People analysis at the service of the leader, for corporate well-being

If making decisions is a must for a leader, making the "right" ones is what qualifies him as a successful leader. Given that the right decisions are only those that turn out to be right with "hindsight", the fact remains that a decision-making process requires an orientative and rational method between alternative options.

The fluidity of events no longer allows us to anchor ourselves to certain beliefs, on which to base all our analyzes. Certainties have become the first enemies of a decision making process really effective. But, in addition to the leader's skills, what is needed to be able to implement a competitive decision-making process? Information! Many organizations are starting to realize they don't have the critical information they need to make informed decisions. After several years of investing in platforms and resources dedicated to digitization, business leaders are still not achieving significant results. According to Deloitte, only 8% of companies say they have usable data. The "dematerialization" of the documentation has made an extraordinary amount of data workable, but has not developed, in parallel, the ability to select critical information, from ancillary or useless ones, with the result that all issues related to compliance, those relating to commercial activity and the economic-financial data are processed according to increasing complexity, but not commensurate with their useful reading. 

Theme: who defines if and when a report is useful for reading? Leaders! But do leaders know exactly what information they need to have to make the best possible decisions? Isn't there the risk of asking systems for an enormous amount of data, which you don't know what to do with it? And all this, doesn't it mean losing one's bearings with respect to the really important information? The difference between having "data" and having "information" is that the former unnecessarily increase our knowledge, the latter not only increase our knowledge, but help us understand and act for the best. If a datum is also information, the leader defines it, based on his skills. Therefore, the amount of data available is “transformed” into information, to the extent that the reader has contributed to choosing them and is prepared and competent to interpret them. 

One example is HR platforms that provide data and reports for post-assessment, but don't provide all the employee well-being analytics organizations need to be proactive. All of this thwarts the opportunity for leaders to learn to manage hr analytics and turn it into information. Let's try to define a process to make the One example is HR platforms that provide data and reports for post-assessment, but don't provide all the analytics organizations need to be proactive. All of this thwarts the opportunity for leaders to learn to manage hr analytics and turn it into information. 

Role of people analytics for employee well-being

1. Make analytics more accessible

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Every day, in any organization, decisions are made that impact staff or that need to be supported by staff. Sometimes these decisions work and the impact on staff is positive, other times the impact is negative and, consequently, the implementation phase of the decisions is slowed down, if not paralyzed. An analysis of the feedback from the staff and the tracking of their implementation behaviours allows to collect data, which becomes information if the leaders know how to read and interpret it. This is where democratization of data can help. It empowers individuals at all levels of responsibility to use data to inform their decision-making process. Once you understand how to interpret the data, leaders are able to make good decisions quickly and achieve better business results. New technologies, such as employee behaviour analysis platforms, make everything easier. This allows everyone to make better choices and have confidence in their decisions.

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2. Use HR analytics to make better decisions

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Using the behavioural analysis of staff, the ability to identify relationships and patterns is acquired. This allows you to solve the many problems related to processes and procedures faster, with an extraordinary impact on the business. The “People Analytics" for employee well-being platforms collect data from all company systems, creating a possibility of comparison between data coming from different company functions and activities, returning data to leaders ordered according to the logic necessary to become information. Additionally, People Analytics for employee well-being help avoid unintended biases that contribute to bad business decisions.

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3. Because People Analytics tips are more than data, they are information

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Staff behaviour analysis allows leaders to create connections that they might otherwise overlook. For example: do the same people who arrive late also work a lot of overtime? If so, these employees may be exhausted, and helping them can quickly fix the problem. This is just a very small example of how analyzes can improve the quality of work and, therefore, performance. Being prepared on how staff behaviours develop allows for better planning and a better understanding of how to reward and manage people.

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4. Develop the culture of analysis

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Using data and related analytics can be scary, but the only way to overcome fear is to start doing it. The sooner an organization starts using hr analytics, the sooner its leaders learn to turn the people analytics for employee well-being into information. Over time, leaders will become more and more familiar, allowing them to collect an ever-increasing amount of data, which will be followed by increasingly sophisticated interpretative processes. In short, we can ask ourselves more and more questions and get more and more answers. The important thing is that the analysis does not become a bottleneck, but a tool for rational deepening of the behavioural models linked to certain decisions.

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About the author

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Giuseppe Ando is a C-Level & Executive Coach - Associate Partner at the acclaimed Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching. With a career that presides at the crux of the Venn diagram of Passion, Skills, and Experience, Giuseppe’s reputation as top executive coach has spanned decades. Among his many accolades, he is also recognized for his unique ability to understand and inspire those he coaches to excel professionally and personally while also delivering their organization’s desired results.