In the Digital HR Leaders podcast series, sponsored by Visier, we had some fantastic guest speakers, all exploring a myriad of topics. We had:

• Lynda Gratton and Diane Gherson discussed HR's role in successfully integrating a blended workforce consisting of freelance workers and employees.

• Angela Le Mathon from GSK who shared how building a solid data foundation has driven HR transformation.

• Keith Bigelow from Visier explained the importance of HR leading organisation-wide digital transformation and how workforce analytics, when aligned with the right metrics, can be used to demonstrate tangible business value.

• Tanuj Kapilashrami and Ravin Jesuthasan who dived into the concept of building a skills-powered organisation, emphasising the importance of an organisation's data infrastructure in scaling skills and optimising workforce planning.

• Sharon Taylor and Jaco van Vuuren from Standard Bank shared insights on their journey to digitise HR for a global workforce, leveraging centralised data to enhance employee experience, streamline operations, and empower leaders with real-time insights.

Despite the diversity of subjects, I asked each guest a significant question: 'How can workforce analytics enhance HR decision-making and drive business success?'

From improving employee engagement and retention to predicting future workforce needs, workforce analytics has the potential to offer transformative insights that can empower HR decision-making and drive business success. Interestingly, however, when I posed the question to the above guests, I received a range of responses.

The Engine Room of HR

What I loved about Diane Gherson's response was how she referred to workforce analytics as the "engine room" for HR, highlighting that it should be at the core of all HR functions.

This sentiment was, of course, echoed by her co-panellist, Lynda Gratton, who explained that workforce analytics works on three fundamental levels:

"It operates the level of the individual to help them understand more about themselves; it operates at the level of the team to understand where they're working, how they connect with others; and it operates at the level of the organisation."

Workforce analytics gives HR and business leaders insight into the whole engine of HR, from individual performance to team dynamics and organisational culture, fundamental to making informed and effective decisions that drive business success.

It's just how Keith Bigelow expressed, "If your employees aren't well trained and they aren't well engaged, and they aren't fairly compensated, they're going to be somebody else's employees.  And that just puts your company at risk - your net talent density drops." 

In essence, workforce analytics is the ticking heart that helps organisations understand the three levels Lynda highlighted—individual, team, and organisation— to help improve their employee engagement, efficiency and retention, leading to a more talented and productive workforce.

Aligning Skills with Business Needs

Take skills, for instance. Building a skills-based organisation is a trend that we are seeing more and more of. But it can't be done without data. In fact, Ravin Jesuthasan emphasised that "skills are the new lens to the great work that's already been done to make HR the decision science it long should have been."

"As we see more data, as we see more analytics, as we have better models and frameworks, whether that's work design, whether that's workforce planning... an analysis of engagement and sentiment, etc, all of which we can clearly link to a set of economic outcomes, I think skills helps us get that much more precise and crisper and clearer in demonstrating that value proposition,"

he added.

That statement is a testament to the value that workforce analytics can bring in aligning skills with business needs. All this data and analysis is essential in understanding which skills are needed for business success and how they can be acquired or developed within the workforce.

If not, as Tanuj, Ravin's co-author and co-panellist, shares:

"The reality is, businesses that don't embrace this change will genuinely get left behind.  If not because they will not continue to be productive, they actually will lose the war for talent.  Because if you look at, you know, talk about what is it that the employees want, what is it that the workforce is looking for, they really want to do purposeful, impactful work, but they want to work in organisations where there's an opportunity for them to learn, earn, and grow."

Building trust in data

However, workforce analytics is only as powerful as the trust placed in the data. As Angela Le Mathon rightly pointed out, "You won't get the business to even look at the data, let alone make a decision off of it, if they don't trust it."

Tapping into the capabilities that will help elevate trust in data, she continued to share,

"That's where decision science, data science, behaviour science, or actuarial science comes in, is that we always strive to provide the latest thinking, the latest methodologies for how we make sense of our data, with a lens that the goal is to support how our people thrive."

It's about that added layer of expertise and human insight that will help build trust in the data. End users want to understand not just the numbers but also the context behind them. They want to see how the data applies to their specific business needs and challenges.

This is where it is not just about building that data science capability. But also the consulting capability that connects the data science and decision science to the business domain expertise becomes critical.

It is also ensuring that the data you possess is secure, private and of high quality. As Sharon Taylor expressed while answering the question during our discussion with her colleague Jaco van Vuuren,

"[Data] must be rich and accurate... otherwise, you're into the garbage in/garbage out scenario that maybe we found ourselves in ten years ago.

It's All About Connecting The Dots

Beyond this, the real impact of workforce analytics on HR decision-making and business decision-making is in the ability to connect the dots. It's not just about understanding individual skills or engagement levels, but also seeing how they affect team dynamics and organisational culture.

Perhaps it's an underperforming team that needs more training and development to improve their productivity. Or maybe it's a high-performing employee showing signs of burnout and needing extra support. These insights can only be gained by connecting the data from different levels within the organisation.

As Sharon Taylor shared,

"It really helps you move from what I would call an obsession with symptoms to an obsession with root causes… you can start asking yourself very different questions around why you're seeing certain outcomes you're seeing, and then try and track back to what actually is causing that.  And if you get to the answer of what's causing that, you can clearly do something different."

That is the power of workforce analytics - connecting the dots and making data-driven decisions that lead to business success. But it all starts with building a solid foundation of accurate, reliable data and developing the skills and expertise to translate that data into actionable insights.

And that requires building a people analytics ecosystem that integrates data, technology, and human expertise to drive meaningful change. Based on years of research focused on understanding the best people analytics models that drive success, at Insight222, we can help you build an ecosystem that helps facilitate the adoption and growth of workforce analytics. We can help you create a roadmap that aligns with your business objectives and build capabilities that enable you to connect the dots, make informed decisions, and drive real impact.

Contact us today to learn more.

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