Canadian HR Reporter

STRATEGIC CAPABILITY NETWORK'S PANEL of thought leaders brings decades of experience from the senior ranks of Canada's business community. eir commentary puts HR management issues into context and looks at the practical implications of proposals and policies. CANADIAN HR REPORTER May 16, 2016 EXECUTIVE SERIES 13 www.scnetwork.ca Join our professional community of Canadian HR & Organizational Leaders: • Connecting @ monthly events • Collaborating with peers • Challenging conventional thinking The Power of Human Capital CULTIVATING LEADERSHIP FOR 35 YEARS Great Leaders GROW www.scnetwork.ca Human resources analytics advance HR's value-add proposition How many times have we heard that HR does not have a seat at the executive table? As I listened to Robert Car- lyle, director of strategic workforce management at RBC, I felt if more HR leaders fully optimized modern technology tools, they would actu- ally find themselves owning the table — never mind having a seat. Carlyle described how RBC's HR business partners are leveraging and integrating people analyt- ics to transform and enhance the workforce planning process. Gone are the HR metrics of the late 70s, along with the simple analytics of the early 90s. With HR analytics, HR no longer needs to count on a sales forecast or past data to man- age workforce planning. Neither practice has the capacity to give HR the data it needs to predict future workforce needs in today's unstable marketplace. It's no longer about using work- force planning as an exercise in filling jobs; it's far more holistic than that. Offering advice in prag- matic business terms about what is going to happen tomorrow — based on predictive techniques and planning processes — is a new value-add scenario for many HR leaders. Globalization is changing to- day's workplace. Between the incessant introductions of new technology, the constant drive of competition, the destabilization of the labour market and the tur- bulent global economy, HR needs to predict, plan, design and invest in future workforce capacity. Pre-recession, the tabloid headings were all about the talent shortage in light of the pending exit of baby boomers choosing retirement options. Since 2008, however, not so many baby boom- ers are choosing the traditional re- tirement route. And now genera- tion Y is entering the workforce. With the advancement in technol- ogy and HR analytics, HR now has the capability to leverage and in- tegrate both scenarios effectively. When 70 per cent of an organi- zation's expenses are in people, a shift has to happen in how intel- lectual people capital is measured. e value of people's skills within organizations is changing, as it must. More and more routine jobs are being automated and greater attention is being paid to building top-quality customer relation- ships. People are increasingly expected to create new ideas and products, offer advice and work with progressively more complex systems. Enter the requisite role of HR. Enhancing the future workforce planning process by analyzing the trends, drivers and causes in recruitment, retention, em- ployee development and engage- ment is a fundamental value-add proposition. The key advantage with the new HR analytics Carlyle high- lights is the ability to proactively analyze, predict and reshape fu- ture skills, knowledge and abili- ties as the organization and mar- ketplace changes. RBC's goal is to improve workforce and people management decisions, to better achieve business objectives and optimize investment in people. A challenge for HR services has invariably been around quantify- ing its value to the organization. Being able to align, integrate and predict the effects of HR ser- vices on any organization's per- formance is essential for today's workplace. Using human capital analytics to generate leading indicators, models and measures allows HR services to move away from of- fering transactional services to becoming a quantifiable strategic force. Unmistakably, HR has every opportunity to "own the table and not just have a seat." Now's the time to step up, invest in and leverage modern technology tools and prove your value-add proposition. Trish Maguire is a commentator for SCNetwork on leadership in action and founding principal of Synergyx Solutions in Nobleton, Ont., focused on high-potential leadership develop- ment coaching. She has held senior leadership roles in human resources and organizational development in education, manufacturing and entre- preneurial firms. She can be reached at synergyx@sympatico.ca. Trish Maguire Leadership In Action Michael Clark Organizational Effectiveness Being able to align, integrate and predict the effects of HR services on any organization's performance is essential. Potential of analytics not yet there Analytics, the darling of our age, has the potential to be the driver of organization- al effectiveness. I say "potential" because we are not there yet, and there are serious systemic barriers to overcome. RBC's Robert Carlyle acknowl- edged as much during his infor- mative presentation. There are very good reasons to begin the journey: In an information econo- my, human intellectual capital in- creasingly drives value in organi- zations. HR analytics has emerged at the right moment. But if the big five haven't figured it out, the rest of us might want to wait until we overcome the sys- temic barriers to HR analytics and organizational effectiveness. Change resistance e heart of the matter is that HR processes and projections are based on best practices and rules of thumb. e profession has amassed a hard-earned level of expertise without analytics, and is invested in what it has achieved. But rules of thumb don't work ev- erywhere and in a post-industrial, globalized world, sometimes they no longer work. Analytics, the fodder for evi- dence-based decision-making, is challenging "best practices." Inevitably, there is push-back. As Carlyle said: "Opinion without evidence should not stand up over time." It's no wonder he repeatedly stressed that change management is vitally important to the analyt- ics journey. He recommended deploying all the tricks familiar to HR: executive buy-in, early wins, education, infrastructure investment, breaking down silos and promoting a systems per- spective. And, well, how often have your disruptive-technology change-management initiatives succeeded? Management processes Which brings us to the foundation of any successful change initiative: Clarity of accountability and au- thority, or what Carlyle referred to as management "processes" and "routines." Carlyle referred to success with HR analytics being connected to "improved decision- making." is is clarity around who is accountable for what, with what and who, in which circum- stances, how often. is will be the "heavy lifting" of HR analytics: Using role clar- ity to break down silos within HR and across functions to ensure data and people are connected. To ensure, at the least, data re- porting standards (accuracy and consistency) are employed, that an enterprise-wide common language is used to describe the workforce, and data reporting "on an industrial scale" is the way we do business. e right talent Carlyle's most cogent insight was that data is not an insight: "It's just a fact." ere is a misconception that data will tell you everything, whereas the gold in HR analytics is in the context of the data: Un- derstanding HR and understand- ing the needs of the business, combined with insight. Where is the talent to do all that? e role looks like an HR business partner with an execu- tive MBA who has a deft hand at pattern recognition and challeng- ing sacred cows. As Carlyle said, "If you know someone who could fill the role, I'll hire them". HR analytics, like all analytics, is the future. But the journey will be rocky until we overcome resis- tance, structurally embed the pro- cesses and build the talent. Michael Clark is director of business development at Forrest & Company. Forrest is an organizational trans- formation firm, with over 25 years experience in developing the organi- zational and leadership capacity in organizations. He stressed that change management is vitally important to the analytics journey.

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