Interesting research from Bain & Co, which highlights how much time and resource organisations invest in managing the budget sheet, when their human capital - a much rarer commodity doesn't attract the same level of focus, management time or measurement. With employers agreeing that only 15% of their staff are 'difference makers' the logic to invest more in engaging and inspiring staff is compelling.
Today’s executives spend a lot of time managing the balance sheet, despite the fact that it doesn’t represent their company’s scarcest resource. Financial capital is relatively abundant and cheap. According to Bain’s Macro Trends Group, the global supply of capital stands at nearly 10 times global GDP. As a result of capital superabundancy, global quantitative easing and relatively low demand for investments in R&D and capital projects, the after-tax cost of borrowing for many companies is at or near inflation, making the real cost of borrowing close to zero. In contrast, today’s scarcest resource is your human capital, as measured by the time, talent and energy of your workforce. Difference-making talent is also scarce. The average company considers only about 15% of its employees to be difference makers.
https://hbr.org/2017/05/what-if-companies-managed-people-as-carefully-as-they-manage-money
