The power of people analytics

By analysing people data, you can gain a detailed understanding of your 'Employer DNA'. This genetic makeup, when utilised properly, can transform the way your organisation is run and enable leaders to make more effective decisions. Knowing your Employer DNA helps you understand your organisation’s unique purpose and values. You can measure how these values are embodied in your culture, behaviours, employment proposition, and employee experience.

This includes elements such as employee benefits and services. For example, 4me, our digital benefits platform, recognises employees are a diverse group with varying needs and desires. It offers benefits that truly matter to them as individuals.

Doing more with your data

"Research shows most employers collect only basic HR data, which is often operationally focused and used merely to explain the past."

Human DNA is complex and vast. It exists in every single cell, and if you put your DNA end-to-end, it would stretch over 110 billion miles! Despite this, only a select few have the skills to interpret it. Similarly, despite having a plethora of data, most organisations struggle to unlock even a small proportion of their Employer DNA’s true potential.

HR and people data often suffer from being unstructured, inconsistently stored, and held in silos. Research shows most employers collect only basic HR data, which is often operationally focused and used merely to explain the past.

By moving beyond this operational usage, your Employer DNA can do much more. It can inform and determine the future, transforming your employment experience.

Moving up the analytics ladder

To help unlock your Employer DNA, it's helpful to visualise data analytics as a ladder with five rungs. The higher up the ladder you climb, the better the insights you’ll gain.

1. Operational – Raw, unstructured data typically presented as a list.
2. Descriptive – Data presented in a graph to explain the past.
3. Diagnostic – Data used to determine why something has happened, such as an increase in employee turnover.
4. Predictive – Using diagnostic analysis and integrating it with other data to predict future trends.
5. Prescriptive – The top of the data ladder, where data is used to prescribe interventions.

The first two rungs are not truly forms of data analytics; they are just the reporting of information. Research shows the HR profession overwhelmingly focuses on basic analysis and reporting, with the majority of employers never getting higher than the third rung.

The top two rungs are where analytics truly adds value through insight. This is where analytics can predict what will happen and prescribe what actions should be taken next.

Ensuring data quality: Garbage in, garbage out

"If you want to avoid poor outcomes, you need to ensure that you are collecting quality data from the start."

The phrase "garbage in, garbage out" highlights the importance of recording helpful data. If you want to avoid poor outcomes, you need to ensure that you are collecting quality data from the start. There's already a wealth of data that can be harvested, such as payroll data, time and attendance reports, pulse surveys, benefit usage information, employee demographic data, gender pay data, and even external sources like Glassdoor.

Collecting the right data

Our research shows operational metrics like recruitment, absence rates, and reasons for leaving employment are commonly collected. However, strategic and financial metrics such as revenue and profit per employee hour worked, regretted leavers, and cost of turnover are rarely measured.

To ensure you’re collecting the right data, apply these three simple tests:

1. Insightful – Is it telling you something you didn’t already know?
2. Relevant – Is it about something that actually matters?
3. Actionable – Can it trigger a meaningful intervention?

Making Employer DNA work for you

The journey of people analytics starts with getting the basics right before moving to advanced analytical techniques. Basic analytics might tell you something interesting, like traces of Scandinavian ethnicity in human DNA. While it's cool to know, it's not overly useful.

Advanced analytics, on the other hand, can provide valuable information, such as predicting predispositions to certain traits or medical conditions. In the world of Employer DNA, advanced analytics can reveal significant insights that drive organisational success.

Here are some examples where advanced analytic techniques have been deployed to great effect:

Increasing happiness through wellbeing

We helped a national sports governing body collect insightful data on its workforce’s mental, physical, and financial wellbeing. By integrating this diagnostic analysis with other data sets, we predicted future absence trends and prescribed targeted interventions. The result was a significant increase in workforce happiness and a notable reduction in absence costs.

Recruiting the right people

A postal delivery company optimised its recruitment process, reduced costs, and improved retention by using prescriptive analytics to identify and target the most appropriate cohorts for available roles. The ideal profile for a postal worker turned out to be an older person with a dog, who would be fit, friendly, and willing to work in all weather conditions.

Raising satisfaction levels while reducing costs

A nationwide shoe retailer used conjoint analysis to build a granular view of what employees truly value. This challenged traditionally held assumptions and resulted in an overall reduction in benefit cost while increasing satisfaction by 15% by allowing employees to invest in their development.

Where next?

"We are heading towards a future where Employer DNA will deliver sustainable, robust, and innovative strategies."

Although data analysis has revolutionised our everyday retail journeys, many workplace decisions are still based on anecdotal evidence or instinct. Slowly but surely, analytics is on the rise in the workplace. We are heading towards a future where Employer DNA will deliver sustainable, robust, and innovative strategies.

As you work your way up the data analytics ladder, you’ll realise your Employer DNA contains the insights you need to both survive and thrive. Unlocking this potential with BW can transform your organisation, allowing you to harness the power of people analytics for lasting success.