Last week's blog looked at the big picture for big data analytics, HR and talent management. Before we embark on an assessment of the strategies and solutions for managing talent through the use of big data analytics in HR, let's look at the final barriers that CIPD's report identified as having the potential to block the pathway to success. Part 1 outlined structural and systems silos, as well as skills capacity issues that could negatively impact HR analytics capabilities. Now let's look at the other two barriers that might get in the way.
Potential Barriers to HR Data Analytics Success
Actual Use of Big Data
HR’s use of big data is really very much still in its infancy. Research indicates that less than a third of HR Managers use big data to look at key trends, and that nearly half of HR Professionals do not use big data at all.
Let's look at the learning space as an example; big data holds the potential to herald an incredible depth of new insight around learning. Learning and development has traditionally relied upon legacy measurement approaches. Consider this scenario: a learning value chain, with interactive assessment from training or ‘delivery’, through smart devices, which capture interactive learning such as conversations, reading material and webinars. In this context, it would be possible to measure multiple factors right down to the point of impact and use.
However, it's clear from research that HR is still grappling with the need to provide analytics from the raw data often held within HR departments, but still hidden behind structural and system silo barriers. In order for HR Professionals to start using data, they first need to be able to access it and understand what they can do with it.
Value Creation
The type of capability needed to make communication and collaboration possible from a data perspective, takes a lot of time to develop. This is the point in the process when the question of value, which is central to both talent analytics and big data in the HR space, becomes a key driver of the direction that any future plans for data analytics capability will take. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the hype around big data and it is certainly a growing feature of our lives, but the real challenge for HR (and the wider organisation) is ultimately, how to get value from it. If the HR department is going to invest time, resources and capital in obtaining the skills to analyse data, they really need to know how to tailor this process to suit their needs from a value creation perspective.
In order to gain value from HR developing data access and analytics capabilities, it is necessary to:
- Tackle legacy systems and outdated / siloed structures and understand that they are a central obstacle to the development of a data- and evidence-driven approach to HR.
- Develop the skills, smarts and talent pools which will help HR exploit the promise of talent analytics and big data.
- Encourage collaboration and connectedness with the idea of data and information being a key part of the transformational toolkit of HR.
Suspicion and Skepticism about data and evidence
In CIPD's 2012 Business Savvy research, they identified four quadrants of capability which HR Professionals need to work on based upon their survey evidence and case studies. The research indicates that adding depth and generating insight from data and evidence, are the two most analytical and business-focused skills required. Whereas understanding organisational development, design and politics as well as culture, leadership, conflict and ethics, come in as secondary elements to the holistic HR capability set of requirements. CIPD believes that the data and evidence aspect, should be the most important focus for the future and that HR has to overcome, in the majority of cases, an in-built reluctance to be driven by data.
Even the most data-driven and analytical HR Managers know that the real value will come from identifying patterns in data around how people feel and behave in a forward looking manner. This is quite different from past and current habits which tend to be backward looking and these habits will need to be changed in order to reframe outdated biases, beliefs and behaviours.
Biases, Beliefs, Behaviours
- HR data has been backward-looking and insular.
- Many HR Professionals have a preference for big picture problem solving and some ambiguity over analysis.
- Conflicting demands and expectations amongst compartments, departments and organisations as a whole.
HR-specific measures tend to focus on past performance. For example, how many people have we employed and how much do they earn? What numbers have been trained in the last year and how much time did it take? How many people left last year and what are the associated ratios? This kind of approach tends to build a rear-view mirror mindset. It can distract and constrain a more visionary approach, just as a driver focusing on the rear-view is unable to see an opportunity to overtake and could be in danger from oncoming traffic. The question remains, how can HR Professionals build their capability within the HR function, to be driven by analytics and to exploit the full potential of data to deliver insight around people and performance.
Upskilling HR to be able to harness big data for future success needs to be about solving the business problem and not just the HR problem. HR needs to turn its head from a backwards looking viewpoint, to a more forward focused vision. Helping the organisation create solutions to talent and performance, strategy, learning and reward, etc, to drive revenue and value, using forward looking insight based on rigorous data should be the main focus. However, given that most of the data organisations collect is backward-looking, a value driven, future oriented approach will require habits to be changed and processes to be re-engineered.
At this point, it is also relevant to consider some of the concerns around a data driven future, after all, HR Professionals are people people, and there will always be a necessity to retain the human element of Human Resources. Some of the fears around a highly technical and intensely data driven HR future warrant assessement.
Fears
- Data reduces and dehumanises people to units of analysis.
- The change in focus and behaviour will create an ever increasing treadmill of expectations.
- Dependency on external capability means HR could be left behind in the skills race.
The promise of talent analytics and big data is that they almost certainly will move HR forward in terms of analysis and insight. The potential for linking different data sources together to generate actionable insights will perhaps be the biggest challenge and opportunity for HR in decades to come. The research indicates that only half of senior HR leaders actually think they link their data to key business and financial data. So there is a long way to go. To complete the data analytics series, the next blog will look at what type of opportunities exist for fostering a collaborative relationship between HR and other Business Partners to fully reap the data revolution benefits.
In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about how Subscribe-HR's solutions can enable you to harvest your organisation's stored information efficiently and effectively, sign up for a free trial below.
Credit: The image used in this blog is taken from CIPD’s 2013 report on ‘Talent Analytics and Big Data.'
