Calculating Success : How the New Workplace Analytics Will Revitalize Your Organization

For years, executives have recognized the growing importance of talent as one of the few remaining sources of lasting competitive advantage. But even with countless metrics and world class enterprise systems, few companies have realized strategic value from their talent decisions. A recent IBM study that interviewed over 400 senior HR executives showed that only 6% of companies believe they can effectively use human capital data to make strategic workforce decisions. Despite this, surprisingly little has been written about analytic approaches that can help executives evaluate, and then act upon, the real drivers of workforce performance. In Calculating Success, Carl Hoffman, Eric Lesser, and Tim Ringo provide a path forward. Based on over seventy years of experience creating human capital systems at IBM, the authors show how using analytics can dramatically improve a company's ability to make better--and faster--talent decisions. This book provides a framework that enables executives to rethink how they use information on talent to answer essential questions--instead of simply reacting to metrics that may not fit the problem. The authors organize the book around the four most crucial questions managers must ask: 1. How should work be structured to align with corporate strategy? 2. How should human capital be allocated across the company? 3. How can individuals be motivated and incented to achieve organizational goals? 4. How can individuals learn and companies develop the new capabilities and talent needed for success? By using analytic approaches to each of these questions, managers will be better able to understand what will drive --and is driven by--shifts in workforce performance. Full of detailed examples and studies from IBM's Institute for Business Value and Human Capital Management practice, this book will make you rethink the relationship of talent to business success. The results allow for a more stable and cost-effective workforce, an improved ability to motivate employees, and a more systematic approach to developing critical talent.