Tips for Developing a Super HR Analytics Team

The growth of business intelligence (BI) over the last few years has propelled management in all facets of sales and marketing to realize the valu

The growth of business intelligence (BI) over the last few years has propelled management in all facets of sales and marketing to realize the value that can be gained from the proper collection and analysis of data.

Research indicates that top notch HR analytics teams can help organizations cut costs, identify opportunities for improvement and achieve higher and quicker returns on investments. Metrics derived from the business intelligence process help organizations understand customers as well as competitors, and are generally used to affect the bottom line.

Traditionally, the human resources department has not been viewed as part of a revenue center and the use of analytics has been extremely limited. That’s because, typically, the HR department simply generates reports without providing insight or understanding. In other words, the reports are devoid of measurements, predictive models, scorecards, benchmark comparisons and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Today HR professionals must know how to collect, analyze, and interpret data from human capital metrics to be valuable to their companies as decision makers and influencers, according to Dawn Boyer (@Dawn_Boyer), a small business human resources career consultant.

Boyer suggests HR analysts measure and analyze HR data to achieve better results in the following six core areas:

1. Recruiting
2. Learning/development
3. Performance
4. Talent assessment
5. Leadership planning/development
6. Worker engagement and satisfaction

Assessing and evaluating the data to generate reliable recommendations to improve core processes require the skills of a super HR analytics team. The following tips will help you develop such a team:

• Understand your organization. Is your organization ready to use the insight from the data, suggestions, and recommendations an HR analytics team will derive? Will your organization be able to set the goals as well as formulate and articulate a strategic plan that the HR analyst can help achieve?
• Develop a plan for the HR analytics team. Define how the team will help your organization reach its goal. When building the team, know upfront if you need to start an initiative to acquire or build a new BI system or remodel an already existing system. Will the system be used to generate analytics? Will the team need to know how to develop dashboards and reports from the system or simply run reports?
• Assess the analytical ability of the members of your current HR analytics team. Realize that you may need to augment the team.
• Learn how to work well with all departments within the organization. Seek out C-level support and become accustomed to working with IT, finance, operations, etc. Keep all departments involved as you’ll be providing them with data and recommendations to help them make better HR decisions. Additionally, they’ll be providing your team with operational support. Gain credibility early – start with easy-to-solve problems.
• Work with your HR analytics team to understand the report development process. Ensure team members know how to share meaningful insights and recommendations.
• Be a problem solver. This way you’ll help the organization succeed and your team will be on its way to becoming a really super HR analytics team.

Next Steps:

• Listen to our March 22 webcast featuring Claire Schooley, senior analyst at Forrester Research, and Dan White, product manager for Spotfire, and learn how to use analytics to spot more opportunities in HR to make people and processes more effective.
• Check out our complimentary “5-Minute Guide to HR Analytics” to learn how analytics can transform the perception of HR as a cost center to a strategic ally for business leaders.