The Key to Operational Effectiveness in People Analytics
Known for their technical and analytical skills, the people analytics function is often viewed as the "data scientists" of HR (which they are). They are often seen as the number crunchers, extracting insights from large amounts of data to inform the people and business strategy. And yes, that is an integral part of their role. However, being effective in people analytics is about more than just technical skills.
Recent research on our Insight222 People Analytics Ecosystem found that while data science and research capabilities are core capabilities of the People Analytics Ecosystem, leveraging internal and external partnerships and cultivating strong business acumen are equally important.
The Power of Relationships in People Analytics
As people analytics leaders and data-driven HR leaders, you will know that high internal density is critical to building trust in relationships. When conducting organisational network analysis, you look at internal density to identify the organisation's top influencers and potential blockers.
Likewise, if you are to drive operational effectiveness in people analytics, you must build relationships with key stakeholders—both internal and external. It is what sets a good people analytics team apart from a great one, as these partnerships help align people analytics with the business and people strategy to meet organisational needs and are necessary for scaling people analytics across the organisation.
Building Strong Internal Partnerships
Just as any department and function within an organisation, people analytics should not operate in a silo; it needs to work closely with different parts of HR, business leaders, and functional stakeholders. These partnerships are critical for sharing knowledge, understanding the needs of various stakeholders, and ensuring that people analytics supports broader strategic goals.
Take for instance, HR. As the traditional custodians of employee data, HR is a key partner for people analytics, as every people analytics action should be made to support the people strategy and align with HR's priorities.
Leading Companies in people analytics know this. They have a strong relationship with HR, with the majority of people analytics leaders reporting to the CHRO. They know that by working together, HR and people analytics can identify specific metrics and insights to improve the people strategy and drive business outcomes. Equally, HR can help people analytics understand the organisation's people processes and systems, which will facilitate data collection and analysis.
Figure 3. The seven characteristics of Leading Companies in People Analytics. (Source: Insight222 People Analytics Trends 2022)
While HRBPs and HR leaders can provide valuable insight into the people side of the business, it is essential to also partner with other business leaders to gain a more comprehensive understanding of organisational goals and challenges. This will help identify key metrics and insights that are aligned with business objectives, making it easier to showcase the value of people analytics to decision-makers.
Not only this, but understanding business leaders' key priorities, language, and pain points can help people analytics teams tailor their communication and storytelling to have the greatest impact.
The same applies to functional stakeholders, such as finance, IT and marketing. By building strong relationships with these departments, people analytics can tap into their data and insights to enrich their own analysis. This cross-functional collaboration can also immensely gain traction and support for people analytics initiatives.
At the end of the day, if your functional stakeholders need to learn what the people analytics function does, they are likely to see the value in their work and may be less willing to share data or resources. So, as the function grows and becomes more influential, these partnerships can not be put to the side.
Unlocking Value Through External Partnerships
An internal team can only do so much alone, and sometimes, external alliances are necessary to unlock value and drive impact. Typically, these external partnerships involve data and technology vendors and collaboration with consulting partners.
With the speed of technological advancements, insights are expected to be delivered at the click of a button. Subsequently, people analytics teams are finding themselves being pulled in all directions, racing to deliver reports and insights to support decision-making. However, if this continues, they will always remain a support reporting function, struggling to find time to provide more in-depth analysis and drive business outcomes.
By partnering with data and technology vendors, people analytics teams can access advanced tools and technologies that will streamline their processes and improve the quality and speed of their insights.
With external technology vendors, people analytics leaders and professionals are armed with the tools to conduct more advanced analytics, such as organisational network analysis (ONA) or strategic workforce planning (SWP), at ease. They also allow for the productisation and democratisation of people's data and insights, making it easier for decision-makers to quickly access the information they need.
Erin Gerbec, who leads the people analytics function at Cardinal Health, provides a great example of this in practice. Speaking to David Green on the Digital HR Leaders podcast, Erin shared,
"We exist to deliver insights that drive outcomes". And as I said before, you can't be consultative if you don't have time to think about the data. And so rallying around these five words for us gave us the permission to say no. And the work that we may have done in the past that was more tactical or, "Hey, run this workday report for me and do a VLOOKUP with the other one and give it to me every Monday", allowed us to say, "That's not the value we add and that's not delivering an insight that drives an outcome. And so let me show you how we can schedule this for you on your own. Workday will send it to your inbox every Monday", and this is now off of our plate so that we could say no to work so we could say yes to the most impactful work that our team can provide, but also that lights us up, that we want to do every day."
In short, technology can be a game-changer in driving the operational effectiveness of the people analytics function. Similarly, collaborating with consulting partners can also bring valuable insights and expertise to the table.
Consulting partners specialise in HR and business strategy areas, such as organisational design, change management, upskilling and reskilling, diversity and inclusion, and more. They provide an external perspective and bring in fresh ideas based on their experience working with multiple organisations to take people analytics initiatives to the next level.
These relationships provide a cutting edge to the people analytics function, allowing them to tap into different skill sets and perspectives that can enhance their analysis and recommendations. They act as a sounding board for ideas and support implementing and managing change within the organisation.
They exist to complement the internal capabilities of the people analytics team, making them valuable assets in unlocking value through strategic partnerships.
Building Effective Partnerships
There are many ways that your people analytics function can build effective partnerships with both internal and external partners. These can involve regular check-ins and meetings, joint project collaborations, and ongoing communication and knowledge sharing. However, it all boils down to building the consulting capability within the people analytics function.
This means adopting a consultancy mindset, seeking to understand the needs and challenges of their partners and providing tailored solutions to address them. This requires strong communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to translate data into meaningful insights that can drive business outcomes.
At Insight222, we provide comprehensive consulting services to help you develop optimal people analytics operations tailored to your business. We also offer immersive learning programs (ILXs) designed to deepen consulting capabilities by enhancing your team's expertise in analytical thinking, stakeholder management, data storytelling, and prioritisation.
However, the end point is this: if you want to drive impact and unlock the value of people analytics, build strong partnerships, both internally and externally. No more siloes. Invest in developing your team's consulting capabilities and leverage the expertise of external partners to take your people analytics function to the next level. This way, you can truly deliver insights that drive outcomes and accelerate the success of your organisation.
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