Workers and Their Worth

In another part of my writing life, I'm the perpetrator of a series of mystery novels (none of which involves the demise of HR practitioners, by the way). The path to the first book's publication was paved with a lot of plotting, rejection, and many early morning writing sessions that left me bleary eyed. But after a couple of years of concentrated work, I finally was offered a publishing contract.

My hand shook as I signed it. Someone was actually going to pay me for stories spun out of my imagination (and a fair amount of research into things like law-school chicanery, death by Amtrak, and whether someone could extricate herself from the trunk of an older-model Hyundai).

I'm proud of the books, but I know that if I divide my modest advances by the hours of writing, editing, and what-iffing that novels entail, I will be in deep, deep negative territory.

I don't regret doing it, though. My books have value for my publisher, and for readers who plunk down their money in exchange for a few hours of diversion. I earned some dollars, but more important was the knowledge and skill I gained in the process. I think that the experience has added measurably to my value as a writer and editor.

That's how it is for most of us in a knowledge economy. Unlike our grandmothers, who were paid by the number of shirts they sewed, more and more workers today are prized not for the units they produce, but for their ability to think creatively, to solve problems, and to what-if their organizations to greater productivity and profits.

The theme of worker value runs through several stories in this issue. The cover story, "What Are Employees Worth?" examines how companies are trying to measure the brainpower in their organizations. As writer Eilene Zimmerman points out, nearly 75 percent of the sources of value in companies are never reported--we have yet to come up with an accounting system that can record it. That's a huge problem. "How do you make investment decisions if you use an accounting system that doesn't really tell you very much about what creates value in the future?" asks Jan Hoffmeister, an executive with Skandia, a Swedish company that's a leader in measuring the value of its human assets. WORKFORCE shows how companies and academics are coming up with metrics that you can use in your organization.

Two other stories look at creative ways to best use a company's human capital. Donna G. Albrecht explains how companies can make the most of older workers, and what they must do to hold on to the knowledge, experience, and practical wisdom that a veteran employee has in her head. In "Formalizing Flextime," Sarah Fister Gale puts a new twist on what has been viewed as an employee benefit. Flextime, it turns out, is as much about increasing productivity as it is about giving workers a four-day week. By smoothing out some of the scheduling wrinkles that flextime can bring, organizations can retain valuable knowledge power and make for a less stressed, more focused workforce.

We also introduce a new column this month. In "Think Twice," which closes the magazine, Todd Raphael poses some challenges to HR's conventional wisdom. In this issue, Raphael might be able to convince you that paying a 25-year-old baseball player $252 million is a good thing--not just for the shortstop's bank account, but also for his organization, and for the HR profession itself.

COPYRIGHT 2001 ACC Communications Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group