challenges, benefits and best practices for implementing ... · atb financial mark chernecki...

www.PeopleAnalyticsCanada.com

Challenges, Benefits and Best Practices for Implementing

People Analytics

2nd Annual

CANADA

LEARN FROM:

Terry Lashyn Director, People Intelligence

ATB Financial

Mark CherneckiDirector, HR Systems and

AnalyticsBLACKBERRY

Anna FiliceDirector, HR Systems &

OperationsCITY OF HAMILTON

Anthony AuriemmoManager, People Analytics

SLEEPY’S

John SteeleSenior Manager, Human

Capital AnalyticsBEST BUY

Arun KochharWorkforce Planning & People Analytics Lead

AMD

Emma HorganVice President HR and

LeadershipMAPLE LEAF FOODS

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48

In this e-Book you will find responses to the below 4

critical question from thought-leaders in HR Analytics,

from well known companies:

1. What are the top (at least 3) benefits of implementing HR/People Analytics for

an organization? Explain.

2. What are the key challenges and best practices while implementing HR

analytics in an organization?

3. What are the key employee metrics to drive employee engagement and

productivity?

4. What are some of the best practices while trying to “Gain Support” for People

Analytics?

Join these and other industry leaders who are passionate about

people analytics at the 2nd Annual People Analytics Canada Summit.

Acquire strategies and tactical insights on enhancing employee

engagement, improving performance and driving business outcome

with HR Analytics.

Join the LinkedIn Group: People Analytics Canada and chat with speakers + attendees before the summit starts.

Follow and tweet @HRAnalyticsCA for exclusive updates and offers. Connect with leaders passionate about #HRAnalyticsCA.

Event In Numbers

18

10+10+ 5

People Analyticsleaders

Networking Opportunities

Interactive Sessions

Case Studies

18+ 8

Industries Represented

10+10+5

Panel Discussions

4

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2nd Annual People Analytics CanadaOctober 25th-26th 2016 | Shangri-La Hotel, Toronto



1. What are the top benefits of implementing HR/People Analytics

for an organization? Explain.

Terry Lashyn Director, People Intelligence ATB Financial

Anna FiliceDirector, HR Systems & OperationsCITY OF HAMILTON

• It provides the option to have self-service reporting for

those that need it

• It allows the company on a monthly basis to monitor

where they are with respect to key metrics (compared to

their goals or other departments)

• Companies can implement action plans faster and monitor

their results as to the effectiveness of these plans by

comparing the next month’s/Quarter results

HR departments have been using data to understand their

workforce and manage their talent for many years through

programs and systems like engagement surveys, exit inter-

views and performance reviews. People Analytics provides a

space to bring large data sets together to help drive decision

making. Done well, this can be one of the key drivers for

strategic program development, continuous improvement

and for demonstrating the value of an HR department to its

organization. This all results in more focussed and targeted

approaches towards common goals.

Arun KochharWorkforce Planning & People Analytics LeadAMD

Benefits:

• Focus on insights, not data gathering

• Understand trends and relationships in the organization

• Quantitatively measure the success of HR programs in

terms of ROI





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Emma HorganVice President HR and LeadershipMAPLE LEAF FOODS

• Fact based decision making into where to spend time,

money and effort for the best business return / impact

• Enables benchmarking to ensure properly competing /

performing in the market place

• Provides ability to more proactively manage talent

• Enables more timely response to emerging issues and

trends requiring an intervention

• Speak in the same language as every other part of the

business – metrics!



John SteeleSenior Manager, Human Capital AnalyticsBEST BUY

The benefits of implementing People Analytics are driven

by the analytic team’s purpose, focus, and capabilities. ROI

for analytics capabilities tend to be very strong and some

potential benefits include: identification and removal of fraud

or waste, increased ROI for other programs, stronger employee

engagement, better retention, and higher productivity. For an

HR executive, an often unsung benefit is having an objective

view of problems and solutions from a team that is vested in

the organization’s success, but not vested in a particular HR

program’s success.











