1

Reiterating Human Capital into Nike’s Management

Cyanna Larissa Cano

South Texas College

ORGL-4341-V02-Management Theory I
 2

Abstract

This paper seeks to discuss and implement policies regarding human capital to Nike’s

current operations. Through a managerial role, the goal is to study how Nike currently

acknowledges their front-line workers and document changes over a specific period of time. The

results show how by implementing policies, training, and desire to recognize the value of

employees, then employee retention and satisfaction can grow.

Keywords: human capital, mangers, employee, balanced scorecard, managers,

satisfaction, retention.
 3

Reiterating Human Capital into Nike’s Management

In June 2022, business news outlet Insider (formerly known as Business Insider) covered

a story regarding a leaked survey by Nike tech employees showing dissatisfaction in their roles,

the organization, and leadership. Continuous disregard for employees also poses loss in

employee retention and possible attrition (Erb, 2022). These revelations signify the need for

change not only within the organization, but more so with how management views their

employees. In studies of management principles and topics, these circumstances would

incorporate the need for a Workforce scorecard that can identify employee mind-sets,

competencies, behavior, and successes. Although the use of the scorecard will be beneficial;

however, the key to this issue lies in what initiates the scorecard: the significance of human

capital.

Nike

Before going headfirst into a plan to enact change, it is essential to understand the current

employee perspective. In addition, an in depth look into how Nike handles its management in

relation to human capital and workforce satisfaction/retention will be helpful.

Nike’s Employees

Despite the previous claims made by tech employees, there are implications that

employee recognition and retention is satisfactory but not great. According to the journal by

Ionut Nica et al (2021), employee satisfaction and performance is high as Nike evaluates their

employees with questionnaires that depict not only their desires in the company but also any

objections they may have. Regardless, the same journal article also includes negations to the

aforementioned claims of high employee satisfaction. Approximately a third of employees from

a sample showed dissatisfaction with Nike. In addition, despite metrics showing that employee
 4

satisfaction is growing; however, the trendline for number of employees has been depleting since

2020. From one perspective, this can be a positive note as the decrease in employees and high

satisfaction rate can be an indication of a decrease of lackluster employees. Nevertheless,

management should still consider that these metrics output a negative view on employment at

Nike. Those same metrics can represent how any employees who have felt dissatisfied with any

facet of Nike have left—whether willingly or by force—and the high satisfaction rate is a result

of the “satisfied” employees remaining. This is where management needs to play a key role in

instilling procedures that work to retain employees and reiterate to them the value they serve as

individuals and to the company. According to Nica et al., Nike already has a proficient system

using KPIs and scorecards to measure performance, but it can do more when it doubles down on

their employees.

Nike’s Tech Future & Human Capital

Similarly to many other companies, Nike is moving their company to become a leading

tech leader (Erb, 2022) not only through online marketing and sales, but the use of more

technological procedures is also moving into their production. Nica et al. (2021) details, “If the

automation goes as planned – a report by the International Robotics Federation claims that about

1.3 million new robots will be installed in factories in the next three years.” This marks not only

a transition in how Nike production systems are being implemented, but it highlights how crucial

having competent tech employees will be to the company in the future. If Nike cannot hire and

retain more tech employees, it can potentially harm their performance and the ability to find new

employees willing to work with them. Even though working at Nike may be an aspiration for

many individuals, this can change if Nike continues to disregard their employee satisfaction.
 5

Ultimately, this ignites the need for Nike to reevaluate what is the most important asset to the

company.

Implementation

A response to Nike’s inability to retain and satisfy their tech employee can be instilling

policies revolving around human capital and a workforce scorecard into managerial duties.

Human Capital & Workforce Scorecard

Human capital is essentially a change in perspective for managers and company leaders

where they recognize that their workforce is the most important asset to be managed by the

company (Carpenter et al., n.d.). This includes their technical skills, but also their experiences,

ingenuity, motivation, etc. If Nike is actually moving more into becoming a tech leader, then it

needs to incorporate human capital ideas into their leadership mentality as it relates to their tech

departments. As mentioned before, a workforce scorecard will be beneficial in physically

measuring and reiterating the recognition of human capital in the workplace.

