let data be your guide
Can you imagine trying to find a friend’s new house in an unfamiliar town without a GPS or map? In today’s world, I’m pretty sure few people would try this… and of those that would, hardly anyone would be successful.
So why is it a no-brainer to use a GPS or map when we’re trying to locate a new place, but not when making HR decisions in the business world? We are constantly asked to achieve more with less. And as a result, you have to make sure that every effort expended and every dollar spent is going toward the right initiatives that will drive results.
Yet, every day I see HR professionals take a “stab” at initiatives to solve problems without any supporting data to inform their decisions. While other business functions like finance and marketing rely on data-driven decisions, we in the HR world seem to have a fear of data and tend to rely on anecdotes and instincts. Case in point: according to Bersin, only 14% of organizations have integrated talent analytics.
The bottom line is that if we’re not using data, we’re essentially taking shots in the dark and “hoping” something will work. Not exactly an approach that will get you a seat at the table or earn you the respect of your executives.
Let’s say your executives ask you to fill open jobs faster. You feel the pressure to do something quickly to make your executives feel like you have this under control, right? So you launch initiatives similar to your competitors around things that “feel right” like branding. Yet, how do you know if that is going to solve your problem?
But what if you took a different approach and let data be your guide to solving this problem? You could start by looking at the organization’s operational and financial performance to understand the real problem the executives are trying to solve. I have taken this route several times and identified the real problem, which had nothing to do with the pace of filling jobs. For example, once we discovered that revenue growth had stagnated and many of our front-line sales positions were vacant. When we dug into this further, we discovered that we were able to fill jobs fast enough – the real issue was that the turnover rate for these positions was extremely high. This led to a whole other series of targeted HR initiatives (like improved on-boarding, training, and rewards packages) to retain staff. Just focusing on filling jobs faster and perhaps improving our external employment brand would not have solved the problem.
So the next time you are faced with an HR challenge, try using data to guide you towards the real issue so you can make sure your efforts and investments drive the right results and earn you the respect of your executives.
Want to learn more? Check out my webinar on “Using actionable HR analytics to drive business performance”.
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