QUICK FILTERS
Featured
10 min read
Stacia Damron
Back in 2016, Harvard Business Review reported that 58% of people said they trusted strangers more than their own boss. Fast forward to 2024, and trust in leadership hasn't improved. According to PwC’s latest Trust Survey, 70% of employees say they don't trust their company’s leaders to follow through on commitments. Meanwhile, DoorDash handles over 7 million deliveries a day, and Airbnb hosts millions of guests in strangers’ homes. People are putting their dinner, their safety, and their vacations in the hands of people they’ve never met—but trust inside the workplace? Still in short supply. Workplace Trust Building trust in the workplace promotes confidence in a company's future. When workplace trust is strong, employees tend to work more effectively, engage with their teams, and contribute to greater overall productivity. You could say trust is both a cause and a result of company culture. Every day, we make decisions—consciously or not—based on how much we trust one another. And with each decision, we either build trust or chip away at it. So, where did workplace trust go? How can companies and managers go beyond surface-level efforts to rebuild it? And how are People Analytics professionals measuring, tracking, and improving employee satisfaction in a meaningful way? This article doesn’t claim to have a silver bullet—but here are some solid KPIs worth keeping on your radar: Absenteeism Rate Employees who are present, on-time, and hitting their goals and deadlines are going to be more engaged, satisfied employees. Those who aren’t … well, they might not be singing the company's praises. Monitoring absenteeism and cross referencing with other KPIs is a good place to start. Employee Turnover Rate While it's a common belief that employees leave organizations primarily for better pay, recent data suggests a more nuanced picture. According to a 2024 report by iCIMS, among employees planning to job hunt, the top reason cited was a higher salary. However, it's essential to recognize that compensation is just one piece of the puzzle. Factors such as career advancement opportunities, work-life balance, and management quality also play crucial roles in employee retention. Is the company conducting exit surveys? Tracking why employees are leaving is vital, in addition to measuring additional metrics such as turnaround under specific managers, departments, or within specific minority groups. Is there a pattern in turnover? Perhaps a specific department, manager, or trigger event is responsible? Do you have predictive models that can help you internalize your data and answer the big questions? Employee Net Promoter Score The Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) measures the likelihood of whether an employee would be willing to recommend your company as a great place to work and whether they would recommend the products or services your company creates. Employee Connect reported in 2023 that 59% of employees wouldn’t recommend theirs. If you haven't yet started, track your eNPS. Then you can filter the data through a platform where you can see patterns and trends that could have affected the results. Quick note: You can measure, track, and monitor trust-related trends across your organization using One Model’s People Analytics platform. Our tools help you uncover correlations between trust and key workforce metrics—like engagement, retention, and performance—so you can take data-driven action where it matters most. Training When your car runs out of gas, you don’t abandon it—you refill the tank and keep going. Your team deserves the same consideration. According to the 2024 Training Industry Report, companies spent an average of $774 per learner in 2024, with variations based on company size. While these figures may seem modest, they primarily account for direct training expenses and may not include indirect costs such as lost productivity or administrative expenses. Employees who opt into company-sponsored training—or are supported in pursuing outside education—tend to be more engaged in their roles, feel valued, and stay loyal. They’re also more likely to become promoters of your workplace, boosting your employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) and fueling growth through word-of-mouth in their networks. Building Trust in the Workplace with Predictive Workforce Data Trust, engagement, and performance can all be tracked and improved—if you know where to look. With the right tools, companies can use their workforce data not just to react to trends, but to anticipate them. If you're serious about strengthening company trust, it’s time to move beyond simple reporting and start using predictive modeling. These models help you surface hidden factors that erode workplace trust by: Predicting Attrition Identify which employees are likely to leave within the next 6–12 months, based on signals like manager changes, internal application outcomes, commute times, training engagement, and more. Strengthen company trust by addressing underlying issues before they escalate. Spotting Manager Risk See the warning signs that can quietly erode workplace trust under certain leaders or departments. Models can uncover red flags that deserve a closer look. Optimizing Hiring Strategies Which sourcing channels lead to high-performing hires? Are you bringing in the right people—or just the most available? Predictive hiring models can validate your recruiting efforts and help improve quality of hire. How One Model Helps One Model gives you the platform to bring these models to life. It integrates data from any source, cleans and normalizes it, and powers your analytics with clear, visual tools. Whether you're using out-of-the-box predictive models or working with our team on something custom, you’ll have the infrastructure to build, scale, and evolve your analytics over time. And when your data changes? Adding new sources or systems doesn’t mean starting over. One Model is built to flex with your ecosystem—no messy rebuilds required. So if you're ready to move beyond dashboards and start asking bigger questions—like how to build company trust and drive long-term success—we're ready to help you answer them. Explore more at onemodel.co, or reach out with questions. We love solving data problems. Request a demo
Read Article
Featured
5 min read
The One Model Team
Workforce planning and forecasting have become paramount for finance leaders to navigate market uncertainties and stay ahead of the competition. One Model's advanced People Analytics platform enables finance leaders to make smarter data-driven decisions, propelling their business toward sustainable growth and increased profitability. Centralise HR and Finance data for accurate predictions. The foundation of effective workforce planning lies in the ability to consolidate data from various sources into a single, reliable location. One Model achieves this by seamlessly integrating HR data with finance data, creating a centralized hub of valuable insights. By breaking down silos and allowing for data collaboration, finance leaders can gain a comprehensive understanding of their workforce, leading to more accurate predictions and tactical strategies. Slice and dice data more efficiently. Traditional ERP systems often struggle to handle the sheer volume and complexity of workforce data, leading to sluggish reporting and analysis. One Model, on the other hand, offers the ability to slice and dice data with ease, providing real-time insights and a granular, employee-level detail. Finance leaders can effortlessly examine the cost and productivity drivers at a departmental or individual level, empowering them to implement strategic initiatives with surgical precision. Identify high performers and which roles deliver the most value. Understanding the contribution of each role within an organization is crucial for effective workforce planning. One Model's advanced analytics capabilities offer improved visibility into productivity, revealing which roles deliver the most value to the organization. By identifying top-performing roles and focusing on their development, companies can reduce costly turnover, unleash the full