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Five Steps to Getting Started with People Analytics

David Green

In a recent episode of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, Thomas Rasmussen, Executive General Manager, Employee Experience, Digital & Analytics at National Australia Bank told me that: “People Analytics is truly more impactful than ever in the current crisis. It’s gone from being a strategic differentiator, requested by the best CHROs, to an absolute essential to manage the crisis.”

It’s comments like this – and the inclusion of People Analytics as the second of a quartet of Global Talent Trends by LinkedIn, that really shows there is growing interest in the future of People Analytics, where it’s headed and why.

Despite People Analytics being the fastest growing area of HR, I still regularly get asked questions like: ‘What is People Analytics?’ and ‘Why should we care?’ So, let’s try and address those questions.

What is People Analytics & why should we care about it?

People Analytics is about considering your workforce, candidates, and all types of talent, from a data perspective. People Analytics helps organisations move beyond making decisions around hiring, firing or promoting purely based on gut instinct. Instead, business leaders and managers can make evidence-based decisions, centred around the analysis of data and focused on something more sustainable, reliable and forward thinking than what they have typically used to make people decisions in the past. And for those traditionalists rooted in their ability to ‘just know’, people analytics may be the tool they need to help confirm their 'gut feel' before making a decision.

The potential people analytics offers to help create real value and drive improvements in business outcomes, employee experience and the impact of the HR function itself is enormous. 2019 proved to be another momentous year for people analytics, which continues to be the fastest growing area of HR as more organisations create, grow and expand their people analytics teams.

According to research from the Corporate Research Forum from 2017, 69% of organisations with 10,000 employees or more now have a People Analytics team. LinkedIn’s aforementioned Global Talent Trends report found that in the past five years, there has been a 242% increase in the LinkedIn profiles of HR professionals with data analysis skills.

However, if your company hasn’t already started to develop their people analytics capability, don’t worry it’s not too late. If you want to get the ball rolling, here are five practical steps, you can take to help accelerate your progress.

1. Learn the business, focus on the business, answer the right questions

The first commandment of analytics is ‘thou shalt start with the business question’. Successful people analytics teams help solve business problems rather than HR challenges. This means understanding the business and the challenges that they’re facing. What are the challenges keeping your CEO and board awake at night? Think sales productivity, product quality, customer retention and risk. This is where the company makes money and what determines its ultimate success – all have a significant people element to them. Learn the business and when you are ready to commence your analytics initiatives, focus your efforts on identifying the right strategic questions to answer with analytics and you can expect to flourish.

Understanding how to frame the right business questions to ensure you’re adding value and focusing on the right areas can often be a challenge in itself. Fret not, there is a wealth of great content out there to support you, one resource in particular is this practical guide created by Jonathan Ferrar. Throughout this online course he walks you through the necessary steps to not only frame the right business questions, but how to actually define your hypotheses to ensure you’re driving business value with your people analytics projects. So remember, curiosity may have killed the cat, but it’s an essential ingredient for people analytics.

2. Expand your mind: Read, learn, network and grow

It is important to make sure you look outside your company to learn as the field of people analytics is developing so fast. Whether it is books, blogs, conferences, podcasts or online courses, there is a wealth of knowledge about people analytics that is available. If you are motivated and driven, absolutely, seek out as many opportunities and forums as you can. However, if you don’t yet have the passion, or perhaps the time, decide which makes the most sense to you and pick one. At the very least, you’ll gain a little knowledge to move ahead to next steps. At the other end of the scale, you may become so intrigued by the potential of people analytics that it becomes your goal to know all you can.

3. Get the right stakeholders involved

It’s important to ensure you get your CHRO and HR Leadership Team on board for your analytics journey – get them excited and involved. They should have a good understanding of the key business challenges, the influence to provide access to the right stakeholders in the business and, crucially, that the powerful insights provided through analytics are implemented. With people analytics increasingly being regarded as table stakes, any CHRO worth their salt shouldn’t take much persuasion to get on board. Their career may depend upon it!

