What Skills Do HR Professionals Need to Become Data-literate?
Data literacy for HR professionals is defined as the ability to interpret insights from data and use them to inform decisions that create value in their everyday roles. This surpasses the technical skills needed to extract data from dashboards or generate worksheets for reporting purposes.
Insight222’s latest research, Upskilling the HR Profession: Building Data Literacy at Scale, identifies five skill areas that HR practitioners need to develop as a priority to build data-driven capability across HR.
Five skills that HR practitioners need to become data-literate. (Source: Upskilling the HR Profession: Building Data Literacy at Scale)
The Five Skills That HR Practitioners Need to Become Data-Literate
There are five skills which form the core of data literacy for HR:
Make actionable recommendations from insights
Manage stakeholder relationships with business leaders
Consult with business leaders to frame business questions and build hypotheses
Interpret insights from data, reports and dashboards
Tell stories using data
These skills are considered complex as they relate to people’s behaviour and are not merely functional expertise. Progressing skills in all five areas simultaneously and at scale is critical for people analytics to have a real business impact in the organisation.
To establish the confidence and credibility to partner with the business on one side and people analytics teams on the other, HR professionals must focus on:
Building knowledge of using data-led consulting skills to support the business proactively means learning and practising skills in framing business questions and problems into hypotheses that can be tested with data.
Recognising best practices and pitfalls in analytics and data-driven problem-solving means focusing efforts on revealing key insights rather than producing volumes of reporting dashboards.
Enhancing practical skills in interpreting data and presenting insights that lead to action: This means crafting, simplifying and sharing compelling stories using data and influencing narrative by turning insights into recommendations.
What Types of Learning Approaches Are Most Effective?
Generating intrinsic motivation for HR professionals to learn new skills in this area necessitates strong “psychological safety”. This starts by recognising that the goal is not to transform HR professionals into data scientists but to create a safe space for them to “learn the steps”.
To enable effective upskilling for HR professionals, there needs to be a shift from a content-heavy approach to a more contextualised learning experience. To truly transform the way HR professionals think of and use data, immersive learning experiences that allow for peer-to-peer exchanges, role-modelling, coaching, and simulation are necessary. The creation of a “safe sandbox” where participants can practise applying the concepts and frameworks they learn is essential for success.
Case study: Building Data Literacy at Scale Globally
Brambles, a world leader in supply-chain logistics, deployed a data literacy learning programme for HR led by Alexandre Piotrowski, Global Head of People Analytics and Insights, who worked in partnership with a specialist external HR provider.
Alex is clear that the programme “has been instrumental as we continue the path towards becoming a more data-driven organisation.”
The first phase was the rollout of an online skills academy for all colleagues in HR. In the second phase, for cohorts of mid-level to senior HRBPs, talent specialists and other HR generalists, Brambles also partnered with an external provider to deliver learning for these individuals, combining digital learning with interactive workshops. Feedback shows that learners value the opportunity to practise skills, learn from their peers and receive immediate expert feedback. These workshops provided participants with a practical simulation to explore and experiment with data in a safe environment, empowering them to turn theory into practice and immediately apply their learning on the job.
To position the learning programme as strategically important, an effective communication plan was devised, and change management was an essential part of the learning journey. Brambles’ Chief People Officer participated in “kick-off sessions” to reinforce the desired outcomes and position the initiative as fully integrated into Brambles’ business and people strategy.
The outcome of this programme, Alex explains, is that
“[the HR community] is empowered to better engage with our business stakeholders, winning not only their minds, with meaningful workforce-related trends, but also their hearts, with a story reflecting their situation and context.”
Data-Led Consulting: Prioritising Essential Skills for Modern HR
While many skills need to be trained, what HR practitioners really need are the skills in data-led consulting, such as managing stakeholders, interpreting data, storytelling and making recommendations. These are more useful for the generalist HR practitioner than “harder” skills, such as mathematics, statistics, extracting data from platforms and other scientific skills. Ensure that sufficient time is allocated to practising these desired skills, reinforcing the required behaviours, and designing toolkits to embed these five skills across the HR function. Using the same techniques and toolkits will enable the language of data literacy to be understood across the HR team.
To find out more about Insight222’s recommendations for building data literacy in HR – including the importance of role modelling, why the people analytics leader should lead upskilling efforts and why you must invest sufficiently in a programme of upskilling – download the Insight222 Upskilling the HR Profession: Building Data Literacy at Scale report.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Naomi Verghese
Naomi is an experienced business professional with over 15 years’ experience, mainly in the financial services industry. She has undertaken roles as a HR business partner, HR chief of staff and as a commercial banker during her time at Barclays Bank. In the last six years Naomi has dedicated her career to people analytics, with particular expertise in consulting with business executives, HR leaders and other stakeholders. Naomi took a career break in the mid 2010s to travel around South America to learn Spanish and immerse herself in the Latin American culture. In her spare time, she loves to watch professional athletics, having once been a junior national athlete herself. She currently lives in the UK.
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