potential of their workforce, and bolster overall performance. Better prepare for mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. The financial services sector often witnesses mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, which can lead to complex organizational changes and talent restructuring. With One Model, finance leaders can confidently embark on these transformations by leveraging the platform's capabilities. One Model can provide quick insight into topics such as your spans and layers that would traditionally involve high-cost and time-consuming consulting projects. From developing clear organizational structures to conducting talent audits to retain key personnel, One Model ensures a smooth transition and alignment of talent with strategic goals. Make more data-informed business decisions. Quick and informed decisions are critical for CFOs. With One Model, you can build your own metrics and definitions for headcount, FTE (full-time equivalents) updated daily, and other performance indicators to assess the return on investment from talent programs. And if Finance and HR can’t agree on how a certain metric (e.g., headcount) is calculated, One Model can support both variations. With clear insight into headcount and FTEs, you can better measure performance and plan labor needs. One Model delivers a holistic view of talent distribution and performance so Finance leaders can optimize headcount for the company’s needs, maintain cost-efficiency, and strike the perfect balance between talent and resources. Facilitate deeper conversations between HR and Finance. HR and Finance teams can have more meaningful and pointed conversations using One Model — where all the workforce data is captured, data quality is managed, and all related dimensions (e.g., hierarchies, employee attributes) are available for analysis. Bringing HR and Finance teams together can help your company accelerate your People Analytics journey and more easily identify opportunities to turn a profit. With One Model you can gain insight into more advanced metrics like Return on Human Investment Ratio (the ratio of operating profit, adding back total compensation expense, returned for every dollar invested in employee compensation and benefits) and hundreds of others to level up your HR and Finance decision making. Two examples of content specifically designed to align HR and Finance teams and empower them to make smarter data-driven decisions are: Headcount Storyboard — Setting up a storyboard which shows headcount represented in multiple ways: FTEs vs. employee counts, variations of which statuses are included/excluded, etc. This information becomes readily comparable with the metric definitions only a click away. Even better, the storyboard can be shared with the finance and HR partners in the discussion to explore on their own after the session. One Model is the best tool for counting headcount over time because it can support multiple variations. Hierarchy Storyboard — Providing views of the headcount as seen using the supervisor and cost hierarchies side-by-side will help to emphasize that both are simultaneously correct (i.e., the grand total is exactly the same). This can also provide an opportunity to investigate some of the situations where the cost and organizational hierarchy are not aligned. In many cases, these situations can be understood. Still, occasionally there are errors from previous reorganizations/transfers which resulted in costing information not being updated for a given employee (or group of employees). One Model is your partner for profitable growth One Model stands out as the ideal People Analytics partner for companies seeking to drive profitability through data-driven decision-making. If you’re ready to learn more, download our eBook 4 Ways CFOs Can Increase Profitability with One Model’s People Analytics Platform to discover even more ways our platform can enhance your profits.
Read Article
Featured
6 min read
The One Model Team
To say that HR is undergoing significant transformation is quite an understatement. But in the shadow of AI/ML, people analytics, and other massive splashes, two familiar foundations are shifting: HR team structures and what HR teams are focusing on. Here's a flyover of what's at stake. 1. Evolving HR Team Structures HR team structures are evolving to bridge traditional functions with analytics, technology, and strategic planning. It's important to know what's changing and how your business can adapt: Impact of Layoffs - Layoffs, especially in tech, force HR teams to rethink their strategies. Some companies downsize, while others use this time to attract top talent, leading to more diverse and adaptable teams. Recommended Approach: Use layoffs as an opportunity to reassess and restructure your HR team to align with new team focuses (below). Focus on bringing in diverse skills and expertise to create a more resilient and adaptable team. Optimal Team Size - There’s a growing belief that HR teams can be more effective with a smaller, well-defined team size. Bigger isn't always better; the right team size can enhance efficiency. Recommended Approach: Evaluate your organization’s specific needs to determine the optimal team size. Prioritize quality over quantity to build a lean, efficient team. Platform Approach - Modern HR platforms are reshaping team structures by automating routine tasks and streamlining workflows. This shift allows HR teams to focus more on strategic insights and less on manual processes. Recommended Approach: Invest in comprehensive HR technology platforms that offer automation and integration capabilities. This can free up your team to focus on strategic tasks and improve overall efficiency. New Emerging Roles - At the same time that some roles are becoming redundant or obsolete, new ones are forming to oversee or bridge gaps in new processes. We're seeing people analytics leaders morph into entirely new roles that span across HR functions. This cross functional people analytics position goes by many names, but we're calling it Workforce Systems Leader. Recommended Approach: Stay adaptable, proactive, and informed. Embrace emerging roles like the Workforce Systems Leader to optimize your HR processes and keep your organization at the forefront of industry trends and advancements. Joining a people analytics community can be very helpful in the midst of ongoing evolution. Stay tuned as we address the implications, functions, and ongoing shifts of roles in this industry. 2. Shifting HR Team Focuses As team structures change, so do their priorities. HR must now be focusing on three key areas: data infrastructure, productivity analytics, and skills and workforce planning. Data Infrastructure - A strong data foundation is crucial for advanced analytics and AI. Efficient data management helps HR teams create actionable insights that drive business forward. Recommended Approach: Invest in advanced data management tools and provide training for HR staff to ensure high-quality data and effective use of analytics. Productivity Analytics - The shift to remote and hybrid work has made productivity analytics essential. HR needs to measure productivity accurately and understand what influences it, especially in new work environments. Recommended Approach: Implement productivity tracking software and regularly analyze the data to refine remote work policies and improve employee performance. Skills and Workforce Planning - Integrating skills data into workforce planning is becoming vital. HR must understand the impact of specific skills on workforce dynamics and align this knowledge with company goals. Recommended Approach: Conduct a skills inventory and use advanced workforce planning tools to align skill development initiatives with the company’s strategic objectives. It's not necessarily easy, but by embracing these and other changes we've identified this year, HR departments can improve their effectiveness, foster collaboration, and drive significant business outcomes. Ready to get ahead of these shifts and redefine the impact of HR in your organization? Download this new resource today to take a deeper dive into all 6 of this year’s top emerging trends for people analytics.