Without executive involvement, your analytics adventure may be condemned to a life of obscurity. So, understanding who your key stakeholders are and how their influence and involvement might impact the success of your people analytics project, is imperative. The simplest way to do this is by creating a stakeholder map and as Jonathan Ferrar explains there are two core components of this process.  

Interested in learning more about People Analytics? Take a look at our online People Analytics certifications on myHRfuture

4. Focus on quick wins

Don’t be too ambitious too soon. Start small and focus on some quick wins. This doesn’t mean you cannot have a big impact — you can, especially if you identify a business problem where you can make an immediate difference while also delivering longer-term productivity gains and cost and/or time savings. Securing a quick win and having an impact not only helps build momentum for people analytics within your company but also increases your chances of securing a bigger budget over time.

Prioritising your people analytics project will enable you to identify where your quick wins lie and how you can deliver the most impact with minimal effort. In this short clip taken from Jonathan Ferrar’s online course “Creating the Right Methodology for People Analytics Projects” he walks you through his “Complexity-Impact Model” so that you can begin prioritising your own people analytics projects.

So now we’ve established that you start with the business challenge rather than the data, but what about the purity of the data? This is where many analytics initiatives get bogged down. You certainly need to be able to trust your data — you may be challenged on it — and of course it needs to be specific to the business problem you are trying to address, but don’t obsess that it has to be perfect. Data collection, preparation, and hygiene will inevitably be the most arduous part of the process, but in itself it has no value, and don’t be afraid to ask for help…

5. Remember that analytics is a team sport

Make friends with analytics practitioners in Finance, Marketing and IT. Their experience in obtaining, cleaning and analysing data will be invaluable in giving you a head start. Moreover, if you want to solve business problems, you will need access to more than just HR data. This Case Study demonstrates how by combining recruiting data with customer data, Virgin Media was able to identify the extent to which a poor candidate experience was affecting customer loyalty and revenue. So, don’t be shy and get out of the HR bubble!

The HR function is changing and the skills that HR professionals require are evolving accordingly. Whilst the emergence of people analytics does not mean that every HR professional needs to develop the skills of a data scientist or statistician, it does mean that they need to be data literate and able to communicate the insights of analytics projects to the business. As such, HR professionals should look to regularly augment their skills by adopting a mindset of continuous learning. There are a growing number of courses available on people analytics. The myHRfuture academy has over 15 people analytics courses and certifications that focus on a variety of different areas from creating the right foundations for success of your people analytics projects to automating your HR reporting and using Python to analyse your people analytics data. It also provides access to over 600+ pieces of expertly curated learning content from videos to podcasts, articles and blogs, helping you build and get certified in the HR skills of the future.

Get certified in People Analytics

The myHRfuture academy is a learning experience platform for HR professionals looking to invest in their careers. We have many online HR certifications that are designed for People Analytics professionals and HR Business Partners to help them build their knowledge and get a People Analytics certification or a certification in Digital HR and understand how to become more digital and data-driven. All of our online HR certifications reflect the core HR skills you need to develop for the future, giving you a professional edge while providing evidence of the skills you’ve mastered, helping you get ahead and press PLAY on your career for only £25 per month.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David is a globally respected writer, speaker, conference chair, and executive consultant on people analytics, data-driven HR and the future of work. As an Executive Director at Insight222, he helps global organisations create more cultural and economic value through the wise and ethical use of people data and analytics. Prior to joining Insight222 and taking up a board advisor role at TrustSphere, David was the Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM Watson Talent. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations embark upon and accelerate their people analytics journeys. 

SEE DAVID SPEAK AT THESE EVENTS IN 2020

Now that my speaking gigs are over for 2019, it’s time to look forward to 2020. I’ll be chairing and/or speaking about people analytics, data-driven HR and the Nine Dimensions for Excellence in People Analytics model at the following events until the end of April 2020.