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During the breakfast the promise was to improve your
business performance by 5% through people data. Sounds
simple enough, but why are we not already doing it?
“PEOPLE DATA” – IT CAN
FEEL LIKE OVERLOAD…
The amount of data we have is
daunting. We have data coming out
of our ears due to the rise in mobile
devices and technology advances,
but we just don’t know how to use it.
However through harnessing this data
and knowing what to do with it, we are
opening up a potential gold mine. In
fact, organisations that are competing
on analytics substantially out perform
their peers, with some studies showing
a 220% difference!
…WHEREAS, IN ACTUAL
FACT, IT’S YOUR OWN
GOLD MINE…
It is often overlooked, however it is
our data about people that has some
of the best opportunities for potential
savings and can deliver some of
the greatest impacts in business
performance improvement. People
costs make up about half the costs
of your organisation so can be some
of the biggest sources of value on
your balance sheet. We are already
seeing pioneering companies proving
exceptional performance through
workforce analytics – so why are we
not all jumping on board?
The reason is simple, the perceived
obstacles around people being hard
to measure, the ethical concerns
of ‘measuring people’ and no one
knowing whose job it actually is –
are real barriers for leaders.
…WHERE THE RETURNS
CAN BE SPECTACULAR
Workforce analytics can deliver a truly
spectacular return on investment if
done right. With our people data, it
is important to note that what gets
measured, gets managed. By being
able to measure something you can
precisely quantify how it contributes
to business performance and
identify quick wins and longer term
improvement plans – plus it gives
you a clear benchmark to show your
trajectory. Your people data holds the
key to business improvement!
FIRST: BE CLEAR ON
YOUR BUSINESS GOALS
But before ploughing into your data,
you must confirm what’s the most
important business outcome for you
to deliver. Next you need to identify the
relationships between the people and
the desired business outcome. Most
corporate targets are a combination of
cost, growth and change. So you need
to think about how your people relate
to those 3 buckets in order to identify
the most compelling interventions you
can deliver.
THEN: GET CLARITY AND
CONTROL AS…
What we are seeing time and time
again is that clarity and control of
people cost is lacking. Despite people
being typically half of business costs,
this spend is poorly understood. So it is
about gaining control of this by having
visible segmentation of your spend on
people, then identifying the range and
scale of savings opportunities.
…YOU PUT WORKFORCE
ANALYTICS INTO
PRACTICE
For example, just think of the amount
you spend on absence management.
The amount of money that it costs for
desks to lie empty, the impact on those
workers who are long term absentees,
and the effect on morale for the non-
absent employees can be measured
in the millions for many companies.
There are simple management steps
that can be taken and programmes
that can be put in place to reduce this.
This is just one lever of people costs
we can look at; GarnerHaines have
built workforce analytics from the ‘best
of the best’ of what has worked for
over 50 major organisations across
industries. They push people data
– literally overnight – through their
algorithms to present an organisation’s
personal ‘top 10 opportunities’
associated with each cost, growth and
change. So your starting point is ‘the
best of the best’, and your opportunity
is to be ‘even better’.
THE RESULTS – SEEING
IS BELIEVING!
Identifying improvement opportunities
of 10-25% are very common when
looking at people costs in your
business. Getting clarity, capability
and control over your people data
enables leaders to take control of
their business, reduce risk and better
manage their growth. It’s not about
just improving your costs though – it’s
about a better understanding of your
data and your people.
Interested?
Contact Rob Hoyle
[email protected]
CIO Magazine Autumn 2015 Issue
29