Power of People, The

Learn from Today's Most Successful Workforce Analytics Leaders Transforming the immense potential of workforce analytics into reality isn't easy. Pioneering practitioners have learned crucial lessons that can help you succeed. The Power of People shares their journeys-and their indispensable insights. Drawing on incisive case studies and vignettes, three experts help you bring purpose and clarity to any workforce analytics project, with robust research design and analysis to get reliable insights. They reveal where to start, where to find stakeholder support, and how to earn "quick wins" to build upon. You'll learn how to sustain success through best-practice data management, technology usage, partnering, and skill building. Finally, you'll discover how to earn even more value by establishing an analytical mindset throughout HR, and building two key skills: storytelling and visualization. The Power of People will be invaluable to HR executives establishing or leading analytics functions; HR professionals planning analytics projects; and any business executive who wants more value from HR.

Foreword by John Boudreau xv About the Authors xix Interviewees xxi Vignettes xxv Preface xxvii PART I: UNDERSTANDING THE FUNDAMENTALS 1 Chapter 1 Why Workforce Analytics? 3 Adoption of Analytics 4 HR's Contribution to Business Value 4 The Changing Nature of HR 7 The Future of Work 11 Summary 13 Chapter 2 What's in a Name? 15 Focus of the Function 16 Activities of the Function 17 A Name Fit for the Future 18 Summary 18 Chapter 3 The Workforce Analytics Leader 19 Reporting to the Chief Human Resources Officer 20 Responsibilities of the Workforce Analytics Leader 20 Business Acumen 22 Leadership Attributes 23 Summary 26 Chapter 4 Purposeful Analytics 27 A Model for Purposeful Analytics 28 Project Sponsors 38 Why Do Analytics Projects Fail? 40 Summary 42 Chapter 5 Basics of Data Analysis 43 Research Design 44 Objectives of Analysis 47 Unstructured Data 52 Traditional Statistics versus Machine Learning 53 Social Consequences of Algorithms 54 More on Design and Analysis 56 Summary 56 Chapter 6 Case Studies 57 Eight-Step Methodology 58 Case Study: Improving Careers Through Retention Analytics at Nielsen 59 Case Study: From Employee Engagement to Profitability at ISS Group 65 Case Study: Growing Sales Using Workforce Analytics at Rentokil Initial 71 Case Study: Increasing Value to the Taxpayer at the Metropolitan Police 76 Case Study: Predictive Analytics Improves Employee Well-Being at Westpac 80 Summary 83 PART II: GETTING STARTED 85Chapter 7 Set Your Direction 87 You Have the Job! Now What? 88 Listening to Prospective Project Sponsors 90 The Seven Forces of Demand 91 Agreeing on the Scope of Analytics 95 Developing a Vision and Mission Statement 95 Summary 97 Chapter 8 Engage with Stakeholders 99 Who Are Stakeholders? 100 Stakeholders Served 101 Stakeholders Depended Upon 106 Stakeholders Impacted 113 Working Effectively with Stakeholders 118 Summary 121 Chapter 9 Get a Quick Win 123 Identifying Potential Projects 125 Complexity-Impact Matrix 125 Assessing Complexity and Impact 129 Summary 133 PART III: BUILDING YOUR CAPABILITY 135Chapter 10 Know Your Data 137 A Pragmatic View of Data 138 Solving Data Quality Challenges 138 Data Types and Sources 147 Data Governance 152 Remember the Basics 152 Summary 155 Chapter 11 Know Your Technology 157 Starting with Vision and Mission 158 Components of Workforce Analytics Technology 159 On-Premise Versus Cloud 164 Technology Vendor Relationships 165 Summary 167 Chapter 12 Build the Analytics Team 169 Six Skills for Success 170 Configuring Team Roles 181 Remember the Fundamentals! 184 Summary 185 Chapter 13 Partner for Skills 187 Why Consider Partners? 188 Options for Building the Team 188 Choosing Among the Options 197 Summary 200 Chapter 14 Establish an Operating Model 203 Defining Your Operating Model 204 Strategy 205 Governance 205 Implementation 212 Accountability 221 Summary 224 PART IV: ESTABLISHING AN ANALYTICS CULTURE 225Chapter 15 Enable Analytical Thinking 227 Perspectives of Analytics in HR 228 The Translator Role 234 The Importance of Leadership 236 Summary 237 Chapter 16 Overcome Resistance 239 Resistance to Workforce Analytics 240 Stakeholder Skepticism 240 Financial Frugality 245 HR Hesitancy 246 Summary 252 Chapter 17 Communicate with Storytelling and Visualization 253 What Is Storytelling? 254 Effective Visualization 263 Knowing Your Audience 269 Keeping It Simple 273 Summary 275 Chapter 18 The Road Ahead 277 Analytics Provides New Opportunities for HR 278 Emerging Data Sources 278 Considering New Data Sources 280 Evolving Technology 282 The Workforce Analytics Function 283 Summary 286 Glossary 287References 295Index 301