Table of Contents and overview of this Report
Introduction
1 What’s the issue?
2 How do boards assess human capital?
3 Sources of information on HR
4 Board committees and processes
5 Roles and capabilities in people governance
6 CHROs / HR directors
7 Board’s own people processes
8 Conclusions and challenges
9 Recommendations
10 Afterword by Dave Ulrich
11 Bibliography and references Introduction

As independent researchers we have the luxury of being able, from time to time, to tackle
a topic purely because we think it is important.
We have long been fascinated by certain anomalies in business.
For example, while organizational leaders so often declare employees to be their most
important asset, their boards rarely seem to include anyone with deep professional
knowledge of people management practices and organizational development. Meanwhile
financial analysts mostly display complete disinterest in HR, despite their need to discern
the sources of lasting value.
Employee engagement is much spoken about, but it is striking how often organizational
change has been managed in a way that undermines trust and employer reputations, and
how many M&As and public sector re-organisations have destroyed value and failed to
improve outputs.
In recent times, risk management has been exposed as shallow where it doesn’t take
human behavior fully into account, particularly at the top. In response, corporate governance
requirements have been introduced with many ‘people’ implications (although without ever
using the term HR). One striking aspect has been the increasing requirement for boards to
demonstrate that they themselves are adhering to good people practices.
And what of the HR professional community in all this? Since the 1990s, unfortunately
surveys and reports have consistently indicated dissatisfaction with HR – and indeed within
HR – about its business impact. It is noticeable, for example, that in the media onslaught on
executive pay, very little has been heard from the ‘people experts’. From other work, we are
aware how few HR managers see a connection between corporate governance and what
they do – yet at the same time notions of ‘HR governance’ are beginning to spread.
Reflecting on these points, we decided to consult a cross-section of leading organizations
headquartered in the US and UK about how
• their boards are now tackling oversight of how well executives get the best out of people
and also
• how boards are practicing what they might be expected to preach, in terms of good
people management, and
• how this might affect their interactions with HR functions, and the implications for HR
directors or chief human resource officers?
Our objective is to draw out useful lessons from these well-run companies for the
benefit of the broader community of board directors and HR leaders. Our hope is that
the results will aid the development of both good governance and good HR across all
kinds of organizations.

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