Are You Getting the Most Value Out of Your Business?

By Jill Gambaro

Degreed just released an infographic that shows 83.3% of workers aged 18-24 would do more informal learning if they received recognition for that professional development. They’re attempting to establish just such a system and I couldn’t applaud it more. In my own history, if I had received credit for all the courses outside a degree program that I’ve taken since college, I would probably have two masters’ degrees by now, not to mention all the informal learning I’ve done.  It’s crucial to what I do as both a writer and a film producer.  Degreed defines informal learning as anything you learn outside coursework including from articles, videos or a book. I would add experience to that list as there's nothing that can replace what I’ve learned having performed every job on a film set. It makes me a much more valuable producer than many of my counterparts.

Employers should also take this type of informal learning more seriously as research shows it can add substantially to the overall value of your company. This is not just a concern for mergers, acquisitions and IPOs.  The Watson Wyatt Human Capital Index Report of 2001 & 2005 says that companies with high levels of human capital management return 50% more to their shareholders than companies with even medium levels of human capital management and 200% more than companies with low levels. Just how much added value we’re talking about can be demonstrated through the work of Kevin A. Hassett and Robert J. Shapiro with the economic advisory firm Sonecon.  In 2005, Hassett and Shapiro provided the first systematic valuation of intellectual capital in the United States, measuring patents, copyrights, and “other forms of economic ideas”. They went performed the same study in 2011, adding “economic competencies” into their original intellectual capital definition. Their definition included the ability to identify, expand and exploit business opportunities, clearly something learned through experience and reading others’ success stories. Hassett and Shapiro’s estimation of the total value of U.S. intellectual capital jumped from $5.5 trillion in 2005 to $14.5 trillion in 2011, during the “economic downturn”.


There is the potential to identify tremendous hidden wealth in this exercise alone, both as individuals and as companies. All that's left is for us to formally recognize and standardize it.

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