Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER AUGUST 2019 16 FEATURES HR METRICS There's strength in numbers Moving people analytics out of the HR silo to include corporate partners By Tony Bennett P eople analytics is now an important human re- sources sub-discipline alongside labour relations, com- pensation and employee devel- opment. is is the HR work that helps front-line and senior lead- ers make evidence-informed people decisions. While all organizational suc- cess comes through its people, organizations are integrated or- ganisms and leaders also require the financial, operational and systemic tools to bring about this success. HR cannot do this on its own. An integrated approach to analytics is essential. Improving the skills, knowl- edge, competencies and motiva- tions of employees is a major con- tributor to organizational success. In the private sector, investing in human capital through practices such as proactive safety programs and strategic workforce planning can be leading indicators of finan- cial performance, according to the 2008 study "Toward a Human Capital Measurement Methodol- ogy" in the journal Advances in Developing Human Resources. In the public sector, investing in people has seen improvements in employee engagement lead to pos- itive outcomes in student grades and patient care, according to the 2018 study "Work engagement supports nurse workforce stability and quality of care: Nursing team- level analysis in psychiatric hospi- tals" in the Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. Harnessing knowledge about employees is essential. And good HR analytics is about storytelling. e best human capital data is ineffective unless it drives discus- sion and action. HR can bring the art of sto- rytelling to ignite the emotion needed to drive action, according to the 2015 study "Data‐driven storytelling: e missing link in HR data analytics" in employment relations. Numbers are not engaging — change comes when the stories told by the numbers emotionally engage leaders. Leaders need to know what is broken (through performance reporting) and they need more than experiential evidence. ey need to know what is working and what is not, and they need to know the evidentiary foundation on which they can base decisions. HR, through an evidence-in- formed approach, can lead lead- ers to action. Data and knowledge is not enough. It is dangerous to think people analytics is the only tool leaders have to build suc- cess. Organizations are complex, interdependent organisms. And the decisions leaders make to improve their workforce are not made in isolation. Financial decisions affect peo- ple decisions. Evidence-influenced approaches — people analytics in- cluded — are affected by IT sys- tems and databases. Operational goals affect the workforce. People decisions affect all of these. An integrated approach to organiza- tional analytics is necessary. ere is an human resources saying that there is only one front- line leader at the end of the funnel. at leader lives at the bottom of a funnel of operational and corpo- rate information, programs and demands and is the single touch- point on which organizational success depends. is front-line leader makes de- cisions about people, dollars, cap- ital and operations — and never in isolation. erefore, the evidence through which they make their decisions should not be provided in an isolated, piecemeal manner. To best support the front-line leader, HR and its corporate part- ners (including finance, IT, cor- porate planning and purchasing) need to work together. is can involve the following: Build relationships: Without HR and its corporate partners working together, the front-line leader will receive a bunch of numbers from HR, finance and others that are at best confusing or at worse contradictory. For example, finance data could show overtime costs are increasing while HR tells the leader that the ratio of overtime to worked hours is decreasing. Both could be right, but without the combined context, the front- line leader can be confused and ignore both stories. If HR and fi- nance shared data and provided an integrated story, the front- line leader now has the evidence needed to make change. Set up working groups: Talk to each other. Ideally, this would be a matter of course. But until the relationship is strong enough, set up monthly or quarterly meetings to share and discuss the analysis — including what story should be told to leaders. Build tools: Once HR and others supporting the front-line leader decide what integrated evidence should be provided, build a common language and definitions. An FTE to HR (an assigned or expected portion of a full-time position the employee works) can mean something different in finance (the total worked hours as a ratio of expected annual hours). Supporting quarterly reports or dashboards should be available at the same time to leaders. Build storytellers: Expect and build HR to be the people's story- teller. HR professionals usually do not go into HR because they are number people; but they can be storytellers. ere's a ways to go before HR can provide leaders with the inte- grated people story, but the foun- dation is being laid. HR needs to keep building the analytic literacy and the relationships to support leaders this way because the lead- ers are getting it — they are asking the right questions, and they are asking for the story: the diagno- sis, the prognosis, the prescription and the treatment. If HR doesn't become a leader, it will be left behind. Organizations can build value through the effective, efficient and impactful attraction, retention, engagement and development of the workforce. To achieve this, employers can- not be content with simply mea- suring human capital. To see real returns on invest- ments, organizations should be using a full continuum of organi- zational evidence. is creates an analytics cul- ture that uses strong evidence- based methodologies, according to e ROI of Human Capital: Measuring the Economic Value of Employee Performance by Jac Fitz- enz, and provides the information organizations need to know about what their workforce was, is and needs to become. Human resources needs to position itself as the enabler and champion of a fully integrated human capital continuum. To do this, human resources needs to understand how to use people analytics and the analytics of its partners effectively, efficiently and impactfully. If human resources does not take the lead role in integrated analytics, it becomes relegated to a transactional, advisory ad- ministrative function — not the strategic organizational leader it desires to be. Tony Bennett is director of HR analyt- ics and planning at Alberta Health Services in Edmonton. He can be reached at tony.bennett@alberta healthservices.ca. HR News at Your Fingertips Sign up for the Canadian HR Newswire today for free and enjoy great content from the publishers of Canadian HR Reporter. THE LATEST NEWS Stay on top of essential late-breaking HR news and developments. THE BEST COMMENTARY Access trusted analysis and opinion on the cases and changes that are shaping the HR landscape. 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