How performance links to the people in your organization.
As Josh Bersin Principal and Founder of Bersin by Deloitte wrote for HR Magazine earlier this year, “When you put a program together to collect people data all in one place, you can immediately focus on urgent business issues. How do we get a higher quality of hire? How do we improve our batting average for high-performing salespeople? What are the characteristics of our best customer service representatives? What training program is delivering the highest return on investment in leadership? Why are certain groups of employees leaving at an alarming rate? The answers could be worth millions of dollars.”
Bersin emphasized that investing in talent analytics means “bringing together the reporting and analytics teams in recruiting, compensation, engagement, learning and leadership, and developing a plan to evaluate your workforce from a holistic perspective. Companies spend up to two-thirds of their budgets on people—yet many have not invested the money and time to clean up, rationalize and combine data about those people to help make better decisions.”
According to the IBM report, those embarking on the analytics journey will essentially need to break the trip into three phases.
Phase 1: Set Your Direction
Develop a vision that incorporates the core elements of workforce analytics by adapting the vision to fit the business. Determine which aspects of analytics are important to the CHRO. Identify stakeholders and collect information concerning important metrics that drive the organization and the view of HR’s role in the business. Grasp both the legal and cultural viewpoints of privacy laws in relevant locations. Talk to a privacy attorney if necessary.
Phase 2: Define Your Approach
Rather than wait for perfect data, trust the subject matter experts to propose alternatives if the quality of the data is poor. “Draw on the expertise of executives and HR business partners to point out variables to be analyzed. Identify data owners and agree on procedures for ensuring accuracy and securing access,” the report states. For the sake of convenience, consider using cloud technologies to cut costs and improve efficiencies. Use technology to help make visuals to aid storytelling and for the presentation of results. Outsource when appropriate.
Phase 3: Grow Your Capability
Find an HR analytics leader with strong experience in operations. “Ensure the HR analytics team has a balance of skills including HR knowledge, analysis, expertise, and consulting,” the report states. Scale the size of the team depending on the project. “Set up the business case as a small consulting business—include project start dates and end dates, resource allocations and budgets. Identify analytics projects that go beyond traditional HR boundaries to impact the business and wider operating environment,” the report advises.
Lastly, build momentum “through effective communication and influence, identifying audiences, communication channels and key messages.”
After the first 100 days, the report states, the huge impact of workforce analytics will begin to become clear as the new function gets into its stride.
“Most important of all, keep in mind that analytics has the potential to give HR an enhanced strategic role in helping the business grow and improve its operational effectiveness,” the report points out. “The insights can have a huge impact on the business and its workforce.”
Tom Stachura, IBM’s vice president of skills and people analytics, added, “We usually find that as long as the data is accurate, 30 percent of the data drives 70 percent of the value. To make the data accurate, make it visible to as many people as possible, while maintaining security and privacy, as people will usually tell you if their data is wrong.”
Bersin suggests HR “be careful not to jump at technology just because it seems like the trendy thing to do. Rather, focus on building your team, bringing people together and developing a multiyear plan to invest in this area. The payoff will likely be huge. If your competitors do it first, you may suddenly find yourself losing critical hires or great employees and not even know why.”
Aliah D. Wright is an editor/manager for SHRM Online. Reach, follow and tag her on Twitter @1SHRMScribe and share and tag this story via Facebook.com/aliahwrites.