Read Article
Featured
4 min read
Richard Rosenow
The world of people analytics is at a crossroads. On one side, the potential for data-driven decision-making in HR is incredible, offering insights that can transform organizational dynamics and employee engagement. On the other, a stark reality exists: a significant gap in the talent pool, especially when it comes to finding talent ready to tackle the data engineering side of people analytics. This gap isn't just a minor inconvenience; it's a major roadblock for HR departments aiming to leverage the full power of data analytics. Let's unpack why this is a critical issue and how companies like One Model are addressing it. Talent Challenges in Building In-House Solutions Developing an effective people analytics platform is no small feat. It requires an end-to-end team with a diverse set of skills, from data engineering and data science to HR expertise and software development. But finding individuals who possess these skills is a daunting task that often requires extensive time and resources to source, recruit, and onboard. Once onboarded, the innovation gap can become quickly apparent. Data engineers and data scientists thrive on solving novel complex problems, but we’ve seen the maintenance and iterative improvement of in-house HR technology can lead to disengagement and high turnover for this group. Especially given the rare blend of skills these professionals possess and high market demand. Moreover, every hour spent by your HR or IT team on developing, troubleshooting, and maintaining an in-house analytics solution is an hour not spent on value creation or strategic initiatives. As organizations grow and change, so too do their analytics needs. Building a solution that can scale and adapt with these changes without significant additional investment is a formidable if not impossible challenge, often straining resources further. Platforms are not a one-and-done investment. The Strategic Advantage of Vendor Partnerships Partnering with a people analytics platform vendor like One Model brings a wealth of experience and a team of experts who are continuously engaged in the development and refinement of the platform. This immediate access to expertise translates into scaled reporting and sophisticated analytics capabilities that are ready to use on day one. By starting with a vendor, organizations can keep internal resources focused on strategic priorities, leveraging the headstart provided by the vendor rather than getting bogged down in technicalities. Vendors operate at scale, serving multiple clients with the same infrastructure. This allows them to offer powerful analytics capabilities at a fraction of the cost it would take to develop similar functionalities in-house. Additionally, vendors are motivated by competition and client’s needs to continuously innovate and improve their offerings, ensuring organizations benefit from these innovations without additional investment. One Model: A Case Study in Vendor Excellence When it comes to overcoming the talent challenges of building and maintaining a sophisticated people analytics platform, One Model stands out. Not only do we offer incredible careers for data engineers, working on challenging and impactful projects across the analytics space, but we also maintain an incredible retention rate for that talent. Our approach to dedicated support means that the data engineer who implements your solution often stays on to support your subscription, offering deep familiarity with your organization's specific needs and challenges. Our leadership, including our CEO who comes from a data engineering background, ensures that our solutions are not only technically advanced but also perfectly tailored to the real-world needs of people analytics. This level of expertise and commitment positions One Model as a partner who understands the intricacies of people analytics from a data engineering perspective — making us an attractive, cost-effective, and strategically sound alternative for organizations looking to leverage the full power of people analytics without the challenges of staffing. Conclusion While building a people analytics solution in-house from the ground up may seem appealing, the practical challenges and talent implications often make partnering with a vendor the safer choice. One Model offers a history of success, expert support, and an innovative platform that continues to evolve to meet your organization's needs, ensuring you remain at the forefront of HR technology revolution. Choose One Model, where data engineering talent meets HR innovation, and let us help you leverage insights to attract, retain, and develop top talent effectively. Learn how One Model can help you.
