"If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Improve It"

Effective Measurement of HR/OD can Make a Difference to YOUR Success

By Jay Goss, ExecuSurv, Inc.

Since the onset of commerce, making sound business decisions has required data. This is a business principal universally accepted by businesses of all shapes and sizes. Every step a company takes should be based on information it collects about its internal operations or the competitive landscape. Failure to collect and act upon accurate information is tantamount to turning left when you should have turned right...you won’t make it to the finish line, let alone win the race!

If this is so, then it stands to reason an organization’s wherewithal to regularly and systematically collect actionable data is paramount to its ability to compete in the marketplace. And yet for most organizations, not all information is created equal.

Certain information is typically more readily attainable, while other information can be extremely difficult to acquire.

Data related to financial and operational performance is usually very available within most organizations, as is information regarding sales and marketing. Not many companies in today’s marketplace survive if they can’t get accurate, timely information regarding these business fundamentals.

However, when it comes to capturing information related to human resources and organizational development, most organizations fail to capture, analyze and act upon this data in an effective manner and on a regular basis.

Why?

While collecting information in other functional areas within a company is relatively straightforward and inexpensive, collecting information related to human beings can be tricky and moreover, has historically been costly and time consuming. The examples below illustrate many of the issues related to studying "soft-skills" and other metrics associated with human resources and organizational development.

• How does one actually study/measure the extent to which leadership and teamwork, for example, are genuinely present within the company?
• How can an organization truly understand, influence, reinforce, or even change its installed culture?
• How can a company assess and address the factors influencing its employees’ decision to leave the organization?
• How does a company that invests in training measure the ROI it receives on the training dollars it spends?
• How can a firm evaluate individual performance and competencies by soliciting feedback beyond the individual’s superior; how can it capture feedback 360 degrees around the individual’s network?

In addition to the "trickiness" associated with measuring these types of issues, capturing data related to human resources and organizational development can also be outright costly for a number of reasons:

1. The issues themselves are "soft" and typically difficult to measure. An organization seeking to measure the leadership currently present within its management team (for example), has a monstrous task before it. Unlike sales, you can’t simply inspect the cash register at the end of the day to ascertain the amount of leadership you have on hand. Most organizations do not have the right personnel to tackle these types of assessments...and those that do, probably don’t have the time!
2. The source of the information generally comes from the minds of different constituencies, including employees, customers (both internal and external), vendors, and other stakeholders. And yet, the process required to gather the information can be costly and time-consuming for both the organization and those that participate in the process. Further, modern-day companies are often spread out geographically and are multi-lingual. All of this adds up to additional challenges associated with collecting information from and about human resources.
3. Surveying has emerged as a technique that is widely used to gather this type and caliber of information, and yet this introduces another cost component. Creating, distributing, compiling and analyzing surveys and survey data can swallow up significant human and financial resources.
4. Perhaps the biggest cost associating with this proposition is the substantial time that elapses from commencement of a survey activity until the data is analyzed and "next steps" have been identified and taken. Remember, the reason the exercise is undertaken in the first place is to take action. The more time that elapses between start and finish, the less value the exercise creates for the organization. By the time they reach the finish line, their organization or subject of interest has changed!
5. For organizations recognizing that manual surveying can be improved with technology, the prospect of developing the software is beyond their expertise and resources.

In its purest form, the Internet is a communication tool...one that can profoundly lower the costs associated with collecting human resources and organizational development data.

Surveying is the cornerstone of collecting information related to organizational development and human resources information. In order to study most of these OD/HR issues, an organization needs to solicit opinions, perceptions and attitudes of its constituencies. Surveying has long been one of the most sensible approaches. And today, Internet-based surveying represents the most efficient way of accomplishing it.

The Internet changes the "cost-benefit equation" on many levels:

• The administrative and logistical costs, as well as the "hassles" of conducting a survey are eliminated.
• The solution can be administered effortlessly across multiple locations and in multiple languages.
• Results are available instantaneously.
• Results can be segmented and compared across demographic variables.

What’s left is locating the expertise to help develop the appropriate survey instrument in the first place and finding a technology that’s already built that can be utilized to accomplish one’s business objectives.

ExecuSurv, Inc. is part of the Quest family of professionals dedicated to serving your every Leadership and HR need.

For more information about Online Surveys and other measurement tools, please click here or send an email to: info@questcorp.com.