People have traditionally been regarded as an intangible asset. Average market capitalization to book value ratio is 6 to 1 – meaning that for every USD or EUR that investors pay for the assets on the balance sheet, they are paying another 6 USDs or EURs for intangible assets: processes, customers/brands and people. Therefore organisations that succeed in maximising the value of their people will make a significant impact on the value of their business. In these current market conditions, chief executives, finance and human resources directors are under increasing pressure to “measure” their human capital. Stakeholders want clear, evidence-based explanations how people are creating value for their organisation.

Increasingly HR is expected not only to implement business strategies but to also help shape these strategies. At the same time there is pressure on HR to deliver traditional administrative services more efficiently. Sometimes the HR directors feel that some HR processes are inefficient and the HR function could perform better, but they lack hard evidence and exact benchmarking figures to prove it and struggle to gain investment support for their HR initiatives.

It is Saratoga ’s mission to translate human capital into something tangible – measurable and comparable like any other organisational asset. By using the information from the Saratoga HC Benchmarking Survey, you will gain an understanding of your existing human capital profile and be able to draw conclusions upon the profile that you need to build in order to compete successfully.