In 2020, I’m surprised that traditionally-‘soft-skills’ focused professions like HR or marketing are still debating the merits of Data Analytics in their fields. If there’s one thing the current economic downturn has shown, it’s the need to expand technology and data literacy to as many workers, in as many roles, as possible. And yet, I get the sense I’m not necessarily preaching to the choir when I’m speaking to my peers about the importance of upskilling for themselves.
Many of the HR leaders I know (myself included) are the biggest employee advocates for skills training but when it comes time for us to invest in our own professional growth, we stay in a comfort zone which emphasizes programs heavy on the intrapersonal and light on the numeracy (How to Mediate Conflicts anyone?). I’m not suggesting these competencies aren’t important; merely that in the buffet of training and development – it’s just as important for HR to expand our own horizons, as it is for us to champion the concept.
So beyond being one of the top HR trends we’ll see in 2020; why is understanding analytics relevant for your current people programming? Below are just a couple of examples of how research methodology, data integrity, and visualization can boost the effectiveness of either buy-in or rollout to existing projects.
Two Areas to Apply People Analytics Right Now
1. Employee Well-Being
This year more than ever we’ve seen a shift in business to prioritize the mental and physical well-being of our workforces. The pandemic and financial crisis have culminated in many employees feeling overwhelmed, isolated, and struggling to fend off burnout. While most organizations are already implementing satisfaction surveys, few are organizing this qualitative/quantitative data efficiently and even fewer are able to present summarized findings in a cohesive way that compels targeted suggestions like increased EAP spending. With the right dashboards, and a more robust sampling methodology (i.e. pulse check-ins), individual feedback can be anonymized so that it paints a picture of specific pain points (leading indicator) instead of generalized sentiments (lagging indicators).
2. Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
For too long D&I initiatives have acted as a catchall for social responsibility and employer branding with little emphasis on diagnosing the issues or enacting changes that align with a holistic analysis of social inequality. That was until 2020 – the BLM is a renewed call for self-education that puts data and a systematic approach at its forefront. HR leaders seriously looking inwards at their hiring, compensation and other policies need to commit to auditing current practices, benchmarking against peers and reflecting on what steps are authentic to their values. For example as a woman of colour, I believe the debate around quotas should truly be an informed debate, not a given. Without the proper review of internal biases, partnership let alone allyship comes off as empty tokenism. For more info on what stage your organization may be in when it comes to diversity visit the HR Tech Group’s D&I resource hub.
So where should you start if you’re an HR professional looking to improve your practical knowledge of statistics, Excel, and data presentation? One example is Lighthouse Labs will be launching our “Data Analytics for HR – 101” course in partnership with the CPHR’s BC and Yukon chapter on Nov. 25. This customized 12-hour course covers HR-specific cases and datasets for participants to work with. After taking the course, you’ll be able to sort, analyze, and visualize data using Tableau and Microsoft Excel’s advanced functions.
About the Author
Van Le is the Director of HR for Canadian Private Career College Lighthouse Labs