Mark CherneckiDirector, HR Systems and AnalyticsBLACKBERRY

• Better decision making. In today’s business environment you

need data to support your decisions and strategy. This is true in

all business units and especially HR. For the amount of money

that organizations invest in their people, the cost of labor alone

is reason enough to ensure that the decisions you are making are

based on sound data. HR is data rich and those who embrace

and utilize it will find that they can better direct their time and

investment into the aspects of HR that will truly make an impact.

Too often I see HR professionals make reactive decisions off of

pre-conceived notions or experiences. People analytics has the

power to remove some of the bias that we see in day to day

decision making. This does not mean we stop relying on our

own knowledge, expertise and innovative ideas, but we all have

to accept that we have a certain degree of bias. Using people

analytics in partnership with innovative ideas and best practices

can ensure sound, impactful decision making throughout HR.

• Developing a comprehensive view of your workforce and

talent. Using people analytics is like drawing a map. How do

you know where you are or where are you are going if you don’t

have a map? It’s about understanding your workforce. Where

is your top talent? What drives them and where do you find

more? People analytics can help draw this map for you. People

analytics creates tools to enable HR staff and business leaders

navigate through a complex, competitive and multi-generational

workforce.

• It’s disruptive. People analytics can help reveal aspects and

trends within the workforce that we don’t necessarily see or hear

about day to day. It causes us to rethink how we approach a

problem or even identify what the true nature of that problem is.

It can make leaders and HR partners uncomfortable because it

challenges their preconceived ideas of what is going on and how

to address it.

• Establishes credibility with senior leadership. To achieve buy-in

from your senior leaders on the value of HR programs and the

changes and initiatives you wish to undertake it should always be

presented to senior leadership with data behind it. Not only do

you want to use data to show why change needs to happen, but

you want to use data to show that your changes are truly making

impact.













Anthony AuriemmoManager, People AnalyticsSLEEPY’S

Three benefits of implementing People Analytics in your

organization are an improved understanding of who makes up your

organization, the ability to make data driven decisions, and the

ability to use analytics to predict outcomes and drive change.

The first benefit refers to the ability to see and understand the

descriptive data regarding your organization’s people. The

descriptors are the simplest aspect of People Analytics but they

are the foundation. Understanding that there is high turnover

in a specific department or a lack of diversity in your higher pay

bands are important descriptors that should lead your organization

towards action.

Now that your People Analytics team has provided the descriptive

data that has shown you action is needed, there will no doubt be

many possible ways to tackle the problems. This is where your

second benefit comes in. A People Analytics function will be able

to comb through your employee data and collect additional data

if needed to inform your organization as to the most effective

way to resolve the problem. Understanding the problem is great

but without the People Analytics function, organizations are left

playing guess and check to resolve the problem. This can be costly

and time consuming. Having the People Analytics function will

help your organization deliver a targeted and effective approach to

problem solving.

Lastly, by having a People Analytics function, you can also mitigate

these problems in the future via predictive analytics. For example,

in the case of high turnover in a department, a People Analytics

function could use predictive statistics to capture and explain

the reasons that led to high turnover and can offer a prediction

as to the turnover risk in the future based on these newly found

predictors. With this knowledge, HR practitioners can take action

to mitigate the turnover risk or begin to pipeline replacement

candidates. A People Analytics function is the best way to use

your organization’s data to your advantage in HR. With all the

challenges surrounding HR practices in modern business, People

Analytics is the bright path forward to understanding and solving

new and challenging problems.













2. What are the key challenges and best practices while implementing

HR analytics in an organization?


