HUMAN RESOURCE ACCOUNTING

MEANING AND DEFINITION OF HUMAN RESOURCE ACCOUNTING

The American Accounting Society Committee on Human Resource

Accounting defines it as follows: Human Resource Accounting is the process of identifying and measuring data about human resources and communicating this information to interested parties.
In simple terms, It is an attempt to identify and report the

Investments made in Human Resources of an organisation that are currently not accounted for in the Conventional Accounting Practices.
Thus, Human Resource Accounting is a term applied by the

Accountancy Profession to quantify the cost and value of employees of an organisation.

OBJECTIVES
The Aim of HR Accounting is to depict the Potential of the

Employees in Monetary Terms. This concept can be examined from 2 directions i.e.
1. Cost of Human Resources i.e. the expenditure incurred for

recruiting, staffing and training the Quality of the Employees and

2. Value of Human Resources i.e. the return which the above

investment can yield in the future.

METHODS OF HUMAN RESOURCE ACCOUNTING

Cost Based Models Economic Value Models
Present Value of Future Earnings Model

Historical Costs

Replacement Costs

Flamholtz Model

Opportunity Costs

Valuation on Group Basis

HISTORICAL COSTS
As per this Method of HR Accounting, the sum of all costs related

to Human Resources (i.e. Recruitment, Acquisition, Formal Training, Informal Training, Informal Familiarization, experience and development) is taken together to represent the value of the human resources.
The value is amortized annually over the expected length of the

service of individual employees and the unamortized cost is shown as Investments in the Human Assets.
If an employee leaves the firm (i.e. Human Assets expire) before

the expected service life period, then the net value to that extent is charged to the Current Revenue.

REPLACEMENT COSTS
A new model for Human Resource Accounting was conceptualized which took into the account, the costs that would be incurred to replace its existing human resources by an identical one.
1. Individual Replacement Costs which refers to the cost that

would have to be incurred to replace an individual by a substitute who can provide the same set of services as that of the individual being replaced
2. Positional Replacement Costs which refers to the cost of

replacing the set of services referred by an incumbent in a defined position Thus, the Positional Replacement Cost takes into account the position in the organisation currently held by the employee and also the future positions expected to be held by him.

OPPORTUNITY COST MODEL

This model was advocated by Hekimian and Jones in the year

1967.
This method of measuring Human Resources under this Model is

based on the concept of opportunity cost i.e. the value of an employee in its alternative best use, as a basis of estimating the value of human resources.
The opportunity cost value may be established by competitive

bidding within the firm, so that in effect, managers bid for any scarce employee.
A human asset therefore, will have a value only if it is a scarce

resource, that is, when its employment in one division denies it to another division.

PRESENT VALUE OF FUTURE EARNINGS MODEL

Lev and Schwartz (1971) proposed an economic valuation of

employees based on the present value of future earnings, adjusted for the probability of employees death/separation/retirement. This method helps in determining what an employees future contribution is worth today. According to this model, the value of human capital embodied in a person who is y years old, is the present value of his/her future earnings from employment and can be calculated by using the following formula: E(Vy) = Py(t+1) I(t)/(I+R)t-y Where E (Vy) = expected value of a y year old persons human capital T = the persons retirement age, Py (t) = probability of the person leaving the organisation, I(t) = expected earnings of the person in the period , R = discount rate

FLAMHOLTZ MODEL
Flamholtz advocated that an Individuals Value to an organisation

is determined by the services he is expected to render.

This model of Human Resource Accounting is an improvement to

the Present Value of Future Earnings Model as it takes into account the probability that an individual is expected to move through a set of mutually exclusive organizational roles or service states during a time interval.

VALUATION ON GROUP BASIS

This model of Human Resource Accounting attempted to calculate

the present value of all existing employees in such in each rank with the help of the following steps:1. Ascertain the number of employees in each rank 2. Estimate the probability that an employee will be in his rank within the organisation or will be terminated in the next period. This probability will be estimated for a specified time period. 3. Ascertain the economic value of an employee in a specified rank during each time period. 4. The present value of existing employees in each rank is obtained by multiplying the above three factors and applying an appropriate discount rate.

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