the new hr

PEOPLE
Analytics
It requires maintaining
a fine balance between
data analysis skills
and the knowledge of
human behaviour.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jyoti Pant is
Faculty - HR at
Welingkar Institute
of Management
Development and
Research.
These will enable the recruitment and selection
team, compensation and benefits department,
learning and development function, employee
relations executive’s organisations to find solutions
to some critical people issues.
In the words of Peter Cappelli, HR leaders need
to “set the agenda rather than waiting for the CEO
to tell them what to do”. HR leaders must seek
excellence in every people process, from recruiting
to performance management to exits. With the aid
of people analytics, the impact of HR processes on
business outcomes like ROI and profitability can
be calculated, and will give more credibility to the
words the CHROs; CEOs will seek their strategic
inputs, and HR will transform
into a true business partner in
the growth and profitability of
an organisation.
People analytics and a caution
for its mass appeal
However, like other management
fads, people analytics does not
present itself as a panacea for
all woes—it must not be blindly implemented
because everyone else is doing it. People analytics
is a tool that can be leveraged to the advantage
of the business in the long run and also against
the competitors.
There are some critical factors that will
determine the role people analytics will play in
an organisation. Statistical tools and techniques
can only process data and give results. But it is
the sound knowledge of HR professionals which
will enable data to be read and examined in the
right perspective and context. An HR manager’s
ability to ask quality questions and collect the right
employee data, coupled with the use of right tools,
has enabled HR professionals in IBM, HP, Wipro,
Accenture, Infosys, 3M, and Towers Watson to
leverage the true power of people analytics.
People analytics and the skills needed
Many HR aspirants have questions in mind
whether the growing popularity of people analytics
requires HR executives and managers to develop
statistics and math skills. This may be difficult
considering that many HR professionals develop
affinity with the discipline due to their dislike
for quantitative subjects. Will they need to gain
mastery over numbers and move away from being a
people’s person?
Well the answer is both ‘yes’ and ‘no’. As rightly
mentioned by Cappelli, HR leaders need to either
deepen their own knowledge of analytics or partner
with those who are experts in order to ‘help
companies make sense of all their employee data
and get the most from their human capital’. 2 More
than the need to learn statistical tools and packages,
HR professionals need to cultivate a mind which
can see through data, see patterns in numbers,
identify trends, and make sense of it. However, they
must also be able to go beyond data and empathise
with the employees. They must be able to look at
numbers, but keep in mind that employees affected
by the decisions are all human beings. It requires
maintaining a fine balance between data analysis
skills and the knowledge of human behaviour.
This will ensure that the orientation of the HR
function will not get reduced to a mere number
game. Lastly, with data-backed decision-making,
HR professionals need to learn the art of marketing
themselves before the top leadership. Without
this, even the best of people analytics cannot be
implemented in an organisation.
Successful HR professionals of the future
will need a combination of five skill sets: sound
knowledge of business, deep HR domain
knowledge, empathy, ability to market themselves,
and comfort working with numbers and data. This
will enable HR managers help their organisation’s
top management and leadership take a long-term
sustainable view as opposed to a short-term opinion
based on immediate data and facts. Armed with
these five weapons, future HR professionals will not
merely survive, but also thrive in a VUCA world.
1. Charan, Ram. It’s time to split HR. Harvard Business Review.
July-Aug 2014.
2. Mcilvaine, Andrew. It’s time to Blow up HR. June 25, 2015.
http://blog.hreonline.com/2015/06/25/hbr-its-time-to-blow-up-hr/
Fitz-enz Jac and Mattox, John II. 'Predictive Analytics for Human
Resources', John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
18 INDIAN MANAGEMENT NOVEMBER 2015