Workforce Analytics

1. Putting Workforce
Analytics to Work:
Achieving Objectives and Realizing Outcomes

2. If you’re in HR, you’ve no doubt noticed that, these
days, you can’t do much of anything without coming
across an article, blog or presentation focused on
workforce analytics. Up to now, the primary
emphasis has been on raising awareness of the
benefits and value that workforce analytics can bring
to HR and the business. For instance:
We’ve learned that analytics can help HR teams
reclaim time and resources, can shift time and energy
towards thinking and acting strategically, and can raise
the profile and influence of HR by equipping teams
with the means to speak the language of the
executives.
We’ve also learned that workforce analytics can
contribute significantly to business outcomes. By
having access to accurate, easy to understand and in-
the-now data, HR professionals can make evidence-
based decisions and act quickly to positively impact
the people and the business.
Workforce analytics
turns people and
business data into
actionable
intelligence.
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3. Given the push to
validate workforce
analytics as an
imperative in HR, it’s
unlikely there are
many HR
professionals still in
the dark about the
value it can bring.
Despite this, there are still many organizations who
have yet to take the plunge. And maybe that’s why –
because we think of it as taking the plunge – when
really, we should be approaching workforce analytics in
a more conservative way, by dipping a toe to start.
In this document:
• we’ll move beyond the ‘why’ of workforce analytics
(because we all know this by now) and get to the
‘how’
• we’ll present a powerful and proven way to think
and do workforce analytics
• we’ll illustrate how starting small and having a clear
focus on objectives is the key to putting workforce
analytics to work for you.

4. The meat of the approach is this: in order to make sure
workforce analytics are leveraged in the most
appropriate way, it’s essential to carry out analytics
within the context of business objectives and
outcomes.
The key is to start small and to set specific objectives
for analytics. That’s right, make Big Data smaller.
Without this, workforce analytics can be overwhelming
and it can be easy to get lost in all the numbers and
data.
SPOILER ALERT:

5. Situating a workforce analytics initiative within a broader context, flanked by
business objectives at the one end and business outcomes at the other, ensures
you are acting with purpose, rather than executing analytics for the sake of
analytics. Here’s a diagram that shows analytics in context:

6.  To be most effective you need to link workforce analytics to your business goals. This
means spending a bit of time articulating and prioritizing your business objectives, goals and
desired outcomes. Your objectives may be related to reducing turnover and gaining a
precise understanding of turnover by segment, by department, by hiring manager, by
recruitment source, by location, etc. and the costs associated with this. You may have
succession planning on the agenda. Whatever your top objectives, you need to keep them
at the forefront and use your analytics solution to bring insight to these specific areas.
 And remember, you don’t need to tackle everything at once. In fact, a best practice is to
identify 1 or 2 priority areas where you want to understand more. Select objectives that are
financially relevant – ones you know matter to the business. This is important because you
want to make an impact and create a quick win for analytics. If you like, talk to your
business partners and find out what their biggest data challenge is – make this one of your
objectives at the outset.
 Think of your strategy here as going an inch wide and a mile deep – that is, really digging in
to understand 1 or 2 top areas. Be targeted and be patient as you begin. You’ll quickly build
understanding and before you know it you’ll be moving on to all those other areas of
interest.
Identify and Prioritize Your Business
Objectives and Goals
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7. The next 3 steps fall under the umbrella of Analytics:

