Humans are the New Assets - ISO 55000: Attracting and Retaining Skilled Staff

摘要

The new ISO 55000 Asset Management standards have expanded the concept of assets to include human resources. But is industry really prepared to make informed decisions on human resource programs, as they do for physical assets? In fact, does industry have adequate tools to evaluate the benefits of human resources initiatives? Does industry typically implement HR strategy piecemeal, in individual initiatives? This paper provides a case study of human resources initiatives that were introduced in a large utility to mitigate the effects of its ageing workforce. These initiatives included mentoring, rejuvenation hiring, procedures updating and training efforts. The impacts of such HR programs often cannot be evaluated using ordinary engineering economics analysis. The paper reviews established qualitative and quantitative techniques that might improve HR program valuation and concludes with a recommendation that cost engineers further study techniques for evaluating HR program benefits.