By Gen
e Pease, Co-Founder and CEO
Featured in Bellevue University’s Human Capital Lab Winter 2011 issue of Innovation @ Work
Many thought leaders in the HR analytics field talk about getting started on the journey to advanced analytics—after all, any analysis of data that informs decisions is better than no analysis at all. At least that’s been the prevailing wisdom of the last few years, and it’s not a bad message. Every journey begins with a single step. But the conversation is rapidly evolving, and those who haven’t even started their journeys are going to find themselves far behind. The HR departments that are benefiting from advanced analytics are no longer anomalies in the marketplace. A recent Mercer presentation stated that the “art of HR is being replaced by science.” An increasing number of companies are using their data to make informed decisions about their people strategy, maximizing the benefit of every dollar spent to develop their most important assets.
Looking for examples? Google has long been a leader in the field, structuring the HR department with one-third traditional HR practitioners, one-third business consultants, and one-third statisticians. But others are blazing their own trails in HR analytics. Harrahs, long known for its statistical prowess in maximizing revenue, is now applying that discipline to HR investments. At the November 2011 Conference Board Metrics Conference, Kathy Doan and Natalie Tarnopolsky of Wells Fargo’s Community Banking HR Insights and Metrics team showed how they are using advanced analytics to optimize workforce planning and improve training investments.
Advanced analytics are also being applied to HR investments where the business outcomes aren’t always straightforward. For example, leadership development is a topic of concern at most companies with the pending boomer retirements. Capital Analytics and Bellevue University’s Human Capital Lab co-published a case study on leadership development at ConAgra Foods. By using advanced analytics, ConAgra Foods was able to optimize their investment in leadership and convince the CEO to fully fund the program.
The field of human capital analytics will continue to develop and become more accessible as more and more HR departments take advantage of it. Getting started is important, but it’s not enough to simply collect data and report on activity. To stay competitive in today’s market, it’s imperative that companies can show how people investments are impacting the business and use their data to get the most from every dollar spent.