Meeting the challenges of high-performance HR

Until 1760 ships routinely disappeared, ran aground, or sank because seafarers could not measure longitude. The cost in life and property was immense. Today, business faces a similar challenge, as the failure to measure human resources performance is just as costly and deadly to modern organizations.

Senior executives once considered HR a "soft," unavoidable cost of doing business, responsible for compensation, employee transactions, company functions, workforce problems, and legal issues. Three factors changed this...