Why Data Must Anchor People Operations

Powering organizational growth

While organizations and executive teams have faced unprecedented challenges in the past few years and have been forced to adapt to new workplace norms, perhaps no business function has evolved more significantly than the modern HR team. Traditional HR practices focused heavily on compliance, policy, and employee support. But those traditional HR practices alone cannot effectively address all the actions needed to attract and retain employees. Organizations need strong people operations to build on traditional HR responsibilities by incorporating people-first initiatives and developing a data-backed culture. 

A strong People Operations function that fuels organizational growth and prioritizes employees must be anchored by data. Gathering and providing real-time access to organizational data helps People and Finance leaders make evidence-based decisions related to:
 

• Talent management, development, and retention.
• Performance evaluations.
• Employee engagement and satisfaction.
• Compensation.

Data-backed decisions across all those categories align organizations with their overall goals, enabling leaders to optimize their workforce and employee experience. 

 

Talent Management, Development, and Retention

Having reliable, accurate data help organizations deliver on strategic talent initiatives. By drawing in data-driven people analytics, People Operations teams can identify high-potential employees and make better decisions related to succession planning, leadership development, and retention.

Every business needs to prepare for its future. Succession planning offers one key strategy to ensure a business’s long-term success. It allows organizations to identify and develop business leaders (specifically for the C-Suite) to replace current personnel when needed. The process starts with an in-depth understanding of employees, reporting structures, and knowledge sets.

Data — including met key performance indicators (KPIs), promotion rates, and tenure — provides objective information about job performance that informs succession planning and reduces bias in promotion rates. For example, an employee consistently meeting or exceeding their sales quota may indicate their ability and readiness to assume a leadership role. Further analyzing data by demographics, including gender, race, and ethnicity, helps identify potential biases and disparities in the promotion process. If certain groups are consistently underrepresented in promotions, leaders can address bias or systematic barriers.

An employee-first culture requires companies to invest in people’s growth. Over 90% of employees say they’d stay longer at a company invested in their professional training. One way to increase employee tenure and help them grow is through leadership development.

Data helps People leaders identify skill gaps and workforce needs, informing organizations’ strategic decisions about professional development programs. By dialing into metrics such as employee training time, People leaders uncover whether employees and departments receive equal access to training opportunities. 

After using data to identify gaps in training, companies can’t just offer a learning and development opportunity and move on. Leaders must:
 

• Give their employees direction on using these benefits.
• List recommended programs, courses, and resources by the department.
• Conduct check-ins with department heads to ensure employees get value from available opportunities.

Organizations prioritizing employee retention have more positive organizational cultures. When tracked and used to drive strategic decisions, employee retention rate helps People leaders avoid talent shortages and address employee needs.

A healthy retention rate indicates strong organizational health. To determine if their organization has a healthy retention rate, leaders should: 
 

• Compare the current retention rate to past rates and look for trends.
• Determine if fluctuations tie to internal events (i.e., new policies or initiatives — or lack thereof). 
• Compare the retention rate with the industry average.    

Staying ahead of industry benchmarks and improving retention rates requires listening and responding to employees. Employees prioritize work-life balance, career advancement opportunities, compensation and benefits, and an inclusive culture. Many employees connect their sense of purpose to their work and are more likely to stay with a company that celebrates their efforts and allows them to work on projects they feel passionate about.  

Performance Evaluations

Managers must collaborate with their employees to set clear goals, KPIs, and objectives and key results (OKR). The results of those goals should inform performance reviews — not a manager’s personal interpretation of good performance. 

Objective performance data combats subjective biases that could arise in performance reviews and evaluations. Recency bias — a tendency to emphasize recent experiences — happens when managers only evaluate employees through the lens of a recent adverse event, like an account loss, instead of taking into account the entire performance management cycle.

To reduce the chance of recency bias, managers should continuously review employee data. Bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, or bi-annual check-ins offer a more holistic view of employee performance. Data helps managers guide these employee conversations, uncover what’s influencing lagging KPIs, address smaller problems before they escalate into more significant issues, and recognize accomplishments. 

Employee Engagement and Satisfaction

Many employees won’t settle for an organization that doesn’t strategically prioritize engagement. A culture of engagement is no longer an option but an urgent requirement. Employees — especially those disengaged at work — want a reason to feel inspired. Nearly 95% of people managers say a positive workplace culture creates a resilient team of employees. Engaged employees who feel good about their company and its culture show up and do more work. 

Leaders can track employee engagement through pulse, feedback, and employee net promoter score (eNPS) surveys. These insights allow People leaders to identify areas for improvement, tailor initiatives to address specific concerns and track the impact of initiatives on employee engagement and satisfaction over time.

Organizations focusing on employee engagement and satisfaction see greater profitability and stronger employee wellness. This focus must include concrete performance management activities like clarifying work expectations, providing employees with what they need to do their work, and promoting positive coworker relationships. 

Compensation 

Over 70% of employers say their people are fairly compensated. Yet only 36% of employees would agree. People now expect more from compensation packages than money. Mental health coverage, 401k plans, living stipends, and student loan repayment are just a few of the benefits employees seek. Offering these benefits (and more) helps organizations create competitive and employee-first compensation packages. 

To make informed decisions about compensation strategy — while attracting new and retaining existing talent and staying competitive — organizations must consult both performance data and insightful market trends reporting. Leaders must consult data sources relative to how their industry approaches to pay and create compensation benchmarks. 

Data also helps People and finance leaders spot trends and improvement opportunities to equally compensate people in the same levels and roles, avoiding biases based on personal relationships and other extraneous factors. 

People and Finance leaders can use technology like a People Operations Platform to visualize and act on their data across all categories. This single source of truth acts as the main point of action for the people-first processes, programs, and initiatives of an organization’s People Operations function. By making data the anchor of People Operations, leaders can set goals, measure progress, and make informed, people-first decisions.

Ian White is the CEO, CTO, and Founder of ChartHop, a People Operations Platform. Previously, he was the founder and CTO of Sailthru. Before that, Ian was the first head of engineering at Business Insider and built the publishing platform that powers today’s highest-trafficked business website.  Visit ChartHop