Challenges:

• To get the projected users to use the system versus what

they have used in the past

• To have the users accept the results when potentially there

may have been entries missed – making the metrics look

wrong but the metrics are reporting on what is there and

not what should be there

Best Practices:

• Ensure you have representation from the Business Areas

and their support

• Understand your rollout strategy (number of users,

security levels etc)

• Ensure you promote and reward usage

• Ensure there is a solid understanding of the metrics and

their calculation


Challenges:

• The balance between opinions and facts - getting people

to use the data to drive program design and development

rather than select data to support an already developed

concept or program. Often, program owners are so

committed to a concept or belief that the data poses more

of a change management issue than a technical challenge.

Best Practices:

• Encourage the integration of metrics into each new initiative

and make room for it on your departments work plan and

strategic plan. Demonstrate what success looks like by

identifying and agreeing to success measures up front.












The greatest challenge in implementing HR analytics is

spending the majority of the team’s time on the highest

value-add activities and the least amount of the team’s

time on supporting activities (e.g., obtaining, cleaning,

and combining data). When starting in the analytics

space, it is important to align with partners and clients on

operational definitions and data concerns (e.g., deficiency

and contamination) before analyzing data and crafting

stories. For client interactions, it is best to index on

actionable insights and data-driven decisions. Do not

burden clients with what went into the creation of those

insights. A mistake new contributors in the analytics

space make is talking about how difficult the study was to

conduct, the unsupported hypotheses, how sophisticated

their techniques are, and the interesting, but none value-add

findings. In order to be in a position to convey actionable

insights, it is a best practice to build relationships and

business acumen so that the approach will seem logical and

the findings will feel relevant.




Challenges:

• cost and implementation of enabling technology, shifting

mindset of HR professionals who don’t currently use

analytics, shifting paradigm of other areas of business

regarding HR’s role

Best Practices while implementing:

• Focus on the why and the value, and celebrate successes











Key Challenges:

• Building knowledge and skill sets within traditional HR

roles to enable the team to manage and use people

analytics effectively

• Aligning with Finance

• Managing technology and integrating disparate data

• Managing data volume and garbage data

Best Practices:

• Establish your own HR analytics COE as an independent

team within HR. Ensure it reports directly to the head of

HR and services the needs of senior leadership.

• Establish a brand. Use consistent templates and methods

of delivery. This helps build trust in the data and those

providing it.

• Make analytics easily accessible to all stakeholders. Ensure

data is real-time and not stale.

• Establish one source of truth for your data.

• Locate your HR quants. Find the people who can work

with data and systems but also understand HR strategy

and themes.

• Have your HR Analytics consultant partner closely with

other HR COE’s and the business so they are imbedded

and can contribute to the discussion.





• Change management ->Without a change management

plan, any HR analytics implementation is doomed to fail

• Standard < -- > Flexible Approaches -> Standardize as

much as possible, but leave room for customization and

organizational uniqueness

• Be business driven












Challenges:

With any new initiative within HR, there are challenges to

implementing a People Analytics function. The biggest

challenge I have come across is the differential abilities of

people to effectively consume data. While it is my belief

that data driven HR is the way forward, not everyone is

qualified to analyze data. It can be dangerous to allow

stakeholders and decision makers to analyze data on their

own without the assistance of a qualified data scientist.

There are many biases that can distort the perspective lens

in which an unqualified consumer of data views descriptive

data. One example is confirmation bias; this is when the

stakeholder combs the data for evidence in support of their

opinion. While this may not be intentional, it is detrimental

to the effectiveness of the People Analytics function

because instead of having a qualified data scientist comb

through the data for an understanding of truth, data can

be twisted to support a pre-determined opinion or decision

that may not be the best option for the organization.

Best Practices:

As a best practice, organizations should be sure to invite a

representative from the People Analytics group to explain

the results of the data analysis and provide an explanation

of the meaning as well as some recommendations for action.

