Benchmarking in organization

Benchmarking helps us identify best practice in particular areas of HRM such as development or induction. 'Best practice' has an obvious common sense meaning: literally the methods and techniques ways which produce superior results in HRM. In reality the concept is more problematic. Often it is difficult to demonstrate that a particular initiative produced 'superior' result. Fitz-enz (1993) surveyed 600 large US companies and found that excellent outcomes might be reported by two companies with diametrically opposed HR practices. His conclusion was that the 'best practices' they examined was just 'the visible tip of something much deeper in the organization's management philosophy and system'.