SOLUTION ENGINEERING
Sitting with the Head of Human Resources for a global manufacturing company, I enquired what the company spent on human capital including compensation, benefits and training. The response was, “….a little over $1 billion dollars.”
I then asked if the company would be interested in sending every employee a one question survey. The response was, “What’s the question?”
The question was. “On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being optimal, to what extent does the company utilize your skills, talents and competencies?”
There was some hesitation before I received a response, “I would guess that the average score of the survey would be about 6.5.”
I made the observation the company was paying over $1 billion dollars for human capital and with a score of 6.5, it was leaving $350 million worth of human capital value on the table.
The response, “Nobody can get a 10.”
The counter, “Is 7.5 possible? Every point is worth about $100m.”
The response, “How would you get from 6.5 to 7.5?”
The answer, “Ask a one question follow-up survey with the question being: How could the company better utilize you skills, talents and competencies?. Then management could use the results to design a strategy and roadmap to increase the company’s human capital utilization.”