Having a member of the People Analytics team at the

proverbial table will allow for stakeholders to be educated

on the meaning of the data and prevent the unintentional

misuse of data. The People Analytics function should work

to educate stakeholders on how to understand and interpret

data, but also ensure that they understand that the analysis

is best left to the professionals. This can be difficult but it is

key to avoid the misinterpretation of the data provided by

the People Analytics team.













3. What are the key employee metrics to drive employee

engagement and productivity?


• Engagement results along with the drivers should be

analyzed


I think this is different in every organization and culture, and

may also vary by divisions within an organization depending

on the makeup of ones workforce. HR can collect data

through various strategies (surveys, production systems,

time and attendance and HRIS systems etc) and use the

insights from that data to develop action plans to address

“problem” areas such as retention, absenteeism, grievance

activity, and seasonal patterns of behaviour (for example)

which could all impact productivity and engagement

dependent on the environment. Having said that, looking

at the many elements of employee demographics, turnover

and absenteeism can provide a great deal of insight about

your workforce.


Training completions, addressing and correcting problems

the first-time, timely performance feedback, employee

experience action planning, and labor allocation are key

indicators. Instead of relying on the same key metrics for all

employee groups, consider an adaptable approach based on

diagnostic chains and the ability to customize the metrics

based on local-level issues and performance.












• Indicators of engagement & productivity:

• Engagement survey scores

• Scores from engagement surveys that cover “enablement”

factors

• Attrition rates and exit interview themes

• Internal promotion rates




Keep it simple. Take a look at turnover rates and your

employee surveys to get a sense of engagement within

your workforce. If your turnover rates are high, there is a

strong chance your workforce is not engaged and the loss of

knowledge, skills and abilities will drive productivity down.

Understand your time to fill and open reqs as well. Open

positions mean strain on your current workers and potential

loss of revenue if the open positions are critical and/or

revenue generating. Your ability to fill key talent gaps will

go a long way in employee engagement and productivity.


• Attrition rates -> an indicator of potential “hotspots” in the

organization

• Pulse/Engagement Surveys -> linked back to #1,

proactively measuring engagement in an organization can

uncover problems before they manifest themselves














Employee engagement is multifaceted and is highly dependent

on the type of individuals that your organization aims to hire and

retain. Highly creative jobs are going to have different engagement

drivers than physical laborers. That being said, I find that employee

engagement as anecdotally described by many HR practitioners

is really 3 separate facets, work engagement, organizational

commitment and job satisfaction. Work engagement is mostly tied

to the job itself and less to the organization and is really reflective

of the energy and effort a person puts into the job and how easily

they can get absorbed in their work. Organizational commitment

is how committed an employee is to stay with an organization and

for what reason they intend to stay. Job satisfaction is about if

they like their job, are happy with pay and benefits, feel positively

about their supervisor, etc. To drive employee engagement, you

first must understand what aspects of it need attention. This is

why surveying employees is so critical. With an effective People

Analytics function, you can survey employees and identify

deficiencies in these areas of employee engagement and then

target the low engagement population to better understand

how to improve the aspects of engagement that they scored low

on. Simply running a canned survey from a vendor each year

and then introducing some type of perk is not going to have the

targeted efficiency that you can obtain from a strong People

Analytics group. If engagement is down due to low organizational

commitment, then it is likely the organization needs to work on

building trust. If engagement is low due to job satisfaction, why

are employees dissatisfied? How can we fix that? These are

questions that the People Analytics team can solve using data.

Driving productivity is also highly dependent on the type of worker

as well as the root causes of low productivity. Increasing the pick

rate within a warehouse is going to be a very different undertaking

that driving productivity within the finance department. Collecting

and understanding the organization’s data as well as having

knowledge of the research in this space can help inform the ways

to drive productivity across different employee populations. While

engagement can be a driver of productivity, it is not the only

driver. Pay practices along with rewards and recognition can have

a huge impact on productivity. In addition, an understanding

of the research on work motivation can be a huge help in

driving productivity. There are many different theories on work

motivation that can be applied in an organizational setting to drive

productivity. The People Analytics function will be able to measure

productivity and use data to inform decisions surrounding what

actions can be taken to increase it.











