Back to basics on analytics

Someone recently asked me “how to go about analytics” in Compensation & Benefits.

I won’t share here a list of KPIs, SLAs and other metrics to track. The internet already has plenty of that available at the push of a button.

As far as analytics is concerned, I believe that one should not necessarily use analytics that were in place at his/her previous job. Each company is different, with different challenges.

What you need to focus on is, as always, to come back to the basics.

What are the challenges that the company is facing ? How does that translate in terms of People (HR) ? And most importantly, how can we :

1 – identify the scale of the issue.

See if there really is a problem. You’d be surprised how many times I was asked to fix a problem which did not exist – because it had been wrongly identified.

For example I was once asked to reduce the attrition rate at an organisation, when our % of leavers, including the ones prompted by the company, was less than 4%…. In reality we did not have an attrition problem, but an engagement one that was affecting productivity and creativity.

2 – track progress if you implement a new plan.

After all you want to make sure that what you’re doing is producing the desired effect. Without following on results, actual vs expected, how can you see what works and what needs improvement ?

So there is no “one size fits all”. 

To give you more inspiration, read the article How Google is using People analytics to completely reinvent HR by Dr John Sullivan at TLNT. You will discover some of the ways that analytics are used in order to support people management decisions. Google is doing an impressive job in that specific arena and is an example that most companies can aspire to.

And if you’re curious, you can also  refer to one of my previous posts where I shared an interesting infographic on the role of analytics in the career of Compensation & Benefits professionals.

So what about you ? What is your method to decide which KPIs to implement and track at your organisation ? Share your thoughts in the comments below !

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Comments

  1. Bashar Juneidi says

    Loved it, Espicially google HR analytical part…. Moving away from the traditional HR ways of influence and relationships to a more solid data based decision making increases the probability of more buy-in from business

  2. Prime Article ! Best advice as you say “start from the end “: Where do you want to go? What you need to achieve. Go back to your strategy and align the metrics to it – Be and Keep relevant!
    Great Contribution – just became a follower!

    • Sandrine Bardot says

      Thanks Vidal ! Now you understand why I liked your presentation so much at the People Challenge Middle East Summit last week ๐Ÿ˜‰ !

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