2 Maximise the effectiveness of HR data and make the CEO listen! Master Class 2: 14th November 2013Bernard MarrFounder and CEO, Advanced Performance Institute

Today’s HR systems can offer business leaders incredibly rich insights into their people, processes and performance.

In the second 20 Minute Master Class of this series, Bernard Marr, best-selling business author and enterprise performance expert, examined what HR data companies can use to inform business decisions, and how HR leaders can gain the ear of the CEO by making more strategic use of their data.

The dataficationof peopleA wealth of dataand processes

The HR function is second only to Finance in terms of data richness. But most HR organisations aren’t making strategic use of their data.

to intelligently use the vast

amounts of datathey hold for key decisions has

The opportunityfor businesses

never been clearer

Datafication Think beyond traditionalrecords

of the world

Data isn’t just confined to conventional systems of record – it’s generated by everything from the RFID sensors in security badges to company emails and the GPS in our phones. The ethical use of text, voice and movement analytics, face recognition and sentiment analysis can generate powerful insights.

Every conversation and activity leaves a digital trace. By the end of 2013, we will generate the same amount of data

EVERY TEN MINUTES as was produced between the dawn of time and 2008.

1. Ask strategic questions2. Identify the right data 3. Analyse the data4. Turn it into insight

The four stagesof alchemyfrom data to value

Technologyshould support this approachbut you should alwaysfollow a business case –

this isn’t anIT-driven exercise.

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What do you want to achieve as a business? Do you have the right people with the right skills? How do you engage them? Use data to test relationships and understand the impact of HR-related objectives.

The patterns uncovered in data very often have little to do with cause and effect but can help make reliable inferences and predictions through statistical probability, e.g. “people who bought X were also interested in Y”.

Develop a1-pagestrategy map

Causationor correlation?

Most HR Surprising real-world insights

departments are betterat the business of peoplethan using data.But you can find outa lot aboutthe human sideof everythingfrom data.

A retailer was able to quantify the effect of a percentage increase in staff engagement in terms of productivity, satisfaction and financial performance per square foot in store.

A contact centre discovered people with a criminal record perform better in call handling than those without.

A bank discovered that employees who held degrees from second or third tier universities were outperforming those from red brick institutions.

A fashion retailer looking for motivated, self-driven store advisors looks at the Klout score (measure of social media influence) of candidates and employs popular people with a large network of friends.

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HR can increaseits strategic worthby identifying the questions the

Senior LeadershipTeam needs to answer, prioritising initiatives,and engaging IT as a support function

to enablethe collection andanalysis of data.

Business case first, IT second. Useful advice when dealing with Big Data #20mmc

Data opens up huge opportunities for HR but only if they turn it into insight. #20mmc

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Companies are investing in Big Data and analytics tools to help make their HR departments more insight-driven and improve operational performance. But very few organisations have done any significant statistical analysis of employee data at all. The rest are still trying to get out from under the burden of data management and reporting challenges to deliver standard operational metrics.

Bringing datascienceto HR

Those organisations that lead the way in analytics typically generate higher returns and tend to have healthier leadership pipelines. What’s more, their HR teams are more likely to be respected by their business counterparts for their data-driven decision-making, giving them the strategic muscle to effect real business change.

While tools are important, leading companies have also invested in sound data management, focused on the right problems, and built strong relationships with finance and operational analytics teams.

To find out more about the tools and technologies that can help you readily apply these approaches to your own business:

Call: +44 (0) 8450 742990

Email: cloudinfo@successfactors.com

Carry on the conversation: LinkedIn bit.ly/20mmc Twitter #20mmc