University of Twente Student Theses
Human Capital Scan VNO-NCW Midden: development of a human capital scan for employers, commissioned by the VNO-NCW Midden
Franken, P.A. (2013) Human Capital Scan VNO-NCW Midden: development of a human capital scan for employers, commissioned by the VNO-NCW Midden.
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| Abstract: | In this master thesis, a strategic human capital scan has been developed. (The full content of this scan can be found in Appendix 5.) The first goal of the scan is to make employers aware of potential shortages of people with the right education and capabilities. The second goal is to use the data retrieved from the scan in order to map the developments on the labour market. The human capital scan takes a top-down approach and a non-financial approach. The top-down approach means that this master thesis will use indicators that are generally applicable for a wide range of companies and are not adjusted to the specific circumstances of the individual companies. The financial approach means that the human capital scan will use non-financial indicators of human capital and will not assign monetary values to these indicators. A literature review has been conducted to identify the most relevant indicators of human capital. With respect to the measurement of human capital, this literature review found four subjects, in which almost all researchers take in their positions. The first point of view is about the one-item measures versus multiple-item measures of human capital. This master thesis will use the point of view that multiple-item measures will be a more valid approach to measuring human capital. The second point of view concerns objective versus subjective measurement of human capital. This research will include both categories of questions in the human capital scan. The third point of view concerns the use of general versus specific indicators to measure human capital. The human capital scan will give more insight into the general and specific human capital of companies. The fourth standpoint concerns the fact that some studies focus on the company executives whereas other researchers focus on the whole workforce. This research will focus on the whole workforce. Based on the literature review, this master thesis identified indicators that can relate to the content of human capital (education, training, experience, innovativeness) and the flow of human capital (turnover, internal flow, recruitment, flexible workforce size). VNO-NCW Midden, the commissioner of this research, also requested to map the future of the companies’ human capital. The human capital scan developed in this master thesis contains two important elements that make up the scan strategic. The first element is that it is mapping the content and flow of human capital. This provides a solid basis for the strategic decision making of companies. The second strategic element of the human capital scan is that there is a strategic part that focuses more on the details of the strategically most important employees. Thus the scan consists of a part that focuses on the companies’ human capital in general, and of another part that focuses on the strategically most important employees. The general part of the human capital scan asked for at least one objective and one subjective question, and for at least one question about the future with respect to the categories identified by the literature review (except for the innovation category which was covered only by subjective questions). The content of the scan has been tested through ten interviews in ten different companies. These interviews revealed that especially the objective questions were difficult to answer. Most companies, for example, did not exactly know the number of employees with a bachelor degree. Sometimes the respondents interpreted these questions in different ways. For most of the questions that asked for objective information, companies made use of estimations. The subjective questions and questions about the future did not lead to serious problems and were easier to answer for the companies. The interviews revealed that nine out of ten respondents were able to identify their strategically most important employees for the strategic part of the human capital scan. Based on the interviews, the necessary changes and additions were made to the human capital scan. The methods and main outcomes of the literature used in this master thesis have been discussed in the final part of this master thesis. Based on the interviews conducted for this master thesis, a number of recommendations for the fine-tuning of the human capital scan have been made to make them more suitable for a large-scale sample and digital distribution. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Clients: | VNO-NCW midden |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 85 business administration, organizational science |
| Programme: | Business Administration MSc (60644) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/62996 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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