Numbers

HR Tells The Strategic Story

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Once upon a time the Human Resources role had little to do with numbers, data, and analytics. The numbers used to be in the purview of the organizational finance function. Data analysis, in its early stages, may have been linked to finance, but was usually found in the Information Technology department. The Human Resources (HR) function was associated with making sure people entered and exited the organization based on the needs of other business units. As these other functions were presumed to have control over numbers and data, the HR role was not seen the active driver for organizational strategy.

This story has changed.

According to a recent global research project comparing past and present use of data and analytics in organizations, HR is now the ‘most analytics function in business.’

Click here to read the results of the global research project and HR’s role.

As noted in the results, HR respondents outpace those from the finance areas in the use of artificial intelligence, predictive, and prescriptive analytics. These areas are used to track, monitor, and forecast key HR strategic planning elements such as supply and demand for human capital, succession planning, change management, downsizing, and restructuring. All of these are the elements of our studies and provide the focus for the strategic role of HR within any organization.

The tools provided through the use of artificial intelligence, including predictive and prescriptive analytics, are rightly placed in the realm of the HR function. Through the use of analytics, HR is both the transformational agent for, and the storyteller of, the strategic organizational plan. It is HR’s role to collect and control data, translate that data into information and use that information to shape and tell the organizational story.

That story is the tale of where the organization was, where it is and where it is going, as told through the power of analytics and HR.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How does predictive analytics link to the forecasting of HR supply and demand?
  2. Why is it important for the HR and the Finance function to work collaboratively when analyzing workforce data?
  3. How can HR use predictive analytics to shape a pro-active succession planning model?
  4. What is the difference in predictive and prescriptive analytics? How can each be used for HR planning?

Putting Analytics First

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designer491 /Shutterstock

There are two components in the structure of the world of human resources. The first component is defined by the word ‘human’. The second component is defined by the word ‘resources’. The work we do as human resources practitioners is to manage the combination of both the human and the resource elements in any organization. Our job is to analyze and problem solve when that combination of both human and resource capacities become tangled in problematic inefficiencies or blockages that prohibit organizational decision making and growth.

There is an ever-increasing expectation that the HR practitioner will be the decision making problem solver. In order to do this, the HR practitioner must have the capacity to use facts and data to begin an analysis before even starting to solve a particular problem. Unfortunately, for many HR practitioners, the skills and techniques needed to enter into an analytical problem solving methodology are still in development.

As outlined in a recent article published by Queen’s IRC, the human resources practitioner must take concrete data-driven steps to analyze a problem before jumping to a resolution which may provide misleading results.

Click here to read the article

The author identifies three critical elements that lead to poor problem solving analysis on the part of the HR practitioner. To counter balance each of these, it is clear that in the study of human resource management, we develop expertise in the areas of problem definition, capacity for understanding numbers, and defining the depth and breadth of data to be used in order to facilitate organizational decisions.

It is interesting to note that not one of these three elements refers to the human side of the human resources equation. All three elements are focused on the resource side. What we must keep in mind is that the provision of expertise and support through the resources side allows for the human part of the equation to make data based decisions based on sound resource practices.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Based on the article, what steps will you implement, as the HR practitioner, in order to ensure the integrity of a data based project?
  2. What are the perceived ‘weaknesses’ that face the HR practitioner when dealing with data based decision making?
  3. How can the HR practitioner control the amount and type of data that organizations use for decision making?