big data: powering big business outcomes - Small Business Solutions

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opportunity to drive organizational outcomes. In the right hands — the Human Resources. Department — it could be pow
BIG DATA: POWERING BIG BUSINESS OUTCOMES From the rubble of business’s escalating data landslide comes a previously untapped opportunity to drive organizational outcomes. In the right hands — the Human Resources Department — it could be powerful.

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hile the rapidly expanding accessibility of data, lack of system integration, and the need for insights are creating an avalanche of conflicting demands, no one can benefit more from this situation than HR. Who else has such an overarching perspective and, now, the tools to make it all work?

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Keeping up in a fast-evolving world hasn’t been easy for a traditionally transaction-bound and complexity-ridden department like HR. As the transactional aspects were streamlined, data volume increased – in part because that effort captured even more information. So more systems were engaged, each focused on specific transactions. That worked. But these bestof-breed systems, being mostly independent, weren’t typically integrated. You could see the data here. You could see the data there. You just couldn’t do much with it and certainly not together. But business is driven by outcomes and investments in areas like the workforce are measured by their impact on the organization. So the potential of this information has to be addressed. Someone has to take this on. And who is in the best position to understand this data and what is behind it? HR, of course. Workforce management is a varied and complex thing and HR has been juggling the related data for decades. The task is nonetheless overwhelming in its complexity. A first look suggests a glimpse into the dizzying spiral of an abyss. For global corporations averaging 30-40 systems each for both HR and payroll1 this must be especially true. Tracking metrics, geographically – like turnover, salary by job and retention – was once a nightmare. There are now analytics for workforce information. The tools are new, but they work

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and organizations are increasingly realizing their potential. To make that happen, HR may need to do some transitioning to help the organization, as a whole,

leverage this data to strategically improve workforce management. Thinking about information any leader would want to know is a whole new mindset.

TAPPING INTO DATA-DRIVEN INSIGHTS Organizations need to ask these five questions to get maximum value from their data: 1. H  ow is employee turnover impacting productivity? 2. Are our investments in training actually leading to more sales? 3. Which employees are most likely to leave? 4. What will it cost to replace high potential employees if they leave? 5. How does our retention for specific roles rank with other companies in our space? These are core business-focused questions, and the answers are essential for sound decision-making and accelerating timely decisions by senior leadership. This is the new, powerful voice of HR.

ACCESS IS JUST THE START Although 75% of organizations have access to data, just 46% have deployed new tools like workforce analytics.

But How Do I Get From Here to There? Consider these five steps for HR’s journey toward harnessing business insights:

STEP 3. Redevelop HR processes to focus on alignment with business goals and drive continual improvement and measurement against them.

STEP 1. Learn the fundamentals of the business. Talk to business leaders, read annual reports and analysts’ coverage of the company and industry.

STEP 4. Examine outcomes of HR processes to find their correlation to business strategies. Like a data scientist, look at other key business factors that can impact those outcomes.

STEP 2. For goal-setting, move away from standard HR “reporting” metrics. Move toward the more useful business KPIs that drive the organization such as earnings-pershare and net income.

STEP 5. Relate workforce insights to business strategies and to data outside the organization. Recommend workforce initiatives that can move the dials.

Effective HR strategies drive the business forward. Performance management solutions need to align each individual’s goals to corporate goals. And the system should connect those goals to rewards, while building career planning into succession models. That is the destination.

What Does This New World Look Like for HR?

The new “big data” world of business has HR breaking out of its silos and into the position of strategic advisor with its hands on the pulse of the operation…with the information to help predict outcomes and opportunities…with insights to confidently guide and influence. HR's greatest opportunity to drive impact lies in understanding how workforce decisions drive business decisions. It’s a power that is clearly yours for the taking. 

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2015 Global Human Capital Management Decision-Makers Survey, ADP Research Institute®

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