This page contains a variety of free resources, organized by subject matter, for improving your organization’s work and learning environment. Some of these documents are older, but we think they’re all still relevant and valuable!
Jump to a section using the following links. If you still have questions, feel free to contact us.
Surveys
Surveys are powerful tools. Use them for employee engagement, employee benefits preferences, diversity and inclusion, and more.
Assessing Your Employee Engagement Survey: 10 Crucial Questions
Employee engagement surveys have enormous—but typically untapped—power to drive better business results.
Principles for Effective Employee Surveys
Six things to keep in mind when designing your next survey.
Assess Your Company’s Current Employee Survey
Use this quick self-assessment to determine how your company’s current engagement survey stacks up.
Surveys are valuable tools for gathering information on employees’ views on the pros and cons of your benefits package and its components.
Getting the Most Out of Your Employee Survey
We recommend three steps to create more value from your employee engagement survey.
Human Capital Reporting
Learn more about human capital reporting, including ISO standards. We’ve been involved from the beginning.
HR Certified: Voluntary Standardized Human Capital Reporting
For years voluntary standardized human capital reporting has been on the table. It’s about to become a reality.
Advancing the HR Profession: Consistent Standards in Reporting Sustainable Human Capital Outcomes
HR is developing consistent standards and metrics in HR reporting and we’re making progress.
Human Capital
Resources and research on measuring and managing your people.
By Laurie Bassi and Daniel McMurrer
Harvard Business Review, March 2004, p. 18
Managers are always claiming, “People are our most important asset.” But deep down, they can’t shake the feeling that employees are costs. Big costs. And they treat them that way. Quarterly earnings off? Cut the perks, rein in training, and downsize. This strategy may raise earnings in the short term, but it’s myopic. Recent studies suggest that layoffs actually destroy shareholder value. And our research shows that treating employees like the assets they are – by investing in their development – boosts returns over the long term.
In December 2001, we decided to put our money where our research was, creating a live portfolio of companies that spend aggressively on employee development. In its first 25 months since inception, that portfolio has outperformed the S&P 500 index by 4.6 percentage points (2.2% versus a decline of 2.4 percentage points for the index).
In January 2003, we expanded our investment strategy by launching two additional live equity portfolios composed of similar development-oriented companies.
The results speak for themselves: While past performance is never a guarantee of future results, and while it is always possible to lose money, each of these three portfolios outperformed the S&P 500 by 17% to 35% in 2003. (See the exhibit “The People Payoff.”) How are you investing in your most important asset?
The full article is available for purchase from Harvard Business Review.
What’s the Business Impact of Learning?
Where Should Human Capital Fit in the Sustainability Agenda?
Human Capital Management Predicts Stock Prices
Does Engagement Really Drive Results?
Employers’ Perspectives on Human Capital Management and Development
Maximizing Your Return on People
Workplace Education for Low-Wage Workers
The Impact of US Firms’ Investments in Human Capital on Stock Prices
Analytics
Take the guesswork out of the people side of the business.
Raging Debates in HR Analytics
Glassdoor Scores Are Important
Quick HC Analytics Poll Results
The Economist’s Approach to Human Capital Metrics and Why HR Is Getting it Wrong
100 Questions You Can Answer with HR Analytics
HR Analytics: Why, What, and How
Human Capital Analytics: Aligning People and Results
Identifying Your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
The Nine Most Common ROI Mistakes
Using Human Capital Analytics to Create Competitive Advantage
Good Company
In 2011, Berrett-Koehler published Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era, by Laurie Bassi, Ed Frauenheim, and Dan McMurrer, with Larry Costello. The book was a ground-breaking exploration of the relationship between a company’s behavior and its financial performance.
It used both stories and rigorous quantitative analysis of publicly-available data in its assessment, concluding that companies that behave as good employers, good sellers, and good stewards (of the environment and community) do indeed perform better financially.
Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era
Animation of the story of Good Company
Laboring to Stay Ahead: Better Behavior Leading to Success for Businesses
Financial Institutions
People drive success in banks and credit unions.
What Differentiates Top-Performing Credit Unions
Our 2019 research on the relationship between employee ratings and credit union financial performance.
If there’s one thing we can agree on, it’s this: dealing with people problems is never easy. But it can be done! Read our step-by-step guide to tackling people problems in credit unions.
Explore the relationship between ROE and how employees rate their banks as employers.
Training Investments as a Predictor of Banks’ Subsequent Stock Market Performance
Training expenditures are a very strong and statistically significant predictor of subsequent stock prices.
