What are the core skills that make up a successful people analytics function? As data-driven HR leaders and progressive people analytics leaders, you will be very aware of the changing dynamics of the people analytics function.

Worldwide trends such as AI-human collaboration, digital transformation, skills-based organisations, and a focus on creating positive societal impact have made people insights front and centre in business strategy discussions. This requires a shift towards a more strategic and value-driven approach in HR. And with this shift, the operating model for people analytics teams must also adapt.

Over the years, Insight222 has dedicated its research to studying the most relevant and timely operating model for the people analytics function to ensure that the field supports its business during these trends. It has assessed how HR analytics should be structured, how it can best partner with the business and HR, and the core skills required to build a successful people analytics team that drives business success.

In this article, we will be double-clicking on the core skills that are critical for a successful people analytics function and how you can develop them. But before we delve into these skills, let's first understand how the operating model itself has evolved.

The People Analytics Ecosystem

Figure 1. Source: Delivering Value at Scale: A New Operating Model for People Analytics

In 2020, Insight222 introduced its first model for people analytics (Figure 1.), which focused on a value chain approach. This model highlighted the importance of viewing people analytics activities in terms of inputs and outputs, guided by client drivers and comprised of three key engines: the Demand Engine, the Solutions Engine, and the Product Engine.

This value chain model is still relevant in aligning with overarching business objectives. However, today's operating model, which we have coined the People Analytics Ecosystem in our recent research, 'Building the People Analytics Ecosystem: Operating Model v2.0', represents an evolution that encapsulates a more comprehensive and integrated approach.

At its core, the main objective of the people analytics function will always be to deliver to business. However, we have found that to achieve business outcomes; every people analytics action should align with the overall people strategy, with an increased importance of developing internal and external partnerships to obtain a holistic view of the organisation.

These components form the foundation of a successful people analytics function. However, to do this successfully, the functions must possess five core skills.

The Five Core Capabilities of the People Analytics Ecosystem

Five core capabilities must, without negotiation, fall under the reporting line of the people analytics leader to drive value for both the people and business strategy. Therefore, regardless of your people analytics maturity level, understanding which roles and skills you should invest in to enhance the business value of your function and the big why of having these skills is absolutely paramount.

Consulting

People analytics leaders must be able to act as internal consultants to work with internal and external stakeholders to identify the key challenges and opportunities where people's insights can add value. This builds trust and credibility with HR and business leaders. Most importantly, it helps them understand how to build bridges between data, insights, and business needs.

It ensures that data insights are aligned with business objectives and that recommendations are practical and actionable. As such, our latest research, which interviewed 271 global organisations, found that 78% of people analytics teams now have the people analytics consultant role.

Take, for instance, Cardinal Health, which completely transformed its people analytics by adopting a consultative approach to its people analytics activities. Under the leadership of Erin Gerbec, Director of People Analytics; the company has shifted from a reactive reporting function to a proactive consulting team that focuses on solving business problems through data and insights. The function was viewed more as a strategic partner than an HR support centre. Stronger business relationships were formed, and as a result, internal recruitment and retention of skills became more fluid as the function enhanced its visibility and impact.

Data Science and Research

What is people analytics without strong capabilities in statistical analysis, machine learning, and the ability to manage and interpret large datasets? These skills provide the technical foundation for the people analytics function, enabling the development of sophisticated models and analyses that drive evidence-based decisions.

However, interestingly, our research found that HR functions tend to invest in these advanced analytical abilities only once they reach a certain maturity level, prioritising data analysts over data scientists in the first few years of tenure.

But this shouldn't mean that data science skills are not essential from the beginning. In fact, organisations that invest in these skills from the outset tend to have a higher impact on the business and can accelerate their maturity journey.

Employee Listening

Employee listening has certainly progressed over the decade. Organisations no longer rely on an annual survey as the only source of employee feedback. Today, leading people analytics functions are leveraging a range of technologies and methods to collect ongoing, real-time data on employee sentiment, engagement, and experience.

This requires skills in advanced analytical skills such as sentiment analysis, text mining, and natural language processing to gather insights from unstructured data sources effectively. These skills predominately lie within the people analytics function, which is subsequently why we are already seeing that 52% of people analytics hold the core responsibility of employee listening.

Remember, the people strategy should thread through all people analytics activities. Without diligently and continuously listening to your employees' voices, designing a holistic employee experience that delivers on strategy is very difficult. So, taking ownership of this area is a crucial step in elevating the people analytics function.

Analytics at Scale

One thing that all leading companies in people analytics do well is the enablement of turning people insights into products for the rest of the organisation. Whether through an internal platform or dashboards, having personalised people analytics insights readily available to decision-makers across the business is crucial for driving impact and adoption.

It is part of building a data-driven culture and internal and external reach and engagement to shift people's hearts and minds to becoming more data literate. However, achieving this requires investment in skills that involve business intelligence dashboard development, data visualisation, user experience, data engineering, and leveraging effective partnerships with technology and data privacy for specialist software skills.

Analytics at scale means democratising people's insights beyond the HR function. Employees, senior leaders, and people managers all need to be able to access and interpret people data for decision-making, which is why it is crucial to invest in these skills from the outset.

Adoption

However, if scaling people analytics products is to be adopted across the organisation, it takes more than just delivering a personalised product. It requires a change management approach, ensuring stakeholders understand the value of people analytics and how it fits into their decision-making processes.

As VP of Workforce Intelligence at Raytheon Technologies, Aashish Sharma highlights during his conversation with David Green on the Digital HR Leaders podcast that successfully achieving analytics scale requires creating simple, intuitive tools incorporating design thinking and product management into the process.

However, this is an area where our research has found that is not fully present in people analytics teams. With only 30% of teams having a project manager or a product manager and just 11% having a change manager, there is still vast potential opportunity to develop these skills and embed them into their ways of working to drive greater adoption across the business.

Building and Growing these Skills

To determine if your people analytics function possesses these essential skills, it is highly recommended that a skills audit is conducted. Each of these skills is imperative to the success of a people analytics function and is not a skill that can be easily acquired through traditional HR training programs. Instead, organisations should look for individuals with a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences, including those from consulting, data science and analytics, engineering or social sciences, as these roles require a mix of technical and soft skills.

Through separate research on Upskilling the HR Profession: Building Data Literacy at Scale, we have also found that these skills' learning pathways and continual development and growth are equally important. This involves developing a training plan and career path, leveraging external expertise, fostering a learning culture, and regularly measuring progress.

As Insight222, we have developed an immersive learning experience program dedicated to upskilling people analytics professionals to support them through their journey in deepening their expertise in analytical thinking, stakeholder management, storytelling with data, and prioritisation.

However, at its absolute core, if we refer back to the people analytics ecosystem, it is driven by the thread of the people strategy, which is owned by the HR leadership team. If there is no data-driven culture embedded into the HR function, then the collaboration and unification between HR and people analytics will not be strong enough to enable the people analytics ecosystem to thrive. To that end, HR leaders should also be looking to develop these skills within their teams to effectively partner with their people analytics teams in driving business impact.

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Five Core Skills for People Analytics