Analytics Culture: The Secret to Success

One reason Harrah’s chose to capture
wellness metrics is because its
leadership team understands that
happy, healthy employees provide
better customer service. Gathering
this data provides insights on revenue
growth as well as on health insurance
and sick days. It is an example of the
value of selecting the right metrics,
however seemingly unrelated, to
help make decisions that support the
corporate strategy.
Another use of talent analytics is to
retain high-performing employees.
Google has placed sufficient strategic
importance to talent retention that
its people analytics function has a
staff of 30 researchers, analysts, and
consultants. Among the tools that this
function has provided Google is a list
of eight managerial behaviors that
help them inspire and develop their
employees.
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As Laszlo Bock, Google’s VP of
people operations, says, “It’s not the
company-provided lunch that keeps
people here. Googlers tell us that
there are three reasons they stay: the
mission, the quality of the people, and
the chance to build the skill set of a
better leader or entrepreneur. And all
our analytics are built around these
reasons.” 13
An analytics culture is necessary
to drive transformative change,
and deliver on the full potential
of your analytics investments. A
prerequisite for high performance
is being organizationally ready to
make faster, smarter decisions and to
drive cross-departmental ownership
of the implementation of those
decisions. While there are multiple
facets involved in organizational
effectiveness, getting the right leaders
in place, breaking down silos, fostering
the necessary culture and developing
your talent are good places to start.