Investment in people analytics has accelerated in 2021, as the function continues to deliver value to the business and support the C-Suite. 61% of companies grew their people analytics teams between June 2020 - 2021 and a further quarter stayed the same size.  When we look at the next 12 months to June 2022, 75% of people analytics leaders predict they will receive even more investment for their teams.

Increasing investment in people analytics teams often leaves leaders pondering “where should I invest?” or “which role or skills should I hire for next?”

We’re going to help answer those questions by sharing insights from Insight222’s recent research ‘Accelerating People Analytics: A Data Driven Culture for HR,’ looking in particular at how Leading Companies are investing.

The Insight222 Operating Model for People Analytics

Before we jump into which roles leading companies invest in and why, let’s recap on the operating model for people analytics.

In 2020, the Insight222 Operating Model for People Analytics was published. A value chain, guided by client drivers and resulting in business outcomes, is at the core of the operating model. The value chain enables HR to adopt an outside-in perspective and deliver business value at scale.

The process by which the people analytics function can take the client drivers and convert them to tangible business outcomes is split into three key areas, which we call ‘Engines’. Each engine can be broken down further into five teams:

• Demand Engine. In the Demand Engine the Consulting team engages with business stakeholders to understand, make sense of and translate business strategy and challenges (the drivers) into hypotheses that can be tackled by the Solution Engine.

• Solution Engine. In the Solution Engine, The Advanced Analytics, Reporting & Enablement and Governance teams manage and produce analytics solutions. They work in collaboration with the organisation’s Data Engine. In this Solution Engine, the Governance team takes responsibility for prioritising people analytics projects, upholding the highest ethical standards and managing data stewardship.

• Product Engine. In the Product Engine, the Implementation team works to ensure the effective design and product management of analytics solutions. It includes the associated project management and change management to provide effective adoption of each solution.

To learn more about the Insight222 Operating Model, head to this blog which provides a detailed walk-through of the engines, teams, roles and skills in people analytics.

Interested in learning more about People Analytics? Take a look at our online People Analytics for HR Professionals on myHRfuture.

How Leading Companies have invested in their teams over the last 12 months 

“Leading Companies” are those companies or organisations that have demonstrated that they have a people analytics function that is considered a leader in the field. It can be useful for organisations to understand where these companies are investing and why, as they make their own decisions when increasing headcount 

Leading Companies are more advanced in all engines of the People Analytics Operating Model. In particular, 100% of Leading Companies have invested in Consulting, Advanced Analytics and Implementation.

• Demand Engine. Leading Companies have invested 20 percentage points more in consultants compared to all companies. Leading Companies consider a “front-office” of business-facing consultants to be essential to understand stakeholder requirements and to prioritise effectively.

• Advanced Analytics. Leading Companies show a 32 percentage point increase in the investment in specialist data science and psychology skills. This indicates their desire and need to solve more complex business-driven topics using a variety of data science techniques for both structured and, increasingly, unstructured data.

• Productisation. Leading Companies focus on building capability in consulting and influencing, product management and change management to a much greater extent than all companies. The difference is very large: A 45 percentage point difference. This shows their desire to make their solutions and predictions effective by making “analytical products” for employees, managers and executives as necessary, through embedding analytics into the people processes across the company.  

For more on how Leading Companies are investing across Reporting & Enablement and Governance teams, download the full report.

The importance of investing across all three engines

Ultimately, each company will have unique business challenges that they are trying to solve, which will necessitate investment in different roles. For smaller organisations, this could also mean investment in upskilling existing team members, or hiring individuals that bring skills form different engines.

The most important thing to note is that each engine is critical to the success of the operating model. Out of all companies surveyed in our research, 39% of them have roles across all three engines. Of these, 93% are confident their work delivers value to the business. Put simply, it is not possible to be successful without capability across all three engines.

Consider the following:

• Without the Demand Engine, you’re reactive and not delivering value where the business needs it the most

• Without the Solution Engine, you don’t have the skills or governance to conduct analyses, nor the credibility to tackle the most complex challenges

• Without the Product Engine, you’re not able to scale the impact of people analytics solutions and will most likely end up conducting experiments on lower-value priorities

Just as Leading Companies have done, it’s crucial to invest across all three engines of the people analytics operating model. Keep this important point top of mind when it comes to your next hiring decision.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Caroline Styr is the Research Director at Insight222. She is a thought-leader, researcher and writer on people analytics and the future of HR. Prior to joining Insight222, she worked at the Center for the Future of Work where she was an advisor and in-demand speaker on topics related to the future of work. She has also held roles in digital services and transformation consulting at Cognizant.

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