HR Performance
Dossier made for L'Oréal Human Resources, June 2007
P3
HR, Creators of Business
Performance
P10
Can HR Performance
Be Measured?
P19
What Process for What
Performance?
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Go Further
CONTENTS
PERFORMANCE
p.4
HR, CREATORS OF BUSINESS PERFORMANCE
The HR Value Proposition
Based on the book by Dave Ulrich and Wayne Brockbank, HBSP, 2005
p.7
More Confident and Credible HR, at the Heart of Business
Interview with Alastair Imrie, Group Human Resources Director
at BAE SYSTEMS (UK)
p.9
Perception of the Value of the HR Function
Based on the article by Dirk Buyens and Ans de Vos,
Human Resource Management Journal, 2001
p.11
p.13
p.20
p.24
CAN HR PERFORMANCE BE MEASURED?
Why Human Resources Need to Evaluate Their Performance
– And to What End
Interview with Jean-Louis Dufloux, associate with Equinox Consulting
L’Oréal Managers Talk About HR Performance
Interview with Valérie Chapoulaud, managing director Europe 5, L’Oréal
Luxury Products Division, Alvin Hew, president and managing director,
L’Oréal Taiwan, and David Greenberg, senior vice president of Human
Resources, L’Oréal USA
WHAT PROCESS FOR WHAT PERFORMANCE?
The HR Scorecard
Based on the book by Brian Becker, Mark Huselid, Dave Ulrich, HBSP, 2001
The Eight Essential Phases of ROI in HR
Based on The ROI FieldBook, Patricia Pulliam Phillips, Jack J. Phillips,
Ron Drew Stone, and Holly Burkett, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2006
Human Resources is currently finding itself at the core of an increasing number of serious problems. Just to name a few, there is
the war for talent, employer image management, constant reorganization, people’s need for close support and individual
attention… In such circumstances, the notion of “HR Performance” seems to have little to do with the job.
For some managers, HR performance can be summed up as the ability to attract and hire the best people. Others primarily expect
HR to provide “transactional” services, i.e. recruitment, administrative management, etc. Still others would like HR to be a
transversal actor in change and to contribute largely to organizing such initiatives. Then, when it comes to workers, many wonder
exactly what role HR plays and how much “power” it has. People also worry about HR’s ability to protect or influence their destiny
in the company…
It is true that the job of human resources involves a delicate balance between initiatives that are measurable in the short term
(i.e. recruitment, job transfer, employee turnover, training budgets, staff supply, etc.) and others that are expected to pay off in the
medium term (i.e. effectiveness of succession plans). And one mustn’t forget factors that are hard to quantify, especially issues
like proximity and time spent listening to company members. This last point brings to mind Jean-Paul Agon’s message to the HR
community at the beginning of the year: “You are the only ones who have the word “human” on your business card, and above all,
I would like you to get close to people and to make up for the friction generated by our way of working.”
Between “calculating everything” and “purely qualitative” assessment, how can HR performance be measured? This is the
question that we wish to explore in this dossier. Group leaders have been questioned about their expectations, and human resource
practices have been closely examined.
Generally speaking, L’Oréal has never explored this subject extensively. But it is time to think about these issues, because that is
what it is most likely to take to not only improve HR performance, but also to earn recognition for all of HR’s contributions.
Enjoy!
Rémi Lugagne
Human Resources Development Director
■
2 - L’Oréal 2007
© Business Digest 2007
Editorial
DOSSIER
PERFORMANCE
HR, Creators of Business
Performance
Key Ideas
The role of HR as business contributors today consists in aligning human resources processes with the company’s strategic interests,
and doing their utmost to facilitate the work of teams in the field. HR professionals may have acquired the status of business partners,
but they have yet to gain in stature by becoming involved in strategy and by bringing in value. David Ulrich has already contributed
greatly to the transformation of HR with his reference work, Human Resource Champions. He now co-authors The HR Value Proposition
with Wayne Brockbank and explores the ways of transforming HR professionals into business contributors, more involved in the
business environment and present at the core of the business.
© Business Digest 2007
This is a change with impetus, especially for BAE SYSTEMS, as HR Director Alastair Imrie explains. Alastair Imrie called upon Wayne
Brockbank, co-author of The HR Value Proposition, to present a HR function of a new caliber. Based on both HR fundamentals and on
the company’s core business and external environment, and implemented throughout the company, the new HR model finally has all
the weapons necessary to be a credible contributor to the company strategy.
Based on The HR Value Proposition, Dave Ulrich and Wayne Brockbank (Harvard Business School Press, 2005), the interview with
Alastair Imrie, Group Human Resources Director, BAE Systems (UK), and the article “Perception of the Value of the HR Function”, by
Dirk Buyens and Ans de Vos (Human Resource Management Journal, 2001).
L’Oréal 2007 - 3
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DOSSIER
PERFORMANCE
The HR Value Proposition
VIEWPOINT
HR Directors have begun to gain stature as strategic partners. The next step is to
become not just partners, but major players in strategy and creators of value. This
position implies a change in practices as well as attitudes.
usiness partners: that is how HR professionals now
like to define themselves. Indeed, their role today
consists in aligning human resources processes with
the company’s strategic interests, and doing their utmost to
facilitate the work of teams in the field. According to Dave
Ulrich and Wayne Brockbank, co-authors of The HR Value
Proposition, HR does not yet have everything it takes to
become true strategic players. More than just guiding managers and employees internally, to be a strategic player means
knowing what clients and investors need. Clients, the company’s target audience, are in the best position to judge the real
value of the product or service provided. The final user is
B
#
The Authors
Dave ULRICH is a professor at the
University of Michigan. His
research focuses on companies’
capacity to build value-creating
HR policies that are consistent
with the global corporate strategy.
He has written many works on the
subject, most notably Why the
Bottom Line Isn’t!, published by
John Wiley, April 2003.
Wayne BROCKBANK, a professor
at the University of Michigan, is
the director of the Michigan
Executive Programs in Hong
indeed able to better assess the
created value than its producer. In a land where the customer
is king, Human Resources had better stay on its toes!
#
THE PREREQUISITES
TO CREATING VALUE
Until recently, HR professionals have been cooped up in their
ivory towers. Now, however, they are increasingly dealing with
the demands of parties outside the company. Ulrich and
Brockbank predict that HR personnel must, first and foremost, be open to others’ demands and raise the right questions: which of the players involved deserve their attention?
What do they expect of the company and the HR department
in particular?
Proving their legitimacy
Each sector has its key people in the creation of value: the
financial analyst in an investment bank, the geologist in the
oil industry. These people do not wonder if they are truly business partners because they are a business in themselves. For
HR professionals, things are not as clear. They must prove
that they are contributing true added value to the company’s
operations and that their service provides a competitive
advantage. Why would a CEO invest in human resource policies if he or she does not see their benefits and how they
improve the company’s productivity? To prove their legitimacy,
HR professionals must thus show evidence of their usefulness
and have a perfect knowledge of the market in which their
company operates, the prerequisite for answering the following questions. What are the skills the company needs to
adapt to demand fluctuations? How should HR departments
be set up for more global results?
Visiting Professor at the Instituto
Considering external parameters
de Altos Estudios Empresariales
There are many external parameters that influence a company’s activities: new technologies, market regulation by the
state, or demographic changes. To maintain their credibility,
HR professionals must not only be on top of all of these
trends, but also assess their impact on the company. New
technologies, for example, have revolutionized HR practices
by automating some tasks, but HR must also know their •••
in Argentina and at Mt. Eliza
University in Australia. He is a consultant for
international groups (GE, Motorola, Cisco and Goldman
Sachs).
■
4 - L’Oréal 2007
© Business Digest 2007
Kong, Singapore and India, and
PERFORMANCE
#
••• impact on production. The fact that BMW’s customers, for
example, can now choose a car model on an Internet portal
and order directly from the factory has definite implications
on human resources management. 80% of BMW’s sales in
Europe now go through this channel. HR professionals are the
first to be affected and must rethink the organization and
task distribution.
Similarly, HR professionals must be aware of labor market
changes in the countries where the company is established.
Today, the decline in industrial jobs, which are being replaced
by services and high-added-value positions, has become widespread in all western countries and calls for a very different
human resources management policy from that of the 1990s.
In order to create value, human resources must rethink their
entire process, beginning with their recruitment policy. In this
era of the battle of the brains, sure to intensify over the next
few years, HR would do well to build lasting relations with
any institutions where talent can be found, notably college
campuses and university research centers.
Polishing the employer’s image
In order to deal with shortages in certain fields of work, companies do not hesitate to encourage recruitment by recommendation, naturally including a reward for the employee who
manages to bring a valuable player into the company. Of
course, an appealing website is also needed in order to attract
future employees, as well as the ability to respond to their
questions and applications as quickly as possible. Young
generations are receptive to the major media, so commercials
can be very helpful. The company must market its image as
an employer with the same diligence as it applies to preparing its product advertising campaigns. It must emphasize the
advantages offered to employees, the group’s values, and its
capacity to adapt to employees’ needs, allowing them to
balance their family and work life.
Last, but not least, new recruits must be integrated with
great care. Once the administrative details are settled, the
new employee will expect quick feedback on his or her work,
showing how he or she is contributing to the company’s global
strategy.
