Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Human Capital Science
When a company states that human capital is their top priority perhaps we should take them at their word. I know that sounds silly when the cynical view prevails but its naive for us to think it as their only priority and, they probably have all kinds of short term issues as well. It's completely possible that the combination of putting out fires and not knowing what to do about HC simply crowds out the issue.
So, if addressing human capital is not the top priority on any given day, then what's lacking is an appropriate long term effort to redesign our approach it. It's a topic, to be sure. But when you examine who is trying to solve it you see a myriad of entrepreneurial wizards offering products from the fringes. These same innovators try to sell their creations upstream to a mainstream audience of slow (that's S-L-O-W) adopters who seem aware of the problems they face but not how to treat them. This is the state of human capital redesign today. For a top 5 issue in companies today, it is not enough.
Within the world of HR who do we look to? SHRM? Get serious. If ever there was an organization built for inbreeding this is it. SHRM is designed for networking and chatting up 'Best Practices'. It's a club for people with common interests. It makes money, has good membership and strong brand identity but lends no discernible contribution to the human capital paradigm. It is pro-industry, but doesn't move it. There are limitations on enterprises that aren't institutions - they need to make money - and there are no established Human Capital institutions. (Apologies to the Human Capital Institute - the right idea, but much smaller than needed and not an HR institution today).
Its not about having an institution, but a school of thought. We need a point of view - a philosophy of, or a paradigm of how best to employ human capital. What we have today is an aggregation of rules and habits that get mucked up with every new labor law. We seek out best practices just to figure out how to comply with laws instead of making real progress. Other lines of business have schools of thought - finance and accounting, sales and marketing - we just have 'human resources'. Its a collection of stuff, not a discipline, not a point of view. We have no school of thought. This is what the field needs. Business isn't coming up with anything (not today's top priority) and the lack of HC institutions hasn't helped. Perhaps we'll see the birth of a new academic area - human capital science?
So, if addressing human capital is not the top priority on any given day, then what's lacking is an appropriate long term effort to redesign our approach it. It's a topic, to be sure. But when you examine who is trying to solve it you see a myriad of entrepreneurial wizards offering products from the fringes. These same innovators try to sell their creations upstream to a mainstream audience of slow (that's S-L-O-W) adopters who seem aware of the problems they face but not how to treat them. This is the state of human capital redesign today. For a top 5 issue in companies today, it is not enough.
Within the world of HR who do we look to? SHRM? Get serious. If ever there was an organization built for inbreeding this is it. SHRM is designed for networking and chatting up 'Best Practices'. It's a club for people with common interests. It makes money, has good membership and strong brand identity but lends no discernible contribution to the human capital paradigm. It is pro-industry, but doesn't move it. There are limitations on enterprises that aren't institutions - they need to make money - and there are no established Human Capital institutions. (Apologies to the Human Capital Institute - the right idea, but much smaller than needed and not an HR institution today).
Its not about having an institution, but a school of thought. We need a point of view - a philosophy of, or a paradigm of how best to employ human capital. What we have today is an aggregation of rules and habits that get mucked up with every new labor law. We seek out best practices just to figure out how to comply with laws instead of making real progress. Other lines of business have schools of thought - finance and accounting, sales and marketing - we just have 'human resources'. Its a collection of stuff, not a discipline, not a point of view. We have no school of thought. This is what the field needs. Business isn't coming up with anything (not today's top priority) and the lack of HC institutions hasn't helped. Perhaps we'll see the birth of a new academic area - human capital science?
