Have you noticed that your uncle has moved into your spare bedroom?  His name is Sam and he is here to stay.

You don’t have to be General Motors, Bank of America or AIG to see this new boarder at your dinner table.  And if some form of health care insurance passes you can bet that uncle is going to invite more of his friends in D.C. to move in.

Have you heard of the twins Sarbanes and Oxley?  They are not Tweedle dum and Tweedle dee.  They have invited you to play their new numbers game.  How compliant is your company with their game?  More specifically, how certain are you that your workforce data is accurate?  You have to swear to them each year that it is and they don’t like to be fooled.

The days of HR being able to hide out and let finance take the heat for meeting accounting standards and government compliance are coming to a close.  Finance now has a partner and it is you.  Quote from SOX, “These financial statements shall also include all material off-balance sheet liabilities, obligations or transactions.”  Here they are talking about things like turnover and its costs, training investments, some benefits programs and so on.  Government programs almost always expand in time to cover more issues.

If that one doesn’t curdle your milk try this.  The signing officers are responsible for internal controls and have evaluated these internal controls within the previous ninety days and have reported on their findings. I know that HR does not have GAAP, but do you have any consistent explicit or implicit standards by which you gather and report data?  If the IRS or SEC or EEO or any other government acronym knocked on your door would you be anxious?

I’ve talked to you for three decades about the need to gather accurate human resources data so that you could generate value for your organization.  I’ve written books about how to do it.  Still, most of you are avoiding it figuring that you can live without it.  Now, I am telling you that there is another more compelling reason for doing it.  In the past couple of years HR executives have been summoned to the courts to account for their actions.  A few won’t be having dinner at home for a while.  How comfortable are you that you could face down a federal attorney on the topic of your workforce data standards?  What excuse would you offer if you weren’t compliant?  Would you tell him that you didn’t have time for it?  Hasta la vista baby!

Better get some workforce data standards in place before you have to sign your name to a federal guest book.

Dr Jac