Developing Human Capital

An ideal step in this process would be to start with teaching not only the importance of

human capital into the leadership and managerial team, but efficient ways to develop and

measure it. Learning about human capital can be done through team meetings with managers, but

it is important to hone in on what the teachings are trying to dictate. Nica et al (2021) believes

that the possibility of offering competitive wages and benefits will raise employee satisfaction.

On the other hand, Islam & Amin (2022) write in their paper that “Employees' knowledge, skills,

and competencies cannot be abstracted from them in the way financial or physical assets can be

sequestered,” so this means that there needs to be better ways to develop human capital outside

of monetary gain. This is where the Workforce scorecard can be implemented as it can help
 6

measure employee mindsets, behaviors, and competencies as it aligns with the company’s

success (Carpenter et al., n.d.). However, the scorecard needs to ensure that it can willingly

describe their issues, desires, competencies, and motivations without fear of neglect or

termination by the company. The scorecard can be discussed in quarterly meetings and managers

can include sections where employees rate their satisfaction with certain jobs, the organization,

and their role. Managers can then compare these data and indicate areas where they are failing to

retain their employees (Graph I).

Measuring Employee Satisfaction

Through the methods used to develop human capital, improvement in employee

satisfaction can be attained simultaneously. Carpenter et al. (n.d.) writes in their study that

measuring human capital can be difficult because many facets of it are intangible or

indistinguishable from physical performance, but measuring employee satisfaction and retention

can be a gateway to tracking human capital. The information in Nica et al (2021) shows that

Nike does take the time to evaluate surveys, objections, and desires, but this needs to be done

equally across the entire company to ensure that all employees feel satisfied with their work.

Graph II & III can show the progress that Nike has and can make to improve employee

satisfaction and employee retention through the methods mentioned above.

Conclusion

In the aforementioned Insider article, it details how specifically tech employees are

unsatisfied with Nike and their satisfaction is lower in comparison to other parts of the company

(Erb, 2022). This is brought up because the idea of mimicking what other departments are doing

and incorporating it to the tech department seems viable. Nevertheless, each department works

differently and the idea is to reiterate to the tech employees that Nike sees the value in their
 7

employees. Overall, the mission of this paper is not the belief that fixing employee satisfaction

will save Nike, but rather, working to ensure that employees are the most important asset to the

company is priority and will benefit the company in the long run.
 8

References

Carpenter, M., et al. (n.d.). 16.7 Tying It All Together—Using the HR Balanced

Scorecard to Gauge and Manage Human Capital, Including Your Own. Management

Principles. https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/management-principles-v1.1/s20-07-

tying-it-all-together-using-th.html. Accessed on 19 August 2022.

Erb, J. P. (2022). “10 Things In Tech: Leaked Nike Survey.” Insider.

https://www.businessinsider.com/10-things-in-tech-leaked-nike-survey-2022-5. Accessed

on 19 August 2022.

Islam, M. S., & Amin, M. (2022). A systematic review of human capital and employee

well-being: putting human capital back on the track. European Journal of Training &

Development, 46(5/6), 504–534. https://www-emerald-

com.ezproxy.southtexascollege.edu/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EJTD-12-2020-0177/

full/html#sec005. Accessed on 19 August 2022.

Nica, I., et al. (2021). Using of KPIs and Dashboard in the analysis of Nike company’s

performance management. Theoretical & Applied Economics, 28(1), 61–84.

https://discovery.ebsco.com/c/o2xxen/viewer/pdf/3mayqsfuaz. Accessed on 19 August

2022.
 9

Appendix

Graph I

This graph displays Nike’s employees ratings in response to their work morivation.

Overall, the

general majority are above average, but there is still room for growth.
 10

Graph II

This graph details potential growth for Nike’s employees satisfaction index in

percentages if

Nike continues toput effort into their employees and their values.
 11

Graph III

This line graph details potential growth in employees that Nike can have if they continue

to put

in effort into their employees. This graph works alongside Graph II where employee

satisfaction

would have a direct relationship with employee growth and retention.