Making Cents of Career Services
© Bill Fenson, President-Elect of NECA
But, as Thomas Stewart of Fortune Magazine warns, there is and will continue to be an employee - most especially an executive shortage. He points out that the baby boom generation has entered its fifties and over the next few years will be retiring in large numbers. Younger generations, fewer in numbers, will not be able to fill the vacancies. The number of people between the ages of thirty-five and forty-four will fall by fifteen percent over the next fifteen years.(1)
So, what is human capital? James Hatch, Global Director for People Strategy and Human Resource Management for Arthur Anderson, New York defines it as "...all about people's intellect, knowledge and experience."(2) Proponents of human capital management believe that by measuring the broad impact that employees have on the financial value of an organization, companies can hire, manage, assess and develop employees in a way that converts human attributes into financial figures. Leif Edvinsson, as Corporate Director of Intellectual Capital for Skandia, pioneered the measurement of intellectual capital. Edvinsson, viewing human capital as the driver of innovation, and financial capital as the end result, designed the "Skandia Navigator," to track the value of human capital through use of an empowerment index reflecting employee motivation, loyalty and competence.(3) Since Skandia's AFS division began using the Navigator in 1991 its gross revenue has grown from $300 million to $16 billion in 1998. Edvinsson attributes that growth to Skandia's innovative approach to "building an organizational system in which human talents can flourish." He points to the Navigator tool and Skandia's continuing exploration of human capital as a large part of that success.(4)
Edvinsson and other human capital pioneers such as Alagasco's CEO Michael Warren, see an organization's competitive advantage, its success, as two-fold: not only employee retention, but also carefully documented management and coaching.
This is where career counseling can help. While career counselors typically work with employees to identify their personal and professional needs, the end result is almost invariably the identification of the needs of the organization and the quantification of the employees' value to the firm.
Is career development for every employee? Absolutely. Yes, we all have in our employ some workers who readily attest to having no interest in development. They know their jobs, they say, and 'just want to put in their hours and go home.' But, to perform well in their present areas of responsibility, people must keep pace with development in their field. No job remains the same for very long and a worker who is doing the job the same way she or he did a year ago is less effective, if not completely wrong.(5)
