Copy of a presentation delivered at the 3rd HR Analytics, Metrics and Measurement Conference, sharing some of the key lessons, tips and mistakes I have learned during two decades managing Human Resources, Workforce Planning and HR Analytics programs.

1. André Degreef
What they don’t teach
you in statistics 101...
Lessons from two decades in HR analytics

2. Lesson 10:
It is indeed a long and winding road…
The Beatles
were right

3. You have to learn to
walk before you
can run
Establish and develop the team
Build key relationships and links
Educate and build maturity in the organisation

4. Establish and
develop the team

5. Your Boss
Your Boss’s Boss
Your Customers
Build the key
relationships and
links

6. Educate and build
maturity across the
organisation
What happens to our separation rates
when we invest in mentoring and
wellbeing programs ?
How do rates vary across our workforce ?
Why are our rates higher than industry ?
How is the separation rate calculated?
What is our separation rate?
Why is HR FTE different to Finance FTE?

7. Lesson 9:
You report it,
You own it…
Don’t just provide numbers !
Engage others and build a coalition !
Build maturity across the organisation!
All Managers are HR Managers !

8. Lesson 8:
No HR
presentation is
complete without
the obligatory
quote from Sun Tzu
“Strategy without tactics is
the slowest route to
victory, tactics without
strategy is the noise before
defeat.”
“There is nothing so useless
as doing efficiently that
which should not be done at
all.”
Peter Drucker

9. Lesson 7:
The Linguine
Principle
Expectations
Reality

10. Politics
Relationships
Priorities
Influence
Strategy
Culture
Budgets
Goals
Timeframes
The Linguine
Principle

11. Lesson 6:
The Irish All Blacks
aren’t just 15
blokes that are
really, really good
at rugby
Back to back world champions
3 time world champions
92% win rate over the last decade
No 1 world ranked team for the last eight years
Bledisloe Cup Holders for the last 16 years
Only ever been beaten by six test nations
Only international rugby team to have a winning record against
every nation they have played
World team of the year 7 of the last 9 years
World team of the year more times than all other teams combined

12. Synergy of data
Training Data
Recruitment Statistics
Performance Analysis
Exit Interviews
Engagement Surveys
Manager Interviews
Economic Data
Census Data
Education Data
Labour Market Statistics

13. Synergy of
relationships

14. Lesson 5:
Cleave is its own
opposite
24 other words are also their own
opposite, including trim and resign
“Run” has 645 definitions in the
Oxford English Dictionary

15. Numbers are
meaningless
without context

16. Lesson 5b:
In analytics, as in
life - don’t just
Google it…

17. Lesson 4:
The Trump
Principle
A good
A good story without data
will trump good data
without a story

18. The Trump
Principle
A good

19. The Trump
Principle
A good
Build Trusting Relationships
Know your audience
Play to your audience
Counter the folklore and hearsay with
your own narrative and data

20. Lesson 3:
You can’t eat Miso
with chopsticks

21. Invest in capability
and systems
Even Bigger Excel Spreadsheets With Pivot Tables and
Formulae to project future values, using visual basic coding
to combine information from multiple systems, output custom
figures and export reports to PDF documents…
Bigger Excel Spreadsheets
With Pivot Tables
Excel Spreadsheets
Post it notes and a calculator

22. Lesson 2:
White men can’t
jump
Women comprise 50.3% of population
Asia accounts for 60% of the world’s population
China and India alone, constitute about 36% of
the world's population
Asia and Africa together account for 75% of the
global population
It’s about demographics not diversity

23. Lesson 1:
Focus on what
matters most
AI, big data, chatbots and virtual
assistants will replace us all …

24. And they actually
look like this …