ABSTRACT

The importance of talent management and development in achieving superior business results is generally accepted. US companies listed as the highest rated Fortune 100 firms to work for, outperform others by creating a return on investment of 14 per cent compared to 6 per cent for those not listed (Professor Alex Edmans at Wharton, Does the Stock Market Fully Value intangibles? Employee Satisfaction and Equity Prices, June 2008). Edmans admits that his study cannot isolate the factor that creates this increased return. Whether it is down to employee satisfaction alone or good management that creates that employee satisfaction is an unknown. But he points out that this does not really matter. This external measure of employee satisfaction is a guide to the importance of intangibles. The inclusion on the Fortune list should be an indicator to investors of the quality of the return they can expect from the firm. But it is the trend that this research points to that should be of most interest to HR people.