As companies continue to hop on board the Big Data train, the People Analytics tool will find itself in more and more hands. HR professionals and other business leaders want to discover exactly what People Analytics can do for their organizations, and they are ready to start mining data. However, a tool is only effective when the user knows how to wield it.
Consider this analogy: Someone who has taken public transportation all his life might someday move out to the country and buy a car. Imagine that this vehicle fails to start one morning. Fortunately, the previous owner was generous enough to leave a tool box in the trunk that includes a battery tester, a socket set, and a host of other devices handy for getting this vehicle back on the road. Unfortunately, our city slicker has never looked under the hood of a car before. After much fumbling, aggravation, and nicked knuckles, he calls a mechanic. Maybe he stares angrily at the wrench in his hand while waiting for a tow truck, but he knows deep down: It’s not the tool’s fault.
People Analytics can seem just as tricky to newcomers. It’s more abstract than a wrench. You can’t even pick it up, in fact. And just as you can’t get much use from a wrench if you don’t have the right parts, you can’t use People Analytics for talent alignment if you don’t have good data.
Assuming you have proper analytics software or access to an online platform, you have to begin gathering data and sorting it in ways that are meaningful for achieving your organizational objectives. Here are five things to keep in mind as you leverage your analytics tool to maximize the talent potential of your company:
1. Ask the right questions: Just because you collect and analyze raw data, it doesn’t mean you’ll gain meaningful insights. Too many People Analytics projects start with a random “fishing trip” through the data to see what comes out. However, if you take the time to start with the right, strategically framed question, you’ll get on track toward finding the answers you’re looking for.
Don’t expect the data to jump through the hoops. For example, a question such as, “How do we control costs better?” is too broad, and trying to mash the data won’t get you any closer to your goal. Instead, ask, “What are our current hiring practices costing us in employee turnover?”
Have you ever been working on an engine and, in a rush, dropped a socket into a place you can’t reach? With the right People Analytics questions, you’ll avoid dropping the truly critical data.
2. Grow your data lake: The more clean, valid data you have, the better your answers can be. To find success with People Analytics, you need to start examining all of your data sources and decide which belong in your lake, which need to be cleaned, and which data sources you’re missing.
Personality assessments are a data source some companies don’t consider, even when looking at hiring and talent alignment problems. Imagine a car manufacturer that must evaluate a team of techs in order to develop specifications for repair procedures and warranty labor times. Standard metrics, such as work hours, number of techs, and attendance, do not factor in the importance of quantifiable and relevant job-performance data such as “task focus” and “problem-solving acumen.”
3. Invest in data analysis competencies: In the age of Big Data, it’s more important than ever to formalize your processes and develop consistent models against which to measure said data. When it comes to talent alignment, statistical analysis competencies are vital, yet many HR generalists lack the skills to make informed evaluations when looking at data. Start investing now in training your staff so that, going forward, you can make more strategic hiring and development decisions.
4. Partner with experts: Even with a well-trained staff, you’ll get better results by working with a People Analytics specialist. Some firms provide platforms or software in addition to data-collection guidance. Instead of wasting time trying to build a program on your own, bring in experts to help you ask and answer the right questions.
5. Question the results: If your goal is identifying talent gaps, improving performance, and aligning talent to maximize organizational effectiveness, it’s not enough to look at preliminary findings and say, “Well, the data says X, so we’d better follow that path.” That would be like starting an old car for the first time and deciding—without checking the battery, changing the oil, or inspecting the tires—that you’re all set for a coast-to-coast trip.
As much as I advocate for People Analytics, artificial intelligence will never replace human insight. Computers can perform a hard analysis on a set of variables, but the outcome is only as good as the data and the algorithms put into it. A well-trained HR professional must still look at the output from a People Analytics study and ask, “Does this make sense for our organization? Is this applicable? What are the downsides of following this path?” Make sure you examine those findings with a critical eye and question how well they fit your reality.
Once you have a proper grip on the analytics tool and know how to leverage the results, you’ll be ready to “pop the hood” and start tuning up your data. The best part: no bloody knuckles.
David Solot, Ph.D., is the Analytics Product Manager with Caliper, a Princeton, NJ, firm specializing in employee assessments and talent development.
