Standards Development

Scope

This international technical specification describes the elements of workforce productivity and provides comparable measures for internal and external reporting.

The technical specification (TS) also highlights issues that need to be considered when interpreting the workforce productivity data especially when deciding on the appropriate intervention internally and when reporting these to external stakeholders (e.g. regulators, investors).

Purpose

This proposal builds on the work of #ISO30414 and is done by ISO/TC260 WG2 metrics. At the Plenary meeting held in Paris in 2018, the committee decided that WG-2 would prepare metrics in support of ISO30414 in a cluster process by human capital metric area.

The scope of this technical specification reflects the work and definitions and discussion from #ISO30414. Workforce productivity metrics reflect and quantify the impact that changes in the workforce has on the organization’s economic outcomes, efficiency and effectiveness of the organization’s operations.

In this TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION you will find the description of the internationally accepted metrics, and indicators which describe the Workforce Productivity metrics and measures relating to workforce productivity in organizations as defined by outputs relative to costs invested in workforce. The workforce productivity in organizations is observed, analysed and described in the following ways:

• workforce productivity refers to the productive output of employees, contractors, and contingent/ temporary labour relative to the cost of such labour. It is important for both internal and external stakeholders, because it allows an assessment of the productivity of the workforce. HR managementrelated return, if regarded as a relation between earnings and capital expenditure, is influenced by human capital.

• For the area of productivity, the following metrics are recommended for internal and external reporting by large organizations and SMEs:

1. EBIT/revenue/turnover/profit per employee.

2. Human capital RoI In describing and defining workforce productivity in organizations, this Technical Specification will also highlight issues that should be considered when determining the nature and extent of any intervention for workforce productivity. The discussion focuses on the care required in the interpretation of your metrics.

These issues include the need to understand the external operating environment. Factors that may be relevant including the employment levels, workforce composition, structure, industry sector; compensation practices, experience and supply of the requisite skills; labour necessary to perform required work on behalf of the organization. These metrics also enable competitor benchmarking activity (which may include other sectors when competing for scarce transferable skills).

There are also issues internal to the organization that impact workforce productivity. They may include factors around the work itself, levels of training and experience determined to be required as well as compensation and benefit factors that make an organization a more or less attractive place to work. Issues around leadership, quality of managers and the practice of people management across all the teams; notwithstanding the espoused policies and procedures.

While these internal and external issues may impact workforce productivity, it is important to understand that not all workforce productivity is impacted to greater and or lessor extent than other factors. For example, a steady level of staff attrition may or may not impact workforce productivity depending upon the types and reasons for workers leaving. If the organization is losing high performing, highly innovative or highly engaged workers, there is likely to be a much larger workforce  productivity impact than if an organization is losing average or poor performing workers or in the case of workers on internships or temporary projects and work.