week 5 discussion post, metrics

This week is all about metrics!Metrics are merely measurements that are expressed in percentages ornumerals that can be used to evaluate or give information about thesuccess of our actions or programs. The course module, self assessment,and reading material for the week provide excellent foundationalmaterial that I urge you to review prior to applying your knowledge in the following questions and your next presentation.

Note the following:

• We do not use the term matrix or metrics system when referring to metrics for this assignment
• We can use the term metric (singular)and the term metrics (plural) but we need to use their respectiveappropriate verbs (a metric is or metrics are).

Many Chief Executive Officers (CEO’s)and Chief Financial Officers (CFO’s) complain that their Human Resourceprofessionals do not report metrics about Total Rewards or otherwise that matterto the organization or share relevant information. We want you to beable to provide metrics that are relevant to the organization – metricsthat matter.

After selecting a metric for thisdiscussion, ask yourself what does the metric that I am proposing tellme about the effectiveness of the Total Rewards program? It must relateto Total Rewards to be a relevant metric for this discussion and foryour next presentation. Revenue, profit, customer satisfaction are gooddata to know, but they are not good metrics for this assignment.

Further, the percentage of turnover is not important by itself as a metric,but the metric of the percentage of the highly valued employees who areleaving the organization and why they are leaving is helpful to knowsince the data should tell us if the rewards currently offered are afactor in those valuable employees leaving. Whether employees are happy is not a helpful metric(nothing against having happy employees but the organization would bebetter informed if it knew whether the employees are engaged in theirwork because of the total rewards). A metric that reports the percentageof the employees who are satisfied with the organization is not as helpful as knowing by individual segment of employee which benefit is of most value, through a forced ranking of the benefits.

Please keep this information in mindas you answer the following questions and design your secondpresentation, due this Sunday by midnight. The second presentation andyour final assignments will continue to use the organization you used inyour first PowerPoint presentation.

1. Give an academic definition of the term metric (with an in-text citation and full reference)

2. Discuss why, in general, metricsare important for HR professionals to report. For example, they canassist the HR professional in achieving their goals and objectives whilealso assisting the whole organization. For example if innovation is acore capability of the organization, tracking the level of turnover ofthe individuals who have had the most success innovating would beimportant along with knowing why these individuals are leaving. Thismetric would allow the organization to change incentives or otherrewards, if needed, or look for other ways to retain the needed talent.

3. Share an example of one metric youare considering for your second MS PowerPoint presentation when you willpresent three metrics to evaluate the success of the total rewardsprogram. Assignment 2 is due at the end of this week.

State or describe:

• A metric you are considering for thenext assignment (typically a metric is an outcome and is presented as apercentage or index).
• What the metric tells the organization about the effectiveness of the total rewards program
• How the metric aligns with the organizational capabilities (what it does best)
• How the metric aligns with the employee competencies (the knowledge, skills, and abilities)
• How the data for the metric will becollected (for example, through an electronic survey, exit interviews,data from the Human Resource Information System (HRIS), focus groups orsomething else)