Your People And Your Data

Getting the best value

Digital technologies have dramatically transformed how businesses operate, how decisions are made and most importantly, how success and growth are measured–both for the organization, as well as for the employee. These technologies have given organizations the ability to capture, store and process vast amounts of information in real-time.

These pools of data can provide huge insights about the people that work within the company if managed correctly. But data for data’s sake, won’t deliver results. Businesses must put emphasis on getting the best value out of this invaluable information. For instance, organizations should consider prioritizing their data to inform the decisions that will, in turn, get the highest value from employees. This includes analyzing shift patterns and sickness trends to understanding individual employee skill sets and strengths.

However, choosing the right approach and the right data solutions can be tricky for HR and people teams. Many organizations need to stop and ask a few simple questions: What do we need to understand our organization and people? How can technology help improve the employee experience and workforce performance? And what technology is right for our particular organization?

Data has the power to transform a business and improve efficiency and productivity. But to have real and long-lasting results, the focus needs to be on smart data, not big data.
 
This idea lies at the core of People Science–a data-driven approach to understanding the interactions between people, their behaviors, organizational systems, and performance. People Science enables companies to extract actionable knowledge from people data, so they can make better people decisions.

The key here is ‘actionable knowledge'. It goes beyond simply gathering and reviewing data. It’s about better understanding the commonalities between people–their behaviors and the business goals and strategy to more effectively attract, engage, develop and retain critical talent. 
 
One way to achieve this is by having employees answer a simple questionnaire during their review process. Businesses can gain invaluable insights into important issues such as headcount, resourcing, diversity and succession planning.

People Science is not just for large, multi-national organizations. It has relevance and value to organizations of any type or size, as long as you start with accurate and relevant people data–a ‘single source of truth’.

When it comes to utilizing the right people management solutions, more isn’t necessarily better. Unfortunately, many organizations have a range of people management technologies with systems that are too often siloed, unable to deliver unified or comprehensive insights on how employees are performing.

Additionally, a possible lack of analytical skills in HR teams is another hurdle to overcome for businesses starting out on their people science journeys. Securing investment for people analytics software can also be a challenge in a function that has traditionally been undervalued and under-resourced. In fact, only 34% of companies are currently using data and analytics for people decisions, according to a recent research report. 

To overcome these obstacles, it’s important for teams to clearly outline the impact people issues can have on a company’s bottom-line. By quantifying the costs of people issues to the organization, such as attraction, performance, retention, and attrition, it will be much easier to get buy-in from senior leaders.

For example, take the impact of employee attrition–both voluntary and involuntary; while it will vary hugely by position and organization, studies have suggested that it can be quite significant. One recent study put the cost of attrition at 21.4 percent of an employee’s annual salary. This includes the cost of recruiting and training a replacement, as well as the hours of productivity lost as the new employee gets up to speed.

In today’s environment, it’s more important for businesses to work smarter rather than harder from a fiscal point of view. According to recent research, companies with the highest levels of people analytics maturity report 82 percent higher in three-year average profit than their low-maturity counterparts.

Too often organizations can be preoccupied with other business priorities that they neglect the employee experience. In fact, almost half (47 per cent) of respondents in a survey said they have never been asked by their employers on how their working experiences could be improved, and only 12 percent were asked on a regular basis.

Using People Science, businesses can effectively measure and improve the employee experience, which in turn drives employee engagement. Better engagement boosts performance and productivity, giving way to stronger business results. Put simply, engaging your employees drive business growth.

Organizations need to act on the data insights gained to improve organizational performance and enhance the overall employee experience. Use the data to listen to employees, connect with them, act on this information and improve.

Sure, Pizza Fridays or lunch-time yoga sessions are “nice-to-have” perks, but they don’t address systemic challenges or promote engagement. Engaging your employees is about consistently listening and connecting with their pain points with the goal of improving their experience.  To truly improve the employee experience, companies need to have continuous touchpoints with employees to get accurate and insightful feedback in real-time and this is where People Science can really help.

 The benefits to an organization can be truly transformative–technology, data, and people will work in harmony to extract actionable knowledge and deliver long-lasting organizational benefits.