How Data and Analytics Will Shape your Workplace

The following bullet points summarize the discussion held on this topic during this CEO Solution Exchange at the 2015 CEO Talent Summit in Dallas, TX, Sept. 30-Oct. 1, 2015:

• Today’s human capital competitive advantage may be fleeting as companies continue to be disrupted. One example of the increasingly competitive landscape is this: When the S&P 500 premiered in 1957, the average age of the companies on the list was 75 years. Today it is 15 years.

• The best companies are just beginning to make meaningful utilization of data analytics in the area of human capital. This area may be thought of as “people analytics”.

• Three primary areas are emerging which lend themselves to assisting in talent management as a competitive advantage. They are:
  -Dynamic pipeline management of the current and future leadership requirements
  -Network modeling: i.e., where workers have their closest and most frequent contact at work to assist in optimizing individual performance; for example, research indicates that as much as 40%-50% of individual performance can be attributed to the individuals’ fit within their network
  -Engagement, particularly as it relates to the millennials who will represent more than half the workforce in the next five years. Also people tend to engage/disengage in these network clusters

• When it comes to the practical use of analytics within the company, start with the basic, “What are my core challenges?” and ask yourself three questions about the data/information being produced: What? So what? and Now what?

• When utilizing big data, 80% of the useful analysis will be accomplished in the area of basic analytics. And this notion can be useful in staff HR to assist line managers in areas where they need it most. It also can serve as a useful platform in building HR credibility. In other words, begin with straightforward analysis on questions like, “who is most at risk for leaving?”

• While the traditional practice has been only to give employee-specific and comprehensive feedback once a year a la the performance appraisal, companies are attempting now to dispose of this practice in favor of much more frequent feedback. A “test” of this is to ask the employee, “Has your leader given you feedback recently?”

• The more strategic HR executives going forward will begin staffing the people-analytics function. In addition to the universities, which are starting to educate around this function, another good source may be the big consulting firms.

Facilitator: J.P. Donlon, Editor in Chief, Chief Executive magazine