4. What are some of the best practices while trying to

“Gain Support” for People Analytics?



• Have business leaders / team members that are advocates

• Numbers / Metrics are extracted only from the People

Analytic system where possible

• Have a “contest” to promote usage (Winner gets a great

Gift Certificate)

Communicate and capitalize off of early adopters who have

bought into the concept of data driven decision making and

have experienced success with it.

Encourage Leaders to look at data at the beginning of an

initiative, making it part of the planning process to ensure

one can measure the success and demonstrate the value of

a fully implemented program.

Identify success measures up front as a strategy to ensure

all stakeholders are working towards a common objective,

and tie those success measures to the problem that is being

solved by the initiative.

Encourage ongoing review of measures to enable

sustainability of programs and to encourage continuous

improvement.


• Simply - make the business case!














Often times, someone will try to start an analytics capability

by showing some external study, stating the need to keep

up with the industry, and requesting a large financial

environment with a long time expected before the business

gets a return. I suggest the opposite, and building with

the enduring principle of simplicity and urgency to help

leaders make better data-driven people decisions. Trust

can be built through simple tasks such as teaching Excel

skills like lookups and pivot tables or developing scripts

for data clean-up and reporting. Further support can be

garnered by developing exception reporting. Starting small

and staying focused on one problem for one department

can lead to referrals that quickly build enterprise-wide

demand. People analytics won’t be supported unless the

capability makes the intimidating technical components

accessible by offering data-driven recommendations that

are straightforward and actionable.


Generally, the desire for people analytics has to come

from your senior leaders. It can be extremely challenging

otherwise. You have to establish their trust in your

numbers which often means never make a mistake or show

inconsistencies in your numbers. If you aren’t 100% confident

in your numbers or don’t 100% understand them, then don’t

share them until you are. Start simple and get the basics

right. As that trust with leaders is developed, you can get

more complex. Another key aspect in gaining support is

ensuring your HR analytics staff know the business and

know the challenges leaders and employees are facing. This

allows them to proactively produce analytics and speak with

knowledge and confidence about the analytics in relation to

the challenges. The analytics you are producing have to be

relatable to the issues the leaders are facing. The only way to

do this is to understand your business.














Gaining support for People Analytics within an organization

can be a major challenge. One way that I have found to be

effective is offering data surrounding the return on invest-

ment that the organization would see if they acted on a data

driven recommendation from the People Analytics team.

This can go a long way with stakeholders who understand

profit and loss but aren’t of the analytical mindset. In ad-

dition, the ability to explain data and advanced statistics to

stakeholders is absolutely critical in order to gain and build

support for the People Analytics function. A data scientist

cannot simply ramble through statistics jargon and then

make a recommendation and expect it to be embraced.

They need to take time and carefully walk the audience

through each step, how the statistics work, what the analysis

means and how it led to a recommendation. By getting

stakeholders to understand why the data led the People

Analytics team to their recommendation, it will be easier for

them to understand the why the recommendation makes

sense and how valuable the People Analytics function is.


• Find a champion in the business

• Pick an executive sponsor that the business knows and

respects

• HRBPs are your link to the heartbeat of the company –

listen and listen well!








Take Away 10 Practical Solutions to Better Tackle:1. Strategy: Make HR a strategic business partner

2. Getting started in analytics: Get the information you need

3. Data sharing: Break down silos and collaborate

4. Building an analytics team: Find the right people

5. Employee engagement: Drive engagement efforts with data

6. Organizational support: Create a culture of data-driven decision making

7. Scaling up projects: Build your people analytics programs

8. Workforce challenges: Meet strategic goals with data-driven evidence

9. Predictive analytics: Move from descriptive to predictive analytics

10. Creating strategic information: Turn data into actionable information

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