Why you should consider joining a people analytics peer group.
Earlier this year i joined one of The Learning Forum's workforce analytics peer groups and i wanted to share my experience in attendence and why i...
HR reporting and analytics are intertwined. Both are necessary for workforce management, people analytics projects, and HR processes. Find out why.
Only humans would bother inventing something as complex as the concept of species. Attempting to organize every living thing around us into distinct buckets has been a massive and never-ending enterprise. We like categories and we love to argue about them!
HR Reporting and People Analytics have been debated as being the same, as being different, as being parent-child and child-parent. So what’s all the fuss, and how can I offer some thinking that helps? Stirring up muddy water to make it become clear seems foolish, but here it goes.
Consider the word origins of the two key words:
Both HR Reporting and People Analytics are built from a foundation of data that is generated by the multitude of systems-processes that exist within every organization. (See image below)
Most systems are built to facilitate processes (eg, hiring) and generate data as a valuable by-product (eg, job open and closed dates). Other systems such as survey systems exist solely for the purpose of generating valuable data.
HR Reporting can be generalized based on the traits it most commonly displays (accepting that these lines can be blurry, just as some plants can behave in ways that are quite a bit more like animals).
HR Reporting is an essential point of access to the data within a given system, enabling the owners of the related processes to retrieve data for review and analysis. I can’t think of a system that doesn’t provide at least some access to the underlying data via reporting.
Reporting from these systems is typically organized into some set of pre-defined tabular views, each of them providing users with some options to filter the data to specific parts of the organization or process steps that they want to view (eg, course registrations for the Finance department).
Human Resources Reporting is distinguished from “analytics” because analytics tends to be aimed more at generating insights rather than sharing information. Let’s look at People Analytics next.
People Analytics is more complicated to define. To begin with, it can represent:
For comparison with HR Reporting, which is a type of deliverable, we will focus on People Analytics as defined as a category of deliverables.
HR Reporting and People Analytics do not belong on a maturity continuum, as they are both vital parts of running an organization well. Sure, if an organization has no People Analytics, you could confidently say they are less mature than another organization that does. You could even say that one organization’s People Analytics deliverables are more advanced (ie, mature) than another organization.
The point is, you don’t move from one level (HR Reporting) to another level (People Analytics) -- you need to deliver both and do them well, even if we agree that People Analytics will create more value for the organization.
Here’s a chart that may help orient the two:
Notice the difference in the objectives of each: People Analytics will be focused on generating insights. In fact, some advanced analytics solutions will have insights directly within the solution, but most often the insights are expected to occur when the user views and interacts with the content in the deliverable.
The value of People Analytics is more in the strategic realm, whereas HR Reporting generates more operational value focused on delivering information to keep the business running. Of course, there is some crossover, but generally, reporting helps with operational items such as efficiency, process monitoring and improvement, auditing, quality control, etc. Analytics is aimed at generating insights that will lead to decisions and actions. Analytics content is designed to facilitate valuable insights “at the speed of thought”, and in online settings this is achieved through interactive user experiences, issue highlighting, embedded insights using natural language. Analytics content facilitates hypothesis generation and testing simultaneously and is a learning and discovery vehicle for users.
Let’s outline People Analytics deliverables in terms of products, projects, and services. These are all aimed toward generating insights at scale that will drive the best quality, data-informed talent decisions. Systems and technology are not listed here because they are not deliverables, but enabling elements that help generate the deliverables.
analytics content is most often distributed online via an analytics platform (like One Model), including metrics that may be sourced from multiple systems, and sometimes will have output from AI/ML predictive models.
Let’s return to the diagram we shared in the previous section and expand on it a bit. The systems and processes that generate data are foundational to both.
Data from the multiple systems is selectively extracted into a data layer where data from multiple systems is integrated. This layer can be a standalone data warehouse (eg, in Azure or Snowflake) or can be part of a solution.
Metrics are calculated (eg, headcount, turnover rate) and dimensions are created (eg, organization unit, company tenure) by applying business rules against the data.
Dashboards and Storyboards are designed and developed within a visualization layer (eg, Tableau) or within a People Analytics solution.
Data Science will be done using data extracted from the warehouse into tools such as R or Python, or within the data science module in a People Analytics solution (only available in One Model at time of this article).
Analytics Projects will be combining elements of all the underlying pieces in what will become a presentation (written and/or verbal), usually on a key topic of interest to leadership.
As demonstrated above, HR Reporting and People Analytics are intertwined concepts which are more valuable when they are clearly articulated for their distinct purpose and value to the organization. Both are necessary for the effective management of the workforce and the Human Resources processes that are aiming to achieve efficiency and employee/manager experience.
To learn more about people analytics, download a free copy of the eBook Explore the Power of People Analytics (value $8.99 in paperback on Amazon) I co-authored with Heather Whiteman, PhD.
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