As of 1 April, all quoted businesses are required to report only the minimum information about the workforce which would be needed to run any organisation but according to the latest research many businesses would not be able to meet even these basic standards.

Designed to give companies a helping hand in measuring the worth of their workforce the Chartered Management Institute has launched its new guide: Getting the basics right: a guide to measuring the value of your workforce. Produced as a result of research into workforce governance and human capital management by the Institute and the Centre for Applied HR Research the guide offers a number of pointers for measuring human capital:

• Measure what makes a difference: workforce measures should focus on issues with a direct bearing on performance.




• Identify clear links between measures and strategy: strategic goals can only be achieved if measures are used as the basis to plan and manage activity.




• Ensure measures remain dynamic: revisit the chosen measures regularly to check that they are still the key drivers for assessing value.




• Produce simple measures and demystify the jargon: measures are there to be used, so make sure they are easy to understand.




• Focus on the value to the business, not legal compliance: emphasis should be on the value of the chosen measures in helping to manage the organisation more effectively. If information is collected that helps monitor and manage the organisation, compliance will follow.

While 90% of organisations claim to measure the value of their workforce, only 20% believe that the information they gather is of use.

Mary Chapman, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute, says that there is little point reporting on measures that make no difference to an organisation: “There have been many attempts to demonstrate the value of the workforce, but efforts to predict its contribution to the balance sheet have, so far, been inconclusive.”