Read Article
Featured
14 min read
Lisa Meehan
The way a company structures its workforce is crucial to its success. Workforce structures determine how employees are organised, how work is delegated, and how communication flows throughout the organisation. Workforce structures refer to the way a company organises its employees, financial responsibilities, and the relationships among them. It provides a framework for managing and coordinating work activities. There are several types of enterprise structures and your organisation uses several of them, so let’s talk through different ones and see how you can visualise them. Types of workforce structures Most workforce structures can best be displayed as an org chart. An organisational chart, or org chart, is an essential tool for any enterprise structure as it provides a clear and concise visual representation of the hierarchy, roles, and relationships among employees. It enables employees to understand where they fit into the organisation and how their role contributes to the overall goals of the company. Functional One of the most common structures in business today, a functional organisational structure groups employees according to the functions they perform, such as marketing, accounting, or operations. This allows for specialised expertise in each function, where everyone has a defined role and clear lines of communication. Location and structural overlay It may be that only a division of the company is broken up into location-based structures. For instance, this can be common in sales or HR talent acquisition departments where you have an East, Northeast division of responsibility. Supervisor hierarchy You may have also heard of position hierarchy or supervisory hierarchy. This is a slight modification of the traditional Hierarchical model. You can see these a lot in support or in places within the organisation where approvals are needed. Hierarchy establishes the connection between a superior and the subordinates within an organisation. The supervision hierarchy report exhibits the designated supervisor, presenting their immediate reports, followed by their respective reports, and so on. It encompasses the option to include the employee number, along with the name and job title of each individual, based on the chosen level of supervisory depth. A supervisor hierarchy shows who reports to who. It refers to the structure of reporting relationships within an organisation, where supervisors are responsible for overseeing the work and performance of their subordinates. In a typical supervisor hierarchy, each supervisor has a team of employees reporting directly to them. Often for the people running those units, there is a 1:1 but that’s not always perfect. The supervisors themselves report to higher-level managers or executives, forming a chain of command. The reporting relationships follow a top-down approach — with information, instructions, and feedback flowing from higher-level supervisors to lower-level employees. This hierarchical structure ensures clear lines of authority, accountability, and efficient communication within the organisation. Cost centre structure hierarchy The cost centre structure refers to the total collection of different cost types, including both fixed and variable expenses, that constitute the overall expenditures of a business. This is where the financials are run. It’s normally wrapped up in the chart of accounts. Organisations use the cost centre structure to establish pricing and pinpoint opportunities for minimising costs. This is typically how the finance system works and who is financially accountable for the funds that they spend. This can be different from who runs the business units. Therefore, this view can often be out of alignment with the structural hierarchy. To put it simply, it’s because Finance runs the financials and HR runs the business structure. This type of view often coincides with internal company political struggles. Why? Finance likes to be in control of its space and typically doesn’t like HR veering into it. But if HR can get a cost structure into a people data view, it’s typically a good thing. For instance, this will allow the finance team to get activity- or project-based accounting, or the total cost of the project including the hard numbers and people resources to make real assessments on the ROI of various initiatives. You can only get this view when finance and people data are combined. Matrix structure While not easy to visualise, this structure is really important to get right. A Matrix workforce structure generally refers to a type of organizational setup where employees are assigned to multiple reporting lines or managers simultaneously, as opposed to a traditional hierarchical structure where each employee reports to only one manager. In a matrix workforce, individuals are part of cross-functional teams and can work on various projects simultaneously, often with different sets of colleagues and supervisors. The matrix structure is most often used in large, complex organizations that handle multiple projects simultaneously and require a high degree of collaboration across departments. It is commonly found in industries such as technology, engineering, consulting, and pharmaceuticals. Additionally, matrix structures are prevalent in multinational corporations, where teams need to coordinate and work across different geographical regions. How does One Model help? As you can see, getting different views of the various structures within your business can have profound impacts on your understanding. One Model creates alignment for customers, so they can pivot between those different views with the included people insights. This is really important so you can create a mapping between your financial structures and people structures to become the translator that brings that world together within the organisation. Senior leaders typically want to see where all the money is being spent and where the people are so they can make informed decisions. So views that bring this data together make One Model incredibly valuable to our current customers. Our products empower you to change the view with a click of a button, so you get a complete view of what is actually going on. You can also cross-tabulate those views and link them together. Want to see One Model in action? Watch this quick demo video. How security plays into analysing workforce structures A basic organisational breakout may not be too concerning, but once you start applying analytics to your charts to get a better understanding of how key insights or talents are distributed throughout your organisation, you run into issues. That’s why having a tool like One Model with strong roles-based security that locks sensitive information to specific roles allows you to create a public view that instantly keeps your data safe. Security plays a crucial role in analysing workforce structures by focusing on access controls, user authentication, data protection, security awareness, incident response, vendor and third-party risk, and compliance with regulations. By incorporating security considerations into workforce analysis, organisations can identify vulnerabilities, mitigate risks, and establish a robust security foundation for their operations. Explore the evolution of workforce models Want to learn more about the evolution of workforce planning models over the past four decades and the key role that enterprise segmentation plays in achieving great analytics? Watch our webinar with Peter Howes, a thought leader and pioneer in the field of analytics and strategic planning models. He discusses how these structures have changed to a more strategic approach that’s focused on meeting the needs of the business. 