Investing in People Financial Impact of Human Resource Initiatives

The demand for organizational accountability has never been greater. The future of work, talent, and employment are changing at an unprecedented pace, and organizational decisions about how to invest in people are under increasing scrutiny. Leaders realize their decisions about human resources are crucial in an uncertain and interconnected world, yet decisions about people remain among the least systematic and evidence-based, compared to resources such as money and technology. Investing in People draws upon state-of-the art practice and research across disciplines including psychology, economics, accounting, and finance to provide HR professionals and leaders with proven guidelines for evaluating key HR initiatives. It is based on a comprehensive framework that clarifies and supports strategic linkages between investments in human capital and important outcomes that senior leaders most care about, such as talent acquisition, engagement, learning, customer service and higher financial returns. Readers will master crucial foundational principles such as risk, return, and economies of scale and use them to evaluate investments objectively in everything from work/life programs to training. Also included are powerful ways to integrate HR with enterprise strategy and budgeting and gain decision buy-in from business leaders outside HR.

John W. Boudreau, PhD, is Research Director at the Center for Effective Organizations and Professor of Management and Organization in the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. Wayne F. Cascio, PhD, is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Colorado, and he holds the Robert H. Reynolds Chair in Global Leadership at the University of Colorado Denver. Alexis A. Fink, PhD, has spent two decades leading talent analytics, talent management, and large-scale organizational change teams at leading global organizations, most recently Intel and Microsoft.