Consultant's Corner

How to Feast on Workforce Data without Choking On It

mike.brennan — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:21:59 GMT

Some people just hear terms like 'analytics,' or 'business intelligence,' and they get choked up. Some because they are uncomfortable applying measures to HR and talent management processes. Others because they have data scattered across too many systems and spreadsheets.

The fact is that applying measurement to HR and talent management does not have to be a non-starter. As with all HR-driven initiatives, the success of workforce intelligence depends on alignment with the business. The key to ceasing on this alignment and getting your workforce intelligence strategy off the ground is getting the right cooks in the kitchen. Indeed, cross-functional representation drives success in all phases of a of a workforce intelligence rollout—from providing executive sponsorship and defining the metrics that should be tracked to selecting the appropriate technology solution and driving adoption when the solution is deployed.

Every workforce intelligence initiative should incorporate the following cross-functional stakeholders:

All leads of HR functions (e.g., recruiting, learning and development, compensation)
IT personnel with business analytic and systems experience
Representatives from finance accustomed to executive-level reports to support decision making on a regular basis
Representatives from target user groups (i.e., the audiences who will ultimately use the measures delivered to make smarter business decisions)

The table below outlines the tasks and responsibilities of lines of business I typically recommend for our clients' (LOB), HR, and IT stakeholders. What do you think of this shared responsibility matrix? Would it help drive greater buy-in to your workforce intelligence strategy? Have anything like that resembles the outlined responsibilities at your organization?

Responsibilities	Line of Business Personnel	HR Functional Personnel	IT/Finance/HR Tech Personnel
Identifying Measures & Metrics	X	X
Gathering & Computing Metrics		X	X
Delivering Metrics (e.g., reports, dashboards)		X	X
Analyzing Metrics	X	X	X
Acting on Metrics	X	X

Talent Measurement is Also Specific to Vertical Industry

mike.brennan — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 00:49:24 GMT

This entry is a build on a great post from Jason Averbook today on the Knowledge Infuser, which asserts, "Talent Management has specific industry characteristics that MUST be taken into account when addressing all aspects of people, process and technology." It stands to reason that an organization engaged in one kind of commercial enterprise - say, health insurance - would have different talent demands than another - say, fashion retail. Furthermore, while the ultimate success of any company is measured by its ability to deliver long-term value to shareholders, the metrics to gauge this success are certainly not identical. After all, does a health insurer care about same-store sales?

If you take a popular measurement framework such as The Balanced Scorecard, there is perhaps no category of measurement that differs from one industry to the next than the one that focuses on people. Some refer to this category as ‘learning and growth;' others call it, ‘human capital.' The uniqueness driven by industry is driven by distinctive operations and differences in what roles are critical in driving those operations. As Mike Shoemaker pointed out in a response to Heidi Spirgi's post last month, "measurement in talent management...is clearly critical, provided the measures are tied to the industry and functional context, as well as the strategic objectives of the company."

Furthermore, measurement is essential to diagnosing business issues, which HR executives and their business partners should use to drive the creation and revision of talent management strategies and tactics. Take the following:

Hiring salespeople with consulting backgrounds to combat the commoditization of your retail business.
Developing employee relations training programs for first-time managers who your biotech company is counting on to retain talent and scale its business now that a drug in your pipeline has been approved for commercialization.

To help you think through how you should measure your people and the investments your organization makes in them (e.g., pay and benefits, training, incentives, attracting candidates outside the organization, etc.), try using the following framework. What you will find as you work down this list is that it is progressive in several ways: It becomes more specific to industry; the type of metrics becomes more strategic to the organization; and the type of metrics becomes more difficult to measure. In addition to the measures becoming more industry-specific, it is important to point out that the benchmarks (e.g., voluntary turnover rate) established using these measures often differs.

