Newsletter

Focus on Your Most Important Asset

Our author interview this time is with Ted Garnett, the developer of GAP M (Generally
Accepted People Metrics), a corporate metric that provides trend over time "people
statements" on an organization's most important asset.

Tell us about the development of GAP M.
This product developed organically, from a real need in the market. About 10 years ago, in
the midst of keynote talks, I would ask a room full of CEOs what their most important asset is.
You can imagine that I would get a resounding response of "PEOPLE, OF COURSE!" from
the audience. But when I asked them how often they checked the status of that asset, I would
hear a few comments about an annual employee survey, or occasional HR meeting with
department heads.

Now compare that to other key indicators of organizational health, such as financial
statements. How often do you think they were checking those statements? I think you can
guess the answer: at least once a month, and usually every week.

These same CEOs would ask me what tool they should use to check their "people metrics."
Of course, there are plenty of services and software packages to keep track of physical
inventory or track accounting trends--So what about people? There was nothing out there for
them, and still isn’t anything like GAP M. That is when GAP M was born.

Can you give me an example?
Instead of five managers each telling you what they think their core issue is, we have the
consensus of the entire organization. Instead of management owning the culture alone and
telling people what to do, GAP M allows the focus to be the collective voice of the organization
and everybody owns it together. It is a tool for allocating resources that will give the highest
return on investment.

In the past, organizations may have given an annual employee attitude survey. The next
year, they may do it again, and not only has it been too long since the previous survey, but
they may not even ask the same questions! Where is the knowledge gain? What impact did
the training have that you gave six or eight months ago? Imagine if you only bothered to get
financial statements once a year…nobody would EVER do that because money is
important…of course not as important as people which are the greatest asset right? Now we
can look at quarterly or even monthly information, since GAP M provides trend over time
analysis.

What are some of the key areas?
Many of them are the tried and true benchmarks, such as job satisfaction and time
management. Others are unique and innovative, such as energy level. They all work
together to give management and executive leadership an accurate and ongoing picture of
how their organization is functioning.

Trend over time is key here, just like a financial statement. Just because one month may
show negative metrics in a particular area, looking at the trend over time is what gives real
information, not just a snapshot of a particular data point. This puts HR and Organizational
Development at the same table as the CPA, CFO, CMO, CITO, COO and everybody else with
resource allocation, forecasting, and “prove-it-works” responsibilities.

As you can imagine, this really helps in making budget allocations. We are able to look at
needs in a way that they haven't been looked at before. Basically, the more GAP M is used,
the more useful it becomes.

Thanks so much for your time, Ted. Click here to find out more about GAP M, and what it can
do for your organization!