Human Excellence Maturity Model: leveraging Human Resource Management to achieve operational excellence

The objective of this paper is to propose a maturity framework in the human resource domain (“Human Excellence Maturity Model” – HEMM), with the aim of supporting organizations in achieving operational excellence through the adoption of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices. The paper firstly provides an in-depth and original literature review regarding both HRM practices and the state of the art of human maturity models. Successively, a general maturity framework to assess and improve HRM processes for the achievement of operational excellence is proposed. The model structure allows to identify the level of organizational maturity through a set of achievements, along with best practices and practical examples to translate the proposed indications into operational practices and to determine the critical areas of improvement for the organization.