People Analytics - Departmental Data Strategy
People are essential for many businesses - understand them, work with them
🧑💼People Analytics is an exiting area in the realm of Data & Analytics. On the one hand some people will tell you there is not much added value in investing in people. Once even a data responsible from a large enterprise told me: “If HR or finance knocks on my door, I give them not even a look. Because I have to invest in areas where we as a company create value.”
On the other hand many companies understand the value their people offer. Workforce Intelligence is essential for people businesses and should be a integral part of the business strategy for many companies today.
Like explained in “Data Strategy - Why it is important“ - A data strategy does not define how an organization creates value with data, analytics and AI. This is the job of the business strategy with data-related strategic choices being an integral part.
Customer Scenarios
Once a customer came with a good approach for a business data strategy, wanting to work out the following aspects:
Defining the right stakeholder to interview
Identifying the right tools and an analytics architecture
Creating a vision about why data is important for HR
Crafting a data operating model to understand everyones role, skills and necessary organization for People Analytics
Identifying initial business cases and a lighthouse case to start with
The topics mentioned are important and not far away from a general data strategy. But the time and budget to realize this is often very limited in business departments. There are different approaches like integrate the activities with other departments, priorize the activities based on possible impact, building on a company data strategy if already there and others to make make this work.
But caution, as People Analytics has own aspects you possibly wouldn’t consider so deep when building an overarching data strategy. First it is about people. This means not just data protection is very important. There is also the need for a good business/HR understanding as you will go deeper into the value creation process. So getting the right people together is key.
HR data is often very special. I often face the following aspects:
Data is in separat systems and need also be handled in a separate data platform, sometimes even encrypted, as the data is very sensitive and data protection is important in every aspect
Data is very time dependent as many processes and aspects are valid for a point in time (like employee master data with time frames for illness, holidays, parental leave, …)
Data quality is critical, as people are directly effected from bad data quality
The organizational hierarchy plays an important role and needs to be capable to be analyzed from different points in time
🎙️ In an episode of our english-speaking Data Innovation Podcast, Prof. Dr. Ana Moya welcomes Sarah K., HR Data Analyst at dm-drogerie markt Deutschland, to talk about one of the most human-centric aspects of data: People Analytics.
Here are my main insights from the talk:
❇️ Definition and Core Goal | People Analytics is about turning HR data into actionable insights for the company. The main goal is to use this data to help keep employees satisfied and confident, ultimately making them want to stay.
❇️ Strategic Importance | This approach is important for every company because all companies have employees. It allows organizations to look into the future ("what could happen") and enables them to be actionable or have the possibility to make decisions. It is particularly vital for finding the right people and keeping them happy within the company.
❇️ Starting Point - Traditional Analysis: The absolute first step is to perform traditional HR data analysis or controlling. This is necessary to take a deep dive into the data to understand what it shows, identify potential problems, and see how People Analytics can help the company with specific use cases. You cannot start directly with data science or modeling; you must first look at the data and then go deeper.
❇️ Key Components for Getting Started | Organizations need to understand their company's problems and use cases. It is crucial to bring together the right people – a mix of technical experts (like data scientists and data engineers) and strategic personnel from HR or business areas. It's recommended to start small with initial use cases and build prototypes.
❇️ Essential Requirements & Challenges | A major requirement and potential challenge is having the necessary data. Without data, a deep dive into topics is not possible. It's helpful to have different types of data, and it should be at least somewhat structured. You also need the right people with the necessary skills and a shared strategy. Implementing People Analytics is a process that requires time (it can take many months) and often involves solving problems step-by-step with close communication between teams.
❇️ Critical Advice for Success | Always start small and then get bigger. Involve HR leadership early on to understand the company's main goals, which guides the People Analytics strategy. Focus on your goal. Data privacy is extremely important because HR data is very sensitive and must be handled with respect. Involve all stakeholders. People Analytics is more of a marathon than a sprint.
Enjoy the Podcast▶️ https://lnkd.in/eCzqVKev
Departmental data strategies are important for the business and the demand is growing to make it part of the business. AI makes it even more relevant as these topics are very closely linked to the domain knowledge and leaverage the potential of certain areas with data is getting more and more relevant compared to rather central strategies.
Often it is important to start with things where you can show the value of the approach and than go on. That is also true for departmental approaches. But don't fall into the quick-win trap. If you forget the big picture, you optimize local activities instead of focus on the overall value. This is a general topic for department-specific data strategies.
Is People Analytics an interesting and relevant approach in your organization? Why or why not?