DATA DRIVEN DECISION MAKING

There’s much discussion about HR’s seat at the Boardroom table, and the function being taken ‘seriously’ in terms of measuring impact from their actions.  A hot topic at the HR ThinkTank event recently.  Here are a few of the key themes from the discussion, along with a link to ThinkTank’s own White Paper packed full of tips and guidance for kick starting your own People Analytics approach.

Sources of Data:  From Excel spreadsheets through to a plethora of data available from 100’s of different systems, no two businesses appear to be the same.  Although it’s a stark reality that many Talent Leaders struggle to find trusted data to inform them when there’s so many competing data points. 

The key learning here surrounded the value from the data being presented (see White Paper for more information!) ie.  First report the meaningful data from the organisation’s own perspective.  If £ data from your FD is the most powerful narrative in the firm, make sure that’s your leading indicator.

One of the member organisation talked about the challenge from having so much data!  Every department and team in your business could justify the need to incorporate people and performance data into their own reporting and analysis yet the sense is that HR need to be far more guiding about their key business data points rather than being pulled from pillar to post by the business requests.  If D&I has Board Level importance right now, then make that one of your top 3 metrics. 

There was a healthy discussion about the type of data points which should be a part of your ‘arsenal’,  or certainly the information which shouldn’t be missing.  Interestingly the conclusion here is that there simply isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ – the key learning surrounded the need to translate any and all metrics into meaningful language for the business.  If they don’t understand the data points (because we’re using TA or HR speak) then there’s every chance they will be overlooked. 

Systems and System Integration was of course the topic of great debate.  Finding a single source of truth from so many systems will continue to be a challenge and can devalue your reporting or analysis through data integrity challenge from the organisation.  There will be a team, function or individual in your business who DEFINITELY has accurate information – their role depends on it. 

So, if that’s simply the team who are responsible for Pension Contribution and no-one else, start from this point!  After all – if recruitment is going to be taken seriously then the accuracy of your data is non-negotiable and should be baked into the heart of your team’s own performance measures.    No longer should it be a ‘nice to have’ if we’re ever going to move forward!

Such an interesting conversation about data and so valuable for Hollaroo and our customers.  We spend time, both at the beginning of our customer relationships and at regular intervals, to ensure the data that flows through and out of the platform, is meaningful, both for the team AND the business they are reporting to.