Evaluating Human Resources Programs
January 03, 2008
A 6-phase approach for optimizing performance (By Jack Edwards, John Scott, and Nambury Raju, Pfeiffer, 261 pages, $35)
By Jane Bozarth
Overall Rating: 3 Stars
"What is needed is a systematic methodology for…determining how a program can be improved, replaced, or outsourced to meet success criteria."
HR is shifting from policy enforcer to strategic partner, and a successful transition depends on HR's ability to prove, improve, and sustain its value and impact. It is critical that the right objectives be set, that those objectives be measured in meaningful ways, and that evaluation be undertaken not only to prove results but also to work toward continual improvement.
Easier said than done? It isn't just a matter of holding a couple of focus group meetings and filling out some questionnaires. Sound program evaluation is challenging, time consuming, and, as much as anything, it is about choices: Which stakeholders? Which methodologies? Which questions? Should participants or data be anonymous? What to do with unexpected data? How to present findings—including bad news—to management?
"Evaluating Human Resources Programs" offers a systematic, plain-English guide to conducting three types of evaluation: goal-based, to focus on program objectives; process-based, to focus on workflow and procedures; and outcome-based, to focus on results.
The authors provide guidelines for making the choices critical to a good evaluation and offer advice for presenting results in ways that will help understanding and action. There's also, in the face of a current thinking, a discussion of the downside of outsourcing HR: You can’t be an integral, strategic partner if you aren’t even part of the organization. Practical as well as comprehensive, this is a good tool for thinking through and conducting program evaluations that will help to sustain and improve HR’s contributions to an organization's success.
Buy Evaluating Human Resources Programs: A 6-Phase Approach for Optimizing Performance (Pfeiffer Essential Resources for Training and HR Professionals).
Jane Bozarth is learning coordinator, N.C. Office of State Personnel/HR Development Group, Raleigh, NC.
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