Heeding the client’s opinion
Often, marketing departments call upon consumer groups to
guide future product innovations. Could HR also apply this
method? When hiring a head cook for a restaurant, why not
ask patrons to come and taste dishes prepared by the different candidates in order to select the best one? Using clients’
opinions in recruitment would improve decision-making and
minimize the risk of error. Similarly, some companies no longer hesitate to invite their clients to participate in training
sessions that are usually “for members only.” That is the case
of General Electric, which includes its customers in training
pools, thus hoping to better determine their expectations and
needs. For a negligible cost (a few extra participants at a
seminar), the company creates a very instructive bond with its
clients, the very people who ensure its survival. This helps
shed light on what drives them to purchase options and products. A US electronic component company even thought of
inviting customers who had recently preferred a competitor’s
offer in order to understand the reasons for their choice and
to try to win them back.
Other companies involve their clients by having them participate in employee evaluation and rewards. One US airline
distributes $50 coupons to its passengers, who can then pass
them on to the crew members on their flight if they are happy
with their service! No matter how innovative, however, this
new focus on clients is insufficient if it is not accompanied
by a true reform of HR practices.
Rethinking training programs
Although employees often dread training, if it is well-prepared, it is one of the best ways to develop the teams’ employability and skills. However, training deserves better than the
standard approach that is common today. Depending on the
goal, it may be advisable to seek outside consultants or to ask
managers themselves to provide training. Depending on the
objective and training program content, the method can vary
as well: e-learning, role-playing, practical case studies, on the
premises or outside the company. It is also important to •••
Knowing external business realities
(technology, economics, globalization,
demographics)
Ensuring HR professionalism
(HR roles, competencies, and development)
HR value
proposition
© Business Digest 2007
TOWARDS A REFORM
OF HR PRACTICES
Serving external and internal stakeholders
(customers, investors, managers, and
employees)
Building HR resources
(HR strategy and organization)
Crafting HR pratices
(people, performance, information, and work)
L’Oréal 2007 - 5
Source: The HR Value Proposition, p.10.
DOSSIER
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PERFORMANCE
••• ensure that knowledge is effectively transmitted from the
training into actual work in the field, and to be able to measure its impact. All of these aspects are sometimes neglected.
Rethinking performance evaluation
Managers in the field are most involved in their company’s
performance, but without good HR tools to measure it, their
efforts can be in vain. Setting performance standards is thus
one of HR’s responsibilities. Choosing the right indicators is
important, and not always the easiest to quantify. For salespeople, the task is relatively easy as the measure of performance is linked to the sales curve, but for an R&D team,
behavior-related skills, which are intangible by definition, are
also of considerable importance. In this case, the best way to
set coherent objectives and attainable performance targets is
to consult the involved teams directly, in order to create a
relevant benchmark together. This is also a way to ensure that
the goals are better-accepted, since they will have been set
by the employees themselves.
incentive. But many managers seem to have forgotten that
simply congratulating one’s teams is a reward in itself.. The
least costly methods are sometimes the most effective in
terms of incentive: knowing how to share information with
one’s employees is a valued sign of trust; asking for their opinion on a problem or giving each person the freedom to organize his or her work as he or she sees fit (as long as there are
results, of course) are also effective ways of ensuring a high
level of employee commitment.
Human Resources often receive negative attention from
line managers, and Human Resources will increasingly need
to defend its own position in the company. Seen as cost generators, they must now provide evidence that they can also,
and predominantly, generate profits for the group. In sum,
although HR professionals’ main task is to handle in-house
issues, they can no longer stop at just dealing with
employees. Markets rise and fall in the outside world, and it
is externally that value is created. Human resources, too,
must seek their new-found legitimacy outside its traditional
role. ■
Encouraging performance
Performance leads to rewards. Indeed, rewards, whether
financial or not, are at the heart of motivation. Thus, depending on the field, it is crucial to determine what proportion of
pay can be variable or set. The career ladder is also a strong
Based on The HR Value Proposition by Dave Ulrich and
Wayne Brockbank, Harvard Business School Press, June
2005.
Zoom
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future of HR through a scientific perspective, and by this, are
able to identify the rules to abide by for its endurance and
evolution in true business contribution.
HRM AND PERFORMANCE
Jaap Paauwe, Oxford University Press,
August 2004
HR has a fundamental double role,
which in no simple task: provide the
company with the best profiles to reach
set performance objectives, and the
nearly moral obligation to offer its
employees a working environment that
is fair and centered on personal
development. Many researchers lean
more on the link between sophisticated human resources
management techniques and company and individual
productivity. But what about the social dimension of HR? Jaap
Paauwe's work answers this question by establishing a new HR
theory based on multiple concrete cases; a theory that can be
applied not only organizationally, but also nationally and
internationally.
© Business Digest 2007
THE FUTURE OF HUMAN
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Mike Losey, Sue Meisinger,
Dave Ulrich, John Wiley & Sons,
April 2005
The only way to ensure the future of
Human Resources is by making sure it
evolves. Since HR’s early beginnings, it
has proven to be more and more of a
true asset for any organization. It is
there where employees are hired, where
they are trained, where their rewards and bonuses are designed
and adjusted, in other words, the strength of a company’s
competitive edge and growth. This book breaks down the
worries taking over the future of HR even today, such as
finding adequate personnel, and describes the criteria
necessary for HR to survive and succeed in the future, like
creating or adapting corporate culture according to the
changing conditions of the company. The authors have given
the floor to 64 international experts from the business world,
research or consulting firms, and have come out with nine
thematic chapters compiled with articles that address present
and future challenges in the HR world. The authors look at the
DOSSIER
PERFORMANCE
More Confident and Credible HR,
at the Heart of Business
Interview with Alastair IMRIE, Group Human Resources Director at BAE SYSTEMS (UK), Business Digest, October 2005
Alastair Imrie, Human Resources Director of BAE Systems, called upon Wayne Brockbank, co-author of The HR
Value Proposition, to present a HR function of a new caliber. Based on both HR fundamentals and on the
company’s core business and external environment, and implemented throughout the company, the new HR
model finally has all the weapons necessary to be a credible contributor to the company strategy.
According to the authors, HR must learn to pay extra attention to external business
while keeping in mind both external and internal stakeholders. Would you say these
are the two most important and challenging objectives you are confronted with
today?
The first main challenge I see is delivering first class service to the business so that
business leaders can make their contribution without having to worry about backoffice operations. This is our ticket to operate, and gives us our base credibility.
Secondly, we have to contribute on the strategic level. This means understanding
the business, asking challenging questions and providing innovative solutions to
business problems. We must be very aware of the external environment. More than
just the employment market, I’m referring to our customers and other key stakeholders. BAE Systems’ primary customers are the defense departments in the countries
in which we operate. Recent world events, changes in defense spending and in the
role of the military, will all impact the way in which our business operates. We need
to understand how these changes affect our customer so that we are able to respond
and support them. Customers increasingly look to us for help in developing their
capabilities rather than simply to supply them with products. Unless HR can understand these changes and help to address them inside the business, even if they
might seem like little to do with HR to some, we will not achieve our goals.
Alastair IMRIE, Group Human
Resources Director at BAE
SYSTEMS since 2002, is also
Group Managing Director of
Shared Services, in charge of
managing resources and
© Business Digest 2007
operations. Formerly, he was
How do you ensure HR’s professionalism within your company? Are there any specific types of training and / or performance measure systems within BAE aimed at
improving HR’s strategic role?
We started a project around three years ago to understand the changing role of the
HR professional specifically in our company. We developed a new role profile and set
of competencies, which we then tested with our line management, putting into place
an assessment and development process. We chose to work with Wayne Brockbank
and the Michigan Business School because they had the right mix of academic
excellence and pragmatic business approach. We also benchmarked ourselves using
the Michigan HR competency study (360°). Wayne has now worked with all of our
senior HR people worldwide, and we have created a common language and toolset
for HR with an organization-development focus. The learning methodology, with
much re-enforcement via project work, learning opportunities and consulting support, has proved highly effective. Even if the HR team was already strong, they are
now more confident having the tools and techniques to help solve problems at their
fingertips. Measuring the effect of this intervention through our HR Customer
Satisfaction Survey, we have seen a huge increase in our business leaders’ per- •••
notably Managing Director of
Merger Integration, responsible
for delivering synergies
generated following the merger
between British Aerospace and
Marconi.
L’Oréal 2007 - 7
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DOSSIER
PERFORMANCE
“...we have
to contribute on the
strategic level.
This means
understanding the
business,
asking challenging
questions and
providing innovative
solutions to business
problems.”
••• ception of the strategic role of HR. Of course, we do not claim a direct relation-
ship, but the work we did with Michigan undoubtedly made a significant
contribution.
More recently, we have put into place development electives to cover all areas of
HR competency, including organization design and development, employee relations, business and financial awareness, service provision and personal credibility.
We also provide personal development plans for our newer, early career HR team
members specific to their needs and the functional model at BAE Systems. We have
rethought some of the elements of graduate development, as HR people have to
climb up the learning curve fast.
In addition to these development activities, we run HR conferences to communicate key messages and feature keynote speakers including senior company managers, customer representatives and HR academics. We also hold a best practice sharing and recognition event and an annual strategy workshop. We have a HR website
with best practice areas, company news and relevant information from external
sources. All of this helps to increase cohesion within the function, and to share
expertise and knowledge. We also hold regular business meetings with our Head
Office HR directors at which we discuss company issues and agree joint plans where
necessary. Once this group ratifies decisions or plans, I take them to the executive
committee of the company in the knowledge that they are well aligned with the businesses’ priorities.
What is the main challenge for BAE HR in the next few years?
