5 min guide hr

8/13/2019 5 Min Guide Hr

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A 5-Minute Guide to

HR AnalyticsHR as a Strategic Ally

Modern HR executives have worked hard to transform the perception

of HR as a cost center to a strategic ally for business leaders. Talent is

capital and must be managed as rigorously as any other asset.

Making important personnel decisions based on hard data is at the heart

of fact-based HR, and a recent McKinsey & Company study1supports

the value of hard data for HR by finding that companies scoring in thetop third in talent management were 40 percent more profitable per

employee than those in the bottom third. Google, Bon-Ton, and other

enterprises have also proven the value of better analysis of HR data.

However, HR executives have been hobbled by old fashioned

information systems. To hard questions, they have only soft answers.

Whats the ROI of training? What candidate screening yields best results?

How do we spot and retain valuable players? Other questions, often

spur of the moment, may flow one after the other as questions lead to

more questions. The move to transform HR requires a better way for HR

to access and analyze data. A modern analytic environment must offerthree critical capabilities to the entire spectrum of HR staff so they can

adequately support the enterprise.


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A 5-Minute Guide to Business Analytics 2

Explore key metrics freelyHR touches all departments across the enterprise so the data behind HRs key

metrics must bridge all information silos. For example, data may need to be viewedby business unit, product group, and geography to find root causes, to find profitper employee, to compare compensation with performance, or any number of otherquestions that arise as others are answered. The data may come from a myriad ofsources; to truly become a strategic ally for the business, HR professionals requirereal-time, role-based access to all types of data.

Executives at Shell Canada, for example, used dimension-free data exploration tofind answers on employee productivity and qualifications, which helped determinethe appropriate size for the workforce. Also, a top pharmaceutical companydetermined how work experience and education should affect starting pay grades.

Employee productivity, demographic diversity, distribution of employees bygeography, compensations and pay can all be correlated with performance to makethe most of resources. Better enabling HR to freely explore data can make a realimpact on the business.

Monitor constantlyAlthough, hiring, compensation, employee performance, vacancy rates, and time-to-fill may appear on-track at first glance, by applying analytics one can quick spotthat a departments positions are unfilled for an unacceptably long period, or thatmajor events have distracted attention from a spike in attribution. An event-drivensystem that notifies professionals when a metric is above acceptable levels canprompt HR staff to take a closer look. And data mashups let them do so quickly, byempowering HR professionals to bring data together from various corporate sources

to make informed decisions based on all the relevant data, not just one slice of theproblem.

Contextual collaboration, which enables HR staff to quickly share a simpledashboard in a workflow or portal, simplifies consensus building. HR staff can seethe data at the heart of a discussion and caninteract with it, make comments andnotes. Ultimately, through this collective insight, the team arrives at a commonunderstanding for how important employee decisions are arrive at. This collectivevisibility can also drive key actions. A blip that one HR team member at firstdismissed, for example, could be appreciated as a serious problem by anothermember. Alternately, what might at first appear to be a problem in the data, couldbe explained by another team member when its put in context. Discussion arises,and they realize that its the first sign of a new trend. These types of contextual

interchanges speed decision making and powers HR users to take more targetedaction more quickly.


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A 5-Minute Guide to Business Analytics 3

Foresee needs and eventsIs the sales departments star performer about to take a better of fer? An effective

HR systems predictive capability gives warning well before the sales person knockson the bosss door and asks shyly, Do you have a minute?

In the past, HR recruiters had little more to go on for hiring decisions thanletters, resumes, and interviews. Analytics is changing the HR recruiters arsenaldramatically. Up-to-date HR analytics supplies much more guidance. The Bon-Tonchain, for example, with more than 280 department stores in the U.S, used analyticsto determine attributes of effective sales reps. The Bon-Ton HR team had testedcognitive ability, situational judgment, initiative, and other traits, and learned thatreps with scores in the top-half tended to sell 10 percent more product than otherreps. These successful reps even tended to like their work more. Since 2008, salesper rep have risen $1400 and turnover has dropped 25 percent at Bon-Ton allmade possible by harnessing analytics for HR success.

HR becomes a valuable ally

Modern analytics technology has turned HR into a science that no employercan ignore. HR departments running on fact-based talent management not onlycreate value, they know exactly how much the return on investment is and can be.Executives can finally meet hard questions with hard answers even before theyreasked.

Visibility into the unknown arises from trends and patterns that executives foundby exploring key metrics fast and on demand. They roam key metrics at will forinsight into factors like employee productivity, demographic diversity, distributionof employees by region, compensation, and pay grade. Critical data appears in

data mashups that bridge silos. At a glance, they know whos creating value for theenterprise. Theres no more waiting around for actionable insight.

Staffing and recruiting specialists, meanwhile, monitor headcount, open requisitions,and pending offers; and they dont have to sit back and wait. An event-drivensystem can initiate alerts when vacancy rates, time-to-fill-positions and otherconditions exceed thresholds, while built-in predictive analytics inform forecastsand prevent surprises. Got a question? Suspicion? Spotfire offers a new levelof collaboration and transparency in the process. With contextual collaborationcapabilities, Spotfire allows HR professionals to share an analysis and invite staff tocontribute their knowledge and judgment to the decision-making process all inconfidence, as the enterprise-class platform ensures security.

It all adds up to HR for the value-driven business world.


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2012 All Rights Reserved. TIBCO, TIBCO Software, The Power of Now, the TIBCO and Spotfire logos and TIBCO Spotfire are trademarks or registered trademarks of TIBCO Software Inc. in the United States and/or other

countries. All other product and company names are marks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only

TIBCO Spotfire

TIBCO Software Inc.

212 Elm Street

Somerville, MA 02144

North America: +1-866-240-0491

Europe: +44-800-520-0443

http://spotfire.tibco.com

Dimension-free data exploration- freely explore data to any level of detail, withoutIT intervention. Speed insight to action.

Data Mashup easily combine data from different sources - without having to askIT for support so HR teams can quickly gain a comprehensive view of the business,while adhering to existing security policies.

Predictive and Event-driven analytics- empowers HR to anticipate opportunities &risks quickly so they take appropriate action immediately.

Contextual Collaboration- Securely share insights in context and practicecollaborative, fact-based decision-making. Publish insights through corporateportals and social platforms as appropriate to quickly drive HR teams to consensus.

Enterprise-class- enable all HR professionals to use a single analytic platform toinstantly visualize and analyze data from multiple sources, while respecting ITsrequirements especially those concerning security.

Learn More About Spotfire AnalyticsFrom interactive dashboards and data visualization to predictive analytics, Spotfiresintuitive analytics and data discovery software provides an astonishingly fast andflexible environment for visualizing and analyzing your data helping you makesmarter decisions every day. To learn how Spotfire, an enterpr ise-class analytics anddata discovery platform, speeds users from insight to action with industry-leadingcapabilities such as dimension-free data exploration, data mashup, and contextualcollaboration, contact Spotfire today:866-240-0491.

1 Question for your HR chief: Are we using our people data to create value? McKinsey

Quarterly, Organization Practice by Nora Gardner, Devin McGranahan, and William Wolf,

March 2011

5 min guide hr

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