Your banking boss too hand’s on? Chinese suppliers keep taking a reputational bite out of your apple? Or that your business now knows people are both your best asset and biggest risk, but don’t have a clue how to spot one from the other?

In 2007, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) asked Risk Managers to rank risks - regulatory, reputational, IT, and market risks etc – in order of business impact.  Surprisingly, human capital risk topped the list. The problem though was that when the same respondents were asked to rank how effectively their companies managed these risks, human capital almost fell off the chart. Only climate change and terrorism were managed less effectively.  The EIU drew the obvious conclusion: there needs to be much closer integration between the risk function and the human resources function.

Five years on, as the Conference Board’s more recent but equally vital 2011 research, Managing Human Capital Risk, A Call for Partnership Between Enterprise Risk Management and Human Resources has shown, integration is still a way off.

But things are moving. Ironically, thanks to the global financial crisis and its highlighting of some truly terrible business decisions, human capital management has armed businesses with a warts and all picture of both the people risks they face (at shop floor and board level) as well as the organisational risks at the top that insulate the business from making the right decisions. Leaders and even financial analysts are now asking for more.

Human Capital Risks: Rehumanising the Firm is a uniquely practical case-study driven whitepaper that draws together the latest global thinking on human capital risks (HCR).  In two clear sections - People Risks and Operational Risks - it presents HR, Risk Managers – and the entire board – with the kind of risk free analysis that they can act on as well as think long and hard about.

Download Human Capital Risk: Rehumanising the Firm.

Of course, we understand that when you realise how important – and easy - it is to take the HC  risk out of your business, you won’t want to wait. So feel free to contact us – or me, Frankie Close on 01908 524115 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - and if you’re lucky enough to be based in the UK, I might take the risk of offering you an initial free consultation.