Understanding Impact and Value in People Practice

Covering Assessment Criterion 3.2 of 5CO02 Evidence-based Practice, this video addresses the foundational question of what impact and value actually mean in a people practice context and how the two concepts differ from one another. It distinguishes impact — the effects and outcomes that HR activities produce on individuals, teams, and organisations — from value, which is considered in relation to strategic priorities and the relative worth of activities against their costs. The video explains how value creation operates through several mechanisms, including efficiency gains, effectiveness improvements, risk mitigation, capability building, and strategic enablement, and it examines the pathways through which people practice generates value: human capital development, employee engagement and discretionary effort, talent acquisition and retention, and cultural alignment.

A significant portion of the video is devoted to unpacking the different types of impact that people practitioners need to account for when building an evidence base. It covers the distinction between short-term and long-term impacts, noting the differing measurement challenges each presents, and it addresses both positive impacts and the unintended negative consequences or trade-offs that comprehensive measurement must also capture. The video also draws out the difference between direct and indirect impacts, using concrete examples to illustrate how indirect chain effects — often substantial in scale — can go unrecognised without more sophisticated measurement approaches.

The reasons for measuring impact and value are explored in detail, encompassing the need to verify that objectives are being achieved, to demonstrate a tangible people practice contribution in terms meaningful to business leaders, to justify expenditure, to support continuous improvement, and to identify needs and gaps that inform future activity. The video then introduces the principal methods used for this measurement work — cost-benefit analysis, evaluation, validation, return on investment (ROI), and return on expectations (ROE) — and touches on models of evaluation, evaluation scope and criteria, types of evidence, and practical evaluation tools such as staff satisfaction surveys, absence data, and wellbeing indicators.