Why is HR Upskilling the Key for the Future of Work
New technologies, shifting demographics, wage inflation and global competition, have pressured organisations to stay ahead of the curve. With the exponential adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) shaping the future of work, the World Economic Forum’s research has predicted that 50% of jobs will change by 2025.
Research from Qlik, in partnership with The Future Labs, also found through their survey of over 1,200 global C-level executives and 6,000 employees that data literacy is to be the most high-in-demand skill by 2030. Is HR prepared for this new reality? Does your HR function have the skills they need to succeed?
The future of work is data-driven and thus requires a data-driven HR strategy. And as Diane Gherson, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School and former CHRO at IBM, highlights in her discussion with Dave Ulrich, Professor at the University of Michigan and Co-Founder of RBL Group, and Managing Partner at Insight222, David Green, on the Digital HR Leaders podcast:
“I think people analytics skills or capabilities are really going to help us, because, like it or not, we have to redefine what the workplace is going to look like. We have the data; we just need to figure out how to analyse it and come up with some good answers.”
Have you considered the following questions:
Is the calibre of our workforce improving quarter to quarter?
Do we have a healthy and inclusive work environment? Is there positive employee engagement? Where are the trouble spots?
How should we design work and workplaces for the digital era?
Are we making the right investments in our human capital?
Is the quality of our leadership meeting requirements and expectations?
Do you think it is possible to address (and solve!) any of these questions without a data-driven HR function?
The Importance of Developing a Data-Driven HR Team
Building data-driven capabilities in HR departments will give them the confidence and credibility to leverage the power of people analytics for business decision-making.
This goes beyond the functional skills needed to report on employee attrition, track headcount or even identify training needs for new hires.
In our Insight222 People Analytics Trends 2021 research, 90% of CHROs surveyed showed that data and analytics are essential to their strategy. So, it’s no surprise that HR data literacy and upskilling HR professionals in people analytics has become a priority for many organisations.
The Growing Business Value of People Analytics
If we focus on the past few years, the business value of people analytics is ever-expanding. In 2021, our Insight222 research study ‘Accelerating People Analytics: A Data-Driven Culture for HR’ found that people analytics adds the most value in two areas: employee listening and diversity, equity and inclusion. Fast-forwarding to 2022, our research ‘Impacting Business Value: Leading Companies in People Analytics’ found that not only are these two areas still adding the most value but the business value of people analytics has expanded further to areas concerning retention, workforce planning and talent acquisition.
Take, for example, the impact that people analytics has on talent acquisition. By analysing the following key metrics:
Cost per hire: HR teams can measure and monitor the cost per hire over time to track cost efficiency
Time to fill: HR teams can determine how long it takes to fill certain positions, enabling them to identify any bottlenecks in their recruitment process
Quality of hire: HR can look into performance data - e.g. how well new hires are performing over time, and identify potential recruiting sources to maximise the quality of new hires
Source of hire: HR departments can look at employee data to track where successful hires come from, enabling them to understand which channels are yielding better results
Labour market: HR teams can use people analytics to get a better understanding of the labour market and gain insights into which skills are in demand, helping them identify areas to focus their recruitment efforts on
And if we go deeper and start examining competitor behaviour, we can detect early threats or opportunities in the labour market. For instance, as Toby Culshaw, Talent Intelligence Lead at Amazon, highlights on the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, by having a constant eye on your competitors,
“You can really see, are companies pivoting; are they launching into new locations? The business as usual, we don’t care about. If certain competitors are hiring 20,000 software engineers a year, you don’t care because they always are. If they’re opening new sites, if they’re pivoting skillsets, are they shifting from an on-prem sales model to a cloud sales model? Well, that’s going to fundamentally change the sales people they have. Are they moving from product sales to solution sales? Okay, that’s going to fundamentally change.
It’s those changes you’re looking for, and I think that’s super-powerful, when you can start seeing changes in the labour before they’re telling the market that they’re changing as a company."
Actionable Tips for Upskilling HR Professionals in Data Analytics
At this point, it’s pretty clear that building data-driven capability is crucial for any human resource professionals looking to increase their business value and to remain relevant in today’s ever-evolving workplace. But how can HR leaders go about developing a data-driven HR team?
Our Insight222 People Analytics Trends research ‘Impacting Business Value: Leading Companies in People Analytics’ found that leading companies seven characteristics; things they do systematically that allow them to maximise business value with people analytics. One of them is having a CHRO championing and rolling out upskilling initiatives to develop data-driven capabilities across their teams.
Start Having Data-Driven Conversations
From basic statistical skills for HR professionals to more complex topics such as using Python for people analytics, HR teams need to up their game in adopting the tools and techniques they need to enhance their data literacy in a self-served model that encourages the democratisation of data.
But all these efforts will unlock real business value only if they are supported by a change in mindset and attitudes towards data and receive real buy-in from business leaders. Starting with framing the right questions in the right way at the right time, and building hypotheses that speak to the business.
This requires HR to put into practice some skills like analytical thinking and storytelling. These skills will enable HR leaders to adopt and promote data-driven conversations at work, on a day-to-day basis, with the goal to drive actions, one change at the time. This will help foster a data-driven culture across all departments and create an environment in which data insights are valued and incorporated into the overall business strategy.
To support this, you may want to upskill your HR team in the art of storytelling, as using stories to illustrate data points can help bring life to data analysis, and make it easier for others in the organisation to understand and act on its insights.
The Future Of HR Is In People Analytics
As the world of work continues to evolve, upskilling HR teams in people analytics is proving to be no longer a nice-to-have - it’s an absolute necessity. Therefore, by developing data literacy and analytical skills in your HR team, you can ensure that your organisation remains competitive into the future, and drives better business performance with data-driven decision making.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Cedric Borzée
Cédric joined Insight222 in 2021 and leads our upskilling offerings for HR practitioners. He is a creative and strategic digital learning expert and facilitator, with more than 20 years of experience across EMEA. His professional passion is in designing highly engaging and innovative learning interventions for people so that they deliver value back to their organisations. Cédric is a Belgian national and lives in the UK. He completed a Master’s in Applied Linguistics and speaks French, Dutch and English. He has a range of interests including cycling, dancing, and music, although mostly he loves spending time in the outdoors with his young family.
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