The UK Human Capital Management Initiative: A Review of the Accounting for People Report

In this paper, the work of the 2003 UK Task Force on Human Capital Management is reviewed. This initiative emerged from a broader Department of Trade and Industry interest in the better usage of human labour and potential, and focuses on the current practice and future possibilities for human capital management in the UK. We emphasise an “accounting influence” present throughout the work of the Task Force, and a predilection for dealing with human capital measurement and reporting within the planned expansion of the Operating and Financial Review. However, we argue that the report has been narrow in its appreciation of interest in the cognate field of intangibles and intellectual capital. It fails to recognise the accountancy discipline’s difficulties in reporting in these areas, as well as being possibly premature in delegating responsibility for human capital reporting to the Operating and Financial Review.