Employee equity: Toward a person-based approach to HRM

This paper explores a theoretical framework for HRM that we term “employee equity.” Adapting the customer equity concept from marketing, the framework shifts the primary unit of analysis from tasks to people. We show how value, brand, and retention equity translate to the HRM domain by viewing employees as internal customers. The translation and a model of employee lifetime value offer starting points for research that will aid in effectively managing and retaining human assets in organizations.