There’s no reluctance it seems to try and measure the ultimate output of employee work: productivity. Take a look at America’s Most Productive Companies that provides a list of companies ranked by revenue produced by FTE, with industry cuts as well. Productivity measures are trending up, but short-term results may be delivered at a cost as Companies squeeze a lot more work out of smaller staffs.

The implementation of other important organizational metrics and measures, though, still has a ways to go. Process metrics and HR ROI calculations, for instance—the metrics that enable organizations to understand the status of underlying measures for productivity—need to focus on talent business drivers.

As noted in the CFO.com article, The Metric System:

The fact that CFOs suddenly want more out of HR is a complete reversal of how they've usually viewed it: as a locus for cost-cuts. Is now really the time to spend money on recruiting? Do programs that help employees develop additional skills matter when there are so few jobs for them to go to? Is there a CFO anywhere who wants to hear about the long-term value of staffing up a given area at a time when revenue-per-employee is under scrutiny?

Thus HR must confront a major change in expectations as it seeks to demonstrate exactly how it boosts productivity, fattens margins, or indisputably sharpens the company's competitive edge.

However, the data is compelling. A study on HR metrics by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) shows that higher-performing companies are more apt to measure talent-related metrics than lower performers. So, take the needed measures in your organization to insure high performance and strong productivity.