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People analytics has seen a staggering growth in sophistication over the past few years. We now understand better than ever how HR and people data can drive business success.
A Deloitte study found over 70% of organizations use people analytics to improve performance; there is more widely publicized thought leadership and analysis; and nearly every 2024 HR prediction article included some reference to the power of people data.
And yet, in practice, many organizations are struggling. CrunchHR’s 2024 report found that whilst 48% of surveyed HR professionals believe their organization excels at generating and gathering people data, only 22% believe their organizations are effectively utilizing People Analytics.
Whether your company is one of the 22% or not, creating a people analytics roadmap can help put your people analytics team on the right path.
A roadmap offers a guide to careful planning, prioritization, execution, and iteration, balancing immediate fixes with long-term growth in value.
Conduct an initial audit assessment
Before diving into any task, project, or transformation initiative, audit and assess the maturity of your people analytics function.
Is it a dwindling, non-existent pipe dream? Or has your organization already deployed tools and made structural changes to ensure people analytics delivers meaningful business value?
Yuan Hou, Director and Head of People Analytics, Hubspot, says a useful barometer is how the team is perceived by other business leaders.
“If you are only brought on at the end of a project cycle to provide reporting, or justify a decision that's already been made, it's nice to be included but your ability to truly make an impact is limited,” he explains. “Ask, how has your people analytics team been empowered to be not a support function but a true strategic partner with the rest of HR and the business at large?”
There are various frameworks available to help guide the assessment process. PwC, for example, offers a five-level rating system, from ‘pre-foundational’ to ‘leading’ in its People Analytics Maturity Assessment Framework. By scoring your company on criteria under strategy, technology, people, and data, you can define current capabilities and processes.
This should provide a clear indication of skills gaps, hiring needs, process improvements, required investment, and transformation initiatives to move your organization forward, wherever your maturity rating lands.
A vital part of this process is meeting with core stakeholders. This might range from data science teams who provide much of the supporting infrastructure and tools for analysis, to people managers who seek insights on their team members that can help guide performance management conversations.
Quickly you will get to grips with what practices and processes are broken, particularly where technology or skills are missing.
Prioritize short, medium, and long-term projects
A thorough audit should reveal both the current and desired state of people analytics within your organization.
Projects to shift towards the latter can then be broken down into short, medium, and long-term priorities.
Short-term projects can both address major issues that require immediate attention and low-hanging fruit that can create a clear business case for greater investment and buy-in for longer-term transformations.
This could range from setting up rudimentary dashboards in organizations where people analytics is nascent, to bridging small but fundamental skill gaps in organizations where managers are well-versed in decision-making.
Medium-term and long-term projects require deeper planning, buy-in from a range of stakeholders, and in many cases, financial investment. If projects lack buy-in or investment, return your audit of the current and desired state of people analytics. Is there a clear understanding of how gaps in your people analytics program could improve people or business-level outcomes?
Map out clear transformation paths for any projects, including specific timing and metrics or reporting that will indicate success, failure, or areas for improvement.
Hou argues that people analytics leaders can prioritize based on impact. “Short-term projects for C-Suite build a lot of brand equity so they should be prioritized,” he begins. “But most companies have people analytics teams not because it's a strategic imperative, but because most of their peer organizations have one.
This mimetic behavior means people analytics teams must balance short-term projects with long-term value.
“It's vital for a leader of a PA team to think longer-term and deliver actual measurable ROI to the business. It’s important to be very selective on your short to medium-term projects so that there is time to do the work to truly demonstrate the power and tangible return of an insights-driven organization.”
Execute, monitor, iterate!
Improving the maturity of your people analytics function and delivering on short, medium, and long-term projects is an iterative journey.
As with all transformation initiatives, constant monitoring and re-calibration can help keep you focused on your roadmap or adjust its course.
A mature people analytics function is embedded in all business decision-making. It requires a sophisticated team structure and coordination with data science units, governance and compliance leaders, and people managers, to name a few.
This is a fundamental shift to the operating model of many HR functions. Creating a detailed but agile roadmap can help HR prioritize, execute, and adjust people analytics projects to become an increasingly valuable asset to any organization.
Please let us know in the comments – what’s on your people analytics roadmap for 2024?
