Unlocking the Power of People Data: Steve Scott's Transformative Journey at Standard Chartered Bank

In the ever-evolving landscape of modern business, data has emerged as a catalyst for strategic decision-making, particularly regarding an organisation's most valuable asset – its people. Steve Scott , the Managing Director and Global Head of People Insights, Analytics and Workforce Management at 渣打银行 , has been at the forefront of this data-driven revolution in human resources.?

However, this journey has had its challenges. For instance, one key challenge in people analytics is ensuring data privacy and security while leveraging the power of data.?

In this insightful interview, he shares his journey, the challenges he has overcome, and his vision for the future of people analytics. He provides a roadmap for organisations seeking to harness the power of data to optimise their workforce and drive sustainable growth.

How would you explain your job to a non-tech friend?

Steve: Well, the title says I’m Global Head of People Insights, Analytics and Workforce Management. But what does that mean?

I always describe it as how I want to unlock value from data essentially - people data, but connecting people data with business data, external data, customer data, or whatever it might be. The goal is not just to provide insights but to help inform actionable, high-value, high-impact strategic decisions, which are decisions that have a significant effect on the organisation's performance and long-term success. These decisions could include workforce planning, talent management, or organisational restructuring, among others.

It should always start with a business problem or opportunity. For instance, a common challenge for many organisations is high employee turnover. How can we use data, people data, and other data sets to gain insights that can inform decisions and actions that drive value to the company? In the case of high turnover, people analytics can help identify the key factors contributing to turnover and develop targeted retention strategies, providing practical solutions to real business problems that arise from voluntary attrition.

What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

Steve: I'm not actually from either a traditional HR or a data background, and people might think that's the normal route to a role like mine. I've been working in financial services for over 25 years. But the vast majority of that time has been in the business.

I've worked in various roles - product management, finance, distribution and sales, channel management, change management, you name it. I've also worked in many different types of roles in retail banking, private banking, insurance, wealth, and corporate banking. I always describe it as a 20 plus year apprenticeship to become a leader of a people analytics function.

Whilst I've spent ten years in HR now developing my domain expertise, understanding, and awareness, my prior business background is really important. It brings that commercial mindset, financial mindset, and the knowledge of business leaders' problems and opportunities. Then, I can steer my team toward solving those issues through insights and analysis.

How did you get started in people analytics?

Steve: Probably by accident. I had been leading a business intelligence team for a bank in the UK - business intelligence in relation to mortgages, credit cards, loans, and so on. But I was ready for a change and wanted to do something a little different.

So, I stepped out of that role, staying with the same bank, and moved into leading an HR Operational Reporting team producing hindsight operational HR traditional reports. But it struck me that there must be more value we could leverage from the data we had access to.

I researched the market, spoke to peers, started networking internally and externally, and landed in this field of people analytics, which at the time was very new—almost the new kid on the block. But it excited me because it seemed to be in the sweet spot of being about people, which fascinated me, but it was equally about value, business problems, and commerciality. So, it was this real intersection of two factors: How do you combine people data and business data to drive business value while enhancing the employee experience and time spent at work?

And it's flourished ever since. My experience in this field has grown over the last ten years, I’ve moved to Standard Chartered and last year I moved to Singapore. The people analytics field, or? discipline, has grown exponentially since I started 10 years or so ago. The number of people and organisations now working in people analytics has increased tremendously. One of the key developments in this field is the use of real-time data insights, which are data-driven insights that are available immediately, allowing for agile decision-making and rapid response to changing business conditions. This has revolutionized the way we use data in people analytics, enabling us to identify trends, predict outcomes, and make informed decisions in real time.

What do you enjoy most about your role in people analytics?

Steve: There are lots of things I enjoy. I have a great, globally spread team of dedicated professional colleagues around me which is amazing. Working for such a global and diverse organisation as Standard Chartered is also a great privilege. Collaborating with colleagues from around the world is so inspiring.

But regarding what we do as a team, it's the feeling that you're making a real contribution and adding value to the business. People analytics, if done right, is a high-value discipline. You can feel that through your team, you're making a difference, adding to the bottom line, supporting a better client experience, or enhancing the experience of our colleagues in their day-to-day work.

All three of those give me purpose and value in what I'm doing. That's the excitement that drives and motivates and engages me.

Reflecting on your career, what's the most significant achievement or project you're proud of in people analytics?

