Reviews of The Workforce Scorecard

Building on The HR Scorecard, the authors have achieved the next level in strategic metrics – assessing the role of the workforce in making strategy happen. Their focus is not HR metrics, but workforce metrics in the context of business strategy. They ask, What do we need to measure about the workforce to deliver strategy? – not how do we measure HR. At J&J we asked and attempted to answer same question, one of the reasons we believe CEO Magazine named J&J a pacesetter in leadership development.

– Michael J. Carey, former Vice President, Human Resources and Corporate Officer, Johnson & Johnson

What is measured gets done. Firm success depends entirely on the contribution of the workforce. This book breaks new ground with the concepts and tools for measuring workforce contribution.

– Ram Charan, co-author (with Larry Bossidy and Charles Burck) of the best-selling Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

HR leaders can no longer earn “strategic partner status” by designing and delivering state of the art programs. Our efforts should result in measurable actions that build the desired culture and develop tomorrow’s strategic workforce, while achieving today’s customer and ownership objectives. The Workforce Scorecard provides practical, results oriented tools that challenge traditional thinking about Human Capital management.

– Mark Gilstrap, Senior Vice-President and Chief People Officer, American Century Investments

If you’re interested in improving your company’s capability to deliver business results this is a great book. It demonstrates how to deliver business results through people. Read it and find out how to make it happen!

– Bob Joy, Senior Vice President Human Resources, Colgate-Palmolive, Inc

Organizations like to think they’re good at measurement, but the only measures that matter are those indicative of a firm’s strategic success. Firms need scorecards that capture financial, customer, business process and workforce success. This is how a workforce can be held accountable for strategy execution. This book delivers on its promise of metrics for workforce success in the context of the Business Scorecard.

– William F. Joyce, Amos Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth University, and co-author of What Really Works: the 4+2 Formula for Sustained Business Success

I am left unsatisfied by most “business books,” because while I sometimes violently agree with their arguments, they often ultimately fail to tell me exactly how to implement what they espouse. Two shining exceptions are Ram Charan and Larry Bossidy’s masterpiece, Execution: The Art of Getting Things Done, and now Huselid, Becker and Beatty’s The Workforce Scorecard, which I believe is destined to become a classic, as well.

“Score-keeping” and “differentiation” were at the core of Jack Welch’s leadership beliefs at GE, from the famous “A, B, and C player” designations to the revolutionary “4 types” of leaders. Differentiation was rigidly practiced throughout the Company, and compensation programs, such as bonuses and stock options, were managed—some might say micromanaged—by Jack, so that they never turned into what he derided as “another dental plan”.

Welch scored and differentiated by instinct and by his ability to read workforce performance data as if it were a balance sheet. This book tells you exactly how to do both.

– Bill Lane was Manager, Executive Communications at GE and Jack Welch’s speechwriter for 20 years

Business strategy and HR strategy are becoming commonplace terms. Workforce strategy is the missing link. This book should be read by line managers and HR managers who together must execute business strategy. It contends that most firms have two strategies (business and HR), but they need a third - a workforce strategy - to successfully execute the firm’s strategy.

– Paul Newton-Syms, Head of HR - Pharma Division, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

What gets inspected gets respected. This book addresses the last frontier of competitive advantage: workforce accountability. Organizations don’t change, only people do. Holding people accountable for delivering business strategy is imperative for a company’s success. This book provides metrics for holding management accountable to close the performance gap…a major contribution.

– Daniel Phelan, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, GlaxoSmithKline

By shifting the managerial perspective of the workforce from a traditional “cost to be reduced” to a “source of competitive capacity”, the authors make a compelling case for a renewed focus on the workforce as a strategic asset to be measured and managed systematically. They provide a methodology for line managers to improve their capacity to execute complex strategies through effective work force management.  This represents a major contribution to improving the effectiveness of line executives in getting things done.

– C. K. Prahalad is Harvey C. Fruehauf Professor of Business Administration & Professor of Corporate Strategy and International Business at the University of Michigan. He is author of the bestselling books Competing for the Future (with Gary Hamel) and The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value with Customers (with Venkat Ramaswamy)

The book makes a powerful statement how HR can contribute to a competitive advantage of a firm - differentiate! It provides a clear rationale why differentiation on the outside must be supported by differentiation from the inside, and provides numerous concrete examples and tools how this can be done. With this book, the field of HR strategy takes on a new significance.

– Vladimir Pucik is Professor of International Human Resources and Strategy at IMD - International Institute for Management Development, Lausanne

It is fashionable to talk about linking business strategy to an organization’s human capital and to capability development, but Huselid, Becker and Beatty provide a practical, logical process that can make it a reality. The Workforce Scorecard is a groundbreaking effort that truly speaks to both executives and human resource professionals, demonstrating how they can lead strategy execution via metrics. Follow this book’s advice; it works.

– Craig Eric Schneier, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Human Resources, Biogen Idec, Inc.

If you want to build a high performance and accountable organization, this book is the place to start. Huselid, Becker and Beatty present a compelling case for a workforce strategy as the key requisite for strategy execution that leads tohigh performance in any company.

– Linda Sorrell, Senior Vice President Talent Strategy, Diageo