8.  Identify the metrics you need to capture that align to the objectives you’ve set as priority.
Depending on your objectives, this may require seeking data outside of HR as well as within
your own systems. This is a great opportunity to work with other stakeholders and expand your
reach.
 If you’re looking at turnover, you’ll need to bring together HR data, performance, engagement,
compensation, and more. You may notice there is data you’d like to have but don’t. That’s
okay, now is the opportunity to start collecting new data to feed your understanding. For
example, you may want to assign the hiring manager to each new recruit and begin tracking
this. With this additional data, you’ll be able to link it to turnover, performance, Quality of Hire
and other 1st year outcomes. You may decide that you need to introduce a new hire survey at
the 30, 60 and 90-day mark to begin collecting data on the candidate, recruitment, onboarding
and early employee experiences.
 Don’t worry if you don’t have every piece of data you need a the outset. By starting with a
targeted objective you can begin identifying the data you have in-house, the data you’d like that
resides elsewhere in the business, and the data you need to start collecting.
 It won’t be perfect at the beginning but the key is to get going and fill the gaps as you move
along. And it’s a guarantee that you have enough data at your disposal right now that you can
start building insight.
Identify and Capture the Data & Metrics
that Align to Your Objectives
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9.  This is where the heavy lifting takes place. Once you have all the metrics and data relevant to
your objective, and these data points and systems are connected in meaningful ways (this may
require help from an analytics partner with expertise in HR), you can start to slice and dice the
data across the variables.
 With connected data, you can dig deeply into turnover. No longer do you have to rely on broad
numbers such as a company-wide turnover rate of 12%, but you can start dissecting this with
precision. You can look at turnover by demographics, tenure, performance, engagement,
learning, location, job/role… really any area where you capture data.
 This turns a generic understanding of turnover into a very specific one. Imagine being able to
identify that top performer turnover for a particular job role is 33% and the impact of this is
$1.5M in lost revenue per year. Instead of talking about one number with little context (a global
turnover rate of 12%), now you have the ability to understand turnover by performance and
role PLUS the business impact and hard cost of this.
 You can start to understand the variables that impact turnover in ways you never imagined.
And… you have a targeted place to start making decisions, taking action, and making a
difference to the business.
Segmentation – Slice and Dice your Data
Any Way You Like
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10.  Once you have segmented the data, it’s time to start drawing insights from it. This means
looking for patterns that support business objectives as well as looking for anomalies, hotspots
and areas out of alignment with business objectives.
 The data and analytics provide a solid picture of what’s happening, say, with turnover in the
organization, but making sense of it requires your input. You need to think about what the data
is telling you within the context of your own organization.
 In the drill-down discovery of a turnover rate of 33% among top performers in a particular role,
you need to really think about the variables at play in this scenario. Draw insights from the data
and your knowledge – perhaps there is something going on within recruitment, onboarding, at
the manager level, related to learning and development, etc. that needs to be modified? This is
where you can start to say “this is what’s happening, and here’s the reasons why”.
 If you don’t know the reasons why, it may be necessary to dig a bit deeper – consider going to
the source with some qualitative research (e.g. an employee focus group or a pizza lunch) or a
short targeted survey to build understanding of the ‘why’ behind that number.
Draw Insights from the Data & Analytics
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11.  Armed with the analytics and insight relevant to your business objective, you and your HR
team are equipped with the knowledge to take action and drive towards improving business
performance.
 This is where real business problems get solved, where you act on your new found data and
insight.
 In the case of turnover, this could mean updating or changing a process, reviewing learning
and development opportunities, building support mechanisms, or more.
 It’s at this stage where you can say with confidence “this is what’s happening, here are the
reasons why, this is why it’s important to understand this issue, here’s what we’re going to
do about it, and here is our expected outcome.” That’s a whole lot of business value and a
great springboard for dialogue and decision making.
Take Action
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12.  Of course there is a 6th step, which involves:
 evaluating the action taken
 making any necessary changes
 celebrating your successes (yay!)
 and carrying on towards your next objectives with workforce analytics.
Evaluate, Rinse, Repeat
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13. Remember: by being diligent at the outset of your
journey into workforce analytics and identifying 1 or 2
key objectives you can start tackling these areas head-
on and in the most efficient and effective ways.
Remember our turnover example from earlier? If,
through segmentation, you can pinpoint that turnover
is a particular problem among three specific groups of
employees and you know that the negative impact to
the business is higher in one area than in the others,
you know where to place your initial focus on driving
improvements.
Being able to sharpen your focus on the specific areas
that matter most should have significantly more
business value than trying to solve an overall turnover
rate of 12%.
So there you have
it… our simple and
straightforward
approach to thinking
about and doing
workforce analytics.

14. The world of applying workforce analytics to HR data can be very exciting. It
can also be daunting, and it’s easy to get lost in all the data.
That’s why it’s essential to approach workforce analytics within the context of
defined business objectives and outcomes.
Take the time to articulate your business objectives and use your
analytics solution to powerfully segment and gain deep understanding
of these priority areas.
From here, you have the evidence you need to tell the story of what’s
happening, the insight to chart the way forward, and the ability to act
with confidence, speed and dexterity towards solving real and relevant
business problems.
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Let’s sum things up so you can get started:

15. It’s your workforce data. You should use it.
If you’d like to learn more
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