7 benefits of incorporating people analytics into your workforce structures Incorporating people analytics into various workforce structures can provide organisations with valuable insights and significant benefits. People analytics, also known as HR analytics or workforce analytics, involves gathering and analysing data about employees to make informed decisions and improve organisational performance. Here are seven ways incorporating people analytics can positively impact workforce structures: 1. Data-Driven Decision-Making: People analytics paired with workforce structure views allows organisations to base their decisions on objective data rather than relying solely on intuition or anecdotal evidence. By overlaying workforce data on top of various structures, organisations can gain insights into critical aspects such as employee performance, engagement, turnover, and productivity to quickly see where trouble resides in the business. These data-driven insights enable more informed decision-making in areas like talent acquisition, talent development, succession planning, and performance management. 2. Talent Acquisition and Retention: People analytics inserted into your workforce structure views can highlight where your most loyal and high-performing employees exist. Seeing this allows you to identify the most effective recruitment channels, evaluate candidate profiles, and predict the likelihood of candidate success — so your team can build impactful strategies. By analysing data on employee turnover and retention, organisations can better visualise the factors influencing attrition rates and develop targeted retention strategies. It can also facilitate the identification of high-potential employees for succession planning and talent development initiatives. 3. Performance Management: Incorporating people analytics into an enterprise structure allows organisations to evaluate employee performance objectively and uncover great leaders and employees. By analysing performance data, organisations can identify top performers, evaluate goal attainment, and provide targeted feedback and development opportunities. People analytics can also help uncover performance patterns and trends, enabling managers to make data-driven decisions regarding promotions, rewards, and recognition. 4. Employee Engagement and Satisfaction: Organisational structures paired with people analytics provides a map of employee engagement levels, job satisfaction, and factors that impact overall employee experience. This will quickly allow you to understand the health of various teams within your business. By analysing data from employee surveys, feedback platforms, and other sources, organisations can identify areas for improvement and take proactive measures to enhance employee engagement and satisfaction. 5. Workforce Planning and Optimisation: Workforce hierarchy paired with people analytics plays a vital role in strategic workforce planning and optimisation. By analysing workforce data, organisations can assess their workforce's current and future needs, identify employee gaps, and develop strategies for workforce development and succession planning. People analytics can also help optimise workforce structures by identifying areas of organisational inefficiency or redundancy, enabling resource allocation and restructuring initiatives. 6. Diversity and Inclusion: Where do your DE&I community members reside in your org? Which areas of the business are most diverse? Incorporating people analytics into your workforce structure can support diversity and inclusion efforts by analysing demographic data. This allows organisations to assess representation, identify potential biases, and implement targeted diversity and inclusion initiatives. 7. Predictive Analytics and Future Insights: People analytics enables organisations to leverage predictive analytics to forecast future trends and outcomes related to the workforce. By analysing historical data, organisations can identify patterns and make predictions about attrition rates, talent shortages, skill requirements, and workforce needs. These insights allow proactive planning and decision-making, ensuring the organisation is prepared for future workforce challenges. In summary, workforce structures already exist in your organisation, the question is can you use them to better understand your business and create efficiencies? If you can’t, or if the process is a major project for your HR team, then you need to consider people analytics software like One Model that empowers you to transform how your leaders make decisions. We’d love to show you how One Model can help your organisation make better talent decisions. Request a demo today!
Read Article
Featured
0 min read
Lauren Canada
This infographic reveals 4 key HR metrics to strengthen your next data story, so you can prevent costly turnover and retain top talent. Start scrolling to explore the piece!
Read Article
Featured
8 min read
Jamie Strnisha
Given the Great Resignation, recent mass layoffs, and store closures, the past year has shown just how crucial strategic workforce planning can be to overall organisational health and longevity. But it’s not always easy for HR teams to understand where to start when developing workforce planning strategies. So let’s dive into what strategic workforce planning is, how it differs from organisational workforce planning, and how people analytics can transform what your HR team can achieve with your workforce planning strategies. What is strategic workforce planning? Strategic workforce planning in a nutshell is having the right people in the right roles at the right time at the right costs, which can lead to better productivity and lower costs. Strategic workforce planning is one of the most important elements of HR strategy. It helps businesses identify skills gaps, carefully manage resources, benchmark performance against competitors, and ensure proper budget allocation for the organisation. Strategic workforce planning is the process of analysing an organisation's workforce needs, both present and future, and developing strategies to meet those needs. It involves assessing the current workforce, developing scenarios, identifying gaps and future needs, analysing people data to inform decisions, and creating plans to address those gaps and needs. Practising effective workplace planning also involves continuously measuring and monitoring the implementation and effectiveness of those plans against your KPIs and organisational goals. The process typically involves gathering and analysing data about the current workforce, such as employee skills, cost, and demographics, as well as external factors that may impact workforce needs, such as changes in technology, industry trends, and economic conditions. This can include hiring new people, training current employees, and planning for future changes in the workforce. The difference between strategic vs. operational workforce planning Strategic workforce planning and operational workforce planning are two different approaches to managing an organisation's workforce needs. Strategic workforce planning focuses on long-term workforce planning, typically looking at a three- to five-year horizon or beyond. It involves analysing the organisation's strategic goals and objectives and determining the workforce requirements needed to achieve them. This includes identifying the skills, knowledge, and capabilities that will be needed, and creating plans to develop and acquire those resources. Strategic workforce planning is a high-level planning process that is typically undertaken by senior management and HR leaders. Watch a One Model strategic planning session. Operational workforce planning, also known as strategic staffing or headcount planning, is more focused on short-term workforce needs, usually over a six-month to two-year time horizon. It involves short-term management of the workforce and is focused on ensuring that the workforce has the resources it needs to succeed. For example, this may include ensuring that an organisation can staff up to meet seasonal demands (retail at Christmas, farming during the summer, etc.). Operational workforce planning is often carried