The temporary slowdown in our economy has lulled employers to sleep when it comes to human capital management.

According to Roger Herman, author of “Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Too Few People,” as the economy heats up, many employers will not be able to hire enough people to replace those who leave for greener pastures.

From past experience, as managers of newspapers know all too well, some will look for different jobs, others just to escape their present position. Yet all will be taking their knowledge and expertise with them. 

What steps should managers take now to avoid the brain drain?

As pointed out in draft findings in the Newspaper Association of America’s Pipeline Study in November 2001, employee training and development and the managers’ treatment of their human capital are consistently two of the top three reasons why employees join, stay or leave a newspaper.

Before the economy heats up and newspapers begin to lose their best and brightest employees to the competition, executives must realign their human resources to meet overall business objectives.

Goes beyond mere numbers

When defining human capital, this goes beyond tabulating a simple number of how many employees a newspaper has.

Instead, human capital is referred to as the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) employees possess that enable them to function effectively.

How these resources are shaped and focused can greatly impact a newspaper’s ability to be successful. 

More than a catch phrase, human capital management is the ability to demonstrate cost management and strategic thinking in the critical human resources area. Through the creation of performance measurement tools to evaluate, demonstrate and report human capital metrics, it supports the future of the organization. Examples for measurement include:

*Establishing thorough workflow mapping

*Assessing organizational needs

*Managing job requirements

*Focusing recruitment

*Developing needed competencies

*Creating effective performance management accountability and

*Establishing clear rewards programs

Managing the human capital inventory of KSAs will provide the data needed to support planning, growth, training, employee succession planning, organization change and continuous improvement.

The ability to match training, education and skills with current or anticipated human resource needs will allow you to respond more quickly when required.

This will often result in better, faster and more cost-effective service. At the same time, knowing your competitors and identifying their key talent may permit you to recruit and attract the right talent at the right time.

In a practical sense, however, tools needed to manage your human capital extend beyond understanding employees’ KSAs.

Day-to-day relationships between supervisors and employees are equally important, according to the NAA Pipeline Study.

These relationships, primarily focusing on attitudes, motivation and behavior, are reflected in such policies as flexible workplaces. These workplaces allow employees to contribute ideas regarding their work and usually result in a level of trust between senior management and employees.

Strong link

Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a human resources consultancy, found in its annual Human Capital Index survey that companies with human capital practices generally enjoyed greater shareholder value. The Index also indicated that value grew regardless of general economic conditions.

As we move into the knowledge age, the definition of human capital management increasingly means properly aligning limited human resources toward achieving business goals and strategic objectives.

The research tells us that great human capital management equals great shareholder value.

Ken Columbia is the Newspaper Association of America’s director of industry staff development. He can be reached via e-mail at coluk@naa.org.