Transactional: These measures quantify the activity in various HR functions. When taken in isolation, none of these figures is very strategic. However, many of them act as building blocks (i.e., variables used to calculate) for HR Operational, Workforce Management and Workforce Effectiveness Metrics.
HR Operational: These are meant to monitor and continually improve HR functions' performance in terms of process efficiencies and outcomes and are meant to better focus efforts and resources. Examples include time-to-hire, time to submit performance reviews and # of courses per instructor.
Workforce Management Metrics: These metrics demonstrate the soundness of the organizational policies, procedures, and programs administered by HR as well as the competence of business managers and leaders in applying them. An example would include voluntary turnover within 90 days, which may reflect opportunities to improve hiring decision-making, development of new managers, and/or on-boarding improvements.
Talent Intelligence: These metrics are products of statistical analysis meant to demonstrate the relationships between the three categories above and KPIs outside HR. As such, they yield the intelligence to support strategic decision making - by showing what has happened and modeling scenarios of what the future might bring. Examples include the total cost of new-hire turnover and the effect of product knowledge training on sales productivity.

This was a mouthful, even for those who may be focused on Talent Management strategy at the moment. Any and all questions/comments are welcome.

Start with the End in Mind - Happy New Year!

mike.brennan — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 16:08:20 GMT

Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Boxing Day. No matter what your faith, this is the time of year when many of us make New Year's resolutions. [Check out this list put out by the Fed if you're looking for some direction - h[ttp://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/New_Years_Resolutions.shtml|http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/New_Years_Resolutions.shtml]] Whether it's ‘lose weight,' ‘take a trip,' ‘volunteer to help others,' or ‘pay off debt,' the individuals who make these promises will have realized varying degrees of success by the time they sit down 12 months from now to start on 2009's list. There are many reasons for this. One is that some individuals take the time to document these promises. By writing them, these individuals are more conscious of them, and thus, are more likely to develop them into goals, build a strategy to achieve these goals, and execute on that strategy.

Making New Year's resolutions and acting on them is not always easy for us as individuals. Doing so as a team can be even more difficult. We at Knowledge Infusion help our clients face this challenge every day. We work with HR executives to build strategic roadmaps that sequence technology initiatives based on business objectives. A common pitfall once the strategy is created is to forget these business objectives as the focus shifts to executing on project tasks.

That is why we encourage our clients to document the metrics the organization will use to measure the impact of their investments. These metrics should drive the development of reports and dashboards as technology is rolled out. If this sounds like HCM analytics or workforce intelligence for anyone who reads this it should. Workforce intelligence starts with identifying measures that tie key indicators of business performance to HCM practices and programs. Only after such measures have been identified can they be leveraged to make better management decisions. These metrics include:

Transactional Metrics: These measures quantify the activity in various HR functions. Examples include headcount, the number of hours trained, the number of performance reviews submitted, payroll, and active headcount. When taken in isolation, none of these figures is very strategic. However, many of them act as building blocks (i.e., variables used to calculate) for HR Operational Metrics and Workforce Effectiveness Metrics.
HR Operational Metrics: These are meant to monitor HR's performance in terms of process outcomes and employee satisfaction. Examples include time-to-hire, retention of high performers, and satisfaction with training programs.
Workforce Effectiveness Metrics: These tie Transactional and HR Operational information and metrics to other business performance indicators outside HR. As such, they yield the intelligence to support strategic decision making. Examples include the total cost of turnover, the effect of assigning key accounts to high performers on sales, the impact of a six-sigma certification program on operational efficiency, and the identification of managers adept at developing people.

After you've defined the metrics, consider when you will be able to deliver them, to whom they should be delivered, and in what format they should be served. By developing and delivering these metrics, you will keep the goals of the business and the value that HR provides front-of-mind for the appropriate constituencies. Consider this as you set out to make good on the resolution in 2008 that we should all be setting for ourselves as HR professionals - making our organizations a more rewarding place for people to work.

Be on the lookout for workforce intelligence innovations from Knowledge Infusion in 2008...