ISO30414: An invaluable HR tool

ISO 30414 is the reference to the Internal Standards Organisation’s Human resource management — Guidelines for internal and external human capital reporting. It is all about the reporting that you do as HR Professionals; both the quantitative and qualitative data measurements and so improve businesses through better human resource processes.

ISO’s range of International Standards for human resources aims to help HR departments improve their performance and, ultimately, improve the performance of the organisation in which they work.

Typically, the bold corporate statement that “People are at the heart of all that we do” is met with a response of weary cynicism and so the ISO’s range of International Standards for human resources which allows you to introduce metrics and data and actually quantify and qualify your standards are invaluable. In addition to allowing you to demonstrate the ROI figure for having a HR department (and so no longer seen as just a cost centre) you can also

• Use the data collected to start to predict future patterns
• Benchmark against any organisation globally with the standard
• Demonstrate definitively that the entire organisation is on the same page with culture
• Speak the same language as the Board

It is important to note too that the ISO 30414 standard is now a necessary for organisations listed on the American stock exchange.

What

The standard is broken down into the following core areas and metrics:

The standard has been written for a large organisation but, shows adjustments that could be made for a smaller organisation.

As you would expect, the standard provides standard definitions (via ISO30400 Human Resource Management – Vocabulary) so that HR departments globally are using the same definitions and formulae to calculate the various metrics. This means that as with other standards, you can compare globally not just within your industry or nation.

The document looks at the risk management process as it would apply to an organisation’s people. The amazing team at the UK registrar for the standard, HCM Metrics, assure me that they have some fabulous software to start to predict future possibilities!

One of the most exciting metrics in the whole standard is that of an Human Capital Return on Investment. This shows how effective the investment in the managers and HR teams of an organisation is in supporting the organisation’s goals.

The Auditing Process

When you sign up with the registrar to be audited, a number of things will happen. You will be allocated a team of auditors who will come and meet the senior team and key stakeholders. They will support you through raising awareness of the standard across the whole workforce. You can choose some of your team to go through the auditor certification themselves (a 3-day course). The auditor will also start looking at the data to hand. This could be in paper files, a HR information system, through group discussions and individual interviews and a variety of other methods. The auditor wants a variety of information sources to back up the data that they are seeing. The auditor, remotely, will then assess the information against the standard directly and a RAG report will be generated and shared with the organisation. It is a simple data present, partial data present or data missing process along with notes from the auditor. This is presented to the senior team and key stakeholders. As there have been no completed audits in the UK at the time of writing, the auditor team will have prepared the organisation for an initial report that shows there is work to do.

The organisation can then choose to work through the report and make changes themselves, or they can engage the support of an HR Consultant to support them through making those changes. HCM Metrics has a list of preferred suppliers that it can share with you to look at. The auditor and the HR Consultant must not be the same individual.

Once the changes are made, the auditor will return and complete a certification audit. The results of this will be passed to HCM Metrics who will then confer the accreditation on the organisation.

What Next

Wright Solutions, through our Associate Emma Smith, can support you with advice and consultancy. If you would like some more details, or to arrange an introductory conversation call us on 0121 222 5599 NOW

Emma has over 20 years of HR experience at all levels in an organisation and across a wide range of sectors. She completed her auditor qualification with the first group of people to take the course in September 2020 and now works with organisations either as an auditor, a HR Consultant or in sharing details of the standard with other HR professionals and senior teams within business.