We need to respond speedily and effectively to the changing business scenario. As
our footprint has grown in North America, the HR team has had to facilitate an
increasing level of transatlantic working. For example, The Land & Armaments
Operating Group has its head office in North America but has several thousand
employees in the UK, Sweden and South Africa. In Europe we continue expand our
business in Solutions and Systems Integration, which require different HR responses
in terms of culture, organization design, resourcing and rewards. I am confident that
the development work thus far is enabling the HR team to respond effectively to the
ever-changing environment. ■
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© Business Digest 2007
What are the most advanced and original HR practices (in terms of people,
information, management of work flow processes) implemented at BAE and value
creating?
We have an innovative HR model that we apply in the UK, a joint venture with
Xchanging HR Services (XHRS), which provides HR services to business, supporting
and developing e-HR. XHRS provides the day-to-day services so that the rest of HR
can focus on its more strategic role. We chose to form a partnership to jointly deliver
this with Xchanging rather than completely outsource. This accommodates our situation and values, as we need HR to operate in the most integrated way to best serve
the business. The range of e-HR tools delivered through our ‘people portal’ including
self-services for employees and managers and e-appraisals are now starting to have a
real impact on efficiency and accessibility – the nature of our partnership with
XHRS means that tools can be developed specifically for us rather than having to
use standard industry packages.
We have invested significantly in our strong team of HR professionals’ development, particularly in organizational development. We are now seeing some great
examples of HR working closely with the business and providing innovative solutions. For example, our HR teams in North America have played a vital role in supporting our acquisition strategy. In our UK customer solutions and support, we are
seeing our HR people really working at the sharp end with our Air Force customer to
truly integrate civilian and military personnel teams and improve military operations
support.
DOSSIER
PERFORMANCE
Perception of the Value
of the HR Function
Based on the article by Dirk BUYENS and Ans DE VOS, Human Resource Management Journal, 2001
hat do top managers, HR managers and line managers perceive to be the value of the HR function?
In academic literature HR management (HRM) is
seen almost exclusively as a strategic partner. But it is often
acknowledged that it has other qualities within the company.
For ten years organizations have had to face ever increasing
pressure from the market. They have had to reduce their costs
drastically and focus on the added value of their personnel,
their processes and their structures. In this new context companies have had to acquire new skills. HRM is then seen as
one of the key activities in developing strategic market-orientted solutions. In order to check this hypothesis Dirk Buyens
and Ans de Vos carried out a survey of 38 top managers,
97 HR managers and 178 line managers.
W
managers saw the HRD’s role as mainly managing transformation and change within the company. This is undoubtedly due
to the increasing importance of this type of management in
companies today. As for HR managers, they considered their
main function to be managing people and stressed the importance of employee motivation and skills within the company.
The research also found that the HRD’s
value depends on its being involved
in each stage of the decision making
process – defining problems, introducing
The human resources department: multiple roles
Most of the literature relating to HRM stresses the importance
of its strategic partner function but takes no account of the
central activities of this function. Thus the HRD would be
particularly involved when strategic decisions are made and
implemented.
However, according to research carried out by Dave
Ulrich*, the contribution that this department makes within
the company is much greater than that. His research enabled
him to highlight four special areas where HR was a vehicle for
added value. According to him the HRD should have a role in
strategic human resources management, in transformation
and change management in the company, in employee management and in administration. In companies HR does not
necessarily have to deal with these four activities. They could
be entrusted to senior executives, external consultants, particular employees etc.
© Business Digest 2007
Different perceptions depending on one’s job
The study carried out with top managers, HR managers and
line managers showed that everybody recognized HR’s essential role as a strategic partner. But, HR’s influence is not restricted to this area. The perception of the function varied
greatly from person to person. Thus line managers thought
that the HRD’s most important role was that of managing
infrastructure - recruitment, training etc.
They therefore showed that they had a traditional view of
the function. They did not consider that they themselves were
responsible for recruitment and training. For their part top
and monitoring solutions.
Involment in decison making
The research also found that the HRD’s value depends on its
being involved in each stage of the decision making process –
defining problems, introducing and monitoring solutions. If it
is involved as early as possible in decision making its role is
not reduced merely to passing on decisions and managing
conflicts but it becomes a central activity. Thus the value provided by the HRD will depend on the way the various managers of the company perceive this function.
Finally, by studying the degree to which HRD is involved in
decision making and in its four favoured areas, it is possible
to put a value on the work of the HRD. Research could therefore be carried out into the variables that determine the
position of this department within the company. From that
appropriate reforms could be implemented to change the
position of HR within the company and thus optimize its
added value. ■
* Ulrich, D. (1997). “Measuring Human Resources: An Overview
of Practice and Prescriptions for Results”, Human Resource
Management.
L’Oréal 2007 - 9
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DOSSIER
PERFORMANCE
Can HR Performance
Be Measured?
Key Ideas
That which is immeasurable does not exist—truth or tale? Why should HR’s contribution to business performance be evaluated
and what should be done with such information? Many HR leaders still think that the profession’s impact on organizational
performance is far too qualitative to be measured. However, for many reasons, this defensive position can no longer hold.
According to Jean-Louis Dufloux, it is HR’s ability to measure its performance that will make investment in human resources
(which is far more difficult to marshal than financial investment) more effective, and thus more “profitable”.
Based on the interviews with Jean-Louis Dufloux, Associate with Equinox Consulting, Valérie Chapoulaud, managing director Europe 5,
L’Oréal Luxury Products Division, Alvin Hew, President and Managing Director, L’Oréal Taiwan, and David Greenberg, senior vice
president of Human Resources, L’Oréal USA.
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© Business Digest 2007
As far as Valérie Chapoulaud is concerned, the two essential components of HR performance are proximity and solid business
understanding, and Alvin Hew shares this viewpoint. As for David Greenberg, he believes that an objective performance
measurement tool would be to evaluate HR’s ability to influence its business partners.
DOSSIER
PERFORMANCE
Why Human Resources Need to
Evaluate Their Performance
– And to What End
Interview with Jean-Louis DUFLOUX, Associate with Equinoxe consulting, Business Digest, April 2007
hilst human resources performance evaluation is
becoming increasingly important for listed companies – with social rating is gradually becoming as
important as financial rating – many HR leaders believe that
because its impact on organization performance is qualitative,
it is difficult to measure. But for many reasons (such as the
clarity of HR policy regarding employees and management, the
importance of projecting the right image to customers and
end-user, etc.) this defensive position is no longer viable.
Today, there are different ways of assessing the effectiveness of HR policy, even if they are less standardized than those
that measure, for instance, financial performance.
BIOGRAPHY
How would you define high-performance in HR?
number of associates, he founded Equinox Consulting, a firm
High performance in HR can be evaluated in terms of its capacity for aligning the following three requirements:
1. A company-wide drive for success (implementing a strategy
and achieving results),
2. The importance of individual employee motivation (tasks and
responsibilities allocated, workplace ambiance, evolution and
enrichment and balance between personal and professional life),
3. The projection of a social image that has a positive
influence on external parties (candidates, customers, analysts,
and so forth). These factors work in harmony with one another.
While these measures seem straightforward, putting them
into practice is another story. There are two main reasons for
this, the first being the natural reluctance to calibrate the
intangible “human” element, and second being the multitude
of factors (culture, area of expertise, country, and so on) within
the major groups, meaning that great care should be taken
when making comparisons.
employing over one hundred consultants and specializing in job
W
Jean-Louis DUFLOUX spent ten
years at the Paris branch of
Deloitte (1986 -1996) providing
consulting services to Financial
Institutions and in 1996 helped
create a management
consultancy, which was bought
up by a large European
computer services company at
the beginning of 2000. In
2004, in collaboration with a
What would a group like L’Oréal have to gain from an
evaluation of its HR performance?
© Business Digest 2007
1. The first thing might be that a management that takes the
initiative and guarantees a personalized evaluation process
(employee performance assessment) becomes more legitimate
if it practises what it preaches.
2. The second relates to image and efficiency:
• Vis-à-vis its customers, performance evaluation is about
assessing the quality of services and their exploitation – in
strategy, general organization and accompaniment for companies
undergoing change. Their projects always combine technical
elements (areas of expertise or industry) with human factors.
short, about the good it brings to the Group's operations.
•Vis-à-vis the company itself, it is about ensuring its own
means to manage its long-term evolution and activity by objectively regarding what has been accomplished and what
remains to be.
How can the measure be implemented?
The measure can be implemented by focusing on the three
requirements mentioned below:
1. The strategic partner
• Of the group
Aligning HR policy in conjunction with the company’s strategic plan (for example: the capacity for rapidly arranging the
internationalization of the organization in case of an important
globalization of activities).
• Of the group's areas of expertise
Supporting line managers in projects the lend to the transformation of the organization (for example: the detection and
retention of key resources in the event of an acquisition, the
capacity to provide the necessary management and marketing
staff for a new development project, legal and social support
•••
in the event of restructuring, and so on).
L’Oréal 2007 - 11
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PERFORMANCE
••• 2. Championing employees
• As individuals
Improve employee commitment and workforce skills (for instance, the ability to detect requests for mobility and match them
to the group’s needs, the capacity for helping people climb the
career ladder through additional on-the-job, developing the
managerial skills of employees who were initially recruited for
their sales, innovative or production skills, and so on).
• As a group
Guarantee (or improving) the effectiveness of HR processes
(pay, staff administration, payroll management and processing, performance evaluation, and so on) by applying these
same processes across the board – efficiently and equitably.
3. Supporting the HR image
Ensure that the image projected to the outside world reinforces a reputation and pull that is in keeping with the group’s
self-image (for example: a high reputation rating within targeted higher education establishments and on the labour market, a strong identity when it comes to social subjects like
diversity, gender equality, child labour, integration into the
local economy, sustainable development, and so on).
