You know how important employees are to the success of your organization. Your executive team does, too (kind of).

As an HR leader, you get people strategy, and you also know that analytics tells a story that everyone needs to hear. But how do you take your leadership team from “hearing” to understanding?

First, don’t collect data for the sake of having data.

It’s only valuable if you’re looking at the data in a way that you intend to make a positive impact on the company and/or the people. Data collection efforts need to be action-oriented. If you aren't clear on how a data set will inform future decisions, then it may not be worth gathering in the first place.

Second, work with your IT team.

Access to data is not optional if you want to use people analytics. If you work with them there may be an easier way for them to get your information. They may need to make some coding changes to get you the perfect report, but it’s much better to work with them than to be dissatisfied with your current access.

Third, get early buy-in.

Any time you want to initiate a change in your organization, you need an ally that agrees with your idea. Find someone in your personal employee network who values people analytics, engagement, and morale. Work with them, get their insights and come up with the best approach together. That person will help you convince others.

Lastly, you want insights and analysis, not numbers.

Numbers on a screen don’t do much for most people. You need to analyze those numbers to reveal a new perspective on the challenges at hand. Data visualization and dashboarding can go a long way to building better understanding with executives. Don’t just give them the numbers and expect them to see what you do.

Let’s go over an example. Let’s say that it seems you have a lot of people calling or reporting off. You have an attendance report that you can look at and easily determine, yes, that’s a lot of people. But what good does that do you?

What you want to do is analyze it over various time frames, like a year, maybe two years? What time of year is it? Do people usually miss more work this time of year? Maybe it’s a holiday. Or is it your busy season where you have employees scheduled for more days and longer hours? Perhaps they are burnt out.

Or are the call offs centralized to one department? You should look at other metrics to evaluate the possible effects of morale and engagement in that department.

Does the data seem to be split by any demographic? Is there an overwhelming amount of call offs from women instead of men; younger employees instead of older? Or is there a correlation between minorities and call offs? Answers to these questions could tell a very different story about what your situation is.

If you find out and act on it quickly, you could potentially prevent a serious problem for the organization. You need to use examples such as this to showcase the value of people analytics to your executive team.

Let them know that this information can be used to solve and prevent problems. Feel free to get in touch with us to learn how Aspirant can help you achieve your organizational goals.

How Aspirant Can Help

Aspirant's Organizational Effectiveness experts can help your team improve its ability to substantiate initiatives and track performance with data analytics. Use the form below to schedule a casual discussion about how we can better position your company for success.

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