out by mid-level and front-line managers. How has strategic workforce planning changed over time? Strategic workforce planning has undergone significant changes over time in response to changes in the economy, technology, and social trends. Here are some of the key changes that have occurred: Increased focus on skills: In the past, strategic workforce planning tended to focus on job titles and positions rather than skills-based workforce planning. However, today's strategic workforce planning is more focused on identifying the specific skills and knowledge that are needed for each role. Data-driven approach: Advances in technology have made it easier to collect and analyse workforce data, leading to a more data-driven approach to strategic workforce planning. This allows organisations to make more informed decisions about their workforce needs. Emphasis on flexibility: With the rise of the gig economy and remote work, organisations are increasingly seeking more flexible workforce solutions. This has led to a greater emphasis on strategic workforce planning that can adapt to changing conditions — empowering organisations to optimise which roles should be full-time or contract, or which roles can be hybrid or in-office. Strategic alignment: Strategic workforce planning has evolved to be more closely aligned with organisational strategy, helping organisations ensure that they have the right people with the right skills in the right positions to achieve the organisation’s strategy. Peter Howes does a great job of showcasing how HR workforce planning has changed over time. Watch the recorded webinar. How strategic workplace planning impacts workforce planning Strategic workplace planning can have a significant impact on workforce planning in a number of ways. Here are some examples: Attracting and retaining top talent: A well-designed workplace can be a major factor in attracting and retaining top talent. Promoting collaboration and productivity: By designing a workspace that supports teamwork and communication, organisations can help employees to work together more effectively and reduce workforce productivity issues. Supporting health and well-being: Creating an environment that is focused on keeping employees healthy and reducing stress helps with your long-term planning by ensuring your workforce stays at peak performance. Adapting to changing workforce needs: If an organisation is shifting towards more remote work or hybrid work arrangements, workplace planning can be used to create a workspace that supports those arrangements. What role does people analytics play in strategic workforce planning? People analytics plays an important role in strategic workforce planning by providing data-driven insights into an organisation's workforce. By using data and analytics tools, like One Model, organisations can better understand their current workforce and identify trends and patterns that can inform their workforce planning strategies. People analytics can help organisations to: Identify workforce gaps: By analysing workforce data, organisations can identify areas where they have a shortage of skills or talent, allowing them to focus their strategic workforce planning efforts on addressing those gaps. Forecast future workforce needs: People analytics can be used to project future workforce needs based on factors such as demographic changes, industry trends, and business goals. Optimise workforce efficiency: By analysing workforce data, organisations can identify opportunities to improve workforce efficiency, such as by reallocating resources or adjusting work schedules. Measure the effectiveness of strategic workforce planning: People analytics can be used to track the success of workforce planning strategies over time, allowing organisations to adjust their plans as needed to achieve better outcomes. Increase ROI Businesses can make fast decisions, optimise ROI, and improve customer and stakeholder satisfaction by leveraging data-driven insights into trends and predicting future needs. How One Model supports better strategic workforce planning One Model is a people analytics company that helps organisations transform their workforce data into actionable insights for better decision-making. By leveraging advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, One Model can support better strategic workforce planning capabilities for businesses of all sizes. One of the key strengths of One Model is its ability to integrate data from multiple HR systems, such as HRIS, ATS, LMS, and others, into a single data warehouse. This allows organisations to gain a complete view of their workforce data, eliminating the need to switch between different systems to analyse data. In addition to its advanced analytics capabilities and intuitive interface, One Model also offers a customizable dashboard that allows HR professionals to monitor and track key workforce metrics. With this tool, HR teams can identify areas of concern, measure the success of their workforce planning strategies, and adjust their plans as needed. Overall, One Model supports better strategic workforce planning by providing a single, integrated platform for workforce data analytics, advanced analytics models, and customizable dashboards. This enables organisations to make more informed decisions and, ultimately, achieve their business goals. Discover how One Model’s People Analytics can support your strategic workforce planning.
Read Article
Featured
15 min read
Chris Butler
The public sector is rapidly evolving, is your people analytics strategy fit for purpose and can it meet the increasing demands of a modern public sector? In this blog, we will highlight the unique challenges that public sector stakeholders face when implementing a people analytics strategy. In light of those challenges, we will then outline how to best design and implement a modern people analytics strategy in the public service. When it comes to people analytics, the public sector faces a number of unique challenges; The public sector is the largest and most complex workforce of any employer in Australia. A workforce that bridges everything from white collar professionals to front line staff and every police officer, teacher and social worker in between. Public sector workforces are geographically dispersed with operations across multiple capital cities in the case of the Commonwealth Government, or a mix of city and regional staff in the case of both state and federal governments. The public service operates a multitude of HR systems acquired over a long time, leading to challenges of data access and interoperability. Important public service HR data may also be held in manual non-automated spreadsheets prone to error and security risk. A complex industrial relations and entitlements framework, details of which are generally held in different datasets. Constant machinery of government (MoG) changes demand both organisational and technological agility by public servants to keep delivering key services (as well as the delivery of ongoing and accurate HR reporting). The public sector faces increased competition for talent, both within the public service and externally with the private sector. Citizen and political pressure for new services and methods of government service provision is at an all time high - so not only are your critical stakeholders your customers, they are your voters as well. Cyber security and accessibility issues that are unique to the public sector. This all comes under the pressure of constant cost constraints that require bureaucracies to do more with limited budgets. As a result - understanding and best utilising limited human capital resources is crucial for the public sector at both a state and federal level. Now that we have isolated the unique people analytics challenges of the public sector, how do HR professionals within the public service begin the process of implementing a people analytics strategy? 