What are/would be the best indicators
of successful HR?
In this context, simplicity is the best means of achieving success. Good indicators are simple ones – purposely strict, but
firm, and reliable.
A 3-year post-recruitment retention period, the average
recruitment period for novice applicants, (the cost of a pay
slip) in terms of founding a reputation rating for an employer
reflect only loosely on the integration policy, the quality of the
recruitment process, the effectiveness of a pay scheme or a
HR brand policy, but are necessary for objective discussion.
When selecting indicators, the HR department should adopt
the same approach as the financial department would, only
seeing a group's performance in terms of turnover, the growth
rate, IFO, ROE, and the price-earnings ratio, and so on.
A HR management chart of fifteen or so known indicators that
are regularly monitored by the department, the head office and
its customer management offices would already be a tremendous step in the right direction on a number of fronts.
It then becomes entirely possible to create advanced indicators, adapted for use in the corporate context or a specific
situation. But this is not where the problem lies. The real difficulty lies in an HR department's capacity to collect objective
and homogenous data on various professions in different organizations and a multitude of countries -- and then to analyze,
transmit and develop it.
How can the quality of HR services – vis-à-vis operational managers and employees – be evaluated and
then transmitted?
In some groups, the situation is so complicated that it
becomes extremely difficult to produce a simple analysis of its
workforce by population or skill category. This is not an exag-
■
12 - L’Oréal 2007
geration; it shows how definitions vary from one country to the
next. “Executive,” “engineer” and “fast tracker” are not objective notions; companies must find benchmarks and stick to
them – both geographically and historically.
Experience has shown that, when questioned, operational
managers request few indicators. Again, it is important to develop common indicators that both HR departments and operational managers can can agree on. They then need to be used,
monitored, and interpreted (for example: the time from when a
request for resources is made to when the first response from
the human resources department is received, the number of
transfers granted versus those requested, the number of training places provided versus those required, and so on).
In any case, indicators are selected according to the situational context. For example, during a period of full-scale development, the operational manager will be particularly interested in the human resources’ reactivity when filling vacancies
(recruitment and/or mobility), and employees will be concerned about the HR’s capacity to provide them with training that
will enable them to learn new skills.
And lastly, is it possible to measure the economic
effectiveness of a human resources department?
Yes, it is possible to measure its effectiveness in certain transactional areas (for example, in administrative management,
payroll, and human resources information systems, or HRIS)
just as it is in any other operational sector. However, evaluation is much more complicated in other, less tangible areas
like social climate, skills improvement, and mobility and
enhancement of individual potential. All of these things do
have an unquantifiable economic impact.
In some cases, the exercize needs to be conducted the other
way round. An average retention period of 4 to 5 years in a company with a high recruitment rate represents possible savings of
25% throughout the entire recruitment and integration sector.
An enhanced HR, one that increases the candidate acceptance rate or limits salary expectations, also represents
savings,and more specifically, benefits from this long-term
investment.
One thing is certain – in groups whose management is
becoming increasingly international and whose need for strategic support from HR requires increasingly high levels of
reactivity and flexibility, it is essential to set up:
• Not only a structure of organization and processes that
clearly guarantee the quality of the HR department's contribution to fulfilling the needs of the Group, employees, and outside world,
• but also indicators that are accepted and understood by
everyone, and which ensure that these processes are applied
and produce results in every countries (obviously, at varying
degrees).
Only by using such indicators will HR investment (which is
much more difficult to mobilize than financial investment)
prove efficient, productive and, to put it in economic terms,
profitable. ■
© Business Digest 2007
DOSSIER
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PERFORMANCE
L’Oréal Managers Talk
About HR Performance
Reconciling Strategic Vision
with HR Ambitions
Interview with Valérie CHAPOULAUD, managing director Europe 5, L’Oréal Luxury Products Division, Business Digest, June 2007
urope 5 is the most lucrative Zone in the Luxury Products Division, producing
30% of the Group's turnover and 25% of its profit. It has a 3300-strong workforce in Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Spain, and Italy,
and is responsible for producing around ten different brands. The LPD is number one
in Europe 5, with a market share of more than 17%.
So, how does Chapoulaud see her division developing in the future? She would like
the division to maintain its undisputed position as market leader, while achieving projected growth – of between 7 and 8% in 2007, and 8 to 9% in 2008. A comprehensive action plan involving all the division's activities is under way. This includes: consolidating Lancôme as the best-selling brand in Europe, moving Armani from 7th to 5th
position, putting Biotherm in the top 10 within the next 3 years, and successfully introducing new brands (Diesel, Armani, Khiel’s, and so on). The brand portfolio strategy is
aggressive, vigorous, and dynamic, and has two key objectives – consolidating the success of the division's beauty business, and becoming a leader in the perfume market.
Europe 5 is therefore a Zone with a high degree of growth potential – in terms of brands
and jobs. The HR department must therefore identify strategic requirements and provide the human resources to fulfil them. The HR department, whose main role is to be
a real business partner, manages the Zone's workforce with a team of fifteen staff.
E
Valérie CHAPOULAUD has been
European Zone director of the L'Oréal
Luxury Products Division (LPD) since
July 2005. She joined the Group soon
after graduating from EM Lyon (Lyon
Management School). Having held a
© Business Digest 2007
What would you expect from a successful HR department?
The HR department is the Zone's linchpin. It works in close partnership with the division, and its function is to reconcile business and personnel ambitions. I have two
main expectations of HR – a strong employee and team presence in the field, along
with a solid grasp of the business. Indeed, it is impossible for HR to achieve these
goals and results without understanding what is required, both in terms of the strategic vision and the organization. Presence and business acumen are my two watchwords for successful HR performance.
HR's performance would be compromised by an HR department that is unable to
reconcile the Zone's strategic vision with its HR strategy. This would occur if the
department's approach is too theoretical, and lacks pragmatism and operational efficiency. The reality on the ground involves managing ten or so brands with very different requirements that need to be matched by the appropriate HR provisions. So, I
would expect the Zone's HR department to be capable of applying the Zone strategy,
while adopting a flexible, open, imaginative, and creative approach.
variety of posts, she sees herself as a
pure "product" of L'Oréal. She has been
national brand manager twice (Cacharel
& G. Laroche, and Biotherm),
international manager, and has been
Zone director twice – she was managing
director of the L'Oréal Asia Zone
between 2002 and 2005 before taking
up her current post.
How do you see HRM's role developing in terms of future strategic ambitions?
It is essential to reconcile business requirements with HR strategy in the short term.
But, it is equally important in the medium and long term for the HR department to
anticipate its role with regard to future strategic ambitions, the target company, •••
L’Oréal 2007 - 13
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“We monitor the Zone
••• profile requirements, and career management. Effective management of the HR
network is also important, if only to import or export the right skills.
using four performance
indicators: the Zone's
overall turnover;
mobility; anticipatory
management of
the succession plan;
and crisis
management”.
Are you currently monitoring the results of your HR initiatives? How do you see them
developing in the future?
We monitor the Zone using four performance indicators: the Zone's overall turnover (of
course), and that of individual countries; mobility (for instance, are we actively encouraging international skills mobility?); anticipatory management of the succession plan;
and crisis management (reactivity to and results of dealing with unexpected crises).
Note that the Zone HR department does not handle certain issues, such as pay
and brand image assessment, which are managed by the national HR departments
(transversally with the divisions). We cross-check the division with the countries
throughout the Zone, and we have a say in decisions, but operational decision-making
is the prerogative of the individual countries.
In the future, we will focus more on qualitative criteria. It is, in fact, difficult to
measure everything, because day-to-day performance depends heavily on factors that
are difficult to quantify. For example, a major re-examination of our organization is
under way, and the HR department's role in this cannot be measured in purely quantitative terms. The Group's long-term vision of this is unclear, but it is certainly an
approach that is worth pursuing.
I would conclude that we need to focus on the alignment of the HR department
with the strategic vision. This will accelerate the development of HR's activities and
its ability to identify organizational requirements in terms of skill profiles and
recruitment. ■
L’Oréal Taiwan: A Winning Combination of Soft
Skills & Business Savvy
Interview with Alvin HEW, president and managing director, L’Oréal Taiwan, Business Digest, June 2007
What is L’Oréal’s current situation in Taiwan, and what are your strategic goals?
L’Oréal Taiwan officially came into existence in 1995 and now employs 1000 people
(80% of whom are Taiwanese). The Taiwan subsidiary presents three distinctive features:
• Contrary to the other Asian subsidiaries, L’Oréal Taiwan has a large Luxury Product
Division. It accounts for 55% of total sales, versus 25% globally.
• All four divisions of the corporation are established here, which makes Taiwan a particularly representative miniature of the entire L’Oréal universe, with all of its divisions and brands.
• Taiwan is Asia’s most competitive market. European, Japanese, American, Korean,
Taiwanese as well as mainland Chinese competitors are all vying for market share.
It has taken a lot of effort over the years and many managers to turn this subsidiary into what it is today: a leader! We have been the market leader since the end of
2006, when we moved ahead of Procter & Gamble, dethroning it for the first time •••
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14 - L’Oréal 2007
© Business Digest 2007
Alvin Hew is managing director of L’Oréal Taiwan, a subsidiary that includes all L’Oréal divisions and
brands. In 2006, L’Oréal Taiwan dethroned Procter & Gamble and thus became the leader on its market.
This achievement was made possible in part by the high quality work done by HR. Still, remaining market
leader over time will require the company and HR to join together even more closely as they carry out
business strategy.
