Hewitt: Strategic Human Capital Planning

This short article by Hewitt focuses on the need to support a company's strategic business plan with an aligned strategic human capital plan.
The article also suggests a process to create this strategic plan by assessing the talent needs for the future in a systemic way and creating a human capital supply chain, mimicking the discipline of a material supply chain: "Instead of establishing streamlined procurement, conversion, and distribution processes, strategic talent solutions result in enhancements to sourcing, recruiting, onboarding, training, and career-pathing strategies. Like an efficient supply chain, these talent processes are geared to support superior business performance well into the future."

The article:
http://www.greatperformanceseurope.eu/pdfs/issue_05/Strategic-Planning.pdf

BCG Study: The Future of HR (In Europe)

This is an excellent article by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the European Association for Personnel Management, on the key challenges of HR though 2015.
Although the research is based on collection of data from European executives, I have a feeling that most of the findings are probably applicable for many other countries as well.

Of 17 HR topics assessed, five were identified as the major challenges for HR for 2010-2015: Managing Talent, Managing Demographics, Becoming a Learning Organization, Managing Work-Life Balance and Manging Change and Cultural Transformation.

The article sheds light on some the major challenges identified by executives on each of these five topics, as well as points as additional challenges if HR for the next decade.

The article:
http://www.eapm.org/bcg.pdf

The Accenture Human Capital Development Framework

Accenture's article titled "How to Boost Your Workforce Performance ROI" introduces a diagnostic tool that provides a link between human capital development practices and total shareholder return.

The Accenture Human Capital Development Framework is an analytical, measurement and planning tool that enables an organization to identify and measure the human capital factors that affect organizational performance.

This is a "balanced scorecard-type" model in that it proposes a link between business results and underlying processes and capabilities.

The article:
http://www.accenture.com/NR/rdonlyres/4609EF3D-17B2-4555-86F1-736B6CCAEF66/0/summary_hp.pdf

Mckinsey: The People Problem in Talent Management

This article, published in the Mckinsey quarterly, identifies the major barriers to implementing Talent Management practices. Not surprising (at least to most HR professionals), many of the major barriers are human-related.

Excerpt:
The results of our research—which included in-depth interviews with 50 CEOs, business unit leaders, and human-resources (HR) professionals from around the world—suggest that the obstacles preventing talent-management programs from delivering business value are all too human (exhibit). As one leader commented, "Habits of mind are the real barriers to talent management."

Read the article:
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1755&l2=18&l3=31
(You will need to register free to Mckinsey to be able to download this)

Deloitte: HR That Means Business

This excellent article by Deloitte discusses how the Human Resources function can create value for the organization.
The article identifies what constitutes shareholder value, and goes on to identify 10 specific areas through which HR can help the organization create value. These include merger integrations, new market entry, workforce planing, talent management, global mobility, global workforce security, regulatory compliance, governance, change management & global program management.
The article also provides a simple assessment tool to evaluate if your HR function is leading or lagging in the creation of value.

HR That Means Business: Focusing on Value Creation
http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/us_consulting_hc_chro_StrategistSteward_Book2_150806.pdf

Hewitt: Best in Class Talent Sourcing & Acquisition

This Hewitt paper identifies 7 fundamental practices and 5 innovative practices that best-in-class organizations deploy in their talent sourcing and acquisition activities.

Excerpt:
"Best-in-class talent sourcing and acquisition takes a more holistic and strategic approach—with a focus on securing quality talent for both today’s and tomorrow’s needs. Becoming best in class starts with a strong talent mind-set across the entire organization, where leaders and employees understand the importance of acquiring top talent, and hold an “everyone is a recruiter” mentality. Upfront analysis of internal and external workforce dynamics and subsequent talent needs is required. Examining a full range of sourcing strategies to buy, borrow, or build top talent across the globe is critical in a world of choices"

http://www.hewittassociates.com/_MetaBasicCMAssetCache_/Assets/Articles/Best-in-Class_Talent_Sourcing_and_Acquisition.pdf

Driving Talent Management Strategies through Workforce Data

An interesting paper by Deloitte provides insight on driving talent management strategies in a company through the creation of valuable and aligned workforce analytics. The article provides a number of case studies of companies from different industries and with diverse talent management challenges.

Workforce Analytics: Driving Talent Management Strategies through Workforce Data
http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/us_consulting_hc_wrkforceanalytics_ihrimmag_060407.pdf

Excerpt:
"With the increased concern regarding talent management issues, many companies are leveraging workforce data to assess current workforce risks, analyze workforce trends, and plan for future talent requirements that can impact workforce planning strategies. In addition, we believe that workforce analytics can allow a company to deliver higher quality talent more efficiently than its competition. Utilization of tools and techniques, such as predictive modeling, HR metrics, and capturing historical trends, are helping companies drive business decisions by utilizing workforce data."

BCG: Workonomics

The Boston Consulting Group (http://www.bcg.com/) has developed a valuable methodology for measuring human performance which they call Workonomics. Workonomics provide measures that mirror traditional capital-driven measures, but are more applicable for people-driven companies and situations.

I have recently read a number of their articles on this subject, and find them very valuable:

Workonomics: Measuring the Importance of People
http://www.bcg.com/publications/files/Workonomics_Measuring_the_Importance_of_People_Mar_01.pdf

Quantifying Employee Contribution
Published in Shareholder Value Magazine, May/June 2002


BCG has a website that provides information on Workonomics, with some information on this framework and many examples of graphical representation of the information you can get.
http://www.bcg.com/publications/workonomics/index.htm

Article: "Managing the Development of Human Capital

I recently read an excellent article:

"Managing the Development of Human Capital" by David P. Norton

The article provides a great framework for aligning the HR Organization to the Enterprise Strategy - providing a Human Capital Development Program as the result. The article provides good example, and gives a structured methodology for developing a Balanced Scorecard for the HR Organization.

I was not able to find a link to this specific article on the web, but notice that it can be found in a collection of 6 articles named "Human Capital, A BSR Reader" published by Harvard Business School Publishing:
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=3442&referral=1043