Clients Say the Most Amazing Things: How Do You Report to Your Board on the Status of “Your Biggest Asset”?

July 20th, 2013
Written by: Elizabeth Richards

From time to time, TPO posts first-hand C-level business perspectives, excerpted from an ongoing series of conversations we have with our clients.  This one is from the Executive Director of a National Professional Association:

“It’s useful to think through a set of issues related to human capital, both in terms of what it costs you to support that capital, what you should spend to maintain that capital, what are the maintenance costs, the professional development costs, and what is the return on that investment, in a very businesslike point of view.  But also, I think it’s worthwhile to present some statement about the value of the human capital to your board. And that’s something we don’t necessarily always think about; it’s often that we simply report on what the organization has done, what are the financial aspects of performance over recent time, and what are our financial projections. But reminding board members of the centrality of staff, the centrality of the talent that you have in the organization, I think that’s a good thing, too.”