Steve: One of the most interesting periods in my career was through the COVID pandemic. That created such disruption for organisations across the world. Whereas the financial crisis put finance teams in the spotlight, COVID put HR teams front and centre at the same time as being challenged with adapting to ways of working.

But it was fascinating because we were called upon as a team more than ever to work out how to help the business navigate challenges brought about by COVID. What did it mean in terms of how we could protect and enhance productivity while working through a pandemic, predominantly remotely? What was it like for colleagues? What was their sentiment going through that experience? And how could we ensure we were giving them the support needed to protect their wellbeing?

Even after COVID and the new hybrid working models were established, people analytics again had a crucial role in helping the business decide key policies around flexible working—which roles were most suited—while understanding it through the colleague lens, too, being mindful of how colleagues were reacting to this difficult situation. This underscores the relevance and impact of people analytics, even in the most challenging times and evidence again of the sweet spot of enhancing business and colleague outcomes.

COVID was challenging of course, but it allowed people analytics functions to really show our value.

How do you make people analytics insights digestible and actionable for leaders?

Steve: The worst compliment anybody can pay about any of my team’s outputs is that they find it interesting. That's like a rap on the knuckles for me because I don’t want my team to spend their, time, effort and expertise producing something that people just find interesting – Interesting means they'll move on and forget about it quickly.

We're doing this work to drive value and impact. For that, the insights must be actionable, understandable, meaningful, and relevant to the stakeholder you're presenting to.

So how do you achieve that? Always frame it in the context of the business problem or opportunity that concerns the stakeholder. That's their language—not the data, or charts, or visuals. It needs to be framed in the context of what problem or opportunity they're trying to solve or seize.

Also, I try to remember that less is more. Analytics teams sometimes want to prove how sophisticated their analysis is, but when you’re translating for the business leader, remove that complexity and noise. Stay focused on the key messages – what are the insights, recommendations, and the commercial impact or value at stake of not acting.

Always remember to bring it back into commercial terms, quantifying it for the business leader. That's the language they'll understand, and it will help transform an "interesting" pack into one they'll use to make decisions.

How do you keep up with the latest innovations and best practices in people analytics?

Steve: I'm an avid user of LinkedIn. If you follow the right people on LinkedIn - the likes of Ian Cook and David Green for example – you can quickly discover other thought leaders and innovators through their posts and discover some incredible material to keep you at the cutting edge of people analytics.?

But perhaps more significant than LinkedIn posts is the network. The people analytics network globally is really friendly, open and transparent. We're not competing with each other; we're trying to move this discipline forward so it's increasingly recognised for what it can bring organisations.

So, I've always been keen to build my network internally in my organisations and externally with peers, fellow practitioners, consultants, and vendors. I find it essential because I always come away from conversations with my network inspired by what they're doing and excited, and I also continuously learn from them.? Networking is the key.

Where do you see the future of people analytics in the next 5-10 years?

Steve: I'd like people analytics to continue to rise in prominence and continue to be seen by HR and the business as a key enabler to unlocking value.

Over the next few years, it will have a more pronounced role in building data-driven HR functions. Rather than being internally focused and building out people analytics team operating within HR we should be seeking to unlock value at scale through data democratisation, reskilling HR colleagues and equipping them with the data-centric mindsets and skill sets. I know that's been a trend for a couple of years, but it needs to build and grow over the coming years. For me, a sign of a successful people analytics team isn’t how big it has grown but rather the level of data centricity across their HR function and the degree to which HR colleagues are self-serving their reporting needs, self-generating their own insights and using data daily in their roles.

What advice would you give your younger self who is starting in people analytics?

Steve: That’s an interesting question. The younger me might have thought people analytics wasn't for him because I didn't come from a data or an HR background. I might have thought you needed to be a data scientist or analyst to get into this field. However, in reality there is such a broad range of skills required across a successful people analytics function.

Yes, we need the data experts, but we also need people who are very business-focused, commercial and financially minded. We need great storytellers who can translate insights into the language of business leaders. We need people passionate about research and exploring topics internally and externally. We need experts on ethics and data privacy. We need critical thinkers, change agents, influencers, innovators etc.

There are so many aspects to people analytics that I fear my younger self would have been misguided, thinking it was only for those deeply immersed in data skills. You can build that understanding of data over time, but there's such a breadth of skills required for a successful team that there are opportunities for people from all sorts of backgrounds.

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