In the last couple of weeks we’ve looked at the big picture of big data analytics, HR and talent management, as well as the barriers to success in the big data landscape. Now that we're clear on the background and the potential issues, let’s move on to some best practice strategies and solutions that will ensure you are on the pathway to success in this increasingly important and inherently valuable discipline.
Collaborate and Connect Through Data
The key take-away from CPID’s research is the necessity for HR functions and other departments, to embark on a journey to collaborate and connect through the available data within your organisation. CIPD’s 2013 report on ‘Talent Analytics and Big Data’ states that ‘the most important lesson in successful people analytics is to get the balance right between being transformational and tactical.'
Transformational Strategies
- Make data analytics a continuous transformation project and embed it in your organisational culture.
- Focus your data analytics efforts on key business priorities first, and then expand from there once you have the fundamentals in place and running smoothly.
- Move it up the HR capability agenda as part of your annual learning and development curriculum.
Tactical Strategies
- Map and tap the skills necessary for you to gather and analyse data relevant to your organisational needs. Develop aligned analyst relationships and then collaborate and connect through the data.
- Attract more capability from a broad range of areas such as psychology, economics and anthropology, and again, collaborate and connect through the data.
- Make stories from the statistics and share those stories widely - cultivate a culture of storytelling.
Transformational Approaches
If people analytics and data-driven strategies are to bear fruit, they will need to be introduced as transformational projects with full executive team ownership, as well as enthusiastic and driven day-to-day management. A higher likelihood of success will follow transformation that is incremental and subsequently celebrated. A series of small wins, aligned to continuous review, will create the best environment for adoption and success.
The transformational effort should focus on transcending the various barriers already covered, namely silos, skills gaps and suspicion.
There are generally a few key business projects in every organisation which focus the attention and enthusiasm of leaders, employees and customers alike. It is precisely these types of projects which should be the focus of initial, collaborative, people analytics efforts. The support and sponsorship will be self-evident, and an intelligent alignment with these projects will pay dividends for all parties involved, the HR function in particular.
It’s clear that analytics is currently a capability challenge for most HR Professionals. A focus on ensuring that all members of your organisation’s HR function can productively engage with numbers and metrics must be a key driver going forward. The ability to ask better questions, harness more data and align it to deep insights, is of benefit to all HR Professionals. Allowing analytics to become a skills silo means that no one will benefit and the inherent gold of the data mine will not be attained.
The drivers of these capabilities are likely to differ from one organisation to the next, depending on the unique needs of each. However, data and analytics capability cannot be taken for granted; it really has to be developed as an HR (and potentially organisation wide) strategy.
Tactical Approaches
Whether your organisation chooses to follow a strategy of ‘make and migrate’ or ‘buy in and build,' the analytics capability you pursue needs to be integrated and understood by all parties involved. CIPD’s research makes it clear that ‘no matter how brilliant people are, if they don’t build capability they will not strengthen your analytics effort.’
As a learning or design development issue, HR functions should be able to develop structures which increase the chance of collaboration and knowledge-sharing and enhance the skill sets and effectiveness of the whole team.
The research indicates that many organisations overlook HR’s biggest source of informed analytical insight, namely behavioural scientists. Psychologists with occupational and business backgrounds, as well as those coming from an experimental background, have an affinity with measuring statistics and data. Some are also skilled in designing and analysing psychometric testing, analysing surveys and developing workforce planning forecasts. In some ways they are more aligned to the HR function than other data scientists.
Data makes a great playground for collaboration and connection, amongst individuals, amongst teams and across disciplines. By scheduling meetings, events and reporting cycles around common key data needs, and making that data a key feature, silos can really begin to be broken down. Creating the opportunity for resident analysts to explain hard data and trends, as well as including questions and interpretation from the HR team, will allow the possibility of new insights and synergistic relationships to be born.
Also beneficial would be demonstrations of systems and an explanation of features and reports in order to help end-users understand the infrastructure used to support data. Key learning and development events around understanding statistics and probability, or building a data dictionary, can all embed the data awareness required through an experiential process.
Giving people the opportunity to bring the data they have to such learning, can encourage a focus on data and metrics acceptance. Senior buy-in and involvement ensures that people are more likely to participate and be incentivised.
Let's face it, nobody likes dry, boring statistics, especially when they are stripped of context and their results or significance are not explained well. A great way to move beyond the flatness of stats, is to create stories around the insights and communicate these in a way that makes sense, creates benefit and is more easily remembered. Advanced visualisation tools exist to create information graphics that enable you to create a visually exciting narrative. Dashboards and scoreboards help to maintain data integrity. Simple stories illustrated by key numbers can help to build an approach where analytics become part of the fabric of the organisation.
Big Data Is Here To Stay
There is an increasing amount of research and 'data' out there about the best approaches to the analytics puzzle, and this blog series is by no means an exhaustive assessment of all the available material. However, CIPD's research draws on a broad range of surveyed participants, as well as relying on years of reputable experience. The bottom line is, that big data is going to play an integral part in the future workplace, and HR Professionals are well advised to incorporate big data analytics into their future capabilities. The surest way to embed these capabilities is through collaboration and connection across departments and data sets, followed by telling relevant and interesting stories based on the statistical insights.
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