Embedding Workplace Analytics into your Organization
When companies use workforce analytics to identify the underlying problems that threaten achievement of a specific business goal, they are led to new insights and effective actions, often achieving significant results beyond their initial identified problem. They discover substantial benefits to be gained by incorporating workforce analytics in their tracking and decision making processes and recognize the competitive advantage that arises from a fact-based understanding of their employees. Inclusion of workforce analytics gives companies a powerful tool that allows them to create new ways to compete based on how they build, train, organize, reward, and deploy their workforces.
From our experiences in multiple organizations, we have found that embedding workforce analytics into the fabric of a company requires the following important elements:
- Access to data that is timely, accurate, and crosses traditional organizational boundaries
- An analytic data warehouse and distribution system that captures, catalogs, and transforms the data into information that can be customized to meet the needs of different user groups
- Maintenance of the system in light of changing organizational requirements and conditions
- Analytic staff who can interpret the results of data and work with internal audiences to use the information most effectively to promote change within the organization
- Governance structures that allow stakeholders from different functional and operational groups to voice their needs and prioritize enhancements
Building an Analytics Team
A wide range of skills is required to accomplish analytics that support the needs of business leaders in better managing their workforce to support their strategy. For companies newly involved in the process, the number and availability of people with these critical skills is often limited. Our consultants have expertise and experience in research methods and technical support for the change management process. Partnering with our consultants greatly enhances the speed, reliability, and payoff of your efforts.
In-House Business Expertise and Commitment
Executive leadership component:
- Ownership of workplace analytics process development by at least one top business leader with a seat at the business strategy table to ensure commitment and access to resources
- Fully understands company strategy, revenue projections, operations, performance indicators
- Skill in facilitating collaboration across business functions
Management component:
- Knowledge of and experience in Change Management processes
- Knowledge of workforce management practices specific to company and to target unit
- Communication skills: understands company philosophy and vernacular, able to identify and engage key stakeholders
Knowledge of company data sources:
- Knowledge of internal and external data sources which set context for company strategy and decisions, e.g., market trends, government regulations, union agreements, economic, labor force, competitor data
- Knowledge of company’s quantitative workforce data across functions
- Skill in facilitating access to data relevant to human capital issues across functions
Research Methods Expertise
Training and experience in social science and business management research methods:
- Knowledge of social science and business management research methods
- Experience in identifying appropriate raw data across functions and using it to formulate useful variables for analysis
- Skill in qualitative data collection: interview techniques, focus groups, and survey methodology
- Skill in quantitative and qualitative analysis, identifying causal relationships, forecasting, scenario modeling
- Skill in data presentation methods tailored to different audiences
- Skill in engaging stakeholders in responding to findings and fine tuning solutions
- Skill in developing best processes and tools to support solution implementation
Data management skills supporting research:
- Knowledge of database design and data architecture for research projects
- Experience in capturing critical company data from various source systems: extracting, cleaning, validating and transforming best available data
- Skill in loading data and documenting the analytics database
Technology Expertise to Support Change Management
Data capture skills: extract, transform, and load data into sustainable database
- Skill in data mapping based on critical measures identified in the research process
- Skill in defining an efficient database sturcture
- Skill in institutionalizing the process of updating the analytics database as needed
Database design and maintenance skills
- Skill in designing an efficient information distribution system
- Skill in designing appropriate security required of historical data stores
Human factors useability experience
- Skill in designing appropriate presentation layers to meet user needs
- Skill in designing and delivering new decision support information that is embedded in the normal work flow
- Skill in documenting and building metadata processes