that can be exploited if the HR scorecard is put in place and used well.
The more compelling the opportunity or the greater the threat, the more urgency the
HR scorecard will have.
3. Shape a vision:. Show that with a well implemented HR scorecard, the firm will have
a strong and sustainable competitive advantage.
4. Encourage commitment and involvement: When the people most closely involved
have information about the HR scorecard, understand what it will do and have
participated in shaping it, they will become committed to it. Make it possible for as
many people as possible to generate that kind of commitment.
6. Have early success and demonstrate progress:. If the HR scorecard can solve a long
standing problem or do something significant, people will notice. That will create
momentum, which can then be strengthened with regular updates and validation
programs.
7. Sustain the effort:. To keep the HR scorecard relevant, update it frequently. Make an
ongoing investment in the methodology. People will gradually get onside with the
scorecard as they see what it is achieving.
8. The major step to welcome the change must be taken by the top management. The
scorecard technique if is to be successful requires the full support and the
commitment of all levels of the management hierarchy.
9. Many managers believe that they will reap the benefits of the Balanced Scorecard by
using a wide range of non-financial measures. However, care should be taken to
identify not only lagging measures that describe past performance, but also leading
measures that can be used to plan for future performance.
REFERENCES
1. Research papers
Human Resource Department Management Report. January, 2003. A Balanced Scorecard
Changes HR Mgmt From Art to Science.
Nelson, Paul. 3/5/2002. Is the balanced scorecard HR's ticket to the board? Personnel Today
Bain and Co. 9/1/2003. Bain Study Reveals How Firms Are Using Three Main Analytic
Tools. Accessed from www.bain.com.
2. Websites
SHRM Metrics forum: http://www.shrm.org/metrics/
3. Book
Achieving Functional Excellence through Balanced Scorecards edited by Venkata
Nimeesha Posa. Page no. 1 to 34.