DOSSIER
PERFORMANCE
••• in Taiwan. We reached this peak slowly but surely, market share by market share.
How has HR contributed to the company’s success in Taiwan?
We have become market leader thanks to a combination of factors, including our
human capital. When I arrived in 2005, the company was plagued by a serious problem—the average employee turnover rate was 30%. The reason for this is that the
Taiwanese job market is quite healthy, with unemployment at approximately 3.8%.
The entire country is looking for managers… and there was and continues to be a
mass exodus of talent toward opportunities in China.
While solid business foundations had already been laid when I took over, it was
time to consolidate them and to develop our human resources. We moved quickly as
far as the latter is concerned. By late 2006, turnover among managers—our prime
target—had come down to 16%, and the non-management turnover rate had dropped
to 25%. This resulted in more experienced staff and an organization where we could
capitalize on continuous learnings which help to build business.
© Mr. Keye CHANG
Right now, the Taiwanese beauty market is not particularly dynamic, despite its considerable size (50 billion Taiwanese dollars or slightly over a billion euros). L’Oréal
holds 10.5% of the market and is striving to maintain and grow all of the brands in
a lasting way. There are still opportunities for growth even if the future is going to be
quite challenging because each of our brands can still be stronger individually.
Alvin HEW joined L’Oréal Paris in
1997 and initially worked with JeanPaul Agon, who was the director of the
corporation’s Asia zone at that time. At
the end of 1997, Hew was sent to his
native Malaysia to take charge of the
Consumer Products Division. He held
What other major challenges does HR need to respond to, to keep lowering turnover
rates?
L’Oréal has a good reputation and helps us to entice people to join us. It is often said
that “people join good companies but leave bad managers”. In Asia, people have very
high expectations of interactions and relationships with others. Hence it is important
for HR to offer managers training to develop their leadership and communication
skills to improve the quality of our managers. Improving the quality of management
is a major priority for HR, because it is a way to produce a top-down effect that will
help reduce the employee turnover rate. It has been two years since we started focusing on enhancing management quality, and this year’s employee satisfaction survey
revealed a huge increase in employees’ respect for their managers.
this position until early 2000, at
which time Jean-Paul Agon appointed
him Managing Director of L’Oréal’s
Malaysian subsidiary. He fulfilled this
job until January 2005, and in
February, he became President and
Managing Director of L’Oréal Taiwan.
Earlier in his career, Hew was a
manager at Procter & Gamble’s
international office in Geneva (19921997), and he worked in banking in
Canada (1986-1990). He received his
© Business Digest 2007
What do you expect from a high performance HR team?
That it plays a key role in developing people, so that managers learn to inspire the
members of their teams and thus contribute to creating a motivating atmosphere. A
high performance HR team should exercize three levers to drive company performance:
• Boost management quality;
• Improve the quality of recruitment to ensure that the right people are hired;
• Enhance the quality of the workplace environment.
We make a point of ensuring that people have reasonable workloads, that they feel
comfortable here and have a sense of belonging to a team, and that they understand
the company’s mission as well as their own. To this end, we hold large company-wide
meetings twice a year. First, there is an annual business review where we focus on
the company’s business situation. We review the previous year, celebrate achievements, and initiate forward reflection on the year ahead, etc. Secondly, we hold a
mid-year business review to check on progress and eventually make any necessary
adjustments. These meetings provide opportunities to remind everyone what the company is about as well as what each department and division’s role is when it comes
to fulfilling strategic objectives.
MBA from Insead (Fontainebleau,
France) in 1991.
Are you satisfied with how your HR team has pursued these goals?
I am very lucky, because the HR team is extremely strong, despite its limited size—
it includes just seven people. Their force comes from their leader, who has worked for
L’Oréal Taiwan longer than anyone else and who also has a background in •••
L’Oréal 2007 - 15
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PERFORMANCE
“A high performance HR
team should exercize
three levers to drive
company performance:
boost management
quality; improve the
quality of recruitment
ensure that the right
people are hired;
enhance the quality
of the workplace
environment”.
••• finance. She is extremely meticulous and very good at setting up our many pro-
grams. An example of the team’s potency is that it was the first one in the entire
group to establish a mid-year review. The team is also excellent when it comes to garnering best HR practices from the international scene while still developing customized courses that meet local needs.
How can such a team progress even further?
At L’Oréal, we want HR people to also develop a strong business sense. I therefore
urge them to deepen their understanding of our strategy, because such insight makes
it possible to truly comprehend the fact that the key to everything is the people involved. Right now, the HR team could get even more involved in business and take
charge of developing appropriate organizational structures. For example, if a business
concern required us to boost innovation, this would raise questions of how teams
should be supported in their work in order to reach this goal, and what types of people
need to be hired, etc.
The current team excels at recruitment and integration programs, but it needs to
become more strategy-oriented. It should start asking things like, what are our business concerns? Why are they important? How are we currently organized to respond
to them, and why are we having trouble attending to them effectively? Should we reorganize our structure? The HR team should also develop its overall perception of the
company and become more structured.
Based on your strategic goals, what performance measurement criteria do you apply
to HR?
I urge the HR team to take a quantitative approach to their jobs.
We are particularly attentive measuring the employee turnover rate in the company.
Every month, it is analyzed according to division, position, and level of seniority. When
we are not losing anyone, it means we are retaining people! The turnover rate is thus
highly representative of the quality of the HR team’s work in the following areas:
• Recruitment and integration: To recruit effectively, HR must check to see if it is producing accurate descriptions of jobs and background requirements. The team must
also figure out which people are performing the best.
• Training: There are two leadership programs that focus on soft skills in view of
improving management quality. One of them concentrates on improving managers’
awareness of our sector of activity, our company, and its professions. The second program is run by an Australian trainer who teaches people how to manage a team effectively and generate adhesion.
We measure program cost and volume (number of people trained, hours of training
per person, etc.) and establish benchmarks (which are very useful for measuring HR
performance) with other Taiwanese companies as well as with the group average.
The HR team has now reached a point where it can start focusing on business
issues while still attending to human concerns. So this is a very exciting time. We
became number one on the market just a short time ago, so we must consolidate our
achievements, and it is also time for HR to become a strategic player. Today’s stagnant market presents a continuous challenge, but with the HR team that I have
behind me, I am confident that we will be able to both maintain and enhance company growth. ■
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16 - L’Oréal 2007
© Business Digest 2007
What is currently limiting the team’s performance?
Team size and members’ skills. As far as the latter is concerned, I am working directly
with the HR director to help her gain a better understanding of business issues and
to give her a central role in developing the understanding of our organizational structure. There is no need to enlarge the HR team if it includes the right people. That
means people who grasp how the company works as well as company strategy. Such
a team may be nurtured through HR training courses or by having a few businessoriented people join the team.
DOSSIER
PERFORMANCE
L’Oréal USA: HR as a Business Partner
Interview with David GREENBERG, senior vice president of Human Resources, L’Oréal USA, Business Digest, June 2007
David Greenberg is Human Resources manager at L’Oréal USA. He explains that HR performance is dependent on clearly defining HR’s role in overall performance as well as the added value that it can offer. Given
today’s ever-changing circumstances, an objective measurement tool for assessing HR’s contribution would
evaluate HR’s capacity to influence its business partners.
What is your definition of a “high performance” HR team?
1. First of all, it is a team that is thoroughly familiar with and fully aligned with the goals
of the business. Our team is organized around our business. As a result, we have gained
considerable insight about brand strategy, and what drives our business, especially from
the people perspective.
2. Second of all, a high performance team is objective and independent. These principles must be upheld if we intend to be a resource for both managers and the workforce as a whole. All HR professionals have a duty to provide objective guidance, and
this sometimes means distancing oneself from senior management. HR has to develop
its own viewpoint and defend its convictions. Without this type of courage and initiative, it is likely to lose employees’ confidence and trust. HR would then appear to be
ineffective, and people would stop confiding in its members… In such circumstances,
HR would also be of little value to senior management, because it would no longer provide the necessary link between employees and corporate leaders. Preserving an objective position in no way hinders HR’s ability to remain perfectly aligned with corporate
strategy. Independence refers to a way of thinking and dealing with people and organization. What is the best way to organize teams to reach objectives? Who are the right
people for key positions?
3. In addition, a high performance HR team maintains close relationships. The team
should know and be available to all members of the business units. Given our 7000
employees, there is generally one HR person for 80 people, a figure that is quite reasonable. Relationships tend to develop informally, when HR people visit business offices,
go to factories and distribution centers, and take interest in people’s career advancement.
They keep in constant touch with what is going on and are interested in all feedback,
both positive and negative.
4. Finally—and this point is particularly important to us, since innovation is the fundamental principle of our company—HR people should be skilled at detecting raw talent,
great minds, and creative thinkers. They should give such people opportunities to fully
exploit their potential. For example, we generally avoid strict job descriptions in order to
avoid locking people into set categories.
David GREENBERG joined L’Oréal in
1993 in the L’Oréal Paris division of
the American subsidiary where he
worked in the marketing department
for six years. In 1999, he was
appointed General Manager of L’Oréal
Mexico’s Consumer Products Division,
and he held that position until 2003.
He then returned to the American
subsidiary as general manager for
Matrix Global. In 2005, he was
appointed senior vice president of
Human Resources at L’Oréal USA.
Greenberg’s HR team includes
140 people and is responsible for over
7000 employees divided among all
the L’Oréal divisions. The team is not
only in charge of matters like
© Business Digest 2007
compensation, strategic recruitment,
How could your team be rendered even more effective and better aligned with the
group’s strategic goals?
