12.6 Tips in Your Walkabout Toolkit

Applying the Balanced Scorecard Method to Your Human Capital

Let’s translate the Workforce Scorecard to your own Balanced Scorecard of human capital. As a reminder, the idea behind the HRM scorecard is that if developmental attention is given to each area, then the organization will be more likely to be successful. In this case, however, you use the scorecard to better understand why you may or may not be effective in your current work setting. When you create the Worforce Scorecard for your company, it should comprise four sets of answers and activities (Carpenter, Bauer, & Erdogan, 2011).

1. What are your mind-set and values? Do you understand the organization’s strategy and embrace it, and do you know what to do in order to implement the strategy? If you answered no to either of these questions, then you should consider investing some time in learning about your firm’s strategy. For the second half of this question, you may need additional coursework or mentoring to understand what it takes to move the firm’s strategy forward.
2. What are your work-related competencies? Do you have the skills and abilities to get your job done? If you have aspirations to key positions in the organization, do you have the skills and abilities for those higher roles?
3. What are the leadership and workforce behaviors? If you aren’t currently in a leadership position, do you know how consistently your leaders are behaving in regard to the achievement of strategic objectives? If you are one of the leaders, are you behaving strategically?
4. How are you contributing to the organization’s success? Can you tie your mind-set, values, competencies, and behaviors to the organization’s performance and success?

This simple scorecard assessment will help you understand why your human capital is helping the organization or needs additional development itself. With such an assessment in hand, you can act to help the firm succeed and identify priority areas for personal growth, learning, and development.