MODERN WORKFORCE
Finding the right measures
for workplace capability
By Stacey Barr
A
recent report by the
McKinsey Global Institute
forecasts that by the end
of this decade, employers in
advanced economies will find that
10% of their demand for tertiaryeducated workers won’t be met.
Workforce Capability, one of the
most important drivers of lasting
competitive advantage, is set
to slide backwards. The report
suggests that “business as usual”
20 ModernBusiness
September 2016
methods for managing the gap
will no longer be enough, so it’s a
strategic result that’s becoming
ever more critical to improve.
To improve something, it needs
to be measured. Otherwise there
is no objective information to
decide if, and in response to what
initiative, the result is changing.
But Workforce Capability has
continued to be tricky to measure
meaningfully. In large part, that
is because it’s not a goal. It’s a
theme, a concept, a domain of
performance. Nothing that broad
can be measured meaningfully.
This is why it’s often measured
with activity-based measures,
like ‘Number of People Trained’,
or what’s easy to measure, like
‘Employee Turnover’, or what
everyone else is measuring, like
‘Employee Engagement Index’.