People Analytics: The Missing Piece in HR

Many organisations I work with struggle to unlock the true potential of data-driven HR, despite having a wealth of information right at their fingertips. Often, they're unaware of the valuable insights hiding within their existing HRIS systems or they unfortunately lack the maturity to leverage them effectively. In today's competitive landscape, relying solely on intuition and gut feeling for critical HR decisions is simply unsustainable. It's time to break free!

Data-driven insights are the missing puzzle piece, unlocking workforce potential, optimising practices, and fostering a thriving company culture. But where to begin?

Building a Data-Driven HR Culture

1. Start Small: Begin by measuring key metrics relevant to specific goals, such as recruitment effectiveness, employee engagement, or learning and development ROI. Tools like employee surveys, performance reviews, and applicant tracking systems are valuable data sources.
2. Focus on Actionable Insights: Don't just collect data – translate it into actionable insights. Ask yourself what the data tells you about your workforce and use it to inform decisions like improving your onboarding process, tailoring training programs, or identifying potential talent gaps.
3. Invest in Data Literacy: Equip your HR team with the skills to understand and interpret data. Consider training programs or dedicated data analysts to support the analysis and reporting process.
4. Embrace a Culture of Continuous Improvement: Data-driven HR is an ongoing journey, not a one-time event. Regularly review your metrics, adapt your strategies based on new insights, and celebrate successes along the way.

From Simple Steps to Advanced Analytics

Building a data-driven HR culture requires a phased approach. Here's how organisations can progress their maturity:

Starting Point: Foundational Metrics:

• Employee demographics:?Understand your workforce composition, including age, gender, ethnicity, and tenure.
• Recruitment and onboarding:?Track time-to-hire, offer acceptance rates, and onboarding completion rates to optimise your talent acquisition process.
• Employee engagement:?Measure employee satisfaction, motivation, and commitment through surveys and pulse checks.
• Performance management:?Analyse performance metrics, identify skill gaps, and assess the effectiveness of performance development programs.
• Absenteeism and turnover:?Track these metrics to understand their causes and implement targeted interventions to improve employee well-being and retention.

Building Up: Advanced Analytics:

• Predictive analytics:?Forecast future workforce needs, anticipate skills gaps, and identify potential high performers.
• Sentiment analysis:?Analyse employee feedback and social media data to understand their sentiment towards the company and culture.
• Network analysis:?Identify key influencers and communication patterns within your organisation to improve collaboration and knowledge sharing.
• Compensation and benefits analysis:?Analyse the effectiveness of your compensation and benefits package in attracting and retaining talent.

Key Considerations:

• Data quality:?Ensure the accuracy and completeness of your data to ensure reliable insights.
• Data privacy:?Implement robust data governance practices to protect employee privacy and comply with regulations.
• Change management:?Foster a culture that embraces data-driven decision making and equip your workforce with the skills to interpret and utilise data.

Getting Started

Start your people analytics journey by identifying key questions you want answered.

• What are your biggest HR challenges?
• What areas do you suspect could be improved with better data?

By focusing on specific questions and starting small, you can begin to find the hidden piece of your HR Strategy and unlock the potential of your workforce through data driven insights.

Jemma Iles is Author of The Lightbox and Founder of The Lightbox Group. An organisation focused on building confidence and maturity in organisations around HR, Culture, Innovation and Future Readiness. Reach out to learn more about how she can help your organisation to unlock potential.