Five reasons to get better at data-driven HR

Let's start with a fact: Organisations with a strong people analytics culture have stronger performance than competitors.

That's why growing your data skills should be a top priority for you and your HR team. We'll explain why.

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1. It increases HR’s impact

“Picture this. A world where you can accurately and intelligently predict human behaviour within your workforce.

Just think about how valuable this unknown information would be. Can you envision the potential strategic business growth that would be enjoyed by transparently collecting, understanding, and using this data, to impact the organisation and its employees in a positive and meaningful way?”.

That's what Lee Watts, Head of People Operations at Kurtosys said. Collecting, analysing, and acting on insights from your people empowers you to solve your hardest challenges and drive true change. And that's something Lee and his team really have accomplished... within just 10 months. Thanks to the right data, they implemented the technology they needed and...
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• Increased eNPS from 9 to 23

• Reduced attrition by 10%

• Increased net headcount growth by 6%

• Achieved consistent active employee engagement at 90%+

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Now let's look at their results again, but compare it to the average results.

• Employee engagement around the world is only 21%.

• Attrition is increasing; 26% for small organizations and 53% for large organizations

• Global talent shortages hit a 16-year high in 2022, with 3 in 4 employers struggling to find the talent they need to fulfil headcount targets.

In almost every organisation, engagement, stress and burnout, attrition, skills shortages, and rising recruitment costs are major problems. But Kurtosys managed to beat the trend.

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2. It boosts HR’s credibility and influence

Strong HR leadership is what makes the most successful companies. Many organisations however still view HR as a reactive, back-office function. That's why building your data and analytics muscle really can help you to change your employees' perceptions, and create more trust.  

“If you analyse functions like finance, supply chain, CRM, IT, and marketing you will find common key drivers of success. They include data-driven analytical decision-making, having everything digital and connected, showing in dollars how their actions directly impact strategic business goals, continuous improvement measures and being forward-looking.”

That's what international HR thought-leader Dr. John Sullivan writes. And we couldn't agree more - because better people data empowers your team to make data-driven, evidence-based decisions based on what’s really happening in your organisation today and tomorrow. The right platform interprets all the data. You make credible, effective decisions based on the trends and challenges the system has found for you.

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3. It develops better managers

Developing better managers is one of the most powerful actions an organisation can take to improve revenue, increase engagement, retention, productivity and workforce efficiency. That’s why a 1% increase in effective leadership drives a 53.6% increase in organisational performance. Wow! 

But manager performance often falls short, even though strengthening leadership is a major priority for HR leaders. In our latest report we've found that lack of trust is the main reason to shy employees decides to wave goodbye.

The trick is to let your managers use people data. Not only will they get a bigger understanding of their employees' well-being, they'll also find challenges and trends that really makes the big difference. The best part? You don’t need to be a data scientist to work with data. The best tools use simple visualisations to showcase for example your team's productivity and performance. Have a look for yourself!

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4. It guides smarter resource decisions

Data-driven HR is like switching the lights on. You can suddenly see what’s really happening in your organisation, such as:

• Which teams and departments drive the most impact for the business?

• Which people problems are coming up and how best to solve them?

• Which managers might need more support?
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Armed with these insights, you can make smarter decisions about your HR initiatives. A great example of this is The Montcalm London Hotels that quickly was able to make informed decisions and policy changes about their employee wellbeing and employee-first initiatives. The result? A new benefit programme and mental health workshops mainly requested by their Gen Z employees.

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5. It empowers agility and innovation

People data helps you proactively build a culture that hire, engage, and retain the right people. In our recent webinar, Lee shares his team’s data-driven process for designing and building the optimum culture to deliver value as a business, hinging on better employee experience data.

“How do we quantify passion? How do we measure it? How do we check we’re hiring, engaging, and retaining people in service of that mission? Rich people data creates a single source of truth about something that’s traditionally really hard to measure, so you can attribute dollar values and create true behaviour change”.

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People data is easier than you think

People analytics is often seen as a mystery. But working with data don't have to be so complicated. A good platform should make data-driven HR simple, by automatically collecting data about your people and visualising insights in clear, impactful dashboards so you can make positive changes.

Watch our two-minute demo video to learn more about Winningtemp.‍‍