What investment is your company making in HR Analytics as part of your business strategy? Is your organization thinking about your workforce data as just as valuable as customer data mined by the Marketing department? It’s a mindset shift.
At PeopleResults, our clients ask about HR Analytics more and more often, especially in conjunction with larger systems implementation projects. Josh Bersin sets the standard in this space. His most current guidance updates the HR Analytics Maturity Model in a fresh way.
Level 1: Trusted Reporting and Alerts
The vast majority of organizations operate here. This level involves reactive reporting of operational and compliance measures. However, to accomplish this stage effectively, your company must still have a single source of the truth for your data. Otherwise, the metrics and data reported lack credibility. Users must trust the data as the basis for making business decisions.
Level 2: Management Insights and Action
At this stage, according to Bersin, organizations shift to a proactive approach. Leaders assess trends and benchmarks, typically displayed through dashboards in self-service portals.
Key questions to answer in this stage, according to NYU Assistant Professor of Human Capital Analytics & Technology Dr. Beverly Tarulli, include:
- What critical few business indicators help leaders most? And
- Who gets to look at them?
Level 3: Productivity and Work Redesign
Few organizations reach this stage. It requires a meaningful investment in tools, skills and resources. Level 3 looks like dedicated teams producing statistical analysis to identify issues and actionable solutions.
At this point, the company has identified strategic goals. Progress is tracked against those goals. When the team assessing progress identifies deviation, they recommend alternative approaches.
Level 4: AI-Enabled Action Platforms
This stage looks like predictive modeling and scenario planning. Business and workforce planning integrate analytics capabilities, according to Bersin.
Dr. Tarulli characterizes this stage as all about “the Why’s”… “Why are we seeing the things we’re seeing?”
For example, what are we doing in HR that results in these outcomes with our talent 12 months later? If we know the answers to that, how can we adjust our business decisions up front to shape those outcomes in the future?
Betsy Winkler is a partner at PeopleResults. She can be reached on Twitter @betsywinkler1.