All of the previous criteria should be further developed and reinforced. Communication,
idea sharing, and good practices are all essential to do so. It is important to me to create
a feeling of community among the members of HR. Every year, we hold a three-day conference that brings all of the group’s HR leaders together to examine a specific issue.
External experts are brought in to provide support, and we also review HR priorities. Last
year, the subject was change and HR’s role in enabling the company to carry it through.
What skills do we need to demonstrate in order to provide key support for the change process? In addition, every quarter, I take part in a leadership meeting with the group’s top
30 managers. And every month, I meet with the HR team leaders from all our divisions
and activities. I also visit business units on a regular basis, and I try to spend time •••
and development, but it is also a
business partner to the four divisions
of the company.
L’Oréal 2007 - 17
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PERFORMANCE
“We would like to be
able to measure HR
performance based
on our ability
to influence our
business partners.
We should help to drive
scheduled corporate
change”.
••• with employees, either formally (for example, by being at the management develop-
ment center during training programs) or informally (through impromptu conversations).
It is also critical to have clear objectives for our organization. These are:
1. Contribute to the group’s culture of innovation. HR has a fundamental role to play here
in terms of hiring, development, and training.
2. Play an active role in modernizing our structure and organization. This especially refers
to providing leadership support, communicating effectively, ensuring optimal team composition, and measuring organizational capacity.
3. Commit to preparing the future. Hire people with high potential, develop career paths
for them, and keep investing in training and development.
This is what HR must do in order to maintain and develop long-term performance. It
is also what we must keep in mind when we are asked to assess ourselves.
How do you or would you like to measure the performance of your initiatives? And do you
think that there should be limits to measuring HR performance?
We still have a fair amount of progress to make in this area. We currently have measurement instruments that enable us to diagnose business units’ general health, meaning
levels of diversity, staff retention rates, employee commitment, etc. But in my opinion,
HR performance cannot be measured solely according to such criteria. These components make it possible to translate the organization’s overall health into numbers, but
although HR certainly contributes to this, we are not the only ones responsible. At this
point, we are unable to clearly measure HR performance, and the challenge is to come
up with a wholly objective measurement tool. In the future, we would like to be able to
measure HR performance based on our ability to influence our business partners. We
should help to drive scheduled corporate change. Hence the importance of our being a
trusted counsellor that can influence top management due to a deep understanding of
the people that make up the company.
On the other hand, we have become more skilled at clarifying and communicating our
vision of HR and its organizational value. People are now aware that HR has a specific
strategic role to fulfil, and we are now expected to be fully involved in organizational
change—something that did not use to be the case. We are working directly with senior
management to help them reach (but not define!) their organizational goals.
I do not think it is worth setting any limits on measuring HR performance. HR should
accept the responsibility to produce significant results for the company, just like all the
other departments. Its obligations should be defined as formally as possible, so that HR’s
direct, unambiguous responsibilities are apparent to all.
What are the changes that you have referred to, and what exactly is HR’s role in change?
As a company that is guided by the principle of innovation, we have always been aware
that people are our greatest asset. But at the same time, people’s effectiveness is deeply
impacted by the company’s culture and environment. HR fits in as a sort of cultural guardian. Its jobs includes figuring out how to communicate, how to get organized, how to
make decisions, how big teams should be, and which hierarchic structure to adopt, etc.
Right now, our culture is no longer what it should be, so a year and a half ago, a threeto five-year change initiative was launched. HR has an important role to play, because we
must ensure that people understand the existing culture, and we must relay employee
feedback and opinions from the field. As for the changes that we are carrying out presently, HR is directly contributing to efficiency by ensuring that employees focus on core,
result-producing activities. For example, we help people to focus more on customers and
less on unproductive administrative tasks.
I am quite optimistic about the future, because people are very motivated, and the
company is ready for change. Still, we are under a lot of pressure, because we must
provide top management with the resources it needs to attain its goals. Nevertheless,
we have all the reasons in the world to believe that we will successfully live up to this
challenge. ■
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© Business Digest 2007
DOSSIER
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PERFORMANCE
What Process for What
Performance?
Key Ideas
© Business Digest 2007
It is now essential for HR managers and operational leaders alike, to be able to demonstrate HR's concrete impact on the
company's overall performance and on strategy, but choosing the right methodology to do so is not a random choice. A key tool for
measuring this impact is the HR balance scorecard, and, as evaluation tools, the Jack Philips’ ROI MethodologyTM, and the
4 levels model by Donald Kirkpatrick. It is absolutely essential to start by identifying the company's own particular value creation
process. Thereafter, everything relies on the preparation of an appropriate measurement system, which has to update HR's key
contributions, then identify and measure their effects. The success of a HR balance scorecard is not based on sophisticated
technical design alone. The conditions of its application and human factors are critical too. If it is to be successful, the HR
balance scorecard requires the engagement and involvement of everyone, not just the HR function. Its implementation has to be
managed as a major process of internal change.
Based on the book by Brian Becker, Mark Huselid & Dave Ulrich, The HR Scorecard, Linking People, Strategy, and Performance,
(Harvard Business School Press, 2001), The ROI FieldBook, by Patricia Pulliam Phillips, Jack J. Phillips, Ron Drew Stone &
Holly Burkett, (Butterworth-Heinemann, 2006) and Transferring Learning To Behavior: Using The Four Levels To Improve
Performance, by Donald L. Kirkpatrick & James D. Kirkpatrick (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2005).
L’Oréal 2007 - 19
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The HR Scorecard
VIEWPOINT
The HR performance chart is a key tool for measuring the real impact of HR on the
company's overall performance and strategy. The successful implementation of this
chart requires the engagement and involvement of everyone in the necessary process
of internal change.
C
#
THE STRATEGIC ROLE PLAYED
BY HR
Demonstrating the strategic contribution they make is a major
challenge for HR, calling for appropriate architecture and a
methodical process. The strategic role played by HR derives
from the growing importance of immaterial capital in today's
economy. To lay claim to their role, HR need:
A strategy-orientated HR architecture
The three elements comprising this must have a strategic
dimension:
• HR function: this corresponds to the human infrastructure
and must be made up of professionals who are sensitive to the
strategic issues involved.
The Authors
Brian BECKER is Professor of Human Resources and President
of the Organization and Human Resources Department of the
Management School at New York State University, Buffalo.
Mark HUSELID is Associate Professor of Human Relations
Strategy at the Management and Employment School at
Rutgers University.
Dave ULRICH is Professor of Management at Michigan
University.
• HR system: this allows employee performance to be optimized. If it is strategy-oriented, we speak of a High-Performance
Work System (HPWS).
• Individual behaviour: it is essential for HR staff to participate in strategy.
One company that has integrated this strategic dimension
of HR particularly well is the retailer Sears, Roebuck & Co.
After losing billions of dollars in the early 90s, the company
realised that its welfare depended primarily on the attitude its
employees showed towards customers. Training and incentive
programs in the HR field have since translated into spectacular results.
An appropriate measurement system
To determine what types of performance are to be measured,
the main thing you need to know is how value creation works
within the company. This is a necessary first stage, to ensure
that HR and the strategy are in proper "alignment".
An appropriate measurement system has to be balanced and
incorporate "action" indicators (R&D, customer satisfaction,
strategic guidance for employees) and "report" indicators (e.g.
financial data).
Taking account of HR's contribution to company performance also means identifying the function's strategic finished
products ("deliverables"), which consist of:
• performance activators: these are a series of human characteristics or competences specific to every company (e.g.
employee productivity, employee satisfaction).
• levers: these reinforce performance activators. Typically, they
may be a remuneration system.
In concrete terms, the process of turning HR into a strategic advantage for the company can be illustrated via a HR performance chart.
#
THE HR PERFORMANCE CHART
The creation of a performance chart specific to HR
is the central tool allowing HR's key contributing
factors to be identified, and their impact on results to be measured.
Creation of the HR performance chart
A HR performance chart serves two purposes: allowing HR •••
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20 - L’Oréal 2007
© Business Digest 2007
ompanies usually look upon their employees as their
most valuable asset. Yet few of them can evaluate precisely the contribution made by HR to overall performance. Why is this so? Probably because the influence of HR,
in the broad sense, is difficult to assess, since its concrete,
measurable contributions do not appear to be critical for the
deployment of strategy. This question of HR's contribution is
of fundamental importance at a time when HR are looking to
evolve towards a more strategic role. HR managers must therefore conceive a measurement system that can demonstrate
their concrete impact on profitability and value creation.
DOSSIER
PERFORMANCE
••• to be managed as a strategic advantage and demonstrating
the contribution made by HR to the company's financial performance.
reach a balance between the notion of cost control (resulting
from efficiency) and that of value creation (resulting from HR
deliverables, alignment and HPWS).
A HR performance chart consists of four elements:
• HR deliverables: these are HR actions that convert human
capital into a strategic advantage (link with value creation
within the company).
• High-Performance Work System (HPWS): this is made up of
all HR practices aimed at maximising employee performance.
• Alignment: HR's "external" alignment with corporate strategy
serves to optimize HR's strategic deliverables.
• Efficiency: this is measured not only in terms of cost reduction, but also in terms of strategic effectiveness, reflecting
genuine value creation. This distinction will make it easier to
evaluate the strategic benefits and resource allocation.
A good example of HR's impact on strategy is illustrated by
the way in which competences are managed within the R&D
department of the high-tech company HiTech. It has been
demonstrated and indeed proven, that HR makes a concrete
contribution, both to developing the company's turnover and
improving its productivity. How? Firstly, a sustained policy of
product innovation and meeting delivery dates helps to maintain sales, and secondly, good recruitment planning helps the
company to cope with its maintenance and production imperatives.
