Nexon turns to people analytics to power growth and close engagement gaps

Data is no longer just a finance or operations tool at IT services provider Nexon Asia-Pacific (Nexon). Under chief people officer Francesca Calandra, it has become the backbone of the company’s people strategy, informing everything from retention and internal mobility to M&A integration and gender equity.

Speaking about Nexon’s approach, Calandra said instinct alone is no longer sufficient in a fast‑moving technology market.

“Workforce decisions cannot rely on instinct alone. Data and analytics provide the clarity needed to understand what employees value, how the organisation is performing and where we need to focus to support sustainable business growth,” she said.

From lagging to leading indicators

Calandra describes Nexon’s people analytics approach as a continuous cycle: validate data quality, understand the business and market context, listen to employees, design targeted initiatives and then measure whether they are working.

Critically, the company is deliberately shifting its focus from lagging indicators – such as exit data – to leading indicators that can flag risks earlier.

“Traditionally, many organisations rely heavily on exit data to understand why people leave,” Calandra said. “While offboarding insights remain valuable, they are often lagging indicators. By the time someone resigns, the decision has typically already been made.”

Instead, Nexon tracks engagement levels among top performers and, more recently, among employees in critical roles across the business. The aim is to spot early warning signs and intervene before high‑value talent walks out the door.

“Protecting these roles is directly linked to protecting organisational capability, customer outcomes and overall business performance,” she said. “This allows us to move from reacting to resignations to proactively managing retention risk.”

Listening at scale: pairing perception with demographic insight

A cornerstone of Nexon’s strategy is its “listening” program, which collects detailed perception data and combines it with demographic and role-based insights.

“We collect employee perception data and layer this with demographic insights so we can understand what different groups across the organisation are experiencing,” Calandra explained. “This allows us to identify the drivers that shape our EVP and ensure our people strategy reflects what genuinely matters to our workforce.”

This listening lens is applied across the employee lifecycle. Nexon tracks why people join, the strongest candidate channels, time from first interaction to offer, the quality of onboarding, and then engagement, performance and retention as careers progress.

Building this data foundation allows HR to see where friction points or opportunities appear – and to tailor interventions for specific populations rather than relying on broad, one‑size‑fits‑all programs.

Data-driven integration during M&A

The same analytics mindset is applied when Nexon acquires new businesses. Rather than relying on assumptions about how people will respond to change, the company measures “change readiness” before integration starts and tracks engagement over time during the transition.

Calandra pointed to research highlighting that engagement often spikes at the announcement of a merger or acquisition, before dipping during the complexity of integration. Nexon uses ongoing engagement data to see where support is needed so that engagement stabilises and aligns with the broader workforce.

“By measuring engagement across this journey, Nexon can identify where support is required and ensure integration strategies are informed by real workforce insight,” she added.

Career development as a core EVP pillar

One of the clearest signals to emerge from Nexon’s analytics is the centrality of career growth.

“Our data consistently shows that career opportunities are the number one attraction and retention driver at Nexon, particularly for employees early in their careers and within our operations teams,” Calandra said.

That insight underpins a core pillar of the company’s employee value proposition and led to the creation of Nexon’s “Career Fair” program – a six‑month internal development initiative targeting both technical skills and “essential capabilities” needed in an AI‑enabled workplace.

“While technical expertise remains critical, our data shows that capabilities such as curiosity, critical thinking, clear communication and the ability to challenge assumptions respectfully are becoming even more valuable as technology continues to evolve,” she said.

Again, success is measured, not assumed. Nexon uses existing internal mobility and promotion data as a baseline and then tracks whether program participants show higher engagement and greater internal movement over time.

“This allows us to evaluate whether development initiatives are genuinely influencing career progression and retention,” Calandra noted.

Defying downward engagement trends in tech

The gains come against a challenging backdrop. Engagement across the IT sector has generally trended downwards since the pandemic as organisations grapple with shifting expectations on flexibility, development and the nature of work.

Against this environment, Nexon has continued to record annual increases in engagement.

“This reflects a deliberate approach where we listen to our people, measure what matters, benchmark against the market and take targeted action aligned to our business priorities,” Calandra said.

Beyond HR metrics: linking people and customer outcomes

The next phase of Nexon’s analytics journey is to tie workforce data more explicitly to customer outcomes – for example, testing whether customer satisfaction improves when clients work with highly engaged teams.

“This type of analysis helps ensure people insights are not viewed in isolation but are directly connected to the experience we deliver to our customers,” said Calandra.

To avoid tunnel vision, Nexon also triangulates internal data with market benchmarks and business strategy, ensuring HR is not simply “reporting numbers” but actively shaping workforce plans.

AI, hype and the fundamentals of data integrity

Like many organisations, Nexon is exploring artificial intelligence and its impact on the future of work. But Calandra warns that AI hype must not distract HR from the basics.

“Data is only valuable if it can be trusted,” she said. “If the underlying information is inaccurate or inconsistent, organisations risk making decisions based on the wrong insights.”

Nexon therefore puts strong emphasis on validating data, ensuring systems capture the right information and maintaining confidence in how insights are interpreted.

“The ability to collect reliable workforce data, interpret it correctly and use it to make informed decisions remains one of the most critical capabilities for HR leaders today,” Calandra added.

From ‘what we think’ to ‘what the data shows’

Ultimately, Calandra argued, the value of people analytics lies in its application.

“At Nexon our approach is relatively simple. First, ensure the data is accurate and trustworthy. Second, interpret that data within the context of the external market and the organisation’s business priorities. Third, combine those insights with employee perception to understand what truly matters to your workforce,” she said.

From there, HR can design targeted initiatives and, crucially, measure whether they are delivering the intended impact.

Research has long linked highly engaged teams with stronger outcomes – from higher customer ratings and profitability to lower turnover. For Calandra, connecting those dots is what turns HR into a strategic partner.

“The key shift is moving from asking ‘what do we think is happening?’ to asking ‘what is the data telling us?’” she said. “When HR adopts this mindset, people strategies become more targeted, more measurable and ultimately far more effective.”