1. Data Orchestration “Bringing all of your HR data together.” The first stage of any successful people analytics programme is data orchestration, without having access to all of your relevant people data feeds in one place, it is almost impossible to develop a universal perspective of your workforce. Having a unified analytical environment is critical as it allows HR to; Develop a single source of truth for the data you hold on employees. Cross reference employee data within and between departments to adequately benchmark and compare workforces to drive team-level, department-level and public service wide insights. Establish targeted interventions and not one-size-fits-all solutions. For example, a contact centre is going to have very different metric results than your corporate groups like Finance or Legal. Blend data between systems to uncover previously hidden insights. Uncover issues such as underpayments that develop when different systems don’t communicate. Using people analytics to mitigate instances of underpayment is covered extensively in this blog. Provide a clean and organised HR data foundation from which to generate predictive insights. Have the capacity to export modelled data to an enterprise data warehouse or another analytical environment (PowerBI, Tableau etc). Allow HR via people analytics to support the Enterprise data mesh - covered in more detail in this blog post. People data orchestration in the public sector is complicated by the reliance on legacy systems, as well as the constant changes in structure driven by machinery of government reforms. Successful data orchestration can only be achieved through an intimate knowledge of the source HR systems and a demonstrated capacity to extract information from those systems and then model that information in a unified environment. This takes significant technology knowledge, such as bespoke API integrations for cloud based systems and proven experience working with on premise systems. It also requires subject matter expertise in the nuances of HR data. It can not be easily implemented without the right partners. Ideally, the end solution should be a fully flexible open analytics infrastructure to future proof the public sector and allow for the ingestion of data from new people data systems as they arise (such as new LMS or pulse survey products) while also facilitating the migration of data from legacy systems to more modern cloud based platforms. 2. Data Governance “Establishing the framework to manage your data.” Now that all of your data is in one place, it is important you develop a robust framework for how to manage that data - in our view this has two parts - data definition and data access. Data Definition Having consolidated multiple sources of data in one environment, the next step is metric definition, which is critical to being able to convert the disparate data sets that you have assembled into coherent, understandable language. It is all well and good to have your data in one place, but if you have 5 different definitions of what an FTE means from the five different systems you are aggregating then the benefits you receive from your data orchestration phase will be marginal. Comprehensive metric definitions with clear explanations are needed to ensure your data is properly orchestrated and organisation-wide stakeholders have confidence that data is standardised and can be trusted. Data Access HR data is some of the most complex and sensitive a government holds, so existing HR data management practices based on spreadsheets that can be easily distributed to non-approved stakeholders both inside and outside of your organisation are no longer fit for purpose. Since your people analytics data is coming from multiple systems you need to provide an overarching security framework that controls who gets access to what information and why. This framework must based on logical rules, aligned to broader departmental privacy policies and flexible enough to accommodate organisational change and to scale to your entire department or agency regardless of its size. Critically, there needs to be a high level of automation and scalability to use role based security as a mechanism for safely sharing data to decision makers. Today’s spreadsheet based world relies on limiting data sharing, which also limits effective data driven decision making. Finally, these role based security access frameworks need to be scalable so each new user or change in structure doesn’t require days of manual work from your team to ensure both access and compliance. 3. Secure People Analytics Distribution “Delivering people analytics content to your internal stakeholders.” The next step, once you have consolidated your data and established an appropriate data governance framework, is to present and distribute this data to your internal stakeholders. This is what we refer to as the distribution phase of your people analytics implementation. We established in the last section that for privacy and security reasons, different stakeholders require access to varying levels of information. The distribution phase goes one step further and places access within the prism of what individual stakeholders need in order to successfully do their jobs. For example, the information and insights necessary for a Departmental Secretary and a HR business partner to do their jobs are wildly different and therefore should be tailored to their particular needs. So, organisation wide metrics and reports in the case of the Departmental Secretary and team or individual level metrics for the HR BP or line manager. This is further complicated by disclosure requirements and reporting unique to the public service. This includes; Media requests regarding public servant pay and conditions Statutory reporting requirements for annual state of the public service reports Submissions to and appearances before parliamentary committees Disclosure to independent oversight inquiries or agencies As a result, public sector HR leaders are required to walk a tightrope of both breadth and specificity. So how do we recommend you do this? Offer a baseline of standardised metrics for the whole organisation. Tailor that baseline based on role-based access requirements, so stakeholders only see information that is relevant to drive data driven decision making. Deliver those insights at scale - the wider the stakeholder group consuming your outputs the better. Ensure those outputs are timely and relevant - daily or weekly updates are recommended. Be able to justify your insights and offer access to raw data, calculations and metric definitions. Continually educate your stakeholders about best practice people analytics. Increase reporting sophistication based on the people analytics maturity of your stakeholders - simple reporting for entry level stakeholders, more complicated predictive insights for the more advanced. To get the most out of your people analytics strategy you need to deliver two things; Role based access to the widest stakeholder group across your department, the wider the group of employees that have access to detailed datasets the easier it will be to deliver data driven decision making. Support your team with a change management programme to grow their analytical capability over the course of time. 4. Extracting Value from your Data “Using AI + Data Science to generate predictive insights.” Now we get to the fun part - using data science to supercharge your analysis and generate predictive insights. However, to quote the great theologian and people analytics pioneer - Spiderman - “With great power comes great responsibility.” Most data science work today is performed by a very small number of people using arcane knowledge and coding in technologies like R or Python. It is not scalable and rarely shared. The use of machine learning capabilities with people data requires a thoughtful approach that considers the following; Does your AI explain its decisions? Could the decisions your machine learning environment recommends withstand the scrutiny of a parliamentary committee? Do you adhere to ethical AI frameworks and decision making? What effort has been made to detect and remove bias? Does harnessing predictive insights require a data scientist or can it be used by everyday stakeholders within your department? Will your use of AI adhere to current or future standards, such as those recently proposed by the European Commission? To learn more about the European Commission proposal regarding new rules for AI, click here. In integrating the use of machine learning into your people analytics programme, you must ensure that models are transparent and can be explained to both your internal and external stakeholders. 