HPWS and alignment are "action" indicators, whereas HR's
efficiency and deliverables are "report" indicators. The HR performance chart incorporates these four elements in order to
A HR performance chart offers several benefits:
• A clearer distinction between straightforward HR activities
and strategic deliverables
• Controlling costs and creating value
• Measuring the main indicators
• Validating HR's contribution to strategy implementation and
to results
• Managing strategically
• Encouraging flexibility and change
Another key function of the HR performance chart is to
assess how a company's current HR architecture differs from
the ideal architecture. Cost-benefit analysis techniques can be
used here. These analyses complement the data derived from
performance charts: whereas the latter are used to assess what
changes are necessary, the analyses are used to determine the
best ways of bringing these changes about.
Principles for ensuring accurate measurement
A proper performance-measurement system should help us to
focus on what creates value and make it possible to justify
decisions concerning resource allocation. Thus it goes further
than a straightforward benchmarking system of companies in
the same sector: it clarifies the value-creation mechanisms
specific to a company, by taking us inside the "black box" linking HR with the company's performance. Keeping rigidly •••
The 7 stages that transform HR architecture into a strategic advantage
THE HR SCORECARD
Clearly define the company strategy
Prepare a business case for HR as
a strategic advantage
Create a strategic map
Identify the concrete results delivered by HR, using the strategic map
Align the HR architecture with the HR results
Check the effectiveness
of the strategic map at
regular intervals
© Business Digest 2007
Design the strategic measurement system
Implement a system of management by measurement
L’Oréal 2007 - 21
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DOSSIER
PERFORMANCE
••• to values without clarifying the links of cause and effect
would undermine HR's credibility.
The starting point is choosing how to measure the criteria.
The measurements made must be meaningful, because the
figures in themselves do not mean anything.
Conceptualising the HR elements that create value allows
them to be evaluated within the scope of a strategic vision, but
it is also important to measure them. The abstract concept of
value creation thus becomes an observable and concrete one.
Measuring HR alignment
The need for alignment between HR architecture and strategic
process also concerns the performance measurement system.
Alignment is assessed from two points of view: one based on
strategy implementation / HR system and one involving HR's
strategic role / competences.
These two types of alignment enable employees to be made
aware of strategy and to contribute to it.
Nevertheless, the internal alignment is largely dependent on
the external alignment. This means that strategic aspects
determine the configuration of the HR system.
Alignment proceeds in two successive phases:
• alignment of HR results
• alignment of the HR system with the results
This can be simply represented in the form of a matrix: the
external alignment matrix.
#
PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION
OF A HR PERFORMANCE CHART
The successful implementation of a HR performance chart necessitates recourse to appropriate HR competences, and above all, requires a commitment on the part of
everyone.
Competences required for HR
According to several studies, the competences required for a
strategic HR approach have now moved on. As well as routine
competences (a knowledge of the company, expertise in the
HR field, change management), there are now a further three
requirements: management of corporate culture and corporate
identity, a high degree of personal credibility and effective
management of HR strategic performance. The latter competence requires the manager to be able to:
• think in terms of causal theories, in order to determine how
HR really influence strategy
• understand how to measure these impacts
• discern links of causality
• effectively communicate the results of HR's strategic performance to the main operational-level managers.
To develop these competences, it is essential to act in several directions at once: cultivating the performance of HR professionals, rewarding them properly and designing appropriate
training programs.
•••
HiTech's performance chart
THE HR SCORECARD
High-Performance Work System
- Competence model suited to employee recruitment, development, management
and remuneration
- Percentage of employees participating in formal performance evaluation sessions
System of HR alignment in R&D
- Percentage of selection decisions based on competence model
- Percentage of recruitment carried out at "elite" level
- Level of development and implementation of policies for generating employee loyalty
- HR alignment index over 80%
In manufacturing
-Time taken by recruitment cycle, 14 days or less
- HR alignment index over 80%
Source: The HR Scorecard
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22 - L’Oréal 2007
Efficiency in HR
- Cost per recruitment
Impact
- Reduction in HR cycle time
© Business Digest 2007
HR Services
- Percentage of employees with the technical skills required
- Percentage of staff turnover among top scientists in R&D
- Percentage of positions to be filled in manufacturing
DOSSIER
•••
PERFORMANCE
Guide to implementation
While a HR performance chart makes use of technical information, its main requirement is commitment on the part of
employees. Based on experience of its implementation, and
particularly that of General Electric, seven key factors have to
be considered in order to gain this commitment.
1. Recommendations are offered for each of these:
Having a "change manager" to be responsible
One person responsible for measurement and two "promoters"
may be designated to guide and supervise work.
2. Sharing the need for change internally
Creating an educational case study to measure HR and sharing
this case with operational-level management allows the reasons for change to be properly explained.
3. Forging a vision: what results do you expect to achieve?
Defining the desired objectives for the HR performance chart
and creating a system for gathering data are pre-requisites for
success.
4. Mobilising efforts: who should be involved?
Every project has its own key players. Knowing how to identify these and obtain their support is a decisive factor.
5. Working out facilitation processes.
To support and accompany change, you have to appoint the right
people to run the project and ensure that proper motivation
methods are in place. Finally, project managers will have to
check the relevance of the communication plan for HR measurement purposes and make the necessary financial investments.
6. Driving through and reporting change.
A plan for measuring HR may prove to be very useful for
benchmarking purposes.
7. Initiating and sustaining change: how should the process
be implemented?
To ensure that the changes made have a lasting effect, the
main thing is to make the measurements visible and easy to
apply, even if they subsequently have to be revised.
A HR performance chart will not remedy a poorly-managed
Human Resources department. However, by gathering rigorous
data that can be updated, you can focus on the main elements of
HR architecture. This offers HR managers the opportunity to lay
their personal stone in the foundations of their company's strategy and lets them become strategic partners in their company. ■
Baesd on HR Scorecard, Brian Becker, Mark Huselid and Dave
Ulrich, Harvard Business School Press, March 2001
© Business Digest 2007
THE HR SCORECARD
Testing the alignment of the HR system with HR results,
using the Stilwell Manufacturing model
Please note from what stage the HR system elements presented above can facilitate the work of
the HR department.
The value scale extends from -100 to +100.
-100: counter-productive for the HR Dept
0: little or no effect on the Dept
+100: makes an effective contribution to the smooth functioning of the Dept.
DNK: don't know
HR Dept
HR
Recruitment
Planning & Selection
Training &
Development
Work
Communication
Management Compensation
Evaluation
& Benefits Organization
System
Job stability
0
0
0
0
-50
-20
0
Teamwork
performance
0
0
-30
-20
-40
0
0
0
0
0
0
+40
0
0
0
-50
0
-50
0
0
0
Performance
vis-à-vis
strategy
Level
of recruitment
of top managers
Source: The HR Scorecard
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DOSSIER
PERFORMANCE
Anyone in charge of developing human resources is now obliged to provide convincing data about how HR
contributes to global company performance. Evaluation techniques are therefore becoming a central issue
in HR departments. One such technique is the finance-inspired return on investment (ROI) method. ROI
evaluation is becoming increasingly popular, because it is based on rational analysis of results in relation to
levels of investment.
The Eight Essential
Phases of ROI in HR
Summary based on The ROI FieldBook by Patricia PULLIAM PHILLIPS, Jack J. PHILLIPS, Ron
DREW STONE, and Holly BURKETT, Butterworth-Heinemann, November 2006.
n The ROI FieldBook, Patricia Pulliam Phillips, Jack J.
Phillips, Ron Drew Stone, and Holly Burkett go through
the steps involved in effectively implementing ROI into a
HR performance evaluation process.
I
1
Evaluation Planning
Planning is an essential step in developing an ROI study, yet
it is often neglected. This preliminary step is the time to ask
the right kinds of questions in view of ensuring high quality
final analysis. What is ROI? Why utilize this method? How?
For whom? When? Planning the assessment process is a way
for the evaluator to save time and money, to improve the
quality of data collected, and to ensure that stakeholders’
needs are fulfilled. To plan effectively:
• Define the purpose of the evaluation;
• Identify the principal stakeholders;
• Connect program objectives to the evaluation method;
• Fix standards that will make it possible to see whether goals
have been met.
•••
Spotlight
8 Misconceptions about ROI
■ Measuring
and evaluating such performance is too costly and time-consuming.
■ Evaluation
of HR programs by ROI is a passing fad.
■ Evaluation
is subjective and cannot be standardized.
■ Evaluation
is impossible when it comes to tacit skills.
■ Evaluation
only concerns certain types of organizations.
■ If
management does not request that programs be evaluated, it is not worth doing so.
■ It
is not always possible to isolate the effects of a training program.
■ Implementing
■
an ROI evaluation system requires special statistical know-how.
24 - L’Oréal 2007
© Business Digest 2007
8 biases against ROI as a performance evaluation method for HR programs that should be banished.
DOSSIER
PERFORMANCE
2
Data Collection
When it comes to ROI, the data collection phase is probably
the most crucial stage in the process, because if information
is merely approximative, it will be impossible to produce a
credible interpretation of it. Hence the reason why you have
to ask the people you are evaluating the right questions. That
implies that the evaluator too must ask him or herself the
right questions. For instance, what am I asking people? How
am I asking it? Who am I asking? And when? In other words,
the evaluator must:
• Devise questions whose answers can be evaluated;
• Identify the most appropriate tool for collecting data;
• Pinpoint sources of worthwhile data
• Determine the best time to collect information
3
Isolating the effects of learning and development
The only way to find out how training programs impact
organizational performance is to isolate their effects.
