The HR ecosystem is awash with data. Modern technology tools give HR professionals an enormous range of metrics and dashboards to work with, and there has never been a greater emphasis on measuring the performance of HR processes and staff members, says Lindsay Gallard.
While this has delivered levels of detail previous generations of HR professionals could only dream about, it has also created some novel and disruptive challenges. One of the main issues is information overload. Whether you’re gathering data about employee performance, engagement, the use of L&D resources or a hundred other factors, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to sift out the information that can really impact business performance.
In this context, many HR leaders face a real challenge if they are to deliver strategically on both HR and broader business goals. A great question to ask, for example, is whether there is a disconnect in your organisation between the way performance metrics are viewed by the core HR leadership team and the C-suite. Let’s be honest, in many organisations, the answer is a definite ‘yes’.
An industry study published last year revealed that over 70% of the C-suite want HR to deliver increasingly against metrics that contribute to commercial goals. The same study also showed that “nearly 70% of executives surveyed would like their HR team to have a better understanding of business goals.” Aligning these requirements with the dozens of different HR metrics businesses often have access to, it’s not surprising that there’s a problem with the way metrics are perceived, communicated and used.
Thankfully, this isn’t a one-way street, with nearly 70% of C-suite leaders saying that their HR department will be more important to their business in future. In addition, two-thirds “would still like to have a better understanding of what their HR team does.”
From data to insight
So, how can you address these issues? A good starting point is to think about how you use HR metrics and which can offer organisational leaders the kind of insight they are looking for. Clearly, understanding and reporting on factors such as cost to hire, time to hire, or diversity representation is really important, but what’s also needed is a better understanding of how to use this insight to maximise the impact of our talented teams.
Data quality is a core issue. Unless you are confident that your data is accurate, complete, reliable, relevant and timely, it’s going to be a real struggle to deliver the required insight. Then there’s the question of data analytics, visualisation and presentation, where any gaps in these important capabilities can have a detrimental impact on the value your metrics can bring. You could have access to huge amounts of transformational data, but it’s of limited use if you can’t share it effectively.
Ideally, HR teams should be able to combine data from multiple sources with strong analytical skills and interactive tools, such as Excel and Power BI. For example, understanding workforce diversity as a basic headline number is a million miles away from visualising diversity in the context of issues such as hiring, L&D access, pay and promotion or exit factors.
Similarly, it’s equally important that this kind of insight is available so your stakeholders can understand it according to their level of HR expertise and time constraints, for instance. In some organisations, HR teams have the experience to deliver on these objectives using in-house resources, while others work with external third-party specialists. Whichever route you take, the impact of bridging the gap between data, insight and action can be profound.
Measuring what matters
With these capabilities in place, HR teams are much better positioned to step back, look beyond the numbers and determine what really matters. For example, while time to hire is an important and informative metric, it should also be understood in the context of who is in what role and whether this relationship is meeting company objectives. Similarly, when you look at performance rating distributions, this information becomes even more potent if the organisation also understands how top performers are targeted, incentivised and managed.
This kind of nuanced insight can be incredibly powerful. When you look at employee engagement and happiness, for example, who is happy, what factors contribute to their feelings, and how can this be replicated for others? And while many organisations try to measure and understand why people leave, isn’t it just as important to understand why other people stay?
Ultimately, each organisation should use HR metrics to advance its unique business goals. Bridging the gap, however, often depends on reflecting on where your skills as an HR professional are at. For example, are you speaking the right language and thinking beyond traditional HR? This is crucial because, ultimately, if you want to make that business impact, your skills will need to develop or you will need a clearer idea of what you’re missing so someone can help you with it.
But, armed with clean data and strong analytical and communication skills, it’s much more practical to achieve HR’s core objective and demonstrate that people really are an organisation’s greatest asset.
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Lindsay Gallard is Chief People Officer at Six Degrees.
Lindsay joined Six Degrees Group in 2018 as Head of Reward and People Operations. Prior to his appointment as CPO in May 2022, he served as Executive Operations Director where, alongside the leadership team, he worked to define and implement Group strategy.
Lindsay has over 20 years’ experience in HR. Prior to Six Degrees, he worked in a series of senior HR roles covering the UK and Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. He has a varied background in organisations spanning the public, not-for-profit, and private sectors, including PE-backed and listed businesses.
- Lindsay Gallard
- Lindsay Gallard