5. Using People Analytics to Support Public Sector Reform “Public sector HR driving data-driven decision making.” A people analytics strategy does not exist in isolation, it is a crucial aspect of any departmental strategy. However, in speaking to our public sector HR colleagues - they often feel that their priorities are sidelined or they don’t have the resources to argue for their importance. A lot of this has to do with the absence of integrated datasets and outputs to justify HR prioritisation and investment. We see people analytics and the successful aggregation of disparate data sets as the way that HR can drive their people priorities forward. If HR can present an integrated and trusted dataset, that allows comparison and cross validation with data from other verticals including finance, community engagement, procurement and IT. This gives HR the capability to be central to overall decision making and support broader departmental corporate strategies from the ground up. We have written extensively about the importance of data driven decision making in HR and using people analytics to support enterprise strategy, this content can be found on our blog here - www.onemodel.co/blog Why you should invest in people analytics and what One Model can do to help. The framework of a successful public sector people analytics project outlined above is the capability that the One Model platform delivers. From data orchestration to predictive insights, One Model delivers a complete HR Analytics Capability. The better you understand your workforce, the more ambitious the reform agendas you can fulfil. One Model is set up to not only orchestrate your data to help the public service understand the challenges of today, but through our proprietary OneAI platform - to help you build the public service of the future. One Model’s public sector clients are some of our most innovative and pragmatic, we love working with them. At One Model, we are constantly engaging with the public sector about best practice people analytics - last year, our Chief Product Officer - Tony Ashton (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-ashton/) - himself a former Commonwealth HR public servant appeared on the NSW Public Service Commission’s The Spark podcast to discuss how the public sector can use people data to make better workforce decisions. That podcast can be found here. Let’s start a conversation If you work in a public service department or agency and are interested in learning more about how the One Model solution can help you get the most out of your workforce, my email is patrick.mcgrath@onemodel.co
Read Article
Featured
3 min read
Nicholas Garbis
There are whole books written about Workforce Planning. I read them and enjoy them (maybe even more than I would like to admit). I will include a short list below for your reference. So, what can be added to the body of thought leadership on this topic? My former SWP colleague, Phil Mische and I got together (in person!) to discuss some elements of SWP and decided to create a video hitting on a handful of topics in rapid succession. We decided to call it "Lightning Round Learning." As background, Phil and I worked together on successfully designing and implementing SWP at scale at a global financial services firm. It was an intense experience but was the greatest test of everything that I had wanted SWP to be. Nothing is perfection, especially in year one of a multi-year journey, but it was world-class SWP and we each have an abundance of learnings to share. We listed out several topic ideas and then selected these in real-time, then hit each of them for a few minutes each: Operationalization of SWP Technology (data, tools, models) Granularity of Skills data Change Management Strategic v. Operational workforce planning There is way more depth on each of these elements -- we could easily have filled most of a day unloading our experiences -- and there are many other elements of SWP that we didn't cover. So, sit back and check out the video below. Then do these 2 things: Schedule time to chat with me on SWP, People Analytics, or One Model more generally. https://meetings.hubspot.com/nicholas-garbis Let me know what SWP elements you think we should cover in Part 2! You can message me here or post your comment to LinkedIn here. SCHEDULE TIME TO CHAT! Workforce Planning Book List: Agile Workforce Planning, by Adam Gibson Strategic Workforce Planning, by Ross Sparkman Strategic Workforce Planning: Guidance and Back-Up Plans, by Tracey Smith ... and one day I may write an SWP book to add to this list! .... :)
Read Article
Featured
2 min read
Chris Butler
The One Model team has a huge amount of experience in the HR data and analytics field. Our careers started at Infohrm, the world’s first SaaS workforce analytics provider. Infohrm was acquired by SuccessFactors in 2010 and we later moved into SAP with their acquisition of SF in 2012. As a result we’ve worked with more customers across more data sources than just about anyone else in the world. Customers with 200 employees right through to 600,000 employee behemoth organizations. This experience has earned us a unique perspective on how organizations currently use their people data, how they could be using their data in a perfect world and the amount of supporting technology that is available to them. We’ve learned that data and the correct management of it, is the real key to organizations becoming successful with their talent analytics programs. Every company I have ever met struggles with their HR data. Visualization tools are a red herring to true capability without a properly constructed and maintained method for bringing together all of your HR technology data. It will give you some early wins but you’ll soon outgrow the offered capability with nowhere else to go. Analytics, planning, and even application integration should flow as a natural byproduct of a well-executed data strategy. This is what we bring to our customers with One Model. All of your HR technology data brought together in a single unified source, automatically organized into expert built data models ready for intelligence and to support any other use case. With all of your data together regardless of the source the opportunities for using this data, for choosing better business software, and interaction between data sets become limitless. Our passion is for this data set and the HR challenges we can solve with it. We have always wanted to be able to build without restriction, the tools to collect data, to build the calculations, algorithms, and thought leadership initiatives we know our customers want. One Model is architected exactly for that, highly automated, flexible, intuitive, and open to use any other toolset you may have already invested in or want to invest in. Easily use tableau, qlikview, excel, and successfactors workforce analytics. See how we compare to the competition. We are looking for more great customers to come on board and help us refine our roadmap and prioritize capabilities important to you. On premise or cloud sources we’re ready to onboard your data and give you complete control, please contact me if you would like to join our customer engagement program.
Read Article
Ready to get the most out of your HR data?
