Over the last two decades HR has undergone a period of significant change. From Dave Ulrich’s model of the HR Business Partner 2.0, combined with a wave of new cloud technologies have had a huge hand in really reshaping the way HR operates across most organisations. This pace of change has been further accelerated by the pandemic. In order to stay relevant and bring more value to their business, HR teams need to build an array of new skills as part of their capability framework, after all no business plan can be truly successful without a people plan.

Meanwhile many HR leaders will share the same story that “HR often fails to focus inwardly on the development of their own skillset”. Insight222’s People Analytics 2021 Trends report found that, 90% of CHROs declared that they expected HRBPs to use people data and analytics in their daily work, while only 42% of HRBPs stated that they are building their data literacy skills

Cue Learning & Development. This is where L&D need to step up and help HR upskill themselves to become more data-driven, experience-led and business-focused.

The nine HR skills of the future

We conducted a series of research and co-creation projects with our clients at Insight222® which concluded that to evolve and remain relevant it’s imperative that HR become more:

Data-driven, ensuring that all of their decisions are grounded in data.
Experience led, ensuring that they’re designing experiences that put the employee at the centre
Business focused, ensuring that they’re effectively partnering with the business to support them achieve their strategic goals.

In order to truly embrace these three areas there are nine vital skills for HR to be successful in today’s digital age

Creating a skills benchmark for HR

In April 2021, in partnership with Deeper Signals, some of the best experts in psychometrics and talent assessment, we developed a self-assessment tool for HR professionals to evaluate their proficiency in these 9 HR skills of the future. This tool is available for anyone starting their learning experience on the myHRfuture Academy or in our PLAY learning programs.

It’s been more than a year and we’ve had over one thousand HR professionals completing the assessment, so we decided to explore the results which allowed us to define this benchmark. What was evident from the results is that there is definitely room for development across majority of the skills in this framework.

Understandably, it can’t be expected that all HR functions would score at the same level of proficiency considering some are HR Analysts, Business Partners, Talent Experts or Shared Services and require different focuses for their job. For example, analysts are expected to pitch higher in data analysis vs HRBPs who are predicted to rank higher in stakeholder management.

Business focused ranked the highest across the three areas, considering that HR professionals in any faction of the business are expected to know and understand the industry they represent, this is a positive signal

It is no surprise that data analysis scored the lowest, there continues to be a significant focus on the need for HR professionals to continue building their confidence using data to drive business decisions, this further emphasises the need for organisations to continue upskilling their HR teams.

With the HR Tech landscape predicted to grow beyond the $12 billion its currently estimated to be worth, it’s imperative that HR professionals continue to build their digital literacy, enabling them to embrace technology to improve and design better employee experiences.

Why is upskilling HR so important?

What the benchmark shows us is where, on average, most HR professionals view their competency without further training. From this it can be determined that there are gaps in certain skills that are key for building a data-driven culture in HR. This capability challenge will be an obstacle for most CHROs - as 90% of them say data and analytics are top priority for their HR strategy.

By implementing a skill-based approach to developing their staff, companies are more likely to be innovative, competitive and grow. However many organisations are yet to embrace an upskilling strategy to build a data driven culture in HR. Our People Analytics Trends 2021 report found that while 90% of CHRO’s believe data and analytics to be integral to their strategy only 42% of HR Business Partners feel confident using data.

So what happens if an organisation continues to overlook the imperative need to support their HR teams upskill?

A lack of a data-driven culture

As the popular trend is evolving, using a data driven culture is a large part in how leading companies like Microsoft stay innovative during challenging times. With the right mindset, HR professionals and leaders create changes in the workplace based on collected and analysed data. By eliminating bias and utilising data supported evidence, the changes they make have a higher likelihood of bringing about the desired results. Without a data driven culture, decisions made could potentially have costly consequences.

Increased Employee Attrition

Without the ability to develop effective programs that address the company’s major concerns, businesses see higher turnover rates, less diversity and inclusion, more unengaged employees, lower productivity, ineffective training, and employee conflicts.. the list goes on. By HR leaders and people analytics teams having the capacity to put plans in place and make work easier and more efficient across the board, they’re able to counteract many of these challenges that organisation face, especially in current time as we see employees exiting organisations at record rates.

Unable to drive business value through People Analytics

From the wide variety of challenges people analytics can solve, not having the skills to ask the right questions, come up with fact-based solutions and evaluate results from implemented programs leaves the HR professional and the company behind leading organisations. By investing the time and money in upskilling HR professionals enables organisations to create an environment where people analytics can evaluate the driving force of the staff at the organisation and create motivations and rewards for a job well done.

Unable to influence decision-making process

When HR professionals lack the skills and the confidence to approach decision-makers and offer their insight, the company remains stagnant and misses out on opportunities to be innovative and grow. HR has a large potential to drive business forward by caring for the people who help run the organisation and when they have the talent to persuade stakeholders to act, the organisation is more equipped to handle challenges today such as preparing and managing a hybrid workforce and struggling to fill tech slots in a labour shortage.