One must therefore ensure that only performance
improvement that stems from the program whose influence is
being measured be considered in the analysis process. There
are three systems that may be used to pinpoint this
information:
• Control groups: Compare a group of people that are involved
in a skill evaluation program to a similar group that is not
involved in such a program.
• Trend analysis: Compare the performance of a group right
before and just after a training program.
• Deduction: Find out how program participants feel about a
program and how they interpret its usefulness. This method is
not very objective and is only used if and when neither of the
other two methods produce satisfactory results.
© Business Digest 2007
4
Converting Data into Monetary Values
Once you have collected a significant amount of information,
how can it be rendered meaningful with regard to operations?
A particularly effective way of endowing data with such
meaning is to convert it into monetary values. There is a five
step process that makes it possible to distinguish between
data that can be converted and that which cannot (intangible
data):
• Define a unit of measurement;
• Determine the value of the unit of measurement;
• Determine the performance variation that corresponds to
the measurement;
• Calculate annual variation;
• Calculate the total annual value of improvement.
BIOGRAPHY
Patricia PULLIAM PHILLIPS, Jack J. PHILLIPS and Ron DREW
STONE are all leaders of the ROI Institute, Inc., a benchmark
and consulting firm that uses a performance evaluation method
called the ROI Methodolgy™. Patricia Pulliam Phillips is
president and CEO of the company; Jack J. Phillips is chairman
and the creator of the ROI Methodology™; Ron Drew Stone is
senior vice president. Holly BURKETT is a consultant and an
expert in evaluating organizational and work performance.
http://www.roiinstitute.net
5
Tabulating Program Costs
By definition, ROI implies also taking program costs into
account. Cost analysis is based upon three principles:
• Identification: You have to consider all costs, not just direct
costs. For example, salaries that are paid while people are in
training represents opportunity costs.
• Categorization: When program costs are well-organized, it is
possible to assess them more accurately, and they can also be
compared with other areas of spending.
• Presentation: The importance of costs in organizations
makes it wholly worth presenting them as well as possible.
Not presenting estimated costs clearly is tantamount to
discrediting the entire ROI evaluation process.
6
Calculating the Return on Investment (ROI)
Gains (evaluated in financial terms) are compared to
identified costs in order to calculate the return on
investment. To facilitate the interpretation of the ROI
calculated, you must:
• Apply the right formula: ROI = (profits – costs) / costs x
100
• Understand what you are calculating: the effectiveness (not
the efficiency) of an investment in human capital.
• Relativize the significance of ROI. Alone, it is not enough to
produce valid conclusions. It should be associated with other
data and considered in view of the initial objective.
• Double check the components of the ROI. It is only
meaningful if all costs are included and if the conversion of
gains into monetary terms is accurate.
• Use all of the data. ROI is often a starting point for program
evaluation. Other measurements should be utilized in order to
refine analysis.
•••
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DOSSIER
7
PERFORMANCE
8
Reporting results
When data has been collected and analyzed and conclusions
have been drawn, this information must still be
communicated objectively. You must define what is actually
worth reporting and to whom you should communicate. The
following notions should be kept in mind:
• Different targets need to be communicated to in
correspondingly suitable ways;
• Results should be presented at the right time (generally as
soon as they are known, although it is sometimes worth
waiting);
• Specific reporting methods should be used for each type of
audience (the choice of media is particularly important);
• You should present results objectively and modestly;
• Personal testimony is useful, provided that those who have
provided it enjoy enterprise-wide recognition;
• The audience’s view of the training department should
influence the way in which results are presented.
Management support
The ROI evaluation process only reveals its full value and
potential when management is closely involved and ensures
its implementation. Be it only because managers have to be
willing to devote time and resources to each phase of the ROI
evaluation process! That is why it is also important to focus
on managers’ needs and expectations. The goal is to generate
collective momentum for carrying out the ROI evaluation
process. The following should be done:
• Repeatedly stress the importance of managers’ role in learning.
• Show how the projects carried out will contribute to solving
major organizational problems.
• Publicize positive results and report on the advancement of
analysis.
• Put faces on data. People respond more strongly to a person
who shares his or her experience than to a number.
• Manage risks proactively, because an unfortunate mistake
might compromise the credibility of the ROI evaluation
method.
Although the authors generally view this evaluation
technique as applicable to training and development initiatives,
it can also be easily extended to other HR initiatives. ■
Zoom
TRANSFERRING LEARNING TO BEHAVIOR
USING THE FOUR LEVELS TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE
Donald L. Kirkpatrick and James D. Kirkpatrick, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, May 2005
…Or how to successfully implement level 3 evaluation as per the famous Kirkpatrick
model. Ever since its creation in 1959, the 4-level Kirkpatrick model (reaction / learning
/ behavior / results) has been a reference for all training initiative assessment. It is a highly
astute model, where each stage of evaluation takes the previous one to a higher, more
refined level.
This book is co-authored by Donald Kirkpatrick and his son James, and it is inspired by the historic challenge of evaluating
changes in a person’s behavior subsequent to training. It first focuses on the foundation that needs to be laid to ensure that
evaluation of training programs is effective. Examples from case studies of companies like Toyota, Nextel, and a dozen others
then supply ideas of ways to implement this concept efficiently and appropriately. A comment: this model can and should
inspire HR in the broadest sense of the term.
■
26 - L’Oréal 2007
© Business Digest 2007
When it comes to performance evaluation, the people in charge of training are under
increasing pressure to demonstrate that their training initiatives are producing the desired
results. That might mean greater efficiency, lower production costs, an increase in sales,
or ROI. The results of training—level 4 in the model—can only be evaluated after the trainee’s acquisition of the new behaviors required to improve these results has been assessed. For many HR professionals, this forth level of evaluation provides the most accurate
reflection of the effectiveness of their programs. However, it is quite difficult to reach,
because it requires observation of behavior use in real life situations.
Read Further
ZOOM
© Business Digest 2007
RH LES LEVIERS DE LA PERFORMANCE
Patrice Galambert, Eyrolles Éditions d’Organisation,
June 2007
Patrice Galambert, founder of the French consultancy firm
Ecomotiv and a specialist on the links between HR and
finance, has produced his analysis of the various HR
performance levers. He points out
that it is a mistake to think of HR
performance measurement only
in
terms
of
reducing
organizational costs, and insists
that it is also important to
acknowledge the role of
investment in corporate value
creation. His book goes beyond
mere argumentation – it is a
comprehensive guide that tackles
the question of HR performance
from an operational perspective.
He employs a simple and
practical methodology to explain: 1) What HR performance is,
2) how to develop it by optimizing costs and using the right
value creation levers, and 3) how to set up a management
system to monitor costs and results. Galambert's book will
interest anyone who wishes to understand all the
contemporary HR issues.
ROI ON A SHOE-STRING: STRATEGIES
FOR RESOURCE-CONSTRAINED ENVIRONMENTS
By Holly BURKETT, Industrial and Commercial Training
2005, Part 1 in Vol. 37, Issue 1; Part 2 in Vol. 37, Issue 2
Holly Burkett is co-author the The ROI FieldBook, and she
has also written a report on the relevance of ROI in training
programs that is based on examination of 10 case studies
from companies throughout the world. Her initial premise is
the following:
Despite heightened interest in return on investment (ROI) and
in having training professionals prove their bottom-line
organizational value, many practitioners resist comprehensive
measurement and ROI evaluation processes. Indeed, they are
concerned about the cost, time, and human resources
required to fully implement the process. The purpose of this
two-part series is to present ten best practice, cost-saving
approaches for developing a credible, economical ROI
strategy. A systemic approach to measuring training's impact
begins with an evaluation framework. For the purposes of this
article, Jack Phillips' five-level framework for capturing the
PERFORMANCE
financial impact of training programs has been referenced.
Many organizations around the globe are using cost-saving
approaches so that they can begin conducting ROI evaluation
within their current budget. Others use cost-saving
approaches in order to increase the number of ROI studies
they conduct. The ten cost-saving approaches to ROI
measurement programs have been proven to significantly
decrease resource requirements while still providing sound,
credible data. Nevertheless, establishing an evaluation
culture is no easy task. In many ways, implementing a
system-wide R0I effort is similar to implementing a largescale change initiative. Practical application of these costsaving approaches allows resource-constrained training units
to present their work in terms of financial benefits that
leaders understand and have come to expect. It is a vital step
toward establishing business partnerships that enhance
commitment to training programs, products, and services.
[email protected]
SHOW ME THE MONEY
Jack J. Phillips, Patricia Pulliam Phillips, Berrett-Koehler
Publishers, April 2007
In Show Me the Money, Jack J.
Phillips and Patricia Pulliam
Phillips present a simple method
for determining the value of any
project at any stage of its
development.
Their
ROI
evaluation methodology enables
managers,
analysts,
and
consultants to objectively and
precisely assess the value of the
programs that they offer. By
focusing on evaluation in a
dynamic way, the authors not only
provide the keys to measuring the resources required for a
project as well as project results, but they also show readers
how to hone their projects as they develop. In addition, they
discuss how to communicate to stakeholders. Phillips and
Phillips have enriched their book with a large number of case
studies, practical hints, and specific techniques that
facilitate reading. Show Me the Money is an effective guide
for people who are well aware that the financial
rationalization of projects has become a decisive business
issue.
See: http://www.roiinstitute.net/
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