While information is rarely in short supply, the challenge is how to organise and interpret it
The days when data meant rows and columns in an Excel spreadsheet are long gone.
With complex streams of information from multiple sources, organisations now face the challenge of managing and, more importantly, translating all this data into meaningful insights.
A recent survey by Korn Ferry found many CHROs and senior leaders are not using data analytics to make people-related decisions.
The report based on responses from more than 750 global senior HR leaders and CHROs, found 74% rated their level of HR analytics capability maturity as “basic” or “descriptive only”.
And only 18% believed their organisation consistently used data analytics to drive better people-related decisions.
Amy Biedenstein (pictured above), senior vice president global total rewards at human capital management platform Dayforce told HRD a common barrier to the use of data analytics was access to information because of disparate and siloed information systems.
“Often what you will find is companies have finance dealing with one data architecture and HR is dealing with another data architecture,” she said.
“It's important to work cross-functionally to make sure that the data architecture that you ultimately land on supports the business and all of the functions.”
Turning data into business value
Biedenstein believes the key change businesses can make to increase the use of data analytics is to enable a data culture.
“You have to have good data to feed the proper analytics and good decisions and often data governance can take a back seat if people aren't focused on it,” she said.
“What I love to see is people in HR who are willing to take charge for data governance.
“I think for far too long we've put that off on other people, ‘well that's IT’s job or that's finance's job' and it's really not. It’s about how we all need the data to be structured so that it works for each individual function. So, it absolutely is key to have someone in HR who is championing that as well.”
Biedenstein acknowledges that while not everyone will be a data expert, the right tools can help leaders translate the information and tell a story.
“I think you can use data to help you get ahead of things. Oftentimes HR teams have been reactive in nature and using data to help drive decisions gives us an opportunity to be proactive to see what's coming," she said.
This could mean identifying potential workforce gaps if the data showed many employees were approaching retirement age or dealing with retention issues by pinpointing pain points and providing insights on where employee experience could be improved.
Why CHROs need to be data and people managers
The Korn Ferry survey found a major shift in strategic priorities for CHROs and their remit was wider than ever.
CHROs reported they now spent 33% of their time advising CEOs and leadership teams, 30% leading company-wide transformation, 22% managing HR functions and 15% managing people-related issues.
Biedenstein believes CHROs and senior HR leaders who are not using data to make decisions are missing an opportunity to be a voice at the table and risk being left behind.
“If we're not using data-driven analytics in today's CHRO world or senior HR leader world, I would think it would be difficult to get their point across and to really get buy in from other leaders who are using data to drive their decisions because that's the way the world has turned,” she said.
“We've gotten to a place where data can't be a bad word to you anymore. If you want to be successful in any function, we all need to embrace it. And there are so many great tools out there to help us do that and to help us translate it to the people who make the biggest decisions.
“Data has evolved to such a place where it really is necessary to drive business decisions and having data easily accessible at your fingertips and being able to make those real-time analytics happen, so you can make good decisions. is required now.”