Three steps L&D can take to upskill their HR teams

An effective upskilling strategy to a build data-driven culture will require some shifts in some traditional L&D approaches:

From content to context - where information is of quality vs quantity
From training to performance - where outcomes are understood vs blind assumptions
From output to impact - where programs are measured by results vs. checking off a list
Once mindset is established, learning professionals can take steps to ensure that the time and energy put into upskilling the human resources department will have guaranteed positive results.

1. Define the right business metrics

For L&D to ensure value, they need to take a performance consulting approach from the start. They want to put their energy into developing HR learning programs that will first and foremost contribute to the organisation's success in the specific industry they run in. Let go of the quantitative elements of time spent learning and go deeper into engagement metrics. Understand what HR needs to contribute to business value. By collaborating with CHRO, HRBP and People Analytics Leaders, they can begin the process with framing the right questions and building proper hypotheses.

Some considerations would be:

If we upskill HR, we will reduce attrition in the right business areas to improve customer satisfaction and product innovation
If HR becomes more data-driven, we can develop retention strategies that will save millions in costs of talent attraction
If HR is more experience-led, we will improve employee wellbeing and business productivity
After determining what is good for the company and will develop business value, the next step is exploring the different target populations to be upskilled.

2. Take a persona-based approach to learning for more context and relevance

How individuals learn and develop their skills in many ways is determined by their own intrinsic motivations.

Think about what level and focus the HR professional is at and what “job is to be done” by that individual. Are they an HRBP needing to be more influential and require more insight into effective storytelling? Or are they on a people analytic team researching recruitment strategies and need a boost in analytic thinking.

Also listening to the concerns voiced by the HR professions will remove some of the barriers they may be facing. Consider the right learning experience. Do some employees struggle staying on task and need prompting to continue their learning. Do other employees need guidance into what type of skills they should work on and may potentially benefit from automated nudges and content recommendations?

Remember that in this world of ‘content abundance’ the new golden rule is often ‘less is more’.

3. Say ‘Yes’ to the ‘learning hub’, and more of the ‘learning lab’

It is best known that most people do not build their capabilities in a skill by only reading a manual or watching a video. Yes, it may be possible to learn some functional skills from an online trailblazer to build your next dashboard on a new HRIS platform. However, it’s very different when it comes to changing behaviours and mindset. When developing skills like analytical thinking and storytelling learners gain the most when they have the ability to turn theory into practice, in a safe environment first – and with others in a social context.

Some options for building learning experiences that embrace these elements are:

Peer2Peer Learning – This is where individuals practise their skill in real time, with real life scenarios
A mix of self-directed and guided learning – This is where the learner has the ability to move at their own pace to learn
Microlearning for concepts and theory – This method encompasses material which is delivered in small chunks and can be consumed in short bursts over a period of time
Bootcamps with simulations and project-based learning – This approach allows the learner to develop and apply newly learned skills in a supportive and mentorship-based environment

To offer the greatest value to business, having the skills and the confidence to implement their talents in the daily duties of HR is key. L&D can help HR professionals reach their goal of becoming more business focus, data driven and experience-led in everything they do to support the business.

How can Insight222 Learning support your organisation?

Insight222's mission is to make organisations better by placing people analytics at the centre of the business and by upskilling HR. We believe HR needs to become more data-driven, experience-led and business focused for people analytics to bring more business value. Insight222 Learning solutions support HR professionals to build the skills needed to succeed in the future. We work with all teams from people analytics functions, to HR business partner teams, through to up skilling the entire global HR organisation. Our solutions focus on empowering you to become more data-driven, more business focused, and more experience led. We build yours and your HR teams’ expertise in areas such as data analysis, analytical thinking, storytelling, workforce planning and design thinking. Click here to learn more.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cédric Borzée is a Learning Director at Insight222 where he leads the HR upskilling activities to build a data-driven culture in HR. Prior to joining Insight222, Cédric was a Senior Learning Strategist at Wiley/CrossKnowledge where he specialised in EdTech as a driver for business transformation and people performance. For the last 20 years, he has also hold various roles as HR Business Partner and HR Communications expert for the AXA Group and Hays Plc. Cédric has completed an Executive MBA at ESSEC Business School and an International Masterclass in L&D Leadership at Nyenrode/IE Business School.

Upskill your HR Team today!

We help organisations reinvent learning. Our learning programs support your HR Business Partners to build the skills they need to effectively use analytics in HR to have data driven conversations with the business that drive actionable outcomes. The Data Driven HR Fundamentals certification is a collection of 6 on-demand, video based training courses that can be completed within a 12 month period, at their own pace. This certification program is designed to support your team build their skills in analytical thinking, data analytics and storytelling. By completing this learning program your HR team will learn how to better interpret HR data and be confident in having data driven conversations with the business, that drive actionable outcomes.

Why is Upskilling HR so Important?