5 Steps To Building A People

/ By Elmen Lamprecht, Managing Partner, COGO People Analytics /

People Analytics has taken the world

by storm and many South African companies are now looking at implementing some form of advanced analytics in HR.

The challenge is that most South African companies are too far removed from implementing predictive and prescriptive People Analytics. In fact, most companies have not even started on their People Analytics journey. This is not a surprise, since a LinkedIn study found that internationally only 29% of companies are using advanced analytics in HR. From our experience, we believe this number is even lower in South Africa.

At COGO People Analytics we help clients build a People Analytics function from the ground up. For them, artificial intelligence and advanced algorithms are just a bridge too far at this point. In this article, we provide 5 steps as a guide to building a People Analytics function from scratch.

Step 1: Discovery – Identify where People Analytics can make an impact in the Business

HR is valued when it can drive organisational success through the optimisation of its people. Just like Finance enables success through diligent management of money in the business, and IT drives productivity through the right hardware, network & software solutions, HR’s role in the business is to ensure that the people in the business contribute towards company goals. Therefore, the first step in building a People Analytics function from the ground up is to understand that priority should be given to organisational strategies and goals. People Analytics should not measure HR activities with no relevance to the larger business, but rather support the business strategy by measuring how people are contributing to what business deems important. Identify which People behaviours are aligned with strategies and goals.

Step 2: Examination – Selecting appropriate People Metrics

Once you have identified where People Analytics will make the biggest business impact, we need to determine which metrics we are going to use to measure this impact. This is the heart of the process. At this stage, it is important to distinguish between HR Metrics and People Metrics. HR Metrics measures the Effectiveness & Efficiency of the HR function. Very often, this is totally separate from the business and has no relevance outside of the HR Department. People Metrics measure the Effectiveness & Efficiency of the people in the business. This is where people behaviour shows a direct link to company performance. Your C-Level will only be interested in People Analytics.

Step 3: Data Mining – Obtaining Relevant Data

Practically, the 3rd step is the most challenging. This is because the data you need for People Analytics is warehoused in several systems. To maximise this step, HR Professionals need to work with their ICT Department to develop a data management strategy that includes the following:  Identify the sources of the relevant data (e.g. ERP Systems, stand-alone HR systems, email, Social Media, websites, engagement surveys – just to name a few).  Identify the type of data (e.g. Structured/

Unstructured, text/voice/image, GPS, video, etc)  Harvest/gather the Data through system integration  Normalise the data in a central database/ data lake  Enrich data by adding of metadata (i.e. tagging)

Step 4: Assessment – Draw Insight from the Data

Once we start receiving information through HR Analytics, we need to start making sense of everything. It is never enough to just take the data at face value. HR needs to interpret the data for the C-Level to clearly link the impact of People Behaviour on the bottom-line. We always propose looking at the following when interpreting data for the C-Level:

5 STEPS

To Building A People Analytics Function From The Ground Up

 Provide Context – Current environment,

Industry Benchmarks  Compare to Past Performance – Progress/

Regression  Provide understanding – Ask ‘Why?’  Predict future outcomes

Step 5: Influence – Communicate People Analytics to Drive Strategic Change

The last step is often neglected. Positive, sustainable growth of People Analytics can only be achieved when HR is able to convince and influence the business by clearly communicating success stories to the business. When communicating to the business, take the following into consideration:  What should we communicate?  Structure message in a business-friendly story  To whom must we communicate?  Identify all the stakeholders  When should we communicate?  Weekly/Monthly/Quarterly Reporting  Business Cycle (budgeting, Legislative

Reports)  How should we communicate? (Reports,

Newsletters, Posters, Meetings, Emails,

WhatsApp)

By following these 5 steps, any organisation - regardless of size and sophistication – can build a People Analytics function from the ground up.

If you want to know more about building an HR Analytics function from scratch, please reach out to COGO People Analytics. We are Africa’s No 1 HR Analytics advisory. We offer HR Tech and HR Analytics consultancy services, while our development of HR Analytics Tools (such as advanced HR Reporting which includes Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) and HR Virtual Assistants (Chatbots) remain our flagship products.