Measuring the return on investment of staff just became much easier with the first International Standard for human capital reporting.

ISO 30414, Human resource management – Guidelines for internal and external human capital reporting, is the first International Standard to provide organizations a clear view of the contribution of its human capital.

The standard provides guidelines on human resource areas such as organizational culture, recruitment and turnover, productivity, health and safety, and leadership.

Dr Ron McKinley, Chair of the ISO technical committee that developed the standard, said ISO 30414 will enable organizations to gain a better understanding of their impact on staff and help maximize employee contribution for long-term success.

“Workforce reporting is about rethinking how organizational value should be understood and evaluated and allowing for more data-driven decision making across workforce management,” McKinley said.

“What’s more, by providing a number of relevant key metrics that are recognizable on an international scale, multinational companies can more easily transfer human capital information, better control their international HR activities and provide greater transparency for all their stakeholders.”

ISO 30414 can be used by organizations of all sizes—including small and medium-sized companies—who can benefit from being able to choose the metrics that are most relevant to them. Governments and policy makers also stand to benefit from the standard.