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Decisions, decisions.
In today’s working world, they crop up every day, every hour, and every meeting.
I’m not talking about deciding what outfit to wear to the office (just how casual can I go with smart casual?) or even whether to ditch your disappointing Tupperware of leftovers for a slightly more life-affirming lunch, but the endless stream of critical moments that add up to determine individual, team, and company success —or failure.
Increasingly, organisations recognise that these strategic decisions, big or small, internal or external, short-term or long-term, must factor in the context of a company’s most important resource: its people.
But although people costs account for a huge proportion of a company’s profit and loss and people capabilities have an undeniable impact on the execution and delivery of business goals, most companies aren’t using people data to its full potential.
According to a 2024 survey from Ciphr, just 32% of HR professionals say that their organisation fully utilises its people data to make evidence-based, strategic decisions.
With over two-thirds of HR teams failing to assist their businesses by guiding employees, managers, and leaders with people data relevant to their decision-making, the biggest barriers to people analytics adoption must be tackled.
If a people analytics team cannot produce reliable insights then the business will start to question their value
Barrier the first: Poor data quality (GIGO)
If data analytics were a religion, ‘Garbage in, Garbage out’ (GIGO) would no doubt be the mantra etched above the entrance to its place of worship.
This analyst’s adage holds that if poor quality people data is used in analytical processes, poor decisions will be made as a result. For large-scale employers who have fully-fledged analytics teams at their disposal, it shouldn’t be too complicated to continually assess the quality of people data and make sure it is fit for purpose. HR professionals working at these organisations likely make up a significant share of the aforementioned 32% using people data to make informed business strategy decisions.
