Measurement and HR generally do not go well together. Since HR largely deals with intangibles, its activities are generally considered outside the purview of measurement. However with changing times, the HR department is slowly realizing the importance of speaking the language of business, i.e., the language of numbers. In order to be able to do this, it requires the common understanding of modification of measurement from preciseness to approximation so that things, earlier considered immeasurable, could also be brought within the realm of measurement. The intuitive approach to measuring HR is explained with the help of an illustration for measuring the staffing function.

Traditionally, the HR department, in general, and the HR functions, in particular were insulated from the concept of measurement, as the HR department was not seen as a revenue center. How this perception and consequently the insulation of the HR department that came about is debatable. However, if one were to look into this debate, there is a possibility that one can identify a few significant streams of thoughts that have contributed towards forming this non-quantitative perception about the HR department. Some of these are discussed here.

To begin with, it is believed that HR primarily deals with intangibles and, therefore, the related question that arises is, how can one possibly measure something which is intangible. The line of argument adopted and put forth to defend the stance of immeasurability of intangibles in extreme cases could run something like this: how can one measure the love and affection of a mother towards her children? The idea that was being projected was that it is, not only difficult to measure something which is inherently intangible, but it is also not right to do so.

Another possible reason could be non-quantitative initiation and orientation of HR practitioners who were more than willing to accept and take shelter in the immeasurability of intangible hypothesis. Beginning with the HR education, either through MBA courses or other HR professional courses, most of these courses do not have a quantitative orientation. Due to this reason, it is commonly observed in business schools offering HR specialization that students who tend to hate or fear numbers take up HR specialization. This may not be the sole reason for opting for HR specialization, but certainly is one of the reasons for many students taking up this specialization. This lack of affinity for numbers gets translated into an attitude adopted by HR professionals which literally translates into something like "we deal with people". This is again reflected in the workplace practices of HR department, as compared to the other departments.

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