Method
In this study, we collected data on 610 Belgian medium-sized and large enterprises with
at least 50 employees, based on a survey among HR managers in 2006. The companies
were selected from the Trends Top database. This database contains financial data of
Belgium’s largest companies and is constructed based on published annual accounts.
From this dataset, additional information on firms’ productivity was extracted, measured
as the share of personnel costs in value added (PC/VA) and the value added per employee
(VA/E).
HR flexibility was assessed with an additive 4-item index measuring the extent to
which traditional HR practices for adjusting the internal human capital availability
(recruitment, training, promotion and redundancies) can be successfully realized before
the period for which the personnel requirements are determined. Strategic flexibility is