Aligning with Stakeholder Needs and Delivering Business Value
If you think back 20 years ago, people analytics was nothing but a twinkle in the eye of HR professionals. Fast forward to today, and it’s one of the biggest value drivers for HR. To drive successful HR and organisational transformation, leveraging people analytics for better decision-making has become essential to any Human Resource strategy. And as we move from traditional methods of managing people to more automated, data-driven approaches, people analytics has become the bridge between HR and strategic business objectives.
In fact, our Insight222 People Analytics Trends report of 2022 saw that the growth and investment in the people analytics function are increasing year on year. Leading organisations invest in more people analytics professionals and HR technology to ensure they have the right data-driven insights to make informed decisions about their people.
Harnessing Stakeholder Alignment
However, the success of any people analytics function isn’t just about crunching numbers or having the latest HR technology – it’s about aligning with stakeholder needs and enhancing the business value of the HR function. This means understanding what relevant stakeholders (both internal and external) expect from the people analytics function and using data analysis to drive better insights and decision-making.
To bridge the gap between stakeholders and people analytics (as shown in our Insight222 People Analytics Trends report of 2022), companies are investing more in the “consulting” role. Specifically looking for talent with “translating skills” – people who can align stakeholder needs with the people analytics function and strategies. These consultants work closely with both parties to identify essential stakeholder expectations, needs, priorities, and success criteria and then translate this into analytical objectives.
The Importance of Aligning People Analytics with Stakeholder Needs
Stakeholder alignment is critical for the success of any business function, let alone the people analytics function. However, with our research finding that people analytics adds the most value to business strategy, ensuring that the stakeholders are on board with your people analytics strategies and goals is especially important.
This means understanding what success looks like in their eyes, what the priorities are from their perspective, and how they will measure success. That way, you can ensure that your decision-making is based on data that is relevant to the organisation’s strategic objectives and avoid the cost of investment in the wrong areas.
Identifying Key Stakeholder Needs
The first step to beginning your stakeholder alignment journey is to map out the key stakeholders and their needs and objectives. In the context of people analytics, stakeholders can include executives, managers, HR professionals, employees, and even customers.
Each group has different needs, priorities, and success criteria to consider when developing a people analytics strategy. For example, the executive team might prioritise high-level metrics such as employee productivity and revenue per employee. At the same time, individual managers may need more detailed data to decide employee performance or hiring needs.
Therefore, you must speak to each stakeholder group and identify their needs to cater for them when it comes to developing an effective people analytics strategy and, of course, building a compelling business case for people analytics.
To create a compelling case for people analytics, you must demonstrate the value of people data in cost savings, business growth and development, and competitive advantage – whatever is critical for your organisation and its strategic objectives.
Here are some points that you may want to consider:
Which data points will be used to track progress?
What insights can you draw from the data?
How will these insights help drive better decision-making?
How will the data be communicated across all departments and to external stakeholders?
How will you ensure that data governance and privacy protocols are adhered to?
What are the costs associated with investing in people analytics, and what is the return on investment (ROI) potential?
Answering these questions will help you build a compelling business case for your people analytics function and demonstrate to stakeholders how it can help achieve their goals.
Developing a Clear Roadmap for Success
Once you have identified the stakeholder’s needs and objectives and built a compelling business case that no one could say no to, the next step is to create a roadmap that outlines the activities required to reach those goals. This roadmap is the key to the transformation you have been striving for, so you must ensure it is communicated and understood across all teams.
This roadmap should include timelines, milestones, and performance metrics to track progress. The roadmap should also identify the resources required to execute the activities, including people, processes, and technology, and it should prioritise activities based on their potential impact and feasibility, ensuring that the people analytics function delivers quick wins and long-term success.
The quick wins could be activities that can be delivered rapidly and deliver immediate value, such as initiating employee listening circles and democratising those insights for better and real-time decision-making. Be sure to identify your employees needs and how to take advantage of this
Unlike these quick wins, big bets would require more significant investments and deliver value over an extended period. Investing in HR technology and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions such as predictive analytics can help you identify key trends and correlations within your data and drive better insights and decision-making.
Ensuring Ongoing Alignment
With all this, people analytics is a process that requires regular attention from stakeholders to remain relevant and useful. As such, it is important to establish governance and communication frameworks that ensure ongoing alignment between the team, stakeholders, and key decision-makers.
This could include regular meetings or check-ins with the executive team to review progress, engaging with leaders on a regular basis to understand their data needs, and using analytics dashboards to keep everyone up to date with the latest insights.
You’ll also need to ensure that data governance, privacy and security policies are always adhered to, protecting the company from data-related compliance issues and helping to build trust with stakeholders.
By taking a strategic approach, you can ensure that your people analytics activities are aligned with stakeholder needs and deliver more business value in the long term.
Unlocking Long-Term Success
Ultimately, aligning your people analytics function with stakeholder needs is key to achieving long-term success. By understanding stakeholder needs, building a business case, developing a clear roadmap, and establishing ongoing communications and governance frameworks, you can ensure that your people analytics function is well-positioned to deliver real business value to your stakeholders. But remember that to effectively gain buy in you need to have a data-driven culture within your HR team.
TRANSFORM YOUR PEOPLE ANALYTICS FUNCTION TO ALIGN WITH YOUR STAKEHOLDER NEEDS AND DELIVER MORE BUSINESS VALUE
At Insight222, we partner with our clients to ensure their people analytics efforts are calibrated with stakeholder needs and help them develop an effective roadmap for success. We partner with you to build a clear picture of what your business leaders value about people analytics and then help you understand how to reach their aspirations. The outcome is a roadmap with prioritised activities to combine quick-wins and long-term success. This, typically 16-20 weeks in duration, is a perfect way to immerse your team in leading people analytics practices. Contact us today to find out more and being your journey to transform your people analytics function!