If HR metrics can be standardized and reported, won’t someone try to do the same for legal metrics?

A group of 600 HR managers, academics, and advisers “are drafting guidelines for standardizing measures of workforce diversity, turnover, job training, and the like.” Not only is this massive initiative trying to bring about consistent definitions and data collection methods, it is also trying to outline how companies should report such HR metrics to shareholders.

 

As explained in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, July 23, 2012 at 44, this is a multi-year effort that has already encountered a fair degree of opposition. No matter: It is a commendable effort.

 

It caused me think about the possibility that there will someday be both clearer definitions of legal staffing and spending but also more of that information available through public disclosure. If that day were to arrive, benchmarking would vastly improve and could move to a different, more insightful, level.