How to Bridge the Gap Between People Analytics and Decision-Making

While more and more organizations embark on the journey of introducing people analytics, many fail to bridge the gap between analytics and decision-making. In our master thesis, we aimed to find practical solutions of how to close the gap and in this article we share the overall findings of our study.

We argue that two problems need to be solved:

1.     Analysts often end up mining data without real purpose or guidance of what to look for as they miss input to the most pressing organizational issues.

2.     When finalizing an analytics model, it has proven to be difficult to convert results into action.

So how to address these two issues? We argue that the implementation of people analytics in organizations does not depend on competencies of selected individuals. It is realized through collaboration. Specifically, we believe that the HRBPs of organizations have a key role as they are the link between HR and the business. They know the current business issues and are supporting business leaders in people topics.

In our project, we conducted 15 interviews representing HRBPs and analysts from four Danish organizations (Coloplast, Danske Bank, DONG Energy and Grundfos). During our study, we realized that the process of introducing people analytics is carried out as a continuous change of HR with constant and unceasing small changes on a micro-level. However, in order to bridge the gap between people analytics and decision-making, we see the need for radical measures ensuring that the transformation towards the use of analytics is a collective effort. To manage people analytics as a radical change we were inspired by John Kotter’s ‘Eight Steps to Transform Your Organization’ and compressed our suggestions into the following steps:

Figure 1: Steps required to bridge the gap between analytics and decision-making

1) Appetizers for HRBPS is the first step of the transformation. While a key requirement for introducing people analytics was having a CHRO with a belief in data-driven HR, we recognized that this did not yield sufficient interest or urgency for HRBPs to buy in on the agenda. This is done, however, by creating relevant 'appetizers' for them. An appetizer is created by performing an initial analysis from current available data guided by thorough knowledge of strategic battles - a concept we call ‘selective data exploration’. As these explorations are of current relevance, the appetizers urge HRBPs to act. By asking HRBPs: ‘Is this relevant for you and would you like to see more?’ the first step towards collaboration is achieved.

2) Building an alliance with strategic HRBPs is one important outcome of creating urgency, as these HRBPs see the need for collaboration with the analyst. From the companies of our study we learned that the analysts cannot build an alliance with all HRBPs. It is therefore important to select the ones that are curious about people analytics, confident with numbers, and have the necessary strategic impact to help driving the transformation.

3) After establishing an alliance they need to define a common people analytics vision for the change. The importance of this phase is to create clarity of the change direction by collectively answering the two questions:

1. Why are we interested in people data?

2. What is the purpose/goal of using people data?

4) When it has been defined by the alliance, the vision must be communicated to the organization. Ways of communication are workshops, town hall meetings, newsletters etc. However, it is important that actions follow the communication, meaning that the change leaders ‘walk the talk’. Analysts and selected strategic HRBPs therefore need to start collaborating and be the frontrunners for change towards evidence-based people decisions inspiring business leaders and other HRBPs.

5) Remove obstacles such as the time constraint of HRBPs and avoid certain leaders that may be a hindrance for the transformation. The ever-occurring challenge for HRBPs is to meet all of their responsibilities throughout a day. Thus, people analytics cannot be on top of the pile of HRBPs’ work. Their people analytics responsibilities need to replace other tasks or reduce the workload applied to other tasks. The avoidance of certain leaders saves effort spent on people who do not believe in the change towards evidence-based people decisions. These leaders exist in all organizations and the analysts have to maneuver around them.

6) Showcase the first impactful project that has the characteristics of being a ‘low-hanging fruit’ and has reached a milestone allowing the alliance to show intentions and results. Such end-to-end projects show the organization the impact and value of people analytics. It has to be a low-hanging fruit, meaning that it is a problem of high importance while being relatively easily resolved using analytics. Such problems are difficult to discover, but when done so and the project is carried out from end-to-end, You have proofed the reason for the existence of the analytics function.

7) Formalize people analytics requirements ensuring, on the one hand, that evidence is involved whenever a people-related decision is made, and on the other hand, it ensures that the skillset of HRBPs is redefined to contain an analytical aspect. This also implies that the team of analysts is required to be able to communicate effectively with HRBPs as well as business leaders.

8) Imply people analytics in the culture of the organization meaning that the function is an integrated natural part of the everyday processes of the business (and not just for HR). This means that people analytics is the new standard for making people related decisions and that the business proactively consults the analytics function.

Final Comment

These eight steps are the overall findings of our study and represent the organizational ingredients that enable an HR transformation towards making evidence-based people decisions. While we do not necessarily see these steps as being subsequent, we recognize the importance of each of them.

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If You enjoyed this article, please like and share and if You have any comments or questions please do not hesitate to reach out to us (Marco Höpfl and Asbjørn Bloch Jensen). We will happily share our thoughts and additional findings with You.