Selecting Relevant Metrics Aligned With Organizational Goals

One of the foundational elements that the most data-driven HR leaders focus on is the election of relevant metrics that align with your organizational goals. It’s essential to identify what truly matters to your business objectives so you can manipulate those levers to achieve better outcomes.

Choosing the right information to focus on will help you achieve a strong return on investment and affect meaningful change. For instance, let’s say that reducing employee turnover is one of your top priorities. Metrics related to retention rates, employee satisfaction, and engagement should be front and center.

The value of aligning HR metrics with broader business goal cannot be overstated. In chatting with Ken Clar, director of workforce intelligence at Ansys, he emphasized that “many organizations are data rich but information poor.”

The analytics process should focus on giving business leaders relevant insights, not simply bombarding them with data points. Clar put it best, saying, “If we start with metrics from the HR side of things, we run the risk of disenfranchising our business leaders. Instead, start with the business priorities and metrics, and go from there.”

He went on to say, “People get intimidated by the math in people analytics. The extent to which we can break that down and democratize the data, the more we can expand our impact and make our stakeholders successful.”

Get members from every level of the organization involved in the metrics selection process. Identify big-picture business goals and then select several data points that can help you measure your progress toward those objectives.

Importance of Data Quality, Reliability, and Consistency

Another recurring theme is the necessity of maintaining high standards of data quality, reliability, and consistency. Ian McLendon is a Senior Director of Workforce Analytics at Norfolk Southern Railway, and he stresses that, “Our priority is to make sure our HR leaders have consistent and reliable data at their fingertips so that they can better serve the businesses they support.”

Standardizing data collection methods across the organization, using consistent definitions, and maintaining clear metrics calculations are all critical to achieving this consistency. However, the most forward-thinking HR leaders stress not to let perfect be the enemy of good. Data accuracy is important, but it doesn’t have to be perfect to get started down a solid analytics path.

Organizations that have made data quality a priority are seeing a cultural shift towards more data-driven decision-making. Empowering employees with reliable data builds confidence and facilitates a deeper integration of analytics into everyday business operations.

Challenges, Successes, and Innovation

A common misconception in people analytics is that more complex data presentations automatically lead to better insights. However, as Roxanne Laczo, head of people analytics at Cloudflare, has stated, “sophisticated doesn’t equal fancy. A basic bar chart will tell more to a senior executive than some predictive model. The simplest data views can tell the biggest story in a powerful way.”

Similarly, I’ve heard customers who launched their people analytics programs with the help of HireRoad that “dashboards are just the entry point.” There’s a lot of content that, if poorly designed, can take away from the value of the data. The clarity and simplicity of how data is presented make it more accessible and actionable for decision-makers at all levels.

Another key challenge shared by many organizations in adopting new analytics tools is overcoming resistance to change. Leaders emphasize the importance of getting buy-in from stakeholders early in the process and ensuring that the data is consistently relevant and easy to access. This approach not only fosters trust in the analytics but also encourages broader adoption, which is critical for HR teams to scale their impact beyond and across their organizations.

Utilizing Predictive Analytics in HR Dashboards

Predictive analytics is gaining traction in the HR data analytics space, allowing organizations to forecast trends and outcomes based on historical data. HR leaders are debating the extent to which dashboards and reporting should guide users directly to the key insights versus encouraging exploration. Some argue that dashboards should be focused, answering the primary questions at a glance, while others suggest that a degree of flexibility is necessary for users to dig deeper when needed.

 The general consensus is that predictive analytics should align with business strategy, offering insights that help organizations be proactive in addressing challenges before they escalate. It also means that ensuring your solution has an AI and/or predictive analytics roadmap is important to consider. Check out our vendor checklist for other helpful tips when selecting a people analytics partner.

Visual Representation of Data for Maximum Impact

Well-designed dashboards and visualizations can make complex data more accessible and understandable for stakeholders. 

There aren’t any one-size-fits-all dashboards either. Giving workers the ability to tailor their analytics experience will promote better buy-in and higher utilization rates. It’s also very important to build visualizations with the audience’s needs and use cases in mind for the same reasons.

All HR leaders i’ve had the pleasure of talking to have embraced dashboards as user-friendly interfaces that make people analytics data usable at all levels of the organization. We agree that the most intuitive interfaces also offer a high degree of customization. 

HR leaders can shape their dashboards to prioritize data that is most relevant to them. Executives can do the same, as can mid-level management staff.

Why Businesses Must Prioritize Quality and Accessibility Over Sophistication

Across the board, industry leaders agree that while sophisticated tools and visuals are valuable, they should never come at the expense of data quality and accessibility. Starting with clean, reliable data and simple, practical visualizations encourages widespread adoption and helps organizations overcome resistance to change. In the words of Chris Cerasoli, Sr. Associate Director of People Analytics at Boehringer Ingelheim, “your data should not be a movie, it should be the glasses your leaders put on to watch the movie.” In other words, simplicity is key and the end goal is ultimately business action.

By focusing on alignment with business goals and creating user-friendly experiences, organizations can successfully integrate people analytics into their decision-making processes, leading to more effective outcomes.